Tag Archives: John McCain

national news

Friendships suffer grievous collateral damage

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Quiz time, kids: What part of our political existence has suffered the most grievous example of collateral damage from the current political climate?

Time’s up. I’ll offer my own belief. The greatest casualty happens to be, in my view, the political friendships that at one time survived whatever political differences existing between politicians.

The wounds being inflicted these days almost appear to be mortal in nature. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump calls Kamala Harris “not very smart.” He questions her ethnicity. The convicted felon accuses the current president, Joe Biden, of being the most corrupt politician in history.

For her part, Harris will not let anyone forget about the disgraceful conduct Trump endorsed during his term as POTUS.

There once was a time in this country when losing presidential candidates would lick their wounds, concede to the winner and then pledge to work with the winner to solve the nation’s problems. Trump brought us a whole new element into how not to lose an election. He never conceded he lost to Joe Biden in 2020 and then commenced to sic the mob onto Congress to stop the certification of the 2020 electoral result.

I will presume that Harris wins this election. Can you imagine Trump doing anything different from what he did in 2020? Hillary Rodham Clinton, who lost to Trump in 2016, even had the good taste and grace to offer to work with Trump as he sought to build his administration. So did Mitt Romney and John McCain, who lost to Barack Obama in 2012 and 2008, respectively.

These days political foes have become mortal enemies.

I much prefer the time when foes would batter each other with hammer and tong … and then shake hands when it ended. It’s the democratic way.

 

national news

Not understanding this … at all!

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I will go to my grave likely never coming to grips with the political phenomenon that continues to play out as the 2024 presidential campaign starts to ramp up.

We have an incumbent president, Joe Biden, sitting on one of the healthiest economies in nearly a generation. Yet he stands in danger of losing his re-election bid.

To whom? Possibly his immediate predecessor who was impeached twice by the House, who has been indicted four times by state and federal grand juries, who continues to defame his foes and who is preparing to stand trial for felony counts brought against him.

The confusion? I cannot fathom in my wildest dreams how this ex-POTUS continues to hold sway with Americans.

In an earlier era, Republican voters and political leaders never would have tolerated the behavior of an individual who they are poised to nominate for a second run as POTUS. He admits to cheating on his wives; he said he could date his daughter, who he described as being “hot.” He called John McCain a hero “only because he was captured (during the Vietnam War); I like people who aren’t captured.” He denigrated a physically challenged reporter and said he could grab women by their private parts because he’s a “celebrity.”

Nope. I’ll never understand what bounces around in the noggins of those who suggest that their guy can fix this nation.

Somewhere there must be a political sanity god who can guide this nation away from the madness that this guy represents.

Donald Trump

Mind-boggling revisiting of issues

It simply boggles my noggin that the media have begun revisiting the issues that turned so many Americans off about Donald Trump when he ran for POTUS the first time.

Take his utter disdain for those who served this nation in uniform, who went to war to defend Americans, who were captured by the enemy or those who died in service to the country.

The issue has returned to the front burner in the wake of revelations that Trump said that retired Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley should be “executed” for committing an act of “treason.”

Can this clown, Trump, be any more despicable than that? Oh, probably.

Milley told an interviewer that he served this country while wearing an Army uniform for more than 44 years. He said Trump’s attack on him was in reality an attack on all the men and women who serve. He is too much of a gentleman to respond specifically to the idiocy that poured out of Trump’s mouth.

This latest example simply adds to the litany of insults he has heaped on those of us who served our nation in uniform. He called the late Sen. John McCain a “loser” because he was captured by the enemy after being shot down during the Vietnam War. He denigrated a Gold Star family whose son died in combat in Iraq.

Trump has never served “the public” in any capacity — even while sitting in the Oval Office for four years. So, for this guy to denigrate a decorated Army general by suggesting he should be executed for treason simply goes beyond all that is sane.

Donald Trump has lost his mind.

national news, political news

Democrats get big gust of wind from the Arctic

Whoever in the world would have thought that Democrats — already feeling energized as the midterm election approaches — would get a big gust of wind in their sails … from the Arctic Circle?

Yep, that is where a Democratic candidate for Congress scored an upset over a one-time Republican darling, former half-term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the GOP’s 2008 nominee for vice president of the United States.

Mary Peltola will take her seat in the House, succeeding the late Don Young in the state’s only U.S. House seat. Palin was thought to be a shoo-in for the post. Then they counted the votes and it turns out that Peltola got more of them than the former Sarah Barracuda.

What’s most astonishing is that Peltola becomes the first Democrat to serve in the House from Alaska since the beginning of Alaska’s statehood. Alaska is as reliably Republican as any state in the Union.

And to be brutally candid, it’s good to see Palin knocked down a peg or three from her imagined towering perch.

Palin became a sort of caricature of herself over the years, with her assorted high-profile family issues erupting here and there. She quit the governorship halfway through her first and only term in office.

I’ve always thought of Palin as an empty vessel, someone with hardly an original idea in her noggin. That the late Sen. John McCain, the GOP presidential nominee in 2008, would choose her as his running mate turned out to be one of the biggest mistakes of McCain’s long and distinguished career in public service.

Peltola now must go through a general election campaign, having knocked Palin out of the race. May the new congresswoman serve her state well. I have this feeling she’ll do so with the dignity that Palin usually was unable to find.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump

Is he ‘best’ we can offer?

I happen to believe in public opinion political surveys, even if they produce results that confound me. I am no expert on polling, but I do know that the best surveys are done without bias and they seek to reach the broadest sample of respondents possible.

That all said, I am officially beyond all reason at surveys that continue to show Donald J. Trump to be Republicansā€™ favorite for the 2024 presidential nomination. Why the confusion, the bafflement, the dizzying emotions?

Allow me to list some aspects of The Donaldā€™s life in and out of politics. To wit:

  • He has admitted to mauling women, to assaulting them sexually because of his ā€œfame.ā€
  • While campaigning for president, he mocked a physically disabled New York Times reporter.
  • He denigrated a Gold Star family, whose son died in combat during the Iraq War; the family happens to be Muslim.
  • Trump also denigrated the late Sen. John McCainā€™s heroism during the Vietnam War because, he said, McCain was a ā€œhero only because he was captured. I like people who arenā€™t captured, OK?ā€
  • He has admitted to cheating on his first two wives and was accused of taking part in a one-time tumble with a porn star shortly after his third wife gave birth to the coupleā€™s son.
  • He claims to be a man of faith, but denies a basic Christian tenet of seeking forgiveness; he said he never has sought to be forgiven for any sin he has committed.
  • Trump told a former associate that anyone who served during the Vietnam War was ā€œstupid,ā€ because the war was so politically unpopular at home.
  • He cannot tell the truth; Trump lies about ā€¦ everything.

I am likely missing something, but you get my drift, I am sure.

It is this, for those to whom I should explain: If we are going to insist on restoring American ā€œgreatness,ā€ is this the man we should follow down that path? Does this individual appear to the best we have to offer?

No! A thousand times no! He embodies the worst among us and for that reason I am totally and completely baffled as to how this cult leader manages to hold such sway with so many Americans.

I am shaking my head in disbelief.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

What happened to Meghan?

Hey, I swear I remember Meghan McCain — the former “The View” co-host who’s taken on a new gig as a columnist for a British newspaper — saying how she “loves” President Biden and would be hard-pressed to say anything negative about him.

Now she writes in The Daily Mail that Joe Biden is on track to be a “worse” president than Jimmy Carter.

Whoa, Meghan McCain! Hold the phone!

MEGHAN McCAIN: Joe Biden is shaping up to be a worse president than Jimmy CarterĀ  | Daily Mail Online

McCain is the daughter, let’s recall, of the late U.S. Sen. John McCain, one of Joe Biden’s best friends in the Senate. McCain was a Republican; Biden is a Democrat. Their friendship was forged shortly after McCain joined a Senate staff as a military adviser to a committee on which Biden served.

Now the young woman who said she “loves” the president has turned on him, calling him feckless, unreliable and cantankerous.

Look, she’s entitled to change her mind about politicians, even those who hold occupy a special place in her heart. I am just waiting, though, for an explanation from Meghan McCain on the dramatic change in her feelings toward the president of the United States.

As for President Biden being “worse” than President Carter, I need to remind McCain that Jimmy Carter did manage to negotiate a peace deal between Israel and Egypt … which has held firm and solid through thick and thin.

So, let’s stop with the Carter-bashing. Hmmm?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Trump lost Arizona all by himself

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Right-wing radio gasbag Marc Levin took it upon himself to fire off a Twitter message aimed at Cindy McCain, wife of the late Vietnam War hero U.S. Sen. John McCain.

Cindy decided during the presidential campaign to endorse her husband’s dear friend Joe Biden, favoring the Democrat over the Republican who serves as president of the United States, Donald Trump.

What did Levin say to Cindy McCain? “You cost us Arizona,” he said, complaining about the apparent victory Biden scored in winning Arizona in the still-developing election result.

Umm. No, Mark. Mrs. McCain didn’t cost the GOP a state that had been in reliably Republican for many years. Donald Trump did it. All by himself!

He did it by denigrating Sen. McCain’s heroism while being incarcerated for more than five years during the Vietnam War. He castigated McCain repeatedly, even while he was fighting the cancer that eventually would take his life.

Arizonans had elected McCain to the Senate over many years for a simple reason: They respected his lifetime of service to the nation and the sacrifice he endured while being held captive during a time of war.

What’s more, he delivered valuable public service to the constituents he served in Arizona.

My advice to blowhards like Levin is simply to stop looking for others to blame for Donald Trump’s likely loss.

POTUS’s own big mouth did him in.

national news

Wanting a return to ‘regular order’

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I will go to my grave never surrendering my deep and abiding loathing of Donald J. Trump as president of the United States of America.

This crazy election season is winding down to what I hope and pray is the correct end. That would be a decisive defeat of Trump and a victory for Joseph R. Biden.

I cannot even begin to predict how the end arrives. I am left only to speak from my heart and head that we return to some semblance of what we used to think of as ā€œnormalā€ political processes.

The late Sen. John McCain used to refer to it as ā€œregular order.ā€ He detested the way Trump would seek to circumvent Congress, how he would tweet his public policy without bothering to advise his closest key aides.

I am trying to wrap my noggin around what he might do were he to win re-election to a second term. I do believe Biden, a product of government and one who is fluent in the way it is supposed to work, will restore the ā€œregular orderā€ his good friend John McCain cherished.

The lying, dissembling and treachery have been an unconscionable aspect of the presidency on Trumpā€™s watch. I point directly to the pandemic deception that Trump brought on this nation. He knew it was bad from the get-go but kept it from us, declaring it would vanish in just a few days. It hasnā€™t. It has killed nearly a quarter million Americans.

And this clown, Trump, wants another term? He wants four years to deceive us?

I have been saying until I run out of breath that Trumpā€™s pre-politics life was spent enriching himself. He didnā€™t devote a single minute of his time to public service. And it has shown itself dramatically during his time as president.

Biden on the other hand has committed virtually his entire adult life to public service.

Is Joe Biden the perfect alternative to Donald Trump? No. But he is a damn sight better suited for the complexities of the nationā€™s premier public office.

As for Donald Trump, I just want him to vacate the peopleā€™s house — my house — as soon as possible. Some of us predicted long ago that he would be a disaster as president. He needs to go before he inflicts permanent damage on the nation we all love.

national news

McCain endorses Biden

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I guess you could say that politics at times can travel full circle.

Consider this: The wife of the man against whom Joe Biden ran in 2008 has endorsed the 2020 Democratic Party presidential nominee’s bid for the presidency of the United States.

Cindy McCain, wife of the late senator and Vietnam War hero John McCain, says Biden is the “only man” who speaks for the nation’s values.

At one level this endorsement isn’t surprising. Biden and McCain were the best of friends. They came from different parties; they differed politically and philosophically. They also shared a love of country and a commitment to serving the public. Biden’s path took him to the Senate by the time he turned 30 while McCain’s journey took him to the Navy and then to the Vietnam War, where he was shot down and imprisoned (and tortured repeatedly) for more than five years; he came home in 1973 and became a successful politician.

Biden ran as vice president on a ticket led by Barack Obama in 2008. They defeated the GOP ticket led by U.S. Sen. McCain, who ran with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.

Biden and McCain never let their political differences interfere with the deep affection and respect they had for each other.

So it was today that Cindy McCain endorsed Joe Biden’s bid to become president. Sen. McCain would be quite pleased.

military news

Who’s the ‘loser’?

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I went to sleep last night after having just read a horrifying tale detailing Donald Trump’s profound disrespect for men and women who have paid the price of defending our freedom against our enemies.

I awoke this morning still believing what I had read.

The Atlantic has reported a litany of examples of Trump disparaging the service that our military personnel have performed. Not to mention the price some of paid with their very lives.

The reporting by Jeffrey Goldberg appears to be well-sourced … and it is credible.

What gives the story its credibility, at least to me, are the words that Trump blurted out in public in 2015 when he was asked to comment on the service performed by the late Sen. John McCain. Someone asked Trump if he considered McCain to be a war hero. Trump’s answer spoke volumes.

McCain is a “hero only because he was captured” by the North Vietnamese after being shot down during the Vietnam War, Trump said. Then he said, “I like those who aren’t captured, OK?”

Can there be any more validation of what Jeffrey Goldberg reported than Trump’s own words? Of course, Trump denies disparaging those who served and died in defense of the nation. The White House has issued a denial as well. You would expect that from both the president and those who work for him.

However, the ring of truth to what has been reported is clanging in my ear. I happen to believe that the man with no public service in his pre-presidency background, the guy who sought bogus medical deferments from serving in the Vietnam War is fully capable of saying what has been reported.

I believe we have been handed a graphic and hideous example of this individual’s unfitness for the job he is trying to keep.

If you read the entire story that I have attachedĀ here, I trust you’ll be as horrified as I am. The real “loser” in this episode is the individual who has thrown the term around about our nation’s heroes.