International news

Tough to watch these scenes

My old age is showing, as I am finding it increasingly difficult to watch the televised images from Ukraine that show the entire world what Russian military forces are doing to those who live in a country those forces are seeking to conquer.

They make me very angry. No, I am not going to suit up and go to war, fighting alongside the Ukrainians. I am way too old for that.

I just become enraged when I hear rhetoric from those who suggest that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy should just give in to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s demands … whatever the hell he intends.

Putin has launched a humanitarian crisis in Europe not seen since World War II. The Ukrainians are trying to defend their country against naked, bald-faced aggression. Putin, who once ran the Soviet spy agency the KGB, once told Barbara Walters that he didn’t order anyone’s death while serving as the Evil Empire’s top spook, that he was more of an “analyst.” Do you believe him? Hah! Neither do I.

I am not sure I can stomach much more of this, not that it matters to anyone at the center of the fight. I just am left to vent my frustration and rage via this platform and hope it somehow trickles into the decision rooms of those who are committing these war crimes.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news, political news

Pence has grown a pair?

What do you know about this? It appears that former Vice President Mike Pence has grown a pair of … um … well, you know what I mean.

Pence has told a group of Republicans that there is “no room” in the party for those who apologize for Vladimir Putin. Gosh! About whom do you suppose Pence is referring?

According to Newsnation: “Where would Russian tanks be today if NATO had not expanded the borders of freedom? There is no room in this party for apologists for Putin,” Pence said, according to excerpts from the speech, which was closed to reporters. “There is only room for champions of freedom.”

https://www.newsnationnow.com/politics/pence-hits-trump-no-room-in-gop-for-apologists-for-putin/?utm_campaign=NewsNation-trending-now&utm_source=thehill.com&utm_medium=newsnation-cross-brand

The word is out that he is stretching the divide that is growing between Pence and the guy who selected him to be vice president for four years prior to losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

It’s time to move past the 2020 election, Pence said. It’s time for the party to start plotting a course for the future, he said.

It took Pence a long time to become his own man. Too long, if you ask me. Even when the ex-POTUS threatened Pence because he did his job on 1/6 and certified President Biden’s election, he remained silent.

That now appears to be changing.

It’s not that Pence is going to get my vote if he decides to run for POTUS in 2024. However, I want to take this moment to offer him a word of support simply for demonstrating a smidgen of courage.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news, political news

Divide becomes a chasm

I discovered a story online that I want to share with this blog post. It tells a sad story about a man in a rural community who feels more isolated than ever in his life. Why the isolation? Because he voted in 2020 for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for POTUS and VPOTUS, while most of his neighbors voted for the ticket that lost the 2020 election.

The result has produced a daily ritual of insults, epithets and assorted forms of verbal and emotional abuse.

The story ran in Politico. Here it is:

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/03/04/pennsylvania-rural-democrats-trump-neighbors-00008915

I can relate somewhat to what the principals in the article are feeling. I, too, voted for President Biden and Vice President Harris. We live in a suburban community in a North Texas county that voted nominally for The Donald in 2020.

The lonely Democrat told Politico that the landscape of Dubois, Pa., is littered with profanity-laced signs cursing Biden and Harris; the signage also heaps praise on Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence.

According to Politico:

“We’ve never seen this before,” says Joanne Fitzpatrick, a Democrat from DuBois, running through a tally in her head of anti-Biden signs that still cover her town and surrounding communities. “I’m not a prude by any stretch, but it’s offensive. We’ve just never seen this level of vulgarity after an election — and so long after the election at that.”

“In a civilized society,” she added, “we just don’t do that.”

Well, I guess we do. Then again, I believe she was implying that her community isn’t exactly “civilized.”

I don’t recall this level of visceral anger, either. I have lived long enough to recall previous presidential campaigns that were full of venom and vitriol. We had the campaigns of 1968 and 1972 overshadowed by the Vietnam War; the 1988 campaign featured the tearing down of one candidate because he wouldn’t mandate reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools; there was 2000 and the campaign that ended being decided by the Supreme Court.

All these campaigns, though, had something in common. The loser conceded to the winner. The losing candidate did so in 2016 when she lost to Donald Trump.

The difference this year? The incumbent who lost, Trump the cult leader, hasn’t conceded. Instead, he has stoked anger among the ardent followers of his losing effort by repeating The Big Lie about the election being “stolen” via “widespread voter fraud.” There was no widespread fraud. Or electoral theft.

And therein is the cause of the deep divide that has widened into a chasm. It seems unbridgeable, as seen in the story told about the rural Pennsylvania community highlighted in the Politico article.

It is a shame. The terrible divide between neighbors never would have widened had the loser of the 2020 election done what others before him have done. If only he could have summoned the grace and class to admit he lost and extended his hand to those who defeated him.

Yes, elections have consequences. So, too, do their responses.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Another ‘big lie’ surfaces

You might remember a fellow the U.S. media dubbed “Baghdad Bob,” the Iraqi disinformation minister who insisted the Iraqis were winning on the battlefield during 1991’s Operation Desert Storm even as we could witness in real time Iraqi armor being destroyed by our tanks and Iraqi soldiers surrendering by the thousands to our troops.

Vladimir Putin has ripped a page from ol’ Baghdad Bob’s book of lies by suggesting that Ukraine posed a legitimate threat to Russia, that Ukraine is being run by neo-Nazis who detest the Russians. Therein lies Putin’s supposed justification for launching an unprovoked war against Ukraine.

Just as Baghdad Bob was proven to be the fool, so will Vladimir Putin be revealed as the liar he is, as there is no Nazi involvement in Ukraine’s government. I shall remind you that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish and whose family members perished during the Nazi Holocaust in the 1940s.

So, for Vladimir Putin to suggest that Zelenskyy is a closet Nazi would be laughable on its face … except that people are dying in what has becoming the largest land war in Europe since World War II. No one should laugh at anything that comes from Vladimir Putin’s mouth.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

business news, environmental news, International news, local news, national news

Long-term solution needs attention

The immediate impact of the world’s current crisis in Ukraine has been profound and powerful with the skyrocketing cost of fossil fuels — the gasoline and diesel we pour into our motor vehicles to get us from place to place.

It is affecting our plans here in North Texas, forcing my wife and me to rethink our travel plans as we move through this challenging year.

With that I want to offer a brief look at how this nation ought to deal with the immediate crisis. We ought not worry ourselves sick over immediate solutions but look ahead farther down the proverbial road at longer-term fixes. I refer to “green energy.”

We still consume a lot of oil-based products we pump out of the ground. That energy source is finite. There’s only so much of it we can remove from beneath Earth’s surface. Once it’s gone, it’s gone … forever.

Texas, though, has taken the lead on renewable energy sources, along with continuing to be among the world’s leaders in producing fossil fuels. We are continuing to invest in wind energy and in solar energy.

As far as I can tell, that old wind is going to keep blowing until the end of time. Take it from me, as someone who spent 23 years on the West Texas Caprock, I am well-acquainted with the power of wind and the potential it brings to keep the lights on. Any kilowatt hour we can generate from a wind turbine takes away what we need to produce from fossil fuel.

The Russians keep talking about cutting off oil supplies to Europe and beyond. The United States still imports some oil from Russia. If the Russians make good on a threat to cut us off, too, then the price is going to skyrocket to even higher levels.

The climate-change deniers debunk green energy as the stuff of washed-up hippies. Baloney! It is a serious alternative to the way we fuel our current lifestyle. Is there a short-term repair to the damage we are feeling at this moment? Not really. If we look at the longer term, we can keep our eyes on the bigger prize, which is the harvesting of energy from endless sources.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Don’t weaponize ‘patriotism’

Patriot” is not a word that ever should be used as a campaign weapon, as a slogan, or as a cheap throwaway line to appeal to political fanatics. Same can be said for “patriotism.”

However, I am typing this brief blog post because I am infuriated at what has become of those two terms that I happen to take far more seriously than I do any politician’s desire to use them to his or her advantage.

You know who I am talking about, yes? If not, I’ll explain. I am talking about the far-right wingers out there, adherents to the cult created by The Donald. The promoters of The Big Lie. The morons who stormed the Capitol Building on 1/6 and beat police officers senseless while proclaiming themselves to be “patriots” loyal to an insurrection that sought to subvert American democracy.

I say all this as a proud American patriot. I believe I am the real thing, not some made-up figment of a cult leader’s delusional view of himself. I have been married to the same woman for 50 years. I pay my taxes regularly. I am a proud Army veteran who went to war for my country. I choke up at the sound of marching bands playing the National Anthem.

I also abhor the notion that The Donald’s cabal of fruitcakes, kooks and nut jobs can pretend to be patriots and usurp the true meaning of the term for their own perverted world view.

Far-right candidates for public office throw the terms “patriot” and “patriotism” around like any cheap political slogan or jingle. Let me be crystal clear: It pisses me off! Royally!

So … one’s proclamation of their “love of country” is nothing on which they should base a cheap slogan. In the current political climate, I am quite certain any politician who proclaims their patriotism in an effort to win my vote is more than likely going to lose it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news, military news

Warmongers beware!

Our world is full of too many warmongers who either have no appreciation of the brutality of war’s insanity or who — to put it bluntly — just don’t a crap about any of it.

Count me as one who (a) does appreciate the brutality of war and (b) gives a serious crap about its consequences.

Russian troops and tanks are battling with Ukrainian troops and tanks over who should run Ukraine, an independent nation that borders Russia and much of the rest of eastern Europe. I am baffled to the max over criticism from the far right over President Biden’s response to the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine.

For my money — and this is just me speaking — I believe the president has reacted appropriately. And yet there are those who say we should “do more” to defend Ukraine. That would be what, precisely? Send in the jet fighters? Join in defending a no-fly zone over much of Ukraine, which I should add is an act of war all by itself? Send in the thousands of troops we have deployed to Poland to fight the Russians hand to hand?

The array of economic sanctions this country has imposed on Russia will deliver serious pain to the strongman Vladimir Putin and his oligarch pals and allies. We have essentially choked off Russia from the rest of the Free World’s banking system. Joe Biden has declared there will be no Russian aircraft allowed in U.S. airspace. Our allies in western Europe have shut off the fossil fuel pipeline from Russia; yes, we already are paying the price for that with increasing energy prices.

The Russians have a lot of very deadly weapons in stock. We do, too. We aren’t going to use them on the Russians, nor will they use them on us. The “mutually assured destruction” policy has been dredged up and returned to the top shelf, as it would be pure MADness to start hurling nukes at each other.

The warmongers out there need to take a breather and let these economic sanctions play out. They’re already bringing plenty of pain to Putin and his cabal of thugs.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Trying to figure Putin out

(AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

It’s a challenge in the extreme to put oneself into Vladimir Putin’s skull or into what passes for the Russian dictator’s heart. I have sought to inject myself into both places, but I cannot find my way into or out of either of them.

So … I am left only to wonder what goes through his noggin or that thing he calls a heart.

Putin is now a worldwide pariah. At least in most of the world. He’s got his friends in China, Belarus, Syria, Iran and North Korea. The remainder of Earth’s civilized world is aghast, appalled and astonished at the invasion he launched against Ukraine.

The madman is bombing cities and inflicting deliberate harm to civilians. When was the last time that happened in open warfare? World War II? The Germans and Japanese started that fight, but the rest of the world finished it. I concede openly that our side brought terrible suffering to civilians, too. And, yes, terrorist organizations around the world have done the same thing in the decades since the end of WWII.

The flashback has returned in real time in Ukraine.

What does someone such as Putin think when he reads that his standing among world leaders has sunk to such depths? Does it bother him? Does it inject in him any sense of reason, or any sort of shame that he has done this to innocent victims while bringing shame to himself and his country?

I suppose it’s becoming clear that Putin wants to swallow up Ukraine. French President Emanuel Macron reportedly has said that is Putin’s precise goal, to conquer the whole country and bring it back into the Russian fold or, at the very least, install a puppet government in Kyiv to do his bidding.

The rest of us are left to offer prayers for Ukrainians and their leaders while also sending intensely bad karma to Putin and his thugs.

That’s all I — as an old man sitting far away in my comfortable home — can offer.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Walls close in on The Donald

Just in case The Donald suffers from claustrophobia, well … he’d better learn to deal with it as them ol’ walls are closing in on him with revelations that the House select committee looking into the 1/6 insurrection has found ample evidence of criminal wrongdoing on the part of the 45th POTUS.

The panel has introduced evidence that suggest strongly that The Donald engaged in a criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.

The evidence appears to be the product of emails from Trump lawyer John Eastman, who orchestrated a grand plan for The Donald to coerce other officials to flip the results of a legal election.

According to CBS.com: The filing also describes how Eastman advised Trump to “press an unconstitutional plan” and sought to persuade Vice President Pence and his advisers to go along with the effort. And the committee revealed how, as the January 6 attack at the Capitol was underway, Eastman and Pence’s lawyer traded blame over the violence. In one email, Pence’s lawyer Greg Jacob wrote, “thanks to your bull***t we are now under siege.” Eastman responded, “The ‘siege’ is because YOU and your boss did not do what was necessary to allow this to be aired in a public way so that the American people can see for themselves what happened.”

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-criminal-conspiracy-house-january-6-committee/

The walls are getting mighty close to choking off The Donald. Oh, how I want to see this crook carted off. Whether it occurs, of course, remains to be realized.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

political news, State news

Texas turnout: a stinker

Here is how the Texas Tribune led a story about the voter turnout in this week’s midterm primary election: Around 17% of registered voters in Texas cast a ballot in the 2022 primary, according to preliminary turnout data from the secretary of state. 

The Tribune noted also that the turnout this year was greater than the six previous midterm elections. However, I now will throw a huge dose of cold water on it.

The “registered voters” barometer is a ruse. When you factor in the number of Texans who are “eligible” to vote, but who don’t even bother to register, then the turnout nosedives into the crapper.

This is a shameful exhibition of apathy that spells potential disaster for the state of governance in Texas.

Texas, tragically, is among the lowest-turnout states in the entire U.S. of A. Seventeen percent of registered voters sought fit to cast their ballots, either early or on Election Day, to choose who their party’s nominees would be for a host of important public offices.

That is fewer than one in five Texans. The percentage plunges even more when you measure the turnout of eligible voters.

So very sad.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Commentary on politics, current events and life experience