Tag Archives: Joe Biden

International news

Greene rips ‘victory lap’?

Marjorie Taylor Greene just cannot stomach the thought of President Biden taking credit for a mission he ordered that killed the leader of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

She said it is “absurd” that Biden would take a “victory lap” to announce the killer’s death from a drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Oh … my.

Marjorie Taylor Greene Rips Biden’s ‘Victory Lap’ in al-Zawahiri Killing (msn.com)

What do we think about the QAnon queen of the House — a rookie legislator at that! — spouting off about the president? I don’t think much of anything, other than to spend a minute or two to suggest on this blog that Rep. Greene, a Georgia Republican, is, um, out of her fu**ing mind!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Pelosi riles PRC needlessly

Nancy Pelosi generally has my support in her role as speaker of the House of Representatives and the person who is third in line to the presidency.

However, the California Democrat has stepped in some serious diplomatic dookey by visiting Taiwan during her multi-stop tour of Asia.

Why did the speaker choose to rile the People’s Republic of China by becoming the first speaker to visit Taiwan in a quarter-century? To what end? For what purpose?

Pelosi knows about the “one-China policy” this country has followed since it bestowed diplomatic relations on the PRC back in the late 1970s. When it did that, the United States cut off Taiwan, which prior to that period had been recognized as “China” by this country.

The PRC calls Taiwan a “renegade province” that it intends to return to the fold … one way or another.

I have been to Taiwan five times dating back to 1989. I am going to tell you that it is a vibrant, robust, militarily stout nation. However, it occupies arguably the most complicated diplomatic place on Earth. It has little diplomatic link with the rest of the world, which also operates under the one-China policy.

So, for Speaker Pelosi to in effect bestow some sort of blessing on Taiwan and anger the PRC in the process doesn’t make much sense.

The White House opposed her stopping in Taiwan. However, in our government system, the White House can object all it wants; there’s nothing it can do to stop the leader of a co-equal government branch from visiting the nation if she desires.

From where I sit, Pelosi could have accomplished what she intended to do — which was to affirm our nation’s economic and military support — over the telephone in a private conversation.

Instead, she chose to make a spectacle of herself and likely angered the president of the United States.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

U.S. takes out major terrorist

Ayman al-Zawahiri never obtained the same high-profile notoriety as his international terrorist predecessor, Osama bin Laden.

However, as of today, the two terrorists share an important trait. They both are dead! Al-Zawahiri is just as dead as bin Laden.

The news today marks a significant victory for U.S. intelligence officials who located al-Zawahiri in Afghanistan and then launched a drone strike to take the bad guy out.

I want to make an important point that, yes, is going to remind readers of this blog about a pledge that President Biden made a year ago when he announced the sudden withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

He told us that the United States would not relent in its hunt for international terrorists, even as we removed our troops from the battlefield in Afghanistan.

Ayman al-Zawahiri happened to be bin Laden’s successor as the leader of al-Qaeda, the monstrous terrorist organization that carried out the 9/11 attack on our nation and dragged us into a global war against those who would seek to do us harm.

President Barack Obama ordered the SEAL team strike that killed bin Laden in May 2011. It was a huge moment of victory for this nation’s war on terror. Many of us cautioned, though, in real time that someone would emerge to take bin Laden’s place.

That someone proved to be al-Zawahiri.

Now a new president, Joe Biden, gave the OK to launch a drone aircraft into Afghanistan, where it killed al-Zawahiri.

Does this mean the end of al-Qaeda? Hardly. We can expect another hideous animal to take the reins of the terror network.

All of this also illustrates what many of us have said since the immediate aftermath of 9/11, which is that we are likely entering an endless conflict against the forces of evil.

As Politico reports:

“The strike that killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri is a major success of U.S. counter-terrorism efforts. A result of countless hours of intelligence collection over many years,” said Mick Mulroy, a former Pentagon official and retired CIA paramilitary operations officer. “The message for all al-Qaeda and its affiliates should be that the U.S. will never relent in its mission to hold those accountable who would seek to harm the United States and its people.“

I’m all in.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

economic news

Don’t redefine recession

Here’s a bit of unsolicited advice for President Biden’s team of advisers and economic gurus.

Do not seek to redefine what constitutes an economic recession.

The feds this past week reported that the nation’s Gross Domestic Product fell for the second consecutive quarter. Isn’t that metric usually what economists call a recession?

We now hear Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen say that it’s not necessarily preordained that we’re in a recession. President Biden won’t acknowledge the inevitable, either.

In truth, any declaration on the health of the economy is supposed to come from an independent, bipartisan group of economists. That group will meet very soon to issue its proclamation.

I realize that Joe Biden wants the economy to keep humming along. We’re going to get a Labor Department jobs report at the end of the week. Those numbers will tell us a good bit more about whether we’re in a recession … which I believe is the case.

And that will be the case no matter how the administration might seek to spin it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

environmental news

Small, but weighty difference

I want to mention a small but significant point I have sought to make since the moment I learned that Joe Biden had been elected president of the United States.

Given the context of the mood set by his immediate predecessor, I believe it’s important.

President Biden this past week issued a disaster declaration for the residents of Kentucky who’ve been ravaged by rampaging floodwaters. The deluge has killed at least 26 Kentuckians. The president was quick to unleash federal assistance to help the beleaguered state cope with mounting misery.

In 2019, wildfires torched many thousands of acres of timberland in California. What was Donald Trump’s response in the moment? It was to scold California forestry officials for “poor management policies” relating to the forests.

Biden offered the disaster declaration for a state he lost big-time to Trump in the 2020 election. Trump decided to single out California, which he lost in 2016 to Hillary Clinton, for alleged mismanagement.

Do you get the picture?

Joe Biden understands that when disaster strikes the nation should rally behind its citizens. Donald Trump sought in the moment to use a similar opportunity to stick his finger in the eye of his political foes.

Therein lies one of the many reasons I am glad that Joe Biden is the president of the United States.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Way to go, Mitch

Let’s just call him Mitch the Obstructor, the guy who never — not ever! — seems to back a Democratically inspired notion that well could produce astonishing results for the nation.

But there’s Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell saying that a Democratic deal hammered out by maverick Democrat Joe Manchin and Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer is a job killer. It’s a “socialist” program. It’s just going to sink the nation faster than that iceberg did to the Titanic.

He cannot back it under any circumstance.

It’s a $430 billion bill that would produce cleaner air, would reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, would be paid for with modest tax increases on the richest Americans. Yet to hear McConnell bellow about his opposition, it’s the worst thing to come down the pike since President Nixon’s wage and price controls of the 1970s. Oh, wait, Nixon was a Republican, so I guess that made it OK.

Manchin has performed a fairly stunning reversal on this matter. He recently declared his opposition to President Biden’s Build Back Better idea, which everyone at the time thought doomed the notion for good.

Now he comes around. Again! I cannot keep up with the West Virginian who seems to enjoy the role of senator with outsized influence.

He and Schumer and the POTUS, though, now must deal with Mitch the Obstructor. I am hoping they can put Mitch in his place … presumably under something from he cannot re-emerge.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Joe Biden, national news

Storm clouds brewing over Biden

“I’m working on my own election. And that’s all I’m focused on right now.
 
We have got a little under four months here in Ohio, and we’re running a great campaign. We’re up in the polls and working really hard. So, I’m just going to focus on that, and then we can chat about that after I win and get in the United States Senate. I will be happy to comment.”

The above comment came from a candidate for the U.S. Senate, a Democrat and a longtime friend and political ally of President Biden.

And yet … Rep. Tim Ryan just couldn’t bring himself to say he supports the president’s re-election effort, which Biden has insisted is going to ramp up and that he is going ahead full throttle at seeking a second term.

Hmm. I don’t know about you, but the question from a Fox News anchor seemed straightforward enough. “Do you intend to support the president’s bid for a second term?”

There was nothing in the question, as I understood it, that required Ryan to go into detail about the level of support he would give to the president. Nor did it require him to offer specific strategies and tactics he intends to employ on the president’s behalf.

Will he support Joe Biden? Yes or no, congressman.

This tells me something I hate acknowledging, which is that Joe Biden’s support even among his closest allies may be evaporating. I won’t suggest for a moment that the president needs to surrender or declare he won’t seek a second term.

I am willing to acknowledge, though, that the road to another four years in the Oval Office is fraught with peril.

It is time to get busy, Mr. President.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Be careful, Democrats

“It’s not illegal but it sure is stupid. Be careful what you wish for. You may select somebody who actually wins and then you hurt the country as well as your own party.”

Who said that? None other than U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican and one of the few GOP senators to (a) declare that Donald Trump is a “phony” and a “fraud” and (b) congratulate Joe Biden on his election as president in 2020.

Here we are, two years later, and the chatter is all over the place about Democrats reportedly boosting Trumpkin candidates’ chances for nomination in their respective state primaries. Why? Because they suspect that general-election voters will reject them.

Not … necessarily, as Mitt is warning Democrats.

Mitt Romney says Democratic efforts to boost Trump-allied GOP election deniers is a ‘stupid’ approach: ‘Be careful what you wish for’ (msn.com)

I can recall similar stories of electoral tomfoolery occurring in 1980 when Republicans were deciding whether to nominate a far-right former California governor for president. Democrats crossed over to vote for Ronald Reagan in GOP primaries, believing he would be the weakest candidate to run against Democratic President Jimmy Carter.

It, um, didn’t work out.

Reagan won the presidency in a historic landslide in November 1980.

I don’t know how one should stop the MAGA crowd/Trump cultist/far-right-wing nut cases. It seems the more negativity that comes out against their guru — the former president — the more energized they become.

These individuals are nuttier than a Snickers Bar.

I believe primary voters in these remaining states should take Mitt Romney’s advice to heart. Texans no longer should worry about that counsel, as our primary is over and, yep, Republicans here nominated their share of Trump Cult kooks.

We long ago entered a sort of electoral twilight zone with the entry of Donald J. Trump into the world of politics.

I believe Democrats should take Sen. Romney’s advice seriously.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

business news

Is this Biden’s ‘Benghazi’?

Hunter Biden’s business activity and the controversy that’s being hyped up about it is beginning to remind me more than just a little bit of … Benghazi!

You remember Benghazi. Terrorists stormed the U.S. consulate in the Libyan city in late 2012. Four people — including the U.S. ambassador to Libya — died in the attack. Republicans blamed Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of state during the attack.

Clinton sat before a congressional committee for 11 hours. Republicans on the panel sought to find something — anything — with which to accuse her. They grilled her incessantly.

They found nothing.

So now we have the son of President Biden on the griddle. The GOP insists that Hunter Biden’s laptop contains material that could send the president’s son to prison. They keep yapping about an investigation “when we take back the House.” What, I want to know, do they plan to investigate?

What did he do? Biden accepted high-paying jobs that he got because he is the son of a former U.S. senator, former vice president and current president. He is making a lot of dough working for these companies, even though he has no practical experience in the energy business, which is relevant to at least one of the companies that hired him.

What Is Hunter Biden Being Investigated For? Details of Federal Probe (msn.com)

Is it a crime for the child of a famous person to accept a cushy, well-paying job? Hah! It’s been done many times before and will be done far into the future.

The GOP is trying to hang tax charges on Hunter Biden, contending he didn’t pay his share of taxes.

This business about Hunter Biden has been kicking around for a while. During the 2020 campaign, GOP operatives sought to make Biden’s business dealings a campaign issue to use against his dad. Hunter Biden had taken a job with a Ukrainian energy company, for example, prompting Republicans to wonder aloud about the propriety of the hire. However, a Ukrainian prosecutor declared out loud that neither Biden — not Joe nor Hunter — did anything illegal.

End of story? Hardly!

My sense is that this matter will produce as much credible criminal wrongdoing as the Benghazi tragedy did against Hillary Clinton.

We will have, to borrow a term, a nothing burger.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

environmental news

Biden to use his power

President Biden has made a vow that many of us will seek to ensure he keeps it.

He pledges to use all the executive authority contained in his high office to wage war against climate change, which he labels — quite correctly — as an “existential threat” to the nation’s security.

Biden cannot depend on Congress to enact legislation. Sen. Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat who seems to take pleasure in torpedoing Biden’s agenda, signaled yet again he won’t back any legislative answers to climate change.

That means, according to Biden, that he will use the power of his office to take whatever measures he can legally take.

Let’s understand that only one person is elected on a national scale: the president of the United States. The Constitution does distribute power to the legislative and judicial branches of government. Individual senators, House members or judges, though, do not have the authority bestowed on the individual who is elected by the entire nation.

Thus, President Biden is spot on in his effort to deploy the power of his office to do what Congress is unable — and unwilling — to do.

That is to declare war on climate change. Many of us are keeping our eyes open to ensure he follows through.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com