Tag Archives: Joe Biden

economic news, International news, national news

Presidents cannot control global oil prices

Presidents of the United States inherit an office with enormous power … of that everyone agrees.

However, there are limits to that power. Such as the price of oil and other energy-producing resources. The price of gasoline and other motor vehicles have skyrocketed — again! — in recent weeks. Does the president have as much control over that as critics suggest? No! He damn sure doesn’t.

Yet the current president, Joe Biden, is paying the price politically for a trend over which he has little control. OPEC nations decided all by themselves to cut oil production by 2 million barrels a day. Someone has to remind me how the president of the United States can control OPEC’s policymakers.

Joe Biden’s foes are trying make hay out of decisions that are made far from the White House. They are pounding him. I just want the world to know how this blogger feels about the pummeling that Biden is getting. He doesn’t deserve it.

Having stated that here, I am acutely aware it won’t stop the non-stop — and unfair — criticism he is getting.

It’s part of the political game Joe Biden entered all those decades ago.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Joe Biden, local news, national news

POTUS has bigger fish to fry

Butt out. Mr. President.

Joe Biden has weighed in on what is a quintessential local problem. It involves members of the Los Angeles City Council who were caught saying some nasty things about fellow Los Angelinos, namely Black, Asian and indigenous people.

Folks throughout LA are up in arms. They are demanding their resignation. As they should.

President Biden calls on all participants of racist LA City Council leaked audio to resign (msn.com)

But what is the president of the United States going to contribute by offering his own view on it? Is he trying to lend the huge weight of his office to this fight? “He believes that they all should resign,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. “The language that was used and tolerated during that conversation was unacceptable and it was appalling.”

OK, fine. Let him believe it to his heart’s content. President Biden need not weigh in on an issue that should be resolved exclusively at City Hall. The president of the United States has many other more pressing issues to ponder that involve protecting the rest of the country he was elected to govern.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

military news, national news, national security

Mullen to POTUS: cool the rhetoric

Mike Mullen wore a Navy uniform for many decades; he went to war for this country and served as chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

So, when a distinguished officer admonishes the commander in chief over some tough talk about “nuclear Armageddon,” I am inclined to take the admiral’s words seriously.

So should President Biden.

Mullen went on TV this weekend to offer his take on the Ukraine War and Russian strongman Vladimir Putin’s implied threat to use tactical nukes to put down the Ukrainian resistance to his illegal invasion. Biden has talked about Armageddon and said we’re closer to that catastrophe than we have been since the October 1962 Cuban missile crisis.

Mullen wants Biden to cool it. We need to persuade Putin to negotiate his way out of the quagmire in Ukraine. Issuing warnings about what will happen to Putin if he decides to use more dangerous weapons against Ukraine won’t work, Mullen said.

He’s right. At least I am going to presume he is right. The man knows a thing or three about warfare. Pay heed to his advice.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, legal news, national news, political news

Waiting for barrage to batter POTUS

Let’s all wait for what many of know is coming if federal prosecutors decide to indict Hunter Biden on allegations involving tax violations and the purchase of a firearm.

What I am sure we’ll see will be Republican efforts to link President Joe Biden to his son’s activities. They’ll seek to paint the president with the same broad brush that they’ll use to slather Hunter Biden.

It will be a shameful display of demagoguery, which many of us have come to expect from the Grand Old (Obstructionist) Party.

I will continue to pull for the president to weather this storm … if it opens up.

Reports indicate that investigators think they have enough to prosecute. It’s not their call. The decision rests with the U.S. attorney. If the attorney decides to go forward, I intend to ignore the rubbish that will pour fourth.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, national news, political news

Younger Biden under intense scrutiny

Here we go. There well might be a criminal referral coming forward that suggests that Hunter Biden, son of the president of the U.S.A., could be indicted for tax fraud and for an allegation that he lied while purchasing a firearm.

A federal prosecutor in Delaware reportedly is wrapping up a probe. Reports suggest that the investigative team believes it has evidence of wrongdoing. The task now falls to the U.S. attorney to decide whether to bring charges forward.

Sigh … There appears to be questions about the probe. Chief among them might be whether the U.S. attorney, a Donald J. Trump appointee, is too jaded by the former POTUS’s loathing of the Bidens to render a fair and just decision on whether to indict.

I guess my major concern deals with whether the president is going to suffer needless political damage from whatever his son did to get indicted. I also know that the real world often acts in unjust and unfair ways. This might be one of those times.

There once was a time when we didn’t fixate on the political connections of career federal prosecutors. Those days are gone. Perhaps we can thank Trump for the change in attitude, as he was prone to criticize judgments against by labeling jurists as “Obama judges” or “Clinton judges.”

Are we now going to dismiss any indictment because it comes from a “Trump prosecutor”?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

environmental news, national news, political news

Let’s set differences aside

Media representatives have been yapping in the past few days about the “political differences” that exist between President Biden and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

They point out that the differences might stand in the way of the federal government rushing aid to the stricken state in the wake of Hurricane Ian’s destruction.

Let’s set the differences aside … shall we?

DeSantis is being talked about as a potential 2024 Republican candidate for president. Joe Biden is likely to run for re-election.

First things first. President Biden has some comforting to deliver to beleaguered fellow Americans. One of them happens to be his potential rival, DeSantis.

The two men will meet later today. They likely will talk repeatedly in the weeks to come as the feds seek to help Florida rebuild from the destruction that Ian brought to the state’s Gulf Coast.

There will be time for the political stuff. I am not interested in hearing about the differences between these men. I just want them to reach out to each other in search of common ground to repair the lives shattered by Mother Nature’s wrath.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, national news

Chill out, congressman

Ronny the Carpetbagger continues his Twitter rants with more nonsensical demagoguery.

This guy, aka Ronny Jackson, the Republican who purports to represent the Texas Panhandle in Congress, is now suggesting Democrats are out to “destroy” the U.S. of A.

Well, how’s that going to happen?

By enacting crucial climate change legislation? By seeking to legislate an end to gun violence? By working with Republicans to enact critical infrastructure legislation? By restoring employment to pre-pandemic levels? By unifying NATO in resisting rampant and illegal Russian aggression in Ukraine? By seeking to curb the effects of climate change on the world?

Good grief. Ronny the Carpetbagger needs to look inward. If anyone is seeking to “destroy the country,” it’s the former Big Liar in Chief who continues to insist that non-existent widespread vote fraud cost him re-election in 2020.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump, Joe Biden, national news

This is how POTUS should respond

At the risk of riling some of the Trumpkin Trolls who read this blog, I want to offer a brief word describing what I believe is an essential difference between the way Joe Biden handles his presidential duties and the way his immediate predecessor handled them.

Hurricane Ian hammered Florida with Category 4-level wind and storm surge. It marched across that state, headed out over water to regain its strength and then pummeled the South Carolina coast with more devastating wind and water.

President Biden’s response? He declared a federal disaster for Florida and well might do the same for South Carolina. He vowed to be there for all of those who suffered from nature’s wrath. Biden made a specific point that Republicans and Democrats alike will be treated with compassion from the government.

OK. How does that compare with how Donald J. Trump handled national tragedies? The wildfires that destroyed thousands of acres in California in 2019 became grist for Trump to lecture the state on how it should manage its forests. He would routinely castigate Democratic officials — who didn’t support him in 2016 — for their failures.

Biden, who didn’t carry either Florida or South Carolina in 2020, did not go there. He is president of all the United States, he reminded us … and he intends to carry out his response to the tragic hurricane accordingly.

There you have it. We elected a president who understands the unwritten job description he must follow.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news, national news

Selective indignation …

I want to introduce a new term to this blog, which I will call “selective indignation.” It comes from the right-wingers who suggest that had Donald Trump said some of the wild things that come from Joe Biden’s mouth, the “left” would be going bonkers.

Really? Well, maybe so. Except that Donald Trump would say things and would demonstrate a cruel streak the likes of which I have never seen in a president of the United States.

And have you taken the time to listen carefully to the way Donald Trump seeks to articulate a point?  I would be willing argue, furthermore, that the Donald Trump of 1992 is a much more formidable debater than the Trump of 2022.

Rather than the left going nuts, we have the right frothing at its mouth. The latest Biden gaffe involves his calling out a congresswoman who has been deceased since August. “Where is she?” Biden asked at a public event the other day. She’s dead, Mr. POTUS.

And so … the right wingers out there are pointing fingers are suggesting that they have been right all along, that President Biden lacks the mental snap to serve in the world’s most powerful office.

OK. I won’t go there. I am not going to climb onto that political haywagon. The man made a mistake. I accept that it’s a beaut. It is not an indicator of anything more serious. If someone can produce any actual “evidence” of decline, then let ’em show us what they have.

Until then we have two sides of this great divide arguing among themselves over whether one side is reacting unfairly and tossing the “what about” argument that tries to defend the conduct of a politician on the other side.

Take it from someone who has lived with a loved one suffering from actual decline in mental acuity, what we are seeing in the president doesn’t qualify.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Joe Biden, medical news

Biden’s goof causes … what?

Here I go. I am about to tiptoe into an area that I have avoided discussing on this blog, but which finally has me concerned enough to bring it up: President Biden’s mental acuity.

Now, do not misinterpret where I am heading with this brief post. I do not believe Joe Biden is losing his marbles. However, his latest gaffe — and, admittedly, it was a doozy — is going to bring the issue of his fitness for the presidency back to the front burner.

This week, the president wondered aloud at a press event why U.S. Rep. Jackie Walorski, R-Ind., wasn’t in attendance. “Jackie, where are you? Where’s Jackie?” Biden asked.

Well, she’s dead, Mr. President. Rep. Walorski died in an auto accident in August.

The White House is brushing it off. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called it a “top of mind” moment, that Biden had Walorski’s name at the center of his attention span. That’s not good enough of an answer, Mme. Press Flack.

White House digs in on Biden’s gaffe about dead congresswoman: The Note – ABC News (go.com)

Joe Biden has been prone to this kind of verbal miscue since long before he was elected president. He gets fired up and at times seems to lose his train of thought.

Well, that’s for others to discern. I am not qualified to offer an armchair medical diagnosis of the president’s mental fitness. I do hope — and that’s all I can do, is hope — that President Biden can find a way to eliminate these kinds of gaffes that only serve to feed the multiple rural mills that swirl around the presidency.

He told “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley to “Watch me” if he doubts the president’s ability to do a difficult job. Well, Mr. President … we’re watching.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com