State news

Hey, Beto … you gonna run?

Photo by Richard W. Rodriguez/AP/REX/Shutterstock 

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Oh, Beto, Beto, Beto!

The young former West Texas Democratic congressman had to walk back something he said out loud, in public, to a TV reporter.

He said he didn’t plan to run for Texas governor in 2022. Then his office called the Texas Tribune to say … oops! “What I said today is what I’ve been saying for months: I’m not currently considering a run for office,” Beto O’Rourke said in a statement. “I’m focused on what I’m doing now (teaching and organizing.) Nothing’s changed and nothing I said would preclude me from considering a run in the future.”

Don’t you just hate it when politicians say something and then tell you what they meant to say?

According to the Texas Tribune: “I’ve got no plans to run, and I’m very focused on the things that I’m lucky enough to do right now — organizing, registering voters and teaching,” O’Rourke said on NBC DFW’s “Lone Star Politics,” which will air Sunday. “I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing now.”

Beto O’Rourke clarifies running for governor still on the table | The Texas Tribune

Sure. I get it. He is “focused” on whatever he is doing at this moment. None of that precludes him getting focused at the next moment on something else, such as running for governor.

I happen to believe Beto O’Rourke is going to run for governor. I believe he should run. I also believe a Beto win over Gov. Greg Abbott would slam-dunk any chance of Abbott seeking the presidency in 2024.

Those are my hopes. I just want Beto O’Rourke to stop telling us what he means to say.

legal news

Let’s try this type of ‘diversity’

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump was fond of reminding us that “elections have consequences.” Of course, he was right. They do and those consequences often present themselves in the form of judicial nominations.

Joseph Biden also knows that truism and he demonstrated just how consequential his election as president might become for the nation’s judicial system. President Biden rolled out his first list of court nominees and they are a truly diverse bunch.

Biden’s nominees include plenty of women, African-Americans, Asian-Americans, a Muslim, a smattering of men, as well as Anglos of both genders.

Already, one of those nominees, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, is being discussed as a possible nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court in the event a vacancy occurs. Justice Stephen Breyer, appointed to the court in 1997 by President Clinton, is thought to be considering retirement once the court’s term expires later this year.

Biden has pledged to name an African-American woman to the nation’s highest court. Given that he made a similar promise when he named a vice presidential nominee, I am going to take him at his word that he will do what he promised. Judge Jackson fits the description.

However, I want to offer this suggestion for a way to diversify the SCOTUS: Find someone who didn’t earn a law degree from either Harvard or Yale University.

All but one of the justices on the court received their legal degree at one of those schools. Hmm. It makes me wonder whether the rest of the nation’s legal institutions are worth a damn. Well, of course they are! Which is why I would hope President Biden could cast his Supreme Court nomination wide, far beyond those Ivy League enclaves. Judge Brown is a Harvard Law grad. The only non-Ivy Leaguer on the high court is its newest justice, Amy Coney Barrett, who earned her law degree at Notre Dame.

Biden releases first wave of judicial nominees – POLITICO

I once made a similar request of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who was considering an appointment to the Texas Supreme Court. It dawned on me years ago that the Texas high court comprised justices who resided strictly between Interstates 35 and 45. I implored Gov. Perry to look for someone beyond that corridor. As it turned out, a highly qualified appellate judge from Amarillo, Phil Johnson, applied for that vacancy.

What do ya know? Perry appointed Johnson to serve on the court. Either he heard my plea which I made on the editorial page of the Amarillo Globe-News, or he listened to the advice of aides who had been strong-armed by legal eagles in West Texas to select someone from our part of the state.

Whatever. I think President Biden could rethink how he wants to apply diversification to the nation’s legal network by looking for a Supreme Court justice who didn’t earn his or her law degree in the hallowed halls of the Ivy League.

national news

GOP blowhards lead the chorus

(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Gosh, who could have seen this coming? Anyone? Sure!

Three Republicans who are trying to position themselves as their party’s 2024 presidential nominee are leading the opposition chorus to President Biden’s Cabinet appointments.

They are Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Josh Hawley of Missouri. They have voted against every one of Biden’s Cabinet choices, except two. They are seeking to elbow past each other to the front rank of the next presidential primary season.

My particular interest, of course, is in Cruz, the junior senator from the state where I live. I detest his politics, his general demeanor, his loudmouth quality, his blatant self-promotion. He and Hawley stood front and center in challenging the 2020 presidential election results, declaring some unfounded fear of “widespread vote fraud.”

They disgraced themselves and  the offices to which they were elected.

And I cannot neglect to mention Cruz’s laughable attempted vacation Cancun, Mexico, while the state he represented was battling the frigid February snow and ice storm, the one that knocked electricity out for millions of Texans. He high-tailed it back to Texas when his travel plans were revealed.

So, it’s no surprise that these presidential pretenders are leading some sort of amen chorus in opposition to President Biden’s choices to run the executive branch of government.

All of ’em make me want to hurl.

Oh, but in the world is going to happen to these clowns if the former Imbecile in Chief, Donald Trump, decides to run? Stay tuned to see how this clown show plays out.

national news

Matt Gaetz needs a dog

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Someone once said if you want to have a “friend in Washington, get a dog.” My sense today is  that U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican, needs a pooch if he desires to find a friend.

Friends are in short supply for Gaetz as he faces allegations of improper sexual  relations with an underage girl and — this is the worst part by far — whether he engaged in sex trafficking. Then there are reports from his colleagues that Gaetz has been showing ’em nude pics of the women with whom he has taken a tumble.

It really and truly stinks to be Matt Gaetz at this time.

Don’t get me wrong. Gaetz, who has been described as a political troll who is more interested in furthering weird causes than actually legislating, is one of the more detestable individuals serving on Capitol Hill. Media are reporting a decided lack of surprise among his congressional colleagues over what has been alleged.

Yeah, he’s got a few pals. They are fellow Donald Trump acolytes who, like Gaetz, continue to suck up to the ex-president. Gaetz is hoping, it appears likely, that Trump can parlay what little political stroke he has remaining to save this clown.

It’s instructive to me that Gaetz’s congressional communications director has quit, citing “principle” as his reason for resigning. Well, who else is going to abandon this nut job?

Yep, Gaetz needs a pooch.

crime news

Trial has me hooked

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Someone called it the “trial of the century.” I fear it is such only because the 21st century is still in its relatively early stages.

Derek Chauvin is on trial for the death of George Floyd, who Chauvin pinned to the ground by pressing his knee into the back of Floyd’s neck until Floyd stopped breathing. Floyd likely died while lying on the ground after Chauvin and his Minneapolis police colleagues stopped him — get this — for passing a counterfeit $20 bill.

The trial has captured the nation’s attention. It has grabbed us by the throat. It won’t let go until the Hennepin County, Minn., jury delivers its verdict. Chauvin is charged with third-degree murder.

I am sitting out here in the peanut gallery. However, I believe Chauvin deserves to serve time in prison for what looks to me like unreasonable force in restraining a man who wasn’t even resisting. 

How might I react if the jury decides otherwise? Oh, my.  I cannot yet even process that outcome. I won’t go marching on the streets of my community; civil protest is not how I roll. I likely would be angry and I’ll likely have to settle on using this blog as a forum to register my outrage.

I do respect the American jury system of justice. I acknowledge that criminal defendants deserve the best defense they can get. To that extent, Derek Chauvin should not be denied that right as a U.S. citizen.

Still, I haven’t been this transfixed by a criminal trial since, oh, the time O.J. Simpson got away with killing his ex-wife and her friend.

I hope this jury delivers the correct verdict.

local news, Sports news

Baseball is back!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Baseball is back. The fans are back … in the stands where they belong.

At least for now. I am going to hold out a sliver of hope that we don’t see such a recurrence of the coronavirus pandemic that Major League Baseball and its minor league affiliate leagues and teams will be forced to shut down for the second summer in a row.

I say all this with a particular eye cast up yonder to where we once lived, Amarillo, Texas. The fans there are waiting with bated breath

for the start of their Amarillo Sod Poodles’ season opener, which occurs in a few weeks.

The fans there have been patient, as near as I can tell. Their team won the Texas League pennant in 2019 in its first season in existence as the Sod Poodles. Then the pandemic struck. The Texas League morphed into the Central League, which means that once this season gets started the Soddies won’t be defending their pennant, at least not in precise terms.

Hey, that’s OK. If you’re a fan of the Sod Poodles — and I acknowledge that since I no longer live in Amarillo that I only can cheer for ’em from a distance — then all you care about is opening day and the festivity that goes with enjoying a day and/or night at the ballpark.

I wish everyone well, from the Big Leagues on down.

Oh, and be sure to wear your masks while cheering for your favorite teams. Deal? Good!

crime news

Hope for gun reform looks dim and grim

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The twin massacres in Atlanta and Boulder filled me with a fleeting hope that we might be able to get some gun control legislation shoved through Congress.

Then reality set in. That was when I realized that after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School when 20 first- and second-graders along with six teachers were gunned down by the lunatic with an assault rifle wouldn’t spawn some relief, then nothing would.

The Atlanta massacre involved a hate crime against Asian-American women. The Boulder massacre involved a loon who walked into a grocery store and opened fire.

It scares me at this moment to think that even shopping for milk and eggs at a grocery store now has become a hazardous endeavor.

Would those two massacres, along with, say, the Sandy Hook carnage or the tragedy that occurred at the church in Charleston, S.C., bring some relief? One would hope so. One might even believe so.

It didn’t happen. Indeed, after the Sandy Hook shooting, President Obama stood, with tears in his eyes, and implored Congress to act. It refused to stand up to the gun lobby, forcing the president to call it the darkest moment of his time in office.

I will say it repeatedly that I believe there exists a legislative solution that does not endanger the Second Amendment to the Constitution. The task, though, is to find lawmakers with the courage to stand up against the zealots.

national news

Forecast of economic doom? Hah!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Hey, wait a second!

I could swear I heard Donald John Trump make a bold prediction that if Joe Biden were elected president of the United States that the U.S. economy would collapse.

That the stock market would crater. That jobs would flee the nation. That unemployment rates would balloon beyond anything we could recognize. That the economic health of the nation required the re-election of Trump as president.

Didn’t he say that? Or words to that effect?

Well, let’s see. The March jobs report came in today. Private non-farm job growth registered a 916,000 surge. Joblessness fell to 6 percent. The U.S. Labor Department report suggested, according to economists, that our economy is showing signs of post-pandemic vitality.

Now, let me be clear. President Biden does not deserve all the credit for this performance. Vaccines are being injected into more Americans every day. I know about the increase in COVID cases and an uptick in deaths from the virus. Health officials are urging us to stay the course, to keep wearing masks, practice social distancing.

However, I want to highlight one more lie that Donald Trump just  had to throw out there before he exited the White House for the final time. This formerly legendary business mogul made a prediction that has turned out — like practically everything he has said — to be patently false.

national news

Bipartisanship withering away

REUTERS/Mike Blake

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It’s becoming clearer by the day, if not the hour, that President Biden’s stated wish to conduct a bipartisan government policy is being tossed aside.

Congressional Republicans accuse Biden of talking a good game about working with the GOP, but acting in a highly partisan, far-left manner.

The $2.25 trillion infrastructure bill that Biden wants enacted by the Fourth of July is drawing plenty of hits from the GOP. Why? They don’t want to raise taxes on the rich folks who got that big tax cut during the Trump administration … or so they say.

Republicans don’t think Biden really wants to work with them | TheHill

Let’s flash back for a brief moment to 2009. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said his No. 1 priority then was to make Barack Obama a “one-term president.” That meant he sought to make Joe Biden a one-term vice president. Do you think the current president of the United States has forgotten that solemn pledge? Hah! Hardly.

Still, President Biden’s inaugural speech included lots of talk about unity. He would seek it. He would work with Republicans. He wanted to bridge the political chasm.

It hasn’t happened. Nor, I am fearful, does it appear to be gaining traction as the debate ensues over the infrastructure plan. Biden didn’t get a lick of GOP support for his COVID-19 relief bill, despite overwhelming public support for it.

Indeed, he has the proverbial wind at his back on rebuilding roads, bridges, rail lines, airports, water systems and Internet access. The public backs his notion on that, too.

So, who among our political leaders is out of step with those of us out here who want to see government doing things for us? Is it President Biden and congressional Democrats? Or is it the Republican caucus that continues to obstruct because they still might be angry at losing their majority in Congress along with the White House?

environmental news, local news

Favorite season has arrived

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

We all have our favorite seasons.

Most folks I know usually tell me theirs is autumn. The summer has worn them out. All that heat has gotten to them. They relish the cooler temperatures that come in the fall; they even enjoy “falling back to Standard Time.”

Me? My favorite season has arrived. I love spring. Especially this year.

Spring 2021 seems to carry a special significance for me, if not for millions of others. We are emerging from a killer pandemic.

Not only that, we are emerging from a winter for the ages in North Texas. The temps plummeted to zero and lower in February. Remember that? The lights went out. So did our heat. And then our water. It was a miserable winter.

So now comes the spring. Our lawns are snapping out of dormancy. Trees are budding. The land is coming back to life.

I am a happy fellow. Spring usually brings a smile to my mug. This one makes me smile ear to ear.

Happy spring, everyone. Let’s all enjoy it … until the summer heat gets us down again!

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