Tag Archives: Joe Biden

local news

Dear Gov. Abbott: Get real, will ya?

You had me then you lost me, Gov. Greg Abbott.

Perhaps you might not remember when we had a nice professional relationship. You served on the Texas Supreme Court and then later as state attorney general. You would come see us in Amarillo when I worked at the newspaper as its editorial page editor.

I considered you to be a decent fellow. Thoughtful, not terribly partisan, reasonable.

Then you got elected governor in 2014. I was gone from the business when that happened, but I have been watching you closely ever since. Frankly, Gov. Abbott, you have disappointed me.

You keep hammering the federal government over Affordable Care Mandates, or border security issues, over COVID-19 protection measures. You just cannot stop blasting the feds over this and that.

I get that you might want to seek the presidency in 2024. You’re entitled to harbor your ambition. But what the hell? Now you want the feds to send more testing kits to Texas and more antibody material. You keep yammering that President Biden isn’t sending enough of them here. Hey, does it occur to you that Texas is one of 50 states and several territories that also require federal assistance during this pandemic?

I was hoping you might take your even-handed approach to government into the governor’s office when you got elected. Silly me. I was a fool for thinking that would happen.

What is so remarkable about your insistence on federal help now is how you have stiffed the feds — and the president — previously.  You didn’t even have the decency to show up for a photo op with Biden when he came to Texas. He’s the president of everyone and good manners would dictate that you could at least grace him with a handshake for the cameras. But you’re all over the former Liar in Chief when he visited the Texas. What a joke!

Well, enough of this note to you, Gov. Abbott. I just had to get this off my chest. I feel better now.

Happy new year … and stop trying to make political points by your constant bitching about Joe Biden.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

Dr. Fauci: national hero

People who weaponize lies are killing people.”

That wise phrase came from Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has been the target of “weaponized lies” for about, oh, the past couple of years. The lies are coming from right-wing critics who refuse to accept the truth he is telling about the disease that continues to kill Americans every day.

Some of the more strident critics have talked openly about fitting Fauci with an “orange jump suit.” They want to lock him up. They want to charge him with criminal acts.

This is absurd, ridiculous. It is utter trash.

I am fed up to here with the gutter talk that comes from the right-wingers who are fabricating reasons to oppose the doctor, who happens to be the nation’s foremost infectious disease expert. Donald Trump brought him on board ostensibly to assist the administration in developing an anti-COVID strategy; Fauci sought to do what the president asked, only to have Trump undercut him.

Trump lost the 2020 election and the new POTUS, Joe Biden, came on board. He retained Fauci and has since allowed the learned physician to talk openly to us about what we need to do to escape the clutches of the virus. President Biden has stayed the hell out of the way!

None of that has silenced the critics.

The Fox News blowhards — led by Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity — have led the phony amen chorus calling for Fauci to be charged with some dubious criminal act.

They have allies in Congress who say the same thing. One of them, a Republican who represents the Texas Panhandle, is a former physician and Navy flag officer. Ronny Jackson has picked up the falsehood weaponry and is firing it at Dr. Fauci.

Jackson is a disgrace to the office he occupies.

As for Fauci, I consider him to be a national hero.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

Rapprochement? Really?

Say it’s so. Then again, it’s an impossibility, given what these two men have said to and about each other for, oh, the past two or three years.

There was President Biden offering a word of praise for his immediate predecessor, Donald J. Trump, for declaring he had taken the COVID booster shot and for the speed of the development of the vaccine.

Then came word from Trump that he was “surprised” and “pleased” that his successor would give him a shout out. Trump then said Biden’s kindness makes it difficult for Trump to speak critically of the president.

Hmm. Now, we all know that the two men aren’t likely to call a halt to the name-calling, the insults, the epithets, the nastiness that has brewed between them. I mean, Trump still preaches The Big Lie about the 2020 election being stolen by non-existent widespread voter fraud. All of that surely must sting Joe Biden, given the historic nature of his victory and the immense voter turnout that elected him the 46th president of the United States.

There is no rapprochement likely. Then again, stranger events have occurred.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

POTUS praises ex-POTUS

President Biden today did something worthy of a word of praise, as it shows a largeness of spirit that too often was missing from his immediate predecessor.

Biden today offered a word of praise to Donald J. Trump for getting a booster shot — and admitting to it — and for the development of the vaccines that are protecting 200 million or so Americans from the killer COVID-19 virus and its assorted variants.

Imagine the former POTUS doing such a thing. I know. It wouldn’t happen. It won’t happen.

Biden’s magnanimous spirit comes in the heat of a contentious political climate. His immediate predecessor keeps spewing The Big Lie about “rampant voter fraud” in the 2020 election and yet the man who defeated him in that election found a moment today to toss a bouquet at the former POTUS.

It might that President Biden has an ulterior motive. He well could be appealing to that base of Trump cultists who refuse to get vaccinated. It might be that he is seeking to soften their foolish resistance to the vaccine. Whatever it takes … you know?

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

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

national news

Standing with POTUS

First of all, I want to stipulate that I am not a fair-weather fan of President Biden.

Yes, I read the polling data. I am acutely aware that his approval rating among American voters has slipped badly since about the time of the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. Inflation has harmed the president’s standing. We cannot seem to shake the pandemic and we cannot declare our “independence” from the disease, which Biden projected we could do by the Fourth of July.

However, I voted for Joe Biden with as much enthusiasm as I have had for any presidential candidate for whom I have voted since 1972, when I cast my first vote for the leader of the Free World.

The man’s current difficulty will not force me to turn against him. I stand with him.

We are on the verge of receiving a big legislative push if Congress gets around to approving the Build Back Better package that President Biden’s team presented some months ago. Congress already has approved the infrastructure bill designed to repair our nation’s roads, bridges, airports, seaports and Internet availability. That is no small deal, man.

The economy is continuing to rebound from its pandemic low. Do I worry about inflation? Yes, I do! Am I a huge fan of Biden’s decision to pull oil out of our Strategic Petroleum Reserve? Not really. I don’t consider the SPR to be an inflation-fighting weapon; I consider it to be a safety net in the event of a severe shortage of fossil fuel. If the SPR flow helps stem the rising price of that fuel, then I suppose I can grit my teeth and back it.

Biden is committed to fighting climate change, which is a welcome change from the previous administration’s decision to turn its back on those efforts.

My support of President Biden is unflinching even in the face of crises. We elect someone to handle these issues as they arise. He has assembled a competent team of political pros and assorted experts. I am going to stand with them as they grapple with these crises.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

SCOTUS to get kicked around?

(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Mitch McConnell has demonstrated a clear ability — and a tendency — to play hardball politics whenever the need arises in his own pointed head.

Think about how the Senate Republican leader can manipulate things in the event the GOP takes control of the U.S. Senate after the 2022 midterm election.

Supreme Court Justice Steven Breyer might retire from the court. Say, he does so at the end of the current term, which arrives in late June or early July 2022. President Biden has to select a nominee immediately after such a retirement occurs. McConnell well might decide to throw up roadblocks anticipating a GOP takeover of the Senate in November 2022.

What might occur, then, if the GOP wins a Senate majority, seats a new Senate in January 2023 and Biden’s SCOTUS nominee still hasn’t had a hearing, let alone a vote? I’ll tell you what’ll happen. The GOP-led Senate could scuttle a Biden choice and then McConnell could decide to replay the tactic he used in 2016 when Justice Antonin Scalia died suddenly. President Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland to the court, but McConnell torpedoed the nomination, refusing to grant Garland a hearing. Why? Because we had an election months away and McConnell said the next president deserved the right to select someone. The next president happened to be Donald J. Trump and, well, you know the rest of it.

This all seems to give a Breyer decision on whether he stays on the court a good bit more of a time urgency. I don’t expect Justice Breyer to act on the wishes of others around him. He is entitled to walk away on his own terms and on his own schedule.

The nation’s highest court, though, does not need or deserve to be kicked around like the political football some in the Senate have made it out to be.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

economic news, national news

Vote ‘no’ and take the dough

I should direct these comments to the Republicans who comprise the Texas congressional delegation.

All of ’em, to a person, voted “no” on President Biden’s infrastructure proposal and on the $1.7 trillion package billed as Build Back Better.

Some of them have issued harsh policy statements criticizing Biden as well as their Democratic colleagues, calling them “socialists” and “spendthrift” liberals who don’t give a damn about the national debt.

Ah, yes. But … will they say “no” when the government starts parceling the money to their states or congressional districts? Hardly!

Indeed, I fully expect some of them to actually use these improvements as grist for their re-election efforts in 2022 and beyond. Will they realize or recognize the hypocrisy of that message? Not even, man!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

political news

GOP takeover doesn’t necessarily doom Democrats

As I watch the political landscape take shape heading into the 2022 midterm election, I cannot help but think of what happened in 2010.

What’s that, you ask? Here’s what happened.

President Barack Obama took office in 2009 and got to work repairing the economic free-fall that was occurring while getting Congress to approve the Affordable Care Act.

Congress spent a ton of money to fix the economy and it approved the ACA by a narrow margin. The 2010 midterm election loomed. Republicans were loaded for bear. They delivered what Obama said was a “shellacking” by taking control of the House of Representatives.

President Obama wasn’t disheartened. He ran for re-election in 2012 and with the wind blowing in his face, he defeated Mitt Romney by a comfortable margin.

Obama’s approval rating wasn’t ever all that great. Yet he served two successful terms as POTUS.

Now comes President Biden facing the wrath of voters. The GOP might be poised to deliver another pounding to the president and his party next year. Does that mean the end of the Biden presidency? Does it deliver a mortal wound to his agenda? Does it set the stage for a Republican victory in 2024? No, no and no!

I will hold out hope that the GOP in its current configuration — the party has turned into a cabal of cultists — will turn off enough voters to forestall any more coup attempts such as the one launched by the most recent Republican POTUS.

Let us hope for the best … shall we?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com