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Sanity rules in Senate District 30

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Texas Senate District 30 voters seem to have retained some sanity in what otherwise is a largely insane political climate.

They chose over the weekend to send someone to the Texas Senate with actual government experience rather than select a candidate who was running for office – and this is just my humble opinion – for the purpose of making a spectacle of herself.

The senator-elect is state Rep. Drew Springer, who will succeed U.S. Rep.-elect Pat Fallon. Indeed, it’s been a bit of a musical chairs game in these two Northeast Texas political jurisdictions. Fallon got elected to the Fourth Congressional District seat vacated by John Ratcliffe, who was appointed director of national intelligence by Donald J. Trump. Ratcliffe’s tenure as DNI, of course, is about to end the day that Trump leaves office on Jan. 20; Trump lost the election in November, but I guess you knew that already.

Fallon moves on to Washington, D.C., while Springer moves down the hall in the State Capitol into Fallon’s old seat in the Texas Senate.

Let me be abundantly clear: I am not terribly fond of Drew Springer’s politics. He tilts a bit too far to the right to suit my taste. However, he does bring some political experience and seasoning to his new legislative assignment, unlike the candidate he defeated in the runoff. That would be Dallas salon owner Shelly Luther, who this past summer decided to make a name for herself by defying an order by Gov. Greg Abbott to close her business in the wake of the COVID-19 virus that is still killing Texans at an alarming rate.

No can do, Luther said. She opened her business despite the order … and then got arrested and tossed into jail. Why? Well, because she broke the law, which I figure is enough of a reason to spend a little time in the slammer.

She got out of jail right away and then announced she would run for the Senate. Her platform? It was to send some sort of message that business owners such as herself wouldn’t be pushed around by “tyrants” who are elected to state office. She did concede to Springer but then vowed to keep fighting against that so-called tyrant Gov. Abbott, who to my way of reasoning is trying to save Texans’ lives.

There you have it.

Springer managed to defeat Luther fairly handily, although I hate to acknowledge that Collin County, where my wife and I live, cast most of its votes for Luther. As they might say … “no place is perfect.”

We surely do live in strange political times. I am heartened to see evidence of some semblance of sanity presenting itself in at least one Texas Senate district.

Note: This blog was published initially on KETR-FM radio’s website. 

national news, Uncategorized

POTUS has gone mad

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The headline over The Atlantic story says it clearly.

“Trump Is Losing His Mind.”

If we are to believe the New York Times story — and I do believe it — then we now know that Donald Trump has discussed openly the idea of imposing martial law as a way to overturn the results of a free and fair presidential election.

It was an election he lost fair and square to President-elect Joe Biden.

Furthermore, he has considered hiring disgraced lawyer Sidney Powell to serve as special counsel to look directly into the election results. Oh, and there’s more: He brought in his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, who Trump pardoned for crimes relating to his lying to the FBI over testimony he gave regarding his connection with Russian operatives who attacked our electoral system in 2016.

This came forward after a White House meeting. The NY Times reported it. Trump, of course, calls it “fake news.”

However, I am going to believe the reporting done by the Times. I also am going to endorse the headline atop The Atlantic story.

Donald Trump’s obsession with clinging to power has created a patently dangerous episode within the walls of the White House.

We have to keep our eyes on this guy.

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Oh, the post-Trump era awaits

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I am staring straight into the face of a serious quandary.

What in the word am I going to do when Donald Trump exits the political stage on Jan. 20?

He’ll actually be out of the White House before then — more than likely. Trump won’t have the good manners or sense of decorum to attend President Biden’s inaugural. He’ll be sitting somewhere off-site, no doubt with his Twitter fingers itching to say something, anything derogatory about the new president.

That is going to leave bloggers and other commentators such as me without the grist on which we have relied since the day Donald and Melania Trump rode down the escalator at Trump Tower to announce that The Donald was running for president.

Good gawd, it’s been a hideous period since then. However, it has given High Plains Blogger plenty of material on which to comment.

Now comes President Biden. Boring ol’ Joe. He’s such a regular guy. He’s a product of public service, having served in the public eye since before he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972.

Joe Biden stands in stark contrast to the background that Donald Trump brought to the only public office he ever sought. Biden wants to serve the public. He puts others’ interests ahead of his own. He knows about “regular order” in the Senate and plans to insist on it as president.

Biden won’t be firing angry Twitter messages at all hours of the day and night. He likely won’t fire Cabinet members who displease him simply by contradicting some wild statements he might make.

Folks, we are re-entering a time of political norms that have been plowed asunder by the ghastly whims of Donald Trump.

What to do? I pledge to look at policy pronouncements that come from the president, or from his senior Cabinet leaders, or from Republicans and Democrats in Congress who will serve with Joe Biden as partners in the complex federal government.

I will seek to resist the temptation to blast those who make preposterous statements … although I cannot possibly make an ironclad promise to never speak ill of them.

As for the 45th president. He becomes irrelevant in my eyes on Jan. 20 … if not sooner!

national news, Uncategorized

Trump making it clear: He won’t attend Biden inaugural

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald J. Trump is making it abundantly clear to me that he has no intention of attending President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration in just 49 days.

He is seeking to hamstring the new president’s foreign policy initiatives; he sowing seeds of distrust in the system that elected Biden president of the United States; he won’t accept publicly that Biden won the election; Trump dug in his heels on triggering the transition to the Biden team.

Does he intend, therefore, to shake the new president’s hand, wish him well, leave a nice note in the Resolute Desk drawer for Biden to read when he walks into the Oval Office? Hah! Not even close.

Actually, I don’t want to see Donald Trump on the Capitol stage. I don’t want to see any vestige of the administration he cobbled together, then dismantled before leaving office.

I am one American patriot who wants Trump to leave the White House as soon as possible. He need not stay there for the duration of his time in office. He can do any of his presidential duties from afar … not that he’s seemingly interested in performing any of them.

As I watch the lame-duck president flail about looking for voter fraud that simply does not exist, I become more convinced daily that he has no interest in promoting the smooth transition from one administration to another.

All is far from lost, though. You see, the new president knows government forward and backward, inside and out, up and down. Joe Biden is forming the new government without the help he otherwise might expect from a predecessor who gave a damn about the country he was elected to lead.

Donald Trump doesn’t care about the country. He cares only about himself. I do not expect him to attend the inaugural for the man who whipped him in the presidential election.

You know what? I am totally fine with that.

national news, Uncategorized

Self-pardon = murky waters

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Oh, brother. Donald Trump’s term as president is nearing an end and the discussion about pardons is leading us all into some mighty murky legal water … but that’s just this layman’s opinion.

Trump has issued a full presidential pardon to Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and to VP Mike Pence about his contacts with Russian government goons during the 2016 election.

Now comes discussion about whether Trump should pardon himself, his three oldest children and his son-in-law. For what? I’m not sure.

Here is where the murkiness settles in. The acceptance of a pardon is tantamount to admitting guilt. That’s how I see it; it’s also how some legal experts interpret it.

If Donald Trump pardons himself for an unspecified federal crime or crimes, would that disqualify him from seeking — oh, let’s see — the presidency in 2024? I mean, he’s talking openly about running again in four years. How could he do so if he in effect admits to committing a crime by pardoning himself?

Of course, none of this self-pardon idiocy exempts him from being prosecuted by a state court. That might be on the horizon, too, once Trump exits the White House on Jan. 20. President-elect Biden has said he has no interest in pursuing federal charges against his predecessor, but he cannot prevent a district attorney from going full-bore against the former president.

Oh, the humanity!

I just want to be done with this clown masquerading as president of the United States.

national news, Uncategorized

POTUS damages democratic process

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Allow me this bit of candor, which is that I hadn’t given much if any thought to whether a president of the United States would actually speak against the democratic process in the country he was elected to govern.

Until now.

Donald Trump is demanding that states that are counting ballots cast in this week’s presidential election should stop the ballot-tabulation process. Yes. The president wants them to stop counting ballots that were cast legally in a free and fair election.

Is there a precedent for this kind of coercion, this sort of bullying? I cannot think of it.

Donald Trump entered the presidency four years ago with no knowledge or experience with government, or with public service. That ignorance is playing out in full view as Donald Trump is being forced inch by inch out of office by the vote totals run up by Joseph Biden, the seeming winner of the presidential election.

Trump is filing court challenges. The courts are routinely dismissing them. The challenges seek to cast aspersions on the legality of the ballots cast; the courts are saying the challenges have no merit.

Trump has taken to Twitter to insist that states stop counting the ballots. He has no singular authority to make such a demand. But he persists and adds to his already shameful conduct.

We will get through all of this eventually. I am waiting with bated breath for a declaration that we will have a president-elect who then can commence the transition from chaos to collegiality within our federal government.

As for Trump, it falls on him to decide whether he will exit the office with dignity and pledge the traditional “peaceful transition of power” to Joe Biden and his team … or whether he will continue to conduct himself in a manner that brings abject shame and ridicule.

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Trump: horse’s ass extraordinaire

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald J. Trump is demonstrating hourly it seems that he truly is the horse’s ass we’ve all come to know and loathe.

He won’t agree to the revised terms of a second presidential joint appearance with Joe Biden. So what did the bipartisan commission on these events do? It canceled it altogether. The event that was supposed to occur next week won’t happen.

Biden will conduct a town hall meeting with voters in Philadelphia. Trump is going to resume his rallies.

The debate commission had cited the continued risk of the COVID-19 virus that Trump had contracted as its reason for canceling the event. That’s just as well, given Trump’s refusal to abide by changes in the format designed to avoid a repeat of the sh** show that erupted at the first appearance with Biden.

But we also have a lot of back stories to ponder.

Trump wants Biden and former President Obama indicted and jailed for “treasonous” crimes he said they committed. He won’t specify the crimes. Oh, he’s also going after Hillary Clinton — his 2016 campaign foe — over those emails. How about that?

So help me, Hanna … Trump is sounding and acting like someone who knows he is going to lose the next election. He is behaving in a manner that suggests a surrender to a grim reality, which is that he is incapable of demonstrating real leadership in a national crisis.

Yes, we have that pandemic!

Trump will have an event this weekend at the White House, which health officials have identified as a “super spreader” location. The place is infested with individuals who have been exposed to the killer virus. Trump then is endangering every person who will attend his campaign rally simply refusing to demand they wear masks and that they maintain appropriate “social distance.”

Will there ever be a second joint appearance with Biden and Trump? For now the event scheduled for Oct. 22 is still on. The debate commission likely will seek to revise the rules per its attempt to improve from that clusterfu** that revealed Trump to be the Bully in Chief.

So, the campaign is starting to stagger toward the finish line. That’s a good thing. The sooner we can get this disaster behind the sooner we can begin to heal the wounds that Donald Trump has inflicted.

That, of course, presumes a Joe Biden victory. I am banking on it.

national news, Uncategorized

How does Trump keep it close?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Let’s see how this looks.

Donald Trump has been impeached by U.S. the House of Representatives; he has insulted the military high command; he lets Russian spooks get away with putting bounties on our warriors; he admits to lying to Americans about the severity of the global pandemic; he has shattered our longstanding military and diplomatic alliances; he has presided over the greatest economic collapse in our nation’s history; he called Klansmen and Nazis “very fine people”; and he has lied about damn near every issue that he has (allegedly) confronted.

And still, this individual just might — even against these horrendous odds — wiggle/slither his way back for a second term as president of the United States.

How in the world might this happen, given Trump’s astonishing record as president of the United States? I cannot put my arms around this phenomenon. I am left to speculate that just possibly Americans have been snookered by the carnival barker who promised them to deliver salvation to a nation he said in 2016 had devolved into a “total disaster.”

And so here we are, four years later. The phony business executive not only has failed to deliver us from the illness that he vowed to cure all by himself, he has worsened it.

The pandemic has killed nearly 200,000 of us … so far. Trump has defamed war heroes and prisoners of war. He scolds our international allies. He has turned us from the world’s most indispensable nation to an international laughingstock.

How does he stay within spitting distance of Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee who by most objective measures should be running far away from Trump?

It’s a head-scratcher that utterly boggles my mind.

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They rallied in the name of ‘unity’

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On a day when Donald Trump preened and proclaimed that George Floyd would be “happy” with the huge job gains registered in the wake of the global pandemic, a group of Princeton, Texas, residents gathered at a park under a sweltering sun to honor Floyd’s memory.

Floyd, as the world knows, died more than a week ago when Minneapolis cops arrested him for a non-violent offense, put face down on the pavement and then snuffed the life out of him. The officer who killed him is white; Floyd was black.

Floyd’s death has triggered a national protest response that today found its way to this Collin County community.

They called a “unification rally,” given that there was no parade that required a police presence, although the Princeton Police Department dispatched about three patrol cars on the edges of the park just to stand by in case.

The rally drew a gathering of about 100 residents. Some of them were carrying signs: Black Lives Matter. Vote for Change, Silence is Violence, There Comes a Time when Silence is Betrayal; one sign asked, “What are you going to do to combat racism?”

The unification rally was organized by Princeton High School students. No one from City Hall was there. No one from the Princeton Independent School District (at least no one that I could recognize) came to the rally at J.M. Caldwell Sr. Park. It was an overwhelmingly white crowd of folks.

Off to the side members of the Princeton Veterans of Foreign Wars post handed out bottles of water. Jason Ash, a life member of the VFW post, said he was there “to support people’s consititutional right to protest. That’s why we served.”

I pointed out the voter registration table and Ash said, simply, “I hope everyone turns out to vote this November.” Indeed.

The climax of the unification rally occurred under the shelter when participants were asked — if they were able — to lie on the pavement, place their hands behind their backs and be silent for 8 minutes, 46 seconds … which is the amount of time that former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin pressed his boot into the back of George Floyd’s neck. Floyd cried out for his mother, he pleaded with Chauvin to let him get up, saying “I can’t breathe.” 

George Floyd is the latest African-American to die a martyr for the cause of racial justice and equality. Tragically, he won’t be the last one. However, his death has spawned a movement that has found its way to communities of all sizes and backgrounds.

I am glad — and proud — that Princeton High School’s young people have declared to the world: Enough is enough.