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Feeling ‘liberated’

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The thought occurs to me that I have been liberated from the tumult that marked the four years of Donald Trump’s term as president of the United States.

I have been invigorated in a way by being able to focus on other issues, villains and heroes. It’s not that High Plains Blogger will lack the ability to reap a generous harvest from a target-rich environment. The field is full of villains and heroes. Donald Trump will occupy far less of my attention than he did while running for president and then actually being president.

He’s gone now. Sure, he still wants to be a player. I doubt seriously that he will be able to resurrect his political fortunes. State and local prosecutors are busy examining the many criminal cases involving Trump, his family and his myriad business involvements. There well might be plenty of opportunities that arise if prosecutors in New York, or Georgia or Florida produce indictments. I’ll bide my time.

Meanwhile, I’ll keep this blog busy with commentary on active politicians, on current issues of the day, on the heroes who work to make our lives better and, yes, while still chronicling the retirement journey my wife and I continue to enjoy.

This liberation feels mighty good.

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Good news to report

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The number of Texans who are living with a boil-water advisory has declined by roughly 15,000 … or thereabouts.

That is the estimated population of Princeton in Collin County, where my wife and I live and which issued such an advisory when the city’s water treatment plant went down during the worst of the massive snowstorm that blanketed the state.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality says the city has done what it should to make the tap water safe to consume. That’s good news, right? Right!

The TCEQ recommends we run the water for two minutes before using it. Hey, we can do that.

I just wanted to share this bit of cheer with you because we’ve all been deluged — no pun intended — with a torrent of misery brought by Mother Nature and worsened by the mismanagement of the state’s massive electricity grid.

We’ve got a way to go before we are totally free of the agony. It’s good to acknowledge that we are able to take baby steps toward that freedom.

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What can he do? Plenty!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Allow me one more shot at the Cruz Missile.

Ted Cruz went to Cancun to bask in the sun with his family while the state he represents in the U.S. Senate is suffering from a monstrous Arctic blast. He came home to face a torrent of well-deserved criticism.

But … he also has his pals on the far right. One of them is right-wing gasbag Ben Shapiro, who wondered what a senator could do. Should he fire up a blowtorch and start thawing frozen plumbing? Shapiro asked.

What a moronic notion.

Senators can do plenty. They have staffs who do something called “constituent service.” They can talk directly to FEMA officials, to their fellow senator, to members of Congress, to mayors, county judges, to utility bosses asking them what they need. He can show up at warming shelters to lend a good word of encouragement. He can demonstrate empathy, compassion and concern.

Cruz abandoned his post. Where I come from that is called “dereliction of duty.”

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‘Distraction,’ Sen. Cruz?

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(Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Ted Cruz is back home in Houston.

It seems that the Republican U.S. senator heard the hollering and got back quickly from his vacation in Cancun. His reaction to the media is disgraceful.

He called it “unfortunate” that the trip has become such a “distraction.” What a joke from a serious jerk.

Cruz jetted off to the Mexican resort while his constituents in Texas — and that includes my family and me — are suffering from the monstrous winter storm that paralyzed the state’s utility systems.

Instead of staying at his post, making sure the federal government could deliver relief for Texans, Cruz decided to fly away because he wanted to be a “good dad” for his daughters who wanted him to accompany them on a family vacation.

Good grief! He should have just told his children: Kids, I am sorry I cannot join you but I have a serious job to do and I need to stay home and make sure our state’s residents don’t suffer any longer from the storm. Go have a great time and I’ll see you and your Mom when you get home.

But, no-o-o-o-o! He didn’t say that. He chose instead to desert his post while the state is suffering.

This guy makes me sick.

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2021 channels 2020?

“Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”

— Roger Daltrey, singing, “We Won’t Get Fooled Again

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It seems like a lifetime ago. We said goodbye and good riddance to 2020. Remember that? I do!

Then we welcomed the new year with the hope that turning a calendar page meant we could turn the page on an era of tumult, turmoil, tempest … the works.

The pandemic had killed many thousands of Americans; we endured the nastiest presidential election campaign in memory; then we watched the outgoing president foment the Big Lie about the election outcome being the product of political thievery.

The pandemic muted many traditional celebrations. Times Square was not full of revelers on New Year’s Eve.

Then the new year arrived.

To be candid, 2021 seems to have just continued the misery we felt in 2020. The nation endured the insurrection at the Capitol Building; five people died. The House impeached the outgoing president for the second time; the Senate then “acquitted” him by failing to get enough votes to meet the high threshold required to convict him of inciting the riot.

That all happened within the first month of the new year.

Then came the Storm of 2021. We in Texas are suffering from this event.

I am merely venting. I mean, what else is there to do? I cannot make the weather change, other than wish it would as I desire. Perhaps a prayer or two will help.

That all said, I won’t dwell on the misery we are experiencing in this new year. I am going to look forward. For one thing, the weather is going to improve. Spring is on its way. The grass will turn green; flowers will bloom; the temperature will warm up; the ice will melt.

The pandemic infection rate is beginning to decline. I get that too many Americans are dying and my heart continues to break over it. More of us are getting vaccinated, protected against infection.

A new president will not lie incessantly. He is going to act the part of head of state and commander in chief. The POTUS will function the way the holder of that office is supposed to function. As we turn the corner from the pandemic, my sincere hope — and belief — is that our economy will rebound.

The new year looks a whole lot like the old year … so far. It is testing my patience, but my reservoir of hope is deep.

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Texas earns lumps it is taking

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It is no fun listening to media talking heads ripping Texas a new one over the mishandling of its response to the Arctic blast that blew in over the state.

It also is hard for me to admit this, given that I have lived in this state for nearly 37 years and have become quite acclimated to the state’s unique culture … but the state has earned the bludgeoning it is taking.

Gov. Greg Abbott, who has been quick to level criticism at officials from across the political aisle, has been singled out by many over the mismanagement and the resulting suffering that many Texans have endured from the winter blast.

Texas has sold itself to the rest of the nation as an energy-producing titan, with ample supplies of fuel to, um, keep the power plants operating. It turns out that all that energy hasn’t kept enough of those plants open. What’s more, some folks in high places made some bone-headed decisions about monitoring the production capacity; they have shut down too many plants at the very time the temperature was plummeting across the state.

There needs to be some answers about what has happened in this state, how it continues to flounder while so many Texans are suffering with no power, scarce water and next to zero confidence that anything will improve.

Oh, and we also have that pandemic that continues to sicken and kill us.

I have no regrets moving to Texas in 1984 to pursue a journalism career from which I drew great joy and excitement. It still saddens me to see so many others casting proverbial “side glances” at our state while we continue to suffer from nature’s wrath.

I am hoping we can get through this crisis … soon!

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What did POTUS know and when did he know it?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The ghost of a great Republican U.S. senator has been revived in the closing hours of Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial.

Howard Baker of Tennessee once asked witnesses appearing before the Senate Watergate Committee: What did President Nixon know and when did he know it? What did the president know about the break-in at the Democratic Party offices, the coverup and all that followed that infamous scandal of 1973-74? We found out. Nixon resigned. The rest is history.

Now comes the latest iteration of that query. What did Donald Trump know about the danger facing Vice President Mike Pence during the Jan. 6 riot at Capitol Hill and when did he know it? Trump’s lawyers say he didn’t know anything. Two GOP lawmakers — House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Sen. Tommy Tuberville — say something quite different. They told Trump that Pence was in trouble and that the mob was looking for the VP as he sought to do his constitutional duty of certifying the 2020 presidential election results.

Trump didn’t respond. He didn’t express concern about Pence’s well-being. He did nothing to quell the violence.

Will any of this change minds? Hardly. Still, I am intrigued by the channeling of a long-departed political icon — Sen. Baker — into this current bit of drama.

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Free speech has limits

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It is widely known that freedom of speech has its limitations, even though they aren’t spelled out directly in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The most commonly used example is how “One cannot yell ‘fire!’ in a crowded theater.”

With that is this brief rebuke of Donald Trump’s legal team defense of his action on the Sixth of January. The Trump team suggests that the ex-president was merely exercising his constitutional guarantee of free speech when he told the riotous mob of terrorists to march on Capitol Hill and “take back our country.”

They heard Trump. They acted on what they heard. They stormed the Capitol Building looking for Vice President Mike Pence and congressional leaders who were gathered to continue the transfer of power from Trump to Joe Biden, who beat Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

Several of the rioters told media folks covering the event that they were acting specifically on the demand that Trump made of them! It is recorded! For posterity!

Five people died in the melee! Five lives were sacrificed because, in minds of the lawyers defending Trump in his second impeachment trial, he was speaking freely.

What a crock of fecal matter!

Donald Trump incited the riot. He is guilty as hell of “incitement of insurrection.” The free speech clause in the First Amendment does not apply to what he did on that terrible day.

I am acutely aware that none of this argument is going to change any senators’ minds if they are inclined to acquit Trump on charges that he sought to destroy our democratic form of government. It’s just that the free speech argument is laughable on its face.

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Tom Brady: GOAT!

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Damn! I didn’t want it to turn out this way.

But … it did. Tom Brady has established himself as the greatest quarterback of all time. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the defending champ Kansas City Chiefs in a Super Bowl blowout.

I pulled hard for the Chiefs, given that I am a longtime AFC fan.

Back to Brady.

He led the New England Patriots to nine Super Bowls. He won six of them as QB for the Pats. Then he leaves New England for Tampa Bay. What happened then? The Patriots this year missed the playoffs altogether. The Bucs win it all!

The common denominator? Tom Brady!

Holy cow, man! I salute the GOAT!

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She’s off the committees, but not gone!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It is good to cheer the House of Representatives for removing Marjorie Taylor Greene from congressional committees.

The QAnon queen of the House has no business helping craft education policy, having called hideous school massacres made-up stories.

Greene, a Republican from Georgia, has been silenced, more or less, within the halls of Congress. She has not been silenced, though, as a political influencer. The House voted this week to kick her off the Education and Budget committees.

You see, this conspiracy theorist still has social media available to her to spew the filth that pours out of her pie hole. Which she will continue to do.

If only one could find a way to stuff a proverbial sock into her mouth. But … we cannot do that. The US Constitution gives all citizens the right of free speech. So, Marjorie Taylor Greene will continue to rant her nonsense.

And, by golly, there will be nimrods out among us who will buy into the sh** she will peddle.

Yes, this is a great country. However, sometimes …