local news

Another black life snuffed out

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Here we go … again.

A young black man has died at the hands of a police officer. This time the incident is close to home. It’s just one county over from where I live.

This story is at least as troubling as so many others that have caught the nation’s attention.

The victim in this case is Jonathan Price, 31, a Wolfe City resident. The man who shot him to death is Officer Shaun Lucas, a Wolfe City cop who has been charged with murder.

Price was well-known in his community. He reportedly did good deeds for folks in Hunt County. Indeed, at the time of his death he was seeking to break up a domestic disturbance at a convenience store. The officer who arrived then shot Price as the young man was moving away from the cop.

Another death has now caused immeasurable community grief.

The officer who’s been charged with murder has been placed on administrative leave, which means for the moment he will be paid while he cools his jets awaiting his fate. I’ve never quite understood the term “administrative leave,” nor have I understood how individuals continue to draw their pay while ostensibly being punished for an action that could put them in prison for a very long time.

But that’s how it goes.

I am heartened to know the Texas Rangers have taken over the investigation of this terribly sad case. I want their probe to be thorough and as transparent as it can possibly be.

A Northeast Texas community needs answers.

medical news, national news

Quite the scene, Mr. POTUS

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Well now, that was quite the entrance that Donald J. Trump made last night as he strolled off Marine One and walked into the White House.

He had just been discharged from Walter Reed Medical Center where he had been treated for the COVID-19 virus. He walked into “my house,” came back to the flag-draped balcony and then — against the advice of the docs who treated him for the potentially killer virus — removed his mask and walked back into the White House to mingle with employees and assorted presidential supporters.

Words escape me at this moment.

We witnessed an astonishing display of arrogance from the man who then told us to “not let the virus dominate you.” What the f***?

A nation that has said farewell to more than 210,000 of its residents is now advised to avoid letting the virus get us down? The president needs to have his elaborately coiffed skull examined.

He wants to get back on the campaign trail. He wants to tangle with Democratic nominee Joe Biden in a race he is losing bigly. 

Trump said he gets it, He said he understands how the coronavirus must be treated. Really? Then someone needs to explain why he went through that disgraceful exhibition on the White House balcony.

I will be candid: He doesn’t get sh** about this virus and the danger it poses to Americans or about the grief it has brought to hundreds of thousands of families and friends of its victims.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden continues to observe all the advice handed out by the medical experts. And is it not lost on anyone that Biden’s team of advisers and policy aides has reported zero cases of COVID-19 infection — to date — while Trump’s team is dropping like flies?

I am astounded beyond measure that the president of the United States would care so little about those around him — not to mention the security of our nation — that he would flout the advice given him to stay safe against a disease that could kill him … along with those around him.

national news

Don’t sweat the COVID virus? Huh?

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald J. Trump is back in the White House after spending about 70 hours at Walter Reed Medical Center.

He is infected with the coronavirus, the one that’s killing Americans every single day.

His response to the virus? Don’t worry about it, he said upon departing the hospital for the residence at the White House. Don’t worry? Is this man nuts? Don’t answer that. I know what you would say … and I would agree.

Donald Trump will never get it. That much is now as clear as it gets.

He doesn’t harbor an ounce of empathy for those who have lost loved ones to the dreaded virus. Trump doesn’t understand what it means to suffer such grievous loss, which is a tough thing to say about a man whose brother died of alcohol abuse. Still, he says things about not worrying about the coronavirus without grasping how those words fall on the ears of those who are mourning the loss of a loved one who has died from it.

I have said before and I’ll say it again that I am hoping that Trump recovers fully from the disease. I want him to stand for re-election on Nov. 3. I also want him to lose bigly. I want Joe Biden to be elected president.

Why? Donald Trump’s behavior while being holed up at Walter Reed and his comments upon leaving it tell me he cannot lead the nation in this dark pandemic era.

What’s more, I haven’t even mentioned until right now how he shucked the mask upon entering the White House.

Donald Trump needs to go.

national news

Two thoughts on next ‘debate’

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

If Joe Biden and Donald Trump are going to “debate” each other next week, I want to stipulate two things that I believe must occur.

One is that the presidential candidates and the medical teams have to assure us that everyone within any distance at all will be safe from the COVID virus that has afflicted the POTUS. Nothing short of that will suffice. I mean, the virus is still infecting and killing thousands of Americans every day.

Second, if the next encounter resembles the first one, I want no part of it. A second shout fest — with Trump doing almost all of the interrupting and badgering — will do nothing to advance the cause of civil debate. It would be a waste of my time. I don’t know about you but I didn’t hear anything new during that first so-called “debate.”

Trump is resisting calls to change the format. Fine. Let him resist and then let the public see what a fool we have seeking re-election to a second term as president of the United States.

national news

Pretend you are losing

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

If anyone were to ask for my opinion, I would tell Joe Biden’s team to presume he is losing the contest against Donald Trump.

That means he should campaign full out, full throttle as he heads down the home stretch of the 2020 campaign for president.

The Donald keeps making mistakes that send polling numbers in Biden’s direction. That shouldn’t count.

I want Biden to win. I do not want another home stretch surprise such as what happened when Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016.

So, to avoid such a reprise, Biden needs to act as if he is behind.

Is anyone listening to me?

medical news

Way to ‘lead,’ Mr. POTUS

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Wait just a doggone, cotton-pickin’ minute.

Donald Trump is hospitalized with a highly infectious, potentially fatal virus — which has kept millions of Americans away from their loved ones as they struggle though isolation — and he does … what?

He piles into an airtight armored vehicle with Secret Service agents and takes a joyride around the hospital to wave at supporters. Then he goes back to his room at Walter Reed Medical Center as if to say “No harm, no foul.”

What the f***?

This happened today. Trump is supposed to be in isolation. He is supposed to be kept away from other human beings. Trump is supposed to be recovering quietly in his hospital room from a virus that could kill him.

But … no-o-o-o! This guy has to put on a show for his supporters. To what end? That he’s tougher than your average COVID-19 patient?

How do you suppose that is going to play with the loved ones of COVID-19 patients who have died from the disease? How might those who had to stay away while Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, husband, wife, brother and sister, children all passed without being near those who love them the most respond to Donald Trump’s show?

This display accomplished not a single constructive thing. Indeed, Donald Trump well might have exposed Secret Service agents riding with him in that hermetically sealed vehicle to the coronavirus that is supposed to keep Trump in isolation.

This is not how you “lead by example.” It is the antithesis of it. Donald Trump said he would now take the coronavirus more seriously than he has until now. Really? This is how he shows it?

Absolutely disgraceful!

legal news, State news

Texas AG faces new questions, allegations

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton had been in some serious trouble already, with a pending trial awaiting him over allegations of securities fraud.

Now comes a new set of concerns raised by senior AG office staffers, including Paxton’s top assistant, who are demanding a federal investigation into whether Paxton has abused the power of his office.

The hits just keep on comin’, as the saying goes.

Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, two of Paxton’s fellow Republicans, are being strangely reticent about the allegations. Patrick says they are “very concerning” and Abbott said they raise “serious questions.” The two men of course are withholding judgment until they know all the facts.

As the Texas Tribune has reported: “We have a good faith belief that the attorney general is violating federal and/or state law including prohibitions related to improper influence, abuse of office, bribery and other potential criminal offenses,” seven agency leaders wrote in a one-page letter obtained by the (Austin American-) Statesman.

Among the seven officials who signed the letter is Jeff Mateer, Paxton’s top aide, who quit the AG’s office this past week.

Good heavens. The state’s top law enforcement officer cannot possibly function well with these kinds of clouds hanging directly over him. He already is awaiting trial on securities fraud stemming from a Collin County indictment in 2015 alleging that he failed to notify investors of his involvement with certain fund management outfits. Now we have this matter.

I would hope the federal government would get involved promptly and reach an independent finding of whether the admittedly unspecified allegations have any merit.

If not, then let Paxton stand trial on the securities matter. If they are legitimate, then let’s allow the system to take care of AG Paxton.

medical news

Tell the truth, already!

(Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The dissembling, prevarication, obfuscation and outright lying just doesn’t stop within the White House even when it involves the health of the president of the United States.

Donald Trump’s recovery from the COVID-19 virus is being turned into a carnival of half-truths and outright fiction. Holy crap, man! We’re dealing here with the head of state, our commander in chief, the guy with the nuclear launch codes.

It’s bad enough that all of that happens to reside in the body of Donald John Trump. Now, though, we are faced with not knowing whether the president is truly on the road back to recovery or whether he could take a turn for the worse.

This back/forth about whether Trump received oxygen upon being admitted to Walter Reed Medical Center is a case in point. I get that hooking a 74-year-old male hospital patient up to an oxygen tank is a fairly normal procedure. Why not just say so? Why dance around the issue as if reporters are asking the docs to give us a live-or-die prognosis?

I probably shouldn’t be surprised at any of this. Donald Trump long ago assumed the title of Liar in Chief, even though he is a terrible liar. The lack of truth-telling has filtered through the ranks, even through the medical staff that should be immune (no pun intended) from such an affliction.

I want the president and first lady to recover from this illness. In the meantime, I also want to know the full truth in real time about what is happening to the leader of our country.

Tell us the truth!

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