Tag Archives: Joe Biden

national news

Woe is POTUS?

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump is campaigning for re-election as the grievance candidate for president of the United States.

That’s how Trump rolls. It’s all about him. All about what others are doing to him. What they’re saying about him.

Oh, a vision for the future? What will he do in the next four years? As the cliché goes … crickets. That’s all we hear are the bugs chirping through the silence.

The grievance candidate is trying to change what is looking like a grim trajectory for his re-election bid. Joe Biden continues to lead by double digits nationally and by solid single-digit margins in many “swing states.” The former vice president talks in excruciating detail about how he intends to help get us through the pandemic, how he intends to restore our national soul, how he intends to put people back to work. Yes, the ex-VP has a four-year plan.

Trump keeps yammering about how he has been done wrong by … oh, whomever.

Now he is calling Biden “corrupt.” He wants the Democratic nominee indicted and locked up. Same for former President Obama. And let us not forget he insists the same fate to befall Hillary Clinton.

Due process? Presumption of innocence? Forget about it!

I guess this is all my way of suggesting that Donald Trump is beginning to sound like a desperate man.

What in the world awaits this clown after he leaves the presidency is anyone’s guess. I have this hunch that Trump might fear the worst no matter the outcome of this campaign. Win or lose, he might believe he’s going down eventually. He knows he can’t stay in office forever.

So it is with the backdrop of a possible – if not probable – election loss in store, we find Trump seeking to find some sort of “sympathy vote” to bail out his backside.

The “woe is me” vote ain’t enough to turn the  tide.

national news

The gap is so wide

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I am not proud to admit this but the political chasm is widening in our house.

Not between my wife and me. It’s between businesses that support Donald Trump’s re-election and — yep — my wife and me.

We have unofficially decided we cannot do business with people who fly Trump-Pence 2020 flags, or festoon their buildings with MAGA posters, or knowingly give money to the GOP ticket’s presidential campaign.

It’s never come to this in our household.

We have been married for 49 years. We have gone through a whole lot of presidential elections since we tied the knot all those years ago. Yes, we have generally voted alike every four years.

The tenor of these times seems so radically different than ever before. There is so much anger in the tone of the debate and I lay the responsibility for that anger directly at Donald Trump’s feet. I mean, he started off with that dark and foreboding inaugural speech, the one with the sole memorable line about stopping “the American carnage right here and right now.” Trump hasn’t stopped anything. Indeed, the “American carnage” has worsened on Trump’s watch.

With that, I am left to scratch my head and wonder: Who in their right mind can continue to support this guy? We both now have committed to spending our money with businesses that are politically neutral (publicly, at least) or perhaps they will display their support for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

It’s come down to this for us in these weird, wacky world of politics. Robert Kennedy used to say that politics is a “noble profession.” It has devolved into something markedly less noble than RFK envisioned.

I blame Donald Trump for that devolution as well and we cannot support businessmen and women who buy into the trash he has delivered.

national news

Wanting a return to ‘regular order’

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I will go to my grave never surrendering my deep and abiding loathing of Donald J. Trump as president of the United States of America.

This crazy election season is winding down to what I hope and pray is the correct end. That would be a decisive defeat of Trump and a victory for Joseph R. Biden.

I cannot even begin to predict how the end arrives. I am left only to speak from my heart and head that we return to some semblance of what we used to think of as “normal” political processes.

The late Sen. John McCain used to refer to it as “regular order.” He detested the way Trump would seek to circumvent Congress, how he would tweet his public policy without bothering to advise his closest key aides.

I am trying to wrap my noggin around what he might do were he to win re-election to a second term. I do believe Biden, a product of government and one who is fluent in the way it is supposed to work, will restore the “regular order” his good friend John McCain cherished.

The lying, dissembling and treachery have been an unconscionable aspect of the presidency on Trump’s watch. I point directly to the pandemic deception that Trump brought on this nation. He knew it was bad from the get-go but kept it from us, declaring it would vanish in just a few days. It hasn’t. It has killed nearly a quarter million Americans.

And this clown, Trump, wants another term? He wants four years to deceive us?

I have been saying until I run out of breath that Trump’s pre-politics life was spent enriching himself. He didn’t devote a single minute of his time to public service. And it has shown itself dramatically during his time as president.

Biden on the other hand has committed virtually his entire adult life to public service.

Is Joe Biden the perfect alternative to Donald Trump? No. But he is a damn sight better suited for the complexities of the nation’s premier public office.

As for Donald Trump, I just want him to vacate the people’s house — my house — as soon as possible. Some of us predicted long ago that he would be a disaster as president. He needs to go before he inflicts permanent damage on the nation we all love.

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

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.

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.

 

local news, political news, State news

Will this surge spell end of Trump Era?

(AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Harris County, Texas, has set two records in a row since the start of early voting on Tuesday.

Dallas County up Interstate 45 hasn’t done too badly, either.

Oh, and how about Travis County, where the state Capitol can be found? They’re turning out in huge numbers, too.

Same for Bexar County.

What does this mean for the 2020 presidential election. Some Democratic activists believe it bodes well for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and us Bidenistas who want the Democrats to oust Donald Trump and Mike Pence from the White House.

I am not going to count them chickens just yet.

However, I hasten to add that Democrats have been all over TV, radio and in print telling us all to “get out and vote.” If the first two days of early voting in Texas are an indication, the message has been heard. Democrats hope it means Biden and Harris are reaping the ballot-box reward.

Let me crystal clear: I do, too, want them to harvest the electoral fruit of this get-out-the-early-vote drive.

Harris, Dallas, Bexar and Travis counties all are Democratic strongholds. I have acquaintances in blood-red Randall and Potter counties who believe the Democratic ticket is catching fire up yonder in the Panhandle. I … am not so sure about that.

However, the record-setting early-vote turnout in those Democratic bastions gives me hope that just maybe, perhaps, possibly the state could turn from an R to a D on the strength of that monstrous balloting tide.

To be sure, the Trumpkins are turning out as well. They’re flying plenty of “Trump-Pence” flags in rural Texas. Donald Trump, though, isn’t going to pitch a huge early vote among his faithful. Indeed, he wants fewer of us do our patriotic duty. Go figure.

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

Get ready for the Hunter Biden slam

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I guess we’ll have to buckle up and prepare for the onslaught against Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, given that Donald Trump can’t seem to lay a glove on the Old Man.

Joe Biden’s lead over Trump holds firm at 10 to 15 percent. His lead in “key battleground states” also appears solid. Trump is flailing. He likely knows he is in deep doo-doo with the electorate.

Now we hear from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who said something about digging up emails sent by Hunter Biden while he was doing business in Ukraine.

The rule of thumb appears to be this: If you cannot challenge the candidate’s record as a lifelong career politician, then go after his son as a way to smear/defame both father and son.

I will not be dissuaded from supporting Joe Biden. Hey, I’ve already voted and Biden is the direct beneficiary of my vote.

Yes, Donald Trump sickens me.

Let’s just remember what we heard when Hunter Biden’s first surfaced during the Trump impeachment inquiry. It came from Ukrainian prosecutors who said that neither of them — Joe or Hunter — did anything wrong.

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.