Tag Archives: pandemic

national news

Politics of the pandemic?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Whoever thought in a million years that an international medical emergency could devolve into a partisan dispute among leaders of the world’s most indispensable nation?

If you could foresee such a thing happening, then you are the smartest human being to ever walk this good Earth.

A pandemic erupted in late 2019. It spread around the world through that winter and into the spring of 2020. The U.S. president at the time downplayed the threat to human beings. Some of us believed his public dismissal. Others of us didn’t.

It has gotten only worse since that time.

We now argue over whether we should wear surgical masks to prevent being infected by the COVID-19 coronavirus. Politicians tell local authorities they cannot do things above what they declare to protect their constituents. Learned medical doctors and scientists are called “idiots” and “losers” by a former president.

We end up arguing along partisan lines over whether masks do the job. Republicans say “no.” Democrats say “yes.”

Oh, meanwhile, the disease keeps sickening and killing us. The U.S. death count is 600,000-plus. Are we worried? If not, we damn well should be.

The politics of the pandemic is beyond annoying. It is disgraceful that we would tolerate any short-shrift given to this disease by those — namely on the right and the far right — who dismiss it all as some sort of conspiracy.

We also have the vaccines.

Read my lips: The vaccines work! They are effective. They also are safe. Yet we hear from the goofballs on the far right — namely the QAnon cabal — about human beings turning into chimps because they get the vaccine.

What the … ? The only individuals who buy into that nonsense are the chumps among us who swill the Kool-Aid being offered by certifiable nut jobs.

We need to pull together to rid the world of the pandemic. The scientists know of what they speak. The politicians among us — starting with the immediate past president of the U.S. of A. — are know-nothing clowns.

We have an international medical crisis on our hands. The politics can be set aside for a day when we defeat the pandemic.

local news

Paris ISD has a solution

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

When in doubt, just change the in-house rules to counter external pressure. So seems to be the mantra at the Paris (Texas) Independent School District.

Paris ISD has just decided to add masks to the district’s student dress code. thus defying the no-mask mandate order issued by Gov. Greg Abbott.

Hmm. Creative, don’t you think?

Abbott has been pushing back against school districts issuing mask mandates to battle the COVID outbreak caused by the Delta variant. Paris ISD — a small district up yonder next to the Red River — decided to perform an end-around the governor.

KETR-FM radio reports: “The Texas Governor does not have the authority to usurp the Board of Trustees’ exclusive power and duty to govern and oversee the management of the public schools of the district,” a release from Paris ISD said after the meeting. “Nothing in the Governor’s Executive Order 38 states he has suspended Chapter 11 of the Texas Education Code, and therefore the Board has elected to amend its dress code consistent with its statutory authority.”

Paris ISD, Defying Abbott, Adds Masks To Dress Code | 88.9 KETR

Therein lies a template for other school districts to follow. It well might withstand any court challenge that Abbott or Attorney General Ken Paxton file decide to pursue to keep Abbott’s ridiculous no-mandate rule in effect.

I am going to offer a quiet, but still enthusiastic, hand-clap to Paris ISD for showing the way around what I continue to believe is the governor’s power grab.

national news

Mask-mandate issue takes strange turn in Austin

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

What in the world do we make of this news?

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, the king of the no-mask-mandate realm of Republicans politicians, has been diagnosed as carrying the COVID-19 virus. He attended a political gathering in Collin County where — reportedly — there wasn’t a mask to be seen on anyone’s puss!

The governor is not showing symptoms. His wife, Cecilia, has tested negative. Those closest to the governor are undergoing tests. Abbott is isolating within the Governor’s Mansion.

Two thoughts come to mind immediately.

First, I wish Gov. Abbott a speedy and complete recovery. Really. I do. I do not want anyone — even pols who pi** me off with their reckless anti-mask-mandate rhetoric — to suffer from this disease.

Second, it is fair to wonder whether a positive test for a potentially fatal disease might turn Abbott from being a mask-mandate denier to someone who understands why local community leaders need the flexibility to issue mask mandates for themselves.

OK, I “wonder” about it. Will it happen? I doubt seriously that Abbott is going to reverse himself … just because he has tested positive for a virus that can be fended off by a face mask.

Abbott has been handed a bit of a public-relations setback with this COVID diagnosis. It counters the judicial support he got from the all-Republican Texas Supreme Court that has upheld his no-mandate authority, saying that he has the power to tell local governments they can do nothing more than what he allows them to do. I hate disagreeing with the learned justices … but they’re full of crap-ola!

Dallas public school officials are continuing to issue mask orders, along with their colleagues in Fort Worth, Houston and Austin. Our school leaders in Princeton, where my wife and I live, are leaving it to parents to decide; it turns out I see a lot of masks on children as they play in the school yard down the street from our house … which pleases me greatly.

There surely will be a lot of tittering over Gov. Abbott’s COVID diagnosis. I won’t go there. I intend to focus on his stubborn refusal to allow local officials determine the best way to protect their constituents against a disease that could kill them.

medical news

Un-vaxxed: Stay away from me

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The disgraceful politicization of the COVID-19 vaccine effort continues apace.

It’s a sad state of affairs into which we have entered. Politics is now driving a good portion of Americans’ decision whether to receive the vaccines that are available to ward off potentially fatal infections from COVID-19.

I want to share a view expressed by someone on my Facebook “friends” network. This individual wrote:

“I don’t know your medical history and it’s none of my business. Get the vaccine or don’t get the vaccine. That’s your choice. My choice is this. You won’t be welcome at my house if you are not vaccinated. I wish peace and good health to anyone to happens to read this post.”

So … there you have it. I hereby am going to adopt that philosophy.

The good news is that we don’t chum around with those who are fervently anti-vaccination. Our friends and immediate family members all are pro-vaccine. To my knowledge they all have received both doses of whatever vaccine they received, be it Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson.

The maddening aspect of all of this has been the anger, angst and stubbornness of those who continue to buy into goofy notions about phony “side effects” of the vaccines. You’ve heard ’em , right? You take the vaccine and you become a chimpanzee; or your skin takes on some sort of adhesive quality; or that you become a eunuch.

Let’s see … more than 160 million Americans have been vaccinated and no one has come forth with any evidence that they have become a chimp.

So the specious argument continues. Why? Because you can’t talk sensibly to those who adhere to nonsense.

The anti-vaxxers bitch about losing their “freedom.” Hey, they are free to do — or refuse to do — whatever they damn well please.

Just stay the hell away from me and my family. Are we clear?

DC riot, national news

Optimism put to test

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Those of you who know me best will understand that I am an eternal optimist. I tend to see the best in people; too often, I admit that they let me down.

My wife tends to look more skeptically at individuals she meets for the first time, which is smart in that it saves her the grief of dealing with disappointment.

My optimism extends also to the state and strength of our nation, which I admit fully and freely is undergoing many stresses that threaten its very fabric.

The pandemic continues to ravage our population. We are ending a war in Afghanistan and are watching the bad guys seize the government they once ran. We have a former president of the United States whose cult following continues to wreak havoc on our democratic processes.

Will any of these factors individually doom our nation? Will they do so collectively? Can we stop any of these things from reaching critical mass? Can we stop them all?

No and yes to the first and second set of questions. At least that is how I see it.

Our framers crafted a government built to withstand these challenges. They sought to create “a more perfect Union.” They knew better than to seek absolute perfection. They knew the nation under construction in the 18th century would be an ongoing work in progress likely for as long as the republic existed.

I am going to retain my optimism even as we struggle with these battles. Indeed, any concession to the worst-case scenarios out there would consign me to a level of anxiety that I am not sure I could handle.

So, perhaps my optimism is a self-defense strategy. Whatever. I’ll maintain it until the bottom falls out and rely on the wisdom that President Ford offered when he took office at the end of an earlier monumental crisis.

He told us: “Our Constitution works.”

national news

This pol takes the cake

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

There had been a neck-and-neck battle throughout several states to determine which of them had the nation’s weirdest individual serving as governor.

Then a clear “favorite” emerged just the other day. The “winner” appears to be Gov. Ron DeSantis, Republican of Florida.

I want you to roll this one around for a moment. DeSantis issued a “no mandate” order, meaning that there would be no orders coming from local governments to have folks don masks to fight the COVID outbreak in Florida.

Ahh, but some school superintendents defied that order. They ordered teachers, students and staff to wear masks. De Santis’s response? It was to threaten to withhold the pay for public school educators who chose to defy the governor’s no-mandate edict.

Now I have to ask you: Is that just about the most outrageous thing you’ve heard come from a governor?

The irony, of course, is unbelievable. Florida — along with Texas — is the state with the most outbreaks of the Delta variant of COVID-19. It is logging the nation’s greatest infection rate, hospitalization rate and, oh yeah, death rate.

DeSantis, though, won’t budge from his order banning any additional health restrictions designed to, um, keep people alive. The Sunshine State nitwit says the COVID surge is coming from immigrants crossing the border from Mexico, a clear effort to pin something — anything! — on President Biden. I should mention that DeSantis is a possible 2024 GOP presidential candidate.

To be sure, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, another Republican, has been giving DeSantis a run for the distinction of nation’s top gubernatorial weirdo. Abbott has issued a no-mandate order of his own, only to be challenged by some of the mega school districts in Texas; they were led by Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Michael Hinojosa, who has emerged as my latest hero in this political battle.

Institutions of higher learning in Texas are invoking mandatory COVID testing programs for their students, faculty and staff. That’s a start, although it’s not as in-your-face as the mask mandate that came from the DISD and other big-city public school systems.

I cannot figure this clown DeSantis out. He wants to run for president in 2024, or so we are being led to believe. He’ll be among a large field of Republicans seeking to run for the nation’s highest office.

I am wondering if he is going to use the withhold educator salaries gambit as a campaign ploy. If he does, he is toast. Please, governor … try to justify that bizarre and cruel policy.

I double-dog dare ya.

medical news

Fight the ‘common enemy’

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Dr. Anthony Fauci is the man who at this point in our pandemic battle does not need an introduction.

He said the following: “I wish … that people would realize that the common enemy is the virus. Not each other. We’re in this together. And the only way we’re going to conquer this virus is by working together.”

Well, there you have it. This bit of wisdom almost can stand without a single additional thought.

I’ll just offer this brief addition. The backbiting over mask-wearing, government mandates and the alleged “loss of freedom” only weakens our hand as we keep fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is imperative that we start “working together.”

medical news

Pols vs. docs: Who do we believe?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

There once was a time not too long ago when we thought we had made the turn down the stretch in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Then came the variant called Delta. It’s changed. So now we’re being treated to a war of words between elected politicians and medical experts.

Who do you believe? The pols — some of whom want to run for president in 2024 or the physicians/scientists/researchers who have no obvious political ambition?

Hmm. I am going to stick with the docs. I will ignore the politicians.

We have clowns such as Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in Florida making an utter a** of himself by threatening to withhold salaries of school officials who order students and teachers to wear masks to fight the COVID pandemic.

Here in Texas, we have another GOP governor, Greg Abbott, who issued an order that bans schools, counties and cities from taking measures that go beyond what the governor has decreed. School officials in Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and Austin have defied the governor’s order. Why did they do that? Because the medical experts in their respective communities have told them that requiring masks will help stem the infection rates cause by that Delta variant.

Congress is sprinkled with fruitcakes and assorted nut jobs who keep suggesting that mask-wearing mandates deprive us of our “freedom” to live like Americans. Hey, listen up goofballs: I prefer to live, period. The alternative — illness and possible death — would rob me of much more “freedom” than any order that comes from the county courthouse, city hall or the school district administration.

The doctors have the knowledge, the information, the credentials and the credibility to withstand the criticism being leveled at them by political hacks.

I intend to stand with the medical experts.

They are the men and women with the skill and the knowledge to put the COVID-19 scourge down for the count.

education news

Why the no-mask mandate?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I am willing to admit that there are a lot of things in this cold, cruel world I do not  understand.

One of those things is the nutty notion that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has embraced by declaring that only he can tell local governments how to react to the surge in infection from the COVID pandemic and its associated variants.

Abbott issued an executive order that bans school districts and other governmental jurisdictions from issuing mandates requiring masks indoors.

Several large independent public school districts — starting with Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin and Houston — have defied the governor. They have ordered everyone in their buildings to mask up. To which I say, “Good for you!”

My 8-year-old granddaughter started school today in Allen. The Allen Independent School District hasn’t followed the lead set by its bigger district neighbors in Dallas and Fort Worth. The kids aren’t being told they must wear masks while sitting in class, or walking into the cafeteria, or goofing off with their friends in the hall.

I have to ask: What in the name of preventive measures is Abbott thinking when he issues those no-can-do orders to local jurisdictions?

I used to talk occasionally to Gov. Abbott when he was a mere Texas Supreme Court justice and later state attorney general. He ran for governor the first time after I left the daily journalism world, so I haven’t had a ringside seat to watch his morphing from a reasonable Republican into some sort of cultist who follows the example set by the 45th POTUS.

I am left merely to shake my head in disbelief and amazement that he has put our children’s health in peril — and that includes my precious granddaughter — by telling school systems they are forbidden from taking measures they believe will save lives.

Greg Abbott is acting like a madman!

national news

Fauci is not our ‘enemy’

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Staff photo by C.B. Schmelter

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

One American’s “enemy” is another American’s hero.

With that said, I want to share a brief item that showed up today on my social media news feed. It comes from U.S. Rep. Val Demings, a Florida Democrat who is running for a seat in the Senate occupied by Marco Rubio.

Demings said: Marjorie Taylor Greene called Dr. Fauci an “enemy to our nation” and members of the GOP like Marco Rubio have called for Dr. Fauci to be fired – so I’ve created a petition to stand up for Dr. Fauci and other scientists … 

Who is Marjorie Taylor Greene? She is the Georgia congresswoman who spouts stupid and insanely frightening rhetoric endorsed by the QAnon crowd about the pandemic, the vaccines developed to rid us of the virus and assorted other nonsense.

Greene, a Republican (of course!) is the true “enemy to our nation.” Dr. Anthony Fauci has become the go-to guy on the pandemic and how we need to ensure we do not become infected.

Marjorie Taylor Greene is entitled to spout her trash. I am entitled — indeed, obligated, in my view — to ignore it. Oh, and I also am entitled to speak out against such hideous idiocy.