Category Archives: State news

State news

Where is the police chief?

Come out, come out, wherever you are … Pete Arredondo!

The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District chief of police is missing in action. Meanwhile, the community he took an oath to protect — namely the parents of the students in the school system — are demanding answers from the embattled chief.

Arredondo was the man in charge of the police response to the madman who strolled into Robb Elementary School brandishing an AR-15 and who then killed 19 precious children and two heroic teachers.

Uvalde school police Chief Pete Arredondo faces calls for accountability | The Texas Tribune

A grieving community is demanding to know a number of answers relating to a blunder that Arredondo committed. He waited more than one hour before sending the cops in to confront the shooter.

To be clear, Arredondo shouldn’t bear this blame alone. The Department of Public Safety also was on hand. So was the U.S. Border Patrol. And, oh yes, we have the Uvalde municipal police department.

What we have developing is a clusterf*** of tragic proportions.

But we have one man who can provide answers to a grieving community, state and nation.

Pete Arredondo needs to speak to us.

As in right now!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Cruz: loathsome to the max

There is no way for me to deny what I have believed firmly since the day Ted Cruz took office in 2013 as a U.S. Republican senator representing my family and me in Texas.

It is that he is the most loathsome politician I can think of this side of, say, Donald John Trump.

Cruz continues to make gurgling noises about wanting to run for president in 2024. He tried it once already, in 2016, He remained the last man standing in a crowded field that eventually succumbed to the cult following that gathered around Trump.

He once called Trump a “sniveling coward.” He then climbed aboard the Trump hay wagon, where he’s been sitting ever since.

The latest capper — gosh, there have been so many low points in this clown’s Senate career — is still unfolding. The lunatic shot up Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. He killed 19 precious children and two of their teachers. President Biden is trying to rally a grief-stricken nation to “do something” about gun violence.

Cruz’s response? He bloviates that the “radical Democrats” are seeking to “disarm Americans.” Oh, and then the rat boasts about his visit to Uvalde “the day after the shooting.” Big … deal!

The moron has zero public standing with me on that one, given how he hightailed it out of Texas in February 2021 while Texans were freezing to death in that horrific winter blast. Where was Ted? Basking in the sun with his family in Cancun!

I am sick and tired of this clown masquerading as a responsible public official when he is nothing more than a self-serving frontrunner seeking to further his own agenda.

Someone will have to show me a single piece of meaningful legislation with Cancun Ted’s name on it. Anyone?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Tragedy transcends politics

Some moments of crisis would seemingly dispel any notion of partisanship, or of division between the major political parties and those who lead them.

Such as, oh, the massacre of school children and their teachers.

It happened again the other day in Uvalde, Texas. President and Mrs. Biden came to Texas to hug the necks of victims of the madman who walked into Robb Elementary School and slaughtered his victims before a Border Patrol tactical squad shot him to death.

My question, though, is this: Why weren’t the Democratic president and the Republican governor, Greg Abbott sitting next to each other, sharing in the nation’s grief, pledging a joint effort to rid the nation of this scourge of senseless, insane gun violence?

Abbott has decided to forgo any such appearance with a man he criticizes at will. Biden deserves a brickbat, too, as he could have extended an invitation to meet with the governor while he was visiting the victims in Uvalde. He didn’t.

I don’t expect these men to share a solution. They damn sure should share the goal of ending the violence. Of seeking common ground. They could proclaim their joint dedication to putting an end to this madness while vowing to work out the details later. Is that an impossible task?

The great chasm seems only to widen these days when crisis strikes. It mustn’t be that way.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Crowd reaction portends … what?

Donald J. Trump is fond of holding rallies, listening to the noise coming from a sizable crowd … and then using the size and sound of his rallies as a measure of his political standing.

That’s foolishness, to be sure. However, if we apply that metric to the present day, consider this:

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ventured for the second day in a row to Uvalde, the site of the horrific slaughter of 19 school children and two teachers this past week.

He got a rousing welcome, all right … of boos! The noise was loud and sustained.

The stricken Uvalde residents want the governor to do something to end the violence. They speak for a lot of other Texans, not to mention even more millions of Americans who are shaken to their core by the violence that erupted against those precious children and their protectors.

They blame Gov. Abbott for refusing to act. They are taking their anger out, too, on legislators who continue to dance to the tune called by the gun lobby … and ignoring the cadence set by their real bosses, the voters!

It is long past the time for our elected representatives to “represent” the interests of voters, most of whom favor a legislative remedy to the carnage that continues to cause undue grief and misery.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Arm teachers? Seriously?

There he stood, yapping and yammering about how stricter gun laws don’t do a thing to keep us safer. Instead, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said in the wake of the Uvalde school massacre, we need to arm teachers and let them settle the issue of a shooter marching down the halls.

What an absolute crock!

The notion of allowing teachers to pack heat in the classroom is preposterous. I realize that in Texas, some school districts allow such nonsense. Cruz, the Republican junior senator, wants to expand it. He says, in effect, more guns make us safer. Really … Ted?

They do not!

Indeed, Texas is one of those states that no longer requires anyone to demonstrate a level of proficiency with a firearm. We have that law enacted in 2021 called “constitutional carry” of firearms. Gov. Greg Abbott signed the bill that made it legal for anyone who doesn’t have a criminal conviction on his or her record to own a gun.

How, then, does allowing teachers to carry guns into the classroom any safer? In my view, it doesn’t.

Let’s understand something about law enforcement officers who are licensed as well to carry firearms. They must pass continual tests during their careers to prove their proficiency. How can we expect a teacher to always know what to do in case of an emergency to react properly? We cannot!

I am going to continue to stand on the notion that there must be a legislative remedy that lawmakers of good will and those a conscience can find that doesn’t run counter to the Second Amendment to our Constitution.

Politicians such as Ted Cruz continue to lambaste those on the other side for “politicizing” tragedies such as Uvalde, or Sandy Hook, or Columbine or Aurora while at the same time leaning on their own political benefactors as they refuse to discuss or debate possible solutions within Congress or in state legislatures.

Who, then, is playing politics while our children continue to die?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Uvalde to be theme of 2022 Texas midterm campaign

Hey, this is just a hunch, but I’ll toss it out there to see if sticks to any walls, but I believe that the Uvalde massacre this week might become the central campaign issue in the Texas midterm election campaign.

It’ll dominate the races for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, perhaps for the Legislature. Heck it might even play in some county commissioners court campaigns somewhere in Texas.

You know the story about the lunatic who entered Robb Elementary School and massacred 19 children and two teachers. About how Border Patrol tactical squad officers shot him to death. Now come the questions about how the gunman entered the building with relative ease — while packing an AR-15 rifle, the kind used to kill soldiers on the battlefield!

Beto O’Rourke crashed a press conference held by Gov Greg Abbott on Wednesday and said Abbott deserves blame for the deaths in Uvalde. O’Rourke is running against Abbott this year. Hold on with both hands, folks. Because this ride is going to get mighty rough.

Many millions of Americans are enraged at what happened in Uvalde. They damn sure should be. The question now becomes whether there can be a solution found to stem the violence. O’Rourke is correct to suggest that those in power should be held accountable for their inaction.

Thus, we have the campaign theme taking shape as we grieve the deaths in Uvalde.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Thank you, Beto

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Beto O’Rourke stood up and spoke for millions of Americans who are heartbroken, shattered and grief-stricken over the latest eruption of violence in one of our public schools.

The Democratic Party nominee for Texas governor stood before the man he hopes to defeat. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, and accused his foe of “doing nothing” to stop the violence. He was shouted down by others on the dais with Abbott and escorted out of the room.

But was it uncalled for? Did O”Rourke say anything inappropriate? No. He spoke from the heart and spoke for many Texans and other Americans.

Twenty-one people died Tuesday morning in Uvalde’s Ross Elementary School; 19 of the victims were third- and fourth-grade students. Children! The two adults were teachers who fought to protect them against the madman who opened fire.

Uvalde police officers and Border Patrol officers were able to kill the shooter.

This debate has exploded yet again. Beto O’Rourke correctly called Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan and other legislative leaders for their abject failure to confront the issue of gun violence. Indeed, Abbott has actually boasted about legislation he signed this past year that allows people to carry firearms openly without so much as a certificate attesting their proficiency in handling a deadly weapon.

Abbott spoke about the need for greater “mental health” care for Texans, as if suggesting that residents of this state are somehow nuttier than anyone else.

We need tougher restrictions on gun ownership. We need common-sense legislation that honors the Constitution but seeks to prevent nut cases like the loon who stormed into Robb Elementary School to do the dastardly deed he carried out.

We need to find common ground among legislators of both political parties.

Why in the name of all that is sacred is that so hard to find?

Thank you, Beto O’Rourke, for standing up to the do-nothings whose inaction allows this carnage to continue.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Uvalde = tragedy

Make no mistake about this bit of tragic reality: a beautiful South Texas community is going to be tagged with an identifier that links it to tragedy.

It burst onto our national consciousness Tuesday with the shooting deaths at Robb Elementary School of 19 children and two educators who sought to shield the kids from the lunatic who burst into the school brandishing an AR-15 rifle.

Police killed the shooter. But not before the gunman killed all those children and the teachers who fought to protect them.

My question now is whether Uvalde will be associated forever with tragedy. Or will the town of about 15,000 people be known as the place that stirred legislators, governors, members of Congress to act — finally! — in the interests of protecting other children in other communities?

My heart and my head are conflicting with each other on this one. My heart requires me to hope that Uvalde becomes synonymous with actual reform to stop gun violence, particularly the kind of hideous violence that has thrown the nation into this spasm of grief. My head, though, yanks me back into reality, in that we have traveled down this path too many times already only to be saddened at the lack of reform.

I won’t give up on my hope for the former.

Still, we have a lot of grieving and mourning to complete as we seek to grasp the ghastly reality of what has just unfolded.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Cancel meeting, NRA!

If the men and women who run the National Rifle Association had anything resembling a beating heart, they would cancel their planned annual convention, set to convene in Houston.

Why cancel? Oh, because of the massacre that occurred today Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School in which 19 children and two educators were slaughtered.

The NRA keeps yammering against any form of additional laws to prevent this recurring madness. The pro-gun crowd will gather in Houston and well might proclaim to the world that we have enough laws on the books, even in the wake of the latest violent spasm.

Disgraceful.

The NRA should cancel its meeting.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Texas GOP set to nominate seriously damaged AG

If we are to believe the public opinion polls — which I tend to do — then Texas Republican voters are going to nominate for a third term a state attorney general who is under criminal indictment and who is the subject of an FBI investigation into reports of criminal activity.

AG Ken Paxton is (allegedly) as crooked as a dog’s hind leg. Yet he is poised to survive an intraparty challenge from Land Commissioner George P. Bush.

Eeek!

I do not get it. Really. I just cannot fathom how this clown can be nominated for a third term as attorney general while facing a trial that could result in a lengthy prison term is he’s convicted.

A Collin County grand jury indicted Paxton in 2015 on securities fraud charges. His trial has been postponed and kicked around, from Collin County, to Harris County and now back to Collin County.

It’s been seven years since the indictment came down.

Then came the resignation of seven top AG’s office lawyers. The whistleblowers allege that Paxton has been playing favorites and have accused him of accepting a bribe. In comes the FBI.

Can’t Texas Republicans do better than that?

I guess not! Shame on them.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com