Tag Archives: Joe Biden

national news

A new year will dawn; may it bring hope

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The sun will rise at 7:29 a.m. Friday, although it is unlikely we’ll see it peek over the eastern horizon, given the crappy weather we’re having in North Texas.

It doesn’t matter. The darkness will give way to the light (more or less) and a new year will have arrived.

We all feel the same way about 2020. It sucked out loud. The pandemic continues to bring untold misery to millions of Americans and others around the world; it has killed more than 340,000 of us. And the president of the United States, Donald Trump, blew it off publicly. He told us early in the year that the pandemic is “under control.” It damn sure isn’t!

Our nation’s economy collapsed. Millions of Americans lost their jobs. Trump kept gloating about the stock market’s rise. Oh, the jobs lost? He spoke next to nothing about the suffering and strife occurring in homes throughout the land.

Then came that election. Americans sent a message of their own to Donald Trump. It was, if you’ll accept this generalization, simply this: Donald, we are sick of your policy-by-Twitter, your insults, your boorish behavior, your incessant lies and the utter incompetence you demonstrate daily about how to run the government; we want a return to the old normal.

Step right up, President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. A weary nation awaits your ascent to the pinnacle of power.

We’ve got 19 days to go before Biden takes over. He has selected a governing team that he says resembles the nation he was elected to lead. It is full of ethnic and racial minorities, of men and women. It is full of individuals with prior government experience and an appreciation and understanding of its complexity, which to my mind is the most important component of the government that is taking shape.

And so … we commence the new year with a sense of hope. We must maintain our patience and vigilance as the pandemic battle continues. Those vaccines are being administered. The crisis won’t vanish any time soon.

The new president has made a solemn vow to ramp up that fight, to wage all-out war against the pandemic. I await the result of that fight and the day we can declare victory against this enemy.

I am not foolish enough to believe that declaration will come during this upcoming calendar year. However, I am enough of an optimist to believe that we are going to make a significant advance toward that end. May we start advancing right now.

Happy new year!

media news, national news

Awaiting a new blog year, too

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Much of the world is awaiting the tick of midnight and the dawn of a new year.

A good bit of our good Earth already has welcomed 2021. Not yet in the U.S. of A.

I look forward to the new year as an American patriot, a father, grandfather, husband, brother, cousin and uncle who worries about the health and well being of his extended and immediate family.

Moreover, I look ahead to 2021 as a full-time blogger who spends a lot of time commenting on issues of the day. Yes, it is clear to everyone that Donald Trump has dominated this blog. He has consumed much of my waking hours as I look for ways to provide some context to the conduct of this individual.

Even though Jan. 1 is just around the corner, Donald Trump will remain as president until the 20th of the month. Then he steps aside and President Joe Biden takes the reigns of power. I will continue to provide comment on this blog on those issues and on how the new president deals with them.

I cannot offer a pledge cast in stone on the tone and tenor of this blog, but my sincere hope — and that’s all it can be — is that I will be able to look more constructively at the actions of our new administration.

Donald Trump was a lost cause in that regard from before he took office four years ago. He is unfit for the office. Trump remains an impeached president. I consider him to be a danger to our system of government. I have said so over the years and I make no apology for anything I have written about him.

However, at noon on Jan. 20 Donald Trump becomes irrelevant. He will tweet this and that. I intend to ignore his blathering, bloviating and bluster. I also intend to focus instead on how President Biden intends to repair the damage that Trump has left for him.

I hope to awake in the morning feeling refreshed and ready to go. The old  year really sucked, man. The new year? We have nowhere to go but straight up.

national news

Who is the real ‘enemy of the people’?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The New York Daily News published an editorial this week that peels the bark off Donald Trump and his infantile effort to subvert the nation’s democratic process.

It begins this way:

Nearly four years ago, Donald Trump swore an oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Trump now violates that oath on multiple fronts as he continues to insist he won an election he decisively lost, toys with disrupting the Jan. 6 count by Congress of the Electoral College tally — and lets his administration withhold vital cooperation from President-elect Joe Biden’s team in the pivotal closing weeks.

Editorial: Enemy of the people? Donald Trump seems dangerously determined to make Joe Biden’s job difficult (msn.com)

The Daily News takes Trump to task for the manner in which he is resisting, fighting, scrambling fecklessly to cling to the power he lost when Americans voted in significant numbers to reject him as president. He doesn’t deserve a second term in the eyes of a majority of American voters.

To think, too, that Donald Trump had the balls to declare that the media are the “enemy of the people” because they reported the unvarnished truth to Americans who were getting nothing but lies from their head of state.

Donald J. Trump is the real enemy.

local news

Is right-wing wackiness returning?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The phone rang the other morning, so I answered it and it was someone I used to know a long time ago back when we both worked in the Texas Panhandle.

My friend worked for a prominent Amarillo politician and called to pick my (already picked-over) brain about the state of politics and the media that cover it in Panhandle.

She offered a chilling summation of what she believes is occurring there: a resurgence of the conspiracy theory, far-right-wing wackiness of the Republican Party. Bear mind, too, that the individual with whom I spoke worked for a doctrinaire, conservative Republican. She is concerned that the nut jobs who once belonged to the John Birch Society and hung signs calling for the United States to pull out of the United Nations are gaining traction once again in the Texas Panhandle.

Well …

After talking to my friend, who is an astute political observer, I am beginning to worry about the state of political play in the place I called home for more than 23 years.

Indeed, the region’s congressman, Republican Mac Thornberry, is retiring in just a few days. He will be succeeded by Ronny Jackson, the retired U.S. Navy admiral, one-time White House physician and current Donald Trump acolyte who adheres to the idiocy that President-elect Joe Biden “stole” the 2020 election from his man Trump.

Therein lies the apparent heart of what should concern true-blue Republicans who sit in power throughout the Panhandle. The Party of Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan has now become the Party of Donald Trump. Are you … kidding me?

Are they going to continue to allow their party to be hijacked by the likes of those who swill the Kool-Aid offered by the carnival barker/con man/charlatan Donald Trump?

If they do, then by golly we might be in even more trouble than my friend fears is headed this way.

national news

Yep, it’s personal!

(AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Readers of this blog have long understood that I loathe Donald Trump. I loathe him because of his fundamental unfitness for the job he is about to vacate, for the way he has conducted himself before and during the time he became a politician.

It’s not ideological.

For starters, I don’t consider myself to be an ideologue. I have fashioned my political view in good-government terms, which suggests that I favor compromise over rigid ideology.

More to the point, I don’t consider Trump to be an ideologue, either. He is a panderer. Trump, though, is a clumsy panderer. He just isn’t very good at it. He is inartful, inarticulate, inept. Trump is as Sen. Mitt Romney described in 2016: a “phony” and a “fraud.”

All this is my way of saying that I welcome anxiously the moment U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts extends his hand to Joe Biden and says, “Congratulations, Mr. President.”

I am weary of the constant chaos that Trump has delivered during the past four years; I am sick and tired of this individual’s constant effort to take credit he doesn’t deserve; I am flabbergasted that he lies continually, incessantly and with no hesitation.

Even more than that I am astounded and amazed that the core of Trumpkins who continue to support this individual give him a pass on the lying. It’s as if the lies he tells have become some form of “truth” to their tone-deaf ears.

My hope for the new president is that he will spare us the constant Twitter tirade, the lying, the chaos that have been the signature of the president who is about to leave the White House for the final time. Truth be told, I hope he’s left it already for the final time, given that he and his wife are in Florida soaking up the sun and lounging in luxury while the nation suffers from the pandemic.

I am heartened and relieved we are soon to be spared the dangerous behavior of someone who in a more normal political environment would have been laughed off the political stage.

I am waiting for your arrival, President Biden.

national news

Don’t let up on ‘former president’

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

In normal times I would be inclined to not be terribly concerned about the legal troubles of a politician who is about to leave the public stage.

These aren’t normal times. The soon-to-be former pol happens to be someone who is leaving the office he inherited in complete shambles. Donald Trump, that would be you … you dolt, you seditious provocateur!

I don’t believe President Biden needs to unleash the federal hounds in pursuit of whatever crimes that Trump might have committed. However, the 45th POTUS is in serious danger of being targeted by state and local prosecutors who are probing plenty of issues related to the individual’s use of campaign money.

Donald Trump’s de facto attorney, Attorney General William Barr, covered Trump’s ample backside before he had enough and resigned this past week.

We now have a district attorney in Manhattan, New York City, who is loosing his own legal hounds in pursuit of plenty of questions regarding hush money payments to women with whom he had trysts.

Trump’s efforts to subvert our democratic process just fills me with enough rage to actually hope that the Manhattan DA delivers the goods on the moral reprobate who is about to leave office.

Whether he actually pardons himself successfully, Trump’s presidential pardon power means nothing where it regards prosecutions that occur outside the federal realm.

Go for it, Manhattan prosecutors. Let’s see what you have!

national news

Trump seeking to stay in the game? Oh, my … no!

REUTERS/James Glover II

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald John Trump reportedly wants to remain a player in Republican Party politics once he’s shown the door out of the White House.

My goodness. I don’t whether to laugh or spit!

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich has posited a notion that the most damning part of Trump’s legacy is the 46.8 percent of Americans — that’s 74 million of them — who voted for his re-election despite the damage he delivered to the presidency and possibly to democracy itself during his term in office.

They stand behind this clown’s attempts to cling to power despite losing to President-elect Joe Biden, who hauled in 81.2 million votes. They endorse his phony allegations of voter fraud. They applaud his effort to subvert democracy by challenging the certified results delivered by the Electoral College.

If this is the future of a once-great Grand Old Party, then so be it. Frankly, it portends a long, dark winter in the wilderness for the GOP if it continues to hang onto the fraudulent “ideology” for which Trump supposedly stands.

That presents a sad era in this country, which has flourished with healthy and constructive debate between two viable political parties. Indeed, President-elect Biden’s task as he takes over the executive branch is made all the more formidable with Trump continuing to bloviate from the peanut gallery. The aim appears clear: It is to “freeze” other potential presidential contenders who might consider making a White House run in 2024.

Donald Trump presided over a failed presidency. It is that clear to me and to most Americans who cast their votes in record numbers.

If he wants to remain a player, well, that falls squarely on the Republicans who have endorsed this venal individual’s quest for absolute power.

national news

Trump turns the seamless into agony

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald John Trump’s legacy as president didn’t have far to fall, but that didn’t deter Trump from doing all he can to destroy what little positive impact his term as president would have on the nation.

President-elect Joe Biden’s team needed a “seamless transition” from Trump’s team after the Nov. 3 election. Biden won the election handily. Trump, of course, has refused to concede. He is throwing up roadblocks along the way.

The seamless, peaceful transition now resembles nothing of the sort. Biden’s team is struggling to obtain needed intelligence from Trump’s national security apparatus. To be clear, the transition — so far! — appears set to occur without gunshots or tanks in the street. To that end, it will be a “peaceful” transfer of power from one administration to the next.

The “seamless” portion, though, also is part of our political custom. Presidents have lost their re-election efforts in the past and then presided over smooth transfers of power to the men who beat them. President Carter did so after the 1980 election, as did President George H.W. Bush in 1992. Sure, they spoke through gritted teeth when conceding to Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, but they did and they behaved like statesmen while they handed over the reins of power to their successors.

Trump, to be blunt, is the farthest thing I can think of as a statesman. He is a charlatan, a huckster, a phony, a fraud who’s sole interest is in clinging to power.

And the president-elect’s team is paying the price for Trump’s reluctance to do what he should do, which is concede he lost fairly and squarely.

I take plenty of comfort in knowing that Trump will be gone from my house — the White House — on Jan. 20. If only it could be the kind of seamless transfer that used to be the envy of the world.

national news

Where is POTUS? Hello?

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald J. Trump remains AWOL. He is MIA. He is hiding in plain sight, out there on the golf course in south Florida, hacking away at little white balls.

Meanwhile, the nation continues to fight what looks still like a losing battle against the unseen enemy, the virus that has killed more than 337,000 Americans.

I no longer expect anything from Donald Trump. He’s all but a goner.

Then again, I remain fixated on this nagging sense that he should be in the game. He should be barking out directives to his team of “the best people” on how he intends to facilitate delivery of the much-needed and long-awaited vaccine.

There remains no national strategy to wage war against a national enemy. Remember when Donald Trump called himself a “wartime president” and that he would conduct himself in such a manner while battling this disease? That turned out to be yet another promise unkept.

We are being briefed almost daily by President-elect Biden and members of his medical/science team. They will be taking over in just 22 days; they cannot pass soon enough, if you ask me. They haven’t suited up just yet.

Which brings me back to my point. We have one president at a time. The nation remains buried under the tragedy brought to us by this disease. Donald Trump has abdicated his responsibility as the leader of this nation by homing in matters that have everything to do with his political future and not a single freaking thing to do with you and me … and our health and well-being!

I’ve heard pundits pontificate about how we should ignore Trump that he’s no longer relevant to the national discussion. I do ignore the lies. I ignore the self-serving bloviating. I will not ignore any president — no matter how distasteful he is — when he has something important to say about a pandemic that continues to ravage the country we all love.

Dammit to hell anyway! Donald Trump took an oath to protect us. At the end of that oath, he said “so help me God.” The nation he pledged to protect is suffering.

Step up … Donald! Then in only 22 days you can just get the hell out of the way.

local news

Don’t commit treason, Mr. VPOTUS

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Allow me this brief leap of faith.

U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Nut House, is filing suit to demand that Vice President Mike Pence toss out the electoral votes that Joe Biden won in the presidential election and cast them instead for Donald Trump.

I do not believe Gohmert’s lawsuit will see the light of day. Nor do I believe that even if it did that Pence would follow the advice that the East Texas lunatic is suggesting.

On Jan. 6, the combined U.S. House and Senate will meet to ratify the Electoral College vote that has determined that Biden is the president-elect of the United States.

Gohmert is actually making a treasonous proposal by filing the lawsuit. It is astonishing, reprehensible, despicable, disgraceful and patently dangerous for Congress to even consider doing what Gohmert is demanding of the lame-duck vice president, and yet Gohmert has some fellow nut-job colleagues on the Republican side of the aisle who are willing to join him in this final act of idiocy.

To think, moreover, that the good folks of Gohmert’s East Texas congressional district continue to stand behind this goofball. They keep re-electing him every two years. Go … figure.

I’ll say it once more to VP Pence: Just do your job as the presiding officer of the joint congressional session, Mr. Vice President, and make the inevitable declaration that Joe Biden is the new president and that Kamala Harris is the new vice president.

Let’s then get back to actual governance and political sanity.