national news

No support for Trump acolytes

I said the other day I had no intention of buying Stephanie Grisham’s book on the Donald Trump administration.

Here is why. I do not want to spend any of my money to fatten the wallets of the 45th president’s administrative aides. Grisham, sad to say, fits into that category.

She served as communication director and press secretary for the White House; she also served as first lady Melania Trump’s chief of staff. She has written a book with some pretty stunning accounts of what she saw at the White House. She writes about the president’s explosive temper, discloses the Secret Service code name for the first lady and tells of how first daughter Ivanka Trump talked Daddy into delivering a COVID-19 speech on national TV that went quite badly.

That’s all I need to hear from her or from any of the other goofballs who worked for the ex-POTUS.

There you have it. I’m out.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Both sides need to talk … to each other

Fairness dictates that I make this complaint of Democratic politicians just as I did of Republican politicians during the previous presidential administration.

I want Democrats to talk to Republicans and I am terribly distressed that they aren’t reaching to the other side of the great divide.

Think back to the term of Donald J. Trump. The Republican president chose to speak only to fellow Rs on Capitol Hill. He allowed the GOP caucus to craft that tax cut bill that favored rich folks. Democrats wanted no part of the deal. The then-POTUS didn’t reach out to them. He stiffed ’em!

That guy is gone. The new president, Joe Biden, has resorted to talking mainly to Democrats on his Build Back Better agenda. Indeed, GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell has made his point clear: Ain’t no way the Republicans are going to support anything that comes from a Democratic president. President Biden figures: What the hell is the point in talking to them?

Well, I believe he should. Just as I believe that his predecessor should have talked to Democrats in search of common ground.

I have spoken of late about “good government.” This is how government ought to work. Compromise is not a four-letter word.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

entertainment news

RIP, Tommy Kirk

The news that Tommy Kirk died the other day at age 79 filled me with a sense of irony and, yes, sadness.

I grew up with Tommy Kirk appearing on my TV screen. He was one of the child stars employed by the Disney company. He was a Mousketeer. He appeared in TV dramas along with other fan favorites. His was as much of a household name as, say, Annette Funicello.

Tommy Kirk also was a gay performer. He “came out” as a teenager. The price he paid for his honesty? Disney fired him essentially on the spot. Ain’t no way the entertainment giant was going to allow a gay youngster perform before audiences comprising children.

It didn’t matter, of course, that Kirk didn’t portray gay characters. Not ever! To borrow a phrase, Kirk played it straight.

That was then. The Disney Corporation has traveled many symbolic miles since that dark time. It now has Gay Pride Days at its theme parks, namely at Disneyland and at Walt Disney World.

I am glad to see the company has opened its corporate heart and it seeks to understand that one’s sexual orientation is not merely a matter of choice. It is who people are. Period. Full stop.

As for Tommy Kirk, well, he paid the price for his employers’ lack of understanding back then. May he rest in peace.

I just want to thank him for the memories he gave me as a youngster who laughed and cried at the performances he delivered.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

‘Good government’ isn’t pretty

2 Comments

As a good government progressive, I find this discussion over Build Back Better, the debt ceiling and ways to avoid a government shutdown an example of just how ugly good government can be.

Man, it is damn ugly.

But I will stand by my belief that good government, which is the government of the possible, must be ugly in order to get anything done.

Indeed, the older I get the less ideological I become. I once was a flaming liberal. I took a two-year turn in the U.S. Army in the late 1960s, went to war for my country, came home as confused about that war as I was when I arrived, then got involved in presidential politics. I campaigned in my home state of Oregon for George McGovern in 1972. He lost big … remember?

Time went on. I grew up a bit more. We’re now watching the progressive wing of the Democratic Party battle with the more moderate wing. The progressives have made some good points about wanting to spend a lot more money than the moderates want to spend. However, I am going to await the end of this haggling to see how it plays out.

Thus, we are watching how good government might look ugly.

In reality, I believe it will produce a thing of beauty at the end.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Some perspective, eh?

2 Comments

A certain amount of context has been tossed aside in the discussion over whether to approve President Biden’s plan to “Build Back Better.”

We have become fixated on the number: 3.5 trillion … as in dollars.

What has become tossed aside is that the number that Biden and congressional progressives want would cover a 10-year period.

So, that figures to be a $350 billion expenditure annually to do a number of things: improve roads and bridges; modernize air travel; develop ship channels; improve Internet broadband service.

Here’s some more perspective. The United States of America boasts a $20 trillion annual economy, which suggests to me that $350 billion each year is like so much spittle in the proverbial bucket.

Congressional Republicans and some moderate congressional Democrats are wringing their hands over the amount of money that progressives want to spend. Again, I have to wonder: Why?

If the plan is to spread this expense out over a 10-year span of time, why are we quibbling over the total figure that in the grand scheme seems less relevant when you add some needed context to the discussion?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Patriots? Phooey!

Life is full of uncertainty. However, of this I am totally, unequivocally certain: I will go to my grave never understanding how people who take an oath to protect the Constitution and then defy it openly can call themselves “patriots.”

I am referring to the nimrods who continue to adhere to The Big Lie, that the 2020 presidential election was the product of theft, that it was “stolen” from Donald Trump by “deep state” forces that conspired to install Joe Biden in the White House.

These individuals call themselves patriots because they believe they are right and that the rest of us — the majority of Americans — are wrong in our assessment that the most recent presidential election was conducted fairly and legally and ethically.

The 45th POTUS continues to rant and bellow about a theft that never occurred. He drops broad hints about wanting to run again in 2024 to get it all back.

He calls for states to “audit” their returns from the 2020 election. The former Liar in Chief suggests that even after states complete their audits that he still won. He stands before crowds that cheer him on as he recites that utter nonsense.

These are “patriots”? These are Americans who believe in our system of government? These are dipsh**s cannot accept the notion of their guy losing a hotly contested election and then moving on to wage other fights on other issues?

These individuals are not real Americans. Sure, they are citizens of this country. They have the right to express themselves under the Constitution’s guarantees of free speech and expression. “Real Americans,” though, are those who live by rules of fair play and accept defeat when it is as obvious as anything they can see.

They are not patriots.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Clumsiness in full view

1 Comment

Winston Churchill’s opinion of democracy is playing out in full view of the world at this moment.

The great British statesman said — and I will paraphrase it broadly — that “democracy is the worst form of government except all others that have been tried”

So we are now watching members of our Congress haggle, quarrel, cajole each other over how to avoid a debt-default crisis while at the same time haggling over how to improve our nation’s infrastructure.

My trick knee is telling me that somehow, some way and in some fashion the Democrats who run Congress are going to find their way out of the thicket. They have a key ally in the White House: President Joseph R. Biden, who spent 36 years as a senator. The president knows how to legislate.

Congressional Republicans, of course, are sitting on the sidelines. They aren’t part of this haggling, which is boiling down to a dispute between Democratic liberals and moderates.

It’s messy. It’s cumbersome. It’s the kind of governance that the 20th century’s greatest statesman — Winston Churchill — said would occur.

Excuse the cliche, but this really is a great country.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Dog is on the hunt!

A part of me — I am not sure how much of me — kinda/sorta supports a notion put forth on social media about Dog the Bounty Hunter’s search for a “person of interest” in the highly publicized Gabby Petito homicide case.

This person writes: If he finds him, I’m not paying taxes anymore!

Dog the Bounty Hunter, aka Duane Chapman, has joined the search for Brian Laundrie, who has been missing for several days in the wake of the death of his fiance, Petito, whose body was found earlier this month in Grand Teton National Park, Wyo.

State police have looked for Laundrie; so has the FBI; local police agencies are on the hunt, too.

In comes the “reality TV” celebrity, Dog the Bounty Hunter, who reports that Laundrie is alive and that he — Dog — is close to rounding him up.

What in the world would Dog do that government agencies wouldn’t or couldn’t do to find Laundrie?

Indeed, if Dog the Bounty Hunter collars Laundrie, there might be some others who will endorse the notion of refusing to pay taxes, some of which pays for law enforcement agencies to do the kind of thing that a celebrity with an ugly mullet is doing.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

11 more subpoenas signal the panel is getting serious

The U.S. House Select Committee that is looking at the why, the what and the who of 1/6 is a serious panel that needs to be taken seriously.

The committee has issued 11 more subpoenas aimed at corralling key aides and advisers to Donald J. Trump. It wants to know what they knew about the events leading to the riot that exploded on Capitol Hill.

The 45th POTUS is going to try to prevent them from answering the demands from the panel. He won’t succeed, given that he no longer possesses any presidential power of the type he wielded in keeping other key aides from talking to those who examined the man’s time as president.

Too bad, Mr. Former Liar in Chief. He now is just one more corrupt private citizen who is being forced to face down those who seek the truth behind what happened on the day POTUS 45 exhorted the rioters to storm the Capitol.

I am guessing the 11 subpoenas we saw issued today will be just a fraction of the number of demands yet to come. Good hunting, select committee members.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Bring it, Dog!

If Dog the Bounty Hunter is able to bring Brian Laundrie in alive, I guess I am going to give the dude his due as a celebrity sleuth.

They brought in the fellow aka Duane Chapman to help find Laundrie, a “person of interest” in the death of Gabby Petito, who was Laundrie’s fiance.

I have suggested that Laundrie is dead. That they’ll find him in a gator’s gut eventually, given that he had been hiding — supposedly — in a Florida nature preserve.

But … what do I know? Not a damn thing if we’re going to believe Dog the Bounty Hunter.

Hey, I usually just blow this clown off — that would be Dog — as he traipses around on TV looking for bad guys. This time, if he delivers a notorious person of interest, I guess I’ll just have to give him all the respect he deserves.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Commentary on politics, current events and life experience