Tag Archives: Joe Biden

national news

Who’s a socialist?

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The dictionary offers a comprehensive explanation of a term that has been weaponized in the current political debate.

It is socialism. The dictionary describes it this way :

” … a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.”

That is where I want to start this brief blog post.

Republicans throw the “s-word” out there whenever they hear a policy that want to oppose. It’s socialist, they say. Those who preach it believe in socialism. They want to strip away capitalism.

That’s the mantra of the demagogues who throw around “socialism” and “socialist” as if they know what the hell they’re talking about.

They don’t.

I have heard nothing from President Biden or Vice President Harris to suggest they favor taking over complete control of the means of production, distribution or exchange.” They remain, as far as I can tell, as dedicated to capitalism and the traditional American way of life as you and me.

That isn’t stopping the critics, though, from tossing around hot-button terminology as if it’s gospel. Socialism has become the term du jour that right-wing critics are using to scare the daylights out of those who adhere to their world view.

Here’s my suggestion for the day.

How about just chillin’ out? Americans elected a mainstream politician as our president in 2020. He chose an acknowledged political liberal as his running mate. Let us remember, too, that President Biden is in charge of the executive branch, which is one of three co-equal branches of government.

All of this is my way of saying that a president can propose all he wants, but it falls on the legislative branch — Congress — to enact legislation that becomes the law of the land.

Are the POTUS and VPOTUS going to pitch a notion that we become a socialist nation?

Not in a zillion years.

economic news

POTUS walks back a demand

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

President Biden had me, then he lost me. Then he got me back again.

Biden and a bipartisan group of U.S. senators hammered out a deal on an infrastructure plan. They marched out in front of reporters at the White House and declared “We have a deal.”

Then the president said this: “I expect that in the coming months this summer, before the fiscal year is over, that we will have voted on this bill, the infrastructure bill, as well as voted on the budget resolution. But if only one comes to me, this is the only one that comes to me, I’m not signing it. It’s in tandem.”

As the saying goes: Oops!

GOP senators accept Biden walk-back on infrastructure | TheHill

Biden signaled right then that he wanted a more expensive and expansive infrastructure deal that only Democrats could approve. He drew complaints from Republicans and from Democratic moderates who worked their tails off trying to hammer out this deal.

Then the president in effect took back what he said.

To which I say that’s a good thing for the cause of good government.

President Biden should take the deal worked out. It’s not as much as he and many others want to spend but, hey, a trillion dollars-plus is still a lot of dough.

As for Biden’s walk-back, his change of tune has satisfied at least two members of the GOP negotiating team — Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah and Rob Portman of Ohio. They both said they “trust” the president and are going to work to ensure that the infrastructure deal upon which they agreed gets through Congress and lands on Biden’s desk.

Americans want their bridges, highways and rail lines to be safe for human activity. They want their seaports and airports to be modernized and made safe for travel. The Internet has become an increasing part of Americans’ lives and they want high-speed Internet service. The infrastructure deal is widely popular among Americans.

The deal worked out by members of both major parties signals the kind of cooperation, camaraderie and common good the president said once was a hallmark of his days as a senator and even as vice president.

He should take this deal all by itself. As for the rest of it, fight that fight another day.

economic news

See? Compromise works!

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

“We have a deal.”

So said President Biden today as he announced a bipartisan agreement to overhaul the nation’s infrastructure.

Now … is this the perfect deal? No. It isn’t. It is the product of Democrats and Republicans coming together, demanding things from the other side, then deciding that absent being able to get all the things they wanted in the deal agreed to a package that is a good bit less than what President Biden wanted to spend.

This is how government is supposed to work.

Fascinating! As The Hill reported: Biden acknowledged the deal would not include proposals he’s made for spending to help American families, but firmly endorsed the deal on infrastructure in unusual remarks just outside the White House with the bipartisan group of senators looking on.

The deal agreed upon would spend $1 trillion. It would repair thousands of miles of roads and bridges, provide high-speed Internet to virtually every home in the country.

More from The Hill: The framework includes $579 billion in new spending for a total of $973 billion over five years and just over $1.2 trillion over eight years.

It allocates $312 billion for transportation programs, including roads, bridges, airports and electric vehicles infrastructure. The remaining $266 billion would go to water infrastructure, broadband, environmental remediation, power infrastructure and other areas. 

Biden announces bipartisan deal on infrastructure | TheHill

The deal announced today strikes me as a classic ploy that President Biden played with perfect pitch. He wanted to spend $2.2 trillion — or so he said. Biden might have known from the get-go he wouldn’t persuade GOP members of Congress to agree to spending that kind of dough. So he settled on a still-significant amount of money.

He said he didn’t get all he wanted. Conservatives in Congress didn’t, either. Nor did their progressive friends.

However, the negotiating team of equal numbers of congressional Republicans and Democrats were all smiles today as they announced the framework of a deal.

Let’s get it done. Shall we?

national news

POTUS makes another run at gun violence

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

President Biden well might beat himself senseless with this initiative but he deserves credit for bringing needed attention to a national scourge.

That would be gun violence.

Biden says clearly that “it has to end.” To be sure, the president is getting push back from — get ready for it — the Republican caucus in Congress. GOP lawmakers blame the progressive movement and its “defund the police” mantra for the spike in gun violence. I guess that means Republicans won’t do anything about it. They’ll continue to sit on their hands, continue to obstruct any effort to legislate a remedy to what has become an all-too-common event: mass shootings.

USA Today reports: “Folks, this shouldn’t be a red or blue issue,” Biden said in the White House State Room. “It’s an American issue. We’re not changing the Constitution. We’re enforcing it, being reasonable. We’re taking on the bad actors doing bad and dangerous things in our communities.”

In a speech from the White House, Biden announced a “zero-tolerance policy” for rogue gun dealers and a new focus by the Justice Department to try to stop the illegal sale of firearms.

Biden also emphasized that cities and states can use their portions of $350 billion in direct aid from Biden’s COVID-19 rescue plan, approved by Congress in March, on public safety efforts, including hiring more police officers.

So, the resistance will come from those in Congress who believe liberals are to blame, which gives them a pretext to oppose legislation that seeks to target bad actors out there who contribute to the carnage.

‘It has to end’: Biden targets illegal gun sales, rogue dealers in strategy to combat rising crime (msn.com)

It’s hard to say how much of an impact President Biden’s initiative will have on the plague of gun violence. But my goodness. Why in the world must this resistance continue to obstruct good-faith efforts to deal forthrightly with what every sensible American must believe is occurring on our streets?

I have no intention of giving up this fight and I will continue to stand with those in power who see gun violence against innocent Americans as the existential threat it has been for far too long.

State news

VP Harris to visit Texas … will Gov. Abbott be there, too?

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Vice President Kamala Harris, who’s taken her share of hits for failing — so far — to visit the U.S. southern border after being put in charge of handling the immigration crisis, is coming to see it for herself.

She arrives Friday in El Paso.

OK, she’s been a bit late in laying eyes on the crisis. Some of the criticism is warranted. I won’t pile on here.

Kamala Harris is set to visit the border (msn.com)

I do want to know, though, whether Texas Gov. Greg Abbott will be on hand to greet her as she arrives. Will the Republican governor meet with the Democratic VP to discuss common problems and search for common solutions? Or will he continue to take pot shots at the Joe Biden administration, declaring its immigration policy to be a failure while asserting his desire to build a wall along the state’s entire border with Mexico?

Good government requires teamwork among state and federal officials. Here is a chance, I submit, for Gov. Abbott to join with Vice President Harris in ensuring that Texas is on the same page with President Biden and his immigration team led by the vice president.

I hope to see Gov. Abbott on hand to lend his voice to this important discussion.

national news

Compromise fuels good government

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The older I get the more I believe in compromise and the less weight I place on the value of long-standing ideology.

Which is my way of suggesting that the haggling that’s occurring over (a) voting rights legislation and (b) infrastructure legislation is a sign of good government trying to find its way into law.

Congress is wrestling with itself over both of those notions. Republicans seem wedded to the “just say ‘no'” theory of government. Anything that comes from the Democratic president, Joseph R. Biden, is deemed DOA the moment it leaves his mouth.

Biden has long prided himself on being able to work with the GOP. He did so with great effect while serving for 36 years as a U.S. senator and then as eight years as vice president. Now, though, he is deemed the enemy of the GOP, even among his once-good friends … such as Sen. Lindsey Graham and Sen. Mitch McConnell. Oh well.

He threw a $2.25 trillion infrastructure package at the GOP. He apparently is willing to settle for a lot less than that. Still, most of the Rs ain’t budging. At least not yet.

As for voting rights, the GOP now has taken up the “states’ rights” mantra, contending that the feds shouldn’t interfere with states’ ability to write their own voting rules. Except that the Republican-led states, such as Texas, are seeking to disenfranchise millions of Americans who, as luck would have it, happen to vote mostly Democrat when they get the chance.

The GOP’s other mantra? Voter security, as if there was a huge breach in that security in the 2020 presidential election. Spoiler alert: There wasn’t any such breach!

But the two sides are slogging through an effort to find some level of compromise.

I am a good-government progressive. I am not wedded so much these days to ideology as I am to seeing government work. I want my federal government to work, to serve me and my family; we are paying the freight, along with you.

Stay busy, ladies and gentlemen who serve in government. We demand you find a way to compromise. Or else!

national news

This conspiracy theory is truly dangerous

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

This thought didn’t originate with me, but I want to share it here.

It goes like this: We suffer through plenty of conspiracy theories: faked moon landing; 9/11 was an “inside job”; Elvis is alive.

None of those “theories,” though, rise to the level of danger to the democracy than the one being perpetuated by those who believe that the 2020 election was stolen from the disgraced ex-POTUS who lost to President Biden.

Indeed, POTUS 45’s insistence himself that he is the victim of electoral theft is what gives this conspiracy nuttiness its dangerous quality. That a former commander in chief would suggest such a thing, given the security attached to the 2020 election, is beyond reprehensible.

He talks of electoral theft. He speaks of a “rigged election.” He tells us that he’ll be “reinstated” as POTUS by the end of the summer. How in the world does this lunatic look at himself in the mirror? How does he continue to live the lie he is preaching?

My absolute worst fear isn’t that he is right. He isn’t. Nor are the loons who follow his rants. My worst fear is that the conspiracy theories/nuttiness is going to live on and on … much like the other loony notions have lived on.

We’d best steel ourselves for a lifetime of insanity.

national news

Shut the hell up, Rep. Jordan

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Jim Jordan is among many congressional Republicans who just piss me off. Pure and simple. The guy is a loon who needs to have a sock shoved into his pie hole.

He has managed yet again to make an ass of himself by suggesting that the rising auto fuel prices are the result of President Biden’s economic policies.

Good grief, dude! Get a fu**ing grip.

“Average gas price: June 2020: $2.21 June 2021: $3.07,” Jordan tweeted today. “President Biden’s economy!”

Then came the response from the White House press flack, Jen Psaki. “You forgot to mention that gas prices are the same now as they were in June 2018. Or that this time last year unemployment was 11.1% — today it’s 5.8%,” she said. “@POTUS agrees families shouldn’t pay more at the pump – that’s why he’s opposed to GOP proposals to raise the gas tax.”

The idiot Jordan refuses to acknowledge that supply and demand — simple economic policy — is creating this spike in fuel prices. Demand has returned as the COVID pandemic has receded. Supply of fuel remains limited because energy companies have yet to ramp up their production capacities to meet the pent-up demand.

So with that I simply want to offer a simple demand of the Ohio loudmouth/blowhard/gasbag member of Congress. Just shut the hell up.

religious news

No communion for POTUS?

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The Bible is God’s infallible word, yes?

So, with that I want to venture briefly into some dangerous rhetorical territory. Some Catholic bishops want to deny President and Mrs. Biden communion because of their views on abortion.

Catholic Church doctrine opposes abortion. Period. It is not a debatable point. President Biden believes women deserve to have the right to choose whether to terminate a pregnancy, which is against church doctrine. Some bishops want to deny serving him communion at Mass. Given that the first couple attends church regularly, well … that’s a big deal.

My quandary is this: The Bible I have read since I was a little boy does not set any sin above all others. Thus, abortion is no more serious a sin than, say, coveting someone else’s property or engaging in sloth.

How, then, do bishops justify weaponizing a particular sin by denying a politician communion which in effect declares that abortion is more punishable than any other sin? Is that in keeping with Biblical teaching?

national news, political news

‘Theft’ of election drips with irony

Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images, Mark Makela /Reuters, AP, Cheney Orr/Reuters, AP.

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The irony is so rich, so thick that you can barely cut through it with the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Think about this for a moment. The immediate past president of the U.S. of A. alleges that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him. He preaches the Big Lie about rampant voter fraud that doesn’t exist. POTUS 45 and his minions keep yapping about how he will be “reinstated” and returned to power.

The irony is that they are proposing an element of electoral “theft” I never thought possible in this great country.

President Biden won the election, the results of which have been certified in every state and the District of Columbia. His Republican opponent keeps yammering about the 74 million Americans who supported his candidacy. Yes, the figure is impressive; it is the second-greatest number of votes ever cast for a presidential candidate.

However, Biden polled 81 million-plus votes, the greatest total ever amassed.

If the losing side of a brutal presidential campaign is going to suggest that electoral theft occurred, then why in the name of political sanity do they keep insisting on their own brand of thievery?

The irony in their argument simply forces me to dismiss it out of hand. You may take this to the pawn shop — or the bank — if you wish: I will never, not in a zillion years, cast the level of doubt on our nation’s electoral integrity we are hearing from right-wingers today.

They are denigrating the integrity of every state, county and local election official who work diligently to protect our most cherished democratic process. They have applauded the incitement of the insurrection that occurred Jan. 6. They have refused to honor the police officers who risked their lives to protect them against the riotous mob of terrorists who stormed the Capitol Building.

They are marching to the cadence being called by the individual President Biden defeated in the nation’s most secure election … ever!

For them to declare the election was stolen demonstrates willful ignorance of the very theft they seek to orchestrate.

The irony is astounding.