Tag Archives: pandemic

national news

Awaiting this inaugural

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Every so often I state my love of pageantry.

Readers of this blog know, how I love parades, patriotic music, pomp and circumstance, the sight of all those Old Glories flying in the breeze.

We’re going to get a lot of such pageantry on Jan. 20. That’s when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris take office as president and vice president of the United States of America.

This upcoming inaugural is going to be different than practically all that have preceded it. There won’t be as much pomp and circumstance as before. The coronavirus pandemic is going to limit crowd size and the scope of the celebration.

That won’t matter to me.

What does matter is that President Biden and Vice President Harris take their oaths and get down immediately to the task of repairing the damage being inflicted right now, today, in real time by Donald John Trump.

That means when the clock strikes noon EST on the 20th of January, Chief Justice John Roberts is going to extend his hand and say to Joe Biden, “Congratulations, Mr. President.”

I plan to watch every minute of that glorious event. I also plan to have a box of tissue handy. I expect fully to shed a tear of joy as I watch the new president take charge.

I do love the pageantry of it all. This year, the circumstances of Donald Trump’s angry, embittered, unlawful exit only lends to the emotion I am bound to feel as the Seditionist/Liar/Narcissist/Sore Loser in Chief exits the stage.

local news

Men and Women of the Year? Of course!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

One of the stark truths of this blog is that it hasn’t offered much praise for a newspaper where I worked for nearly 18 years. I have watched it decline to a level I no longer recognize.

Then the Amarillo Globe-News did something the other day that I find truly inspiring. Instead of singling out a Man and Woman of the Year for 2020, it chose its Men and Women of the Year: the frontline medical staffs in the Texas Panhandle who have risked their lives saving others’ lives in the wake of the killer pandemic.

A no-brainer, you say? Eh, one could make that argument. Except that not all publications that bestow these honors have followed that lead.

The Globe-News solicits nominations from the public. It would gather its management team at the end of a calendar year to deliberate over who should get the honor. The newspaper would dispatch a reporter to interview the subject and those close to him and her, concocting some pretext for the interview. Then the paper would publish its Man and Woman of the Year on Jan. 1. The paper has honored its Man of the Year since 1950; its Woman of the Year since 1974.

It’s still doing so, but with a dramatically different setup than I remember. Whatever the case, the choice this year was at one time an easy call and an inspired one.

Perhaps every community in America should honor their first responders, their medical staffs, their emergency services personnel in such a manner.

The Panhandle has been staggered by the toll brought by the virus. Its acute-care hospitals have been stretched to the limit. Its nursing homes and assisted living centers have been ravaged. They all are staffed by dedicated men and women who have become in many cases “surrogate loved ones” to patients who have struggled with the COVID-19 virus. They have held the hands of patients, told them of their love for them … and then watched many of them die.

It has been heartbreaking beyond measure.

Yes, they deserve to be honored for their hard work and their selflessness. As the newspaper stated in its New Year’s Day editorial: We also know this year, that while there were others nominated for this distinction, we found none more deserving. After all, a year like no other should yield honorees like no other.

Well … done.

local news

Out — and in — with a bang!

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Silly me.

I had this apparently wildly unrealistic expectation that the cold, rainy, sleety, miserable weather in North Texas would keep the New Year’s revelers inside. That they would be content to cuddle in front of fireplaces, swilling hot totties while bidding an angry farewell to the most miserable year in memory.

It didn’t turn out that way.

They were out. They were blasting away with fireworks until the not-so-wee hours. They got me borderline angry. They surely upset Toby the Puppy, who was traumatized at a fireworks show we attended on the Fourth of July, 2019. He hasn’t gotten over it yet. He likely won’t ever put it behind him, either.

I can understand why these partiers braved the elements to ring in the new year. The old one was for the birds, you know. Given that I am now too old to do that kind of thing, I was hoping against hope that others would follow my lead … and stay the hell home!

Whatever, the old year is now gone. The new year dawned about like I thought it would. We didn’t see the sun rise in the morning. We knew it was above the horizon and behind the cloud cover because, well … it wasn’t dark this morning when we rolled out of bed.

With that, we’re going to take it easy again today and probably for the foreseeable future. They still haven’t gotten rid of that damn virus, so we’re going play it safe, employing what has come to be known as an “abundance of caution.”

Let’s all do the same thing. Shall we?

Happy new year!

State news

Texas AG sues city and county for toughening rules? Weird!

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Surely I am not the only Texas resident who finds this legal squabble disturbing.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued Austin and Travis County for — and this is pretty strange — invoking get-tough rules designed to protect residents from getting a killer virus.

Paxton says Austin Mayor Steve Adler and Travis County Judge Andy Brown lack the authority to go beyond the order issued by Gov. Greg Abbott.

But … wait! Adler and Brown are concerned about the pandemic outbreak that is occurring in their community, so they are taking measures to fight it. Isn’t that a good thing? Isn’t that what local officials are charged to do?

According to the Texas Tribune:

Paxton filed a petition for temporary injunction and a temporary restraining order in Travis County District Court targeting orders made by Austin Mayor Steve Adler and Travis County Judge Andy Brown. Citing an increase in COVID-19 cases, they announced that dine-in food and beverage service must be restricted indoors and outdoors from 10:30 p.m. to 6 a.m., starting Thursday and ending at 6 a.m. Sunday. The measure did allow drive-thru, curbside pick-up, take out, or delivery services.

“Mayor Adler and Judge Brown do not have the authority to flout Gov. [Greg] Abbott’s executive orders by shutting down businesses in Travis County and our state’s capital city,” said Paxton in a statement. “The fact that these two local leaders released their orders at night and on the eve of a major holiday shows how much contempt they have for Texans and local businesses.”

Huh? Eh? What the … ?

Is this another one of those Republican vs. Democrat disputes where one side places greater emphasis on safety measures than the other side? If that is the case, then we are in a hell of a pickle as we try to fight this damn disease.

national news

A new year will dawn; may it bring hope

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The sun will rise at 7:29 a.m. Friday, although it is unlikely we’ll see it peek over the eastern horizon, given the crappy weather we’re having in North Texas.

It doesn’t matter. The darkness will give way to the light (more or less) and a new year will have arrived.

We all feel the same way about 2020. It sucked out loud. The pandemic continues to bring untold misery to millions of Americans and others around the world; it has killed more than 340,000 of us. And the president of the United States, Donald Trump, blew it off publicly. He told us early in the year that the pandemic is “under control.” It damn sure isn’t!

Our nation’s economy collapsed. Millions of Americans lost their jobs. Trump kept gloating about the stock market’s rise. Oh, the jobs lost? He spoke next to nothing about the suffering and strife occurring in homes throughout the land.

Then came that election. Americans sent a message of their own to Donald Trump. It was, if you’ll accept this generalization, simply this: Donald, we are sick of your policy-by-Twitter, your insults, your boorish behavior, your incessant lies and the utter incompetence you demonstrate daily about how to run the government; we want a return to the old normal.

Step right up, President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. A weary nation awaits your ascent to the pinnacle of power.

We’ve got 19 days to go before Biden takes over. He has selected a governing team that he says resembles the nation he was elected to lead. It is full of ethnic and racial minorities, of men and women. It is full of individuals with prior government experience and an appreciation and understanding of its complexity, which to my mind is the most important component of the government that is taking shape.

And so … we commence the new year with a sense of hope. We must maintain our patience and vigilance as the pandemic battle continues. Those vaccines are being administered. The crisis won’t vanish any time soon.

The new president has made a solemn vow to ramp up that fight, to wage all-out war against the pandemic. I await the result of that fight and the day we can declare victory against this enemy.

I am not foolish enough to believe that declaration will come during this upcoming calendar year. However, I am enough of an optimist to believe that we are going to make a significant advance toward that end. May we start advancing right now.

Happy new year!

medical news

Pandemic is personal

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump’s absence of empathy and compassion is playing out in real time. He has tested positive for the coronavirus that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. So has his wife, his youngest son, his oldest son and an assortment of those who are reportedly “close” to him.

Yet he continues to act publicly as if the only thing that matters is that election he lost and his effort to overturn a democratically conducted electoral process.

For the rest of us? It’s personal. The virus is striking close to my home. It has sickened members of my family. It has felled friends of ours. It is hurting our hearts and is causing us enough grief and anxiety to last, oh, probably forever.

Yet the president of the United States keeps playing golf, enjoys the glitz and glamor of his posh resort/house in Florida. He is content to fire off Twitter messages and bitch and moan about an election he lost.

Oh, the pandemic? He doesn’t give a rat’s a** about its effects on other American families. I cannot speak to how he has dealt with its impact on his own family. Frankly, at this point in this pandemic crisis I … just … don’t … care.

But I certainly do care that the president who took an oath to defend us has abdicated his duty while acting as if he doesn’t give a  rip about the suffering that’s occurring in this vast and great  land.

national news

Where is POTUS? Hello?

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald J. Trump remains AWOL. He is MIA. He is hiding in plain sight, out there on the golf course in south Florida, hacking away at little white balls.

Meanwhile, the nation continues to fight what looks still like a losing battle against the unseen enemy, the virus that has killed more than 337,000 Americans.

I no longer expect anything from Donald Trump. He’s all but a goner.

Then again, I remain fixated on this nagging sense that he should be in the game. He should be barking out directives to his team of “the best people” on how he intends to facilitate delivery of the much-needed and long-awaited vaccine.

There remains no national strategy to wage war against a national enemy. Remember when Donald Trump called himself a “wartime president” and that he would conduct himself in such a manner while battling this disease? That turned out to be yet another promise unkept.

We are being briefed almost daily by President-elect Biden and members of his medical/science team. They will be taking over in just 22 days; they cannot pass soon enough, if you ask me. They haven’t suited up just yet.

Which brings me back to my point. We have one president at a time. The nation remains buried under the tragedy brought to us by this disease. Donald Trump has abdicated his responsibility as the leader of this nation by homing in matters that have everything to do with his political future and not a single freaking thing to do with you and me … and our health and well-being!

I’ve heard pundits pontificate about how we should ignore Trump that he’s no longer relevant to the national discussion. I do ignore the lies. I ignore the self-serving bloviating. I will not ignore any president — no matter how distasteful he is — when he has something important to say about a pandemic that continues to ravage the country we all love.

Dammit to hell anyway! Donald Trump took an oath to protect us. At the end of that oath, he said “so help me God.” The nation he pledged to protect is suffering.

Step up … Donald! Then in only 22 days you can just get the hell out of the way.

national news

How does GOP stand for this?

(Photo by Michael Brochstein/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

This question demands an answer.

How in the name of good government do congressional Republicans and party members across the board justify their allegiance to a president who knifed them in the back over a COVID relief bill that he eventually signed into law?

Donald Trump called the COVID package a “disgrace” after GOP members of Congress joined their Democratic colleagues in embracing a bill that Trump’s team helped negotiate.

Then the POTUS tossed them all under that big ol’ bus and threatened to veto it. He said the relief bill doesn’t give enough money to Americans; he blasted it for the “waste” it contains that he wants removed.

Where in the hell was he during the negotiations? Don’t answer that. I know where he was. He was on the golf course and was using his Twitter account to blast the FBI and the Justice Department for allegedly conspiring to “rig” the 2020 election against him.

Trump took no active part in any element of this wheeling and dealing. He sat on the sidelines and then rammed the knife deeply into the back of his GOP “friends” and “allies” by describing the bill they endorsed is the worst piece of legislation ever enacted … or words to that effect.

And yet …

The GOP remains loyal to this clown? The party leaders in both congressional chambers won’t condemn him in the strongest language they can muster up?

Republicans in Congress will not go along with the $2,000 payment that Trump insists on giving out. Sure, it’s more generous than the $600 payments that have been approved — and now signed by Trump.

Still, it boggles my noodle to understand the point of all these machinations by a guy with no knowledge of the legislative process or understanding of how government works.

What’s more, my brain is trying to comprehend how the folks who do know these things — particularly those on the Republican side of the great divide — continue to support this clown’s feckless and futile bid to overturn a democratically run presidential election.

Go … figure, man!

national news

Trump backs down … or does he?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald J. Trump wanted more money for Americans suffering from the pandemic. He also wanted to get rid of wasteful spending in a bill his team negotiated with Congress.

He threatened to veto the whole thing. Then — wouldn’t you just know it? — Donald Trump changed his mind and signed the bill into law.

Merry belated Christmas, Americans. We’re going to get that $600 per person payout that Trump said was too little; he wants us to get 2 grand apiece. He also wants to get rid of waste in the bill. Except that it’s still in the legislation he signed into law.

Good news is out there. The government won’t shut down. Unemployment benefits will be restored. I guess we should be grateful for all of that. And I am.

I circle back to a fundamental question: Why in the world did POTUS subject us to this chaos, uncertainty, anxiety, misery? His team was a partner with Congress in coming up with the bill. He said he would support it. Then he changed his mind. Now he has changed his mind again.

Trump is making demands on Congress to produce a fresh bill that excludes items he has “red lined” item by item that he wants taken out. We’ll have to see how well Congress reacts to the demands being placed by the leader of the other co-equal government branch.

My head is spinning.

national news

Preparing to embrace a new year like never before

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It’s just me, I suppose. Then again, there might billions of other human beings who share my view about what is going to transpire in just a few days.

They’re going to drop that ball in Times Square and we’re going to welcome 2021. Now, I don’t know about you, but I am prepared fully to embrace the new year in a manner I have never done in my life. Not ever!

The year we are about to kick into the crapper has been the pits beyond belief. You know to what I refer: the pandemic.

To be somewhat charitable toward 2020, I should note that we end this smelly armpit of a year on a hopeful note. Researchers have developed vaccines developed to eradicate the virus and doses of it are being injected into millions of Americans’ arms as we sit here tonight.

It will take time for the killer virus to vanish. Maybe another year? Or longer? I don’t know. Neither can even the most learned infectious disease experts say with any certainty when the virus will vanish.

We have lost more than 332,000 Americans. Many more are going to die from this disease. It has caused untold heartache, heartbreak, misery and agony. Those of us who have not been stricken by the virus have been forced to change our living habits. It’s been a bit of a struggle for many Americans.

What’s more — and this is unbelievable to me — the issue of preventative measures has become a political flash point. How in the name of medical safety can this happen? Oh, I know. It happens because the president of the United States has made it one. Donald Trump has denigrated those who wear masks or take other extraordinary measures to avoid getting sickened by the virus and his followers have taken his cue.

Ridiculous!

The old year is about to pass into history. Those who write about such things no doubt will attach plenty of superlatives to describe 2020: unprecedented, historic, without parallel.

I’ll add the term “miserable.” Accordingly, when the old year passes and the new arrives I might break with a recent tradition and stay awake long enough to cheer the end of the most heartbreaking year I can remember.