Tag Archives: UK

local news

Ohio: just out of reach

CAIRO, Ill. — I had hoped to knock one more state off my “never been there” list on my current trek east from North Texas.

Alas, I fell short by about 50 miles.

I have set foot in 48 of our 50 states. The only two states left to visit are New Jersey and Ohio. Let me state that I have been to Newark/Liberty International Airport twice, but that doesn’t count. I do not count airport stops as “visiting” a nation or a state. Indeed, I have been to Zurich, Switzerland’s airport a few times and to Hong Kong’s airport once. I do not count those places among my list of nations I have seen.

A quick aside … My wife and I went to Copenhagen, Denmark in 2006. Our flight itinerary brought us home via London Heathrow airport; we would catch a flight to Texas from Gatwick airport. My wife, using her creativity, booked a cab ride from Heathrow to Gatwick and then built in a tour of Windsor Castle en route. Thus, we were able to say we “visited Great Britain.”

I was coming out of Charleston, W. Va., two days ago. My GPS guided me along Interstate 64 west out of Charleston. I had thought it would take me to Ohio. Nope. I exited West Virginia and entered Kentucky.

So … there you have it. Ohio remains on my list of states to visit.

I have the time now to get into my truck and head there. Hmm. I suspect another quick trip just might be in order.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

There are iconic figures … and then The Queen

It sounds so strange at this moment to actually realize that the world in which we live no longer includes Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

The queen died today at 96. She had served for 70 years as head of state of the United Kingdom. Her eldest son, Charles, is now King Charles III.

It is going to require a bit of time to wrap my noodle around this news. Elizabeth served as a towering figure — despite her dimunitive stature — for as long as I can remember. I am now 72, which means that I have known this world only in the context of Queen Elizabeth II.

Now she’s gone.

What no one has said in the immediate aftermath of the queen’s death is that the UK in the span of one week has seen a change in the head of government — with Liz Truss taking over from Boris Johnson as prime minister — and now a change in the head of state.

Queen Elizabeth II enjoyed a standing few world leaders ever achieve, which appeared — at least to me — to be of universal admiration. As I look back on her many decades as the UK’s monarch, I am trying to recall a single derogatory remark uttered in public against her. I keep coming up empty.

King Charles won’t enjoy that standing, given his own personal history. But if the Brits can embrace him, who among the rest of us is qualified to pass judgment?

Talk about the end of an era.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Joe Biden

Biden: U.S. is back

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

President Biden arrived in the United Kingdom today delivering a message he intends to carry with him throughout his first trip abroad as the leader of the world’s greatest nation.

It’s a simple, but profound, statement: The United States is reasserting itself on the world stage.

I won’t belabor the point that’s been made here repeatedly, that Biden’s immediate predecessor damaged our nation’s alliances and emboldened our adversaries.

Instead, I simply want to extol the notion that the president of the United States is going to speak words of encouragement to our friends while offering words of warning to our foes. That, I submit, is how it should be.

Biden arrives in U.K. to press a message: ‘The United States is back’ (msn.com)

President Biden intends to parlay his intimate knowledge of the men and women who lead the world’s leading economic powers into effective relationships at the highest levels of government. That works for me. It also works for me that the leader of the world’s remaining superpower should speak strongly while admonishing those who would seek to do us harm. That would be you, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.

Joe Biden is going to speak to the world from a position of immense strength. The nation he leads has turned the corner on fighting the COVID virus; he intends to purchase hundreds of millions of vaccine doses and distribute them to nations around the world. Our economy is reviving at a rapid rate.

The president is not going to apologize for past mistakes. He intends to look forward. That, too, is all right with me.

I have said repeatedly for the past year or so that Joe Biden was not my first pick to succeed Donald Trump. He survived a brutal Democratic Party presidential primary and then thumped the incumbent president in the November election.

He didn’t take office as a novice politician. He is a seasoned hand who knows how government works. President Biden also knows the role that this nation must continue to play on the world stage.

I am heartened that he has pledged to bring this nation back to the center of the world stage where it belongs.

International news

British diplomat states the obvious: Trump is inept

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I am inclined to tell the British ambassador to the United States: Tell us something many on this side of The Pond don’t know.

Leaked memos from Ambassador Kim Darroch reveal a point of view that the Donald Trump administration is incompetent, inept, unpredictable, unreliable and untrustworthy.

Gosh. Who knew?

According to National Public Radio: “We don’t really believe this Administration is going to become substantially more normal; less dysfunctional; less unpredictable; less faction riven; less diplomatically clumsy and inept,” the ambassador wrote in leaked documents, according to the Daily Mail.

Even though what Darroch wrote in the memos dating back to 2017 aren’t exactly a flash for many millions of Americans, it is news chiefly because it comes from the ambassador of one of this nation’s staunchest, most reliable and valuable allies. The Brits have stood with us through thick, thin, warfare and peace.

Now to read these remarks only serve to undermine that relationship. It’s not because of anything the British have done. Ambassador Darroch is responding to the chaos and confusion that fuels damn near everything that occurs with the Trump administration.

Darroch wrote that the administration could “collapse,” but warned “do not write (Trump) off.” Indeed, the carnival barker/president has proven to have many more lives than any cat that’s ever lived.

Still, many millions of us hope that voters in this country will wise up to the mistake many of our fellow Americans made in 2016 by electing Trump to be president in the first place.

I am one of those Americans who hopes Election Day 2020 fixes that egregious mistake.

Intgernational news

Fake News Purveyor in Chief is at it again

Donald “Fake News Purveyor in Chief” Trump was at it again today.

The president of the United States labeled reports of huge protests of his visit to the United Kingdom as “fake news.” He told a press conference that he “didn’t see” large protests. He said the big crowds were there to cheer his presence.

Hmm. Wrong! Here is yet another example of Donald Trump being unwilling — I won’t say “unable” — to tell the truth, even when there is a mountain of physical evidence to debunk whatever nonsense flies out of his mouth.

There has been plenty of video showing the massive protests in London. The Brits do not like the U.S. president, to which I will acknowledge that they’re in good company; most Americans don’t like him, either.

The Hill reports: It is possible that Trump had not been exposed to the protests as he has spent the vast majority of his time in central London, where police established a large security perimeter in anticipation of his visit.

That’s a fair point. But was he unaware of the protests as they were occurring?

OK, I get that Trump does have solid support among those who comprise his political “base.” Whether it’s in this country or abroad, they’re out there, too.

However, they were not out en masse today as the president toured London with British Prime Minister Teresa May.

But yet … Donald Trump chose to mischaracterize the reception he got. He did so in spite of what the world saw with its own eyes.

It makes me wonder: Is there something seriously wrong with a president whose lying is accelerating at a breakneck pace?

International news

Way to go, Mr. POTUS: arrive in UK and then insult London mayor

Donald Trump has delivered a stern message to his hosts in the United Kingdom.

He don’t need no stinkin’ diplomacy.

The president of the United States landed in London and then immediately hurled an insult at that city’s presiding elected official, Mayor Sadiq Khan, who he called a “stone cold loser.”

Oh, yes. He also said that Mayor Khan is doing a “terrible job as mayor” and has been “foolishly nasty to the visiting president of the United States.”

I suppose I need to mention that Khan is a Muslim, the first Muslim ever elected mayor of London. Khan also has taken umbrage at the president’s travel ban to the United States by all Muslims, which I suppose means that Khan can’t ever visit the former Colonies on official business. I mean, it’s not as though there might be some business to be done with the UK’s stellar political, economic and military ally … correct?

The president won’t listen to anyone, but he needs to understand something about diplomacy. It’s OK to think certain things about politicians, or perhaps say things in private to them. Why unleash these Twitter tirades into the universe, entering those epithets into the public domain and insulting the mayor of one of the world’s great cities?

What’s more, the president relies solely on empty platitudes, never once citing a specific example of why a fellow elected official is doing such a “terrible job.” That’s how this POTUS rolls, as we Americans have learned all too well.

Sadiq Khan isn’t the “stone cold loser” in this instance, Mr. President.

You are!

national news

POTUS fatigue setting in?

I fear that I am on the verge of suffering from terminal POTUS fatigue.

I don’t expect to croak from it. I don’t even know if I’ll suffer an emotional collapse, or any kind of psychological breakdown.

I’m just wearing out. Maybe. Possibly.

The president of the United States is conducting himself and his office in a way none of us have ever witnessed. Do you remember “No Drama Obama,” with the previous president operating on level plain? He disliked the tumult, turmoil and tempest that occasionally comes with the office.

Donald John Trump Sr.? He relishes it! He looks for it! He wants to govern daily with chaos, confusion — and perhaps a bit of corruption — all swirling around him.

Good grief! He goes to Europe to meet with the most dependable allies this nation on planet Earth and then proceeds to p** them all off. He wasn’t done. Not by a long shot.

The president then goes to the United Kingdom, talks to the Sun newspaper, criticizes British Prime Minister Teresa May’s handling of the British exit from the European Union and then offers an endorsement of former British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson to be the UK’s next prime minister.

And then he denies saying it!

There’s more. He travels to Helsinki. He and Russian strongman Vladimir Putin meet for two hours, just the two of them. Then he comes out and declares that U.S. intelligence experts’ assertion about Russian attacks on our electoral process are not to be believed; he believes Putin’s denial.

And this is what happened just in the past week!

His entire presidency has been rife with weeks just like this, although the stakes of this week’s weirdness are getting more compelling all the time.

I need to get a good night’s sleep. I’ll awaken in the morning. I’ll be refreshed. I’ll get back at it.

How in the world does the president function like this?

International news

Trump is right: U.S. can’t be world’s piggy bank

Donald J. Trump is going to attend the North Atlantic Treaty Organization meeting next week with a critical message.

The United States really cannot afford to be the “world’s piggy bank,” and that NATO’s other member nations need to shoulder a larger burden of their mutual defense agreement.

I don’t want the United States to pull out of NATO. Nor do I want there to be continued tension between the United States and the rest of the alliance.

But the president happens to make a valuable point about NATO and the burden that all its member nations need to shoulder.

Trump has sought to pressure NATO nations to increase their share of the cost of the alliance. Indeed, many of the wealthier nations in NATO — Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom come to mind — are able to shoulder more of the financial load.

I merely want the president to cease with the bellicose rhetoric and the threats — veiled and outright — of punishing our allies if they don’t do as he wishes.

The bottom line, though, suggests to me that the president is correct to insist on greater cost-sharing among the allies of this important mutual defense organization.

national news

Is there a Liars Anonymous organization?

Donald Trump needs an intervention.

The president of the United States cannot tell the truth. He cannot state simply the reality of any situation he confronts, or that stands in his way.

Trump decided to lie like a rug yet again when he announced his decision to cancel a planned state visit to Great Britain. His excuse? He said former President Barack Obama brokered a bad deal to purchase the site for a new U.S. Embassy in London.

Trump blasted his immediate predecessor for paying too much public money to relocate the embassy.

So, that was his pretext for deciding against visiting the UK?

Two points are worth making here.

One is that his stated reason is as transparently phony as it can possibly get. The president doesn’t need to fabricate a reason to avoid going somewhere. The real reason clearly has to be that Brits cannot stand him. He was going to run straight into the teeth of intense public protests were he to visit Great Britain.

He has insulted British Prime Minister Teresa May; he has hurled ill-founded criticism of London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, who happens to be a Muslim (and we certainly know how Trump feels about those who practice the Islamic faith).

The second point is this: The deal to purchase the embassy site was brokered under the administration of President George W. Bush. It was finalized in 2008, the year before Barack H. Obama took office.

Donald Trump has a serious grudge against Barack Obama. What fuels it? Is it that the former president exhibited the class and grace that the current president lacks? Is it the former president’s continued high standing among Americans? Is it because of the former president’s racial … oh, you know.

Donald Trump cannot tell the truth. He is a pathological liar.

He needs to enroll in a Liars Anonymous session — if there’s one available … and declare: My name is Donald and I am a liar.

 

International news

Trump blames Obama as he cancels foreign trip? Yeah, right!

Who in the name of international embarrassment does Donald John Trump think he’s kidding?

The president announced overnight that  he’s canceling a planned trip to Great Britain … because, he said, his predecessor agreed to a deal that cost the United States too much to build a new embassy in London.

Huh? What? Eh?

It’s Barack Obama’s fault that the president isn’t going to take part in a state visit with this nation’s most valuable ally?

This is just my view own view — and I suspect others share it too — but the real reason is quite different. He’s not going to Britain because he would be hooted off the island nation. The Brits cannot stand the U.S. president, who said the mayor of London didn’t do enough to prevent attacks by Islamist terrorists; I’ll add here that the mayor happens to be a Muslim — and Trump made the tasteless remark in the wake of just such an attack!

There’s also that issue of the travel ban that Trump has sought to impose against Muslims seeking entry into the United States.

Yep. The Brits are angry. Prime Minister Teresa May also has received her share of insults from the president.

Donald Trump, though, thinks he governs a nation of 300 million rubes, dolts who cannot grasp the obvious.

Which is that the president of the United States is a embarrassing our nation daily.

Shameful.