Tag Archives: Joe Biden

religious news

Easter greetings reveal plenty

Make no mistake about it: The differences between Joe Biden and the man he succeeded as president of the United States were on full display in the respective Easter greetings the two men sent out today.

President Biden’s message was full of hope, given the nature of the Christian holiday, commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. “As we reflect today on Christ’s Resurrection, we are reminded that with faith, hope, and love — even death can be defeated,” the president tweeted. “From our family to yours, we wish you hope, health, joy, and the peace of God, which passes all understanding. Happy Easter and may God bless and keep you.”

Biden and Trump release very different Easter messages (msn.com)

Then came this from Donald J. Trump, who used his Easter message to launch an attack on New York Attorney General Letitia James: “May she remain healthy despite the fact that she will continue to drive business out of New York while at the same time keeping crime, death, and destruction in New York!” reads a message from Trump’s Save America political action committee, which also calls James a “racist.”

Wow! Enough said.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

RNC loses will to fight

It is clear to me that the leadership of a once-great political party has lost its will to stand and fight for what it believes.

The Republican National Committee’s decision to bow out of future presidential debates — at the primary and general-election levels — has demonstrated to me that the party has been taken over by cowards.

Think of it. The titular head of the party, Donald J. Trump, is the former Coward in Chief. He bitched out loud during his term as president that the press is the “enemy of the people.” He yapped and yammered preparing for presidential debates with the fellow who beat him in 2020, Joe Biden, that the joint appearances were stacked against him.

Trump has managed to project his cowardice onto the leadership of the RNC, now led by Ronna Romney McDaniel. Here’s an example of how McDaniel shows her cowardly nature: She used to be proud to wear the name of her uncle, Mitt Romney; these days, because The Donald despises Romney, she has dropped the “Romney” from her name and now goes by Ronna McDaniel. It’s a little thing. Then again, it really isn’t.

Now the RNC has decided that it won’t rely on journalists to moderate future presidential debates. Its decision, therefore, to pull out of future events sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates — a non-partisan group — suggests it has swallowed the swill served by The Donald.

The nation has come to rely on these joint appearances to help voters make decisions on who is best suited to lead the country. And, yes, at times individuals emerge from these events whom no one expects. I am willing to argue that Donald Trump pulled off that very surprise during the 2016 presidential primary season.

So, what happened to The Donald? He lost re-election in 2020 and promptly blamed everyone else for his loss, ignoring the undeniable truth that the presidency he ran failed. He threw blame at the feet of the debate organizers.

Now we have the Republican National Committee continuing to adhere to the whims and machinations of the twice-impeached and defeated POTUS.

Cowards. All of ’em!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

When will denigration stop?

I cannot help but wonder how a member of Congress can continually denigrate the president of the United States, suggesting the president is mentally unfit for high office and then possibly expect that president to respond to a request — were it to come from the congressman — for help in any fashion.

U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson is a freshman Republican member of the House from the Texas Panhandle. Ever since taking office after winning election in 2020, Jackson has been on a constant Twitter harangue over President Biden’s occasional verbal stumbles.

He doesn’t refer to Joe Biden as “President” Biden. He continually harps on what I believe is a red-herring argument that the POTUS would fail a cognitive test.

Jackson recently declared that the nation needs Donald Trump “more than ever.” No, Ronny, the nation does not need the serial liar and philanderer, the crook, the insurrectionist, the power-hungry narcissist, the a**hole who cannot articulate a single public policy with any degree of intelligence.

Back to my point. There could come a time when the 13th Congressional District of Texas needs immediate federal attention. Natural disasters do strike, you know. How does the congressman, the author of the string of idiotic, moronic and disgraceful Twitter messages ask the president for help?

Moreover, how does the president, who has been on the receiving end of these vile epithets, respond to those requests, were they to come?

I mention Jackson mainly because he represents a region I used to call home. He also has become a bit of a national media star, given his extreme anger aimed at President Biden; Fox News loves having this clown on air expressing himself in such a cavalier fashion … without ever challenging the veracity of the claims he makes.

Hey, I am just asking … for a friend.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

military news

Moskva sunk!

The Moskva — once the pride of the Russian navy — now apparently lies at the bottom of the Black Sea, sent to its watery grave by at least one missile fired from a Ukrainian battery.

The Moskva, a guided-missile cruiser, weighed in at 12,500 tons; it spanned 600 feet in length and carried a crew of 500 sailors.

Then it ran into trouble while Russian armed forces got bogged down in their effort to subdue Ukraine.

Info on Moskva, Russian flagship sank by Ukrainian missile (nypost.com)

What’s at stake now? Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin clearly is shocked that the Ukrainians would be able to inflict this most serious ship-sinking since World War II.

If only the Ukrainians’ stunning battlefield success would persuade Putin to give up his horrendous effort to subdue a sovereign state.

President Biden has labeled Putin a war criminal and accused him of committing genocide against the Ukrainians. Most of the world is reeling in horror at what Ukrainians are discovering on city streets as Russian troops retreat; they are finding corpses of civilians who were shot in the head.

Putin won’t give up the fight easily. That much seems clear. It also lays bare the brutality that lurks in what passes for this individual’s heart.

I am left only to hope that the Ukrainians can continue to inflict as much damage as possible on the invaders to the point that Russians will say “Enough is enough!” … and rid themselves of Vladimir Putin.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

How does POTUS tell his story?

Someone will have to explain to me why President Biden continues to struggle to win Americans’ approval over the way he is conducting himself in the office to which he was elected in 2020.

Maybe he just isn’t telling his story in a convincing fashion. Perhaps he is being outshouted by critics who continue to adhere to matters such as, oh, The Big Lie about the so-called theft of the presidential election.

I admit my bias. I want Biden to succeed and I want him to be able to sell his story to Americans who just aren’t buying into the Biden presidency. OK, so I have gotten that out of the way.

The economy continues to add hundreds of thousands of jobs each month; joblessness is less than 4%; we are winning the war against the COVID pandemic; we have restored our alliances around the world; the president is leading the worldwide response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and is crippling the Russian economy.

Life isn’t perfect. Inflation is hurting Americans. However, Joe Biden keeps reminding us that so much of the skyrocketing costs come from (a) supply issues created by the pandemic and (b) Vladimir Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine and the cutting off of Russian oil and natural gas to markets around the world.

The president needs to do a better job of securing our southern border. I acknowledge mistakes there. However, the border isn’t anything approaching an “open door” for anyone to walk into this country.

I am open to hearing from readers of this blog who has an idea of why Joe Biden continues to win the kind of approval from my fellow citizens that I believe he deserves.

So … with that I’ll sign off from this post.

Let’s discuss.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Biden calls it ‘genocide’

President Biden has ramped up the rhetoric in his face-off with Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin, calling the Russian troops’ conduct in Ukraine an act of “genocide.”

It remains for international courts to make that official determination, but I happen to have no difficulty with our president calling Putin out on with the strong language he is using to apply maximum pressure on a despot who is waging what looks to many of us to be an illegal war against Ukraine.

Putin invaded Ukraine with the stated hope of capturing the capital city of Kyiv within, oh, a few days. It didn’t happen. Russian troops have retreated from the area around Kyiv and are reportedly staging in the eastern part of Ukraine to launch another massive assault.

They have left evidence of enormous destruction and the slaughter of thousands of civilians. Ukrainian forces have discovered thousands of bodies with single gunshot wounds to their heads; the men and women executed by the Russians had their hands tied behind their backs.

Why do this? President Biden labels it “genocide,” which by definition is the planned extermination of people based on their race and/or their ethnicity.

We have known for a long time that Putin is a bad actor. He has demonstrated beyond any possible doubt that he is incapable of being an effective partner at any level with this or any nation that values human decency.

He also has shown that President Biden’s moral outrage, which he expressed during his recent trip to Europe that “for God’s sake this man cannot remain in power,” is spot on.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Ghost guns: yes on this order

Does it surprise anyone that the National Rifle Association would oppose President Biden’s executive order to get rid of that thing called “ghost guns”?

I didn’t think so.

The NRA has condemned Biden because he wants to stop the basement manufacturing of guns that have no serial number or any identifying features that allow authorities to track their origin.

According to The New Republic: “These updated regulations make clear that parts kits that can readily be converted into assembled firearms will be treated under federal law as what they are: firearms. And the manufacturers and sellers of these kits will be subject to the same federal laws as all other gun manufacturers and sellers,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in an op-ed published in USA Today on Monday. The new rule will amend the definition of “firearm” and “frame and receiver” to cover kits and components that create ghost guns, allowing them to be treated like firearms under federal law. It will also require manufacturers who sell components to assemble into ghost guns to be licensed and run background checks on potential buyers.

Biden Finally Makes a Move on the Ghost Gun Scourge | The New Republic

I want to understand the notion that the NRA is going to pitch that regulating the manufacture of these weapons infringes on the Second Amendment guarantee of the “right to keep and bear arms.” It doesn’t.

This needs to be restated: Law-abiding citizens need not acquire these weapons to “keep and bear arms.” They can purchase mainstream firearms manufactured by actual gun makers. These firearms have appropriate serial numbers that allow authorities to keep tabs on the source of these firearms — without affecting anyone’s ability to own them.

I applaud the president for signing this order.

As John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety noted, “Ghost guns look like a gun, they shoot like a gun, and they kill like a gun, but up until now they haven’t been regulated like a gun.”

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

Call her ‘justice-designate’

Ketanji Brown Jackson now can be called a U.S. Supreme Court associate justice-designate, given that the Senate has confirmed her nomination to the nation’s highest court in a 53-47 bipartisan vote.

This is a stellar day in the history of this great country, with Justice-designate Jackson becoming the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court.

Her confirmation was a foregone conclusion, with three Republican senators — Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah and Susan Collins of Maine — joining their Democratic colleagues in sending the newest justice to the court, where she will take her seat when its new term begins in October.

President Biden made a double-sided pledge during the 2020 presidential campaign: that he would nominate an African American woman to the court if he got the chance and that the nominee would be a supremely qualified jurist.

The president delivered the goods on both counts.

President Biden has earned applause for delivering on this key campaign promise. And the newest justice — who will succeed Justice Stephen Breyer — has earned the nation’s good wishes as she prepares for the job of a lifetime.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Political stunts don’t solve anything

Political stunts get an occasional laugh or they might allow the individual who pulls it off to crow a little; however, they rarely — if ever — result in actual solutions to pressing problems.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has offered a doozy of a stunt. He intends to round up immigrants who come into Texas, place them on buses and then send them to Capitol Hill to give the federal government a chance to deal more directly with those Abbott said are creating a crisis on our nation’s southern border.

He blasts President Biden’s immigration policy and says if the president won’t protect our border, then states have an obligation to act.

I agree that the president has so far failed to come to terms with the immigration issue in Texas and other southern-border states. His policies aren’t working.

What’s the answer? It is not the trickery, chicanery and political stunt work that Greg Abbott is delivering.

If only the governor and his Republican pals in Texas would find a way to work with the Biden administration instead of trying to show ’em who’s got the bigger cajones.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Abbott plays stupid game

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said what? That he intends to send migrants who venture into this state on charter buses to Washington, D.C., to enable President Biden to “deal” with them?

Hmm. Abbott’s petulance is getting the better of him. He’s also embarrassing many of the Texans he governs. Such as me.

The Texas Tribune reports: “To help local officials whose communities are being overwhelmed by hordes of illegal immigrants who are being dropped off by the Biden administration, Texas is providing charter buses to send these illegal immigrants who have been dropped off by the Biden administration to Washington D.C.,” Abbott said in a press conference in Weslaco. “We are sending them to the United States Capitol where the Biden administration will be able to more immediately address the needs of the people that they are allowing to come across our border.”

No surprise, to be sure, but Abbott was highly critical of Biden’s decision to roll back a pandemic-era emergency health order known as Title 42 that allowed immigration authorities to turn away migrants at the border, even those seeking asylum. The order was enacted during the Trump administration and it allowed immigration officials to manage the migrants seeking to enter the country.

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/04/06/greg-abbott-texas-border-title-42/

The asylum-seekers are being caught in this game of political “gotcha” between Gov. Abbott and President Biden.

What puzzles me is this: What in the world is going to happen to these individuals once they are bused from Texas to the nation’s capital? If the feds can’t “deal” properly with them, where do they go?

It’s not enough to just wash a state’s hands of an issue by handing them off to the feds. After all, placing problems in the feds’ hands places those problems in all of our hands.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com