Category Archives: State news

crime news, education news, State news

Police chief had to go!

Pete Arredondo had become a household name in communities throughout the nation for reasons he likely never imagined when he first strapped on a firearm and pinned a badge on his chest.

Well, now the embattled top cop for the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District no longer works for the school district. Its board of trustees today voted unanimously to fire Arredondo because of the former chief’s shameful response to the massacre that erupted at Robb Elementary School in the South Texas community.

Nineteen precious children were slain that day, along with two heroic teachers who fought to save their lives. Arredondo led the UCISD police force that responded to the shooter who had walked into the school.

Then he did nothing! Arredondo said eventually in the aftermath that he didn’t know he would be in charge of the police response.

Imagine the full-on rage the community would have expressed had the school board decided to keep Arredondo on its payroll.

Yep, he had become far more than a “distraction.”

For my money, the man should find work far away from law enforcement.

I doubt that Arredondo’s discomfort will end just because the school board canned him. He will face countless lawsuits from the loved ones of those who died in the massacre. And he should!

Uvalde now can move on. It won’t ever forget what happened on that terrible day. At least, though, the community no longer will carry the burden of paying the salary of a law enforcement officer who failed to do his job.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, State news

Yes, we have a border crisis

Texas Democrats, you have a problem of your own making, and it would be wise for you to own it and then propose some solutions to the issue that is creating the problem.

I am going to concur with an editorial published by the Dallas Morning News over the weekend that says Democrats need to admit publicly that Texas has an illegal migrant problem.

Democrats’ inability or unwillingness to state what appears to be obvious is costing them politically. If they have any hope of returning to power in this state, then they need to speak truth to those of us who need to hear it.

The DMN takes note of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke’s reluctance to talk honestly about illegal immigration: Beto O’Rourke has been twisting himself in knots trying to walk the line between saying something needs to be done at the border while not offending a base of voters for whom any enforcement is too much. O’Rourke can’t even seem to settle himself on whether the Trump-era Title 42 requirement that migrants be returned to Mexico should be revoked. He waffled on the matter with a suggestion it should remain in place, then clarified it should be revoked after a scolding from leftist activists.

Check out the editorial here: Texas Democrats can’t admit there is a border crisis (dallasnews.com)

Yes, we have a border crisis. Republicans’ bellicose rhetoric and their demagoguery using terms such as “invasion” are profoundly wrong and unhelpful. However, as the Morning News noted, the bigger political consequence falls on Democrats.

They need to step up. Immediately would be nice … if it isn’t too late.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, State news

Another Democratic sleeper emerges

Just as Texas Democrats seem to pin their hopes on Beto O’Rourke breaking the Republican vise-grip on statewide elected office, another Democrat emerges to, um, quite possibly become the one who does the deed.

Rochelle Garza is the Democratic Party nominee for Texas attorney general, the high-profile contest featuring a Republican who, by all rights, should be in jail by now.

Garza is a former lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union — the bogeyman of the right, but in fact the organization dedicated to protecting our Bill of Rights. She is facing Ken Paxton, the GOP incumbent AG who has been under felony indictment almost since he took office in 2015; he is awaiting trial on securities fraud and could spend a hefty amount of time in the slammer if a jury convicts him.

A recent Dallas Morning News/University of Texas-Tyler poll shows Garza surging against Paxton, trailing the AG by two percentage points. Which makes the race a virtual dead heat.

Can this so-called “upstart” defeat the soiled and sullied AG, the guy who saw a lawsuit he filed against states that had seated electors in support of President Biden tossed out because he lacked any standing in the matter? You see, Paxton is a lousy lawyer to boot, in addition to being an alleged crook and a cheat.

A Collin County grand jury indicted Paxton on a charge that he failed to inform securities investors of his connections to an investment company. The case has been kicked around from court to court. By all rights, it should have been adjudicated long ago, but it hasn’t.

Just when many of us thought the key to returning Texas to a two-party-state status rested with Beto O’Rourke’s bid to defeat Gov. Greg Abbott, it well might occur if Rochelle Garza can keep surging and give Ken Paxton a stiff shove out the door.

I am eternally hopeful.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

MAGA takes new form

So … you think you know what MAGA means, yes?

It has become sort of a term of art, an acronym for Make America Great Again. But when you use the acronym form it becomes an adjective, as in “MAGA voter,” or “MAGA policy.”

Ah, yes. Now comes the newest MAGA, which is one that I would be inclined heavily to support. The new form stands for Mothers Against Greg Abbott.

This MAGA’s unofficial godmother is Austin resident Nancy Thompson, who told Sharon Grigsby of the Dallas Morning News that she has grown tired of Gov. Abbott’s miserable performance on gun violence, on COVID protocols, on abortion rights and the Republican Party’s “general assault on public education and kids.”

She wants to form a movement. Thompson says her Facebook page has more than 50,000 members. Local chapters are forming across Texas.

Grigsby reports that Thompson “describes the group as ordinary Texans fighting for their children’s future. ‘This isn’t about Republican or Democratic families,’ she said. ‘It’s about fighting for what’s right to keep all families safe and healthy.'”

Grigsby said she isn’t willing to wager on MAGA’s effort moving the political needle in Texas, particularly as it regards Abbott’s campaign against Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke. I believe she is right to hold back on any thought that this MAGA group is going to make any sort of dent in Abbott’s standing.

Whatever, this potential movement appears to be one more chink in the armor that has shielded Abbott and Texas Republicans quite well for the past 30 years.

Read Grisby’s essay here: How one Texas woman’s protest led to Mothers Against Greg Abbott and its viral abortion ad (dallasnews.com)

Grigsby asks: “Does Mothers Against Greg Abbott create a huge shift? Don’t count on it. But does it make a consequential dent? As one mother in its video campaign says, ‘They say nothing changes in Texas politics — until it does.'”

I am hoping for a change.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Is this Beto’s year?

One of my oldest and dearest friends lives a long way from Texas, but he keeps up with the political winds that are blowing here.

We spoke on the phone this week and he asked whether Beto O’Rourke has a chance of defeating Greg Abbott in the race for Texas governor.

My answer? I don’t know.

I read conflicting polling information. During the course of any given day, I might hear that O’Rourke, the former Democratic congressman from El Paso, “is closing the gap on Abbott.” That kind of reporting gets Democratic activists’ hearts to flutter. Then later on that day I could get a report that suggests that Gov. Abbott is clinging to a comfortable lead over O’Rourke.

The polls that imply a potential O’Rourke upset put the gap between the men at 4 to 6 percentage points. Those that hint at an Abbott re-election place the gap at 6 to 8 points.

Who do I believe? Again, I don’t know.

Here’s what I hope happens, though. I want O’Rourke to break the GOP stranglehold on Texas’s statewide roster of elective offices. It’s been nearly 30 years since a Democrat won election in this state to any statewide office.

I am weary of Abbott’s continually blaming others for the shortcomings in his own policy strategy. He keeps saying that the Biden administration favors an “open border” with Mexico. Open border? Is this guy serious? No. He isn’t. Abbott is a demagogue who — like most right wingers — will say anything to curry favor with the base of his supporters.

The Border Patrol and immigration officials are continuing to round undocumented immigrants every single day.

Abbott still insists on rounding up undocumented immigrants and busing them to Washington. What is happening to them is anyone’s guess. Abbott, though, wants to perform a stunt to make his case.

Meanwhile, the governor refuses to call a special legislative session to enact measures to respond to the Uvalde school massacre.

My friend asked me a question I could not answer intelligently. O’Rourke can win if he can make Abbott’s recent failures a campaign issue. He’s already campaigned statewide — as he did in 2018 against Sen. Ted Cruz — with boundless energy, visiting all 254 counties in Texas.

I just want him to catch his breath, then set out to seemingly defy the laws of physics … which is to be everywhere all at once. Maybe this time it will push O’Rourke over the top.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, local news, State news

Police chief just can’t stay

They were supposed to meet today in Uvalde, Texas, to decide whether to fire an embattled chief of police. The chief’s lawyer asked for a delay on “due process” concerns.

No one yet knows when the Uvalde public school board will meet to consider the fate of its police chief, Pete Arredondo.

I’ll just weigh in now with what I believe is patently obvious.

Arredondo did not do his job when a gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary School in May, killing19 fourth graders and two teachers who sought to save them from the slaughter.

The chief choked. He didn’t know he was in charge. Actually, in my view, he should have seized command and ordered an assault on the gunman.

The community is grieving. When it is isn’t crying, it is full of rage. At the chief. At many of the officers under his command. At city cops. At Department of Public Safety officers and at the U.S. Border Patrol. All told, 376 officers responded to the carnage. They waited 77 interminable minutes before killing the gunman.

Arredondo — who has been place on unpaid administrative leave — has been at the center of the community’s grief and anger. From my perspective, there can be no way in the world he stays on the job. What’s more, I happen to believe his career as a law enforcement officer is over as well.

Uvalde school board postpones meeting to discuss Chief Pete Arredondo’s fate | The Texas Tribune

This man will be scarred for the rest of his life by the tragedy that unfolded in Uvalde. Talk about being a “distraction.”

When the school board finishes processing its “due process,” its task is clear. Fire the chief and look for a new school district top cop who will pledge to take command in a future emergency.

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

State news

Hope vs. reality

My fond political hopes keep running headlong into political reality as the race for Texas governor slogs on.

I saw two public opinion polls this week that filled me with conflicting emotions.

A CBS News poll said Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is holding onto an eight-point lead over Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke. I want O’Rourke to win and I want Abbott to pay for his hideous performance in fighting the immigration crisis, the COVID crisis, gun violence and the energy crisis.

Then came a new poll, from the Texas Politics Project, which declares that O’Rourke is six points behind Abbott. What’s more, the latter survey tells us the margin is narrow than it was in 1994 when upstart GOP nominee George W. Bush defeated Democratic incumbent Gov. Ann Richards.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s lead over Beto O’Rourke narrows, poll finds | The Texas Tribune

First poll runs into reality. Second poll speaks to my emotion.

Which of those do I believe? I’m grown up enough to know that Democrats in Texas always have a steep hill to climb.

However, I am an individual with a deep reservoir of hope. It’s not bottomless, but it’s still pretty deep.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

education news, State news

No way to soften ‘slavery’

This cannot possibly be real, cannot be serious, cannot be accurate. Some Texas educators now want to introduce a new form of study … changing the term “slavery” to something called “involuntary relocation.”

Good, ever-lovin’ grief! This can’t be happening. Oh, but it is happening.

The Texas Tribune reports:

A group of Texas educators have proposed to the Texas State Board of Education that slavery should be taught as “involuntary relocation” during second grade social studies instruction.

The group of nine educators, including a professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, is one of many such groups advising the state education board to make curriculum change requests. This summer, the board will consider updates to social studies instruction a year after lawmakers passed a law to keep topics that make students “feel discomfort” out of Texas classrooms.

How do I say this? The enslavement of human beings during the formation and early development of the United States is part of who we are as a nation, who we became and who we sought to correct.

To suggest that our children no longer should be taught what slavery meant to millions of our ancestors is to deny the facts as they occurred.

Texas education proposes referring to slavery as “involuntary relocation” | The Texas Tribune

“I don’t like it because it’s a personal belief. I don’t like it because it’s not rooted in truth,” said Aicha Davis, an SBOE member who represents Dallas and Fort Worth. “We can have all the discussions we want, but we have to adopt the truth for our students.”

We all have been told at times that “the truth hurts.”

Fine. Let it hurt. Slavery is the most egregious blot on our nation’s history. Our children should learn about it in its rawest form.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Abbott can’t control himself

Greg Abbott has demonstrated once again why he has proven to be such a disappointment as Texas governor.

When border officials found a semi-trailer full of deceased migrants seeking to sneak into the United States, Abbott released a hideous statement that sought to place all the blame on President Biden for the unfolding tragedy.

“These deaths are on Biden,” Abbott tweeted Monday night. “They are the result of his deadly open border policies. They show the deadly consequences of his refusal to enforce the law.”

There’s that phrase again: open border.

For the life of me I cannot stomach continuing to swallow that canard coming from Republican politicians.

The nation’s southern border isn’t “open.” Immigration and Custom Enforcement officials and Border Patrol officers are rounding up undocumented immigrants every hour of every day. They are holding them for processing and sending them back to their countries of origin.

Has the federal program succeeded? No. It hasn’t. However, for GOP pols such as Abbott to keep saying our border is “open” becomes the rhetoric of shameless demagogues.

What’s more, Abbott’s bloviating ignores this fact, too: The state’s policies aren’t working, either.

Furthermore, when a Republican was sitting in the Oval Office, Abbott spoke in decidedly milder tones after a similar tragedy occurred in South Texas. As the Texas Tribune reports:

Abbott’s tone was notably softer when a similar tragedy played out in 2017. Thirty-nine migrants were found in sweltering conditions in the back of a commercial truck in San Antonio — 10 ultimately died.

“Human trafficking is an epidemic that Texas is working to eradicate,” Abbott said at the time, when Donald Trump was still president. “To that end, Texas will continue to provide protection for the victims who have been robbed of their most basic rights and bring down the full weight of the law for the perpetrators of this despicable crime.”

Migrant truck deaths raise questions about Greg Abbott’s border policies | The Texas Tribune

I am not going to give short shrift to the recent tragedy that killed 51 people who perished in unspeakable misery.

Gov. Abbott, though, needs to reflect a bit on his own words spoken five years ago. He said then that Texas is “working to eradicate” human trafficking.

It’s not working.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com