Tag Archives: POTUS

national news

Waiting for a ‘presidential’ president

(AP Photo/John Minchillo)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

While the nation remains ensnared by the machinations of a president who cannot admit to losing an election, I find myself yearning for the moment the current president exits the stage and makes way for the guy who’s going to replace him.

At the crux of my yearning is a belief that the new fellow, Joseph Biden, will restore the term “presidential” to the office he inherits from Donald Trump.

You see, the sight of Trump continuing to insist that the election was an act of thievery performed by Biden and his  team is painful to the core. It shows the world that the United States of America, whose people like to think we live in an exceptional nation, is capable of behaving like a Third World banana republic. That is what Trump is providing the world: a glimpse into the dark side of politics and into the man that managed to get elected president of the United States.

He’s about to go away somewhere. Likely to Florida. He’ll play a lot of golf soon. He might form a new team  to plot a return to politics down the road. He’ll keep yammering about Biden, about the election, about whatever filters into his vacuous skull.

Through it all, we’ll get to watch a president actually act like the man who has walked into the world’s most visible and powerful office. Yes, a lot of it will be symbolic and not of much substance.

It will be important, though, to know that our president is in control of the situation and most of all in control of his own impulses. Joe Biden is going to become a “presidential” president.

I await that moment anxiously.

national news

Hey, Mr. POTUS … just stay in Florida

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Mr. President, this is likely the final blog entry I will direct to you, but I have something I want to get off my chest.

I get that you and the first lady are in Florida enjoying the Christmas season. Good deal, but here is what I want to ask you: Why don’t you just stay there and not bother returning to the White House? 

You have left a mess in Washington. The COVID relief bill contains some help for Americans who need it; it also funds the military; it also keeps the government running. Yet you say you won’t sign it. You screwed this up royally with your surprise reversal after your team negotiated the deal that ended up on your desk.

The chaos we all predicted would be the lowlight of your tenure as president is coming home to roost. Thanks to you!

So, just stay away from Washington. You don’t do any work there anyway, other than concoct traitorous methods to overturn an election that you lost handily. Just don’t bother darkening the door of our house, OK?

Hey, just stay near a phone. Someone can call you in case an emergency arises. You’re still the president until Jan. 20. Just remain available to make a decision that only you can make. Movers can pack up your stuff and send it to you and the first lady. They’ll know where to find you.

Beyond that, we don’t need you any longer. President Biden will be ready to step in when he takes his oath of office. What’s more, he is certain to honor the oath, which you have failed miserably to do.

I’ve had enough of you in my house. Stay away.

Merry Christmas … numbskull.

national news

Michael Flynn: moronic notion

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The man who for 24 days served as national security adviser for Donald J. Trump has come forward with a patently stupid — and treasonous — idea.

Michael Flynn, the pardoned former Army lieutenant general, said that Trump has the authority to call out the troops, dispatch them to various states and actually order them to overturn the election that resulted in Trump’s loss to President-elect Joe Biden.

Is this individual for real? Has he lost what passes for his mind?

Gen. Flynn has actually suggested that Trump — who continues to insist he won an election he actually lost — can mount what amounts to a military coup against the government. That’s if I understand what the former national security adviser has suggested.

“He could order, within the swing states if he wanted to, he could take military capabilities and basically rerun an election each in those states,” Flynn told Newsmax. What the hell? 

Thirty-three days from now, we are getting a new president. His name is Joe Biden. I want to be spared the idiocy that keeps pouring forth from Donald Trump and his cabal of kooks.

national news

Anxious for a new president

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

You know by now I have refrained from typing the word “President” directly in front of Donald Trump’s name.

Trump is too fundamentally unfit for the office for me to acknowledge that he has earned the title. So I have declined to refer to him directly with the title he acquired upon election four years ago as president of the United States.

Accordingly, I am looking forward to referring to the new president in that fashion. I am going to take a certain measure of delight in typing the words “President Biden” as he assumes the office to which he was elected.

This sounds petty, I am sure, to many of those of you who voted for Trump. You’re entitled to feel that way. As I am entitled to feel the way I do about the outgoing president.

This blog consists mainly discussion about politics and policy. I am keenly aware that many policy decisions come from the politicians who haven’t earned my support at the ballot box. They serve in state and local offices in Texas. However, none of them is as unfit for the offices they occupy as Donald Trump. Therefore, I am not at all reluctant to refer, say, to Gov. Greg Abbott, or Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, or U.S. Rep. Van Taylor … or even Vice President Mike Pence.

Donald J. Trump? He occupies a special place of derision for me. I won’t go there. Not ever.

With that I await the inauguration of our next commander in chief, President Joe Biden. 

I just am going to ask him one thing: Do not do something so egregious that I will be forced to reconsider my intent to extend you the courtesy of referring to you by the exalted title you have earned.

national news

This is how you conduct a ‘peaceful transfer of power’

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I will be brief with this post.

I have included with these few words a video showing some recent transitions of power from one presidential administration to the next one. They include transitions from one political party to another.

They illustrate the greatness of this nation. They tell us how it usually is done. How individuals with competing world views can seek common good and show the world how Americans can set aside their differences to ensure seamless transfers of power.

Now we have Donald John Trump Sr. …

national news

Looking for electoral perspective

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The dust hasn’t yet settled on this presidential election, but it’s time nonetheless to seek to put some perspective on the impact of this momentous result.

President-elect Joe Biden is en route to an Electoral College victory that will mirror the win that Donald Trump scored four years ago. Trump called it a “landslide” victory over Hillary Clinton.

It wasn’t. It was a squeaker. Trump won on the strength of 77,000 votes cast in three Rust Belt states — Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania — that previously had voted for President Barack Obama.

On another matter, Trump was outvoted at the ballot box. Hillary Clinton collected nearly 3 million more votes than Trump, but just didn’t win the Electoral College votes she needed to become president.

Biden will finish with 306 electoral votes. Just as significantly, he will garner at least 5 million more votes than Trump; that number sits at 4.1 million at this moment, but they are far from finished counting all the ballots across the nation.

Does this election result constitute a landslide? No. It doesn’t. Joe Biden’s victory, though, is going to produce more of a mandate than Donald Trump ever was able to claim.

One more matter of perspective is in order. The composition of the U.S. Senate remains undecided. Two Senate races in Georgia are headed for runoffs. If two Democrats win those races, the Senate will end up with 50 Democrats (including two Democrat-leaning independents) and 50 Republicans. That puts Vice President Kamala Harris, as the Senate’s presiding officer, in position to cast tie-breaking votes if the need arises. You’ll recall that Vice President Mike Pence performed that task to confirm Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

Joe Biden’s victory was historic to be sure. He was reduced to so much political road kill after early miserable primary showings early this year. He stormed back on the strength of an endorsement from Rep. James Clyburn in advance of the South Carolina primary, which he won. Biden never looked back.

He is now set to become president of the United States thanks to a victory that is decisive and clear cut. The great American experiment in electing an individual with no political or public service experience is about to end.

We’re about to welcome a president and vice president to the pinnacle of power who have political capital — which Donald Trump never acquired — they can spend. My hope is that President Biden and Vice President Harris spend it wisely.

national news

Let the healing begin

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I have to say that the words “President-elect Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.” have a stirring ring to my eyes and ears.

The networks and major media organizations have made a call many of us wanted to hear, that we have new president of the United States.

I am a happy fellow at this moment.

We’ll get to unpack all the reasons for our happiness in the weeks ahead. The end of Donald Trump’s tenure as president is just around the corner. He likely won’t concede the race, at least not in the immediate future, which to be honest doesn’t bother me near as much as I thought it might.

His refusal to concede and to offer a full cooperation with the new president and his team will inflict some damage to the nation’s image abroad, but it will cast most of the shame on Trump.

What’s more …

Let’s not forget a key historical moment that occurred just a little while ago: the election of Kamala Harris as the first woman vice president. Indeed, she embodies a historical trifecta as the first woman, the first black woman and the first Indian-American woman.

And so there you have it.

President-elect Biden pledged to heal the country. He has been through emotional hell in his own life, so he knows all about what it takes to heal a shattered heart. He has buried two of his children and his wife. He has climbed out of the depths of despair.

Joe Biden now stands at the political pinnacle.

This is a good day for the nation we love.

national news, Uncategorized

POTUS damages democratic process

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Allow me this bit of candor, which is that I hadn’t given much if any thought to whether a president of the United States would actually speak against the democratic process in the country he was elected to govern.

Until now.

Donald Trump is demanding that states that are counting ballots cast in this week’s presidential election should stop the ballot-tabulation process. Yes. The president wants them to stop counting ballots that were cast legally in a free and fair election.

Is there a precedent for this kind of coercion, this sort of bullying? I cannot think of it.

Donald Trump entered the presidency four years ago with no knowledge or experience with government, or with public service. That ignorance is playing out in full view as Donald Trump is being forced inch by inch out of office by the vote totals run up by Joseph Biden, the seeming winner of the presidential election.

Trump is filing court challenges. The courts are routinely dismissing them. The challenges seek to cast aspersions on the legality of the ballots cast; the courts are saying the challenges have no merit.

Trump has taken to Twitter to insist that states stop counting the ballots. He has no singular authority to make such a demand. But he persists and adds to his already shameful conduct.

We will get through all of this eventually. I am waiting with bated breath for a declaration that we will have a president-elect who then can commence the transition from chaos to collegiality within our federal government.

As for Trump, it falls on him to decide whether he will exit the office with dignity and pledge the traditional “peaceful transition of power” to Joe Biden and his team … or whether he will continue to conduct himself in a manner that brings abject shame and ridicule.

national news

Who are the undecided?

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Political pundits from coast to coast to coast are pondering the effect of the second and final presidential joint appearance with Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

Namely, which of them persuaded the “undecided” voters spread across the land.

I am left to scratch my head and wonder: Who in the world is actually undecided at this stage of a campaign that has been raging for more than two years?

I’ve seen the polls that put Biden ahead by roughly eight to 12 percent across the board. The former vice president’s lead has been steady, if not overwhelming. I can find few undecided voters tabulated in any of the major surveys conducted.

Are there enough undecided voters to swing the balance from Biden to Trump as we head into the final week of this campaign? If there are, then they are lying to pollsters.

I want to remind everyone who actually cares that in 2016, the public opinion actually called it correctly between Trump and Hillary Rodham Clinton. They said the polls would tighten down the stretch; they did. They also said Clinton would lead Trump by two to three percent by Election Day; they had that right, too.

Clinton defeated Trump in what I will call the “actual vote” by nearly two percentage points. Trump, of course, won the presidency because he captured enough Electoral College votes. There you have it. Game over.

Who, though, really is undecided about Trump this late in his term as president? You either endorse the way he has conducted himself or you don’t. Count me as a serious voter who opposes Trump’s reelection. Hell, I opposed his election four years ago with everything I could muster.

I am trying to discern whether there really is enough of an undecided voter cache to claim for Trump to turn a losing re-election effort into a winning one. I don’t see it.

Then again, I didn’t see Hillary Clinton losing to Trump; I don’t feel too badly about that, as virtually no one in America saw Trump scoring a political fluke for the ages.

Get busy, Joe Biden. Time is not your friend.

medical news

Chaos reigns in COVID response

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

If there is an issue that demands continuity in a government response it must include the health and well-being of our head of state and commander in chief.

Are we getting now from the White House as Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, battle the coronavirus? Hardly.

We are getting more of the chaotic mixed messaging that has afflicted the White House since, oh, when Trump became president.

Donald Trump is a patient at Walter Reed Medical Center. The doctors tell us that Trump’s condition is progressing; then we hear from others close to the situation that Trump’s vital signs are “worrisome” and that the next 48 hours will be critical.

Which is it?

Americans cannot get a clear reading of whether the doctors administered oxygen to Trump. White House doctors tell us that he doesn’t have oxygen “right now,” or “today.” No mention of whether he ever has received it.

We don’t know when Trump might have tested positive for the virus and whether he continued his activities for another full day after getting the diagnosis.

So many questions. The White House seems unable or unwilling to deliver a clear, unambiguous message. What’s at stake? The health of the president. Not only that, we have our national security apparatus in potential jeopardy when the public does not have a clear understanding of the president’s health.

Donald Trump, lest we forget, happens to be part of a major at-risk group: elderly, overweight males are among those most vulnerable to serious symptoms if they test positive for the COVID-19 virus.

Therefore, we need a crystal clear message that tells us the whole truth about the physical condition of president.

Stop the chaos!