national news

Bannon set for grilling?

First, an admission: I had trouble understanding when I first heard about it why Donald Trump waived any claims of executive privilege that sought to keep former White House senior adviser Steve Bannon from testifying before the House 1/6 select committee.

Then I heard the story behind the story. Trump wants his attack dog Bannon to go toe-to-toe with the committee, that he was angry that others on the White House staff testified already, only to tighten the screws around Trump’s involvement in inciting the 1/6 insurrection.

Bannon, according to reports, might sing a different tune when he speaks to the panel. Oh, I hope so. I also hope the committee is ready for the lies, the bob-and-weave, the obfuscation that is likely to come from Bannon’s pie hole.

The Hill’s Morning Report — Can the Jan. 6 panel connect the dots? | The Hill

Bannon is a bad dude. He is on record declaring in advance of the 1/6 attack on the Capitol that something “big” was going to happen. He knew in advance … the son of a bitch. He didn’t counsel Trump to call it off, unlike Trump’s children and others close to him in the White House and even some of his lapdogs in the House of Representatives.

I believe we’ll get to see just how prepared the House committee, chaired by Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., is in preparing for this showdown.

My hunch is that they’ll be ready to rumble.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Is GOP on verge of blowing midterm election?

A strange story is developing in several of our United States as the 2022 midterm election inches ever closer.

It involves the possibility that the Republican Party, once thought to be a shoo-in to capture both congressional chambers, could be on the verge of blowing that opportunity in the U.S. Senate.

Wyoming GOP Sen. John Barrasso fielded a question today on Fox News Sunday about the idea that his party’s nominees for at least three key Senate races might be too, um, incompetent, crooked or corrupt to win their races. Barrasso shrugged it off, sticking to the party line.

But wait …

Herschel Walker is the GOP nominee in Georgia; he is running against Sen. Raphael Warnock. Walker is a former football player … and a damn good one, too! He also has a lot of issues to face down as he runs against the man who preaches in the same pulpit where the great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once stood.

Walker has fathered four children with four women, none of whom were married to him. He also is facing accusations of domestic abuse. Oh, and listen to some of the rambling answers he gives to policy questions; it’s as if he took a few too many hits to the head during his gridiron days.

Then we have Mehmet Oz, who’s running in Pennsylvania, where he doesn’t even reside, for the Senate seat against Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman. I’ll just say this out loud: I believe Oz is a medical quack. He built his reputation as a celebrity physician. The man got endorsed by Donald J. Trump (who also endorses Walker).

He also is full of nutty statements and he also has developed a strange relationship with Turkish dictator Recep Tayyip Erdogan, one of the world’s most brutal despots.

One more GOP nut case is Eric Grietens, a former Missouri governor who resigned that office in 2017 after a woman he was dating accused him of abusing her. His ex-wife has made a similar complaint. Moreover, he has conducted a patently stupid campaign, including a gun-centered ad that portrays him as urging voters to go “RINO hunting” for Republicans In Name Only.

Fox News Anchor Asks GOP Senator if Party is on the Verge of Blowing Midterms Thanks to Herschel Walker, Eric Greitens, and Dr. Oz (msn.com)Fox News Anchor Asks GOP Senator if Party is on the Verge of Blowing Midterms Thanks to Herschel Walker, Eric Greitens, and Dr. Oz (msn.com)

The stakes are huge. The Senate is split 50-50. Warnock seeks to hold his seat; Oz wants to succeed GOP Sen. Pat Toomey; Greitens looks to succeed GOP Sen. Roy Blunt.

Meanwhile, another formerly vulnerable Democrat, Sen. Mark Kelly in Arizona, appears to be solidifying his lead out there.

Sen. Barrasso wouldn’t take the bait laid before him by Fox News Sunday, which is what one would expect from a MAGA-loving Republican.

The Republican Party is fully capable of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory by running certifiable nut jobs for public office. It has done so again.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

business news

Eye-rolling gas prices

My eyes kept rolling as we drove through much of Central and North Texas, looking at the price of motor vehicle fuel.

It’s coming down, if you want to call it such. I shake my noggin and try to conjure some real-life “good news” at what we are seeing along our highways.

My wife and I no longer are pumping diesel fuel into our sole mode of motor transportation. Our new pickup is a gasser, unlike our former vehicle, which guzzled diesel fuel.

We drove nearly 600 miles to and from the Texas Hill Country this weekend. I noticed about two, maybe three, service stations advertising gasoline at $3.99 per gallon. I recalled a comment from a Dallas-Fort Worth TV news anchor the other day, seeking to put a positive spin on $3.99 gas, only to acknowledge that his obvious eye-rolling meant he didn’t mean to suggest we should be happy with paying less than $4 per gallon.

I’ll close with this: What goes up so damn rapidly almost never comes down at the same rate of speed.

Why is that? I figure the fossil fuel companies want to reap the reward for as long as possible of investors’ nervous jerks about the worldwide oil market.

In some quarters, I believe they call it “price gouging.”

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Uvalde cover-up getting murkier

What in the name of competent law enforcement is happening over yonder in Uvalde, Texas?

Police officers responding to a mass slaughter of children and teachers reportedly had a shot at the gunman, but couldn’t get an OK from the top of the chain of command to take the shot … or so it is being reported.

Then we hear from the Uvalde mayor, who is disputing that contention.

Meanwhile, the chief of the Uvalde school district police department, Pete Arredondo, remains on administrative leave and he isn’t shedding even the slightest glimmer of light on the matter. All we have heard from him is that he didn’t know he was in charge of the operation.

Good, ever-lovin’ grief, man!

Report: Uvalde officer asked permission to shoot gunman but got no answer | The Texas Tribune

Nineteen precious children and two heroic teachers were slain by the lunatic who walked into Robb Elementary School and opened fire with an AR-15.

This non-response/cover-up is a classic cluster fu** of the worst magnitude most of us ever have seen.

When are we going to get some answers? More importantly, when are the loved ones of the victims going to get the explanation of what went wrong that they are demanding?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

 

national news

‘Mitt’ becomes latest GOP four-letter word

I never thought this day would come, when members of the Republican Party – those who have swilled the snake oil peddled by a fraud – would turn on one of the party’s truest believers and use his name as a cudgel to beat their opponents bloody.

They would call them “Mitt Romney Republicans.”

Believe this or not, but the Donald Trump cultists are now using Sen. Mitt Romney’s name as an epithet. Yeah, that Mitt Romney, the junior senator from Utah, the 2012 GOP nominee for president who came quite close to defeating President Obama, the fellow who saved the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and the son of a successful governor of Michigan.

How in the world did Mitt earn the title of becoming a four-letter word in today’s GOP politics?

He voted to convict Donald Trump during the two impeachment trials that Trump faced during his term in office. That’s it! He sided with the rule of law on both occasions. He delivered an impassioned and emotional floor speech in the Senate prior to announcing his decision to vote to convict Trump during the initial impeachment trial, which came after the House impeached Trump for soliciting a political favor from the president of Ukraine in that so-called “perfect phone call.”

Mitt became the sole Republican senator in that first trial to seek a conviction. The second impeachment trial – caused by Trump’s inciting of the 1/6 insurrection – saw nine more GOP senators join Mitt Romney in voting to convict Trump.

All of this speaks so badly of a once-great political party, that its rabid followers of the ex-Narcissist in Chief would stoop so low as to label a one-time ideal Republican politician a pariah and a man worthy of political scorn among his fellow conservatives.

Hey, I didn’t vote for Sen. Romney when he ran against President Obama in 2012. However, my respect for him only has grown as he has remained loyal – along with a few of his GOP congressional colleagues – to the oath they took when they began their terms. It was an oath to protect the Constitution and to follow the law.

What in the name of fealty to the founders’ intent is wrong with that? Someone has to explain it to me.

Johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

Alzheimer’s inflicts collateral damage

Long ago I pledged to use this blog as a forum to advocate for Alzheimer’s disease research. Why? Because it affects me directly along with members of my family who have suffered the agony of watching loved ones get sick and die from this merciless killer.

I lost my mother to it. Her younger brother died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease just a couple of years ago. My aunt has just been diagnosed with the disease. One of my dearest friends — a with whom I go back more than 60 years — is now watching his mother wither away from the disease.

You see, Alzheimer’s disease afflicts not just its victims. The collateral damage it inflicts goes far beyond the number of actual “victims” of the disease.

Last I heard, about 4 million Americans have been diagnosed with the disease. Multiply that figure by many times … two, three, four or five, whatever.

Then you come up with a number more closely representing the total casualty count delivered by Alzheimer’s.

Loved ones suffer the most | High Plains Blogger

Thus, as the nation ages — as it is doing — you see the numbers of Alzheimer’s patients increasing. Just as critically, we will witness the number of affected loved ones increase even more dramatically.

The Alzheimer’s patient loses his or her cognitive ability over time. It’s the loved one who cares for his or her spouse, the parent, the sibling or even the extended member of the family who needs help. Is the government ever going to be prepared to offer them counseling, or advice, or wisdom?

Yes, this disease harms so many Americans in so many ways and at so many levels.

We need to stay busy looking for a cure.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

media news

The joy returns

Community journalism is where it’s at, man.

How do I know that? Because I am involved in it at its most basic level. You see, I once was a retired journalist. Not at the moment. I remain in what I prefer to call “semi-retired” mode.

But my task these days is to report on city council matters, on school board matters and to write occasional features in a lovely North Texas community just a few miles east of where I live with my wife and Toby the Puppy.

Farmersville is home to about 5,000 individuals. It’s a growing community with plenty of issues relating to rapid growth. Streets need repairing. The city is embarking on a new fiber-powered Internet system. It has battled in recent years with a wastewater treatment plant. It is trying to find an individual to manage its Main Street program.

The community relies on the newspaper for which I write on a freelance basis. The Farmersville Times publishes once each week. It contains stories from yours truly and others who write for the group that owns the Times, C&S Media, based out of nearby Wylie.

I want to toot the horn of community journalism because it continues to thrive even though what the conservative talking heads refer to as “mainstream media” continue to struggle.

They struggle because of a perception – and I believe it is misplaced – that major media outlets no longer just “report the news.” They lace their reporting, the critics assert, with their own bias. I believe the bias lies in the minds of the consumer, not the messenger … but that’s another issue for another day.

I just want to declare that the joy has returned to the calling I received many decades ago to become a reporter. I so very much enjoy covering these city council, school board and feature-article issues because they deal with matters that affect citizens most directly.

It is my job – which I perform on a freelance basis – to report to the community about the decisions their elected representatives make on their behalf.

When I started this gig a couple of years ago, I came out of retirement from a career in which I was an advocate for opinion pages of two medium-sized Texas newspapers: one was in Amarillo, and one was in Beaumont. However, like virtually all print journalists, I got my start covering city councils and school boards and writing feature articles.

I learned something about myself when I started this new job: I didn’t forget what I had learned all those years ago.

I am having a lot of fun.

Johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

 

medical news

Loved ones suffer the most

4 Comments

Some disease inflicts maximum pain on its direct victims. You know what they are.

Others inflict its maximum damage on those who care for those victims. Yes, I refer to Alzheimer’s disease.

I just got word the other day that a beloved member of my family has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. We haven’t seen her in a couple of years; she and her husband and children and grandchildren live in the Pacific Northwest, about 1,600 miles from us in North Texas.

We don’t know many of the particulars of my aunt’s condition, other than her husband of more than 60 years is in dire emotional straits.

My immediate family and I know all too well the pain that this disease inflicts on those who love its victims. My mother died of complications from it in 1984. She was 61 years old when she died. She likely had early-onset symptoms perhaps a decade or so. We were young and not too alert to the disease. Then a neurologist gave us the diagnosis in early 1980, telling us the grim news all at once: There is no cure and there is no hope for survival.

Why bring all this up? Because millions more Americans suffer the agony than the number of victims of this hideous, insidious and merciless killer. It is always fatal. Modern medicine has no cure for Alzheimer’s disease, although therapies keep emerging that prolong the quality of life of those afflicted with the disease.

As the nation continues to grow older, the cases of this form of dementia are bound to increase. And yes … I want to put additional pressure on our scientific community to step its efforts to seek a cure to end the epidemic of misery that is going to envelop this nation over time.

I am left to pray that my aunt, my uncle their three children can latch onto an improved therapy to help her cope with her loss of cognition.

It also can help them await an inevitable outcome with some measure of comfort. They suffer grievous emotional pain watching the essence of their loved one disappear in real time.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news, State news

How does this guy get elected?

Ken Paxton always evokes a response from me whenever I see his name in the news.

It goes like this: How in the world does this guy manage to get elected and re-elected as Texas attorney general despite (a) being under indictment for securities fraud, (b) subjected to criticism from whistleblowers who allege he is corrupt as hell and (c) fights to fend off a Texas Bar Association lawsuit that seeks to disbar him from the practice of law? 

Paxton, a Republican, is fighting a State Bar lawsuit alleging that the legal profession’s governing body is biased against him. Hey, the clown sought to overturn the 2020 presidential election with a lawsuit that got tossed immediately into the crapper by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The justices ruled that Paxton had no legal standing to sue to have another state toss out legally cast ballots for president.

That’s the basis for the State Bar’s lawsuit. It seems to this layman we have an issue with basic legal competence.

As for the indictment, that came down from a Collin County grand jury in 2015, right after Paxton took office. He has been stalling and fighting the start of his trial ever since. They still don’t have a trial date set.

Oh, and seven of his top legal assistants quit in 2020, citing complaints against Paxton that he had an inappropriate relationship with one of his big campaign donors. The legal eagles have accused Paxton of bribery. The FBI is conducting an investigation.

Good grief! This clown has been sullied and soiled ever since he took office. The State Bar of Texas is just the latest example of the kind of legal trouble our state’s top lawyer has been facing.

So, I circle back to my question: How in the world does this moron manage to get elected? He is running this year for his third term as AG. I hate thinking that Texas voters really are so stupid to keep electing a crook for attorney general.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

How does Trump fulfill these customs?

The U.S. presidency is chock full of custom related to a president’s time in office and that period after he leaves the White House for the final time as our head of state and commander in chief.

Many of those customs involve bringing the president back to the White House. You know the drill: ceremonies take place honoring past presidents; occasionally they return to unveil portraits of themselves and their wives; current POTUSes might call their predecessors to lead humanitarian missions.

Can anyone imagine President Biden asking his immediate predecessor to join him in a White House ceremony? Is there any possible scenario that could bring Donald Trump back to the White House for even the gauziest of events?

Heavens, no! Not a chance on this good Earth! 

Even if none of the investigations into Trump’s role in fomenting the 1/6 insurrection result in a criminal indictment do I see any chance that The Donald would return.

Trump laid down that marker after Election Day 2020 when he declared that he won an election he lost. He defamed election workers across the entire nation by declaring the system to be corrupt. He has been revealed in public testimony to have been actively involved in seeking to overturn those election results.

The customary return of Donald Trump to the White House, therefore, has been blown to smithereens by the hideous conduct of its former occupant.

Custom matters not one bit to this guy … which is fine with me.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Commentary on politics, current events and life experience