Monthly Archives: November 2020

legal news, local news, State news

Time to quit, Mr. Texas AG

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It is highly doubtful a major Texas newspaper read my blog from this past month before declaring it is time for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to resign from public office.

Here is what I wrote on Oct. 7:

https://highplainsblogger.com/2020/10/should-ag-paxton-quit/

Now the Dallas Morning News has weighed in with a strong and meticulously reported editorial that says it’s time for Paxton to go.

The Sunday DMN laid out in detail the transgressions that Paxton has allegedly committed. Now, I won’t take credit for influencing the Morning News’s editorial position. Oh, what the heck … I’ll take all the credit I deserve.

Still, for the major newspaper which happens to be Paxton’s hometown newspaper — as he represented Collin County in the Legislature before being elected AG in 2014 — to call for his immediate resignation is a big deal, man.

Read the Morning News editorial here.

It wasn’t enough that a Collin County grand jury indicted Paxton on securities fraud. He still is awaiting trial five years after the indictment. Oh, no. Seven top AG’s office legal eagles blew the whistle on allegations of criminal activity within the office. They have called for a federal investigation of the myriad allegations they have leveled.

Paxton has managed to fire most of them; others have quit.

The AG’s credibility is blown to smithereens.

Hit the road, AG Paxton.

national news, political news

Trump fails referendum

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I am still trying to digest the results of the 2020 presidential election, so allow me this moment to ponder what they might mean.

I’ll go with what I have heard others suggest already, that Donald Trump’s loss to Joe Biden and the failure of Democrats to sweep the GOP away under an anticipated “blue wave” in both congressional chambers tells me the election was a referendum on Trump.

Donald Trump failed the test.

He suffered a fairly decisive defeat. He likely will end up on the short end of a 306-232 Electoral College tally, and will trail President-elect Biden by roughly 5 million ballots in the actual vote. Biden will have won by roughly 3 percent overall.

What that tells me is that Americans had heard enough of the lying, the insults, the innuendo, the divisive rhetoric, the endorsement of Nazis and Klansmen as “good people,” and the constant pitting of Americans against each other based on their political affiliation.

It also tells me they were sickened by the sight of Trump ignoring the recommendations given by medical experts as the nation continues to fight the pandemic that has killed 230,000-plus Americans. Mask wearing, keeping an appropriate “social distance” from others have been scoffed at by Trump.

I haven’t even mentioned, until now, the catering to dictators around the world, especially the one in Russia who has offered to pay bounties to Taliban terrorists who kill American service personnel in Afghanistan.

Congress remains a mixed bag. The best case for Democrats is they win the two George runoff elections and attain a tie in the upper chamber. The GOP whittled away at the Democratic House majority.

The good news from a policy standpoint is that President-elect Biden has a long record of working well with Republicans. He might need that skill as he seeks to govern after Jan. 20.

Donald Trump called his narrow victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016 a “landslide.” It wasn’t. Neither is Joe Biden’s victory over Trump. However, Biden sold himself as the preferable alternative to Trump’s four years of division, anger and ignorance.

That is just fine with me.

national news

Cheers to the career politician

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The term “career politician” long ago became a four-letter word.

People would toss the term out there with the sound of derision in their voice. Well, I intend at this moment to tell you that the term does not deserve the derision it attracts.

President-elect Joe Biden is a career politician who has devoted his adult life to public service. I am going to place my faith in my belief that the nation’s next president is going to parlay that commitment to public service into constructive governance as the head of the executive branch of the federal government.

Contrast that with the pre-political background that his predecessor, Donald Trump, brought to the presidency. Trump spent his entire adult life to enriching himself. He sought to make buckets of money. Trump took that background with him into the White House.

There can be no doubt about the effect that a non-political background brought to the presidency. It brought relentless chaos.

Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris tonight spoke to the nation in their new elevated roles. They spoke to a nation’s aspirations and renewed their pledge to “restore the soul of the nation.”

So now the job will begin. Trump hasn’t conceded anything. He might never concede to the president-elect. As a Biden campaign aide said tonight, the Constitution doesn’t require a concession from the losing presidential candidate. All it spells out is that the winner must accrue enough Electoral College votes to take office. Biden and Harris have done that.

They bring a record of public service to the nation’s highest, greatest and most exalted political perch.

I won’t shy away from recognizing that the next president is a career politician. After what we’ve been through for the past four years, we need someone in the presidency who knows and understands the complexity of governance.

President-elect Biden’s experience has prepared him well for the task he and the vice president-elect are about to assume.

national news

Trump’s exit mirrors his entry

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I admit to being a bit naive on an issue we are witnessing in real time.

I thought it was possible — and I said so publicly on this blog — that Donald Trump would accept the results of an election even if Joe Biden would win. I thought there was a chance he would concede and would leave office with relative calm.

It isn’t playing out that way, so far.

President-elect Biden defeated Trump, who then said he would fight the results in court, that he would seek to reverse the results of an election that Biden won fair and square. Trump hasn’t conceded anything. He has refused to accept the result.

Meanwhile, the president-elect will proceed with the transition without any cooperation from the man he will succeed in the White House.

Trump came into office vowing to be an  unconventional president. His entry into politics defied political convention. His first statements as a candidate denigrated Mexicans as rapists, murderers and drug dealers. It went downhill from there … if you can believe it.

Trump’s time as president was a study in chaos and confusion. More unconventional behavior produced equally unconventional governance.

Now he is going to exit the office. At this moment he hasn’t yet indicated if he ever will accept the result, that he lost the actual vote by 5 million ballots and lost the Electoral College vote in numbers that mirror the “landslide” he said he scored against Hillary Clinton in 2016.

The good news? It is that Trump is slipping further into irrelevance.

national news

Looking for electoral perspective

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The dust hasn’t yet settled on this presidential election, but it’s time nonetheless to seek to put some perspective on the impact of this momentous result.

President-elect Joe Biden is en route to an Electoral College victory that will mirror the win that Donald Trump scored four years ago. Trump called it a “landslide” victory over Hillary Clinton.

It wasn’t. It was a squeaker. Trump won on the strength of 77,000 votes cast in three Rust Belt states — Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania — that previously had voted for President Barack Obama.

On another matter, Trump was outvoted at the ballot box. Hillary Clinton collected nearly 3 million more votes than Trump, but just didn’t win the Electoral College votes she needed to become president.

Biden will finish with 306 electoral votes. Just as significantly, he will garner at least 5 million more votes than Trump; that number sits at 4.1 million at this moment, but they are far from finished counting all the ballots across the nation.

Does this election result constitute a landslide? No. It doesn’t. Joe Biden’s victory, though, is going to produce more of a mandate than Donald Trump ever was able to claim.

One more matter of perspective is in order. The composition of the U.S. Senate remains undecided. Two Senate races in Georgia are headed for runoffs. If two Democrats win those races, the Senate will end up with 50 Democrats (including two Democrat-leaning independents) and 50 Republicans. That puts Vice President Kamala Harris, as the Senate’s presiding officer, in position to cast tie-breaking votes if the need arises. You’ll recall that Vice President Mike Pence performed that task to confirm Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

Joe Biden’s victory was historic to be sure. He was reduced to so much political road kill after early miserable primary showings early this year. He stormed back on the strength of an endorsement from Rep. James Clyburn in advance of the South Carolina primary, which he won. Biden never looked back.

He is now set to become president of the United States thanks to a victory that is decisive and clear cut. The great American experiment in electing an individual with no political or public service experience is about to end.

We’re about to welcome a president and vice president to the pinnacle of power who have political capital — which Donald Trump never acquired — they can spend. My hope is that President Biden and Vice President Harris spend it wisely.

national news

Trying to avoid spiking the ball

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I have been resisting with all the strength I can muster the temptation to spike the proverbial football in light of the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as president and vice president of the United States.

I won’t go there.

However, I do feel the need to reveal that I am surrendering to the temptation  to send Donald Trump into the world of irrelevance. To that end, I do not intend to launch criticism at Trump … unless the president forces me to do so.

How would he do that? By insisting he will take his loss into the courts to challenge a free and fair election, to suggest it was “stolen” from him. He well might commit some boorish acts along the way. He could forgo the usual courtesies that outgoing presidents extend to their successors. He could skip President-elect Biden’s inaugural. Trump could decline to pledge a “peaceful transfer of power” to the new president’s team.

He also would incur my wrath if he makes dangerous policy dangerous in the next 10 weeks before he exits the political stage. The court challenges he intends to mount will be accompanied by relentless Twitter messages.

Donald Trump will humiliate himself and will do significant additional damage to the “legacy” he will leave behind once he exits the White House.

Accordingly, I do not intend waste any more of my attention than is absolutely necessary on a man who deserved to lose the presidential election.

President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris have delivered the nation from the chaos and confusion that have been the hallmark of an administration that is on the verge of disappearing.

national news

Let the healing begin

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I have to say that the words “President-elect Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.” have a stirring ring to my eyes and ears.

The networks and major media organizations have made a call many of us wanted to hear, that we have new president of the United States.

I am a happy fellow at this moment.

We’ll get to unpack all the reasons for our happiness in the weeks ahead. The end of Donald Trump’s tenure as president is just around the corner. He likely won’t concede the race, at least not in the immediate future, which to be honest doesn’t bother me near as much as I thought it might.

His refusal to concede and to offer a full cooperation with the new president and his team will inflict some damage to the nation’s image abroad, but it will cast most of the shame on Trump.

What’s more …

Let’s not forget a key historical moment that occurred just a little while ago: the election of Kamala Harris as the first woman vice president. Indeed, she embodies a historical trifecta as the first woman, the first black woman and the first Indian-American woman.

And so there you have it.

President-elect Biden pledged to heal the country. He has been through emotional hell in his own life, so he knows all about what it takes to heal a shattered heart. He has buried two of his children and his wife. He has climbed out of the depths of despair.

Joe Biden now stands at the political pinnacle.

This is a good day for the nation we love.

local news

Dr. Jackson becomes U.S. rep.-elect

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I skedaddled from the Texas Panhandle a couple of years ago, so my thoughts on a just-completed political campaign in the 13th Congressional District should be considered in that context.

I am not as close to the action in the Panhandle as I used to be, but my interest in the region remains high.

13th District voters elected Dr. Ronny Jackson as their next representative. Rep.-elect Jackson presents a strange new turn in Panhandle politics, in my humble view.

Jackson is a former White House physician. He served three presidents: George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump.

Trump wanted to nominate Jackson to be secretary of veterans affairs. Jackson didn’t make the cut; he bowed out after questions arose about his lack of administrative experience and then about his conduct as a physician.

So, he looked for a place to run for Congress and set his sights on a district where he never lived. He wanted to succeed longtime Rep. Mac Thornberry of Clarendon, who decided he didn’t want to seek re-election to a seat he held since 1995.

Jackson doesn’t know much about the district he now will  represent. He was born in Levelland, but moved away to join the Navy  — attaining the rank of rear admiral — and never looked back. Until now.

During the campaign, he became something of a shill for Donald Trump. He said some goofy things about the soon-to-be-former president.

What he knows specifically about Pantex, about the Bell/Textron aircraft assembly mission, about water conservation, or wind energy, or farm policy remains a mystery to me. Mac Thornberry is a son of the Panhandle, coming from a longtime Donley County ranching family. Jackson is a new resident of the region, so I guess I can call him a carpetbagger.

In these times, I guess it’s OK for carpetbaggers to represent the interest of folks who formerly used to demand that their political representatives be proficient in the issues important to them.

Jackson won handily.

As for his shilling for Donald Trump, I am wondering how long he’ll want to stay in office with his main man no longer in office.

national news

How would President Biden govern?

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I am going to take a tiny leap of faith and presume that Joe Biden will be declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election.

Thus, he will begin the transition into the nation’s highest political office. Let’s ponder the question: How different will President Biden’s  governing style be from the man he succeeds, Donald Trump?

Let me count the ways.

For starters, Joe Biden knows how government works. He served in the U.S. Senate for 36 years before being elected vice president in 2008. That’s 44 years in the legislative and executive branches of the federal government. Donald Trump had zero public service experience before being elected president … and, boy howdy, that gap in his resume showed itself in graphic fashion.

Biden has many friends on both sides of the great political divide. He calls himself a “proud Democrat,” but over the years he cultivated many personal friendships and professional relationships with Republicans. He knows how legislate. Biden understands that compromise is the art of seeking an outcome that serves the common good.

Joe Biden knows how to talk to the GOP. Trump never developed any friendships with Democrats, let alone with many within the Republican Party. Why is that? He had no political experience. Furthermore, he has few actual friends within the GOP.

It’s instructive to understand that Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have a record of being able to work together. They understand each other.

Finally, Joe Biden is likely to retain his footing while he governs. He has been through emotional hell over many decades. His first wife and baby daughter died in a motor vehicle accident in late 1972. His son, Beau, died of cancer just a few years ago. Joe Biden has relied on his faith to see him through. He understands emotional pain and feels the suffering that inflict others.

Donald Trump is not wired in any fashion to understand the suffering that befall other human beings.

President Biden, from all I can discern, is going to restore so much of the nuance of good government that Donald Trump sought to toss aside. Therefore, that political payoff makes all this vote counting worth the wait.

national news

First, let’s get it right

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Are you as anxiety-riddled as I am, waiting for final unofficial results that declare Joseph R. Biden Jr. as the next president of the United States?

Those of you who are, I want to offer this bit of advice.

Let’s calm down. I keep telling myself that very thing, with little impact on the angst that keeps roiling with my gut.

Election officials in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada and Georgia need to get it right without worrying about getting it out in a hurry. Thus, for them the first priority is to ensure the votes are counted accurately. Am I unsettled because we don’t know yet whether Joe Biden has actually been elected? Sure, I most certainly am unsettled.

Then we have the issue of Donald Trump’s concession. More to the point: He hasn’t conceded. White House aides say he won’t concede. Trump signaled Thursday an utter disdain for the democratic process when he threw out myriad conspiracy theories he said are designed to “steal” the election from him. Indeed, Trump’s disdain extends to our very representative democracy. He lied brazenly, openly and without a shred of shame.

What if he doesn’t concede? What if we approach inauguration day and President-elect Biden prepares to take office and Trump still hasn’t vacated the office. A Biden campaign aide put it well, saying that the “people decide who is the president” and the government has ways of “removing trespassers from the White House.”

We must arc back to the anxiety that builds while we await the final unofficial results. I am just a single American voter, a patriot, someone who loves this country with all my heart. I want a change to occur and I am supremely confident that it will occur.

I just need to practice the advice my head keeps preaching to my heart.

Just be patient, man.