Tag Archives: SOTU

local news, national news, political news

GOP pissants reveal their ‘character’

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Let me be clear that I was disappointed, but not the least bit surprised, at the behavior demonstrated by the MAGA chorus of what passes for a once-great political party last night at President Biden’s State of the Union speech.

They showered the president with catcalls and jeers for parts of his speech, showing the world what kind of classlessness comprises the Republican side of the congressional aisle.

My instinct for fairness compels me to point out something before I return to my point: Democrats have on occasion done the same thing when a Republican president has delivered an important speech on the state of our great nation. We also had a House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, tear up her hard-copy text of an SOTU speech delivered by President Biden’s immediate predecessor. That was a poor look, too, to be sure.

I want to remind readers of this blog, though, of an important point.

It is that exactly two people — the president and vice president — hold their office because of votes cast by an entire nation. Congress comprises 535 individuals who are elected either by voters in their states or in congressional districts carved out by legislatures.

Just two people, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, have the standing to demand respect and decorum from their audience to whom they are speaking.

Joe Biden didn’t get it from the likes of, say, the MAGA loudmouth from Georgia, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who also showed great disrespect for the rules of the House by wearing a MAGA ballcap on her pointed head. The idea that House Speaker Mike Johnson would allow such a thing to occur is disgraceful on its face; no headgear is allowed in the House chamber, period.

Oh, wait! Had he scolded MTG for breaking the rules, she likely would file a petition to have him removed. Therein lies the real story behind who’s running the show in the House … and it damn sure isn’t the speaker.

Joe Biden delivered a fiery speech from the podium. It resonated with this North Texas blogger. Welcome to the fight, Mr. President.

national news, political news

No mention of ex-POTUS’s name

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Well, I’ll be deep-fried and fricasseed. I was certain President Biden would pepper his State of the Union speech with the name of the fellow he succeeded as president.

He didn’t.

Biden didn’t mention his name not one single time!

I had prepared to swill ouzo from a flask tonight at every mention of the former Moron in Chief’s name.

Hah! I can save it for another time.

Still, my first reaction to President Biden’s speech is quite positive. He came to the joint congressional session prepared to wage political war. He didn’t disappoint.

local news, media news, national news, political news

No need to ID this guy by name

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Everyone on Earth now likely knows the name of the next Republican Party presidential nominee, as he has captured the party nomination for the past three election cycles.

Thus, you won’t need to read his name on High Plains Blogger. I made a command decision some weeks ago to boycott the idiot’s name, to keep it off my blog posts … to the extent that I can.

There might be an occasion where I quote another politician who has to use his name. I am going to seek ways to write around it.

Why do this? It’s purely selfish. I am sick and fu**ing tired of seeing his name in print and hearing his name mentioned on broadcast media. The very sound of his name makes me feel like puking.

The sight of his overfed, over made-up face causes the same sort of revulsion.

I am wondering whether I should invoke a private drinking game tonight as President Biden delivers his State of the Union speech. Every time the president mentions his 2024 general election foe by name, I am thinking about taking a swig from a small bottle of ouzo I received the other day from a friend of mine.

If I do, I am likely to be wasted by the end of the evening.

President Biden clearly is preparing for a rematch against the former moron in chief he defeated in 2020. He mentions his name liberally whenever he speaks these days in public. That’s fine. It’s good to remind voters specifically who drove the economy into the tank with his feckless, reckless and careless response to the COVID crisis.

That’s a topic for another day.

Meantime, I will watch our president declare that the health of our union is strong and is getting stronger. I just hope my flask of ouzo will last the entire speech.

Joe Biden, national news

Raucous SOTU on tap?

President Biden … you are about to receive some more unsolicited advice from little ol’ me, one of your many supporters who wants to see you re-elected in November.

House Speaker Mike Johnson invited you to speak to a joint congressional session about the State of the Union. I am delighted you accepted the March 7 speaking engagement.

Be prepared, sir, to be heckled, harangued and harassed by a handful of MAGA morons sitting on the Republican side of the House chamber. You have a marvelous message to deliver. The state of our Union is strong. I expect that declaration to come with force during your speech.

It won’t matter to the likes of Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Paul Gosar, Matt Gaetz, Lauren (The Carpetbagger) Boebert, Sens. Ted (the Cruz Missile) Cruz or John (no, not that …) Kennedy.

They will hoot, holler and hiss as you extol the virtues of your term in office.

The challenge, Mr. President, will be in how you deal with it in the moment. One of your predecessors, President Obama, had a masterful sense of timing as he swatted away such idiocy arising from the GOP side of the chamber. Some advice? Why not call the man you call your “brother” and ask him for a tip on how to handle such juvenile behavior. Hey, no one needs to know you made the call.

Use your personal cell phone. Slip him a text message. He’ll call back, right?

Yes, this speech will be seen through a political lens. You know that, as you have sat through many other such SOTUs as senator and vice president.

As you declare the strength of our Union, though, it is imperative that you deal forthrightly with some of the issues that do plague this great nation. You know what I am talking about: the southern border crisis stands out; a solution to that difficult matter can come from you and the SOTU is an ideal forum to offer it. Wars in Israel and Ukraine also are deep concern for your fellow Americans. We need some glimmer of an “end game” strategy and again, the SOTU can provide the venue for it.

I am delighted with the state of our economy and you needĀ  to remind Americans that the recession the “experts” predicted hasn’t come … and isn’t likely to come.

And, finally, you need to frame this upcoming campaign as a battle to retain our cherished democracy and resist the rants of those who want to turn the presidency into an autocracy.

I am with you, Mr. President.

As for the delinquents in the crowd who will toss decorum into the dumper as you stand before the nation, you’ll know how to handle them, too.

Joe Biden

Biden flexes his muscles

An 80-year-old president cannot possibly claim to have muscles as supple as they once were, but last night Joe Biden showed his opposition that he possesses plenty of fight as he prepares for the next phase of the presidency.

That involves what is lining up to be a spirited campaign for re-election.

The venue was a joint congressional session and the president’s annual State of the Union speech. The MAGA cult that comprises a good portion of the Republican caucus in the House decided to heckle the president at some curious and, frankly, dubious points. Such as when he talked about saving Medicare and Social Security.

He took ’em on in the moment. Frankly, we witnessed a side of the president I didn’t believe existed.

He was brilliant! He played the GOP fire-breathers like a cheap fiddle. Along the way he has set the stage for a 2024 presidential campaign that is going to be — at least for this partisan — fun to watch.

To be sure, the right-wing propagandists will portray the speech as nothing more than game-playing. They trotted out Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders to deliver the GOP response. Instead of offering policy alternatives, she leveled attack after attack on the “woke mob,” against “left-wing Democrats” and otherwise painted a grim portrait of a nation in decline.

Good grief! The state of our Union is as strong as it ever has been!

That all said, I want to be among the many commentators to applaud President Joe Biden for taking the fight straight to the opposition. He showed me that he has plenty left to offer the world’s greatest nation.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Idiot doc pops off

My many friends in the Texas Panhandle are represented in Congress by a man I only can describe as an idiot. Yes. His idiocy is on display multiple times daily via his Twitter account.

Here is what Rep. Ronny Jackson of Amarillo said after President Biden delivered his initial State of the Union speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday.

Bidenā€™s ā€œState of Confusionā€ is EMBARRASSING! Heā€™s SLURRING his words! RT if you miss the days when the White House wasnā€™t an assisted living facility

This is the moron who offers diagnosis of Joe Bidenā€™s mental acuity from afar.

I now want to remind this doofus ā€” aka Ronny Jackson ā€” of something about President Biden.

Joe Biden suffered from a debilitating stutter when he was a boy. He worked hard to cure himself of the condition. I can tell Jackson ā€” who once served as a presidential physician to Barack Obama and Donald Trump ā€” that one never really exterminates the condition. I speak from experience. I stuttered badly (at times) when I was a boy. I have powered through most of it.

For Ronny Jackson to offer this moronic observation about the president reveals several things about him. One is his ignorance. Another is his lack of compassion. Yet another is his crassness.

Any physician with a hint of ethical understanding never would say such a thing about a fellow human being.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

military news, national news

GOP loon disgraces herself

As much as I hadĀ hopedĀ there wouldnā€™t be a display of disrespect of the president during his State of the Union speech, my hope was dashed about two-thirds of the way through President Bidenā€™s speech to a joint congressional session Tuesday night.

Rep. Lauren Boebert demonstrated the lowest of the low points of where the modern GOP has sunk in recent years.

The president was speaking about his late sonā€™s exposure to dangerous chemicals while serving in the Army during the Iraq War and was about to speculate as to whether Major Beau Bidenā€™s exposure brought on the cancer that killed him; then Boebert ā€” along with her QAnon colleague Marjorie Taylor Greene ā€” decided to yell an epithet from the chamber. Boebert said something about Joe Biden being responsible for the deaths of 13 service personnel during the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.

That moment surely will go down in infamy. Boebertā€™s outburst drew boos even from her fellow Republican lawmakers.

She disgraced the office she occupies, disrespected the president and the commander in chief and showed the entire world that she lacks the class, grace and decorum to vote on laws that affect every single American.

I always have believed we are better than to send morons to Congress such as Lauren Boebert. I was wrong. I am not a constituent of hers, given that I do not live in the congressional district she was elected to represent. I am, however, a proud American patriot who obeys the laws on which she votes, which gives me standing to declare that I despise Lauren Boebert and everything she believes.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Biden nails the SOTU

I will not apologize to anyone about my partisan leaning; I merely will acknowledge what should be clear to anyone who reads this blog, which is that I support President Joe Bidenā€™s agenda as he seeks to bring the nation back from the mess he inherited when he took office in January 2021.

Tonight, Joe Biden declared after ticking off a number of bipartisan agenda items that should receive universal support from Congress, that the ā€œstate of our Union is strongā€ because of Americans who stood against the ravages of deadly illness and are standing tall against the desires of a desperate foreign despot.

President Biden isnā€™t known as a sparkling orator, but tonight ā€” in my view ā€” he might have reset the office he occupies.

He appealed to Republicans sitting in front of him when he hailed the Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invaders; when he spoke to assuring better help from our government to American veterans; when he declared that our lives will no longer be dictated by our response to a pandemic.

He laid all of this out in an hour-long State of the Union speech and then delivered what I expected would be the punch line, that our Union is ā€œstrong.ā€ It remains strong despite our challenges, despite the crises we are battling.

I was delighted that he spoke to our better angels and chose to steer clear of the political divisions of which we all are familiar. No mention of the 1/6 insurrection, no mention of The Big Lie. If I were a GOP congressional leader, I would congratulate andĀ thankĀ the president for staying on the high road. But ā€¦ thatā€™s just me.

To be clear, it needs to be said that GOP politicians sat on their hands when the president spoke about tax policy, about infrastructure improvement. I guess you canā€™t win ā€™em over on everything.

Still, my support for President Biden is stronger than ever tonight after watching him take command of the world stage and deliver in the most forceful language possible a clear warning to the Russian aggressors that they will pay dearly for their act of violence in Europe.

Accordingly, I concur with the president that the ā€œState of our Union is strong.ā€

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

What is the State of our Union?

President Biden is getting ready to deliver a speech that many of us have waited to hear. He will stand before a joint session of Congress and after a few opening remarks and perhaps a quip or two he will tell us about the State of our Union.

He is likely to make a declaration that starts out, ā€œMy fellow Americans, the State of our Union is ā€¦ ā€œ

Is it ā€œstrongā€? Is it ā€œweakā€? Is it ā€œtroubledā€? Is it a mixed bag of all of the above and perhaps even something none of us can quantify?

Were I advising the president, I would urge him to offer a ā€œstrongā€ description of our Unionā€™s current condition. Not because all is well and good. But because I cling to the hope that despite our trouble and anxiety that Americansā€™ collective strength will see us through it all.

Our political structure is roiling under The Big Lie that too many politicians continue to foster about the 2020 presidential election. Congress is examining whether a former POTUS incited an insurrection against our democratic process; I believe he did, but I am not in a position to make an official declaration.

Weā€™re facing down in real time a serious threat by Russia against Ukraine. Our NATO allies stand ready to defend Ukraine if they deem it necessary.

Our economy, while it is exhibiting tangible strength, continues to struggle with raging inflation.

And yes, the pandemic is waning ā€¦ at least for now.

President Biden will stand before a Congress divided by suspicion among its members toward each other and by those on one side of the great divide who continue to resist any effort on the presidentā€™s part to actually govern responsibly.

Weā€™ll wait for the applause lines and weā€™ll watch the Democratic half of Congress cheer while Republicans sit on their hands. It will disgust many of us.

The Unionā€™s strength lies in the people who are the real bosses. It isnā€™t the congressional leaders who seek to guide federal policy while ignoring the will of those they govern.

I donā€™t know what President Biden will declare about the strength of our nation at the State of the Union speech he will deliver in a few days. I just hope he tells us we are stronger than the forces that seek to divide us and tear at the fabric of our nationā€™s greatness.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Awaiting the SOTU

Letā€™s look ahead ā€” shall we? ā€” to President Bidenā€™s first State of the Union speech. Heā€™ll get to stand before a joint session of Congress and give them, and the nation, a report on the health and well-being of the nation he governs.

It is set for March 1.

These events have become sort of a handicapping exercise. Pundits will be offering views on how many members of Congress stand and applaud at the appropriate times.

Although I intend to watch the president deliver his speech, I am approaching that date with a bit of apprehension. We live in highly contentious times. Republicans seem to detest the Democratic president. Many members of the GOP congressional caucus, for instance, havenā€™t even accepted the fact that Joe Biden won the 2020 election. Many of the nut jobs within the Republican caucus have made speeches endorsing Donald J. Trumpā€™s Big Lie about the vote fraud that did not exist.

How will those idiots react to anything Biden says? How many of them will even attend the SOTU? Might we hear a ā€œYou lie!ā€ insult coming from the GOP side the way we did when President Obama delivered an SOTU years ago?

I will approach this upcoming event with bit of trepidation. I hope Congress ā€” men and women on both sides of the great divide ā€” will treat President Biden with all due respect. Frankly, given the madness that seems to permeate the thick skulls of many within the GOP caucus, I do have some doubt over the kind of reception the president is going to receive.

Please, GOP members, prove my concerns to be without merit.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com