Tag Archives: pandemic

national news

Cuomo’s time has come?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It is beginning to look to me as though Andrew Cuomo’s tenure as New York governor might be about to pass into history.

The Democratic politician is getting plenty of pressure to resign and it is coming from senior members of the state’s congressional delegation. He stands accused of sexual harassment by at least seven women, not to mention the scandal that erupted before this stuff arrived about the undercounting of COVID deaths among nursing home residents.

President Nixon faced similar pressure in August 1974 when the Watergate scandal was about to produce a certain impeachment. Senior congressional Republicans went to the White House to inform Nixon that his tenure as president was toast, that he had no support in Congress. Nixon quit.

Impeachment looms just ahead for Cuomo.

It looks as though there might be something similar is building in  the New York statehouse.

crime news

Will they still follow ‘our president’?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Let’s see how this plays out.

Many of the rioters/terrorists on Jan. 6 looked into TV cameras and said they merely were doing what “our president” wanted them to do, which was to storm Capitol Hill, threaten to kill the vice president and commit an act of insurrection against the U.S. government.

So, will those individuals now commit to doing what “our president” asks us to do by wearing masks, practice social distancing and follow infectious disease experts’ guidelines and recommendations so we can kill the coronavirus?

Or are they interested only in destroying the nation rather than trying to protect it?

Hey, I’m just askin’ … for a friend.

national news

Thank you, Mr. POTUS, for the empathy

(AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Mr. President, I am not going to flood your Twitter account with messages like this one, but I do feel the need to send you a direct message of thanks.

I occasionally would type out these missives to your predecessor. He got them, or his staff got them, and likely ignored them. Just tossed ’em in the cyber-trash can.

I heard your speech the other night from the White House and I just want to express my thanks and appreciation for the return of empathy and compassion in our head of state. We’ve all been missing that in the presidency for the past four years, as you no doubt are aware. Indeed, I heard your allusion to the absence of it in your remarks.

We need to hear these kinds of remarks from our president. You know how it goes. You served with a president, Barack Obama, who became a master of comforting a nation in pain. His predecessor, George W. Bush, managed to rally us after that terrible day on 9/11. President Bill Clinton, too, was good at trying to heal a nation grieving over tragic loss. But you know all of that, yes?

The pain we feel today is real and it is lingering. The pandemic is still with us, as you know. Yet you offered some realistic words of optimism, not the shallow happy talk based on nothing but a presidential “hunch” that we got from your immediate predecessor.

I’ll end this note now. Thanks once again for talking to us in a tone of voice that tells me that you actually do care about the people you were elected to lead … and to comfort.

national news

Time to go, Gov. Cuomo

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Andrew Cuomo has been a national political figure since before he took office as New York governor.

He comes from a renowned New York political family, being the son of a former governor and he once served as U.S. housing secretary in the Clinton administration.

It is with that context being laid out there that a blogger from faraway Texas — that would be me — has an interest in the political calamity that has befallen this guy.

He’s got to resign from office and find a way to rehabilitate himself.

I hate using the word “distraction,” but this fellow’s gubernatorial performance is being distracted to the point of irrelevance. He cannot propose anything for his state that isn’t measured against the allegations that have been leveled by seven women who have accused him of sexual harassment and actual sexual assault.

It’s over, Gov. Cuomo. He had his moment in the sun with his stunning media performance chronicling his state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He was being held up as the gold standard for governmental candor compared to what we were getting throughout 2020 from the president of the United States.

Then the crap hit the fan on that matter, too! Reports surfaced about Cuomo undercounting the number of infections and deaths at nursing homes in New York. Bad call, dude.

Now come the seemingly credible accusations of sexual misconduct by women who formerly worked in the Cuomo administration. Democrats have joined Republicans in calling for Cuomo to resign. The New York House of Representatives has launched an impeachment inquiry that, it now appears likely, will result in articles of impeachment being filed against Cuomo.

It’s time for Andrew Cuomo to exit the political stage he has commanded for decades.

national news

Where was No. 45?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Just a few moments this evening before President Biden began speaking to the nation about the fight against the COVID pandemic, I watched a brief public service announcement.

It featured four of the five living former presidents of the United States urging Americans to get vaccinated against the virus. There they were: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, George W. (and Laura) Bush and Jimmy (and Rosalyn) Carter. They told us of their dedication to protect themselves and urged us to protect ourselves and those with whom we come in contact.

But …

Where in the world was Donald J. Trump? He doesn’t belong — or so it appears — to the exclusive Former Presidents Club.

The pandemic took the nation by the throat on Trump’s watch. And yet he was the president who downplayed its impact, he lied to us repeatedly about its seriousness, he mused aloud about injecting ourselves with cleaning agents to rid us of the virus. In short, he fluffed the nation’s response to a virus that has killed more than 500,000 Americans. Now we learn that he and the former first lady got vaccinated in private before leaving the White House; they never bothered to set the kind of example they should have set.

Now that I think more deeply about it, hearing Donald Trump talk to us about getting vaccinated would have been as insincere and inauthentic as every single thing that has flowed from his mouth.

local news, Sports news

Let’s play ball … carefully!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision to lift the mask mandate he instituted when the coronavirus pandemic broke out is going to have a significant impact on one vocal segment of the Texas population.

That would be sports fans who flock to stadiums to cheer the home team on to victory.

Listen up, Amarillo Sod Poodles fans. This blog post is important.

I called the Sod Poodles’ office today and learned that the organization is selling tickets that fill Hodgetown — the team’s downtown ballpark — to 75 percent of capacity. “We’re hoping to get to 100 percent,” a young man told me, “given what the Texas Rangers are planning” for the American League baseball season. The Texas Rangers are going to fill Globe-Life Park in Arlington to the max; although I am quite certain the fans there will be masked up as they cheer for the Rangers.

So it ought to be even with limited seating sold at Hodgetown.

The Sod Poodles’ park seats about 7,000 fans. At 75 percent sales, the Sod Poodles will be playing before about 5,200 fans — give or take — when the Central League home season opens in late May. I am pretty sure that the fans attending the game will be cheering loudly. Which brings me to another point: COVID virus spores travel through the air when human beings shout or scream … or cheer!

That compels me to admonish the Soddies’ fans who are inclined to holler when the home team performs well to mask up.

Hey, I’m pulling for you and for your team. I just don’t want to read about “super spreader events” occurring in Amarillo, Texas.

Donald Trump

No. 45 is popping off

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

There he goes.

Donald Trump is trying to hog the glory of the success that has occurred since he left the office he once occupied.

Here’s what I “remember” about Trump’s time as president.

I remember him downplaying the severity of the pandemic. I recall how he said we could inject cleaning solution into our bodies and that the virus would “disappear.” I can remember how he called it a “Democrat hoax.” Oh, I also recall how he blew off the mounting deaths by declaring “It is what it is.”

The former Imbecile in Chief needs to go back on the golf course and keep his trap shut. He should stand by, though, and wait for the possible arrest warrants to be delivered.

national news

Waiting for end to COVID carnage

(Photo by Pablo Monsalve / VIEWpress via Getty Images)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The death rate from the COVID-19 virus is showing signs of abating.

It provides only a glimmer of hope, though, for those of us who want to stay the course in seeking to mitigate the damage done by the killer virus.

I keep reading about the progress we’re seeing with the increase in the daily rate of vaccination. It has exceeded 2 million doses daily. It is closing in on 3 million. President Biden promised to have 100 million Americans vaccinated during his first 100 days in office; it looks as though he will smash that projection.

I am thinking tonight of the “war on terror,” and wondering how we ever will be able to declare victory in that conflict. I don’t see it happening. Nor do I see it occurring any time soon in this war against the coronavirus. The pandemic has killed more than 525,000 Americans; more of us will succumb to the virus. Of that I am certain.

The war against international terror has now been handed off to the fourth commander in chief. It started under George W. Bush, continued under Barack H. Obama and then Donald J. Trump. Joe Biden likely won’t be able to declare victory against terrorists.

Nor will he likely be able to declare victory against the coronavirus pandemic. “Normal” will look like the new normal for a long time to come.

The death rate and the hospitalization rate, though, we all hope will continue to decline. I suppose I am left to place my faith that the continuing decline will give us reason to keep on fighting.

local news

Day One of ‘mask freedom’ has commenced

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The first day of some ill-conceived declaration of independence from mask-wearing has commenced and to be honest, it is just like all the other days we have lived with since, oh, for about the past year.

My wife and I went to our neighborhood grocery store in Princeton, Texas. We donned our masks. I scanned the store and noticed just about everyone else wearing masks, too. It gives me some measure of hope that most Texans are going to keep on keeping on with the masks and social distancing … regardless of the proclamation from Gov. Greg Abbott that he is lifting the mask order.

You can count me as one of the majority of Texas residents who still have concern that the mask-lifting order is premature. Abbott said Texans know what to do. Sure they do. I am hoping they continue to demonstrate their willingness to actually do what they know to be correct. This first day gives me reason to hope.

However, I also remain concerned that Abbott’s effort to gin up business activity had to include this lifting of the mask order.

In a related matter, I also am going to shy away from using the word “anniversary” to mark the year that has passed since the COVID virus was declared a pandemic. You celebrate joyous events with the word “anniversary.” This doesn’t qualify.

For now, I will go about my day the way I have been living every day since the pandemic gripped the nation by the throat. I don’t know when I’ll resume what we used to know as “normal” living.

medical news

CDC offers ‘good news’

2 Comments

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

This is “good news” coming from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention?

I’ll be candid: The news makes me a bit nervous.

The CDC says it’s OK for those of us who are “fully vaccinated” to meet with others who also are fully vaccinated against the COVID virus without any restrictions. You know what I mean: no masks, no imperative to practice social distancing, those kinds of things.

Maybe I should just accept CDC director Dr. Rachelle Walensky’s word for it, that it’s safe to hug on others who’ve been totally vaccinated. Then again, I remain worried about just how do we know with any certainty that others have received all the shots they need to declare themselves inoculated against the killer virus.

The media are heralding this news as further evidence that we are turning the corner against the pandemic. I hope we are and, yes, I believe we are in the midst of turning that corner.

I just can’t shake the heebie-jeebies I feel when I hear this kind of reporting out of the CDC.

For now I believe I am going to continue to keep my distance from a good bit of American society.