national news

Biden nails the SOTU

I will not apologize to anyone about my partisan leaning; I merely will acknowledge what should be clear to anyone who reads this blog, which is that I support President Joe Biden’s agenda as he seeks to bring the nation back from the mess he inherited when he took office in January 2021.

Tonight, Joe Biden declared after ticking off a number of bipartisan agenda items that should receive universal support from Congress, that the “state of our Union is strong” because of Americans who stood against the ravages of deadly illness and are standing tall against the desires of a desperate foreign despot.

President Biden isn’t known as a sparkling orator, but tonight — in my view — he might have reset the office he occupies.

He appealed to Republicans sitting in front of him when he hailed the Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invaders; when he spoke to assuring better help from our government to American veterans; when he declared that our lives will no longer be dictated by our response to a pandemic.

He laid all of this out in an hour-long State of the Union speech and then delivered what I expected would be the punch line, that our Union is “strong.” It remains strong despite our challenges, despite the crises we are battling.

I was delighted that he spoke to our better angels and chose to steer clear of the political divisions of which we all are familiar. No mention of the 1/6 insurrection, no mention of The Big Lie. If I were a GOP congressional leader, I would congratulate and thank the president for staying on the high road. But … that’s just me.

To be clear, it needs to be said that GOP politicians sat on their hands when the president spoke about tax policy, about infrastructure improvement. I guess you can’t win ’em over on everything.

Still, my support for President Biden is stronger than ever tonight after watching him take command of the world stage and deliver in the most forceful language possible a clear warning to the Russian aggressors that they will pay dearly for their act of violence in Europe.

Accordingly, I concur with the president that the “State of our Union is strong.”

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Sports news

MLB needs to settle … now!

Major League Baseball, with its standing as America’s Pastime already in jeopardy, is about to possibly do irreparable damage to a game that many of us still love to watch.

I say that understanding that I have stated already that my love affair with the Grand Old Game isn’t what it used to be.

MLB has canceled opening day. The first series of games set for the end of March has been canceled. The players and the league owners are locked in negotiations. The team owners have locked the players out. The players are demanding more money — even though they say it’s “not about the money.” Spoiler alert: When they say it’s not about the money … it’s about the money!

Remember when a player strike canceled the 1994 World Series? I thought at the time that MLB had inflicted a moral wound on itself. I was wrong, which is no surprise, given that I am wrong far more often than I am right.

Still, I don’t feel good about the future of Major League Baseball if the two sides don’t reach an agreement quickly and get this preparation period for the upcoming season under way.

While we’re at it, we baseball fans need a long-term solution that lasts, say … forever!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

 

State news

Ceding power to the few

Good job, Texas voters — or should I say “non-voters.” You appear headed to a new level of apathy, laced with ignorance.

The word we’re getting is that Primary Election Day 2022 is going to conclude after 7 p.m. with a single-digit turnout among Texas Republicans and Democrats. You know what that means, I am sure. I’ll remind those who need reminding what it means to me.

It means that rather than taking these important decisions seriously and taking care of issues by ourselves, many of us are going to leave those decisions to those they don’t know. Those who might harbor vastly different political philosophies than you do.

I long have said that good government works best when more of us take part in nominating and electing those who we deem fit to represent our interests in government. It works less well when we leave those decisions up to others.

To borrow a phrase from the Marine Corps, those of us who vote in these elections are “the few and the proud.” That’s fine if you are recruiting men and women to fight our battles; it’s not fine if we leave these decisions to someone else.

This is Round One of the 2022 election season. The Main Event will occur in November. That won’t produce any great shakes, either.

Abysmal, man. Just abysmal.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Putin does the impossible

Vladimir Putin has performed what should be considered an impossible task. The Russian dictator has managed to unite virtually the entire world against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Get a load of this: Switzerland and Sweden, two of Europe’s most adamantly neutral nations, have lined up solidly in the Ukraine camp. Switzerland has imposed a virtual ban on all Russian banking activity; Sweden has decided to send military equipment to assist the Ukrainians in their fight against the Russian aggressors.

Nations have banned Russian aircraft from flying into their air terminals. Embassies have been shuttered. The ruble is now worthless because virtually no country on Earth wants to do business with the Russians.

Get a load of this: Millions of people have marched in streets around the world, including — and this is fantastic! — in Moscow. Even the Russians are calling for an end to the invasion.

Vladimir Putin is now seen across the good Earth as a pariah. Russia’s third-rate economy is being dismantled daily. He is not without his allies, in China, in Belarus and, oh yes, even a former U.S. president.

Putin, though, has shown the world how to unite people of widely disparate religious and political views. They are united against the hideous military action that Putin has launched against a sovereign nation, which by the way has put up a ferocious resistance against the invaders.

This is an international reaction I cannot remember ever witnessing unfold in real time.

It is a sight to behold.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Keep talking

on the border with Belarus. Talks between the warring nations concluded and the negotiators retired to their respective headquarters.

That’s the bad news. The good news? They are going to keep talking to each other.

Meanwhile, the Russian invasion of Ukraine isn’t going as well as Russian dictator Vladimir Putin had hoped. I keep hearing he hasn’t yet deployed the full force of the military arsenal lined up against Ukrainians. Still, for the Russians to think they could walk into Ukraine without getting a serious resistance is foolish in the extreme.

I will hold out hope that as long as the warring nations are talking that there will be a chance they can find a way to stop the shooting, the bombing and the killing. I figure the longer the fighting goes without the Russians being able to march into the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, the better the chance for a deal to talk their way into something approaching a solution.

Now, if only someone could explain to me why the Russians decided to invade in the first place.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

This isn’t child abuse, Gov. Abbott

When I think of the term “child abuse,” I think of someone delivering physical harm to a child, or tormenting them emotionally, or hurling epithets in an effort to denigrate them.

Getting medical care for a transgender child, one who wants to change their gender identity? No. Not … even … close.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has been accused by the right-wing nut jobs running against him in this year’s Republican Party primary of not being “conservative enough,” has declared his intention to label the transgender matter I just described as “child abuse.”

That is a gigantic step toward reprehensible governance by someone who has disappointed me greatly ever since he became governor in 2015. My disappointment has now become disgust.

The Texas Tribune reports:

Shelly Skeen, a senior attorney with Lambda Legal, said it’s highly unlikely that a judge would justify child abuse charges or removal of a child based solely on the use of gender-affirming therapy.

“Texas law has a very clear definition of what child abuse is, and it’s not this,” Skeen said.

… Child abuse investigations based on gender-affirming care are almost unheard of in Texas. Officials at the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services say that there have been three reports last week “meeting the description in the AG opinion and Governor’s directive” but offered no other details. No investigations have been launched, officials said.

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/02/28/texas-transgender-child-abuse/

Greg Abbott has lost his marbles if he thinks he can obtain a successful prosecution on gender-affirming care by calling it a case of “child abuse.”

We are heading down the slipperiest of slopes with this kind of nutty proclamation coming from the Texas governor’s office.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

entertainment news, media news

Sen. Cotton wimps out

Tom Cotton this morning revealed himself to be what many of us have known for a long time. The U.S. senator from Arkansas is a wimp, a weenie and, dare I say it … a coward.

The Republican appeared this morning on ABC News “This Week” program. He was grilled by George Stephanopoulos, who asked Cotton three or four times a simple, straightforward question about the “leader of your party,” Donald John Trump.

Why can’t Cotton condemn the GOP “leader” for calling Vladimir Putin “savvy” and a “genius” for invading Ukraine and putting virtually all of Europe in potentially dire peril.

Cotton would answer the question. He kept telling Stephanopoulos that he should invited The Donald to appear on his show, presumably to let him answer the question himself as to why he keeps cozying up to his pal Vladimir Putin.

It was a remarkable demonstration of cowardly evasion from a U.S. senator who gets paid to talk to media representatives and to convey messages to those he represents on Capitol Hill.

Sen. Cotton didn’t go there. He choked.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

Will they be ‘respectful’?

US. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz will have plenty of explaining to do if they follow their partisan instincts and vote against the historic nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to join the U.S. Supreme Court.

These two are Texas’s senators on Capitol Hill. They both opposed Judge Jackson’s previous appointment to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. They both pledge to give President Biden’s pick for the high court respect, while ensuring a vigorous vetting of her credentials to become the sixth woman and the first Black woman ever to join to the nation’s highest court.

President Biden promised to find a jurist with unassailable legal credentials. By most accounts, he hit a home run with Judge Jackson’s nomination. He also promised to select a Black woman if he got the chance to nominate someone to the court; he got that chance when Justice Stephen Breyer announced he would retire this summer at the end of the court’s term.

If senators are going to judge a nominee on her credentials, on her legal scholarship, on her temperament then Judge Jackson should sail through. That won’t be senators’ measuring stick. They’re going to look for reasons to oppose someone — if we’re truthful — simply because she was selected by a president of the opposing party.

“Ultimately, I will be looking to see whether Judge Jackson will uphold the rule of law and call balls and strikes, or if she will legislate from the bench in pursuit of a specific agenda,” Cornyn said. Well … isn’t that special? The senior U.S. senator from Texas, I presume, would have us believe that judges selected by Republican presidents have no “specific agenda.”

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/02/25/ted-cruz-john-cornyn-ketanji-brown-jackson/

I guess I need to remind the senator of what Donald Trump promised when he selected Justice Amy Coney Barrett to join the court after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in 2020. Trump promised to select someone who would overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that legalized abortion. Isn’t that finding a jurist with a specific agenda? Yes! It most certainly is such a thing!

I also should add that Donald Trump insisted on justices who would “legislate from the bench.” Are you paying attention, Sen. Cruz?

Judge Jackson is a first-rate nominee to join the Supreme Court. Sens. Cornyn and Cruz must be held to their pledges to give her a respectful confirmation hearing.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Better to ‘jaw, jaw, jaw’

The great Winston Churchill once said that “it is better to jaw, jaw, jaw than to war, war, war.”

So it is that Ukrainian officials have agreed to meet with Russian officials in the midst of a “war, war, war.”

The sides are going to negotiate on the Belarus border. What will they say? Who knows?

I do know that I believe in the wisdom espoused by the great British prime minister who knew a thing or two about war, having led his country’s government through the bloodiest conflict in human history.

Let us all hope, and perhaps offer prayers a-plenty, to those who are talking while the Russians continue their assault on Ukraine. May it bear fruit.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, political news

Taylor a RINO? Wow!

Van Taylor needs some help from an unexpected source. That would be little ol’ me, your friendly good-government progressive blogger.

You see, the two-term Republican U.S. House representative is getting pounded by a Trumpkin cabal of idiots who consider Taylor to be a Republican In Name Only. Good grief! The young man is as Republican as they get. He won’t collect my vote on Tuesday when we get to cast our ballots in the Texas primary.

Taylor, though, will get this word in his defense as a Republican who is far from what the RINO hunters contend he is.

They castigate him for voting in favor of an independent commission to examine the 1/6 insurrection. That’s a no-no in the half-baked minds of the Donald Trump acolytes. The independent commission idea died a quick death in the Senate. Taylor then voted against creating a House select committee. Why? Because he said the select panel would be too political. That’s crap, of course. However, that first vote is like an indelible stain on the congressman.

The ultra-right-wing group calls itself RINO Reckoning. It is based out of Ohio. It has searched for so-called RINOs around the country and has found Taylor to be a prime target. He has drawn some far-right foes in the GOP primary, such as former three-term Collin County judge Keith Self, who alleges there is ample evidence of “widespread voter fraud” in the 2020 presidential election.

What utter bullsh**! Self is revealing his idiocy with every statement he makes about The Big Lie.

Van Taylor’s candidacy has put me in an admittedly awkward spot. I dislike his view of conservatism. However, I truly hate the message being put forward by those on the far-right wing of his party. They comprise a dangerous gang of traitors.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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