crime news

AG shows his anger

Merrick Garland doesn’t strike me as an individual who usually wears his emotions on his shirt pocket.

However, today he demonstrated an angry streak that, frankly, I found reassuring. The attorney general took dead aim at those critics on the far right who have leveled bizarre accusations against the FBI, accusing agents of “planting evidence” at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

President Barack Obama wanted Garland to take a seat on the Supreme Court. He nominated the former D.C. Appeals Court judge to the court in early 2016, only to be stymied by Senate Republicans.

Now he’s the nation’s AG and is investigating whether Donald Trump broke the law in seeking to deny the transfer of power from the Trump administration to the administration led by Joe Biden, the winner of the 2020 presidential election.

U.S. Attorney General Garland confirms FBI investigating Trump (msn.com)

Garland is working against considerable blowback by the right-wingers among us. They are threatening him with congressional persecution. They have accused federal agents of planting evidence at Trump’s glitzy resort.

The AG fired back today, reminding us that the men and women who work for the FBI are patriotic professionals and that he will not tolerate the agency’s enemies leveling the kind of accusations they are leveling at the FBI.

Think of the irony. Republicans long have been associated with the belief that law enforcement is the friend of Americans. Now they are vilifying the FBI. Why? Because they are examining whether the far-right’s guru, Donald J. Trump, has broken the law.

The far-right wingers among us are exhibiting a shameful demonstration of hypocrisy as they denigrate the FBI and threaten the attorney general.

AG Merrick Garland should not have felt compelled to defend the men and women who protect us every single day against those who would do us harm, but he did so today … and he made me proud.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

Is Trump … guilty?

Let’s see if we can sort out what Donald Trump once said about those who invoke the Fifth Amendment, shall we?

While campaigning for the presidency in 2016, Trump said that only those with something to hide would cower behind the amendment that protects Americans against self-incrimination. If they’re guilty of something, they take the Fifth, he said.

The slathering faithful to whom he was speaking in ’16 would whoop, holler and applaud and start chanting “Lock her up!” while referring to his political opponent back then, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

We fast-forward to this week and Trump gets summoned to the New York attorney general’s office. What does the former Crook in Chief do? He invokes the Fifth Amendment more than 400 times!

Media reported he answered precisely one question: What is your full name?

Attorney General Leticia James is looking into allegations that Trump falsified his net worth to obtain favorable loans and to head off legal action taken against him. He exaggerated his worth for the former and low-balled his assets for the latter … allegedly!

Which is it? Is The Donald guilty of something? Does he have something to hide?

And to think that there are a substantial number of Americans out there would want to see the former Charlatan in Chief given access to the nation’s nuclear codes once again.

Go figure.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Puppy Tales, Part 96: He is the best … ever!

Normally, when I offer a Puppy Tales installment it is to brag about something new in Toby the Puppy’s life, a revelation that he delivers to us, a new example of just how smart and adorable he is.

Not this time. Instead, I am offering this brief salute to Toby the Puppy by commemorating an event that is fast approaching: the eighth anniversary of the moment he joined our family.

I won’t belabor the details of the event itself. I do want to salute Toby the Puppy for being just about the perfect addition to our family.

He’s now eight years of age. He was five months old when he came home with our great niece in early September 2014.

Toby the Puppy has been, to put it as clearly as I can, a total riot ever since. He has brought us great joy through the love he displays to my wife and me every … single … day. He quite literally jumps for joy when we mention our granddaughter’s name in his presence. We tell him Emma is coming over and he can hardly restrain himself.

Our puppy has been the most joyful addition to our clan than I can even imagine.

Puppy tales, Part 3 | High Plains Blogger

I just wanted to share the good news with those of you who have told me that you enjoy hearing about his exploits.

The even better news is that Toby the Puppy is at the tippy-top of his game.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Oh, the irony of it all

The irony in the partisan reaction to the FBI decision to search Donald Trump’s luxurious pad for documents he wasn’t supposed to take from the White House is just too rich to ignore.

There once was a time when Republicans were seen as belonging to the party of law and order. Yep, the GOP once cheered the cops’ efforts to root out crime. The party once took no prisoners. It said “hang ’em high.”

So, what’s happened in the day or two since the FBI search? Republicans are now accusing the feds of planting evidence. They accuse the FBI and the Justice Department of conspiring to make up a pretext to send the former president to jail in leg irons.

What the hell … ?

The FBI obtained a search warrant using legal means. It persuaded a federal judicial magistrate that it had “probable cause” to believe a crime had been committed. The judge issued the warrant. The G-men and women went to Trump’s glitzy joint and left with about a dozen boxes of documents.

Republicans formerly cheered the feds when they performed these duties. Now they have rallied behind a cult figure and are leveling preposterous allegations against the FBI.

Astonishing, man!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

Trump takes Fifth

So, what do we have here? A former president who used to vilify others for taking the Fifth because they are “guilty” of something now has — get ready for it — done that very thing.

Donald John Trump was summoned to speak to the New York attorney general’s office. He didn’t answer any questions. Instead, he fell back on his constitutional protection against self-incrimination.

Hey, it’s legal. He can do that. He broke no law.

New York AG Tish James is conducting an investigation into the Trump Organization’s business practices. The ex-POTUS has called her probe a witch hunt; he has accused her of being racist.

Trump also has denied doing anything illegal. He has said so repeatedly. Which begs the question:

If the former president is clean, why must he hide behind the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

No more red-light cams

This bit of news saddens me, even though I no longer live in the city I once called home for more than two decades.

Amarillo is shutting down its devices installed to protect motorists and pedestrians from those who disobey street signals that order them to stop. The city’s traffic department is dismantling its red-light cameras in accordance with a Texas Legislature mandate that prohibits cities from deploying them.

The Legislature had allowed cities that had the cameras in operation to keep using them until their current contracts expired. Amarillo’s contract has run out. The cameras are coming down.

It’s not that I want Big Brother involved in regulating our lives. It is only that in this instance, the cameras helped deter dipsh** drivers from breaking the law.

The most ridiculous argument against the cameras came from a lawyer friend of mine who argued that the cameras are an “invasion of privacy.” To which I reminded him that when you operate a vehicle in an unsafe manner on public streets, you surrender whatever “privacy” you thought you had.

I am reminded of what a former city council member, Ellen Green, once admonished critics of the cameras. “If you don’t want to pay the fine, then don’t disobey the light,” she said … or words to that effect.

I understand that the cameras did reduce the instances of red-light running in Amarillo. The city once thought they were important enough to install. I just wish the Legislature would have allowed cities to make these decisions for themselves.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

What-about-ism on full display

1 Comment

The noted right-wing blowhard Glenn Beck has been quoted suggesting that if the FBI felt compelled to search Donald Trump’s home for evidence relating to alleged criminal activity, then it should have done the same thing to Bill Clinton during an impeachment inquiry of the 42nd president.

Sheesh! Well, as usual, the Beckster has gone far afield in trying to attach moral equivalence to what Clinton supposedly did and what might await The Donald.

President Clinton got caught messing around with a young woman who was working in the White House as a temporary employee during a government shutdown. A special prosecutor got wind of it and then summoned Clinton to testify before a federal grand jury. The panel asked Clinton about the affair. He lied about it.

Thus, he broke the law by committing perjury. Therein rested the Republican Party’s pretext to impeach the president. He went to trial. The Senate acquitted Clinton.

What’s happening now is, shall we say, far more egregious.

Donald Trump is under investigation for a series of allegations: seditious conspiracy, violating the Presidential Records Act, dereliction of duty, a violation of his oath of office.

I might throw in treason, but that’s a bit of a stretch. So, I won’t go there.

Attorney General Merrick Garland is conducting a serious probe into whether Trump broke the law. The FBI obtained a warrant to conduct a search of the ex-POTUS’s home. Trump said it is unprecedented. He is right. Then again, so are the crimes for which Trump might be indicted. Right there is all the moral equivalence anyone should need to justify why the FBI did what it did.

As for any notion that another former president’s home should have been searched for evidence … well, there was nothing to seek. It was on the record with his grand jury testimony. Yeah, it was a phony and lame excuse to impeach a president, given what we’ve witnessed so many years later through the conduct of POTUS 45.

As for Glenn Beck’s assertion, I’ll just take it for what it’s worth, which is not a damn thing.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Reaction puzzles me

The initial Republican Party reaction to the FBI agents’ search for records within Donald J. Trump’s glitzy south Florida mansion has me a little bit puzzled.

I don’t hear much defense of the ex-POTUS’s conduct coming from the GOP faithful. Who out there is willing to say that it’s all right for a president to squirrel away classified documents taken from the White House? Who is willing to say it’s OK for a president — as it has been reported — to flush documents down the toilet or burn ’em in a fireplace?

No, we’re hearing instead are accusations about “weaponization” of the Justice Department and the FBI. Some GOP lawmakers are suggesting that Attorney General Merrick Garland needs to either resign or be impeached. For what? For following up on his pledge to ensure that “no one is above the law”? When the AG says “no one,” he means, well, no one, not even a former president of the United States.

The hysterical reaction from the hysterical right wing, though, is laughable … except that it ain’t funny.

What does make me chuckle — but only a little bit — is that the right-wingers just aren’t going to say that Donald Trump didn’t do anything wrong.

The man is as crooked as a dog’s hind leg.

As for the Justice Department’s search for wrongdoing, it would be foolish to believe that DOJ — at this juncture of the probe — is going to go easy on what appears to be a mountain of evidence that implicates the man who once took an oath to protect the Constitution, but who in reality launched an all-out attack on it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

business news

Goodbye, stick shifts? Oh, my!

I just glanced at an article in The Atlantic that saddens me greatly.Ā It’s because the article foretells the demise of stick shifts in motor vehicles. This is a terrible event in the age of the horseless carriage.

Here’s the article to which I refer:

The End of Manual Transmission – The Atlantic

I learned how to drive on a manual transmission. Mom taught me the ins and outs of operating a three-speed transmission in her 1961 Rambler. It was a brown-ish vehicle. It wasn’t very sporty, but it did allow me to learn the intricacies of actually operating a motor vehicle.

Mom advised me that “once you learn to master a manual transmission, you’ll be able to drive anything.” Oh, she was so right.

Not too many years after learning how to drive Mom’s Rambler, I returned home from Vietnam and spent the final few months of my Army tour of duty with an armored cavalry regiment in Fort Lewis, Wash. I got orders to report to a transportation company within the Third Armored Cav. They threw me into a five-ton cargo truck. And, yep, it had a manual transmission.

It was a piece of cake, man.

Ian Bogost writes in The Atlantic: But the manual transmissionā€™s chief appeal derives from the feeling it imparts to the driver: a sense, whether real or imagined, that he or she is in control. According to the business consultant turned motorcycle repairman turned best-selling author Matthew Crawford, attending to that sense is not just an affectation. Humans develop tools that assist in locomotion, such as domesticated horses and carriages and bicycles and carsā€”and then extend their awareness to those tools. The driver ā€œbecomes oneā€ with the machine, as we say.

Hey, it’s not “imagined.” The driver is in control.

My family members have known for years how I feel about stick-shift driving. I always have preferred to actually manipulate the clutch pedal and run the shifter through its paces over just sitting behind the steering wheel and guiding the car to wherever I have pointed it.

Hey, I’ll get over this sad news. It’s just going to take some time.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

FBI isn’t ‘weaponized’

I need to set the record straight in a brief response to one of the criticisms being leveled at the FBI in the wake of its searching Donald Trump’s Florida home for evidence of criminality.

It’s this idiotic notion that the FBI is being “weaponized” to hunt for crimes that allegedly don’t exist. I happen to believe they do exist and that the federal judge who issued the warrant believes so, too.

Now for setting the record straight.

Donald J. Trump appointed Christopher Wray as FBI director in 2017 after he fired former FBI boss James Comey.

Thus, Wray is a “Trump guy” in the strictest sense of the word. However, Wray also is a law enforcement pro. He is a seasoned prosecutor with many years of experience looking for bad guys.

To suggest that Christophe Wray would turn the FBI into a political weapon would be to deny the man’s long and distinguished history as a career prosecutor. It also is to defame his reputation.

FBI Director Wray doesn’t need me to defend him. I just feel the need to remind those critics of the FBI search (I will not call it a “raid”) that the FBI boss is an official dedicated to finding the truth behind a potential criminal act.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Commentary on politics, current events and life experience