national news

He put us in ‘Peril’

The older I get the harder it becomes for me to sit down with a book and read it from front to back non-stop. Yep, even those so-called page-turners.

That all said and understood (I presume), I ordered a new non-fiction piece of work that well could go down as a landmark historical document of the final days of the 45th president’s term in office. It’s titled “Peril,” co-written by a walking-talking journalistic legend, Bob Woodward, and an up-and-comer, Robert Costa.

They are telling the world a story about the imminent peril that the 45th POTUS put the nation through while he continued to fight the results of the 2020 presidential election, which Joe Biden won fairly, squarely, legally and any other way you want to describe it.

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley called his Chinese counterpart to assure him he would be alerted ahead of a possible attack by the United States, Woodward and Costa tell us. They also related how then-Vice President Mike Pence talked with one of his VP predecessors, fellow Indianan Dan Quayle, about how he (Pence) could overturn the results of the election; Quayle told Pence to “give it up,” that he had no choice but to obey the Constitution and certify the results on Jan. 6.

I want to know more. I trust Woodward implicitly to get it right. I mean, he and his former Washington Post college Carl Bernstein wrote the book on political investigative journalism (no pun intended) during the Watergate crisis of the 1970s.

This is good stuff. I might be too old to read a good book in one sitting. I am damn sure not too old to learn more about how vulnerable our democratic institutions can become when we put a charlatan in charge of our nation’s executive government branch.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Gerrymandering to commence

A now-deceased Republican state senator from Amarillo, Teel Bivins, once told me why he allegedly hated the once-every-decade chore that fell to the Legislature: redistricting.

He said it provided “Republicans the chance to eat their young.”

I am not not at all sure what Bivins by that quip. I wish now I had asked him in the moment to explain himself. But … whatever.

The next redistricting effort is about to commence in Austin. Texas is going to get two more U.S. House seats, thanks to rapid population growth, particularly among those of Hispanic descent.

What happens over the course of the next 30 days or so is anyone’s guess. Texas Republicans run the Legislature. They’re going to draw those districts in a way that enables them to keep a firm grip on power. Hey, it’s part of the process. Democrats did the same thing when they ran the Legislature.

The GOP lawmakers are going to gerrymander the living daylights out of these districts. They’ll bob and weave along streets in order to keep as many GOP-leaning voters as possible within certain legislative or congressional jurisdictions.

Bivins once talked about the need to seek “community of interest” districts. He once told me of his disliking the gerrymander process. He didn’t do anything to stop it, as near as I can recall.

You may count me as one American patriot who thinks that gerrymandering stinks to high heaven. I also believe the Legislature ought to give this task up to an independent, non-political body. That’s just me talking.

As lawmakers said in a lengthy article in the Sunday Dallas Morning News, this process is as “bare-knuckled as it gets” in Austin.

The Dallas Morning News (dallasnews.com)

Bring plenty of bandages, legislators.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national security, political news

Yearning for GOP return

Am I allowed to declare that I am yearning for a significant political revolution?

I am going to do so anyway. I want the Republican Party to return to what it used to be: a party based on principle and ideology, not one that is fused to the personality of a cult leader who threatens real Republicans with retribution if they don’t profess blind loyalty to him.

Let’s stipulate something up front. I have no intention of endorsing whatever ideology a newly reborn Republican Party endorses. I remain a proud member of what I prefer to call the “good government progressive movement.” My politics tilt left, but I am not above endorsing compromise when and where it serves the greatest good.

The GOP today doesn’t adhere to the good government notion of anything. It is wedded to this nut job who occupied the presidency for a single term before he got drummed out of office by President Biden.

Why lament the absence of a real, honest-to-goodness Republican Party? Because I long have favored a strong two-party system that keeps both major parties alert. We don’t have that kind of political process at work at this moment. We have one party of ideas — the Democrats — doing battle with a cult following that operates under the Republican Party banner.

For starters, I now shall declare (for the umpteenth time) my intense desire for the leader of that cult — the aforementioned single-term, twice-impeached POTUS — to be kicked off the political stage.

Then we might see a return to some sort of political debate over ideas. Let the two parties argue without fear of being defamed, denigrated and defiled by a former POTUS who — if he had any sense of decency — would acknowledge that he lost the 2020 election … and then disappear.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Is this a ‘super spreader’?

My thoughts as I watch a pretty good college football game this afternoon are turning away from the game itself.

It’s a contest between the universities of Florida and Alabama. They’re playing the game in Gainesville, Fla..

The stadium is packed with fans. The CBS TV network cameras routinely scan the crowd to show us images of cheering fans. Why, they’re just happy as the dickens watching the game.

However … and I consider this a pretty big deal: I am not seeing any masks on faces of young folks packed shoulder to shoulder. I don’t know what the stadium seats; I am guessing it’s something north of 80 grand.

Oh, wait! This is Florida, right? The state is governed by a no mask-mandate “hero,” Republican Ron DeSantis, who’s been threatening President Biden with all kinds of reaction if the feds keep insisting that states do what they must, which is to protect the people who live there.

I want to add that Florida — along with Texas, where I live — is among the states most vulnerable at the moment to the delta variant of the COVID virus that has sickened so many millions of Americans. Oh, and it’s killed more than 600,000 of us, too!

A part of me is glad to see some semblance of “normal” returning to our lives. A bigger part of me worries about events such as college football games played in stands packed with individuals, many of whom haven’t been vaccinated against the killer virus.

I do not intend to pick on Florida exclusively, although it is tempting, given the way DeSantis has conducted himself by denying local governments the option of taking extra measures to protect their constituents against the pandemic.

Sports venues across the land are filling up these days with fans. They whoop, holler and scream their delight, often right into the faces of the individual sitting next to them.

Didn’t some medical experts tell us that one can get sick by exposing oneself to the virus in that fashion?

Hmm. I think this the “new normal” for sports fans seeking to watch a football game: thinking of the consequences of those who might be doing what they must to guard against a potentially fatal affliction.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot

‘Justice for J6’ rally fizzles

I don’t know what kind of crowd they were expecting today at that “Justice for J6” rally in Washington, D.C.

My good ol’ trick knee tells me they didn’t get nearly the response that the Donald Trump cultists had envisioned.

“Less than a half-hour before the start of this ‘Justice For J6 (Jan. 6)’ rally, there are not a ton of people at the protest site. There are just as many journalists here, and probably more police,” David Jackson, a correspondent with USA Today tweeted.

Justice for the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol? Justice for the individuals who sought to “Hang Mike Pence!”? Justice for the terrorists who thought they could — at the urging of the 45th POTUS — overturn the results of a free, fair and legal presidential election?

Far-right rally draws small crowd at Capitol | TheHill

Are you serious? Are any of these clowns serious?

The Hill reported: “Still seems like more press than protesters. Less than one demonstrator per member of Congress as the scheduled event begins,” Jonathan Allen, an NBC News reporter, tweeted.

The criminals who have been charged should spend a long time behind bars if the courts convict them of what I happen to believe was an act of insurrection against the U.S. government.

Right there would be “justice” delivered to the rioters of J6.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

media news

Let’s give this a try

I have just joined a Facebook public policy group that purports to lean to the conservative side of the great divide.

It came to me under the name “Michael Johns.” I joined, read the ground rules and now am awaiting final “approval” by a group “administrator.”

Johns describes himself as a national TEA Party co-founder and an analyst with the Heritage Foundation; he now works as a health care executive.

This could be fun, if they allow me to join. I did get the invitation from this group, so perhaps they want me as part of their group.

You see, I look at public policy from a different point of view. I consider myself a “good government progressive,” which is to say I believe in compromise as a way to further constructive legislation. I do tilt to the left, away from this group I have just joined.

They ask contributors to be “fact based” in their posts. That does give me a bit of pause. Why? Because one side’s “facts” might not comport with the other side’s version of the same term.

So if I post something I consider to be fact based, will the gurus on the other side see it in the same spirit as I have posted it? We’ll see how that goes.

Meanwhile, I look forward to reading more conservative commentary. It likely won’t change my mind on the big, broad policy issues on which I stake my own political comments.

However, I am game … if they are, too.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news, national news

‘Genius’ put in perspective

3 Comments

“Let’s be clear on what genius is. Genius is intelligence. Changing your mind is a sign of intelligence. It is not a sign of weakness. It is not a sign that you’re not strong in your convictions. It is a sign that you’re open minded. And that’s a good thing.”

– Mike Greenberg

The quote you see here is attributed to a sports journalist. I didn’t hear him say it, but I trust the source from where it came.

When I saw this comment on a social media page, the name “Anthony Fauci” came immediately to mind. Why that name?

Fauci is the nation’s premier authority on infectious disease. Donald Trump summoned him to help devise strategies to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. He then dismissed much of the advice that Fauci gave him. The 45th president lost re-election in November this past year.

President Joe Biden has kept Fauci on board the team of medical experts.

Fauci, you see, has changed his mind on a few things lately. Most notably, he has changed his mind about mask-wearing and whether masks are helpful in preventing the spread of COVID-19. Fauci critics — namely Republicans and assorted pandemic deniers — have been heard saying Fauci should be fired. That his change of mind only proves he doesn’t know what he is talking about.

In the words of the inimitable Col. Sherman T. Potter: buffalo bagels!

Fauci’s brilliance must not be measured against his ability to determine immediately how a nation should tackle a killer virus. I daresay Dr. Fauci hasn’t dealt with a pandemic of this nature and scope. He learns something new practically each day, forcing him to change his mind on how to respond the virus.

Is he a genius? You bet he is. I will accept that he is able to learn something new and valuable every time he changes his mind.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, national news

Anger just won’t go away

The anger I feel toward the (thankfully) single-term presidency of the 45th POTUS just won’t dissipate.

Critics of this blog say I harbor “hatred” toward that individual. I don’t think that’s the case. I have worked my entire life — at least for as long as I have been old enough to care about such matters — to avoid hating anyone.

But my goodness. Why do I harbor this notion when I see a “Trump-Pence 2020” sign in front of a business or a flag flying from its roof with a similar message that I do not want to enter that place to do any business with them?

We traveled recently to Washington County, Texas, which I am going to presume is the heart of many of folks’ political universe. We have seen Trump-Pence signs on lawns throughout Brenham, the county seat. Washington County voters cast 74% percent of their ballots for POTUS 45 in the 2020 election. Some Texas counties logged greater percentages for him last time out. Still, three out of four ballots going to this guy? Wow!

I don’t think much about signs in front of people’s homes. They’re entitled to their views, just as I am entitled to mine.

The business owners, though, who boast about supporting an amoral, sociopathic, twice-impeached liar just continues to boggle my noggin.

I don’t get it. I cannot darken their door. I will elsewhere to do business.

All I need is a business owner to refrain from declaring publicly his or her support of an individual who very well could end up being indicted for felony criminal activity.

Meanwhile, I might need therapy to get over this first-time-ever feeling toward a cheap politician.

Pray for me. Please?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news, political news

Add a word to your shirt

BRENHAM, Texas — It didn’t surprise me in the least to see a dipsh** walking around the Washington Country Fairgrounds wearing a shirt that had a message that sought to stick in the eye of those of us who insist on getting vaccinated against COVID-19.

We traveled to the center of some folks’ political universe. I swear I saw more “Trump-Pence: Make America Great” lawn signs and banners than I have seen in a good while.

Back to the moron and his t-shirt.

The shirt in part read: Unafraid, Unapologetic, Unvaccinated. There was a fourth “un”-word, but I cannot remember it now.

My thought when I saw this clown was that he should have added another term. That would be “uncaring.” He doesn’t care about his loved ones who might become exposed to the virus he might be backing around at this very moment.

We stayed far away from this clown.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

In search of a community identity

My wife and I live in a growing North Texas community that, as near as I can tell, is searching to create an identity for itself.

Princeton doesn’t seem to have a community ID. I don’t hear much talk about finding one. Having lived there for more than two years — and we intend for it to be our “forever home” — it’s just a feeling I get when I venture around the city to run errands or to do whatever it is semi-retired guys do.

The city will have an election in November to take a baby step toward establishing an identity. Princeton will ask voters to approve the establishment of a citizens committee to draft a home-rule charter. The aim is to reel in the reins of power to City Hall and to set the governing rules right here at home. Princeton, which now is home to more than 18,000 residents (and counting!) is governed under “general law,” meaning that the Legislature sets the rules for how this exploding community governs itself.

City Makes Another Run At Home-Rule Charter (ketr.org)

Princeton has tried four times to establish a home rule charter ever since it crossed the 5,000-resident threshold established by the Texas Constitution. Residents who don’t even live in the city have spearheaded efforts to defeat the measure all four times; the anti-charter cabal lives in what is called the city’s “extraterritorial jurisdiction.”

Princeton needs to establish the identity I sense is missing. There is no bustling downtown district. City Hall is going to move from its paltry location along U.S. 380 just west of Second Avenue to a shiny new complex just east of Princeton High School. The municipal complex is going to be a thing of beauty.

Princeton To Welcome New Government Complex (ketr.org)

I don’t have the precise answer as to how Princeton establishes its community ID or how it defines it. I do believe, though, that a thriving community must be more than a sea of rooftops under which families live after working all day. Bedroom communities are fine. I just want more for the city where my wife and I plan to live for the proverbial duration.

Is the home rule charter election set for November a small step toward that end? I do hope so. I want to see take the next step in the spring when it asks voters to decide on the future of a home rule charter for Princeton.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

 

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