Tag Archives: Donald Trump

medical news

Pandemic is personal

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump’s absence of empathy and compassion is playing out in real time. He has tested positive for the coronavirus that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. So has his wife, his youngest son, his oldest son and an assortment of those who are reportedly “close” to him.

Yet he continues to act publicly as if the only thing that matters is that election he lost and his effort to overturn a democratically conducted electoral process.

For the rest of us? It’s personal. The virus is striking close to my home. It has sickened members of my family. It has felled friends of ours. It is hurting our hearts and is causing us enough grief and anxiety to last, oh, probably forever.

Yet the president of the United States keeps playing golf, enjoys the glitz and glamor of his posh resort/house in Florida. He is content to fire off Twitter messages and bitch and moan about an election he lost.

Oh, the pandemic? He doesn’t give a rat’s a** about its effects on other American families. I cannot speak to how he has dealt with its impact on his own family. Frankly, at this point in this pandemic crisis I … just … don’t … care.

But I certainly do care that the president who took an oath to defend us has abdicated his duty while acting as if he doesn’t give a  rip about the suffering that’s occurring in this vast and great  land.

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.

national news

POTUS-elect speaks to us … and for us

(AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

President-elect Joe Biden did it again.

At a time when the nation reels from a bizarre act of violence in a major city, the man who is set to become president spoke words that should be coming from the individual who’s already in the office.

A suicide bomber detonated an explosive device in downtown Nashville, Tenn., on Christmas Day. Police found his remains inside the recreational vehicle he used to carry the bomb. It’s a miracle there were no fatalities in the blast.

Where was Donald J. Trump? Hmm. Playing golf in Florida, more than likely. He hasn’t spoken publicly about the frightening event in Nashville.

President-elect Biden did speak to us today about what transpired. He offered his congratulations and thanks to local and federal authorities for the quick work they did in identifying the bomber.

Joe Biden makes FIRST comments on Nashville bombing – YouTube

What strikes me yet again, though, is that we are hearing from the man who hasn’t yet taken the presidential oath while the man who has taken the oath remains squirreled away in his glitzy south Florida resort. The silence from Mar-a-Lago is deafening.

A sense of compassion and empathy from the president has been missing for the past four years. President Biden will restore it. He will speak to us when the moment compels him to do so and he will speak to us in terms to which we can relate.

The role of Consoler in Chief is not written into the presidential job description. But it’s there to be carried out when moments present themselves. Granted, we suffered no loss of innocent life in Nashville, but a president who feels a community’s pain should be able and willing to speak to a nation whose citizens are demanding answers.

Donald Trump, as we have seen time and again for the past four years, simply is not wired that way. Joe Biden clearly has the compassion gene that Trump never received.

A nation that has been deprived of that presidential compassion should welcome it when it arrives in the form of President Biden.

national news

How does GOP stand for this?

(Photo by Michael Brochstein/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

This question demands an answer.

How in the name of good government do congressional Republicans and party members across the board justify their allegiance to a president who knifed them in the back over a COVID relief bill that he eventually signed into law?

Donald Trump called the COVID package a “disgrace” after GOP members of Congress joined their Democratic colleagues in embracing a bill that Trump’s team helped negotiate.

Then the POTUS tossed them all under that big ol’ bus and threatened to veto it. He said the relief bill doesn’t give enough money to Americans; he blasted it for the “waste” it contains that he wants removed.

Where in the hell was he during the negotiations? Don’t answer that. I know where he was. He was on the golf course and was using his Twitter account to blast the FBI and the Justice Department for allegedly conspiring to “rig” the 2020 election against him.

Trump took no active part in any element of this wheeling and dealing. He sat on the sidelines and then rammed the knife deeply into the back of his GOP “friends” and “allies” by describing the bill they endorsed is the worst piece of legislation ever enacted … or words to that effect.

And yet …

The GOP remains loyal to this clown? The party leaders in both congressional chambers won’t condemn him in the strongest language they can muster up?

Republicans in Congress will not go along with the $2,000 payment that Trump insists on giving out. Sure, it’s more generous than the $600 payments that have been approved — and now signed by Trump.

Still, it boggles my noodle to understand the point of all these machinations by a guy with no knowledge of the legislative process or understanding of how government works.

What’s more, my brain is trying to comprehend how the folks who do know these things — particularly those on the Republican side of the great divide — continue to support this clown’s feckless and futile bid to overturn a democratically run presidential election.

Go … figure, man!

national news

Trump backs down … or does he?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald J. Trump wanted more money for Americans suffering from the pandemic. He also wanted to get rid of wasteful spending in a bill his team negotiated with Congress.

He threatened to veto the whole thing. Then — wouldn’t you just know it? — Donald Trump changed his mind and signed the bill into law.

Merry belated Christmas, Americans. We’re going to get that $600 per person payout that Trump said was too little; he wants us to get 2 grand apiece. He also wants to get rid of waste in the bill. Except that it’s still in the legislation he signed into law.

Good news is out there. The government won’t shut down. Unemployment benefits will be restored. I guess we should be grateful for all of that. And I am.

I circle back to a fundamental question: Why in the world did POTUS subject us to this chaos, uncertainty, anxiety, misery? His team was a partner with Congress in coming up with the bill. He said he would support it. Then he changed his mind. Now he has changed his mind again.

Trump is making demands on Congress to produce a fresh bill that excludes items he has “red lined” item by item that he wants taken out. We’ll have to see how well Congress reacts to the demands being placed by the leader of the other co-equal government branch.

My head is spinning.

legal news, national news

Pardons cross the line

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Presidential pardons remain the exclusive domain of the individual in power at the top of the U.S. political chain of command. Presidents grant them with literally no checks on their propriety.

Their impropriety often crosses party lines, with presidents of both parties abusing the power laid out in the U.S. Constitution.

However, the busload of pardons handed out by Donald J. Trump all have a peculiar and frightening look of familiarity to them. He has delivered pardons and commutations to people who (a) are friends and political allies and (b) who have committed heinous acts in defense of policies that he favors.

Procedure calls for presidents to run pardon  requests through a series of examinations by the Justice Department. They usually include those who have behaved well under federal custody or who have expressed some level of remorse for whatever deed they did. I am unaware so far of any expression of remorse from the likes of Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, George Papadopoulos or the four Blackwater contractors convicted of killing innocent civilians in Iraq.

Oh, no. They’ve been handed a free get-out-of-jail card by Donald Trump for reasons that have nothing to do with what they are accused — or convicted! — of doing.

Understand, too, that presidents are not bound by law to follow the procedure laid out. They can do whatever the hell they want and that is what Donald Trump has done so far.

This is the kind of exit we all should have expected from Donald Trump as he prepares to leave the White House for the final time; indeed, he might have done so already, having jetted off to Florida to spend the holiday with his family … at least that’s my hope.

This is an astonishing end to an astonishing term as president for Donald Trump. It ain’t normal. If only we had the last of it … if only.

economic news

Mnuchin joins Trump casualty list

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin might have thought he was indestructible, that Donald Trump wouldn’t — couldn’t possibly — throw him under the proverbial bus.

Then came Trump’s bizarre video tweet and his rejection of a COVID-19 relief package that Mnuchin negotiated with congressional Democrats and Republicans on Trump’s behalf.

He now has joined the list of Cabinet officers who have fallen out of favor with a president who first picked them, then turned on them. Rex Tillerson, James Mattis, Jeff Sessions all have been booted or quit because they no longer could work for Trump. I haven’t even counted the multiple White House chiefs of staff and national security advisers.

Mnuchin’s betrayal might be the most bizarre of all.

As the Washington Post reported: The president’s denunciation of the agreement represented a stunning public broadside against his own treasury secretary, who for four years loyally shielded the president’s tax returns, endured repeated presidential tirades in private, and defended even Trump’s most incendiary and contradictory remarks. Through it all, Mnuchin had emerged with the unique ability to walk a tightrope between Trump and congressional leaders, serving as an emissary in difficult negotiations. That all ended on Tuesday, when Trump posted a video on Twitter ridiculing the agreement.

Mnuchin’s loyalty to Trump could end with painful setback as president shreds stimulus deal (msn.com)

The deal called for $600 payments to Americans; it extended unemployment insurance for millions of Americans; it keeps the government running past next Tuesday. Mnuchin packed Trump’s load for this deal while working with members of Congress. Now he’s been stabbed deeply in the back.

Wow! That’s all I have at this moment.

Trump’s chaotic end as president could possibly inflict an enormous number of casualties. I do not include Secretary Mnuchin among them. They would include millions of Americans who are waiting on some form of relief from their government. Now comes this astonishing rejection by the man elected president of the United States — the guy who took an oath to protect Americans — of a deal his team negotiated on his behalf.

Can there be anything more disgusting than this? Sure, but holy smokes, man! This really stinks!

Steve Mnuchin now stands as the latest example of how Donald Trump measures loyalty. It goes only in one direction. This individual does not return it … to anyone!

national news

Biden finally set to fulfill longtime ambition

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 BBy JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It is no stretch at all to presume that Joe Biden has wanted to be elected president of the United States for a very long time.

He won election to the U.S. Senate in 1972 and for all I know he might have harbored presidential ambitions even as he took his Senate office at age 30.

He ran for president in 1988, but then fell out when he got caught plagiarizing speeches from a British politician. Biden tried again in 2008, but got buried early and pulled out … only to get a call from that year’s presidential nominee, Barack Hussein Obama, to run with him as vice president.

Now he has reached the pinnacle of political power.

It is times like this when I try to imagine how a normal human mind processes this marvelous achievement. Biden is facing roadblocks and assorted obstacles from the man he defeated in this year’s election. Donald Trump not only has failed to assure us of a peaceful transfer of power, he has delivered a transfer that is anything but the kind of peaceful transition the world usually looks on with awe and wonder.

However, the president-elect who at many levels likely has prepared himself for this moment is no doubt trying mightily to put the resistance aside as best he can. He is trying to cobble together a governmental executive team that will do his bidding and will work for the benefit of all Americans.

How does someone wired like Joe Biden process as well the notion that his many years as a senator and then as VP set him up to take on this task? I am left to wonder if he has doubts about whether he has dotted all the “i’s” and crossed all the “t’s.”

I have known about Joe Biden since he first became a U.S. senator. I was a young college student with a keen interest in politics. I watched him take office after enduring the tragic deaths of his wife and baby daughter in a car crash. I sort of kept an eye on him as he grew into the job. I watched him chair Senate confirmation hearings and listened to him debate opponents on the other side of the Senate chamber.

I was aware of Sen. Biden’s devotion to his sons, to his new wife and the little girl the two of them produced. I watched his first presidential campaign flame out and watched his embarrassment displayed before the land as he sought to explain how he could portray another man’s story as his own.

Somehow this fellow survived. He flourished. He got knocked down. He buried another child. And he steadied his feet under him.

Now he is about to ascend to the very top of the political summit. Not bad. Still, as I watch him I am left to wonder with all due amazement: How does one really prepare for what lies ahead as he becomes head of state and commander in chief of the world’s mightiest nation.

We are about to learn whether he has studied well.

Donald Trump

Chaos reigns supreme!

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Can there be a more telling example of the chaos that Donald Trump brought to the presidency than what is unfolding as he prepares to leave it behind?

Trump’s negotiating team, led by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, hammered out a COVID-19 relief package that includes a modest payment to eligible Americans, as well as extending unemployment insurance for millions of Americans impacted by the pandemic.

Yep, Trump’s team was involved all the way. So what does Donald Trump do when he gets the bill approved by bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress? He jets off to Florida and says he won’t sign it. He wants more than $600 for Americans; he wants $2,000!

I appreciate the Chaos Meister in Chief’s generosity. I am baffled by what it means for the bill that awaits his signature. If he doesn’t sign it, Americans won’t get a dime; unemployment insurance will run out; and the government is slated to shut down.

What the fu** is this guy trying to do?

Congressional Democrats are pushing for him to agree to the larger payout. Republicans are digging in against it. Trump is now putting GOP officials’ careers in peril if he continues to resist, which to be candid doesn’t bother me in the least.

What bothers the living  malarkey out of me is the peril that awaits those who need immediate help. Whether it’s in the form of the modest payment contained in the bill already approved or the larger amount that Trump is now demanding, none of it will get to where it needs to go unless Donald Trump pulls his head out of his a** and signs the legislation.

A lot of us feared this kind of chaos would ensue once Donald Trump took office. He is making his exit all the more chaotic … and welcomed by millions of us who await a real president to repair the damage that this clown is delivering.

national news

Can’t make the good-stuff pledge

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The holiday season usually spurs me to make some sort of pledge to limit my commentary to just good stuff, positivity, to lay off the barbs, slings and arrows.

Not this year.

Yes, I am filled with sufficient Christmas spirit. My sons are nearby, along with my wife, our daughter-in-law, our granddaughter and her two brothers. We plan to have a quiet but still somewhat festive day to celebrate Christmas.

It will be more of a secular celebration of the holy day, although we certainly are cognizant of its spiritual meaning and the impact of Christmas on Christians. We honor the birth of Jesus Christ to be sure.

I cannot make the go-easy pledge for this blog. Not this year. We are in the midst of a horrible political transition, which is made that way by the conduct of the man who lost a presidential election. Donald Trump is erecting roadblocks to Joe Biden’s transition into the presidency. Why do that? Because Trump cannot stand the notion of being labeled a “loser.” Which he is. He lost the election, bigly.

So I intend to keep firing away at Donald Trump. I seek to keep a civil tongue — proverbially speaking, of course — as I criticize this individual’s conduct, but there are times when I am just unable to restrain myself.

I apologize in advance for any offense I might bring. Just understand that we are living in extraordinary times that require equally extraordinary analysis of what is occurring before our eyes.

It ain’t good. I intend to say so with all due vigor.