Tag Archives: Jay Inslee

environmental news

Where is the concern about fires?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I watch the news a good bit of every single day, so I am compelled to ask: Has Donald Trump said a word in public about the fires that are destroying homes along the Pacific Coast of the United States of America?

Has he offered a word of concern? Have there been expressions of sadness? Of empathy? Has he offered a full federal response to assist the states that are battling these fires?

If he has, then it got past me.

Hey, I know the states of Oregon, Washington and California all are governed by Democrats. Donald Trump once referred to Washington Gov. Jay Inslee as a “snake” back when Washington was ground zero of the growing coronavirus pandemic.

He chastised California officials for allegedly failing to enact sound fire-management strategies when that state erupted a year ago from wildfires.

Oh, and let’s not forget the invective Trump has hurled at Oregon Gov. Kate Brown over the Black Lives Matter protests in Portland that have turned violent.

So now the states are on fire. Flames have incinerated entire neighborhoods in the southern Oregon town of Phoenix. Firefighters are pushed to the limits of their endurance throughout California.

Where is the president of the United States? Hello, Mr. President? Your fellow Americans are suffering!

medical news

Can a ‘snake’ get a presidential disaster declaration?

I am getting this sick feeling in my gut about how Donald Trump might react to a request from a governor he recently called a “snake.”

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is asking the president to issue a federal disaster declaration for the state that once was known as Ground Zero for the coronavirus pandemic that has wrapped itself around the world. Ground Zero in this country has shifted to New York City; the worldwide location is in Italy.

Inslee also was a Democratic candidate for president and said some unkind things about Donald Trump. I guess the president holds a grudge. Vice President Mike Pence took a trip out west to see the pandemic damage for himself and made some supportive statements about the job Inslee is doing to lead his state in its fight against the coronavirus.

Trump’s reaction? Pence can say those nice things, Trump said. “I don’t have to.” He called Inslee a “snake” and a “terrible governor.”

Now Inslee is asking the president for help. My gut is telling me that Trump is going to allow his anger at Inslee to keep him from doing the right thing and making the declaration, which would expedite federal assistance to one of our 50 states that is in dire need of it.

Say it ain’t so, Mr. POTUS.

medical news

POTUS is the ‘snake’

(AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)

Vice President Mike Pence traveled this week to Washington state to see where the coronavirus has killed more than a dozen residents. After all, he supposedly has taken the point in managing the federal response to the virus.

He met with Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat. He spoke supportively of Inslee’s efforts to combat the coronavirus.

Donald Trump’s response? He went to the Centers for Disease Control and called Inslee a “snake” a “bad governor” and someone who would criticize the federal response to the coronavirus crisis. He said Pence can say nice things about Inslee, but he won’t.

Good … grief!

The president’s petulant, childish, ignorant and boorish reaction to the trouble facing one of our nation’s governors tells me that Trump is the snake.

Trump lies without shame. He enrages me every single day.

environmental news

Candidate calls a halt; his issue lives on

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee was one of those 0-percenters who sought to catch fire among the huge field of Democrats running for president of the United States.

He didn’t ignite. Today he ended his campaign.

That’s the bad news … for Inslee. The good news is that his signature issue, climate change and Donald Trump’s ignorance of its significance, lives on.

Gov. Inslee had vowed to make climate change/global warming the linchpin of his campaign. Sure, he said he felt strongly about other issues, but this one really floats his boat.

As for Trump, he calls climate change a “hoax.” He said it’s cooked up by China, which wants to undermine and destroy the U.S. fossil fuel industry. The president is blowing it out of his backside.

Inslee sees the issue as the nation’s premier national security concern. So do many other Americans. I am one of those millions of others who stands with Inslee and others who want the government to pay attention to the tangible evidence that climate change is having around the world … and to acknowledge that humankind is at least partially responsible for the damage it is inflicting on Planet Earth.

Gov. Inslee vowed today to remain active in the dual-edged pursuit of (a) talking up the dire peril that climate change is posing and (b) the peril the nation faces if it re-elects Donald J. Trump to another four years as president.

Keep up the fight, governor. I stand with you.

national news

Yep, the biggest threat to the nation is its president

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee drew the biggest round of cheers tonight with what might have come off as a quip, but which — the more I think about it — now sounds like the brutal truth.

He and the nine other Democratic presidential candidates gathered on the debate stage in Miami were asked to name the greatest geopolitical threat to the United States: Inslee said it is Donald John Trump.

Not Russia. Nor the People’s Republic of China. Or Iran. Or terrorist organizations. Or even climate change, which happens to be Inslee’s signature campaign issue.

He said the biggest threat is the president of the United States of America. I agree with him.

Donald Trump is systematically destroying our alliances with Europe, with Asia, with Latin America. He’s gone after Australia and Canada, for crying out loud!

Donald Trump has isolated the nation from the rest of a shrinking world. He cozies up to tyrants — Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin being the most notable. He challenges the nation’s intelligence network’s findings. He makes foreign and domestic policy pronouncements via Twitter, without advising his senior policy  advisers.

Trump has burned through two national security advisers. He is talking openly about possible war with Iran without a defense secretary on board. He is reportedly losing patience with his third White House chief of staff.

Yes, Gov. Inslee was right. Donald Trump has become the greatest existential threat to the very nation he was elected to govern.

Wow!