Tag Archives: Joe Biden

Joe Biden, medical news, science news

Biden’s not to ‘blame’

John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I am among the last people on Earth to criticize the media, given that I am among those who are still pursuing the craft (more or less) and that I believe the media are doing a good job of reporting the news.

That all said, I want to chide the media for suggesting/implying/inferring that President Biden is somehow to “blame” for the administration falling short of its goal of achieving “herd immunity” against the COVID pandemic by the Fourth of July.

Let us ponder this briefly …

Joe Biden promised to make the vaccines available to anyone who wants it. He delivered the goods there. The shortfall in getting 70 % percent of the nation inoculated is because of those who have bought into the right-wing claptrap about the vaccines.

President Biden has done what he can do. He has sought to persuade Americans that the vaccines are effective and will not cause undue harm to anyone who receives any of them.

Biden inherited a mess when he took office. The previous administration botched many aspects of its handling of the pandemic from the get-go. Yes, it enacted Operation Warp Speed in its effort to get vaccines developed and for that I am grateful. But the previous POTUS managed to contradict and undermine the medical experts he brought on board at every turn.

We continue to make progress against the pandemic, although it has slowed dramatically with the delta variant surge that has kicked the Biden administration in the teeth.

As for putting “blame” on President Biden for falling short of its herd immunity goal, well, the media should look instead at those who are outshouting the rest of us with their baseless condemnation of the vaccines.

Joe Biden

What might ex-POTUS do if he loses again?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

God Almighty might strike me dead for giving this a moment of thought, but here goes anyway.

What in the world might happen if the former A**hole in Chief loses a second time to President Biden in 2024? Will he declare that election, too, is “rigged,” that it is “fraudulent,” that it was “stolen” from him through widespread voter fraud?

Would he dare suggest such nonsense even if he were to lose in a monumental landslide, which I believe would be the result if we got a rematch from 2020.

You know already that I don’t foresee that scenario playing out. I don’t think the ex-POTUS is going to run. Nor do I think he would be nominated even if he were to seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.

But dang it, man! The question is worth asking only because when you ponder the weird machinations of the ex-Liar in Chief, well … damn near anything is possible.

national news

GOP House members join key panel

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

U.S. House of Representatives Republican leader Kevin McCarthy came through with the names of five of his GOP colleagues to serve on the select committee that is going to examine the Jan. 6 insurrection.

One word of advice now goes to the committee chairman, Democrat Bennie Thompson of Mississippi: Keep a tight leash around the neck of Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, one of the five GOP members McCarthy has selected.

Of course, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has veto power over any selections for the panel. If she decides to allow the loudmouth Jordan to serve, then it falls on Chairman Thompson to keep Jordan focused on the task at hand: finding the truth behind the riot that killed five people, injured dozens more, damaged the Capitol Building and sought to overturn the results of an election that chose President Biden over the GOP incumbent.

Jordan was one of the GOP caucus members, you will recall, who voted against certifying the election results. The dude is a loose cannon. He tends to come unhinged while defending his hero, POTUS No. 45. He also tends to badger witnesses, not allowing them the opportunity to respond to his hectoring.

Jordan is likely to object to using the term “insurrection” to describe what happened on Jan. 6. Except that’s precisely what it was. Chairman Thompson, don’t let Jordan get away with trying to change the subject or trying to persuade the nation that the mob of domestic terrorists were not intent on doing harm to officials who were doing their constitutional duty, which was to certify the results of the Electoral College tally.

The GOP congressional caucus wouldn’t go along with an independent commission. The House select committee is the next best step toward determining what happened, why it happened and seeking ways to prevent a recurrence.

This panel needs room to do its job. It must not tolerate diversions from some members of its ranks. Listen up, Jim Jordan: Listen with your ears for once … and not your mouth.

national news

Protect DACA recipients

(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The young men and women who reside in the United States need not be kicked around in a political skirmish that involves a decision made by their elders.

I refer to those who live here under the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals provision that was enacted through executive order by President Obama, but has been ruled unlawful by a federal judge in Texas.

DACA recipients comprise several hundred thousand U.S. residents who were brought here illegally by their parents. They grew up as Americans; they came of age as Americans; the U.S. is the only country they know; many of them have flourished.

President Obama sought to give them some sanctuary from deportation by enacting the DACA program. U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen — nominated for the federal bench by President George W. Bush — declared the DACA program to be illegal.

President Biden vows to appeal the ruling. I will take the president at his word. He should appeal it.

DACA is a humane and effective policy that should be codified  under law. Congress has the power to do that. My hope would be that enough fair-minded Republicans could join their Democratic colleagues in ensuring that these men and women — who came here as children and who have grown into responsible U.S. residents — can receive a clearer path to citizenship or permanent residency status.

Oh, but wait! That might require comprehensive immigration reform, which Republicans in Congress are unable or unwilling to enact. Why? Well, beats the hell out of me!

DACA recipients have been kicked around for too long already. Two former Texas governors — George W. Bush and Rick Perry, both Republicans — have spoken in favor of allowing so-called “Dreamers” to attend Texas colleges and universities; moreover, they have supported allowing them to attend under in-state tuition rules, given that they have been Texas residents of long standing. I consider that to be a fair and decent public policy.

The federal judiciary has intervened, though, in the effort to help these folks assimilate more completely into the society they adopted as their own when they came of age.

For the life of me I cannot understand why some politicians prefer to punish these individuals because of something their parents did when they were too young to fend for themselves.

medical news

‘Pandemic of unvaccinated’

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

No one — and I mean not a single sane human being — wants to welcome this latest medical nightmare.

Which is that COVID-19 cases are on the increase, as are hospitalizations and, oh yeah, deaths from the worldwide pandemic.

Who’s responsible for this distressing turn of events? President Biden calls it the “pandemic of the unvaccinated.” That is a mantra repeated late this week by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Rachelle Wallensky.

Think of this for just a moment.

Those who dismiss the vaccines, who refuse to take them, who believe the foolishness being spread out there (that they turn bodies in magnets and plant the spores of Satan into our skulls) have contributed to this horrible new wave of infection and death.

CDC officials report the greatest spike in infection/hospitalization/death come from those parts of the country with the lowest vaccination rates. Those happen to be mostly in the southern part of the nation. Hmm. What does one make of that? Is there a political component to this horrible news? I happen to believe there is, but I’ll save that for another blog post.

Today I am concerned about my own family. Almost all of us are full vaccinated. The only one who hasn’t received the vaccine is our granddaughter, our 8-year-old. She will get hers soon.

But what does this mean for those of us who have been vaccinated? I keep hearing reports of fully vaccinated Americans being stricken by that delta variant COVID-19 strain that is knocking the stuffing out of us.

My wife and had not jettisoned our masks. We had them handy, partly for occasions such as what we are discussing today: a resurgence of the virus.

With that said, we’re donning our masks once again when we venture into public places with other human beings, many of whom do not bother with the masks. I don’t wish them ill, but I do wish they would follow our lead — my bride and me — and cover their faces while they mingle with the rest of us.

Oh, and the vaccines still are safe. They still are effective. They still are preventing needless headache, heartache and hysteria.

If only we all would heed the advice of highly trained medical professionals to get vaccinated.

national news

Biden calls out ‘Big Lie’

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

By all means, President Biden is correct to call out the Big Lie for what it is, an assault on democracy itself.

Moreover, the president is correct to lay the blame for this assault directly at the feet of the individual he defeated in the November presidential election.

Biden has joined the fight against Republican efforts to subvert Americans’ ability to vote. He also has joined the chorus of those of us out here who are appalled that POTUS 45 — who once swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution — has been leading the effort to undermine it … even while he served as president!

As The Hill reported:

Biden blasted efforts from Trump and others to sow doubt about the election months after it concluded, which have spurred action from GOP-led state legislatures to push new elections laws that would limit absentee voting and make it more difficult for certain groups to vote.

“It’s clear, for those who challenge the results or question the integrity of the election, no other election has ever been held under such scrutiny or such high standards. The Big Lie is just that, a Big Lie,” Biden said at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

Biden rips Trump’s ‘big lie’ in voting rights address | TheHill

By my understanding of the term, I consider the ex-POTUS’s effort to undermine a free and fair election to be an act of treason. He incited the Jan. 6 insurrection. He continues to tell the Big Lie about alleged voter fraud. He has broken state and federal laws by seeking to get state election officials to overturn balloting results.

And yet there are those among us Americans who want the ex-Liar in Chief to return to the White House? So help me, I don’t which factor angers me more: that the ex-POTUS keeps telling the Big Lie or the cultists continue to believe it … and act on it!

The duly elected POTUS has weighed in. I am glad to hear the stern language he has used to call the Big Lie what it is.

Joe Biden

A return to globalist view

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Let’s dispel a myth that has been propagated from the right and far right and made even more of an epithet in the U.S. presidential era that just recently passed into history.

I hereby declare that “globalism” is not a four-letter word. It is not a concept to be scorned, or feared, or ridiculed. It is the reality of the world that is changing damn near daily.

President Biden has launched — among many initiatives — a drive to return the country he leads to its post-World War II role as the world’s leading nation. However, we no longer can carry the load that comes with the role by ourselves.

Thus, a globalist view of international policy becomes essential.

Joe Biden’s presidential predecessor sought to craft a policy around an “America first” notion that too often was interpreted as an “America only” policy. POTUS 45 stiffed our allies. He coddled our foes. He spoke admiringly of dictators who exercised supreme control over people’s lives.

His policies appeared disjointed and chaotic.

President Biden’s world view appears to be a vastly more inclusive one that means the United States will restore its role as an international leader, but working in concert with other nations in search of shared goals.

Climate change is a global threat. So is terrorism. Same for the ever-present danger of armed conflict between and among nations.

These matters affect all of us and they require worldwide solutions. They require a globalist strategy to find solutions to common woes.

I am at a loss as to why, therefore, the term “globalism” became the same thing as a curse word. I welcome its return to the center of White House sessions led by a president who cares to study the complex issues that should be of dire concern to every human being on Earth.

International news

How can we declare victory?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Twenty years ago, the United States decided to retaliate against the monsters who attacked us on 9/11.

I recall asking back then: How will we be able to know when to end this war against international terrorism? I also wondered how we can declare victory in a war that might seem to have no end.

Well, one aspect of that war is coming to a conclusion. President Biden has ordered all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, which had given safe haven to the terrorists who hit us on 9/11.

My questions remain the same today as they were when I posed them back in 2001. President Biden has made what amounts to an executive decision. The time has come, he said, to end the war. How does he know that? Well, he hasn’t explained that to us in terms that I have heard.

As for a victory declaration … there won’t be anything of the sort. We will see no “Mission Accomplished” banner hanging across the White House portico.

Indeed, the decision carries plenty of risk. The Taliban are on the march in Afghanistan. The future of women and children in that country now become tenuous. Biden’s predecessor as POTUS sought to negotiate with the terrorists; it didn’t go well for either side.

To be honest, it has been a haphazard withdrawal. There is no clear plan to offer safety for the thousands of contractors who worked with our forces during the Afghan War. I will retain plenty of hope that the president will come up with a plan to provide refuge for the translators and others who assisted our men and women on the battlefield.

However, a war against international terror cannot possibly signal that we have defeated the terrorists, that we have eliminated the threat. Indeed, the threat was always there, always lurking just below the surface, just beyond our consciousness.

It will be there even as we exit the field of battle in Afghanistan.

national news

Big Lie believers: lost cause

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

As far as I know no one in my circle of friends or my immediate family members is a believer in the Big Lie fomented by the disgraced former POTUS and his legion of fruitcakes.

Accordingly, that saves me from having to do what I believe is an impossible task: persuading them that the Big Lie about “rampant voter fraud” in the 2020 presidential election denigrates our cherished democratic process.

President Biden won that election. He won a free, fair and legal process. It was certified by the Electoral College. There is no evidence to suggest anything approaching vote fraud on a scale suggested by the former Liar in Chief.

However, it became abundantly clear to me months ago that there is no persuading the cultists who follow that nitwit of the folly of their desire to overturn what has been called “the most secure election in U.S. history.”

And it is folly to the nth degree. 

The cultists have swilled so much of the Kool-Aid offered by their disgraced leader that there is no turning back. Just as the former Imbecile in Chief has demonstrated, the cultists are incapable — or unwilling — to acknowledge they are wrong.

They call themselves “patriots.” They are traitors to the Constitution. To the government they purport to love. To our country and its grand tradition of electoral security.

I just am happy that no one in my circle of friends and acquaintances has taken any form of ownership of the Big Lie. Were they to do so and were I to find out about it, well … our relationship would end on the spot! Guaranteed!

Joe Biden

Biden: born for this job?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

As I watch President Biden perform certain ceremonial functions — or even simply walk to and from the Oval Office or climb the steps leading onto Air Force One — I am struck by a recurring thought.

It is that this man has wanted the job he now holds for practically as long as he has been a national public figure. That goes back a good while.

He burst on the national scene as a freshman U.S. senator from Delaware. He won election in 1972; Biden was just 29 years of age when they declared him the winner, but would turn 30 (the minimum legal age to serve as a senator) between Election Day and his swearing in.

It is a fairly open secret that he lusted for higher office from almost the very beginning. Biden had to endure intense personal tragedy before taking office in 1973. His wife and infant daughter died in a car crash; his sons, Beau and Hunter, were gravely injured. They would recover.

Biden would remarry five years later.

He ran for president in 1988. Then he tasted humiliation when he got caught plagiarizing the remarks of a British politician, using the British pol’s life story as his own. Sen. Biden bowed out. He would run again for POTUS in 2008, but then quit after being steamrolled by the eventual Democratic nominee, Sen. Barack Obama — who then selected him to run with him as vice president. They won. They served two successful terms.

Now it’s the Joe Biden Show in the White House.

I just am filled with the strong sense that President Biden has been in a sort of training for half a century to do the job he is now doing.

My critique? He’s quite good at acting like a president. He sounds like a president. He behaves like a president.

After enduring the clumsiness, the chaos, the confusion and the cockamamie pronouncements of the president’s immediate predecessor, all this “normal” stuff seems quite, well … refreshing.