Monthly Archives: December 2021

Donald Trump

Trump gets booed for … being vaccinated? Huh?

Can it really be that Donald J. Trump’s political base is populated by utter morons, people who actually boo their hero when he tells ’em he received a booster shot to fend off the COVID virus?

Yep, looks like it’s so.

Trump ventured to downtown Dallas on Sunday, along with Bill O’Reilly. They staged some sort of rally at the American Airlines Center. The crowd reportedly was fairly sparse. Trump, though, revealed while answering a question from O’Reilly that he received a booster shot in addition to his vaccination.

Many in the crowd booed their hero!

What the … ?

O’Reilly sought to dismiss the boo birds as a small portion of the gathering at the AAC. Still, it makes me wonder about these individuals. Oh, well. They do seem to mirror the mindlessness of their cult leader.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

Mask up, America!

Here comes my latest declaration: With the Omicron variant spreading, along with those other COVID-19 variants, I have decided that I will go nowhere without a mask.

We have a bunch of ’em in the console in our truck. They all fit nicely. They all seem to do what they are intended to do, which is protect us from the virus that is infecting, sickening and killing Americans.

They’re shutting down Broadway shows, ordering fans at pro basketball games to wear masks, reopening COVID testing stations. Dang, man … we’re falling back into some sort of pandemic-defense mode.

There’s a sliver of good news to share. It is that the Omicron variant produces symptoms that appear to be milder than the Delta variant. That’s good, except that Omicron is more contagious; it spreads more easily.

I feel as though we have dodged thousands of bullets so far. We are vaccinated fully, including the booster shot. Our immediate family is taking precautions, too, and they have worked. Another member of my family got quite sick nearly a year ago from the COVID virus, but she’s bounced back.

With this Omicron mess getting messier, I intend now to ensure that I mask up when I enter indoor settings full of people I do not know, nor know their vaccination status.

One more point: I intend to follow every single government “mandate” to the letter.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Two parties morph into four

It occurred to my wife and me today as we were looking at the growing clutter of political campaign signs springing up in North Texas that we no longer have just “two political parties.”

Yeah, we still have Democrats and Republicans. The two parties have morphed into four of them. Or at least two of them have become variations of the formal parties.

We have Democrats, Republicans … and progressives and (for lack of a better description) Donald Trump cultists.

To be clear, we don’t see many Democrats in North Texas bellowing their “progressive” credentials, given that there are few progressives among the rank-and-file voters. We do see on the other side a good number of Republicans advertising their “conservative” leanings. Collin County Judge Chris Hill, for instance, calls himself a “Texas conservative.”

Still, as I look at the bigger picture, I perceive an expanding of the two-party base, that the political battlefield is sprinkled with “troops” from the progressive and conservative wings within both major political parties.

For those who wish we could expand our political lineup beyond just Democrat and Republican, they might be getting their wish.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

 

national news

Manchin serves to obstruct

Joe Manchin must think he is the smartest man in politics this side of Donald J. Trump. He knows more than the West Virginia residents he represents in the U.S. Senate.

Why else does he oppose President Biden’s Build Back Better package, the one supported by most West Virginians? Does he know something no one else on Earth knows? Does he really represent the individuals who elect him every six years to the Senate?

Manchin told a TV interviewer today he’s a “no” vote on the $1.7 trillion social spending bill that Biden wants the Senate to approve. Manchin, a Democrat, said he wants to concentrate on COVID-19 relief. Plus, he told “Fox News Sunday,” the national debt is too big, that the BBB bill would add too much to the debt.

Does this signal the death of Build Back Better? No, it doesn’t. Joe Biden is likely to tinker with it — some more. The president doesn’t exhibit any inclination I can detect that he will dig in on every single nickel and dime.

He wants a legislative triumph to go along with the infrastructure bill that Manchin managed to support.

As for the senator from West Virginia, my sense is that he is relishing his fame as a deal-breaker. Never mind all those doggone public opinion polls that tell him his constituents would benefit from the legislation he opposes. He is digging in. A 50-50 Senate split means curtains for the package if Manchin’s resistance holds up.

Yes, I get that West Virginia voted overwhelmingly for Trump in 2020. The former POTUS, though, is on the sidelines. The here and now tells me that Sen. Manchin would do well to listen to what his constituents want. I sense that it isn’t to crush this deal.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

No more denials, please, about 1/6

It is becoming abundantly clear that what happened on 1/6 was a direct, full- frontal assault on our cherished democracy.

It was not, as more than a few GOP members of Congress have suggested, “a peaceful protest” over the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Thus, the sooner that the House select committee examining the 1/6 insurrection can complete its work, the sooner that opponents of those members of Congress can assemble their campaign strategies to attack them for their foolish trash-talk.

Before you attack me for reminding of the obvious — that no one has been charged formally with an “insurrection” — I want to stipulate that I know what the criminal defendants have been accused of committing. It runs the range of criminal charges: aggravated assault, disorderly conduct, vandalism.

There well might be insurrection charges forthcoming. I would most assuredly support such an allegation being leveled.

What needs to happen foremost, though, is for the individuals at the top of the government in that moment to face criminal prosecution, too. That includes the man who was the POTUS on 1/6, Donald J. Trump.

I cannot predict what the House panel will decide. However, I can offer a request, or call it a suggestion.

Which is that Donald Trump’s rhetoric, spewed on the Ellipse on the morning of 1/6, incited the mob to attack Capitol Hill and the men and women inside who were doing their job, which was to certify the 2020 presidential election results.

There must be some accountability for that action.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

What’s wrong with mandates?

So help me I don’t understand how the vaccination campaign against a killer virus has become such a political debate point.

Republicans keep slamming the nation’s top Democrat, President Joe Biden, because he wants to enforce mandates on companies to require employees and customers to (a) wear masks and/or (b) be fully vaccinated.

I mean, holy crap, man! We’re in the midst of a pandemic that’s still killing us!

I happen to be one American who doesn’t object for a single moment to the efforts the government is making to protect my family and me from the ravages of this disease. It has killed 800,000 Americans already and the number is sure to climb.

Let us remember, too, this little factoid: The United States comprises about 5 percent of the world’s population, but our infection, hospitalization and death rates far exceed that percentage. We can thank the inept, ignorant and cowardly government response to the initial reports of the pandemic in late 2019 and early 2020.

President Biden is trying to make amends by imposing these limits. Yet he’s getting push back from Republican politicians who keep hiding behind some phony mantra about “too much government control over people’s lives.” What a pile of sh**!

Too many people’s lives are ending prematurely because they aren’t doing what they should to protect themselves and their loved ones.

Yet the mandates continue to take their place as a political talking point when we should be rallying behind the effort to protect us from the killer.

Ridiculous.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Joe Biden

Standing with Joe Biden

(AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

I keep reading about polling that suggests that independent voters and even some who call themselves Democrats are abandoning President Biden’s efforts to “restore our national soul” while enacting legislation aimed at putting people back to work and rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure.

I am not one of either category of American citizen.

Therefore, I want to declare that I continue to stand with the president.

The mean tweets from those on the right annoy me to the max. The refusal by congressional Republicans to set aside their partisan anger when they can do something for the common good is beyond reprehensible.

Yes, there is plenty to frustrate us. Joe Biden predicted at the beginning of the year that we would declare our “independence” from the COVID pandemic by the Fourth of July. I guess he got a bit ahead of himself on that one. Right? Is it the president’s fault? No. It isn’t. Nor is it the fault of the medical team advising him on how to battle this disease. The virus is as unpredictable as any we could imagine. Yet it persists on President Biden’s watch.

I am not going to lay the blame on the recurrence of these virus variants on human beings who are trying their best to rid us of the killer.

Nor will I second-guess the president on myriad economic issues. I continue to endorse the agenda he has laid out. I support the infrastructure bill that Biden signed into law. I want the social spending package to get through Congress and I want him to sign that legislation into law as well. Our roads and bridges are crumbling; we pride ourselves on our transportation infrastructure in Texas but it, too, needs work and the feds are going to provide help to repair it.

Joe Biden continues to conduct himself the way a U.S. president is supposed to do. I admire that about him.

The man has been knocked down, endured tragedy that few others have suffered. Yet he persisted as he served in the Senate, later as vice president and now that he has reached the pinnacle of power and prestige, he continues to have my support.

So, spare me the knock that I am wearing blinders. I can see clearly where Joe Biden wants to take this nation. He can continue to count me — a red-blooded American patriot — to have his back.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot

Rep. Jordan turns too quiet

Jim Jordan owns arguably the loudest mouth in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The Ohio Republican usually is unafraid to spout whatever lies pops into his vacuous noggin. The lies he spews usually involve Donald J. Trump and the so-called “phony” investigations into the myriad allegations often attached to the former POTUS.

Suddenly, though, the blowhard/liar/alleged traitor has fallen quiet. He won’t admit to sending Trump a message imploring him to call off the 1/6 rioters. But he did! He sent the POTUS a message that sought to get him to put a stop to the riot.

Why won’t Jordan tell us what he did? I think I know. Because it flies directly counter to the defense he has mounted on Trump’s behalf as evidence mounted in the waning days of his administration about the violence he provoked on the day of the Capitol Hill riot.

I have written already about the Republican cowards who populate the GOP caucus in Congress.

I have concluded that Jim Jordan is the king of the cowards.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot

GOP: party of cowards

Republicans who implored Donald Trump to stop the rioters who sought to block the certification of the 2020 presidential election on 1/6 are now silent.

Their silence betrays their cowardice. Yes, they are cowards. They are afraid of offending the man for whom they profess blind fealty.

Yet we know now that many of them sent emails to the White House; they called the White House on the phone; they pleaded with Trump to employ his clout to end the riot. Trump didn’t do as other Republicans had asked, implored, demanded he do.

Why aren’t the Republicans now speaking up? Why won’t they put their names on those messages?

They won’t because cowards won’t take ownership of what they know is right.

They were right to implore Donald Trump to end the riot. They now fear that the disgraced former POTUS will strike back at them and harm their re-election chances.

They are cowards.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Hate partisan election of judges

2 Comments

I want to raise an issue that I have bitched about for years, but which needs further bitching from me.

It deals with the partisan election of judges in Texas. Yes, judicial candidates in this state run as Democrats and Republicans. They don’t run necessarily on their judicial philosophy, which should be the determining factor on whether to elect these men and women. Oh, no. They run as partisan politicians.

For the life of me I do not understand why we cannot shed the party labels for judicial candidates.

For nearly four decades watching Texas politics up close and personal I have seen fine men and women drummed out of office because they were of the “wrong party,” or the party that wasn’t in control of the political landscape. Good Republican judges and candidates would lose to inferior Democratic opponents in the old days because they ran as members of the “out” party. Then the tide turned in Texas and we have watched qualified Democratic judges and judicial candidates losing to numbskull Republicans for the same reason; Republicans dominate politics in this state and Democrats are still trying to get a foothold.

I have asked judges and those who want to be judges a question ever since I arrived in Texas in early 1984: What is the difference between Democratic justice and Republican justice?

So help me, I cannot remember a single cogent answer to that question. Not a single judge or judicial contender has been able to answer that one for me. I hope during the upcoming election season to be able to ask future candidates for judicial office that question.

Judicial candidates should run on their philosophy and how they interpret the law. I am not a lawyer, but I know enough to be able to discern the difference between a liberal judicial candidate and a conservative one. Whether those differences comport with partisan labels is utterly beside the point.

I know full well my argument won’t hold much sway with those in power. I will keep harping on it, though, until I no longer can harp on anything. Texas’s partisan election of judges does not do justice to the judicial system.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com