Tag Archives: pandemic

national news

Are we better off? Umm, no!

1 Comment

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Ronald Reagan once asked famously during a 1980 presidential debate with President Carter whether the nation was “better off than we were four years ago.”

The question seared the audience that heard him ask it. Voters responded on Election Day 1980 with a stunning verdict: The answer was “no,” and they delivered a landslide victory to Reagan.

Rahm Emanuel, a former Chicago mayor and an acknowledged Democratic partisan, asked  that question today in terms of Donald Trump’s tenure as president. The answer, according to Emanuel, is an equally resounding “no.”

Therein lies the reason why Trump lost his bid for a second term, just as President Carter lost his own second-term run 40 years ago. The nation is fundamentally worse off today than we were when Trump took office.

Trump has presided over a horrendous coarsening of our national debate; he has inflicted heavy damage on our international alliances; Trump has governed by chaos and tossed continuity into the crapper; the POTUS has made full-throated lying an acceptable form of communication … and we have the pandemic.

I will not blame Trump for the virus that has killed more than 300,000 Americans. I do blame him fully for the shabby, shoddy and shameful response he has orchestrated. He lied to us about its severity from the get-go; he has contradicted the advice of his medical experts; Trump has put Americans at grave risk of death as a result.

The pandemic is an existential threat to our national security and Donald Trump has failed to remain faithful to the oath he took when he became president.

Have there been successes along the way? Sure. Israel’s relationships in the Middle East with neighboring Arab nations gives us hope for a more lasting peace in that region; prior to the pandemic’s arrival a year ago, our economy was experiencing significant growth. I will not short-sell those positive outcomes.

The pandemic and all the other failures, though, have left us worse off today than we were when Donald Trump took office and delivered an inaugural address that produced precisely one memorable moment: that “the American carnage” would come to an immediate end. Well, guess what. It hasn’t ended.

President-elect Biden has a monumental task awaiting him when he takes office in 31 days. Just as Americans spoke decisively 40 years when we elected President Reagan — who posed what has become the threshold question for all politicians — we have spoken yet again in electing President Biden.

national news

Anxious to bid farewell to miserable year

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

If we’re honest with ourselves and our deepest feelings, we are going to admit that the year that is about to pass into history cannot exit soon enough.

By almost any measure, 2020 has been the uber-pits. It has sucked out loud. We have endured more misery, heartache, grief than in any 12-month period since, oh, possibly forever.

OK, I get that history tells us a different story. The years of the Civil War were hideous in the extreme. World Wars I and II brought a lot of tears to families of service personnel who died in the struggle against tyranny. The Great Depression that occurred between those conflicts created plenty of grief as well. Let us not forget 1968 with its political assassinations and the anger over an unpopular war that spilled into our streets.

This one, though, has so damn few redeeming qualities … except for one, which I will touch on in a moment.

The pandemic has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans and millions around the world. Our national government has failed to protect us against the killer virus and we all hold the person at the top of that chain of command ultimately responsible for the failings.

Our daily routines have been upended. Our children have watched their parents struggle with disease. Yes, the measuring stick we use to gauge the quality of the year we are about to usher out the door is full of too much negativity.

There is hope on the horizon. The vaccines that drug companies have perfected are being fast-tracked onto the market. Two of them have received federal emergency authorization and are being injected into Americans’ arms as I type these words. We mustn’t let our guard down. It will take time for the medicine to kick the crap out of the virus.

And we did elect a new president of the United States in 2020. I am grateful for that outcome. If only that act of democratic wisdom, though, could erase the suffering that preceded it. Sadly, it doesn’t — at least in my view.

I am going to say so long and good riddance to the old year. May we never see its like again.

national security

POTUS has gone AWOL

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Can there possibly be a more glaring, graphic and grotesque example of a president who has gone AWOL than what we are witnessing at this moment of dire peril?

Never mind (for just a moment) that the nation is suffering grievously from a pandemic that has killed more than 300,000 of our citizens. The pandemic is dire enough of a threat. Yet the president ignores it.

Russia has just conducted what is believed to be the largest national security breach in our history and Donald Trump — the current president of the United States — is silent. He hasn’t said a word publicly to or about his pal, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. The Russians are now believed to hacked into our national security network in a sophisticated full assault on our cyber system.

What has Trump said or done about it? Not a damn thing!

Hell no! Instead, Trump continues to rant and rail about election “corruption” that simply does not exist. He continues to insist that President-elect Joe Biden’s victory is illegitimate because of “widespread” voter fraud. Courts all over the land have dismissed Trump’s phony allegation out of hand.

Meanwhile, real threats have emerged that have placed the nation in dire peril. Trump’s response has been to, uh, not respond at all!

I’m going to say it one more time with extreme malice: Donald Trump is a menace to the nation he has governed for the past four years. Thank goodness — oh yes! — that Trump’s time in power is coming to an end.

medical news

Impossible to dismiss good news in time of peril

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It is virtually impossible for me to hold back the joy I feel as I watch news reports from around this great nation of individuals receiving shots in their arm.

We are subjected daily — even hourly — to reports of death and misery from the COVID-19 virus. It has killed more than 300,000 Americans. Many more will die. It has infected more than 17 million of us. Millions more infections are on their way, too.

And yet … we watch news reports, read about them in the newspaper (yes, we still read newspapers in our home) about millions of doses of vaccine being distributed. There is hope. There is a glimmer of optimism. However, the doctors in charge of this good news tell us to hold off on popping the champagne corks. We’re going to endure a lot more suffering before we can “turn the corner,” or recognize the “light at the end of the tunnel” as the end of this pandemic.

The good news is tempered by the heartache we are enduring. It also is tamped down a bit by the hideous non-response of the current president of the United States, who remains fixated on his re-election loss and the bogus claims of fraud, illegal voting, a “rigged election” … or whatever the hell pops into his vacuous skull.

Donald Trump is almost out of there.

In the meantime, I intend to watch the news with a mixed set of emotion. I want to relish the good news and I will do so in the moments I see those reports flash in front of me. Still, we all must be realistic about what we know also is occurring. For all the good news we watch as nurses, doctors, police, firefighters and essential government leaders get immunized against the killer, we must hold dear our feeling of empathy and compassion for the loss that continues to occur around the world.

These are trying times for the human spirit. The optimist that lives within me will grasp the good news as it arrives and pray for the moment that our joy will bury our sadness.

national news

Get the vaccine, Mr. POTUS!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump says he will receive a vaccination shot to protect him against COVID-19 at the “appropriate time.”

Well, if I might make this suggestion: Right now is the time, Mr. President.

Trump is on his way out of office. However, he remains the one president in charge of our nation’s executive branch of government. That means, as near as I can tell, he is an essential government official. He occupies a position of maximum need.

Vice President Mike Pence is going to get his vaccine on Friday. President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris are getting their vaccines very soon. Dr. Anthony Fauci, our nation’s top infectious disease expert, is urging the president and the president-elect to get vaccinated ASAP.

Listen to the doc — for once! — Mr. President. Now is the time!

medical news

‘Hoax’ crowd tests my compassion

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Try as I do to maintain my sense of compassion and empathy for those who become stricken by a killer virus, there are those on the fringes of our political spectrum to test it to the extreme.

For example …

I have seen a congressman-elect declare that the COVID-19 pandemic is a hoax. He called it a “phony pandemic.” He was without a mask while bellowing the BS in front of a rally crowd. Rep.-elect Bob Good spoke to a pro-Donald Trump rally and declared the pandemic that has killed nearly 300,000 Americans and sickened millions of others isn’t real. It’s a phony sickness.

Just as egregious is that the crowd cheered this dipsh**’s rant.

Oh, my.

I have resisted the temptation to cheer when some folks become stricken by the virus. I won’t say here and now that I want Bob Good to become sick. I told readers of this blog that I wished Donald and Melania Trump a quick and full recovery when they tested positive for the virus; I wish the same for others within Trump’s inner circle.

However, when nimrods like Rep.-elect Good yammer the trash he did this weekend, they test my fairly deep reservoir of good will that enables me to wish political foes good health.

We have been listening for months on end the gut- and heart-wrenching stories of nurses and doctors who watch their patients die alone. Their grief is as visceral as it gets. Many of them are leaving the profession they love. Why? Because they no longer can cope with the heartbreak they suffer multiple times each day.

Then we hear from the likes of a congressman-elect who calls all this suffering a “phony” issue. I am left to deal initially with my rage at what they say. Then I must ask: How can anyone possibly take those who are elected to represent the public interest seriously when they utter such absolute nonsense?

Despicable.

local news

Lights bring smiles

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Farmersville (Texas) Mayor Bryon Wiebold had this notion that one way to bring smiles to the faces of community residents who have endured one of the most miserable years in memory was to light up the city he leads with Christmas lights.

So, he persuaded the City Council to approve a resolution establishing a program called Farmersville Lights. Judging from what I saw tonight while touring Farmersville Parkway and the downtown square is that the mayor’s idea is paying off … in spades!

The city turned on the lights on Dec. 1. They’ll shine in the city until the end of the month. Wiebold hopes it becomes an annual event. I share his hope for a bright future for Farmersville and its effort to bring a little holiday cheer to its residents and those of us who come to visit the city and enjoy the lights.

Indeed, my wife and I drove from our home in Princeton and, oh yes, we had our granddaughter and her parents, who came from Allen to take a peek at the holiday lights.

Farmersville Lights is being financed through a number of donations from businesses throughout the city. Wiebold received commitments for sponsorships, went to the council for its approval and the program took off.

I want to offer a round of applause for the City Council’s endorsement of the mayor’s idea. Rest assured, I saw more than a few smiles on the faces of those who enjoyed the lights as this lousy year draws to a welcome close.

I have this sense that a lot of communities all across our great land are reaping the benefits of similar programs this time of year. I mean, when we endure a nasty presidential election in the midst of a deadly pandemic, how can any city in America miss the chance to put smiles on people’s faces?

Well done, Mr. Mayor and City Council!

medical news

This just in from Lysol …

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I want to report to you that I have just received an email from Lysol, the disinfectant company, with a series of helpful hints on how to stay healthy during the holiday season.

The message mentions all the essentials: wash your hands, keep the air flowing, practice social distancing. You know the drill, correct?

There isn’t a single mention in the message about ingesting it, per that nonsense that Donald Trump muttered earlier this year during one of those idiotic “briefings” on fighting the pandemic.

Just wanted to share this bit of advice.

national news

Time makes Person of Year pick … sigh

6 Comments

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I’ll be candid: Time magazine’s selection for Person of the Year is not the choice I wanted the venerable publication to make.

It’s not that I object strenuously with Time naming President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris as its Person of the Year. It is that I wanted the mag to honor an entire category of human beings: those on the front lines in the fight against the coronavirus … namely the first responders, health care workers, educators. Those folks are society’s heroes and they earned the honor of Person of the Year.

But that’s just me, I suppose.

As for the president- and vice president-elect, they indeed made history. They defeated the most corrupt, amoral, venal and disgraceful presidential administration in U.S. history. They did so convincingly. Joe Biden deserves kudos for making history by selecting Kamala Harris, the first black and first candidate of South Asian descent to run with him as vice president.

They both acquitted themselves well on the campaign trail. They have rolled up 81 million votes en route to a solid Electoral College majority. Biden and Harris are assembling a first-class team with which to govern.

In some ways, the Time choice is the politically safe choice. Winning presidents (and this case winning VPs) often get the Person of the Year nod.

However, the pandemic is the overwhelming story of 2020. The chief element of that story, in my view, has been the heroism displayed in hospital emergency rooms, ICU rooms and the bedsides of COVID-19 patients; moreover, there have been heroes abounding in our classrooms as educators seek to teach our children amid the threat of exposure to a potentially deadly virus.

And this heroism is a worldwide phenomenon.

So, I’ll accept Time’s choice simply as the editors’ call. It’s not one I would have made but it’s their magazine, their decision.

Just to be clear — one more time: I am delighted that we’re about to welcome Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as our new president and vice president.

medical news

FDA issues the call

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The Food and Drug Administration has issued the call many of us have been awaiting.

The FDA has granted Pfizer emergency authorization to begin distributing a vaccine for the COVID-19 virus that has killed more than 290,000 Americans.

Is this the end of the virus? Are we now able to hug each other as if nothing happened? Have we returned to normal life as we once knew it? No, no, no … and more.

However, the vaccine has arrived. It will be distributed in a complicated logistical operation. It will go first to those in dire need. Medical personnel, first responders, educators, elderly Americans with pre-existing conditions get it first.

The FDA will decide soon on a vaccine developed by Moderna. Then one developed by AstraZeneca should get the OK from the FDA.

I remain hopeful the end to our misery is coming. It might take a while, but it’s on its way.