education news

School board betrays its constituents

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

A North Texas public school board of trustees that is charged with setting policy for educating public school students has just failed an exam that truly doesn’t pass the so-called “smell test.”

The Lancaster Independent School District board is offering an abject lesson on how not to conduct public business. Other local governing boards need to listen up and pay close attention.

The Lancaster ISD board offered Superintendent Elijah Granger a new five-year contract worth $1.6 million and then bought him out five days later. That’s not the worst of it.

Oh, no. The worst is that the board, which bought him out with a 4-3 vote, isn’t disclosing the details of the maneuver. The three trustees don’t know the details. Nor does the public. No one knows how much money the public school district is shelling out to buy Granger’s contract.

I emphasize the word “public” because the public deserves to know the details, not to mention the three board members who dissented from the buyout vote.

As the Dallas Morning News said in an editorial published Wednesday, “There is no other way to look at this than a betrayal of parents, taxpayers and the trustees who were shut out from access to relevant information.”

One of the dissenting trustees, Marion Hamilton, sought to see the separation agreement, but was denied. That is outrageous!

School board members have declined to discuss the details of the buyout. There hasn’t been an explanation of why they voted essentially to fire the superintendent … not to mention explain why it would buy him out so soon after agreeing to the expensive contract. What in the world did he do from the contract signing and the separation? The public needs to know the details.

There’s a serious lesson to be learned here. I would hope all school districts, city councils or other governing bodies entrusted with the power to hire and fire government administrators would take notice of the clusterfu** being played out in Lancaster, Texas.

This ain’t good, folks. You have failed a key test of leadership … and to think you still set policy that establishes the education of public school students.

Shameful.

medical news

We’re still talking about COVID, Mr. POTUS

(Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I feel the need to remind you, Mr. President, of something you said on Oct. 24, about two weeks before you got thumped in your re-election bid.

You said everyone talks about “COVID, COVID, COVID,” and that by Nov. 4, “no one will be talking about” the disease that continues to infect and kill Americans.

OK, Mr. President. It’s now Nov. 13 and we’re still talking about COVID. Why? Because your administration’s shameful inaction on combating the killer virus has resulted in yet another ghastly and deadly spike in infection and death.

Haven’t you read the papers, Mr. President? We’re breaking records every day! For God’s sake, dude, the infection you kept telling us is “under control” is anything but under control. It is stampeding through our population like a herd of bison.

Does it fail to register with you, Mr. President, that your staff has been infected? Or that members of your Secret Service detail have come down with the disease? Or that you, your wife and your youngest son all were infected by the disease?

We’re still talking about the disease, Mr. POTUS! We’re going to keep talking about the disease for far longer than any of us want to talk about it.

This ain’t a hoax, Mr. President. It’s real. It is deadly … and you, sir, are responsible for continuing misery.

Donald Trump

Is reality setting in on Donald Trump?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Maybe it’s just wishful thinking, or maybe it’s real.

I could not escape the feeling today as I watched Donald J. Trump make his first public comments since losing the presidential election that reality is finally sinking in.

Which is that he lost the election and that Joseph R. Biden is going to take  over on Jan. 20 as the nation’s 46th president.

It’s only a gut feeling and, no, it has not a single thing to do with my trick knee. I was just struck by the notion listening to the subdued Trump discussing the Operation Warp Speed program his administration initiated to search for a COVID-19 vaccine that reality is staring him in the face.

Oh, he managed to take a few swipes here and there, at Pfizer for reportedly saying it didn’t receive any government assistance for the vaccine it is developing. I didn’t hear it but I understand he had an  unkind word for the president-elect.

However, by and large I detected a more somber tone from Donald Trump than I have been reading as he has unleashed the Twitter barrage since the election results produced a definitive answer to the future of the Trump presidency … which is that it is toast.

There also is news that he is withdrawing his lawsuit filed in Arizona against the state’s election officials for allegedly allowing illegal voters to cast ballots for President-elect Biden.

Yep, the end is near for the Trump presidency. I will resist feeling any sympathy for the losing candidate. He hasn’t earned a bit of it.

All I am feeling at this moment — right this minute — is happiness that the Trump cult of personality is on its way out of my White House.

State news

Lt. Gov. Patrick offers election fraud ‘bounty’ … weird!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick needs to pipe down and concentrate on running the Texas Senate, which is set to convene its regular legislative session in January.

The Houston blowhard is offering a $1 million reward — or “bounty,” if you’ll excuse the comparison — to “incentivize” the search for any evidence of voter fraud in the presidential election.

Let’s be clear. There is no evidence, none, zero of widespread election fraud. Every state and every county in the nation worked diligently to protect the integrity of the electoral system, which chose Joe Biden as president of the United States in a free and fair election.

Patrick, though, is among a horde of Texas Republican politicians who won’t accept the obvious: that Biden is the new president and that their guy, Donald Trump, got thumped at the polls.

According to the Texas Tribune: Patrick said that anyone who provides information that leads to a conviction will receive at least $25,000. The money will come from Patrick’s campaign fund, according to spokesperson Sherry Sylvester.

So, I guess Patrick believes that voter fraud occurred. Hey, here’s a thought: If he’s so sure of it, he ought to produce evidence himself. Has he done so? Oh, heavens no!

Instead, he’s looking for saps who can chase phony leads down blind alleys, keeping a bogus issue at the front of the public’s attention for as long as possible.

Get to work on your real job, Dan … and stay the hell out of the way of President-elect Joe Biden’s task of preparing for the toughest job on Earth.

national news

Biden setting cooler, calmer tone

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

A nation that has endured one of the most contentious, nastiest and falsehood-filled presidential campaigns in history is now being treated to a transition that occurs with one of the principals doing what he must do.

The other one is stonewalling. Why? Because he is alleging voter fraud that likely doesn’t exist.

President-elect Joe Biden has selected his White House chief of staff. Ron Klain is a longtime Biden confidant with vast experience in government operations. Klain now becomes the point man who will guide the president-elect to selecting his Cabinet and his key White House aides and advisers.

The other guy is the president of the United States, Donald Trump, who lost his bid for re-election by a significant and growing margin. Trump is going out with the same raucousness he exhibited when he took office four years ago.

Yes, Trump has been quiet in terms of his relentless tweeting habit. His stonewalling on the transition, though, puts the nation in potential national security peril. Donald Trump’s team won’t share intelligence briefings with the new president’s team, disallowing them access to information it will need as it prepares to plot strategies for guarding against potential threats from hostile nations.

So we’re left with a president-elect who is proceeding with a transition the way he normally would do it with a predecessor who is willing to cooperate fully.

To be candid, the manner that President-elect Joe Biden is employing to take office is far more preferable than the manner that Donald Trump is using to surrender it.

I believe we are witnessing in real time the differences in the way these men govern.

national news

Remain silent, Mr. POTUS

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

If you put your ear to the ground and demand complete silence around you, then you’re likely to hear something quite pleasant.

That would be the absence of any yammering from the White House.

You see, Donald John Trump is a lame-duck president who has remained quiet as the world watches President-elect Joseph Biden Jr. begin preparing for the biggest job on Earth.

Why is this worth mentioning? Because I am sick, tired and disgusted beyond measure with the incessant bitching, griping and insult from Donald Trump’s Twitter account.

I grew weary early on with his daily appearances in the White House press room in which he would misstate the pandemic crisis that continues to kill Americans every single day.

He’s not doing that these days. Trump is busying himself with lawsuits that alleged “widespread voter fraud” in states he lost to Biden. The litigation will go nowhere. Then the 45th president will be on  his way back to Mar-a-Lago, turning the White House over to No. 46, who can begin to repair the damage that Trump has brought to the presidency.

For now I intend to relish the silence from Donald Trump.

local news

‘Blue wave’ fizzled out

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

BLOGGER’S NOTE: A version of this blog was published originally on KETR-FM public radio.

Did someone suggest that Texas would be inundated by a “blue wave” of Democratic politicians seek public office in the just completed 2020 presidential election?

Wasn’t there a huge surge of anticipation that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden would win the state’s 38 electoral votes on his way to a landslide win over Donald J. Trump?

I believe that happened in the weeks running up to the election.

Hmm. It didn’t happen. Neither event occurred.

The president carried Texas by roughly 6 percentage points over Biden. To be sure, the Trump-Biden gap was narrower than the 8-point victory Trump scored over Hillary Clinton in 2016; what’s more, the most recent election was far tighter than the 16-point win that GOP nominee Mitt Romney scored over President Barack Obama in 2012.

But Texas Republicans no doubt can take heart in how solidly they held onto statewide and local offices when all the ballots were tallied.

I live in Collin County, long considered one of the state’s most reliable GOP bastions. The Trump-Biden gap was far narrower than the Trump-Clinton margin four years ago.

Congressional seats held by GOP members will remain in Republican hands. A key statewide race, for Railroad Commissioner, will stay in GOP hands. The Texas Supreme Court and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals? They remain all-GOP judicial benches. Republicans will continue to control the Legislature.

Political pundits and analysts keep talking about the “changing demographics” that suggest an eventual swing from solid red to a much more competitive “purple” status for Texas. Indeed, it does appear that Texas might be turning into a more competitive state, with Republicans and Democrats competing harder for votes than they have done since the GOP took control of the state political structure more than 30 years ago.

Just how entrenched is the GOP in Northeast Texas. Consider this: The percentages that Donald Trump rang up against Biden in Hunt, Kaufman, Hopkins and Rains counties virtually mirror the margins he rolled up against Hillary Clinton four years ago. Interestingly, though, is what happened in Tarrant County, which is described colloquially as the state’s “largest conservative county.” It voted narrowly for Joe Biden over Donald Trump. Who knew?

So, whatever blue wave is set to wash over Texas – perhaps in the next election cycle of the one after that – seems to be a good bit away from soaking voters in Northeast Texas.

local news

What’s next for Civic Center?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I guess there’s just no pleasing some folks.

My former neighbors in Amarillo griped about the alleged lack of attention the city was giving to its Civic Center while it was plotting the construction of the ballpark that would be named Hodgetown.

Then when they get a chance to approve a $275 million bond issue to, um, enhance the Civic Center and help the city attract conventions and top-tier entertainment events … what do they do? They vote it down!

Hmm. I guess the size of the tax bill attached to Prop A got to them. They must not want to spend public money on public venues to improve public entertainment and business activities.

Go figure, man.

Amarillo long has boasted one of Texas’s lowest municipal tax rates. I guess for now it’s going to stay that way.

Meanwhile, the Civic Center still needs improvement.

Who in the name of civic responsibility is going to pay for it?

national news

Biden set to select top-tier administration team

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

There are seemingly countless ways to measure why Joe Biden’s election as president will be vastly superior to Donald Trump’s election four (oh, so long) years ago.

One of them likely will be the quality of the individuals with whom the new president will surround himself.

Does anyone, for instance, really expect Vice President Kamala Harris to cast a tie-breaking vote in the U.S. Senate to confirm the selection of a Cabinet secretary? That’s what happened when Education Secretary Betsy DeVos faced the Senate at the beginning of Trump’s term.

Do you think President Biden is going to rely on family members with no government experience to, oh, work on Middle East peace, or perform other myriad foreign-policy tasks? That’s what we’ve had with presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner at the helm of Daddy-in-law Trump’s foreign policy apparatus.

Is there a chance that President Biden is going to install his daughter Ashley as a “senior policy adviser”?

The difference between Trump and Biden cannot be more stark than in examining their pre-presidential experience. Trump came from the world of business and entertainment. Biden is steeped in government, public policy and public service.

Trump had zero government connections when he took office; Biden’s address book is chock full of them.

With all that laid out there, I look forward to watching the president-elect choose his team and assessing the quality of its members. I also look forward to evaluating them on the basis of their experience in government or whatever policy the president will ask them to oversee.

The team that is exiting the scene has been sorely lacking in the know-how required to operate a massive federal government.

national news

Biden’s patience gets tested

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I am going to presume that everyone – and I mean every single human being – has his or her limit on the amount of nonsense/malarkey/bullsh** they can take.

President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. is, um, one of those human beings. He currently is enduring what is certainly an unprecedented example of bad behavior from an individual who has just lost a presidential election. That would be, of course. Donald John Trump.

Joe Biden is proceeding apace with his transition into the presidency. He is doing so without a single lick of cooperation from Trump, who tradition suggests would offer his successor all the perks of the office to ensure a seamless, orderly transfer of power.

But … ohhh, no. That ain’t happening! Trump has decided so far that he won’t concede. Nor will he offer the president-elect any sort of help. Some of that refusal, I hasten to add, includes matters of vital national security.

Tradition tells us that the outgoing president offers the new president access to top-secret information. The president-elect usually is given daily presidential briefings, the kind of thing that supposedly occurs with the current president; except that Donald Trump can’t be bothered/bored with DPBs. Joe Biden isn’t wired that way. He is steeped in government, owing to his 36 years in the U.S. Senate and eight years as vice president.

Joe Biden is saying publicly that he is proceeding with the transition as if everything is just fine. But it isn’t. It’s not even close to being just fine.

That brings me back the beginning of this blog. Everyone has his or her limits.

I am going to hope that President-elect Biden’s limit far exceeds the kind of limit I would bring to this matter were I involved.

President-elect Joe Biden’s mind and heart are comforted, I am quite certain, by the inevitable arrival of Inauguration Day … at which time we can say “so long and don’t let the door hit you in the … “ you know, to Donald Trump.

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