Interim manager shows, um, chutzpah

February 27, 2024 kanelis2012

Andrew Freeman is the interim city manager in Amarillo, Texas, a city I know pretty well, having lived there for 23 years before moving with my wife to the Metroplex to be closer to our granddaughter.

I have been stewing about this story for a little bit and I am trying to wrap my arms around the notion of an interim head of a municipal staff enacting the huge managerial changes he sought for the city.

The City Council drummed Jared Miller out of the manager’s job a few months ago, apparently dissatisfied with the leadership he was providing. They elevated Freeman to the interim post, pending the council’s decision on who to hire for the permanent job.

I guess Freeman just couldn’t wait to get the nod, so he acted on his own. He shifted a number of folks around in senior management posts — apparently without checking first with the council members for whom he works.

What might be the fallout from this decision. The council met the other day in executive session to discuss the interim guy’s job performance. Then the city issued a statement rescinding all the appointments that Freeman made. The council said the interim manager violated city policy that is spelled out in the charter; it says the manager cannot do anything of that sort without consulting with the council.

It would be one thing, I suppose, for a city manager who’s been appointed to the job on a full-time — or permanent –basis to get ahead of himself. Andrew Freeman is on the job technically on a temporary basis. For an interim manager to be so bold strikes me as a bit of a brassy move.

It makes me wonder how the council is going to look on that when they get around to deciding whom to select as the next permanent — and I use the term guardedly — chief municipal administrator.

Stay tuned … eh?

local news

Rein this guy in … now!

February 26, 2024 kanelis2012

A story reported in a city I once called home had me laughing out loud this morning as I checked my email … which I do every morning.

Amarillo has an interim city manager, Andrew Freeman, who apparently got way too far ahead of himself — and ahead of his bosses on the City Council — when he announced several key management appointments and promotions. Freeman, who succeeded former City Manager Jared Miller, who was canned late this past year by the council, had announced several key management promotions. Some of them involved people I know fairly well when I lived in Amarillo. Well, Freeman had to rescind the appointments. Why? Because he failed to consult with the council prior to announcing them to the public. Steve Pair, the fellow I quoted recently as publisher of a weekly newsletter he posts from Amarillo, said he asked Mayor Cole Stanley why the city rescinded the appointments. “City Charter requires that the council be advised of all needs of the city and then give consent before staff can take action,” Stanley said. The manager, Stanley said, is able to “appoint all appointive officers or employees of the city with the advice and consent of the council … and remove all officers and employees appointed by the manager.” So, there you have it. The interim city manager, it appears to me, got a little too full of himself and acted without consulting with the folks who appointed him to the job. The council met in closed session to discuss the city manager’s job performance. Hmm. Do you think they might’ve frowned a bit on the manager’s actions regarding these appointments? I am not a betting man, but my trick knee suggests that Andrew Freeman might have erred enough to deny an appointment to the permanent city manager’s post … presuming he wants it. Oh, and where was the city’s legal counsel when all of this was occurring? Someone needs to call that individual on the carpet, too.

local news, national news, political news

Turn out the lights, Nikki

February 26, 2024 kanelis2012

Dandy Don Meredith, the late Dallas Cowboys quarterback who gained additional fame as an NFL broadcaster, used to sing the lyrics of a song during a blowout game on TV.

“Turn out the lights,” the pride of Mount Vernon, Texas, would sing, “the party’s over.”

Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor, had hoped for a breakthrough in her home state that had its Republican Party presidential primary this weekend. It didn’t occur. Instead, the breakthrough began for the former Idiot in Chief, whose crushing primary victory over Haley all but assures him the party’s presidential nomination.

Haley had said she would be in the hunt for the duration, win or lose at home. After the votes were counted, she changed her tune, saying she would stay in “at least through Super Tuesday.”

Super Tuesday occurs March 5. A lot of states are conducting their primaries that day. Texas is one of them. The last Texas poll I saw showed the former POTUS is swamping Haley by more than 30 points.

Where am I going with this? Haley will have to pack it in after Super Tuesday. She cannot win the party’s nomination. The bottom line is that the Republican Party will become the party of the ex-POTUS for the third consecutive general election.

The moron managed to win the 2016 election. He lost it in 2020. Both times he garnered far fewer actual votes than either Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden. A lot of wise men and women suggest now that the former Liar in Chief is in position to recapture the White House.

For the ever-lovin’ life of me I cannot fathom how this can happen. We have an enormous body of evidence to suggest that the chaos and confusion that occurred during this idiot’s term in office will be multiplied manyfold if a second term occurs. He vows to be his supporters’ “retribution.”

This person is a frightening — and, yes, evil — threat to our democracy. After Super Tuesday, it appears he will be the last man standing in one of the weirdest political primaries in memory.

Were he still among us, Dandy Don would be getting ready to sing.

national news, political news

Frustration builds with each mention of his name

February 25, 2024 kanelis2012 2 Comments

My frustration level is being tested by the news media that keeps reporting on the status of the Republican Party campaign for president of the United States.

It ratchets up a little with each mention of the GOP frontrunner’s name. I know the media talking heads cannot refuse to mention him — by name. It is left, therefore, for chump bloggers like me to boycott any mention of him. So … that’s what I am doing. If you’re OK with that, thanks; if not, that’s too damn bad.

My frustration stems from this guy’s position as the frontrunner. That he’s even leading the remaining challenger at all is enough to send me into orbit. He is unfit for public office, but you’ve heard me say that many times already on High Plains Blogger.

This clown, though, is not unfit in what passes for the minds of his MAGA cult followers. They continue to whoop and holler at the lies that pour of his pie hole and he continues to believe that most Americans are buying into them. Earth to The Former Guy: Most of us out here know all about the fraudulent nature of your career.

One of the options I am employing to put a curb on my frustration level is to turn off the TV news channels. I don’t watch much national news these days; I do watch the local folks who do a good job telling us what is happening in North Texas.

By all that is normal — or what we used to define as normal — the former Moron in Chief has no business leading a formerly great political party’s race for the White House.

But not a damn thing in this whacked-out political world of ours is normal these days.

medical news, national news, religious news

Court goes way beyond what is decent

February 24, 2024 kanelis2012

The Alabama supreme court has issued a ruling that is going to reverberate all over the nation, as it endangers a medical practice that allows couples to welcome children into this deeply troubled world.

The court has ruled that embryos are “children,” and that the destruction of embryos that are not implanted into women’s bodies via in vitro fertilization theoretically could be construed as “murder.”

This despicable ruling is a nod by the court to the Christian nationalist movement in Alabama and it well could be — and should be — challenged as violating the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.

This one hits many millions of Americans right where they live. Indeed, a member of my family gave birth some years ago to twins after she and her husband decided to seek an IVF procedure. Had the court ruling issued in Alabama had been in force in the state where they live, this couple could not have welcomed their son and daughter into the world.

The First Amendment declares that Congress must not enact any law that establishes a state religion. The Alabama high court has thumbed its nose at the amendment and declared that if Christian nationalists want to declare embryos to be children, then that’s all right. Let ’em have their say, the court has ruled.

This is crap. No, it’s worse than that. It is an evil intrusion into a couple’s most delicate decision-making process.

national news

Politics gets in the way

February 24, 2024 kanelis2012 2 Comments

I am not particularly proud of what is about to come forth on this blog, but I feel compelled to make this acknowledgement.

It is that the current political climate has delivered a demonstrable blow to my ability to keep friends I’ve had and make new friends along the way.

You know about what — and whom — I refer. The Age of the Former POTUS has delivered to us an intolerable political climate. Those with differing political perspectives now are seen as “enemies” of those on the other side. We’re no longer just adversaries, or political opposites.

The former POTUS set the bar so very low that it’s easy to step over it and declare that those on the other side of the great divide aren’t worth keeping as friends. I kind of fall into that trap.

For all I know many of my friends well might be of the MAGA ilk. They just don’t wear their philosophical ID on their sleeves or plastered on their face. Nor do they swoon out loud when the voice of the 45th POTUS is within earshot.

Until now I didn’t routinely seek to know someone’s political leaning before committing to a friendship. It’s a sad state of affairs to acknowledge that I have done so.

Damn! I am not proud of myself. However, I cannot tolerate establishing a relationship with someone on the other side of the chasm that divides us. It would be fine if we could discuss our differences intelligently, calmly and reasonably.

I have encountered too much blind intolerance to be comfortable in this hideous political environment.

media news, national news, political news

How does POTUS battle back?

February 24, 2024 kanelis2012

For the ever-lovin’ life of me, I don’t understand a lot of things, such as public opinion polling that seems to fly directly against the winds of success of a particular politician.

The pol I have in mind is the president of the United States of America, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. By an overwhelming measure, Joe Biden has enjoyed a successful presidency.

Jobs are up; inflation is in check; the economy is the strongest on Earth; infrastructure is being improved; we are battling climate change; our international alliances are stronger than ever; we have gotten past the COVID pandemic.

Is the world a perfect place? Of course not! We cannot possibly produce a perfect world. Immigration is in crisis; war has erupted in Ukraine and in Israel and Gaza.

Biden is taking plenty of heat for all that has gone wrong on his watch and virtually none of the credit for all that has gone right. The RealClearPolitics poll average places Biden at a 39.7% approval rating.

What the hell is going on?

I know the polling is a static measure. It gauges the public mood in the moment. It is the proverbial snapshot of our feelings right now.

Still, it annoys me to no end in sight that President Biden continues to fight this perception — fed by the right-wing mainstream media — of a public that is uncertain about our future. The MAGA media are clinging to the coattails of Biden’s presidential predecessor, the former Idiot in Chief who wants his old job back.

They are swallowing the swill he peddles, believing the nation is going straight to hell. It damn sure isn’t!

I have no advice to offer the president and his re-election campaign team on how to revive the president’s standing. I guess perhaps the president ought to just keep hammering at his predecessor — the GOP nominee-in-waiting — by reminding everyone about the chaos that accompanied him throughout his sole term in office.

Only the idiotic former POTUS actually pledges to make matters worse if the worst happens and he is elected this November.

Polling takes a lot of hits. I am not going to concede that the polls we see today will hold up until Election Day. Still, they are enough to drive me out of my mind!

national news, political news, religious news

We are a ‘secular government,’ dammit!

February 23, 2024 kanelis2012

I keep hearing about how U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson cloaks himself in the New Testament, about how he is pushing the doctrine of “Christian nationalism.”

Sigh … I want to remind the speaker and those who adhere to his reported view of how government should function of this irrefutable fact: You won’t find the word “God” anywhere in the U.S. Constitution. Why is that? Because the men who wrote it consciously avoided using such language because they had fled religious oppression in Europe. They wrote a secular document that establishes that human beings should determine our laws and that they should not be influenced by a specific religion. Yes, I am talking about Christianity. The founders established in Article VI that there must be “no religious test” to determine who should run for public office. The First Amendment to the Constitution lays out a number of civil liberties that deserve protection from government interference; the first one of them is religion, as the amendment declares that “Congress shall make no law” that establishes a state religion. Speaker Johnson needs to put a sock in his proclamation of faith. It is admirable that he is a man of strong faith. That is as far he should go, and he must end this rhetoric that attaches references to God to legislation enacted by fallible men and women.

crime news, national news, political news

Biden inquiry: waste of time … and money

February 23, 2024 kanelis2012 1 Comment

Congressional Republicans approved the President Biden impeachment inquiry a few months ago.

Their aim — and, yes, their desire — is to find something on which to impeach the president. They have come up empty. There’s no “there, there,” to borrow a phrase from the late Gertrude Stein.

It just appears to me that there never will be evidence of a “high crime” or a “misdemeanor” on which to impeach the president.

If ever we are witnessing a vendetta, this is it. Republicans still are steaming over the House’s impeachment — twice, in fact — of the president who most recently wore the GOP label. (Be advised that I won’t mention the moron’s name on this blog).

Yeah, I know the Senate acquitted him but only because the GOP majority in the upper chamber lacked the guts to convict him of (a) soliciting a political favor from a foreign head of state and (b) inciting the mob to storm the Capitol Building on Jan. 6. I point out, too, that on the second impeachment, the Senate recorded 57 votes to convict the POTUS of inciting the mob, but the constitutional standard required the Senate to find 67 votes to boot the president from office.

In both cases, you had actual high crimes on which to convict, but it didn’t happen.

Republicans are launching their own inquiry into whether to impeach Joe Biden. I am still scratching my noggin and wondering: What in the name of vengeance is the crime? What has Joe Biden done, specifically, to merit this phony inquiry?

Has anyone produced anything resembling a crime, or an allegation of a crime? No! They have not! Instead, we now hear that a key witness who was supposed to produce the goods has been indicted for lying to the FBI. Pretty damn credible, eh?

This matter will produce the same result that the GOP witch hunt into “Benghazi” produced. Not a damn thing!

It is a monumental waste of time. Indeed, it is a waste of money that Republicans keep telling us we cannot afford to spend on important issues that matter.

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