Tag Archives: COVID

political news

Here he goes, calling for ‘reparations’

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

No one with half a brain in their skull ever thought Donald Trump would go away quietly into the night once he left the White House.

With that the ex-POTUS has criticized President Biden’s myriad policy decisions and then in a fascinating twist has called for China to pay “reparations” totaling $10 trillion because, according to Trump, the COVID pandemic began with a leak in a Chinese laboratory.

There you have it. The ex-president drawing conclusions and assigning blame well well before the world has a clue as to source of the killer pandemic.

Trump vows to be a player in Republican politics and said the “movement” he founded has only begun. Reassuring, yes? No … it isn’t.

He blasted Biden’s border policies, his economic policies, his defense strategy.

According to the Wall Street Journal: The Democratic National Committee, in a statement, chided Republicans for sticking with Mr. Trump and said Mr. Biden is overseeing an economic recovery and “a return to normalcy.”

Trump Criticizes Biden Policies, Calls for Covid-19 Reparations From China (msn.com)

So the president will proceed. Trump will proceed, too, along his weird path toward what he believes will be a return to power. Trump will keep yammering. He will get the Trump Cult fanatics heated up.

Oh, and let’s not forget how Donald Trump will keep reciting the Big Lie about vote fraud and electoral theft.

economic news

Market collapse? Yeah … right

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald J. Trump and I have something in common.

Neither of us can predict outcomes worth a damn.

Perhaps you’ll recall one of the consequences Trump said would occur were Joe Biden elected president of the United States in 2020. He said the stock market would collapse, that the economy would fall into a death spiral, that Americans would be clamoring for Trump’s return to the White House.

Hmm. None of that happened. Indeed, the stock market has done quite well since President Biden took office, the economy is starting to rev its engines and, oh yeah, I don’t hear many Americans — other than the members of the Trump Cult Club of Lunatics — wanting any part of the former Imbecile in Chief.

All of this good news is helped, of course, by the success we have had in fighting the COVID pandemic.

With that I wish to declare that Trump and I do share a common trait. Now, if we can just get Trump to declare that he won’t offer lame-brained predictions in the future.

national news

QAnon queen steps in it again

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Is it possible that Congress’s QAnon queen, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, has finally crossed a line that her Republican protectors cannot cross with her?

Greene has compared the mask-wearing mandates issued by governments at all levels to the treatment that European Jews endured during the Holocaust.

Yes, she says the mask order compares to human history’s worst case of genocide! What the hell?

Leading congressional Republicans have condemned this nitwit’s latest bloviating rhetoric. House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, his deputy Steve Scalise and Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell all have blasted Greene to smithereens. Congressional Democrats want her thrown out of office.

It’s not at all clear, of course, if Republicans will join their Democratic colleagues in ridding the People’s House of this idiot’s poison. I hope they do, however, I am not holding my breath.

national news

Flynn: pandemic a fraud

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Here is the latest from the nuthouse known as the Donald Trump administration.

The disgraced former national security adviser for Trump — Michael Flynn — alleges that the COVID-19 pandemic was made up to distract us from the 2020 election.

See? It wasn’t real. It was concocted out of whole cloth, says the lying ex-national security guru who was fired — or resigned — from his job just 24 days into the new administration in 2017.

This also is the idiot who led the 2016 GOP convention chant to “Lock her up!” when Hillary Clinton’s email SNAFU was still under serious discussion.

Now he’s done it. He has joined the conspiracy cabal about the pandemic, suggesting it was all “fake news.”

Hmm. I wonder how Michael Flynn accounts for the deaths of 580,000-plus Americans.

medical news

Back to hugging, kissing

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

LOS GATOS, Calif. — I must have heard it a half-dozen times while visiting a friend in this high-end Bay Area community.

We went to a gathering of fellow Rotary Club members, where my friend once served as club president and later as governor of the Rotary district.

Several folks were hobnobbing, chatting and laughing at each other’s jokes. When they embraced, they would say to each other, “Oh, it’s so nice to be able to hug again.”

Yes, this is the sound of the post-pandemic age setting in slowly. “Hey, don’t worry,” one of them told me. “We’ve all been vaccinated” against the COVID-19 virus, they said.

So, there you go. So have my wife and me.

I had no issue at all with the way folks were interacting. I am intrigued, though, at the response to federal medical experts’ changing guidelines regarding masks and social distancing in this region that takes safeguard measures quite seriously. They, too, are relieved at the relaxed guidelines and are as anxious as those of us in Texas are to get back to living the way we used to live before the pandemic began killing Americans.

I am not going to jump with both feet into the life we once led prior to the pandemic hitting us where it hurts. We still wore masks when we entered public places. We will continue to do so until someone down the road delivers the all-clear signal. Who should deliver that message when the time arrives? I guess when Dr. Anthony Fauci says it, then it must be true.

Even in this time when politics infects everything, it is striking to my ears to hear folks who live in a deeply blue/Democratic-leaning part of the nation express a strong interest in returning quickly to the life we all led before disease and death changed everything.

medical news

Vaccine arguments: idiocy

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The debate in this country over whether to get vaccinated against a disease that can kill you simply is astonishing in the extreme.

I cannot get past this utterly irrefutable fact: vaccines save lives and prevent misery, agony and heartache.

Polio struck millions of Americans. Then in the 1950s, they discovered a vaccine. What happened to polio in this country? It vanished. The same can be said of tuberculosis and smallpox. Same for diseases such as scarlet fever, the bubonic plague. We vaccinate our children against measles, mumps, chicken pox, you name it.

But now we have a disease that has killed nearly 600,000 Americans and the debate rages over whether we should get vaccinated. I even have members of my family who suggest — and this just blows my mind — that the Food and Drug Administration didn’t actually approve the vaccines that are being given to Americans and that these family members simply refuse to get vaccinated because, um, it’s all political.

We need to get past the politics that has poisoned the national discussion about the pandemic and how the government has responded to it. If we do not, then I am confident in projecting many more unnecessary deaths … and heartbreak.

State news

Abbott acts prematurely with this order

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has decided he knows what is best for local governments, including local school districts in their efforts to ward off the COVID virus among the people they serve.

He has issued an executive order that prohibits cities, counties and school districts from requiring masks for the people who work there or attend classes.

Sigh …

How many ways can we describe “overreach”? Abbott’s order offers an important marker.

As the grandparent of a North Texas second-grader, I am quite appalled that the governor would make this call as it regards local school districts. We call them “independent school districts” in Texas because we imbue local school trustees — supposedly — with the power to make decisions independent of other government intrusion.

Not so, apparently.

The Texas Tribune notes: While 30% of Texans have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, the vast majority of children are unvaccinated.

My granddaughter is one of them who hasn’t yet received a vaccine to protect her against the killer virus.

I believe the governor has acted prematurely to a degree that smacks of irresponsibility.

The Tribune also reports: Starting Friday, any government entity that tries to impose a mask mandate can face a fine of up to $1,000, according to the order. The order exempts state-supported living centers, government-owned or -operated hospitals, Texas Department of Criminal Justice facilities, Texas Juvenile Justice Department facilities, and county and municipal jails.

No Texas mask mandate in public schools, Gov. Greg Abbott says | The Texas Tribune

The virus is far from being eradicated. Yes, infection rates, hospitalization rates and deaths are down across the board. This makes everyone feel a little safer. Are we in the clear? Can we now declare victory?

Not yet.

Gov. Abbott has gotten way ahead of himself on this one.

economic news, national news

POTUS punished for good deeds?

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It really must be true that “no good deed goes unpunished.”

Consider the following:

President Biden took office in January as the nation was struggling to cope with the COVID pandemic. He promised tens of millions of vaccines in his first 100 days. He succeeded gloriously in outpacing that projection.

Then came a surge in consumer demand of supplies they couldn’t purchase because of restrictions caused by the pandemic. The worldwide supply chain has been strained as manufacturers struggle to meet the immense demand.

The punishment comes in the form of inflation that now has the White House troubled by the impact of that huge demand and the still-limited supply.

The Hill reports: All of those factors combined to push the consumer price index (CPI) up 0.8 percent in April and 4.2 percent over the past 12 months, the fastest annual rate since 2008, the Labor Department reported this past week. When stripping out the more volatile prices for food and energy, the index registered the biggest monthly increase since 1982.

While the ramped-up consumer spending is a sign of increased optimism, the Biden administration faces political risks as Americans find themselves dealing with inflation levels that the country hasn’t seen in more than a decade.

Inflation fears grow for White House (msn.com)

Joe Biden is a seasoned political hand. He knows he will get pilloried for the inflation. There is no way on God’s good Earth he is going to apologize for the accelerated vaccine distribution and vaccination rates that have contributed to the “crisis” resulting in the inflationary pressure.

medical news

Delighted with ruling, however …

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelils_92@hotmail.com

As delighted as I am with the new masking and social distance guidelines from the federal government, I want to offer a word of caution.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says we no longer need to wear masks if we are fully vaccinated. OK, we qualify for that; we are vaccinated and we have the documentation to prove it.

I do not know what the guy next to me at the grocery store has done. Nor do I know what so-and-so waiting in line to buy a burrito at the convenience store has done.

My hope today is that we do not see a dramatic reduction in mask wearing as we go about our day.

We’ve been following the rules in our North Texas community and for that I am glad and delighted that my neighbors haven’t flouted the advice given to us by CDC, President Biden and his senior medical team.

The COVID pandemic is still out there. It’s lurking. I intend to wear masks for until we get the all clear signal from those in the know.

Join me, eh?

medical news

Mask mandate lifted? OK, but …

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

President Biden has sort of spiked a proverbial football on the basis of a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ruling related to the killer pandemic that has put the entire planet on edge.

The CDC says fully vaccinated Americans need not wear masks.

Hoo-ray! Now does that mean we’re back to normal life? That all that worry and angst is a thing of the past? That we should toss all caution into the crapper?

Nope. Not going to go there.

Biden calls new mask guidance a ‘great milestone’ | TheHill

It means that fully vaccinated Americans — such as my immediate family (except for my younger than 12-year-old granddaughter) — would be wise to exercise some restraint and good judgment when mingling with crowds of people they do not know. Our granddaughter’s vaccination is approaching rapidly and for that I will be grateful beyond all measure.

That will continue to be our mantra as we regain our footing en route to life as we once knew it.

President Biden calls it a milestone. He is taking a victory lap of sorts, although he has been discreet in his outward behavior as we have cleared various mile posts along the way — much to his great credit.

“I think it’s a great milestone, a great day. It’s been made possible by the extraordinary success we have had in vaccinating so many Americans, so quickly,” Biden added.

OK. I’m all in with the new guidelines. I wish I could be totally serene about our collective future and our national health. I am not yet there, given all the “variants” and the crises that are erupting in places like India, Brazil and parts of Europe.

However, I am heartened by the progress the nation is making in eradicating this hideous killer.