local news

Why must we worry about our grid? Ridiculous!

Texans everywhere are bracing for a serious winter blast set to hammer us later this week.

And as we get ready for it, we are asking ourselves and each other: Do you think our electrical grid will hold up to the demand for energy? That is an absurd question in this state, arguably the energy capital of the world.

However, here we are. From here in Princeton to Pampa, from Presidio to Palestine we are wondering about the Electric Reliability Council of Texas ability to manage the state’s electric-generation capacity.

Why worry about ERCOT? Why, hell. It was just less than two years ago when ERCOT failed us. We lost power. We lost water generation. Hundreds of Texans froze to death.

ERCOT says the grid will hold up. So do our politicians, led by newly re-elected Gov. Greg Abbott. They tell us the state has plenty of energy to withstand this brief, but intensely bitter cold blast coming in the next few hours.

Pardon me for doubting the assurances. I remember the misery we endured. It was too brief of a time ago. That shouldn’t have occurred … but it damn sure did!

We’re taking measures in our house to prepare for the worst. I just hope our neighbors are, too. If enough of them prep for the deep freeze, then we’ll be all right.

Why must it come to this?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

business news

Hillary and others were right? Uhh … yeah!

“It proves that Hillary Clinton was right all along Nancy Pelosi was right all along; Chuck Schumer was right all along; the Democrats were right all along. Reporting from The New York Times was right all along; the Washington Post, too, was 100% correct all along. Donald Trump was not under audit. Donald Trump was lying. He was desperate to hide the truth from Americans.”

So said a TV host today in comments relating to the former president of the United States and his stubborn refusal to release his tax returns for public review.

The host is Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC and her point off the top is that Donald Trump never was being audited by the Internal Revenue Service as he insisted as the reason why he couldn’t release his returns.

So … he lied? Wow! Who woulda thought that was possible?

Some of us — such as this blogger — noted long ago that Trump never even produced any proof that the IRS was auditing his returns. For its part, the IRS said its rules prohibited it from commenting on specific cases. The agency, though, did say that audits do not prevent anyone from releasing the returns.

Back to the returns that finally have been turned over to the House Ways and Means Committee, they haven’t yet revealed everything about Trump’s business dealings, but it has shown has been a doozy so far.

They show that Trump had negative income in four of the six years covered by the release of the returns. What does that mean? Well, I believe it means that Trump’s continual bragging about his business brilliance was — to borrow a phrase — a bald-faced lie.

This information reveals him to be the business fraud that many of us suspected of him all along. Just think, therefore, of the phony claim of business acumen being used as a campaign ploy to get him elected POTUS in 2016. Wasn’t that part of the carnival barker’s alleged “charm” to voters?

The public has a right to know the details of a president’s finances, regardless of what politicians might say. Now the public is on the cusp of knowing a great deal about the fraud who presented himself as the world’s most astute business executive on his way to being elected to the world’s most powerful public office.

Let the chips fall.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Election denier makes right call … imagine that

One of the more fascinating aspects of the Texas secretary of state’s findings about the integrity of the 2020 election is that the secretary of state is an election denier.

Imagine that, eh?

John Scott is leaving office soon, returning to private life. When Gov. Greg Abbott appointed him as the state’s chief election official, many critics were quick to say that Scott has called the result of the 2020 election into question, criticizing what he called “irregularities” in the vote process.

Well, it turns out that the audit his office did in four of the state’s most populous counties found what many of us have said all along: There wasn’t “widespread voter fraud” in Texas.

It reminds of the “forensic audit” done in Arizona earlier this year by the Cyber Ninja outfit hired to examine claims of widespread fraud in that state. They came up empty, despite fears that the Cyber Ninjas were nothing more than a stalking horse organization for the Big Liars — in that it had no experience auditing election returns.

Now we have the Texas secretary of state confirming that Collin, Dallas, Tarrant and Harris counties’ elections were done above board and were free, fair, legal and correct.

Who knew?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

business news

Trump tax returns to go public

Republicans blasted the decision to release the returns, warning that the move will usher in a new era of disclosing personal financial documents as a “political weapon.”

What you see in the preceding paragraph comes from The Hill newspaper, quoting Republicans who are critical of a decision to release Donald Trump’s tax returns, turning them over to public inspection.

They are wrong to fear the weaponizing of tax returns.

The U.S. House Ways and Means Committee today voted along party lines to release six years of Trump’s taxes. The ex-president fought their release. He didn’t want to disclose to the public what previous presidents and presidential candidates had done since 1976.

So, what in the world should GOP officials fear now?

House Ways and Means Democrats who voted to release the tax returns now will give the public an inside look at the tax burden — or lack of burden — the one-time president had to bear while he was demanding that you and I pay our taxes.

It’s fair game.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Trumpism likely to outlive its founder

No matter what fate holds in store for Donald J. Trump, my fear now is the survival of the political movement he sired and foisted onto the rest of us.

Trumpism is likely to outlive its founder, the megalomaniacal businessman who is now facing the real possibility of being indicted for felony crimes associated with his losing the 2020 presidential election.

The House 1/6 select committee has referred criminal allegations to the Justice Department, charging Trump with obstruction of justice, inciting an assault on the U.S. Capitol, conspiring to commit an insurrection.

That doesn’t count the investigation that special counsel Jack Smith is conducting into the taking of classified material from the White House and storing it in unsecured rooms at Mar-a-Lago. Talk about a serious violation and a threat to national security … eh?

Donald Trump’s days as a major political figure appear to be vanishing like the sun into a smoggy dusk. He will not be elected president in 2024. It now is looking unlikely that he’ll even win the Republican Party nomination. He is facing an oncoming stampede of legal difficulties, starting with the aforementioned potential indictments.

Then we have the financial doom that awaits. New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed a $250 million lawsuit against the Trump Organization, which also has been pounded with guilty verdicts on assorted tax violations.

But … here’s the kicker. The election deniers who did survive the slaughter many of their ilk suffered in the midterm election remain on the scene. They continue to foment The Big Lie about vote fraud. Why, even the Texas secretary of state has determined there was no such widespread fraud in Texas. That will not shut the traps of the treasonous blowhards who continue to insist the 2020 election was “stolen” from their cult hero.

Thus, that thing called Trumpism is likely to survive for a good while longer than its creator. May the rest of us remain vigilant and alert to the lies they continue to sputter.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

No ‘widespread voter fraud’ in Texas!

Guess what … after all that bellowing, blathering and bloviating about “widespread voter fraud,” the Texas secretary of state has determined that the 2020 election was secure.

We can sleep better now.

Secretary of State John Scott, who is leaving office in two weeks, conducted a thorough audit of four of Texas’s most populous counties. They are Collin (where I live with my wife and one of our sons and his family), Dallas, Tarrant and Harris counties.

Scott’s team found no evidence of widespread fraud, despite the yammering of those who believe the 2020 election was fraught with corruption. There were some reported COVID-19 “irregularities,” but they amounted to a major nothing-burger in the grand scheme.

So … may we now put this crap into the ground where it belongs?

The Texas Tribune reported: (Tarrant County elections administrator Heider) Garcia added that Collin County, which the report considered a “model” of how Texas elections should be run, could perhaps offer some tools to further improve Tarrant County’s elections. Both counties are in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

That, right there, gives this Collin County resident comfort knowing that our ballots were counted properly and recorded for history’s sake as being legitimate.

Audit shows Texas elections secure despite COVID “irregularities” in 2020 | The Texas Tribune

I am delighted to know that the state’s audit of our system proved what many of us have known all along … that claims of widespread voter fraud are the work of demagogues and liars.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

 

local news

Municipal complex promotes transparency

Princeton’s new municipal complex has lost its “new building” smell after being occupied by the Texas city’s administrative staff for a year.

However, it remains something of an architectural marvel … at least to my eyes.

I have had occasion to visit with senior city staff in recent weeks. I have met with City Manager Derek Borg and some of his administrative officials in rooms designed — in the words of Borg and Mayor Brianna Chacon — to promote governmental transparency.

How does it do that? They have installed lots of glass that otherwise could be walled off from public view.

I recently met with Borg in a conference room next to the city’s development office. As he and I visited, I could see people walking back and forth; most of them were staffers, but I noticed those I presumed to be just plain folks … like me. Therein was the reason, as Borg and Chacon explained it, for installing all that glass in this building.

It certainly provides a spacious working environment for Princeton’s staff. The structure brings the police and fire departments under the same roof as the city administrative staff.

It also does — in its subtle way — give the impression of a transparent operation. Anyone walking into the building can peer through the windows and watch those who work for the public at work on their behalf. I realize it’s mainly symbolic, but the transparent symbolism is important, too.

I find it refreshing, even as I am doing my job as a reporter trying to get information from the various officials who work for my neighbors and me.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

How does GOP defend this?

As I listened today to the members of the House 1/6 select committee lay out the allegations against Donald J. Trump, I could not help thinking about how Trump’s sycophants will defend the individual’s indefensible actions.

How are they going to say that Trump’s speech on the Ellipse on 1/6 didn’t incited an angry mob of traitors? How are they going to defend the ex-president’s refusal to stop the assault on the Capitol? How are they going to defend with a straight face the actions of that mob, other than to say they were engaging in “legitimate political discourse”?

Make no mistake: They will do all of that. They will continue to cower in their cowardly fealty to Trump. The cabal of cultists in Congress will high-five each other, slap each other on the back and defend what only can be called the actions of a criminal.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Ethics referral: DOA?

Many of us are stunned by the news that the House 1/6 select committee referred four criminal charges against Donald J. Trump to the Justice Department.

There happens to be another bit of news released today by the committee that held its final meeting before it is disbanded. It is the referral to the House Ethics Committee on four Republican House members for their refusal to testify before the committee.

The congressmen are Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan, Andy Biggs and Scott Perry. All of them received subpoenas by the House committee to testify. They all refused.

I must report that I fear that the Ethics Committee referral likely is dead on arrival. Why is that? Because the Republicans will take control of the House after the first of the year and they likely will toss the referral into the Dumpster.

That, of course, would be a travesty.

When a duly constituted congressional committee orders one to testify before it, you are obligated to follow the panel’s instruction. That’s the law. It is not normal to stiff a congressional committee by refusing to obey a summons when the committee issues it.

The House Ethics Committee, I also am saddened to report, traditionally has been a toothless beast. It rarely takes any serious action against members when it gets referrals such as what has been delivered regarding these four GOP blowhards.

That all said, I will not be holding my breath waiting for the GOP-controlled House of Representatives to take action against these four MAGA nimrods.

The House GOP caucus, we must remember, is populated by a cabal of cowards.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Trump makes history!

Donald John Trump pledged — in so many words — to make history if voters elected him president of the United States in 2016.

Well … today the ex-president made good on that promise by making history of a staggering type. He became the first POTUS in U.S. history to ever be referred for criminal prosecution by a duly constituted congressional committee.

The House 1/6 select committee held its final meeting today and referred four charges against Trump to the Justice Department. They all refer directly to his role in inciting the 1/6 insurrection and in refusing to stop the attack on the Capitol that resulted in many injuries and some deaths.

The treasonous mob’s intention was clear: It was acting on Trump’s orders to stop the Electoral College certification of the 2020 presidential election.

Now comes the real hard task awaiting DOJ. It must decide whether to indict Trump on any of these referrals. Therein we have the words of Attorney General Merrick Garland, who has told us repeatedly that “no one is above the law.”

To be absolutely clear, the congressional referrals have zero legal consequence. They are symbolic in nature. However, Justice Department prosecutors have been handed an enormous pile of evidence that ought to persuade them that Trump did obstruct justice, that he did conspire to overturn the 2020 election results and that he most surely did incite the assault on the Capitol Building.

My head is spinning as I ponder the consequences of whatever the Justice Department decides. If it indicts Trump but then whiffs on getting a conviction, then the MAGA crowd will be energized beyond belief. If it chooses to forgo any indictments, it will signal to Congress that the work of the select committee was essentially a waste of time.

Then again, if DOJ indicts Trump and a trial jury convicts him of a felony … I would spend American real money to see this individual hauled away to spend time behind bars.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Commentary on politics, current events and life experience