Tag Archives: Joe Biden

national news

Forget how they look … masks save lives

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

When I watch the news and notice President Biden making public appearances while wearing a mask, I cannot help but think of something his predecessor said about mask-wearing in light of the killer pandemic.

Donald J. Trump dismissed the idea of wearing a mask, saying something about how unbecoming it would be for the president of the United States to wear such a thing. He was worried about appearance.

Hmm. So, Trump exits the political stage — and not a moment too soon — and gives way to President Biden, who doesn’t appear to be worried about such mundane matters. Biden wears a mask. He has asked all Americans to wear masks for at least the first 100 days of his administration. My wife and I have heard his request and are following suit.

I am not going to suggest that we are doing it out of “patriotism,” which Biden insists ought to be the driving force. We are seeking to protect ourselves and those with whom we come in contact. Wearing a mask is not a big deal. Indeed, reaching for a mask before I enter a grocery store is becoming more “normal” than not reaching for it.

All of this is my way of welcoming the new outlook and the leadership that is coming from the White House.

Make no mistake, too, that President Biden is willing and able to talk candidly with us about the savage toll the pandemic is exacting on us. His predecessor routinely sought to downplay that, too. Amazing.

Watching the president of the United States conduct matters of state while wearing a mask only highlights the foolishness that came from his predecessor, an individual who was more concerned about appearances than he ever was about saving lives.

International news, media news

It’s out: MBS ordered killing

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The world knew already what U.S. intelligence officials released for public review: the Saudi crown prince ordered the assassination of a renowned Saudi dissident journalist who also happened to be a U.S. resident at the time of his hideous murder.

Jamal Khashoggi was strangled and dismembered. His remains haven’t yet been recovered. Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman ordered it because of critical columns that Khashoggi had written for the Washington Post.

The Biden administration today released the findings of the probe. The Trump administration had refused to let us know what the spooks determined.

I am glad to see President Biden reversing his predecessor’s hands-off policy regarding MBS. I wish, though, he would level harsh personal sanctions on the crown prince rather than backing off. Yes, the president intends to sanction others within the Saudi government and will sanction the nation as well; he will suspend arms sales and other deals intended to strengthen the Saudi position in the Middle East.

However, the bad guy in all of this — the crown prince — is going to skate away without punishment.

CBS News is reporting on the intelligence findings: “We base this assessment on the Crown Prince’s control of decision making in the Kingdom, the direct involvement of a key adviser and members of Muhammad bin Salman’s protective detail in the operation, and the Crown Prince’s support for using violent measures to silence dissidents abroad, including Khashoggi,” the report says.

Intel report finds MBS approved “capture or kill” Khashoggi (msn.com)

So, still, there is no punishment being handed out to this evil character? Amazing!

We are proud in this country of standing up for liberty and for the free flow of information and dissent. Khashoggi wasn’t a U.S. citizen, but he lived here and worked for a leading U.S. newspaper, the Post.

President Biden has whiffed on this one.

International news

U.S. back in the game

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Justin Trudeau has welcomed the United States back to the role of international leader.

Thank you, Mr. Canadian Prime Minister. I am one American who is glad to see our country embraced as the world’s most indispensable nation. That it comes from our longstanding North American ally and partner, which shares the world’s longest unfortified border with us, is especially welcome.

President Biden and Trudeau met for the first time as fellow heads of government. Trudeau, of course, had what one could call a strained relationship with Donald John Trump, given that Trump imposed tariffs on Canadian goods exported to the United States. Oh, and he also questioned whether the Canadians were spending enough on defense given our nations’ membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Trudeau seems to expect, with justification, a return to a more normal U.S.-Canada alliance with Joe Biden being elected president of the United States. Indeed, President Biden declared recently at the G7 virtual summit that “America is back” on the world stage.

Now, I totally understand the political popularity of Trump’s “make America first” policy. It helped elect him president in 2016. After four years of bitching, moaning and chaos brought about Trump’s petulance and unpredictability, American voters said “enough of that,” and turned toward Biden, a man with decades of foreign policy moxie and experience.

Is the new president going to conduct a hiccup-free foreign policy? Heavens no! However, if we are to accept Justin Trudeau’s assessment about the return of U.S. leadership, then we should hail the restoration of our nation’s role as the world’s leading military and economic power.

national news

Oh, Ted … please shut up!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Forgive this brief bit of “what aboutism.” I just cannot let this statement go without a response.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz said this today regarding President Biden’s nomination of Xavier Becerra to become the next secretary of health and human services:

The fact that President Biden was willing to nominate Xavier Becerra — someone with zero experience in anything related to health care — to the Department of Health and Human Services during this pandemic, illustrates Biden prioritizes partisan politics above all else.

Oh, my. Where do I begin?

I’ll start with this: Cruz had no difficulty supporting the appointment of two members of the Donald Trump Cabinet with no experience at all overseeing the agencies they were selected to run.

Exhibit A is Dr. Ben Carson, the housing secretary and then we have Betsy DeVos, the secretary of education.

Dr. Carson was a renowned brain surgeon. Did he have a clue about public housing? Had he ever led an agency the size of HUD? No and no. Indeed, he was hard-pressed during his confirmation hearing to answer simple questions related to public housing policy. He got confirmed.

DeVos never attended public schools. Her children never attended them, either. She favors giving taxpayer funds to finance vouchers for children to attend private schools. She is anti-public education. DeVos was, and is, ignorant on basics about education policy. She, too, was confirmed … although it took a tie-breaking vote cast by Vice President Mike Pence for her to take office.

Now we hear from the Cruz Missile saying that Becerra has no experience in health policy. Earth to Ted: Becerra served in the House of Representatives and was a key architect of the Affordable Care Act that Cruz has opposed since joining the Senate in 2013. Thus, Becerra had plenty to do with health care.

This kind of flippin’ nonsense from a loudmouth senator who doesn’t possess an ounce of introspection just sends me into orbit.

What’s more, to hear this kind of bullsh** coming from someone who sought to undermine a free and fair election and who ought to bear some responsibility for the hideous attack on our democratic system on Jan. 6 is reprehensible on its face.

My advice to Ted Cruz? Shut the hell up.

medical news

‘New normal’ looking old

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

As I go about my day, which at times includes an errand or two around town, I am beginning to conclude something about the state of affairs.

It is that they aren’t going to change much in the next year … or maybe two!

I notice all the masks on people’s faces. I watch a lot of folks at the neighborhood grocery store practicing “social distancing” while waiting to get their groceries checked. I notice folks at the sanitizer dispensers washing their hands. I am struck by how many of us are following the guidelines established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other experts.

The pandemic and its impact are staying with us for the foreseeable future. Maybe even beyond it.

I hate acknowledging what I know in my heart and my head to be true, which is that no matter how safe we think we are, we cannot possibly for even a moment divert our attention away from the need to take care of our health.

I know too many people who are losing loved ones to the COVID virus. Just today a friend of mine, who is married to a physician, told me she lost her father-in-law to the disease. My friend, again drawing on her husband’s expertise, also told me that close to 80 percent of COVID patients who are placed on ventilators do not recover; I mention that a member of my family has recovered from a month-long hospital stay which included lengthy time on a ventilator.

President Biden has asked us to wear masks. He is doing so as well. So is his wife, Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband. They are setting an example for the rest of us to follow.

I am all in.

I never swilled the snake oil that the president’s predecessor, Donald Trump, was peddling as he told us in early 2020 that the virus was “under control.” It damn sure wasn’t. It is getting that way now — finally!

I believe we have entered the realm of the new normal, which to my way of thinking is beginning to look, well, just plain normal.

national news

Transition proves tough

(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The transition from the presidency of Donald John Trump to Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. has proved tougher than I anticipated.

From a blogger’s standpoint, Trump kept me energized damn near daily with commentary to offer; Biden, meanwhile, is essentially keeping a low center of gravity … which I am certain is a good thing.

I am left, then, to think of what kind of former presidency awaits the 45th White House occupant. How does this guy spend his remaining time on Earth? Will he bask in the reflected glory of having served a single term as president? Or will he continue to live under the ruse of the Big Lie that he keeps telling, the one about alleged electoral thievery by the guy who beat him?

There might come a time when the former presidents gather in one place. It might a funeral for one of them. It might be an event that President Biden decides to host that calls on his predecessors to attend. What might that be? Let’s see, we’ll be commemorating the 20th anniversary of 9/11 later this year. There might be an event at the White House or the Pentagon, or at the World Trade Center in Manhattan that compels the former presidents to show up.

Surely we would see Presidents Bush and Obama there, yes? I mean, 9/11 occurred on Bush’s watch and Obama approved the mission that killed Osama bin Laden. President Clinton is no stranger to comforting a nation grieving over tragedy, which he did after the Oklahoma City bombing. President Carter’s health might not allow him to be there.

What about Donald Trump? Does he get invited to attend such an event?

I am thinking he is going to live out his days as an outcast from this exclusive club of former U.S. commanders in chief. It doesn’t matter one damn bit to me whether he ever rehabilitates himself sufficiently to be welcomed back, or whether he would even feel suited to accept an invitation, were one to be extended.

There might come a day when these thoughts won’t invade my skull. Man, I hope it gets here in a hurry.

Uncategorized

Biden expands disaster list

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Someone must have gotten to President Biden, or perhaps to the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The Biden administration today added 31 Texas counties to the president’s list of 77 counties that fell within the major disaster declaration he issued over the weekend.

Gov. Greg Abbott had called the initial disaster declaration a good start. FEMA, though, added the counties that now are on track to receive greater federal assistance to help them recover from the monstrous winter storm that blanketed and ravaged much of the state.

We’re basking  today in 70-degree sunshine in North Texas. A week ago we were freezing our backsides off with temps plunging to near zero degrees. Our electrical grid failed; our water supply went kaput. Millions of Texans — my wife and I included — were suffering from the cold.

Counties included in this latest approval are Anderson, Austin, Bosque, Bowie, Burnet, Cherokee, Colorado, Erath, Fannin, Freestone, Gonzales, Grayson, Gregg, Harrison, Hill, Houston, Hunt, Jackson, Jim Wells, Jones, Limestone, Lubbock, Medina, Milam, Navarro, Rusk, Taylor, Tom Green, Val Verde, Washington, Wood.

I am particularly heartened to see Hunt and Fannin counties added to the disaster-listed jurisdictions. My joy, though, pales compared to what officials there and in the other counties are feeling.

The list of 77 counties now has grown to 108 out of a total of 254 Texas counties. As Gov. Abbott said: It’s a start.

Uncategorized

‘Unity’ still awaits POTUS

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

President Biden’s quest for national unity keeps finding speed bumps.

He’s hitting many of the right notes, but a month into the presidency he continues to encounter Republican resistance. GOP senators aren’t exactly embracing many of his selections for the Cabinet. One of them, budget director nominee Neera Tanden, is likely to be derailed.

National unity, though, isn’t entirely based on whether a president enjoys a full-blown honeymoon with Congress. It also reveals whether the POTUS enjoys widespread support among the population. That, too, seems to be a bit of a stretch, given polling that suggests some still dark impulses among GOP voters.

Most of the GOP voting public still seems to believe that President Biden “stole” the election from Donald Trump. That really troubles the daylights out of me. Trump continues to divide the nation by perpetuating The Big Lie about the integrity of the 2020 election and it undermines any serious effort to bridge the divide between the major political parties.

So, the search for unity goes on and on.

I am pulling for the president to find the common ground he seeks with Congress. Attaining that commonality will go a long way toward uniting the nation that all of them — President Biden and the 535 members of Congress — govern together.

Donald Trump once infamously proclaimed that “I, alone” can fix the nation’s problems. I don’t believe we will hear that kind of boastfulness from Joe Biden. He knows that teamwork requires giving and taking.

As for the nagging doubt that lingers in the minds of those who voted for Trump about the integrity of the election that Biden won — fairly and squarely — the president might just have to rely on the passage of time to let their fervor subside.

Meanwhile, the quest for unity continues.

Good luck, Mr. President. I am in your corner.

Uncategorized

Memories of recent past still resonate

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Whatever he does, President Biden’s actions are compared to those of his immediate predecessor.

Biden calls for a moment of silence to commemorate the deaths of victims of the pandemic; we think of Donald Trump’s lack of empathy. Biden says he intends to guide the nation back toward our allies; Trump sought to “put America first” while angering our allies. Biden wants to restore a sane and humane immigration policy; Trump sought to separate children from their parents.

Biden’s action are held in direct contrast to Trump’s actions.

I am hoping to shed the shadow of Donald Trump very soon.

Uncategorized

Biden shows empathy

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

This shouldn’t matter, but in the current context it surely does matter … a lot!

President Biden today delivered a heartfelt message to Americans, aiming his comments directly at those who have lost loved ones to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The numbers are horrific. More than 500,000 Americans have died from the disease. The president sought to deliver his message in personal terms.

Why does all of this matter more than it usually might? Because it shows in sharp, vivid contrast to the lack of empathy we have heard from the White House while the nation has battled this killer virus.

Biden’s presidential predecessor just couldn’t bring himself to call for a moment of silence, or to speak to us from the deepest recesses of his gut about the pain so many of us are suffering. Instead, he lied to us initially about the threat the virus posed and sought to provide happy talk about having it “under control.”

Joe Biden has not performed flawlessly in his first month in office. The rollout of vaccines has been clumsy in some locales; he hasn’t been helped, either, by the inclement weather in some places, such as in Texas.

This president, though, understands the pain that many Americans are suffering in this moment. He, too, has lost loved ones. He has buried two of his children and his young wife. President Biden is trying to speak to us as someone who knows our pain.

I am an American patriot who appreciates the message the president is trying to deliver.