Tag Archives: Thanksgiving

Trump goes beyond vile with this screed

Many of us were waiting for this sort of thing from the man posing as POTUS … but we got something even worse.

Here is how Donald Trump opened his Thanksgiving Day screed of insults, vitriol and outright racism:

“A very Happy Thanksgiving salutation to all of our Great American Citizens and Patriots who have been so nice in allowing our Country to be divided, disrupted, carved up, murdered, beaten, mugged, and laughed at, along with certain other foolish countries throughout the World, for being ‘Politically Correct,’ and just plain STUPID, when it comes to Immigration.”

It gets even more despicable.

This individual is certifiably off his rocker. He is fu**ing nuttier than a Snickers bar.

The rest of his series of social media posts are chockful of lies, smears, slurs, demogogic statements, stuff that could have been gleaned from KKK or white supremacist manifestos … and they sound for all the world like the beliefs of a serial sociopath/madman.

And to think that a tiny plurality of Americans actually elected this certifiable moron to the nation’s highest office.

I will invite any of you who are interested in reading what this dipshit said to look it up on the Internet. It’s out there in its sickening entirety.

OK, here is a taste of what I am talking about.

A very Happy Thanksgiving salutation to all of our Great American Citizens and Patriots who have been so nice in allowing our Country to be divided, disrupted, carved up, murdered, beaten, mugged, and laughed at, along with certain other foolish countries throughout the World, for being “Politically Correct,” and just plain STUPID, when it comes to Immigration. The official United States Foreign population stands at 53 million people (Census), most of which are on welfare, from failed nations, or from prisons, mental institutions, gangs, or drug cartels. They and their children are supported through massive payments from Patriotic American Citizens who, because of their beautiful hearts, do not want to openly complain or cause trouble in any way, shape, or form. They put up with what has happened to our Country, but it’s eating them alive to do so! A migrant earning $30,000 with a green card will get roughly $50,000 in yearly benefits for their family. The real migrant population is much higher. This refugee burden is the leading cause of social dysfunction in America, something that did not exist after World War II (Failed schools, high crime, urban decay, overcrowded hospitals, housing shortages, and large deficits, etc.). As an example, hundreds of thousands of refugees from Somalia are completely taking over the once great State of Minnesota. Somalian gangs are roving the streets looking for “prey” as our wonderful people stay locked in their apartments and houses hoping against hope that they will be left alone. The seriously retarded Governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, does nothing, either through fear, incompetence, or both, while the worst “Congressman/woman” in our Country, Ilhan Omar, always wrapped in her swaddling hijab, and who probably came into the U.S.A. illegally in that you are not allowed to marry your brother, does nothing but hatefully complain about our Country, its Constitution, and how “badly” she is treated, when her place of origin is a decadent, backward, and crime ridden nation, which is essentially not even a country for lack of Government, Military, Police, schools, etc…

I trust you’ll see what I am talking about.

Will Trump choke on this message?

Americans from coast to coast are getting ready to celebrate a uniquely American holiday when they commemorate Thanksgiving. I am — strange as it sounds — waiting to hear how the president of the United States is going to honor the day.

Donald Trump has repeatedly botched what should be a simple task: to deliver a statement honoring veterans, or the birth of the nation, or to honor the flag we fly on our front porches. He tends to politicize everything. He also has laced his comments with a level of snarkiness that simply has no place.

Will the man in the White House deliver a snotty statement sometime tomorrow or will he somehow rise to the occasion and speak to us as the leader of the nation he was elected to lead? I have no particular expectation on what we’ll get from this fellow.

To borrow the cliche, I’ll hope for the best but won’t be surprised if Trump falls on his face … again.

Many reasons to give thanks

I have done this many times over the years I have been writing this blog.

I set aside some time to give thanks for the blessings with which I have been bestowed. This year, as in 2023, is different in one important way. I am celebrating my bride’s favorite time of the year without her.

During most of our married life, Kathy Anne was like the Looney Tunes character the Tasmanian Devil. whirling through the house, decorating it with secular and religious decorations to celebrate Christmas … and along the way she would throw in some Thanksgiving do-dads to commemorate this particular holiday. And all the while she would complain how she wasn’t “very good at decorating.” Which, of course, was nonsense.

I have tried my best to adorn my North Texas home with holiday decor. I fall far short. But … my heart is still full of thanks.

Thanksgiving Day will include some time with immediate family. My sons, my daughter-in-law and my granddaughter will be here to have dinner that — drum roll, please — I will have prepared! I will have some help from my precious daughter-in-law who is preparing a couple of side dishes and dessert.

So, for that I am thankful on this holiday.

We’ve all been through a trying and tempestuous election season. It didn’t turn out the way I wanted, but I learned long ago to accept decisions that go the “wrong way” simply by dealing with it.

We still live in the greatest nation on Earth. I am grateful for all that it gives me, such as the freedom it grants for me to vent, for instance, on our government. And I will do plenty of venting for sure in the years ahead.

Life is good and will continue to be good.

Full of gratitude …

My heart is brimming this morning … with gratitude, thanks and love.

You know already about the very difficult my family and I have endured. Feb. 3, 2023 arrived with my bride, Kathy Anne, desperately ill with glioblastoma — that rare form of brain cancer. It ended later that day with her passing away.

My journey since that horrible time has taken me to both coasts of this great land. It has exposed me, moreover, to love from family, friends and even on occasion from people I do not know but who somehow have learned of my heartache and extended a “sorry for your loss” greeting.

My life, though, has gone on. Kathy Anne reminded me years ago that “life is for the living” and she insisted I find happiness quickly were she to leave this world before I did. I am glad to report that I am a happy man this morning as I prepare to start my day and enjoy a holiday meal with my sons, my daughter-in-law and my precious granddaughter.

It’s been at times a difficult journey. I expect to shed a tear or two today as soon as it dawns on me that the woman who made me whole for nearly 52 years is not at our dinner table. My sadness will pass.

I will smile when I recall the happiness and all the thrilling moments we shared. I also will smile when I realize that I am filled with gratitude for the love we have received as my family and I have traveled this journey together.

Giving thanks once again

I have lived a blessed life … of that I am more certain than anything that has ever crossed my mind.

Therefore, I am going to offer a word of thanks and gratitude for the blessings I have enjoyed in my nearly 73 years on this Good Earth.

I learned at a young age to avoid “looking for the girl of my dreams.” What I also learned was that the individual would just show up. I was 21 years of age when she appeared. We found ourselves sitting at the same table with a mutual acquaintance; we exchanged winks and smirks as this fellow made a fool of himself.

We ended up soon after that going on a date. The rest is history. Fifty-one years later I am proud to say that I hit the first pitch out of the park. I give thanks every day for the girl who became my bride.

Our two sons have grown into the finest men you’ll ever know. They have remained close to my bride and me and to each other. One of them found the girl of his dreams and they have produced our lovely granddaughter.

I give thanks to the career I pursued with great joy. It provided some modest success for me. It also gave me a good living. Together, with my wife, we were able to provide for those two boys of ours. My craft enabled us to travel around the world, allowing us to see things we never thought we could see when we started our life together.

I long have enjoyed the blessings of living in the greatest nation on Earth. I gripe a bit about our government, The blessing comes, though, in that I am free to gripe without recrimination. There’s nothing like liberty … you know?

My family means everything to me. So do the friends I have acquired over the years. My blessings are countless. I give thanks for all that I have every single day, not just on Thanksgiving.

Today, though, I am paying a form of tribute to all that I have.

Happy Thanksgiving.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Giving thanks … even now!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Once upon a time, I used to write obligatory editorials for newspapers that offered words of thanks.

I mean, it’s Thanksgiving Day, right? A uniquely American holiday that is known around the world. Perhaps the most unique observance of this day I can recall occurred in downtown Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in November 1989.

My fellow journalists and I spent the day traveling from Cambodia during the day; we crossed the Mekong River on a raft full of folks carrying goods — and live animals — to market. We arrived in what used to be known as Saigon late that afternoon. We checked into our hotel.

We went to dinner that evening and the hotel staff, catering to their American guests, presented a meal of roast duck, mashed potatoes and peas. They wished us a happy Thanksgiving. It was delicious.

A Thanksgiving to remember … in Vietnam | High Plains Blogger

This year’s celebration brings its own unique quality. The world is enduring a pandemic. It has killed a quarter million Americans. There will be much more misery and heartache ahead. And yet …

We give thanks. We thank the first responders. We thank the medical personnel, the police officers and firefighters for their courage and dedication to protecting us. We thank teachers who educate our children. We are thanking the family members who endure the tragedy and we wish them Godspeed and our prayers.

We thank the researchers who are working diligently to find and perfect a vaccine that we hope will eradicate this killer disease.

We give thanks for our families, our friends and all those who are battling together.

I no longer write full time for newspapers. My work now is of a part-time, freelance nature. I give thanks to my employers for allowing me to keep my head in the game.

This truly is a time to give thanks and offer a word of hope that we might be finally on the road back to what we used to think of as “normal.”

We’re enduring this all at once. Let’s hope for better days … and let us give thanks for what — and who — we have around us.

Thank you, Mr. POTUS-elect

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I might be inclined to suggest that President-elect Biden is getting ahead of himself by delivering a Thanksgiving Day speech to the country that has elected him president of the United States.

Except for this …

The actual president, the guy who’s still on the job, cannot possibly deliver the kind of message we heard today from his successor.

Donald Trump doesn’t relate to people’s suffering during this pandemic, or their loss of a loved one that leaves an empty seat at the dinner table.

Biden said we should be “thankful for democracy itself.” Yes, I am quite thankful for it and for the blessings that have come to my family and me over many years.

Yes, I get that Joe Biden isn’t yet the president of the United States, but so help me he is sounding like the right man for this moment.

Welcome to Season of Stress

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

No one calls it this, but we are on the cusp of entering the Season of Stress in the United States of America.

Let me be crystal clear about this point. I vowed long ago to avoid getting sucked into the stress associated with the Thanksgiving-Christmas time of year. Think of the irony.

We celebrate Thanksgiving by, um, giving thanks for our plenty, for our loved ones, for our good health and all the things for which we should be giving thanks. Then many of us launch into the holiday buying season, scrambling at stores, plowing through the Internet for the deals of the century. Then we get bummed out when we cannot find the perfect gift to send to the special people in our lives.

It ain’t happening in our house. At least that’s my hope.

Now, what about the 2020 Season of Stress? We have this other thing hanging over us like a dark storm cloud.

It’s that pandemic. Right there we have a damn good reason to stress out.

Americans are dying daily. We set another “record” for deaths overnight. That record is likely to be broken, maybe today or tomorrow. Whenever.

The pandemic is inhibiting our gatherings. The nation’s health experts are warning us about the hazards of sitting on crowded airplanes or gathering around crowded dinner tables with extended family and friends. They tell us: Stay home; keep it quiet and simple; stay away from your loved ones; wear masks; practice appropriate distancing measures.

If that isn’t enough to cause stress in your life, I don’t know what will do it.

But … let us give thanks for this bit of potentially astonishing news: vaccines well might be on the way to a doctor or a pharmacy near you and me.

This is an extraordinary season in an equally extraordinary year. I will not shed a single tear as we say goodbye to 2020 in a few weeks. As for the stress, I am going to fight like the dickens to avoid it.

I am thankful.

Giving thanks for voters’ wisdom

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Allow me a brief moment to mix a bit of politics with the holiday week we’re going to celebrate.

I am giving thanks for the wisdom voters exhibited on Nov. 3 by tossing Donald John Trump out of the White House.

I remained cautiously optimistic that the outcome would turn out as it did, with Joe Biden assuming the title of president-elect. Yes, I had concern that Trump might pull a Houdini-like escape performance by repeating the stunning upset he scored in 2016 to become president.

When the votes came in and were tabulated, my concern was replaced by the satisfaction in realizing that most American voters were able to rectify the mistake that occurred four years ago.

They’re still counting ballots around the country. I look at the running totals almost daily and am heartened by the realization that more than 51 percent of Americans endorsed Joe Biden’s pledge to “restore our nation’s soul.” It needs restoration, to be sure.

I am going to place my faith in the deeds of the new president, that he will be able to bridge the chasm that divides us.

We’re going to give thanks for a lot of things this week. We shall give thanks for living in this great nation, for the liberty granted to us as Americans. We will give thanks for our families and the love that surrounds us and that we give in return.

I also am going to give thanks for the spirit of political redemption that arose on Election Day.

If this post offends you because it mixes partisan politics with the joy of a happy holiday, well … too bad. It’s what I am feeling in my heart this glorious morning.

Have a wonderful day.

Hoping for an actual breakthrough with Taliban

(Photo by Olivier Douliery / AFP) 

Oh, my … I do hope for an actual peace treaty with the Taliban.

Such an agreement could end the longest war in U.S. history, the one that began in retaliation for the 9/11 terrorist attack on this country.

Donald Trump ventured to Afghanistan for Thanksgiving, broke bread with the troops and then announced to the world that peace talks with the Taliban had resumed. Remember, though, that he broke these talks off after an attack by Taliban fighters that killed an American serviceman.

What was so appalling at that moment was that Trump was going to bring the Taliban to Camp David while the nation was commemorating the 9/11 attack. Bad call, Mr. President.

So, now the talks are back on, as the president has said.

I want the war to end. I grew weary long ago of hearing of our men and women dying in combat. I am going to hope for the best here.

One word of caution: We are negotiating with a cunning, hideous, gruesome bunch of monsters. The Taliban are among the worst of the worst that humankind can produce. I worry that they cannot be trusted as far we can throw any of them.

If these talks produce an actual agreement and if it means an end to the nation’s longest war, then count me in.

Let us be wary, though, of the monstrous cabal with whom we are dealing.