national news

Concerns over new Congress

Those of us who have legislative priorities we want to see fulfilled appear to be headed toward a season of disappointment as the new Congress gets ready to take its seat in Washington, D.C.

I want desperately to be wrong on this. Sadly, my fears might prove true.

Republicans are going to take assorted House committee gavels from their Democratic colleagues in early January. A new speaker of the House will appoint chairs to the various panels. If the speaker is Kevin McCarthy of California, then I have little hope he’ll search through his caucus for statesmen and women for these key jobs.

The committee chairs will be able to control legislative flow. They will be responsible for setting committee hearings and for deciding whether to refer items to the full House.

The items are plentiful. They involve abortion rights, climate change/global warming, gun violence, continuing aid to Ukraine in its war with Russia, domestic spending and taxation … you name it.

I worry that good government will be overtaken by sniping and hearings into alleged corruption by the son of the president of the United States. I worry about the impeachment resolutions against President Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and others. I am concerned about the possibility of dragging soon-to-be-retired health adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci to Capitol Hill for more hearings.

I am heartened by the realization that the Senate will remain in Democratic hands. It gives me hope that whatever foolishness that comes from the House can be derailed by the upper chamber that still will be run by adults.

Still, the new season awaits. I am not looking forward to the nonsense that lies ahead.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Happy birthday, Mr. POTUS

Mr. President, I want to be among the millions of Americans who are wishing you a happy birthday.

So … today you are completing your 80th journey around the sun. I wish you many more such trips. Now, allow me to get to the point of this greeting.

You say you “intend” to seek re-election in 2024. I don’t read that as a definite “yes, I am a candidate for another four years as president.” You have said something about being a believer in “fate.” Hmm.

Allow me to ask you, as one who voted for you in 2020, to declare your candidacy sooner rather than later.

I get the “fate” part. I believe in fate, too, Mr. President and I also believe that fate occasionally gets in the way of the best-laid plans.

I also believe that you have done a good job as president and I want you to keep doing what you’ve done on my behalf. It hasn’t been a perfect term to be sure. Then again, no president in the history of this republic has governed perfectly. There have been mistakes among even the greatest of the great men who have been elected to this high and noble office.

I supported your election because I believed in 2020 that you represented a return to presidential norms that had been tossed aside by your immediate predecessor. I supported you because I believe that being a “career politician” is not an epithet, but that it is a signal of your commitment to public service. That, too, is something your immediate predecessor never experienced in his entire life preceding his fluke election as POTUS … and it showed during his term in office.

I also supported your election because of your demonstrated record of working with pols on both sides of the great divide and your vast knowledge of the complexities of government.

Your commitment to battling climate change, to seeking a better world that respects human rights, to seeking legislation that can end senseless gun violence, to repairing our infrastructure all are worthy of my continued support. I will support those efforts wholeheartedly.

I also will support your defense of our democratic process that you declared rightly during the midterm election to be “on the ballot.” Our nation cannot condone these attacks on the fundamental principles and tenets that make ours the greatest country on Earth.

Mr. President, I am in your corner.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Joe Biden, national news

Midterm result: Boring is good

3 Comments

When he was campaigning for president in 2020, I wondered at the time whether Joe Biden could somehow find a way to make “boring” a more fashionable form of politics.

I believe the result of the 2022 midterm election suggests that well might be the case. President Biden, in the eyes of Democratic political strategists, simply turned to his legislative accomplishments and sold enough Americans in key states that it’s OK to plod along and produce legislation that benefits them.

The election result produced a stunning outcome. Democrats retained control of the Senate; their grip on the upper chamber might tighten just a bit if Sen. Raphael Warnock knocks off Herschel Walker in the Dec. 6 runoff in Georgia. A Warnock victory would give the Democrats a 51-49 majority, which I realize isn’t great, but it’s better than a 50-50 tie; it’s a damn sight better than turning the body over to the wacky GOP that adheres to nutjob notions that most Americans oppose.

One of the reasons I supported Biden’s election in 2020 was that he brought a steady hand to the executive branch of government. Lord knows we needed steadiness after the chaos brought by the previous four years.

Now, to be sure the president hasn’t been successful with every single effort he has undertaken. But with the help of a strong House speaker in Nancy Pelosi and a Democratically controlled Senate that at times seemed to wobble in its support of key legislation, the president has been able to notch some key victories.

Congress enacted legislation aimed at curbing gun violence; it has enacted infrastructure repair and renovation; it has approved legislation aimed at combatting climate change; the president sought and achieved legislation that curbs the cost of prescription drugs.

How President Biden helped Democrats avert a midterm disaster (msn.com)

And, yes, the annual budget deficit has shrunk, the nation has added millions of jobs, we are vaccinating more Americans daily against the COVID virus.

Do not tell me that the inflation we are enduring is President Biden’s fault exclusively. It is nothing of the sort. The inflation is a worldwide crisis that is being felt in rich countries and poor ones. It’s a result of the supply chain issue, the Ukraine War and other factors that no U.S. president can possibly hope to control.

Yep, boring is good. I believe the boring list of accomplishments that Joe Biden has rung up has given the nation an important political victory by staving off the so-called “red wave” that frightened millions of us.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news, national news, State news

It’s no ‘invasion’!

Let’s examine the word “invasion,” which has become the favorite term Republicans use to describe what is occurring along our southern border.

My trusty, dog-eared American Heritage Dictionary describes it this way: “The act of invading, especially entrance by force; a large-scale onset of something harmful, such as a disease; an intrusion or encroachment.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sent President Biden and Texas county judges a letter recently in which he sprinkled the term in his note seeking federal assistance in coping with the border crisis.

Abbott ramps up “invasion” rhetoric, a reminder of El Paso mass shooting | The Texas Tribune

I detest the word used in this context. It conjures up to many Latinos living in, say, El Paso, the message in a hateful manifesto written by a lunatic who opened fire in a shopping complex in 2019, killing 23 people.

What is occurring along our southern border can be described in a lot of ways. Yes, it is a crisis. I do not believe it is right to describe a procession of people seeking refuge from tyranny in their home countries as an invasion force.

An invasion is the kind of action that nations take against each other. You know, kinda like when Nazi Germany invaded Poland in September 1939 to trigger the start of World War II.

What is occurring these days does not qualify as an invasion. It is a humanitarian crisis of the first order. Gov. Abbott is feeling mighty frisky coming off his big re-election victory.

He also is assuming the role of cruel demagogue.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Revenge on its way

We had better steel ourselves for what appears to be shaping up as the new Congress gets set to takes office in January.

Of particular concern is the House of Representatives, which will have slim Republican majority. What’s on tap? Vengeance, man!

House GOP leaders have made it clear they intend to go after Hunter Biden, his business interests and whether his father — the president of the United States — is somehow implicated in allegedly illegal activity.

Climate change? Gun violence? Roe v. Wade? War and peace? Forget about it!

No. The House GOP is sighting its weaponry on Hunter Biden. They are angry because Democrats managed to impeach the former POTUS twice, once for soliciting political help from a foreign government and once for inciting an insurrection. The second impeachment resulted in a Senate trial in which 57 out of 100 senators voted to convict, but it didn’t meet the two-thirds threshold required by the Constitution.

So, here comes the revenge.

You want good government? Or the search for common ground? Constructive legislation? Don’t make me laugh!

The MAGA wing of the GOP is positioned now to put maximum pressure on congressional leadership. They have shown zero reluctance to fight back when any opportunity presents itself … or when they can create their own opportunities.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

City facing plenty of teeth-gnashing

1 Comment

Princeton, Texas, is a community in transition. How do I know that? Because it is moving rapidly from its former status as a tiny burg to a community of considerable consequence.

Part of that transition is going to involve traffic improvements. How does the city improve traffic flow while it is in the middle of rapid-growth mode? By tearing up streets and forcing residents and visitors to the city around construction sites.

In short, we’d all better prepare ourselves for an extended period of teeth-gnashing, grumbling and flashes of anger.

The Texas Department of Transportation is going to tear U.S. Highway 380 up in the next year or so. TxDOT plans to widen the highway that runs east-west through Princeton; it will add a lane in either direction. If I owned a business along the highway I would be, um, upset with the disruption of access to my property.

That’s just one part of what awaits U.S. 380. Later, TxDOT will build a freeway bypass that will take motorists away from the existing highway, clearing it of much of the traffic that slows to a virtual stop at least twice each day.

The city has two major street jobs underway. A significant portion of Myrick Boulevard is being remade. So is Second Avenue. The city has erected detour signs, sending motorists along routes that take them out of their way.

I want to caution everyone about something they know in their hearts, but which they likely forget at times. It is that the construction won’t last forever and that the result of that construction is going to produce better-quality rights-of-way. The streets won’t be as bumpy and pothole marked as they are at the moment.

Our tax dollars are going to be working for us. I’m OK with it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news, political news

Going to ignore Trump

I am going to make a solemn pledge and I expect y’all to hold me to it.

I hereby intend to ignore Donald J. Trump’s “candidacy” for president of the United States. His proclamations on the campaign trail will mean not a damn thing to me. I do not believe a single word that flies out of his mouth.

Now, I will keep both eyes on his legal trouble. I will have plenty to say on those issues as they unfold. His alleged candidacy? Not a chance.

There might be an occasion where Trump says something I consider defamatory. I’ll weigh my options then, take them on a case-by-case basis.

He won’t have an original idea to offer. He won’t offer a view for the future. He will continue to litigate The Big Lie involving alleged “widespread voter fraud” and the 2020 election.

There is no point in commenting on any of that.

So there. You may take that to the bank.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Special counsel: yes or no?

Attorney General Merrick Garland no doubt saw this moment coming a while ago, yet he waited until today to announce that he is appointing a special counsel to examine two key aspects of the criminality demonstrated by Donald J. Trump.

The special counsel is a young man named Jack Smith, a career prosecutor and someone known to be a no-nonsense battler for the truth.

What did the AG see happening? It was the prospect that Trump would declare his candidacy for president in 2024. He likely figured the twice-impeached, disgraced and utterly unfit Trump would make another go at the office of POTUS.

OK, I am going to endorse Merrick Garland’s decision to step away formally from the probes into the 1/6 insurrection and the Mar-a-Lago document theft.

Look at it this way. Garland and the Department of Justice have done a lot of the spade work already. They have uncovered mountains of evidence that Trump incited the attack on the Capitol on 1/6 and — more specifically — that he has obstructed justice in the recovery of documents Trump took with him to his estate when he left the White House … hopefully for the final time, ever!

I know what some of you might be thinking. We’ve been down this “special counsel road” already. Robert Mueller took the job to probe whether there was collusion between Trump and them Russians. He didn’t indict anyone.

But wait. That was then. The here and now has revealed another set of evidence on another set of crimes. The new special counsel has before him a mountain of evidence through which he can pore.

Do I want any more delay in this search for accountability? Of course not! Nor do I necessarily believe there will be a delay. AG Garland has promised that the counsel will move expeditiously. Let’s hope he hits the ground at a full gallop.

The bottom line, though, is that Merrick Garland envisioned a potential conflict of interest were he to remain in charge of these two probes. It remains a possibility — although I consider it a remote one — that Trump might end up running for president against the man who selected Garland to lead DOJ.

Accordingly, I believe Garland’s decision was the correct one.

Now, it becomes imperative for the special counsel to get busy … as in right now!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Traitors don’t deserve pity … ever!

Marjorie Taylor Greene, the moron who represents Georgia’s 14th District in Congress, wants fellow Republicans to show “pity” for those who attacked our government on Jan. 6.

Pity? Yes! She believes the treasonous mob that sought to “Hang Mike Pence!” and capture and possibly execute House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are being treated unfairly by the government that is seeking justice against the mob that sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Marjorie Taylor Greene Pushes Republicans To Show Pity For Jan. 6 Rioters (msn.com)

Let that sink in for just a moment.

Greene is a member of the party that is about to take control of the House after the midterm election. She already had been stripped of committee assignments over her idiotic statements regarding the Holocaust. She now is trying to weasel her way back into the good graces of GOP leadership … by seeking “pity” for the traitors who stormed Capitol Hill on 1/6.

This individual is a disgrace to the government she abhors.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Streets: City’s job No. 1

As I run my errands through the city where we live, Princeton — a fast-growing city in Collin County, Texas — I am struck by the number of “Road Closed” and “Road Work” signs I see.

Which brings me immediately to my point. Princeton is tending to an issue that is on the minds and lips of many residents with whom I visit from time to time.

The quality of our streets is, um, horrible.

The city just completed an extension of Beauchamp Boulevard, which is two blocks from the home my bride and I bought nearly four years ago. It is now working on a total remaking of Second Street. Myrick Boulevard, south of our neighborhood, is being widened and beautified into a work of civil-engineering art.

Your tax dollars at work? You bet! Do I object to that expense? Not in the least bit!

This is what cities are empowered to do. They are obligated, in my view, to make it as easy as humanly possible for residents to travel from point to point.

There will be plenty of grumbling from those who encounter the detours and “Road Closed” signs. Let ’em grumble. That’s their right.

I am going to accept that this is the cost of progress in a growing community. I am paying my taxes to finance this work. The best news? There’s an end to it!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Commentary on politics, current events and life experience