Tag Archives: Joe Biden

International news, military news, national news

Biden keeps key promise

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

One of the few policy notions from the 45th president of the U.S. with which I agreed dealt with pulling out of “endless wars.”

He made the pledge while running for the presidency in 2016. He kept saying he would do so while serving in the office. He didn’t quite deliver on the pledge.

Today, his successor — President Joe Biden — announced that our involvement in the Afghan War ends on Aug. 31. Period. Full stop.

There will be no more U.S. troop presence on the battlefields there, President Biden told us.

And so, our nation’s longest war — which commenced our war against international terrorism — is coming to an end. There will be no victory declaration. Nor will there be, as Biden told us, any helicopters lifting off from rooftops as there was in Vietnam in April 1975.

Biden has pledged to help provide shelter for the Afghans who helped our military effort during the two decades we fought there, although the plan for providing that aid hasn’t yet been fully developed.

I endorse the pullout. The time has come for the Afghans to defend themselves. We have trained an army, provided an air force and are leaving them with resources to fight the Taliban terrorists who do present an existential threat to the government in Kabul.

Our longest war is about to end. It fills me with relief.

local news, medical news, State news

Get vaccinated, Texans!

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

This isn’t good news, folks.

Texans like to boast about how our state is No. 1. Well, we are far from No. 1 in the rate of inoculation against that killer virus, the COVID-19 pandemic that’s still killing too many of us.

The Texas Tribune reports that the state has inoculated about 43 percent of its population fully against the virus.

I was struck by the results coming from Amarillo and from Beaumont, two communities where I used to live. Amarillo had been vaccinating at double the state rate. Then the good folks of the Panhandle decided to stop exceeding the state standard. Amarillo’s fully vaccinated rate stands at 30 percent, a good bit below the state inoculation rate.

The Beaumont-Port Arthur metro area fares even worse, with just 28 percent of its residents claiming to be fully vaccinated.

I don’t know about you, but I believe that is disconcerting news to say the least. At worst it is frightening, given the spike in that the “delta variant” now accounts for about 25 percent of the new infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/07/06/coronavirus-texas-vaccination-amarillo/

President Biden keeps telling us that it is the “patriotic” thing to do to get vaccinated. The first time I heard him say it, I though the then-new president was overstating the importance. No more, man! I now am on board fully with Joe Biden’s summoning our patriotic spirit in fighting the virus.

I have been using High Plains Blogger to extol the message. And I will continue to speak out on this forum. It’s the best avenue at my disposal to say what I believe needs to be said.

I am able to speak with a clear conscience about vaccination. I am fully vaccinated, as is virtually my entire immediate family. We stand proudly as those who heeded the call to get the vaccine. To be sure, we have paid a hefty price from the pandemic. Two of our immediate family members were hospitalized with symptoms; one of those family members became, in the words of the medical staff tending to her, “seriously ill” from the virus, which means we could have lost her. I thank God Almighty each day that we didn’t.

This is all my way of urging everyone who is eligible to receive the vaccine to get the medication shot into your body. The CDC, the Food and Drug Administration and practically every medical expert on Earth say the vaccines are safe; they are effective; they will protect you and those with whom you come in contact.

As for my former neighbors in far-reaching regions of this vast state who continue to resist the vaccine, they are playing a dangerous game.

Note: A version of this blog was published initially on KETR.org.

national news

POTUS 45 won’t run!

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Allow me to venture way out on a limb that I realize could break and send me tumbling into some form of rhetorical heap … which has happened to me before.

It is that the man who preceded President Biden until January of this year isn’t going to seek the presidency again in 2024.

The one-time Numbskull in Chief is dropping hints that he has made his mind about the 2024 campaign. He told his boy, Fox News blowhard Sean Hannity, that he has made the final call. Then he proceeded to say some things about President Biden that suggest a run for the White House is in the works.

How can I say this? OK, here goes: No one with a criminal indictment hanging over his head — not even this clown — would want to expose himself to the prying eyes of every political foe out there.

The ex-Dipsh** in Chief’s company has been indicted by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office on tax charges. Fifteen of them, to be exact. The Trump Organization’s chief money guy, Allen Wiesellberg, has been accused of bilking the feds out of millions of dollars in income tax revenue.

Do ya think this probe might find its way to the top of the heap? Hmm. I’m betting yes. It will.

Either the ex-POTUS is certifiably insane to believe he won’t suffer several — and likely mortal — economic wounds from this indictment, or he’s going to skate away cleanly.

My ol’ trick knee is throbbing once again. It does this once in a while. The throb is telling me that the DA has the goods on the Old Man.

He will be left to bellow from the peanut gallery, accusing President Biden of being the Son of Satan, the most unpatriotic POTUS in history. This one is great, by the way: He also suggests that Biden wants to take down the Jefferson Memorial and replace it with something honoring civil-rights gadfly Al Sharpton.

This is the blathering of a man who twice lost the actual vote for president, squeaked by in an Electoral College victory the first time and then got smoked by even more votes the second time.

POTUS 45 is nuttier than a pound of pistachios.

medical news

Goal not met; big … deal

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It’s the Fourth of July, everyone, a time for cheering, celebrating and acknowledging the accomplishments of this great nation.

Oh, but one thing we aren’t celebrating: President Biden’s prediction that we would have 70 percent of our population vaccinated fully against the COVID-19 virus.

Hey, we stand at 66-plus percent. That’s not bad. Am I worried that the president’s goal remains unmet? Only if we give up on the battle to get everyone vaccinated while eradicating the killer.

It was an ambitious goal to be sure.

I will compare it instead to where we were a year ago. The nation is faring many times better these days than we were at this time in 2020. The vaccines are being distributed. We have pledged to share much of it with needy nations. Infection rates are down, as are death rates. Yes, we have these troublesome virus variants with which to contend.

President Biden’s goal of 70 percent vaccination is far from a deal breaker. It only should remind us of work that still awaits for us to return to what we like to call “normal” activity.

Joe Biden

Tough to avoid comparison

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Try as mightily as I am trying to avoid making comparisons between presidents of the United States I must admit that the effort is taxing my ability to stave off such temptation.

President Biden has pledged full federal government support for officials digging out from the rubble left by the horrific collapse of the condo tower in south Florida.

That is what presidents do. They toss aside during these times of peril political differences — after all, Florida cast most of its votes in 2020 for Biden’s opponent — and speak with compassion and empathy. They serve an unwritten rule of the presidency, that they should serve as comforter in chief.

Compare that response to the Florida tragedy to what we heard when California erupted in flames a couple of years ago. President Biden’s predecessor castigated California officials for failing to maintain proper forest management and threatened to withhold federal money. Why? Well, to those of us watching from afar it appears that the then-POTUS was angry at California because it cast most of its votes in 2016 for Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Therein lies the difference between a president who understands that he represents the entire nation and one who holds grudges and fails to this very day the ability to demonstrate any of the compassion that his high office requires of him in times of grief.

I welcome this return to the way our presidents are supposed to behave.

national news

POTUS = Consoler in Chief

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It shouldn’t be worthy of a comment here, but given what we have seen for the past four years, well … I’m going to offer a brief observation.

President Biden and his wife, first lady Jill Biden, today performed an unwritten role of being the nation’s first couple. They flew from Washington, D.C., to south Florida. Their duty was to console the loved ones waiting for word on the fate of those still missing in that horrible building collapse in Surfside, Fla.

Biden’s immediate presidential predecessor didn’t see much good to be had in performing that role. He was bad at it. He lacks empathy and compassion. Not so with President and Mrs. Biden.

The people still listed as missing in the debris left by the collapse have loved ones waiting to know their fate. Those loved ones needed a word of warmth from the president and first lady. They got it today.

It won’t produce a tangible result. The presence of the president and first lady only will tell the bereaved loved ones that their head of state stands with them. That’s good enough.

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.