Tag Archives: Joe Biden

International news

Put this into perspective

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Let’s take a moment, take a few deep breaths, and seek to put the Afghanistan collapse and turmoil into a bit of perspective.

President Biden’s decision to end our military involvement comes directly on the heels of a deal negotiated by his immediate predecessor, who sought to work with the Taliban on a withdrawal of our forces.

You’ll recall that POTUS 45 actually invited the Taliban terrorists to Camp David for a summit on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in 2020. It didn’t occur, given the outrage expressed at the time.

The former POTUS wanted us out of there by May of this year. He got defeated for re-election. Joe Biden stepped up and decided to end the conflict right now. So … he did.

President Biden had set the 20th year since 9/11 as the date we would leave; he chose instead to move up a bit.

All of this had been planned by the previous administration. Where the current administration fell short has been in the planning for the evacuation of our Afghan allies, the people who helped us during the 20-year war. Yes, the Biden administration deserves criticism for the way it has mishandled that element.

However, the withdrawal was set in motion many months before President Biden took office.

And yet, we now hear from Republican members of Congress seeking to invoke constitutional powers to strip Biden of his presidential authority. Some of the GOP fruitcakes keep yammering about the president’s mental acuity.

Rick Scott raises removing Biden from office over Afghanistan – POLITICO

They’re full of sh**!

Our nation was pulled kicking and screaming into full terrorist alert on 9/11. To my way of thinking, we remain much more vigilant now to the dangers of foreign terror attacks than we were prior to that hideous event two decades ago. President Biden vows a robust response from our military if we detect any potential threat from the Taliban. Trust me on this, the Taliban do not want to face the wrath of the world’s most powerful military force.

I want to give the president a bit more time to hash out the details that admittedly should have been reckoned with prior to the withdrawal.

As for our allies in Afghanistan who are clamoring for safe haven, they need our help immediately. I believe President Biden is working to give it to them at soon as is humanly possible.

International news, military news

Biden gives speech of his life?

1 Comment

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Jim Boyd once wrote editorials for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

He is a friend of mine; I have known Boyd for more than 30 years. He and I have one other thing in common — besides being former editorialists. We served in Vietnam; both of us were in the Army. Boyd worked in “the bush”; I did not.

My friend today endorsed President Biden’s speech to the nation about the tragedy in Afghanistan. Boyd takes a different view than what I have expressed. I want to share it here. It’s a brief Facebook post, so bear with me.

Biden just gave the best foreign policy speech of my lifetime. He learned the lessons of Vietnam and Iraq — needlessly spending the lives of Americans and residents of those countries in pursuit of mistaken policies — and then he applied it in mission-creeped Afghanistan. It was the clearest, truest statement on refusing to waste American lives I have ever heard. And I have been listening since I went in the Army in 1968. Bravo, bravo, President Biden.

The president’s decision to pull our forces out of Afghanistan was a sound call. I would argue only that the logistics of the withdrawal has been, shall we say, clumsy.

The criticism of the president’s policy pronouncement has centered on the lack of planning for the protection of the thousands of allies we employed while fighting the Taliban. They served as interpreters, deep-cover operatives, staff personnel. They want out of Afghanistan. President Biden did not produce an evacuation plan prior to making his decision to pull out. Should he have done so in advance? Of course!

However, what I heard today from the president was a clear and unambiguous statement of ownership of a critical decision, just as President Kennedy took the heat for the Bay of Pigs fiasco in 1961. President Biden stood strongly behind his decision to end a war that had become something that one of his predecessors, George W. Bush, didn’t foresee … at least not publicly.

Indeed, President Bush pulled his own eyes off the target when he ordered the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 on the double-barreled phony mantra that (a) Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and (b) he had something to do with the 9/11 attacks.

So, our nation’s war effort in Afghanistan has ended. There will be no more American lives lost on this particular far-away field of battle.

I join my friend in saying, “Bravo, President Biden.” 

International news

Biden said what he had to say

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

President Biden has said the only thing he could possibly say with regard to the Afghanistan government’s collapse and the Taliban takeover in that war-shattered nation.

He said “The buck stops with me” and he takes ownership of the decision to end our involvement in the longest war in our nation’s history. There would be no way on God’s good Earth that he could reverse course, express regret about the decision he made and send tens of thousands of U.S. troops back onto the battlefield.

There would be no way to find a different solution “five years ago” or “15 years in the future,” Biden said.

Fair enough. Our war is over. The suffering in Afghanistan is far from over. The Taliban has marched into Kabul more quickly than anyone expected.

I am terribly conflicted by what is happening. I want our men and women to come home, too. I am tired of our involvement in a civil war that one side — the so-called good guys — was unwilling to fight. Biden said we supplied the Afghan armed forces with billions of dollars, state-of-the-art equipment, the best training possible. President Biden noted correctly, though, that no amount of money could pay for a fighting force that is unwilling to fight.

Thus, the prospect of Afghan women being returned to subhuman status draws my intense ire. However, the Afghan armed forces were ordered to defend against that occurring … and they failed in their mission.

Collin County Judge Chris Hill — a conservative Republican — calls the events a revival of the Jimmy Carter presidency; he calls it “Jimmy Carter 2.0.” No surprise there.

The situation is still unfolding. We do not know how it will play out. I am going to hope for the best.

As for President Biden, this is why we’re paying him the big bucks.

International news

No repeat of Vietnam?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

U..S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said today that the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban is “manifestly not like Saigon” in 1975 after the North Vietnamese army took control of the country where more than 58,000 Americans died in battle.

I beg to differ.

The image of Taliban fighters pouring into Kabul reminds many of us precisely of what happened in Vietnam. President Biden said that it would be “highly unlikely” that the Taliban would control everything. Hmm. It didn’t work out that way, Mr. President.

Now comes the remaking of a government in the mold of a harsh regime run by men with a dastardly history of subjugating women. The Taliban, you’ll remember, gave safe haven to the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11.

I happen to believe it was time to end our battlefield involvement in Afghanistan. To that end, President Biden made the correct policy decision. The implementation of that decision, though, leaves plenty of questions to answer.

Why didn’t the military apparatus we supposedly trained to defend the country resist more fervently? Why wasn’t there a strategy laid out for caring for the personnel who aided us during our nation’s longest war? How can we protect our interests against the Taliban terrorists who well might begin plotting to do harm to us? What will Afghanistan look like when the Taliban establish the government?

Secretary Blinken is an honorable man. However, what we have witnessed today is absolutely similar — indeed, it is virtually identical — to what occurred in Vietnam. He needs to change the narrative.

DC riot

‘Political obituary?’ Do ya think?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Lindsey Graham is finally — finally! — beginning to talk some sense as it regards the man he once opposed for the presidency and then became one of his go-to suck-ups once he got elected in 2016.

The South Carolina Republican senator said that the Jan. 6 insurrection that POTUS 45 incited could become his “political obituary” if he fails to get over the fact that he lost the 2020 presidential election.

Could become? Really, senator? Do you mean to suggest that the former Insurrectionist in Chief might be able to salvage his reputation if only he were to admit that President Biden won?

I am semi-glad to hear Graham speak some semblance of truth to his former adversary-turned-No. 1-golf buddy. The South Carolinian is still being terribly muted in his assessment of the damage that the former POTUS is delivering to our cherished democracy.

As Newsweek reports: “What I say to him is, ‘Do you want January the 6th to be your political obituary?'” Graham, an ally of the former president, told The New York Times for an article published on Saturday. “‘Because if you don’t get over it, it’s going to be.'”

Lindsey Graham Warns Trump That Jan. 6 Riot May Be His ‘Political Obituary’ (msn.com)

The events of 1/6 are going to stand alone among the hideous events of U.S. political history. To suggest that it wasn’t an insurrection against the democratic process is to ignore with willful prejudice what the entire witnessed on that day.

The former POTUS incited a mob that was spoiling for a chance to do what it did, which was storm Capitol Hill, beat police officers with flags and assorted other weapons, crap on the floor of the Capitol Building, shout their desire to “Hang Mike Pence!” and stop the certification of the Electoral College tally that elected President Biden and Vice President Harris.

The ex-Traitor in Chief has refused to atone for any of it.

Yeah, it’s his “political obituary,” all right.

national news

Biden is still POTUS! Well …

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(AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The sun rose in the east this morning. I rolled out of the rack and got my day started per usual.

I glanced at the news and discovered that Joseph R. Biden Jr. is still president of the United States.

Who knew?

Well, it turns out that the My Pillow dude’s prediction that the 45th POTUS would be “reinstated” by day’s end on Friday the 13th didn’t come to pass. Indeed, the Internet has been full of jokes about the “re-inaugural parade” down Pennsylvania Avenue that didn’t take place. Friends and acquaintances have been asking, “Did I miss it?”

I would laugh all this off, blow it off as a sick joke (which it most certainly is) and not give it a second thought, except that too many lunatics among us actually bought into the crap pitched by My Pillow Guy, and the likes of POTUS 45 legal pal Sydney Powell and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani — who’s been disallowed from practicing law in the city he once governed.

Of course, we also have the former Seditionist in Chief continuing to pitch The Big Lie about alleged electoral theft in the 2020 presidential election. Rather than accepting the notion that he was just a temporary occupant of the White House before losing the election, we are hearing about how the ex-Liar in Chief chose to employ astonishing methods to get government officials to overturn the results of the election.

But … he ain’t POTUS; he won’t ever hold the office again. Joe Biden remains on the job.

For that I am so very grateful.

national news

Inauguration 2.0? Hah!

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Today is supposed to be a landmark day in the history of U.S. politics, if you buy into the nuttiness of My Pillow Guy … whose name I will refrain from using in this blog.

The wacko says today is the day POTUS 45 returns to the White House, settles in behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office and resumes his role as Liar/Imbecile/Numbskull/Nitwit/Know-Nothing in Chief.

Do you believe that will happen? Neither do I.

The troublesome aspect of this is that My Pillow Guy has been very specific in predicting this would occur. On this day. Why this day? It might be that it’s Friday the 13th, which in the world of My Pillow Guy might symbolize some sort of poetic justice.

POTUS 45 is not going anywhere near the White House. Likely not ever for as long as he inhabits this good Earth. Where he goes after that, well … no one can control that.

I remain concerned about the level of stupidity and gullibility that remains out there among the voting American public over these claims of “widespread election fraud.”

Read my lips: It did not happen.

President Joe Biden was elected to the nation’s highest office. He is on the job doing what he needs to do to “restore out national soul.”

As for POTUS 45, he and My Pillow Guy are pi**ing into the wind if he harbors any idiotic notion of returning to power.

national news

Biden faces stubborn foe in stupidity

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

President Biden has fought innumerable political battles over his lengthy public service career.

I daresay none of them holds a candle to the stupidity he is facing now that he has attained the nation’s highest political office. It is a remarkably stubborn foe that Biden must defeat.

The problem he faces, though, is determining how he can speak past  the terminally stupid among those who continue to insist that he didn’t actually win the 2020 presidential election.

Of course he did. He won it bigly. President Biden garnered 7 million more ballots than the other guy. His Electoral College victory, while not a landslide, mirrored the total that the other guy won when he captured the presidency in 2016.

And yet, the president seeks to persuade all of America that he has a plan to jumpstart the economy, restore our role as the world’s leading nation, that we need to battle the existential threat posed by climate change and, oh yeah, rid us of the pandemic that at the moment is raging anew.

Only a little more than half the country is ready to buy in. The rest of us, that significant minority of Americans? Many of them are wallowing in the stupidity uttered by their hero, the defeated — and twice-impeached — former POTUS.

Actually, the impediment to President Biden’s effort to rebuild trust in our government involves more than just stupidity. It includes a dangerous dose of evil intent among those who keep fomenting The Big Lie about the 2020 election. Stupidity and treasonous tendencies comprise a dangerous combination.

So it is against those headwinds that Joe Biden is struggling to repair the wreckage brought by his immediate predecessor. All those fights during his 36 years in the U.S. Senate and his eight years as vice president during the Barack Obama administration seem today to be almost quaint.

Stupidity is proving to be the most stubborn foe of all.

International news, military news

Confused and frightened

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The pending withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan has me confused and frightened.

The frightening aspect comes with the advance of Taliban forces that are taking city after city in their march toward reasserting control over a country we thought we had “liberated” when we invaded it shortly after 9/11 … which was nearly 20 years ago.

The Taliban are set to take control of Kabul, the capital city of the embattled nation perhaps in the next few weeks.

The Taliban is about as evil and vile as any group on Earth. Thus, it frightens me in the extreme to see what might happen to Afghanistan if the Taliban retake control of the country.

My confusion stems from the fact that we went through three presidential administrations overseeing our combat role in Afghanistan. From George W. Bush, to Barack H. Obama and then to Donald J. Trump our forces were thought to be helping prepare the Afghan forces to defend their country against the Taliban. Joe Biden took office in January and declared our intention to pull out before the 20th year commemorating the 9/11 attacks that precipitated our involvement in our longest war.

Did we waste all that time, money, effort and blood by failing to train and equip the Afghan forces adequately?

To be brutally candid, I am wondering if the Biden administration truly understood the gravity of the Taliban’s military capability when it decided to end our involvement in this drawn-out fight.

I want our troops to come home. I also had hoped we could leave Afghanistan in a position to defend itself. My first wish is about to come true. The second wish makes me wonder about the wisdom of what we were doing there in the first place.

education news

DISD boss plays it right

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The limb on which I will climb may be about to splinter and break, but I’ll venture out there anyway.

Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Michael Hinojosa, in issuing his mask-wearing order for all students, teachers, staff and visitors to the public school system, is playing a sound political hand.

He is defying an order from Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott that prohibits local officials such as Hinojosa from issuing such directives. Hinojosa appears to be ignoring that edict from Austin, even though we are fighting a surge in infections from the Delta variant spawned by that damn pandemic.

Why? Because the voting constituency he serves — the parents of the students and the teachers who work in DISD — are likely to oppose Gov. Abbott’s ham-handed approach to telling school districts what they can and cannot do.

Were the superintendent in charge of a district parked in the middle of a rock-ribbed Republican-leaning county, such as, oh, Collin County (where I live), he might not have the guts to do what he did today in issuing the order in a district that sits primarily inside Dallas County (which by the way voted overwhelmingly for President Biden in the 2020 presidential election); Dallas County also voted by large margins for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012.

Do you get my drift here?

Thus, it is with sadness that I will probably have to wait forever for other school district chieftains to follow Superintendent Hinojosa’s lead in demonstrating courage in our national fight against the COVID pandemic.