crime news

Race to make history?

One of three people appears set to make history by being the first individual ever to indict a former president of the United States.

Who will get there first?

Will it be U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, Fulton County, Ga., District Attorney Fani Willis or Manhattan, N.Y., District Attorney Alvin Bragg?

I won’t lay down a wager. One of ’em appears set to pull the proverbial trigger on Donald J. Trump. That would be DA Bragg, who appears ready to issue an indictment alleging that a $130,000 hush money payment to a porn star from Trump wasn’t properly reported by the Trump Organization.

Whoever goes first well might give the other two political cover to act as they should and indict the former POTUS for, oh, let’s see: inciting the 1/6 insurrection, squirreling classified documents from the White House illegally at his glitzy joint in south Florida, seeking to overturn 2020 presidential election results by demanding that Georgia officials “find” enough votes to turn the state’s electoral college tally to Trump’s favor.

All of those allegations appear solid to me. However, it’s no one’s call except for the prosecutors who are examining this stuff.

The ex-POTUS is heading for some very bad news.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

business news

Biden tax strategy makes sense

Joe Biden drew a few lines in the sand today with his budget proposal, but I want to look at just one of them with this brief post: tax policy.

The president has dared congressional Republicans to oppose his notion that those who earn $400,000 per year should pay more in taxes than those who earn less than that. Interestingly, that is the amount of money that Biden earns annually as president of the United States; that amount, plus first lady Jill Biden’s teaching salary and the assorted other income he receives puts him in the rich folks’ tax bracket.

Middle-class Americans won’t pay more in taxes, Biden said.

Fine. I’m all for that. As an American on a fixed income who makes a little scratch each year writing freelance articles for a weekly newspaper group and for a public radio station in North Texas, I don’t want to pay any more in taxes than I do already.

Too many uber-rich Americans perform the Houdini act of not paying taxes. Ditto for corporations, according to the president.

Joe Biden has positioned himself as being “for the average American” and has positioned his political foes — namely Republicans in Congress — as being in the corner of the “rich and powerful.”

Hmm. Which side am I going to take? Oh, wait! I am one of those average Americans for whom the president says he is fighting.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

economic news

Biden budget = political weapon

Let’s put it all on the table: President Biden’s announcement of a new federal budget proposal is aimed at a political audience, not at anyone in Congress who he can persuade to join him in the effort to advance the “values” he espouses.

Joe Biden ventured to Pennsylvania to unveil a budget he says will cut the federal deficit by $3 trillion over the next decade. That is, to borrow a phrase, a Big F****** Deal.

He wants to raises taxes on rich Americans and corporations. He wants to preserve Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act. The president wants to shore up our military, our national intelligence network, the fight for Ukraine’s sovereignty. Biden wants to make community college attendance free.

Is this going to fly with what he referred to continuously today with the “MAGA Republicans”? Not a chance, man!

Instead, he has laid out a predicate for his 2024 re-election effort, which many believe he will announce soon. President Biden is going to put congressional Republicans on record as opposing the very things he said he wants to do.

I am all in with what he wants to accomplish.

Of course, looming mightily over all this is the threat by Republicans to crash the world economy by allowing the United States to default on the national debt that it has accrued since the beginning of the Republic. The president made that point, too, telling Republicans that they had a hand in running up that debt and that the U.S. Constitution requires the nation to maintain its “full faith and credit.”

Republicans, particularly the know-nothings who comprise the MAGA cabal, need to understand that they cannot mess with the national debt without collapsing the entire world economy. Got it? They had better!

President Biden’s budget as he has presented it won’t get through Congress. A big part of me believes the president — who knows how Congress works — understands that, but he has thrown down the gauntlet and dared the GOP to pick it up.

johnkanelis_92@hotmaial.com

local news

She would approve greatly

You know what just occurs to me? Of course you don’t, so I will tell you: It occurs to me that my bride would approve greatly of my desire to get out of the house and hit the road for an extended period of time.

Kathy Anne loved to travel. We embarked on many remarkable adventures pulling three recreational vehicles over the course of several years. We owned two fifth wheels and a smaller travel trailer before we decided this past fall we had enough fun with them.

She’s gone now, but I have decided to hit the road. I believe I will leave with her heartfelt blessing and perhaps a wish she were still here to enjoy the trip with me.

But … she is with me. She’ll always be with me.

I have known all along that whomever of us leaves this Earth first that the other one will carry memories of our life together wherever we go and whatever we do.

And we had a grand and joyous life that encompassed 51 wonderful years. We set foot in 48 of our 50 states. We traveled abroad to about a dozen countries. We walked among antiquities that pre-dated the birth of Jesus Christ; we toured part of the Holy Land; my bride, who couldn’t tolerate Asian food, came with me twice to Taiwan.

We saw about a dozen of our national parks, stood on mountain passes and peered far into the distance and drove many miles along three coasts: Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf.

We cruised on ships through the Caribbean, Alaska and Hawaii.

Yeah … she would approve of this journey I am about to take.

It gives me comfort knowing it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

religious news

This isn’t very biblical

A social media acquaintance posted something I want to share here, and then I’ll offer a brief comment.

It comes from the New Testament:

“When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men … but when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your father who is unseen.” ~ Matthew 6:5

My friend posted the message along with a picture of Joel Osteen standing before an enormous crowd in the “church” he converted from a Houston sports venue. It’s gawdy and, well, a testament to conspicuous consumption.

It ain’t my kinda house of worship.

I thought Jesus had it right when he instructed us to pray in privately. This sort of glam-worship is a major turnoff … at least it is to me.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Manic planning sets in

My bride most certainly would agree with this description of myself: I tend to make all-too-detailed travel plans, rather than just sorta going with the flow.

I am planning an extended road trip out west, needing to get away for a while to process the loss I have suffered with Kathy Anne’s passing a month ago from cancer.

I now have every stop on my way out set up. I know the dates I plan to be at each location. I have made lodging arrangements along the way; I will be staying at RV park cabins, cheap motels and, of course, with family members who have offered to give Toby the Puppy and me a place to sleep.

Furthermore, I even have mapped out tentative plans for my return to North Texas, which at this moment appears to be one month after my departure for the Pacific Ocean.

I have put some friends on alert that I’ll be visiting them in West Texas. I have a family member who will put us up for a couple of nights in the Hill Country.

Then I will drive my pickup to my driveway in Princeton. I will unpack it. Sit down on the couch, take a deep breath … and then think about where and when I want to go next.

I am thinking about the Atlantic Ocean.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

media news

No thanks on propaganda

There once was a time when I would watch the Fox channel. Yes, it’s true. Even this so-called progressive American patriot would watch certain programs on the admittedly conservative media outlet.

I am going to declare here that I no longer watch Fox. It’s been a good while since I have dialed the network up on my TV. Why? Because I have known for a good while what has become clear now in the defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Machines against the network.

The network once billed itself as a “news” outlet. It is nothing of the sort. It is now a propaganda organization. Thus, I have declared my intention to refer to Fox as the Fox Propaganda Network.

I would no more collect my information from the Fox network than I would listen to, say, Josef Goebbels, tell me about what the Nazis were doing to “preserve racial integrity” in Europe during World War II. Or the Kremlin seeking to “explain” how it is “winning the war” against Ukraine, which it says began at the Ukrainians’ provocation.

The Fox Propaganda Channel lied to its viewers about who won the 2020 presidential election, despite its TV personalities admitting privately that Joe Biden won the election and that the guy who lost it is nuttier than a Snickers bar.

They didn’t bother to tell their viewers the truth. They were more worried about Fox’s TV ratings than they were committed to doing the right thing … which was to tell the truth.

Sickening.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

‘Retribution’ POTUS? Eek!

Well, I thought I could ride out a third campaign for the White House by the guy who used to live there without commenting on it.

But … I cannot let this notion go.

The 45th president said this to a small gathering at the Conservative Action Political Conference: “I am your warrior, I am your justice, I am your retribution.”

Your retribution?

Well, that’s what the world can expect to hear from the disgraced, twice-impeached former POTUS as he seeks to slither his way back to power.

Retribution? Against what and/or whom? I am going to presume he means the myriad investigators who are examining whether to indict the ex-POTUS on a number of felony crimes. The Fulton County, Ga., district attorney is looking into allegations that the former president sought to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia. The Manhattan, N.Y., DA is looking into that hush money payment to the porn star to keep her quiet about a relationship that the ex-president said didn’t occur.

Then we have the special counsel hired by the attorney general who is trying to determine whether to indict the ex-POTUS for inciting the 1/6 insurrection and whether he broke the law when he spirited classified documents from the White House.

Is this what could await us if hell freezes over and this idiot returns to the White House?

It won’t happen. Of that I remain confident.

This moron’s blathering at CPAC, before a handful of fellow extremists, is worth a note only because — after all — he once sat in the Oval Office and once made decisions on behalf of this nation.

Remember when he told the Republican National Convention in 2016 that “I, alone, can fix” what is wrong with the country?

This individual remains as delusional as ever!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Wishing for old days of air travel

Do you remember when commercial air carriers would boast that traveling by air was far safer than, say, driving your motor vehicle?

Why, planes rarely crashed, they would tell us. So, come on aboard and fly with us! We’ll get you to where you want to go!

No more, man.

Just the other day an airline passenger went nuts in the air, threatening to stab a flight attendant with a spoon, threatening to open the door at 30,000 feet; dude went nuts. He is far from the first one to go bonkers. He is just the latest. We keep hearing about passengers hassling flight crews, threatening them with various sorts of bodily harm. They get into fistfights with fellow passengers.

There have been too damn many of these mid-flight air-rage events in recent times to suit my taste. I would be inclined to fly somewhere … but for the possibility that one of the passengers on a flight with me aboard would do what that idiot did.

Then we have those near misses on the ground and in the air. Two jetliners clipped wings while taxiing this week. Air traffic controllers aircraft taking off without proper authorization, nearly hitting other aircraft.

What the hell is going on here?

Pilot fatigue? Lack of personnel? Passengers venting their pent-up anger over the COVID pandemic? Computer glitches shutting down entire flight systems?

Eek! I think I’ll keep my feet planted on the ground.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Keeping up with violence

That insurrection thing keeps growing wings and legs and it is beginning to take off in directions that few of us saw coming.

U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy gave the Fox Propaganda Channel about 40,000 hours of video showing the 1/6 assault develop in real time. Then the network’s chief propagandist, Tucker Carlson, shows carefully edited versions of the video and proclaims the assault on our government that day was no biggie.

Fox ought to fire Carlson for lying to his viewers. McCarthy ought to be impeached for giving Fox grist to further the lie about the assault. The attorney general and local prosecutors ought to indict a former POTUS for inciting the assault, for seeking to overturn the 2020 presidential election result and for obstructing justice in the wake of the pilfering of classified documents from the White House.

I concede that the first two things won’t happen. The third one likely will occur.

The crowd that stormed the Capitol on 1/6 intended to do serious harm to our system of government. Some of them wanted to kill the vice president, Mike Pence. Others of them sh** on the floor of the Capitol. Many others beat cops nearly to death.

Yet Carlson called it a peaceful protest? That they were “sightseers”? And McCarthy said he didn’t see Carlson’s broadcast the other evening?

I can’t stand this.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Commentary on politics, current events and life experience