national news

Is our grumpiness terminal?

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The thought just occurred to me.

Could it be that we have entered a period of terminal grumpiness, that our dissatisfaction with government is a carryover that cannot be shaken loose no matter how well our politicians are functioning in the moment?

I see that President Biden’s job approval rating stands at just a bit north of 43%. It’s about 9 points less than his disapproval rating.

Voters’ opinion of Congress is worse than that. We are feeling testy toward the speaker of the House, the minority leader of the House, both party leaders in the Senate.

What’s going on? We well might be turning the corner on the pandemic; we’re still adding jobs to an economy battered by the disease, albeit at a too-slow rate; joblessness is down. Yes, we have immigration issues that need to be resolved. Our lawmakers cannot get our nation’s budgeting process figured out.

But damn! I just get this nagging notion that public opinion polling suggests a restiveness that might be carrying over from years past, or from months past.

I don’t see data that examines what is driving Americans’ distrust in government. I hear plenty of anecdotal stuff stemming from the previous administration’s tenure, about how the ex-POTUS was constantly railing against the “deep state” and those who collected all that power. Voters bought into a lot of what he was saying. I wasn’t one of them. My faith in government remains quite strong as does my belief that government can — and eventually will — right itself.

I don’t want there to be a state of terminal anger. There are too many good things waiting to occur. At least that’s my hope.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Abbott has lost his mind

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Greg Abbott has lost his ever-lovin’ mind.

He is off his rocker. His butter has slipped off its noodles. He’s gone ’round the proverbial bend.

The Texas governor has decided that no entity — private or public — should require vaccine mandates for employees or for the public.

Weird, huh? Well, I think it is.

Gov. Abbott once more is wielding his heavy hand, telling locals they can take no extraordinary measures to protect the public from a killer virus.

“In yet another instance of federal government overreach, the Biden Administration is now bullying many private entities into imposing COVID-19 vaccine mandates, causing workforce disruptions that threaten Texas’s continued recovery from the COVID-19 disaster,” Abbott said in his executive order.

“Causing workforce disruptions?” Seriously, governor?

The Biden administration is trying to save lives, for God’s sake! Abbott, meanwhile, is seeking to cozy up to those who are resisting the government’s efforts to protect them against a virus that is still killing us.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott bans any COVID-19 vaccine mandates | The Texas Tribune

I grew weary long ago of Greg Abbott’s insistence that he knows better than local government officials on how their communities should cope with this crisis. Yet he persists. Meanwhile, school districts issue mandates of their own, such as Dallas’s decision to require masks for students and faculty members.

Gov. Abbott appears to have adopted Donald John Trump’s view that “I, alone” can fight the COVID virus.

Bullsh**!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump

Full of ‘opportunities’

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My world is chock full of opportunities.

It is, as they said in that “Top Gun” bar scene, a “target-rich environment.”

The biggest, most obvious and most inviting target of my commentary — or barbs, if you wish — continues to be the 45th president of the United States.

I wish it weren’t so. My fondest wish is that he would go away. I wish that someone would indict his oversized backside, put him on trial, score a conviction and then send him to the slammer for the foreseeable future and perhaps beyond.

That ain’t happening, at least not yet.

The former A**hole in Chief continues to make news. That provides people such as me, bloggers and other so-called “pundits,” grist for their commentary.

So I’ll keep blasting away at the ex-Chief Nitwit. The deep breathing he causes me to do keeps my brain oxygenated.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Yes, but he still lost!

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Those who adhere to the cult beliefs of the 45th president of the United States keep telling us that the will and wishes of “74 million American voters” should not be ignored.

OK. I get that. More than 74 million voters cast their ballots for the guy who finished second in the race for the presidency in 2020. That is the second-greatest vote total ever recorded; the greatest vote total was rolled up by President Biden, who pulled in more than 81 ballots.

And, yes, they were legitimately cast ballots.

So, to the sore losers who cannot accept that their guy finished second in a two-man for the presidency in 2020 I say only: Get the fu** over it!

They won’t. Not as long as their cult hero continues to foment The Big Lie about vote fraud and insist that even with all the “forensic audits” he is demanding that he still won the 2020 election.

There have been many photo finishes over many decades of presidential elections. Richard Nixon lost to John F. Kennedy by 100,000 votes in 1960; he accepted the result and moved on. Al Gore lost to George W. Bush in 2000; that election wasn’t settled until the Supreme Court stopped a recount in Florida with Bush leading by 537 ballots; Bush was awarded the state’s electoral votes and he took the oath … after Gore conceded defeat and pledged his support of the new president.

The yammering that continues to this day about POTUS 45 collecting 74 million votes ignores the obvious, which is that his opponent received 7 million more votes and won the election!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Neighboring cities take different paths toward same goal

Princeton and Farmersville happen to be two rapidly growing cities in Collin County, Texas.

Officials in both cities want the same thing at the moment. They want voters to approve measures to create home-rule charters in cities that are currently governed  under “general law” established by the Texas Legislature.

Both cities, though, are taking different paths toward the same goal.

Let’s look first at Princeton, where my and I live with our pooch, Toby the Puppy.

Princeton is going to conduct an election in November to establish a citizens committee that will draft a home-rule charter. The city will ask voters for permission to proceed. If voters say “yes,” the city will seat the committee and ask it to deliver a draft charter. The city isn’t waiting, however, for election results. They had a meeting this past week at City Hall to solicit members to join the committee.

If voters reject the committee idea, the plan stops. It’s dead. Gone. There will be no charter election next May.

Princeton’s growth has been staggering. Its 2010 census figure of 6,807 residents grew to more than 17,000 in 2020. State law says cities need a minimum of 5,000 inhabitants to call for an election. Princeton has had four tries already at approving a home-rule charter, but each one has failed.

Farmersville — about seven miles down the highway — has fewer people living there than Princeton. Its population stands at around 5,100. Farmersville already has a draft charter that was cobbled together by a committee. It is ready for public review.

Farmersville will not have an election asking permission from residents to form a committee. It has called for a May 2022 election to decide whether to proceed with a home-rule charter.

Both elections very well could signal the extent to which both cities have changed in recent years as new residents have flocked to their communities. Farmersville has built a remarkable community character already. It has a charming downtown square that is home to lively celebrations annually; most recently, Old Time Saturday revived itself there after being shelved for a year by the COVID pandemic.

Princeton’s community character is still a work in progress. It has no downtown district worth mentioning. However, the city is building a marvelous new municipal government complex just east of Princeton High School on U.S. 380 that city leaders hope will blossom into a thriving center for community activity built around green space and commercial development planned nearby.

Here is to the future of both communities. May the voters in two thriving Collin County cities make the correct decisions on where the want their cities to go.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Legislature stiffs voters ‘of color’

Well, here we go.

Texas will gain two congressional seats as a result of the 2020 census. Who drove the state’s stunning population increase? Black and Latino residents, that’s who.

Are they going to reap any of the political reward for choosing to make Texas their home? Oh, no. The Texas Senate has hammered out a congressional redistricting map that does a fine job of protecting Republican (and overwhelmingly white) incumbents. There isn’t likely to be any majority African-American or Latino districts when all is finished.

That’s representative democracy at among its worst.

To be fair, it is important to note the bipartisan nature of this exercise that occurs every decade when they take the census. Democrats did the same thing to protect their own when they ran things in Austin. Now it’s Republicans’ turn. They have perfected gerrymandering, turning it into an art form.

However, it is galling to me to watch the Legislature stiff the ethnic and racial minorities who came to Texas voluntarily, to make it their home and for them to be denied any sort of political reward.

The Texas Tribune reports: In anticipation of federal challenges to the map, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican who presides over the Senate, said in a statement Friday that the proposal approved by the chamber was “legal and fair” and represented a “commitment to making sure every Texan’s voice is heard in Washington, D.C.”

Texas Senate approves new congressional map protecting GOP incumbents | The Texas Tribune

Actually, Lt. Gov. Patrick, “every Texan’s voice” is not going to be heard equally when all is done.

He should just get ready for the lawsuits that are sure to follow.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Hypocrisy rules within GOP

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Senate Republicans such as Ted Cruz and John Cornyn of Texas have gotten their shorts all knotted up over the debt ceiling increase pitched by their Democratic colleagues.

And yet they had no trouble voting to increase the debt ceiling during the four years that Donald J. Trump was seeking it from the White House.

Ted Cruz and John Cornyn have mixed histories with debt-ceiling votes | The Texas Tribune

What gives? Why the change in heart? Oh, yeah. President Biden is a Democrat; Trump is a Republican. Politics has nothing to do with it, right? OK, let’s just say the answer is obvious: politics has everything to do with it.

Some Republicans kinda caved this week when they voted to allow a vote on whether to increase the ceiling. Cornyn was one of the GOP senators who went along with it. Cruz didn’t. He bitched about his colleagues surrendering to Democrats in a Senate floor speech.

Back to my question. Why was it OK to do it during the previous administration, but it isn’t OK now?

The GOP’s blatant partisanship and obstruction is so obvious.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

‘Civility is gone’?

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It took Joe Manchin a long time to state the obvious.

The West Virginia Democratic U.S. senator declared that “Civility is gone” after Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer criticized Senate Republicans over their obstruction of plans to increase the debt ceiling.

Spoiler alert, Sen. Manchin: Civility has been MIA for a long time on Capitol Hill.

‘Civility is gone’: Manchin slams Schumer broadside against GOP (msn.com)

A single tirade by Schumer doesn’t signal anything new regarding the state of play between the governing parties.

Manchin reportedly buried his face in his hands and then walked off the Senate floor on Thursday after Schumer unloaded on GOP caucus members.

Look, I wish we could rediscover civil discourse as much as the next guy. Yes, even as much as Sen. Manchin. However, the major culprit in killing political civility — to my way of thinking — happens to be the Republicans who have sought to obstruct rather than govern.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Gullibility: Is it terminal?

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How many times must one say the same thing, that The Big Lie being fomented by a defeated, twice-impeached POTUS is destructive to the very institutions that the former Liar in Chief vowed to protect and defend?

Yet he keeps telling it. That the 2020 election was “stolen” through “widespread voter fraud,” that President Biden isn’t really the president of the United States, that the ex-POTUS actually won an election he lost bigly!

But he does. He tells the lie. The gullible among his cadre/cabal of believers buy into it. They cannot be dissuaded that their leader is a pathological liar who cannot tell the truth if it were to slap him on his ample backside.

It’s a frustration that gnaws at people such as yours truly who continue to insist that the 2020 election was conducted freely, fairly, legally and ethically. I mean, the POTUS brought in a team of experts to ensure it would done that way prior to the election.

The team, led by election overseer Christopher Krebs, did what they were charged to do. They assembled a process that produced the most secure election in U.S. history. What did they get for their success? They got canned! The ex-Imbecile in Chief fired Krebs for proclaiming the election’s integrity.

So, the frustration mounts as the former POTUS keeps conveying The Big Lie and cementing his place as the most dangerous former POTUS in American history.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

Elections do have consequences

Well, folks. We are going to find out in due course — possibly soon — just how consequential presidential elections always have been.

The issue at hand is abortion and whether the Texas strict anti-abortion law will withstand judicial review. I happen to believe the law is unconstitutional, that it runs counter to what we long have thought was “settled law.” That the Roe v. Wade decision handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973 had been settled, that women had a constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy.

Oh, but wait. The issue is likely to end up in front of the SCOTUS again. Here is where the election issue comes in.

The 45th POTUS nominated three justices on the court. He was able to cement the conservative majority. The court is now lined up with six conservatives and three liberals. The conservatives, with — with Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch on board — well might decide that the Texas law is OK after all.

A federal judge in Texas, Robert Pittman — appointed by President Barack Obama — has declared the Texas law to be unconstitutional. It’s headed already to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which well could reverse Judge Pittman’s 100-page ruling. You can count on the Justice Department to take this matter up on the judicial ladder.

Hmm. Do you think Pittman’s ruling will hold up? Neither do I.

We need to ponder this when the time comes to ponder the next presidential election.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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