Tag Archives: Person of the Year

media news, military news

Yes! on this Person of Year

 

Time magazine gets pounded whenever it makes what many think is a dubious selection for its Person of the Year.

Not this time.

Indeed, the magazine hit it far out of the park by selecting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Spirit of the Ukrainians as its Person of the Year for 2022.

We know the story about Zelenskyy and about how he has stood up to the illegal, immoral and unjust invasion of his country by Russian military personnel under the command of the thug/goon/tyrant Vladimir Putin.

What many of us might not know has been the undying spirit of the people President Zelenskyy governs. Ukrainians across the country have rallied behind their leader. They have shown remarkable courage and resilience against the war crimes committed against them by Putin’s military machine.

We all considered the Russian army to be invincible. It damn sure isn’t! It has been routed on the battlefield by Ukrainian forces and by the Ukrainian civilians who have risen to resist the invaders.

The courage that Zelenskyy has shown will be written in history books as a shining example of statesmanship and unblinking courage.

Well done, Time. You chose wisely.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

How did he fall so far?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

When historians write the final chapter of this era — if that is possible — they will be challenged to explain how a former New York mayor fell so far from grace and plunged head first into the dustbin of history.

Rudy Giuliani has been suspended from practicing law in New York. Why? Because he has fomented The Big Lie about the 2020 presidential election, contending without a shred of evidence that the disgraced former president was booted from office as a result of phony electoral theft.

It does boggle my noggin how Giuliani has become such a laughingstock.

NY Court Suspends Rudy Giuliani From Practicing Law Over Trump Lies | Common Dreams News

He was NYC mayor when terrorists struck at the nation on 9/11. He stood tall and proud as the leader of a city grieving over the horrendous events of that day. Time magazine named him its Person of the Year in 2001. Let us not forget, too, that he also once was a hard-charging federal prosecutor who took down a number of mob bosses.

That was many lifetimes ago. He has plummeted downhill ever since.

Now he is known as the promoter of lies. He has lent his voice to efforts to overthrow our democratic process.

I do not condone a single thing this individual has said about the election, its integrity or the Big Lie he continues to keep alive along with the disgraced former POTUS. I only lament how someone many of us once admired has become such caricature, a cartoonish loon has sidled up next to someone with no understanding of the government he took an oath to defend and protect.

Will this legal suspension lead to disbarment? It is quite possible, if not probable. Given how far Rudy Giuliani has fallen, the legal profession would benefit from his removal from its ranks.

national news

Time makes Person of Year pick … sigh

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I’ll be candid: Time magazine’s selection for Person of the Year is not the choice I wanted the venerable publication to make.

It’s not that I object strenuously with Time naming President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris as its Person of the Year. It is that I wanted the mag to honor an entire category of human beings: those on the front lines in the fight against the coronavirus … namely the first responders, health care workers, educators. Those folks are society’s heroes and they earned the honor of Person of the Year.

But that’s just me, I suppose.

As for the president- and vice president-elect, they indeed made history. They defeated the most corrupt, amoral, venal and disgraceful presidential administration in U.S. history. They did so convincingly. Joe Biden deserves kudos for making history by selecting Kamala Harris, the first black and first candidate of South Asian descent to run with him as vice president.

They both acquitted themselves well on the campaign trail. They have rolled up 81 million votes en route to a solid Electoral College majority. Biden and Harris are assembling a first-class team with which to govern.

In some ways, the Time choice is the politically safe choice. Winning presidents (and this case winning VPs) often get the Person of the Year nod.

However, the pandemic is the overwhelming story of 2020. The chief element of that story, in my view, has been the heroism displayed in hospital emergency rooms, ICU rooms and the bedsides of COVID-19 patients; moreover, there have been heroes abounding in our classrooms as educators seek to teach our children amid the threat of exposure to a potentially deadly virus.

And this heroism is a worldwide phenomenon.

So, I’ll accept Time’s choice simply as the editors’ call. It’s not one I would have made but it’s their magazine, their decision.

Just to be clear — one more time: I am delighted that we’re about to welcome Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as our new president and vice president.

national news

2020: Year of the First Responder

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I am pretty sure we all agree on this point: 2020 sucks out loud.

This calendar year has been one of the most eventful, consequential — and miserable — years many of us can remember. Our grandparents no doubt recall the Great Depression and then World War II. Then we had 1968, which brought the Vietnam War to a head and those terrible political assassinations.

But this year stands alone. The pandemic has killed hundreds of thousands of human beings. Now we have the fires that are sweeping through the three Pacific Coast states.

All of this is my way of saying that 2020 surely must be deemed The Year of the First Responder.

Heroes walk among us. They are the nurses and doctors who are tending to coronavirus patients. These nurses and doctors also are doubling as surrogate loved ones for patients who die alone; they cannot have their actual loved ones near them because of the highly infectious nature of the coronavirus, leaving the handholding to the medical pros who put their own lives on the line just tending to their patients.

Now comes the fires. The firefighters and police officers are plunging into the Hell on Earth in California, Oregon and Washington. They are running toward the flames. They are flying aircraft into the choking smoke. They are hugging victims of the fire, trying as best they can to lend comfort in a time of unspeakable tragedy.

Oh, we also have that presidential election coming up. Who’ll win it? Well, whether it’s Joe Biden or Donald Trump, the editors at Time magazine need not worry about naming one of them the magazine’s Person of the Year. They are playing second fiddle to the heroes in our hospitals, in our school classrooms, in our forests and our neighborhoods.

We all want the circumstances that are making this the most memorable year to end. I happen to stand in awe of those who are answering the call to help their fellow men and women in distress.

Stand tall, heroes.

medical news

A Person of the Year nominee? Consider this

Time magazine each year selects a Person of the Year. This being an election year, tradition dictates that the individual chosen usually is the winner of the U.S. presidential election.

Here’s a thought for the Time editors to ponder: Toss that tradition into the crapper.

Whoever the magazine honors must be someone — indeed, the many individuals — associated with responding to the coronavirus pandemic.

To say that the worldwide crisis has dominated Earth’s attention is to commit the most egregious understatement in human history. I will venture to guess that the pandemic will remain front and center for the remainder of 2020 and perhaps well beyond.

Americans and others around the world are paying tribute 24/7 to health care workers, to police and firefighters, to their neighbors and family members, and even to total strangers who are delivering unsolicited random acts of kindness.

Millions of human beings are going to be stricken by the virus before we turn the tide.

I don’t know how the Time editors might categorize the winner of the Person of the Year honor. That’s their call. It’s why they make the big bucks … you know?

Whatever they decide or however they label the human(s) they honor, my strong sense is that Time should look exclusively at the millions of people who are stepping up to offer aid, comfort, relief and support to an entire planet of inhabitants who at this moment are frightened for their lives and for the lives of their loved ones.

national news

Melania takes cheap shot at Person of the Year

It’s understandable that someone would want to defend his or her spouse against criticism — even if the criticism is deserved.

However, for first lady Melania Trump to level a veiled shot against a teenager who was awarded Time magazine’s coveted “Person of the Year” seems to me to be in poor taste.

Donald Trump saw fit to fire off a Twitter message aimed at 16-year-old Greta Thunberg, a climate change activist. He told her to “chill,” that she needs to curb her anger. The president of the United States ought to commit to more constructive pursuits than to insult a girl who won an award that damn near everyone would love to win.

The pushback against Trump was understandable.

Then the first lady weighed in, saying that Greta is an “activist” who “makes speeches.” Therefore, she seems to imply, Greta is fair game.

Good grief, Melania. The point of her criticism of Greta was in response to critics of an impeachment witness who mentioned the Trumps’ 13-year-old son, Barron, during her testimony. Mrs. Trump said Barron “is not an activist who travels the globe” speaking out against climate change.

I suppose Greta Thunberg’s activism does expose her to criticism. But from the president of the United States? Really?

If only POTUS had kept his Twitter device under wraps.

media news

Trump’s Twitter rampages are expanding … imagine that

Donald John “Tweeter in Chief” Trump keeps setting unofficial records via the Twitter device that he must sleep with at night.

He reportedly launched 60 or so tweets in a three-hour span to complain about impeachment, Democrats, the “fake news,” Time’s teenage “Person of the Year,” and whatever else got under his orange-tinted skin.

Think about this for a moment. This is the president of the United States. He vows to “make America great again.” He says that “I, alone” can cure the ills of the nation.

How does someone with all that heavy-duty responsibility find the time to pound out misspelled, mangled-syntax, incoherent messages via Twitter?

Oh, I get it. He’s not actually working as president of the United States. That explains it.

media news

They have initiated a change in our culture

Time Magazine has done it!

The publication has hit a grand slam home run with its selection of its 2017 Person of the Year — and, no, Donald J. “Grandstander in Chief” Trump, it ain’t you!

It selected the Silence Breakers, the women who came forward to found a movement called “Me Too” to sound the alarm against sexual predators.

The magazine’s cover features several women who have been at the forefront of this movement. In reality, they symbolize a much larger segment of a population that has been terrorized by powerful men.

And the movement has inflicted plenty of casualties in this fight against sexual harassment, abuse and predation. Good … for … them!

Media stars have tumbled off their pedestals. Politicians have fallen, too. Movie and music executives stand accused. Careers have been trashed — and deservedly so!

Read about the Silence Breakers here.

The Person of the Year goes to individuals or groups of individuals who have made a profound impact on our world. It has gone to some notorious and downright evil monsters: Josef Stalin, Adolf Hitler and the Ayatollah Khomeini come to mind immediately.

This year? The Silence Breakers symbolize maximum courage and grit in the face of a culture that for too long looked the other way as men preyed on their victims.

Great call, Time.

national news

Anyone can be Person of the Year, correct?

It occurs to me that if Donald John Trump can say anything he wants, then so can the rest of us .

The president of the United States tweeted something this weekend about Time magazine considering him to be Person of the Year for 2017. Trump got the award in 2016 by virtue of his being elected president. I get why Time would bestow Person of the Year honors.

But the president didn’t really get a call from Time, the magazine’s editors apparently said. That doesn’t matter, though. Trump isn’t taking it back. He doesn’t do that kind of thing. I’m getting the idea that the nation the man was elected to lead is beginning to accept his lies. Pfft! What’s the point of calling him out?

Is he the only American who can get away with this kind of thing? Gosh, I think I’ll give this a try.

Time wanted to name me as its Person of the Year. Why little ol’ me? I guess it’s because I’m just a regular guy. I’ve been married to one woman for more than 46 years. We produced two sons. They both are successful in their respective careers. We have a lovely granddaughter. We’re getting prepared to move — hopefully soon — to relocate closer to where she lives with her parents and her two older brothers.

I think that earns me Person of the Year honors. Don’t you think? Maybe my wife and I could share it, given that our accomplishments are a joint effort. How does that sound?

Did the magazine editors actually call me? What if I say they did? They won’t dispute it. Therefore, could I get away with making it up, just like the president did?

I think I could. I just have.

media news, national news

Narcissist in chief is at it again

Donald John Trump Sr.’s narcissism knows no boundaries. No limits. It is beyond belief.

The narcissist in chief has tweeted out a patently ridiculous message, alleging that Time magazine offered to considering him as its 2017 Person of the Year, but that Trump declined.

He didn’t want to sit down for an interview, he said. “No thanks,” he concluded. Time declined to comment specifically on this idiocy, except to say that it doesn’t reveal its selection until it’s announced.

The then president-elect won the honor in 2016, calling it a “tremendous honor” at the time. This year, according to the World’s Most Notable Narcissist, he doesn’t have time for it.

I almost let this matter go without making any comment. Indeed, there’s really little I feel compelled to say about it, except that the president of the United States has yet again embarked on another idiotic — and quite possibly fabricated — journey of self-aggrandizement.

I believe this is what one might call “fake news.”