Category Archives: State news

State news

Solution needs a problem

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It is troubling to me in the extreme that Texas legislative Republicans keep yapping about their efforts to make elections “more secure.”

I keep asking: More secure against what? Precisely?

They are pondering how to limit people’s access to voting. They want to reduce voters’ ability to vote because, according to GOP legislators, they want to guard against vote fraud.

Good grief, man! There is hardly anything of the sort occurring in Texas. Or anywhere, for that matter!

What we have here is a solution in search of a problem. Texas GOP legislators are concocting a pretext to stymie voters along the way. They profess to be fearful of vote fraud. Some of the loonier among them suggest the 2020 presidential election was fraught with fraud.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who runs the state Senate, offered to pay someone $1 million if they could produce any evidence of widespread voter fraud in Texas. To date, he hasn’t had to pay. Why? Because there isn’t any such fraud!

The Legislature is meeting in special session to enact a number of laws left undone during the regular session that concluded at the end of May. The so-called voter “reform” is little more than an effort to keep GOP politicians in power.

Legislative Republicans have sought to soften some of the harder edges on their overhaul plans. Yet they remain committed to certain provisions that appear to target minority communities and actually suppress voter turnout in upcoming elections.

Read the story here: Texas Republicans Have A New Voting Bill. Here’s What’s In It | 88.9 KETR

Texas legislative Democrats might try to bolt the state during the special session to prevent a quorum and, thus, stymie efforts to enact the legislation. I am one Texan who wants Democrats to do precisely that to end this blatant power grab.

Republicans who suggest they seek to end vote fraud are simply lying to those of us they serve.

State news

Irony in special session

(Cooper Neill/The Dallas Morning News) 

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Surely I am not the only Texas observer who sees a certain irony in Gov. Greg Abbott summoning legislators back to Austin for a special session … given his veto of money to pay for legislative staffers’ salaries.

Think of this for just a moment.

Abbott became angry with Texas House Democrats because they walked off the House floor to prevent a voter suppression bill to become law during the regular legislative session. He vetoed legislators’ staff money to pay them back for failing to “do their job.”

Then he called them back from their home districts to do some more work. I don’t get it.

Abbott was prohibited from vetoing legislators’ salaries, as it is guaranteed by the Texas Constitution. Indeed, we don’t pay lawmakers very much money: $600 per month plus an expense stipend when they’re in session. Legislators will continue to get their measly amount despite the governor’s veto.

The House Appropriations Committee on Friday voted 21-0 to reinstate the money that Gov. Abbott vetoed.

As the Texas Tribune reported: The veto applies to the thousands of staffers who work directly for lawmakers and several state agencies. Those agencies include the Legislative Reference Library, which conducts research for the Legislature; the Legislative Budget Board, which develops policy and budget recommendations and provides fiscal analyses for legislation; the Legislative Council, which helps draft and analyze potential legislation; the State Auditor’s Office, which reviews the state’s finances; and the Sunset Advisory Commission, which reviews the efficiency of state agencies.

Texas lawmakers take first steps to restore Legislature’s funding after veto | The Texas Tribune

I just happen to believe the governor’s veto of this money and his quick action to summon everyone back to Austin drips with a certain irony that I cannot let go  unnoticed.

local news, medical news, State news

Get vaccinated, Texans!

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

This isn’t good news, folks.

Texans like to boast about how our state is No. 1. Well, we are far from No. 1 in the rate of inoculation against that killer virus, the COVID-19 pandemic that’s still killing too many of us.

The Texas Tribune reports that the state has inoculated about 43 percent of its population fully against the virus.

I was struck by the results coming from Amarillo and from Beaumont, two communities where I used to live. Amarillo had been vaccinating at double the state rate. Then the good folks of the Panhandle decided to stop exceeding the state standard. Amarillo’s fully vaccinated rate stands at 30 percent, a good bit below the state inoculation rate.

The Beaumont-Port Arthur metro area fares even worse, with just 28 percent of its residents claiming to be fully vaccinated.

I don’t know about you, but I believe that is disconcerting news to say the least. At worst it is frightening, given the spike in that the “delta variant” now accounts for about 25 percent of the new infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/07/06/coronavirus-texas-vaccination-amarillo/

President Biden keeps telling us that it is the “patriotic” thing to do to get vaccinated. The first time I heard him say it, I though the then-new president was overstating the importance. No more, man! I now am on board fully with Joe Biden’s summoning our patriotic spirit in fighting the virus.

I have been using High Plains Blogger to extol the message. And I will continue to speak out on this forum. It’s the best avenue at my disposal to say what I believe needs to be said.

I am able to speak with a clear conscience about vaccination. I am fully vaccinated, as is virtually my entire immediate family. We stand proudly as those who heeded the call to get the vaccine. To be sure, we have paid a hefty price from the pandemic. Two of our immediate family members were hospitalized with symptoms; one of those family members became, in the words of the medical staff tending to her, “seriously ill” from the virus, which means we could have lost her. I thank God Almighty each day that we didn’t.

This is all my way of urging everyone who is eligible to receive the vaccine to get the medication shot into your body. The CDC, the Food and Drug Administration and practically every medical expert on Earth say the vaccines are safe; they are effective; they will protect you and those with whom you come in contact.

As for my former neighbors in far-reaching regions of this vast state who continue to resist the vaccine, they are playing a dangerous game.

Note: A version of this blog was published initially on KETR.org.

State news

Play hardball, Democrats

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

There are times when you have to go for broke if you intend to preserve what you believe are basic democratic tenets.

Texas legislative Democrats walked off the floor of the House of Representatives near the end of the Legislature’s regular session to prevent House Republicans from forcing a vote on restrictions to the state election laws.

Gov. Greg Abbott was so angry he decided to call a special legislative session that begins in a couple of days to enact those changes. The question now for Democrats is this: Do they hang tough or do they buckle? I urge them to maintain their unity in opposing these restrictions.

There needs to be a show of strength among those who say they cherish the right to grant all Americans the ability to vote. They say they favor greater, not lesser, voter participation. The 2020 presidential election produced a significant increase in voter turnout, which brought President Biden closer to carrying the state’s electoral votes than any time since the 1976 election, which Jimmy Carter carried the state en route to his presidential election victory.

GOP lawmakers want to limit early voting opportunities, they seek to ban people from delivering bottles of water to voters waiting in long lines to cast their ballots, and they want to make it easier for judges to overturn election results. And why? Because they have fallen for The Big Lie about “rampant vote fraud” where it doesn’t exist.

Texas Democrats have learned how to play the same game of hardball that Republicans have perfected over many years in Texas.

My advice to Democrats? Stay the course.

State news

West seeks to drag Abbott into the right-wing ditch

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

This is just dandy.

A right-wing former one-term Florida congressman is now seeking to become Texas’s next governor by suggesting that the current right-wing governor isn’t right-wing enough.

Spare me the alt-right demagoguery.

Allen West, the former head of the Texas Republican Party, has declared his intention to challenge Gov. Greg Abbott in the GOP primary next spring. What has Abbott done to incur West’s political challenge? I guess he hasn’t yet rounded up and thrown illegal immigrants into jail and tossed the keys into the Gulf of Mexico.

The former president of the U.S.A. has endorsed Abbott already, so West isn’t likely to curry much favor with the bloc of fanatics who hang on POTUS 45’s every idiotic pronouncement.

Allen West announces he’s running against Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in primary | The Texas Tribune

Abbott wants to build a wall along our southern border. He has stuck his thumb in President Biden’s eye practically every chance he gets. Abbott has anticipated this challenge from West, so he’s moving his re-election rhetoric farther to the right-wing fringe all the time. It’s not as if he isn’t adhering to the conservative mantra preached by the likes of Allen West and so many other Texas Republicans.

Allen West is a far-right ideologue. Indeed, the entire Texas GOP playing field is cluttered with others just like him.

West now wants to take his game to the next level. He wants that governor’s office. Ugh!

Don’t get me wrong. I am no fan of Abbott. I am even less of a fan of Allen West, the guy who got drummed out of the Army because he mistreated prisoners of war in Iraq … allegedly.

West is now a Texas GOP fire-breather. This upcoming campaign season will be fun to watch, if I have the stomach for it.

national news, State news

Abbott kicks around another political football

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Oh, my goodness, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. You have become such a disappointment to many of us you took an oath to serve.

You declare your intention to build a wall along our state’s southern border. You blast the Biden administration to smithereens over what you call a “failed border policy.” You decline to meet with Vice President Kamala Harris during her brief visit to El Paso to discuss border security issues with local officials.

Donald Trump visiting Texas border with Gov. Greg Abbott | The Texas Tribune

Then you slobber all over yourself and all over the disgraced former president of the U.S.A. when he comes a callin’ to — that’s right — level criticism of the Biden administration.

You and POTUS 45 are on the same silly song sheet on so many misbegotten matters.

Governor, you need to put partisan politics aside and think of the greater good … for once.  Your politics-playing over this border matter simply makes me sick, not to mention the way you fawned over the visit of an individual who no longer has any say over federal policy — and whose company has just been indicted on criminal charges.

POTUS 45 lost the 2020 election, governor. You know that, yes? President Biden inherited a border crisis from his predecessor. Has he done well in bringing it under control? I agree that Joe Biden can do better and I am going to give him the benefit of hope that he will do better. I mean, he’s only six months into a presidency fraught with many existential problems that need everyone’s concern.

The border is one of them.

Last time I checked, Texas is still one of 50 states governed by politicians with varying degrees of competence. Gov. Abbott, I know you do not need to be told this, but good governance is a team sport. It requires cooperation at all levels of government. The feds rely on states to assist when they can and vice versa.

How about stepping up your good-governance game, governor? You need to be part of a team working toward a common goal, which is to secure our border.

State news

Hoping for the best

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

OK. I shall remain opposed the legislation that will become law effective Sept. 1.

However, I am going to enter a new phase of opposition. I want to give “permit-less carry of handguns” a chance to work until – or if – my worst fears become a reality.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed the bill into law the other day. It is the “constitutional carry” legislation that became a favorite of legislative Republicans. It allows anyone to pack a gun without even requiring them to take a mandatory gun safety course and passing a mandatory test. The state has had a concealed carry law on the books for decades. This new law renders the concealed carry law moot.

The Legislature did tweak the bill before sending it to Abbott’s desk.

According to the Texas Tribune: Before approving the bill, the Senate tacked on several amendments to address concerns by law enforcement groups that opposed permitless carry, worried it would endanger officers and make it easier for criminals to get guns.

The compromise lawmakers reached behind closed doors kept intact a number of changes the Senate made to the House bill, including striking a provision that would have barred officers from questioning people based only on their possession of a handgun.

The deal also preserves a Senate amendment enhancing the criminal penalties for felons and family violence offenders caught carrying. Among other Senate changes that made it into the law was a requirement that the Texas Department of Public Safety offer a free online course on gun safety.

Big-city cops opposed the law along with most Texans. So I don’t feel like the proverbial Lone Ranger in fearing what this law could produce, which could be a spasm of violence created by those who are packing heat under the new law.

To be fair, I had much the same fear about concealed carry legislation. To my pleasant surprise, the concealed carry law has not produced a huge tick in gunfights on the streets, or in the grocery store parking lot – or anywhere else, for that matter!

I am going to hold out hope that this new law can produce the same sort of reasonable reaction.

Will it turn me into an avid supporter of this law? Probably not. I am willing to honor the role as someone who accepts the law if not embracing it.

I will simply hope for the best.

Note: This blog was published initially on KETR.org.

State news

VP Harris to visit Texas … will Gov. Abbott be there, too?

7 Comments

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Vice President Kamala Harris, who’s taken her share of hits for failing — so far — to visit the U.S. southern border after being put in charge of handling the immigration crisis, is coming to see it for herself.

She arrives Friday in El Paso.

OK, she’s been a bit late in laying eyes on the crisis. Some of the criticism is warranted. I won’t pile on here.

Kamala Harris is set to visit the border (msn.com)

I do want to know, though, whether Texas Gov. Greg Abbott will be on hand to greet her as she arrives. Will the Republican governor meet with the Democratic VP to discuss common problems and search for common solutions? Or will he continue to take pot shots at the Joe Biden administration, declaring its immigration policy to be a failure while asserting his desire to build a wall along the state’s entire border with Mexico?

Good government requires teamwork among state and federal officials. Here is a chance, I submit, for Gov. Abbott to join with Vice President Harris in ensuring that Texas is on the same page with President Biden and his immigration team led by the vice president.

I hope to see Gov. Abbott on hand to lend his voice to this important discussion.

State news

Abbott inflicts needless pain

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Gov. Greg Abbott is playing hardball, all right.

Except that he has aimed his “high hard fastball” at hundreds of legislative staffers who do not deserve to suffer from the governor’s anger.

Get a load of this: Abbott has vetoed funds appropriated by the 2021 Legislature to pay legislators’ salaries … such as they are. The veto also takes aim at staffers’ salaries, the folks who do the hard work on behalf of the elected members of the Texas House and Senate. Texas legislators earn $600 each month, plus a per diem expense amount when they’re in session. They all have day jobs back home in their legislative districts or are wealthy enough to take time to serve in the state House or Senate.

Abbott is angry with House Democrats who walked off the floor of the legislative assembly in its waning hours. They managed to deny the Legislature a quorum needed to enact a controversial voter overhaul bill that Abbott said he wanted to sign into law. Oh, the law happens to be a turkey that has drawn the unified wrath of the Texas Democratic legislative caucus. It seeks to empower judges to more easily overturn election results, it reduces early voting opportunities, it takes a hard line against mail-in voting. In short, the GOP proposal makes it more difficult for Texans to vote.

The Democratic caucus opposes the effort to restrict voting opportunities.

Abbott’s punishment is much too broad and inflicts far too many collateral casualties.

“Texans don’t run from a legislative fight, and they don’t walk away from unfinished business,” Abbott said in a statement while vetoing the legislative funding measure. “Funding should not be provided for those who quit their job early, leaving their state with unfinished business and exposing taxpayers to higher costs for an additional legislative session.”

But again, what about the hardworking legislative staffers who have been caught in this game of political football? They need not be punished along with their legislators.

This isn’t my idea of good government. It’s heavy-handed government dictated by a governor who is letting his petulance get in the way of sound policy.

Note: A version of this blog was published initially on KETR-FM’s website, ketr.org

State news

Bye, bye casinos

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

You can count me as one Texan who is glad that the Legislature fell short in a plan to put a measure on the ballot that would determine whether we should allow big-time gambling at casinos in the state.

I need to stipulate that when the Texas Lottery came into being in 1991, I argued on behalf of the newspaper where I worked at the time against the creation of the lottery; it was approved by something around 70 percent of the vote.

Whatever. The Sands Hotel of Las Vegas decided to invest a good deal of money and its standing trumpeting the casino idea for Texas. You’ll recall those TV ads, I’m sure, prior to the end of the Texas Legislature. They told us how so much money was leaving the state when Texans were gambling their savings away in casinos in neighboring states. The TV spots sought to persuade us that it is better to keep the money in this state; thus, the campaign for casino gambling took root.

I also want to declare that I will not use the euphemistic term for gambling, which is “gaming.” There are those associated with the gambling industry who don’t want to refer to this activity what it is: You gamble on the chance that you’ll strike it rich at the blackjack table, the roulette wheel, the craps table, the slot machine … or whichever form of gambling you prefer.

The Texas Tribune reported that the Sands proposal was to build casinos in the state’s four largest metropolitan areas, making them “destination resorts.” Well, that includes the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area where I live with my wife No thanks, Sands. I have no interest in squandering my money at one of those destination resorts.

The Tribune published a story explaining how the gambling expansion failed. You can read it on the link I have attached below.

Here’s why the effort to legalize casinos in Texas by Las Vegas Sands failed | The Texas Tribune

And so, the Legislature adjourned without getting the gambling idea placed on the ballot. That is more than just fine with me.

***

Just so you know, I have played the lottery twice. Shortly after the lottery came into being, I bought a ticket and won $3. That put me $2 ahead, given that I paid a buck for the ticket. I played it a second time. I didn’t win anything. So, I quit while I was a dollar ahead.

I don’t need — or want — to be tempted again.

Note: This blog was published initially on KETR-FM’s website, ketr.org.