Category Archives: State news

national news, State news

Standard or Daylight?

Now that many millions of Americans have been told to “fall back” to Standard Time, I want to revisit an issue that comes up about, oh, twice a year … or about the time we go to Daylight Saving Time or back to Standard Time.

At issue is whether we ought to keep switching between DST and Standard Time. For me, I don’t care. It never has bothered me to change the clocks in my house twice annually. I don’t feel sleep deprived after losing the hour in the spring when we, um, “spring forward.” Nor does falling back in the autumn give me any grief.

However, if we were to cease the back-and-forth, my preference would be to stick with a permanent Daylight Saving Time, I like the longer daylight hours in the evening.

The 2019 Texas Legislature was set to ask Texas residents what we preferred: permanent DST, permanent Standard Time, or keep changing back and forth.  The Legislature, though, couldn’t prepare a statewide resolution in time and the measure died a quiet death that hardly anyone even noticed.

Now we hear about Congress possibly enacting a federal law.  Same thing, folks. If we’re going to keep a permanent time on the books, I would ask our federal lawmakers to stick with a permanent Daylight Saving Time.

Absent that, well, then just allow us to change our clocks in the spring and again in the fall.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, State news

Fake calls need stern punishment

Call it a disturbing sign of these most disturbing times, with tension running white-hot whenever police respond to calls of an “active shooter” on school grounds.

Still, with an increase of fake calls, police are being tested in ways they haven’t seen before. My own view is that those who make those bogus calls need to be sought out and punished strictly for the havoc they are create.

It is a disgraceful symptom of the era we entered a long time ago.

The Texas Tribune reported: “Events like this shake everyone to the core,” said Kathy Martinez-Prather, the director of the Texas School Safety Center at Texas State University. “It is definitely a situation that is at the top of mind of parents right now.”

All of this appears to be part of the damage brought by the lunatic who opened fire at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. He killed 19 fourth-graders and two teachers before police — finally! — were able to shoot him to death.

A recent fake shooter incident involved Central Catholic High School in San Antonio. Police evacuated the 500 students enrolled in the school. Once they delivered the all-clear, officials said they would make counseling services available to the students.

Texas hoax active-shooter calls put parents, police on edge | The Texas Tribune

This is a reprehensible consequence of the Uvalde massacre. To think that more of these fake calls are coming in, subjecting students, teachers, administrators and parents to unnecessary trauma simply strains one’s tolerance for such nonsense.

Those who make those calls need to be hunted down — to the extent that law enforcement is able to find them — and given the harshest punishment possible.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news, local news, political news, State news

Garza is not Paxton

I couldn’t help but chuckle under my breath when I read the opening two sentences of a recent Dallas Morning News editorial.

The paper stated: There is little we can find to recommend Rochelle Garza for attorney general except that she is not Ken Paxton.

Frankly, that’s enough. 

I suppose you could say the DMN was set to damn Garza with faint praise as it recommended her for election next week as Texas attorney general.

So, it did that with its editorial that spent most of its space condemning the lunacy that has accompanied Paxton’s two terms as the state’s chief law enforcement officer.

The Republican AG has been on the hot seat ever since he took the oath of office in January 2015.

A Collin County grand jury indicted Paxton in 2015 on a charge of securities fraud; he has yet to stand trial. Seven of his top deputies resigned and then blew the whistle contending that Paxton is guilty of felonious criminal conduct; the FBI is investigating the complaint. The Securities and Exchange Commission announced it was conducting an independent probe into the securities fraud matter; no decision has come down. Paxton has filed specious lawsuits contending that the 2020 presidential election was infected with widespread voter fraud; he has been laughed out of many courtrooms.

This guy wants another four years as attorney general, an office that requires its occupant to be squeaky clean. Paxton falls far short of that reasonable requirement.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, political news, State news

Election denial: Issue No. 1

Whether your candidate for public office takes the correct stand on abortion or gun violence might not matter if the wrong candidates win contests that would allow them to control future elections.

I refer to election deniers and their presence on many state ballots in the 2022 midterm election.

These are the dipsh**s who need to be stopped.

In Texas, we have an election denier running for re-election as attorney general. Yes, that’s Republican Ken Paxton, the idiot who has filed lawsuits seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Some of these cretins are running for other powerful public offices. Republican nominee for the Texas’s Third Congressional District, which represents my wife and me in Congress, is one of them: I refer to former Collin County Judge Keith Self, who is as hard-core a MAGA-loving conservative as they come. Spoiler alert: He won’t get my vote.

The nation’s once-revered election system is under siege by those candidates who have swallowed the swill offered by Donald J. Trump and his cadre of cultists who insist the 2020 election was stolen. They have offered not a single shred of proof of “widespread voter fraud” that would have decided the latest presidential election.

Yet the gullible among the masses have signed on to their lying, deceit and outright treasonous assertions about vote fraud. They stand ready to cast their votes for those candidates who endorse their political perversion.

I have spoken before of my eternal optimism about the future of our country and the strength of our Constitution. I will have to rely on my belief that the founders crafted a governing document that will withstand this all-out assault on our government.

I also must extend my hope to the wisdom of voters who — I hope — recognize evil intent when they see it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Sports news, State news

‘Sham?’ Uhh, yeah!

Brittney Griner is serving a nine-year prison sentence for committing a crime that in most civilized nations would be considered a misdemeanor.

Not in Russia. The Russians have locked her up and have denied an appeal to have her sentence reduced to suspension.

Griner is the former Baylor University basketball star, a native of the Dallas area and a star in the WNBA. She got caught with vape canisters and cannabis oil in her luggage while trying to leave the country via Moscow’s airport.

The White House calls the decision to uphold Griner’s prison sentence a “sham.” Do you think?

It just goes to show the world what kind of “justice” is practiced in Russia, where its leader — thug and goon Vladimir Putin — longs for a return to Marxist doctrine in the Kremlin.

The White House is demanding Griner’s release so she can join her family and resume her life. The decision to keep her locked up, though, bodes poorly — in the short term — for Griner’s release.

Sickening.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

political news, State news

How would Beto work with GOP?

Let’s suppose for a moment that lightning strikes and Beto O’Rourke is elected Texas governor in the midterm election.

O’Rourke is a Democrat who would have to work with the Republican-controlled Legislature. I have been rolling that notion around and have come up with a conclusion.

Given the obstructionist nature of the current GOP, I only can conclude that O’Rourke would have a huge hurdle to clear. That would be a vast difference from the previous time the state had a governor of one party and the Legislature controlled by the other party.

In January 1995, Republican George W. Bush took over as Texas governor. The Legislature that year was controlled by Democrats. The Senate’s lieutenant governor was the irascible Bob Bullock. The speaker of the House was the more amiable, but still fiercely partisan Democrat Pete Laney.

The two legislative leaders developed a tremendous working relationship with the newly minted, freshly scrubbed GOP governor. They became friends. Partners. Allies at times.

Legislative Democrats in 1995 seemed to have little appetite for fighting, fussing and feuding with Republicans, especially the one who moved into the governor’s office.

I am trying to imagine a Democrat such as Beto O’Rourke developing that kind of relationship with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Speaker Dade Phelan. Both of those legislative leaders are wedded to the MAGA world view.

Oh, how I would love to be proven wrong. I fear, though, that a Gov. O’Rourke would not get anything resembling the kind of feel-good introduction to governing that greeted Gov. George W. Bush all those years ago.

Do I believe that will happen? I am afraid not. Then again, there’s always hope.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, legal news, State news

Guns: decisive issue

(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

It occurs to me that the race for Texas governor well could turn on a single issue, but that issue will have profoundly different impacts on the two major candidates seeking to win that contest.

Beto O’Rourke, the Democratic candidate, once said, “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15.” He was speaking at a presidential primary debate in 2020. He got pounded for that remark, which he has since walked back a good distance.

Greg Abbott, the Republican candidate for governor, was on the watch when the gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde; he killed 19 children and two teachers. Abbott has had ample chance to use this incident as a rallying cry for legislative reform of our gun laws but has remained silent.

O’Rourke is not going to disarm law-abiding Texans, taking away their weaponry. Abbott can do little by himself to stem the gun violence, such as what occurred in Uvalde.

Something tells me, though, that guns well could determine who wins this contest.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

political news, State news

Beto tosses in towel?

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Photo by Richard W. Rodriguez/AP/REX/Shutterstock 

I can’t stand it when candidates I support say the kind of thing that came from Texas Democratic Party candidate for governor Beto O’Rourke.

O’Rourke responded to a question involving a recent poll showing that he continues to trail GOP Gov. Greg Abbott in the head-to-head race for governor.

“The only poll that counts,” said O’Rourke, “is the one on Election Day.”

I winced when I saw those remarks. You see, that is the kind of response one sees coming from trailing candidates who seem to secretly acknowledge that they’re cooked, that they have no chance of catching the opponent.

It’s a form of political code-speak.

I hope that’s not the case with O’Rourke. Quite clearly, I cannot read the candidate’s mind, unlike some pundits out there who believe they can do the impossible.

Maybe it’s just a throwaway line that O’Rourke decided to toss into the air. Whatever, we have a month to go before Midterm Election Day. Abbott still must be held accountable for his non-response to the Uvalde school massacre, for his showboating by sending migrants to New York and other “liberal” states.

I just don’t want to hear O’Rourke seeming to give up a fight that still is worth the struggle.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news, State news

Definition of ‘derelict’?

Rafael Edward Cruz believes Alejandro Mayorkas is guilty of “dereliction of duty,” and should be impeached because he has allegedly mishandled the illegal migrant crisis on our southern border.

Hold on a second.

Cruz is the Republican U.S. senator from Texas; Mayorkas is secretary of homeland security.

Now I want to get down to brass tacks. First, though, is a full disclosure alert: The example of utter hypocrisy I am about to cite comes to me from a reader of this blog; I merely am appropriating it.

Those of us who live in Texas remember full well the Freeze of February 2021, when the state’s power grid failed. Millions of Texans lost power. Hundreds of them froze to death in sub-zero temperatures.

Many of us also remember what Sen. Cruz did in response to that crisis. He decided to take his family to Cancun, Mexico, where it was, um, decidedly warmer. Someone saw him boarding an airplane and ratted him out.

Cruz came back and then decided to blame one of his daughters for talking him and his wife into taking a vacation while his constituents were freezing to death.

Ladies and gentlemen, that right there is the definition of dereliction of duty. Sen. Cruz, therefore, has zero moral standing to lecture anyone on this good Earth about how you should stand your public service post in times of emergency.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, education news, State news

Uvalde commences housecleaning

Well now, this was something I didn’t see coming … the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District suspending its entire police department and then learning that the superintendent is going to retire.

Whenever you think of “Uvalde,” you know the first thing that pops into your head: the slaughter in May of those 19 precious children and two teachers who sought to protect them from the madman who opened fire with an AR-15 rifle at Robb Elementary School.

The fallout from that horrifying event just continues to shower a school district that is searching deeply for answers.

The Texas Tribune reported that the Uvalde district fired a police officer after it learned he was one of the first Department of Public Safety troopers on the scene when the carnage exploded. The trooper, it turns out, has been under investigation by DPS for her conduct when the shooting erupted. The district also has fired former Police Chief Pete Arredondo. This week, it suspended two school district officers and reassigned all the others to various assignments within the district.

Now comes the report of a pending retirement from Superintendent Hal Harrell. Get a load of this: Harrell graduated from Uvalde High School and has spent his entire career as an educator within the school district, serving as superintendent since 2018.

There once was a time when you thought of “Uvalde,” you would have thought, perhaps, of Oscar-winner Matthew McConaughey — a native of that community. No more.

Uvalde school district suspends its entire police department | The Texas Tribune

All of this makes this latest development so astonishing.

Our entire state continues to grieve over the horrendous loss of life on that day. This year’s campaign for governor has focused intently on the action — or inaction — by the state in response to what happened that day.

The Uvalde CISD has many issues to unpack and correct as it moves forward. I am going to believe the district will enlist officers from the city police department and the sheriff’s department to assist in securing its campuses.

The state and nation will be watching … intently.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com