Tag Archives: Joe Biden

medical news, national news

Politics: the ‘other contagion’

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

This must be said: The killer coronavirus isn’t the only disease that needs Americans’ attention.

We need to focus to a certain extent on what I consider to be the “other contagion” sweeping through the nation. That is the political battle that just won’t subside over the preventative measures we must take.

This needless and frankly stupid fight had its beginning during the final full year of Donald Trump’s term as president. It arose when Trump downplayed the severity of the illness that had sickened us. He hurled racial epithets at the disease, making reference to its alleged origin in China. He told us the virus would disappear when the temperatures rose in the spring and summer of 2020.

Trump poked fun at political foes, such as Joe Biden, who chose to wear a mask. He didn’t speak to us in terms that defined the COVID-19 virus what it turned out to be: a relentless and highly efficient killer.

Those Trumpkins followed their band director’s lead. We have become infected as well by the politics of what for the life of me I cannot grasp should never have devolved to that level.

Trump said he would adopt a “wartime” footing, only to denigrate the scientists who advised him of the dangers that lurked out there. And again, those followers took him seriously.

They, too, have become part of the problem and not the solution.

The political infection of what should be a united national fight is a disgraceful example of pettiness and petulance. It should have no place in a fight that should transcend partisanship.

President Biden calls mask wearing, social distancing and frequent hand washing the “patriotic” thing to do. If we are going to whip this common enemy, we need to push aside the politics that infects us.

One contagion is enough.

national news

Arguing over ‘infrastructure’

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

So, now President Biden and his Republican “friends” in Congress are arguing over how to define “infrastructure.”

Their disagreement means that GOP members of Congress will oppose what Biden wants to do with $2.25 trillion he is proposing as an “infrastructure” package he wants approved by the Fourth of July.

The GOP defines the terms in the traditional manner: roads, bridges, rail lines, airports, seaports. President Biden considers job creation and the care and well being of Americans as part of an infrastructure plan.

Hmm. Who’s right? Who’s wrong? Who wins the day?

I am going to go with President Biden’s world view.

He wants to pull back some of the corporate tax reduction Congress enacted in 2017. That tax would help pay for the proposal. Republicans don’t want to betray those corporations by forcing them to pay part of the freight.

We are at a stalemate.

Republicans also contend that too little of what Biden wants is going toward those traditional infrastructure needs. They want it scaled back in a big way. President Biden isn’t having any of that.

The package does contain hundreds of billions of dollars for highways, bridges, airport and seaport renovation. It also enhances Internet broadband capability. It also invests in green energy development. Along the way, it intends to put millions of Americans to work.

Is that a bad thing? I don’t think so. It’s a good thing that needs to become law. First, though, we need to get past this disagreement over what constitutes “infrastructure.”

national news

Can we repair this damage?

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

One of the unfortunate consequences of Donald Trump’s term as president has been the damage inflicted among loved ones.

Family members have become split between the pro-Trump and the anti-Trump wings. Not only that, but the anger generated on both sides of the divide has done great harm to relationships that are supposed to be immune from mere political differences.

My family has been spared much of that long term damage. I am an avid anti-Trumper. I have family members who are just as avid pro-Trumpers. They live far away. Therefore, we don’t see them regularly enough or even communicate with sufficient frequency to get wound up too tightly in political discussions.

I have heard plenty of anecdotes about family members clawing at each other — proverbially, of course — over these political differences.

We have crossed an important threshold, though. President Biden vowed to “unify” the country. He is having trouble unifying Democrats and Republicans in Congress, getting them to line up toward a single political goal. Perhaps the president can focus his unification effort on trying to mend fences between factions out here. It well might be that Joe Biden will be less toxic, less divisive, less vitriolic than the guy he defeated this past November.

Therefore, we might see some unity redevelop in households across the land. Or between extended family members who formerly hated each just because they supported Trump … or opposed Trump.

It would be my fervent hope that President Biden’s quest for unity can extend beyond the halls of power and into our living rooms and dining rooms.

Is that too much to ask? I think not.

national news

Presidency is so … normal

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Joe Biden’s initial period as president of the United States has lacked the flash and panache of the guy who preceded him immediately in the office.

You know what? I am totally fine with that.

Whereas the 45th president of the United States sought actively to get on people’s nerves, the 46th president goes about his daily business the way most of the 44 men before them both did.

Donald Trump is wired to shower himself with publicity. That’s his brand. He spent his entire professional life — every single minute of it — with one aim: self-enrichment, self-aggrandizement and self-promotion. Then he ran for POTUS in 2016 and, lo and behold, he actually won!

Trump’s term as president was fraught with much of the same kind of silliness, except that its consequences were far from “silly.” They were dire, grave and full of peril.

Now he’s out of there. President Biden has conducted himself with dignity, sorrow when the moment presents itself and yes, even a bit of joy when that moment arrives, too.

Biden has endured sorrowful moments, with shootings continuing to take innocent lives. Yes, there’s also the pandemic that continues to kill Americans.

However, he has enjoyed one major legislative triumph, the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill he signed into law. He didn’t spike the proverbial football. Biden didn’t prance and preen and declare that only he could have gotten it done.

President Biden is not making policy pronouncements, surprising Cabinet officials or the brass who serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff via Twitter. That, too, was part of Donald Trump’s modus operandi. 

Trump said he preferred to be “unpredictable.” It had appeal among a core of voters. It also had a seriously destabilizing effect on the government professionals who worked in the executive branch, not to mention our allies around the world.

Biden is wired differently, being a creature of government, someone who had dedicated his adult life to public service. President Biden is acutely aware of the consequences of his actions and prefers to operate within the norms established by many decades of tradition, custom and, oh yes … the law!

Even when he missteps, Joe Biden looks to me to be a lead-pipe cinch to avoid the chaos and confusion that marked the term of the guy he replaced. I am all in.

legal news

Don’t expand SCOTUS ranks

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

All right, President Biden.

You said during the 2020 presidential campaign that you opposed expanding the number of justices serving on the Supreme Court. I am going to hold you to that notion as you launch the formation of a bipartisan commission to study SCOTUS “reform.”

Mr. President, the court functions just fine with nine justices. You are getting pressure from the left to expand the court to select more justices who fit your philosophical world view. That’s a bad idea.

Is the court composed of a majority of jurists I favor? No, but you know the saying about how “elections have consequences.” The 2016 election delivered serious consequences, indeed, when Donald Trump was elected president and he was able to get three justices confirmed in his single term in office.

Biden Commission Would Study Possible Supreme Court Reforms : NPR

I don’t like the court’s solid conservative majority any more than the lefties do. However, packing the court with more justices and then finding the “correct” jurists to fill those seats plays fast and loose with the founders’ efforts to de-politicize the federal judiciary.

I accept the White House statement on the commission: “The Commission’s purpose is to provide an analysis of the principal arguments in the contemporary public debate for and against Supreme Court reform, including an appraisal of the merits and legality of particular reform proposals,” the White House said in a statement. “The topics it will examine include the genesis of the reform debate; the Court’s role in the Constitutional system; the length of service and turnover of justices on the Court; the membership and size of the Court; and the Court’s case selection, rules, and practices.”

While we’re at it, Mr. President, let’s not limit the terms of the justices, either. There is no compelling need to usher them out the door after they reach a certain age. As long as they are able to do the job, they should be allowed to stay on the court and play a role in determining the constitutionality of federal law.

That all said, good luck with the commission. Just don’t go too far.

legal news

Don’t pressure Breyer, Mr. POTUS

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

President Biden is getting plenty of pressure from the progressive left of the Democratic Party.

The current hot button happens to involve a member of another co-equal branch of government. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer might be retiring later this year from the court. Activists on the left want President Biden to nudge him out the door so he can appoint the first black woman to the nation’s highest court, which Biden already has pledged to do.

Don’t take the bait, Mr. President.

It is believed that Breyer, appointed to the court in 1994 by President Clinton, will retire when the court’s current term expires. White House press flack Jen Psaki assured reporters today that Biden plans to let Justice Breyer make that decision on his own. Good call, there.

The Hill reports, however: Demand Justice, an advocacy group led by a former top aide to Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), launched an effort Friday to push Breyer, 82, to step down so that Biden can appoint the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court while Democrats have control of the Senate.

“We are now firmly in the window when past justices have announced their retirement, so it’s officially worrisome that Justice Breyer has not said yet that he will step down. The only responsible choice for Justice Breyer is to immediately announce his retirement so President Biden can quickly nominate the first-ever Black woman Supreme Court justice,” said Brian Fallon, the executive director of Demand Justice and a former top aide to Schumer.

Biden will let Breyer decide when to retire, aide says | TheHill

Earth to Brian Fallon: Justice Breyer is under no obligation to announce on any timetable when he plans to retire. He was appointed to a lifetime judgeship, which I am certain is well-known  to Fallon. When he decides to call it quits, I also am certain that Brian Fallon will be among the first to know.

crime news

It’s Biden vs. demagogues

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

President Biden is waging a mounting conflict with those who exhibit acute paranoia over the issue of gun violence and whether the federal government can control it.

Biden today introduced some executive action he is taking that seeks to curb the influx of something called “ghost guns.”

He is acting in response to the spasm of violence that erupted in Atlanta and then in Boulder, Colo. More lives got snuffed out in massacres. More waste was laid to families who never imagined their loved ones would die in such a horrific manner.

And yet the president is trying to find solutions that remain faithful to the Second Amendment to the Constitution. The gun lobby is arguing that any effort to make it harder for crackpots to obtain firearms is an infringement on their constitutional right to bear arms. It isn’t. Biden assured the nation again today that he has no intention of taking law abiding citizens’ guns away from them.

The demagogues on the right aren’t having it. They ignore those assurances and continue to preach the mantra that the “liberals are trying to disarm you.”

Good grief, man. President Biden is searching for a legislative solution that keeps faith with what the founders wrote all those years ago.

Joe Biden knows better than most of us that talking sense to demagogues is an exercise in futility.

Don’t give up the fight, Mr. President.

national news

POTUS ready to ‘negotiate’

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

President Biden says, to borrow a phrase, that “doing nothing is not an option” with regard to improving our nation’s infrastructure.

However, he has stated his willingness to negotiate with members of Congress over the scope of the tax increases he will insist on to pay for the $2.25 trillion package.

The way I read it is that Biden isn’t casting the proposed 28 percent corporate tax rate in stone. Or, if he is, the president is willing to work with the numbers while the stone is hardening.

He said he is tired of middle Americans getting “fleeced” by a tax structure that gives rich Americans too much of a break while foisting the tax burden on the not so wealthy. He accused Republicans in Congress and Donald Trump of doing that when they approved the 2017 tax cut over the objection of Democrats in the House and Senate. Biden is prepared to play the same partisan game to get his infrastructure plan enacted.

However, he is willing to wiggle around a little on the tax burden he insists must be borne by those who can afford it.

I am OK with that. Just get something done to fix our roads, bridges, airports, seaports and Internet.

crime news

POTUS cuts his losses

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Believe this or not, but it appears that President Biden is taking the path of least resistance as he issues executive orders aimed at reducing gun violence in this country.

Biden signed off on orders today that ban what they call “ghost guns” and employ stricter background checks for those wishing to purchase a firearm.

What are ghost guns? Take a look at this link:

Ghost guns: Here’s what they are – CNNPolitics

The least resistance part? The gun lobby already detests Biden. The lobbyists detest even more any effort to enact legislative remedies to gun violence, contending that the Second Amendment is sacrosanct and cannot be monkeyed with in any form or fashion.

Indeed, nimrods such as 13th Texas Congressional District Rep. Ronny Jackson, tweet things like this: It’s your Constitutional RIGHT to own a firearm! We can’t allow Democrats to take that away! No one is talking about taking guns away from those who won’t use ’em to kill other human beings.

Meanwhile, general public opinion happens to be on the president’s side. Most Americans favor some stricter rules while also supporting the Constitution’s Second Amendment.

Is this executive action legal? My gut tells me that a president with extensive legislative and federal executive government experience already has done his homework. He knows the lines he cannot cross. President Biden isn’t about to be derailed because he made a mistake in performing his duties to protect us.

medical news

Mixed messaging on COVID?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

If you are confused about the status of the war against the coronavirus pandemic, join the proverbial club.

I am, too.

President Biden now says he intends to declare that all adults will be eligible for a vaccine by April 19; he moved the all-eligible deadline up from May 1. Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Biden’s chief medical adviser, talks about the nation “on the verge” of a fourth surge in infections. Variants from the virus are infecting more of us. Hospital emergency rooms are filling up with COVID patients.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott stands by his decision to lift the mask mandate he ordered a year ago. Texas Rangers fans jammed into the Arlington ballpark to cheer for the  home team.

The government proclaims further success that the millions of Americans are being vaccinated daily, inching the nation toward that state of “herd immunity” that officials hope will squash the pandemic.

So, where in the world are we?

I am going to make a presumption. It is that I have no intention of forgoing my mask when I venture into public places. Nor do my wife and I intend to frequent restaurants, movie theaters or any other venue that puts us in close proximity to total strangers.

I want to remain hopeful that we are on the cusp of eliminating the pandemic. I also want the politicization of mask-wearing and social distancing to become a thing of the past. It annoys me in the extreme to hear so-called “conservatives” bitch and moan about government mandates that aim to keep them and others safe from deadly infection.

All of this does not lessen the confusion I am sensing from those on whom we rely for information about the pandemic. I suppose my option is to believe — and act on — the worst and hope for the best outcome.