local news

Journey takes dramatic turn

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My bride and I have been on a marvelous journey since we both retired from our full-time jobs more than a decade ago. The end of my career came suddenly; my bride chose to end her working life on her own.

We have been “living the dream” ever since. Well, this week our journey into retirement took a startling and dramatic new turn.

Our recreational vehicle travel time came to an end. We sold our RV after hauling it on a two-week excursion to the Pacific Coast. We visited friends and family along the way. We had a blast. We were comfortable in our downsized travel trailer.

But … a couple of issues emerged along the way. The trailer wasn’t working quite the way it was supposed to work. What did we decide while on the road? We decided (a) we are too old to deal with these niggling issues that keep cropping up and (b) that neither of us was skilled enough to repair these problems on our own.

We decided before we arrived at our California destination that the trip on which we had embarked would be our final one in an RV.

We’ll keep traveling. The difference will be that we intend to stay in hotels along the way, or at RV parks that offer cabins, or with friends and family scattered across this great land.

We’re taking a philosophical approach to this decision. We owned three RVs: two fifth wheels and a travel trailer. We took all of them to both ocean coasts, along the Gulf Coast, to the Great Lakes, throughout the Great Plains, over the Rockies, the Sierra Nevada, the Cascade Range, the Appalachains and we saw the western half of Canada.

We had a great run. We saw many places and had countless joyous experiences. It is now time to do something else. We have decided to take another leap of faith.

Where will our journey take us? That remains to be determined. However, we are confident we’ll know it when we get there.

We are still living the dream.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news, national news

When will indictment arrive?

All the smart money — and even some of the dumber dough — believes that Attorney General Merrick Garland is going to indict Donald J. Trump … for something!

So many questions lurk on the edges and even some in the guts of the issue.

When will the indictment(s) come? How far will the AG go in charging the former president of the U.S.A. with committing a criminal act? How does an indictment affect the former POTUS’s plans for running for the presidency again, if he’s indeed going to do so? What will be the response of Trump’s diminishing — but still frothing rabid — base of supporters?

I happen to believe that Garland could indict Trump on obstruction of justice, on violating his oath of office, potentially on contempt of Congress, on conspiracy to commit sedition.

It all turns on the events of 1/6. Trump incited the insurrection and no one on Earth is going to persuade me he didn’t do it.

However, Merrick Garland is nothing if not a realist. He knows the stakes are huge. If Republicans gain control of Congress after the midterm election, he faces the prospect of impeachment by Republicans still steamed over Democrats’ decision to impeach Trump twice.

The biggest obstacle to impeaching the AG, though, is that he is doing his job. Unlike the “high crimes” that produced two impeachments against Trump — seeking political favors from a foreign government and inciting the attack on the Capitol — Garland merely would be doing his job in accordance with the law.

That likely wouldn’t stop the GOP from seeking to make Garland “pay” for the impeachment of the former POTUS.

This is all part of the drama that awaits as Merrick Garland ponders what appears to be an inevitable action. I am waiting to see how this drama ends.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Where is protection for speaker?

The moron who broke into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco home and assaulted her husband, Paul, should have been stopped before he ever set foot in the place.

He wasn’t. Why? Because the individual who is third in line for the presidency of the United States doesn’t get the level of security afforded to the president and vice president.

That ought to change.

The speaker of the House arguably is the most powerful person in Congress. He or she calls the tune for legislation that flows from the chamber. Plus, the speaker is just two heartbeats away from assuming the powerful office in the land … if not the world!

Paul Pelosi was injured critically with a skull fracture. We all should wish him a complete recovery from his grievous injury.

As for the whether the speaker of the House deserves Secret Service protection, I am all in on calling for that upgrade in security protocol. The speaker’s power and influence in our government is too important to ignore.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Violence has no place

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins today uttered what should be considered a platitude, a no-brainer, a throw-away line.

Except that we now live in an era of intense anger that brings insane reactions to political differences.

“Violence has no place” in today’s society, Jenkins said in offering an update into her investigation into the attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.  Paul Pelosi suffered a skull fracture after being battered with a hammer by an individual who broke into the couple’s home.

Indeed, the DA is right to assert the obvious, that violence never should be used to settle political scores in a supposedly civil society.

The suspect, who faces a potential life sentence in prison if he is convicted of the myriad crimes for which he is being charged, was targeting the speaker, according to Jenkins. He was heard asking, “Where’s Nancy?” when he commenced his attack on Paul Pelosi. Hmm. Can we link that chant to a political cause, given that 1/6 Capitol Hill attackers were heard making the same request as they launched their insurrection against the federal government?

DA Jenkins should not have to remind us of the obvious, that violence never should be a solution to settling political differences. Sadly, the tenor of the times tells her to remind Americans what they already should know.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Wanting traffic relief

I have decided my next crusade is going to involve improving traffic flow along U.S. Highway 380 from Denton through Princeton in Texas.

I am weary to the point of exhaustion over having to deal with the slowdown, outright traffic-flow stoppage and the assorted headaches associated with sharing the highway with others.

The Texas Department of Transportation is planning to build highway bypasses through McKinney, Princeton (where I live with my wife and puppy) and Farmersville.

The work cannot commence a moment too soon, Which means it will be completed not a moment too soon … either.

The idea is to build freeway bypasses around these rapidly growing communities, enabling motorists to scoot past them en route to destinations farther to the east and west.

My patience wears out, I suppose, the older I get. The clock keeps ticking. My patience might have a limit, although I don’t yet know where it is. I hope I have more in the tank than I appear to believe I have at this moment.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, political news, State news

Election denial: Issue No. 1

Whether your candidate for public office takes the correct stand on abortion or gun violence might not matter if the wrong candidates win contests that would allow them to control future elections.

I refer to election deniers and their presence on many state ballots in the 2022 midterm election.

These are the dipsh**s who need to be stopped.

In Texas, we have an election denier running for re-election as attorney general. Yes, that’s Republican Ken Paxton, the idiot who has filed lawsuits seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Some of these cretins are running for other powerful public offices. Republican nominee for the Texas’s Third Congressional District, which represents my wife and me in Congress, is one of them: I refer to former Collin County Judge Keith Self, who is as hard-core a MAGA-loving conservative as they come. Spoiler alert: He won’t get my vote.

The nation’s once-revered election system is under siege by those candidates who have swallowed the swill offered by Donald J. Trump and his cadre of cultists who insist the 2020 election was stolen. They have offered not a single shred of proof of “widespread voter fraud” that would have decided the latest presidential election.

Yet the gullible among the masses have signed on to their lying, deceit and outright treasonous assertions about vote fraud. They stand ready to cast their votes for those candidates who endorse their political perversion.

I have spoken before of my eternal optimism about the future of our country and the strength of our Constitution. I will have to rely on my belief that the founders crafted a governing document that will withstand this all-out assault on our government.

I also must extend my hope to the wisdom of voters who — I hope — recognize evil intent when they see it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

media news

Changing reading habits

Once upon a time, when I was a full-time journalist working to improve my performance at my craft, I would travel to here and there and pick up newspapers along the way.

My goal was to read them, to glean some ideas I could take back with me to the newspaper where I worked.

Man, those days have disappeared. So has the habit of reading newspapers around the country.

My wife and I just returned from a two-week journey to the Pacific Coast. I didn’t pick up a single newspaper. Heck, I barely saw a single newspaper.

We ventured through cities with strong newspaper traditions: Albuquerque, Phoenix, Bakersfield, Sacramento to name just four. We stayed for a few nights in Santa Cruz, Calif., which has a paper I would read when we visited my sister and her family; not this time! I had no interest in seeing the San Jose Mercury-News, or the San Francisco Chronicle.

I did pick up one newspaper along our nearly 3,800-mile trek. We stopped for a bite in Memphis, Texas on our way home. I saw a copy of the Red River Sun, which I believe has replaced the Childress Index as the paper of the region. It contained a lot of community news: reunions, award ceremonies, city and school news. Hey, it’s the kind of thing I am writing these days for the Princeton Herald!

But I am a freelance writer these days, which kind of frees me of the responsibility of looking for ways to improve the newspaper for which I write; that task belongs to my bosses.

It’s not that I miss the opportunity to see what other newspapers are doing to present their news and commentary. It’s just that I am still getting accustomed to the idea that I no longer have to worry about the hassles associated with persuading my bosses to implement the changes I pick up along the way.

Yep. Life continues to be very good.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Trump: quiet on Pelosi attack

Imagine my (non)surprise that Donald J. Trump hasn’t said a damn thing about the brutal attack on the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

A moron attacked Paul Pelosi in the couple’s home in San Francisco, inflicting serious injuries, including a skull fracture.

The assailant entered the house asking, “Where’s Nancy?”

Although the SF police — who took the assailant into custody — haven’t established a motive, it appears clear the moron was acting on his political instincts.

Donald Trump’s Silence on Paul Pelosi Attack Sparks Anger (msn.com)

Of course, Speaker Pelosi and the former POTUS have been longtime foes. Trump would consider her “the enemy.”

Still, the ex-president should show some decency in expressing publicly his sorrow over the attack on Paul Pelosi. Oh, wait! I almost forgot!

Donald J. Trump doesn’t possess a single decency gene in his overfed body.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Is this the nature of our politics?

What are we to surmise about the brutal attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of the U.S. House speaker?

An assailant broke into the Pelosis’ San Francisco home, asking, “Where’s Nancy?” Then he and Paul Pelosi started struggling and the assailant beat his victim brutally, fracturing his skull and inflicting assorted other injuries.

The police came while the fight was underway and arrested the suspect.

The motive for the attack hasn’t been established officially, so I am left to offer a bit of conjecture that I believe is on point.

It is that the assailant was looking to harm the speaker of the House for political reasons.

I have put two and two together and have come up with four. My strong hunch is that the idiotic assailant is a MAGA-loving adherent to the far-right wing of the Republican Party.

Is this the nature of disagreement these days? That those who believe in a different world view are going to physically assault their foes?

I am acutely aware that violence has existed in the American political system since the beginning of the Republic. Aaron Burr shot Alexander Hamilton to death in 1804 while settling some sort of political dispute.

But … that was then. We’re supposed to be a more “civilized society” these days. Now, though, we have instances of violence erupting, such as what occurred in the home of Paul and Nancy Pelosi.

I’ll conclude with this observation. I believe this sort of insanity should give all voters pause as they ponder for whom to vote during the midterm election. Do they really want to endorse the candidacies of politicians who espouse the idiocy that appears to have motivated the assailant to damn near kill the husband of a powerful politician?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Stop the lies!

The current political climate is giving me pause, forcing me to rethink a pledge I made on this blog many years ago, which was that censor or block anyone on my social media network because of their politics.

You know, of course, that I consider myself to be a “center-left” blogger. I extol what I call “good government progressivism.” That’s another way of saying that I do not accept some of the wacky progressive notions being tossed around. Free college for everyone? A non-starter, man.

But wait! There are a ton of individuals on the MAGA right wing of the great divide who keep telling lies. They use my blog to foment those lies when I comment on them. They will respond to a comment I offer about why I consider The Big Lie – the one about alleged theft of the 2020 presidential election – to be a threat to democracy. They say there was widespread fraud. Yet they provide the same amount of evidence of such fraud as the Godfather of The Big Lie, Donald Trump: none!

I am not going to be a pansy about criticism of my comments. I don’t mind receiving barbs. Seriously. It’s OK with me. What troubles me are the lies that critics use to buttress their shameful responses.

They contend that President Biden is suffering from a lack of cognition. They don’t know what they’re talking about. They continue to insist that Biden wasn’t elected POTUS legitimately. Texas has a congressman, first-term Republican Ronny Jackson, who insists that Democrats are seeking to destroy the nation’s democratic process. He is full of sh**!

All of this leads to ponder whether I want to renege on my pledge to allow this blog to be an open forum for discussion. Well, I won’t take it back. I am not going to allow the fomenting of lies.

Johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Commentary on politics, current events and life experience