Tag Archives: Donald Trump

national news

Good news! Trump might bail!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw this news alert.

It said that Donald Trump might leave the United States if he loses the election to Joe Biden.

From my perch out here in Flyover Country, that sounds like good news. If he means it … that is.

He said something about the shame he would feel by losing to the “worst candidate” in the history of U.S. presidential politics. I beg differ. Trump is the worst candidate by far to ever run for any public office in U.S. history.

Well, I am pretty sure Trump is just blowing it out his ample backside.

But still, the idea does intrigue me.

national news

Pathological narcissism?

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis)92@hotmail.com

We were chatting with friends tonight about this and that when the subject turned to Donald J. Trump.

Specifically, we chatted for a moment about Trump’s inability or unwillingness to mourn the deaths of more than 215,000 Americans from a killer virus.

I noted to our friends that the most astonishing aspect of Trump’s lack of empathy or compassion is that the man himself has lost a member of his family to tragic circumstances. His brother Fred died of alcohol abuse. So, Donald Trump — one could presume — could relate to the pain of others who have lost loved ones to a disease.

Then one of our friends offered an astute observation. “There is some serious pathology going on here,” he said. “Trump is a narcissist,” he said, and narcissism doesn’t allow Trump to exhibit the kind of empathy one would expect from most individuals.

Instead, Trump continues to insist, as he did again today, that we are “turning the corner” on the killer virus despite reports from more than 30 states that illness is surging right along with death from the coronavirus.

We are turning no corners. None. It’s worsening. We still do not have a national plan to attack the illness and to save lives.

Meanwhile, a president who should know better than to say “it is what it is” continues to exhibit an outrageous lack of concern for those among us who are suffering grievous misery.

national news

Biden talks detail; Trump talks trash

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92/@hotmail.com

It’s been clear from the get-go, but it is coming into sharper focus the closer we get to the end of this election season.

It is that Joe Biden speaks in mind-boggling (at times) detail about the policies he wants to enact; meanwhile Donald Trump speaks in insulting and ignorant generalities.

Biden took a question from a young African-American man last night about what he would do to improve the lot of African-Americans, urging Biden to go beyond the “You ain’t black” quip that has gotten into trouble with black voters. Biden’s answer included a litany of policy plans that at times suggested that Biden was talking past the sale. The young man, though, seemed satisfied with Biden’s long-winded soliloquy.

Trump took a question about what plans he had in mind to replace the Affordable Care Act. He offered nothing. No plan. No alternative. No improvement or reform of what he keeps referring to as “Obamacare.”

They spoke to voters at competing town hall gatherings. Biden was in Philadelphia; Trump spoke in Miami.

I sense we’ll hear even more of this startling contrast in the men’s command — or lack of command — of the issues of the day.

Invective and innuendo are how Trump rolls. Biden speaks to us in detail about what he intends to do if he’s elected president of the United States.

I have heard enough of Trump’s trash talk. I want to hear more from Joe Biden.

Donald Trump

Shouldn’t POTUS know these things?

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I want to ask a question that should have been asked of Donald Trump at the Miami town hall session he held last night.

Trump received a question about conspiracy theorists, such as QAnon — the right wing goofballs who back his candidacy for re-election. “I don’t know anything about QAnon,” he said. It’s a familiar dodge that Trump has employed whenever he gets asked about, oh, white supremacists, or the KKK, or any of the loons who want him re-elected.

The question that never seems to get asked is this: As president of the United States, arguably the most powerful position on Earth, shouldn’t you know about these groups?

Trump seems all too willing to fall back on some sort of “I know nothing” defense of what I believe is the indefensible.

What also is indefensible has been the media’s reluctance to challenge him directly on what to me looks like an obvious follow-up question.

national news

Still frightened at what might occur

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I cannot shake the feeling of fear of what could happen down the stretch in this tumultuous election season.

What might that entail?

It would entail Donald Trump finding a way to cobble together yet another Electoral College victory while collecting as many as 5 million or maybe 6 million actual votes than Joe Biden.

You know the saying about “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” Is it possible that we could be fooled a second time by this carnival barker/con man/charlatan?

I suppose anything is possible.

I see the polls each day. I thought I could ignore them. I cannot resist the temptation. They tell me Biden is doing damn near everything right. The polls were also favorable four years ago for Hillary Clinton; it didn’t work out that way.

Trump’s record is hideous. Across the board he has mismanaged our international alliances, our international agreements, the response to the COVID pandemic, the environment, race relations.

I want him out of the White House. I want him gone from the public stage. I want to restore the norms of dignity and decency and decorum to the presidency.

Biden promises to do that. I believe him. I disbelieve everything that comes from Donald Trump.

I also fear that Trump has one more nasty trick up his sleeve.

Oh, how I want him defeated.

 

national news

A landslide in the making?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I cannot stop thinking about how this presidential election might turn out.

I won’t predict an outcome. Why? Well, the last time I tried to make such a prediction — Hillary v. Donald in 2016 — I got the surprise of my political life. I actually wrote on this blog that I thought Clinton would roll up a landslide against Trump.

Oh, how wrong that was … yes? So, I’ll move on.

The difference between then and now is stark in at least one key aspect.

Joe Biden is rolling up a lot of Republican endorsements. Clinton did not enjoy such a broad crossover appeal four years ago. Indeed, I am thinking at this moment of the last time we saw this kind of inter-party attraction.

Barack Obama didn’t have it in either of his successful presidential election campaigns; nor did George W. Bush; Bill Clinton didn’t, either; George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan depended on GOP votes; Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford had nothing of the sort.

That brings me to Richard Nixon’s 1972 re-election campaign. That was the first year I was able to vote for president. I cast my ballot for George McGovern. It turned out I was one of the “few and the proud” who voted for Sen. McGovern, who lost the popular vote by 23 percent and got swamped in the Electoral College 520-17.

That campaign featured an unusual crossover event: the formation of a group called Democrats for Nixon. The leader of that pack was a Texan named John Connally, the former governor of Texas. Big John cobbled together an alliance of Democratic pols who just couldn’t throw their support behind the progressive candidate for president. McGovern was just a squishy liberal who would surrender to the communists in Vietnam.

They helped propel President Nixon to a smashing victory.

As we move closer to the 2020 election, I am left to wonder whether the Republican pols who have turned their back on Donald Trump will be able to persuade their fellow Republicans into the Democratic fold.

Trump clearly has a firmer hold on the GOP faithful than McGovern ever had on Democrats; after all, he was nominated in 1972 at a convention that was damn near torn apart by intraparty disputes. That’s not the case now.

However, the enormous number of GOP-backed political operations that has turned on Trump fill me with a glimmer of hope that there well could be a significant victory for Joe Biden in store.

It won’t be on the scale of the landslide that Richard Nixon rolled up in 1972 … but it could be significant.

Do not hold me to this. My heart is speaking more loudly at this moment than my head.

national news

Poll shows NYT tax story makes little impact

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

A New York Times bombshell report about Donald Trump’s taxes and the huge debt he owes to, um, someone apparently has made little impact on voters’ perception of Trump.

You know, I get it.

A poll by Hill-HarrisX says that the report makes no difference in how people intend to vote for president. It didn’t move the needle much at all, The Hill newspaper reports.

Duh!

I was adamantly opposed to Trump from the get-go, so the story didn’t influence me in the slightest. I sense that the Trumpkin Corps, which believes the New York Times conveys “fake news,” isn’t going to be moved, either. They believe the Liar in Chief no matter who contradicts him or no matter the mountain of evidence that Trump is a flat-out liar.

The reports, then, of the public opinion remaining static about the president really doesn’t surprise me. I only am baffled by the stubbornness with which the Trumpkins exhibit in expressing their undying love for this guy.

My wife pointed out a lawn sign near our house in Princeton, Texas, that proclaims support for Donald Trump, adding that he doesn’t “bullsh**” us. Really?

This individual is the King of BS, man!

State news

Texas could determine this election

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I won’t predict this, given that my political predicting skills are quite suspect, but I want to offer a possible scenario to ponder as Texas prepares to commence early voting for the presidency.

If the state decides to grant its 38 electoral votes to Joe Biden when the ballots are counted, it will be “game over” for Donald Trump.

We keep hearing about astonishing early-voting turnouts in states where it has begun. The clarion call for early voting has come mostly from Democrats who encourage Americans to cast their ballots early to ensure they get counted. Five million-plus have done so, reportedly a huge increase over the early votes cast at this time in 2016.

Is Texas going to join the early-vote parade? I hope so.

Thus, it might be a harbinger of a major surprise for the Trumpkin Corps that believes — and they have some reason to hold onto that belief — that Texas will remain in the Republican column. The latest Texas Tribune poll puts Trump ahead by 5 percentage points; the Trump lead has been teetering a bit during the campaign, but that’s what it is at the moment, according to the Tribune.

Trump carried Texas by 9 percentage points over Hillary Clinton. A nice margin, to be sure, but far less than what Mitt Romney rolled up in 2012 against President Obama and even less than John McCain’s total in 2008 against Sen. Obama.

My point, I guess, is that Trump’s hold on Texans’ vote might not be as secure as he and the Trumpkins believe.

If Biden even cuts deeply into the Trump margin in 2016, then we still might be in store for a Biden blowout.

Please … don’t hold me to this. I’m just thinking out loud, man.

local news, political news

Don’t leave this matter up to someone else

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

There once was a time when I worked for a living … and during that time of my life I would write newspaper editorials urging people at election time to be sure to vote.

My argument was simple. I tried to rejigger it to avoid repeating myself. It would go something like this:

If you do not vote, then you are going to leave this critical decision to someone else, someone who might not share your world view. Do you really want to cede that responsibility when you can take control of it in your own hands?

That argument is never more relevant than it is today.

I refer to the presidential election that’s coming up on Nov. 3. My wife and I intend to vote Tuesday morning on the first day of early voting in Texas. I once was adamantly opposed to early voting. I sought to hedge my bet, guarding against someone who gets my vote from messing up after I vote for him/her but before Election Day.

That rationale is no longer in play this time. I am concerned about what Donald Trump might do to muck up the election result. He is going to challenge the result, possibly, if Joe Biden gets more votes for president than he does. That’s why I intend to vote early. My wife, too.

We intend to get our votes recorded and logged into the system.

I also want to encourage everyone who can to vote early. If we do not vote ourselves for the presidency, then we are going to leave that decision to someone else who might want to (gulp!) keep Donald Trump in office for another four years.

The person you see at the other end of the church pew might be a Trumpkin. So might your next-door neighbor. Or the crowds you see at the grocery store.

Me? I am a die-heard Bidenista. I intend to cast my vote early. I don’t want to be the only person at our Princeton, Texas polling place. I want there to be a crowd of folks. I am prepared to wait in line.

I’ll be damned if I am going to leave this decision to someone who doesn’t agree with my world view.

legal news, national news

Merrick Garland haunts this hearing

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Merrick Garland is very much alive and well but his “ghost” floated throughout the hearing room today as a congressional hearing commenced on an appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee welcomed another federal judge, Amy Coney Barrett, as she began her confirmation hearing to the U.S. Supreme Court. She would take the seat occupied by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died in September.

Garland’s role in this drama? Well, he once got nominated to the high court by President Barack Obama. Another justice, Antonin Scalia, died in February 2016 while on vacation in Texas. President Obama wanted to nominate a successor. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wasted no time in declaring his intention to block that effort. Why? Because the voters had a right to be heard before a SCOTUS nomination would be considered by the Senate.

We had a presidential election in 2016. Obama couldn’t run again. It turned out that Donald Trump would win the election. So, Trump got to select someone to succeed Scalia; he chose Neil Gorsuch.

The hypocrisy between then and now is stunning in its scope.

We were 10 months away from the previous election when a vacancy occurred. Now, we’re just 22 days before the next election. Don’t Americans have a right to have their voices heard before the Senate considers a nominee to succeed Ginsburg? Of course we do.

Except that Republicans who at the moment hold the majority of Senate seats are pushing full speed with the Barrett hearing.

Most astonishing of all is the comment that Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham made in 2018. He said then that if an opening occurs during Donald Trump’s term as president and the “primary season has begun,” the Senate should hold off until after the election before considering a possible replacement.

Graham said we could hold his words against him. Fine. Many of us are doing that, Mr. Chairman.

Amy Coney Barrett wouldn’t be my choice to join the court. I much prefer a jurist in the Merrick Garland mold: moderate, center-left in philosophical judicial outlook. Garland, though, never got the courtesy of a hearing, let alone a Senate vote, that appears to be in store for Judge Barrett.

It’s all because the Senate GOP majority played politics with the judicial nomination process in 2016 … and is doing so once again right now.

Shameful.