Monthly Archives: May 2021

DC riot

Riot wasn’t a riot?

(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Andrew Clyde has become a charter member of the Congressional Dipsh** of the Year Club.

The Georgia Republican has said publicly for all the world to hear that the Jan. 6 insurrection/riot/terrorist attack was none of that. That it was similar to a group of tourists strolling through the Capitol Building on a guided tour.

As Yahoo News reported: Clyde asserted that television footage from Jan. 6 showed people entering the Capitol and taking videos and pictures “in an orderly fashion” and “if you didn’t know the TV footage was a video from January the 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit.”

Really! Can this guy ever be taken seriously ever again on anything that pours out of his pie hole?

GOP lawmaker claims ‘there was no insurrection’ and Capitol riot looked like a ‘normal tourist visit’ (yahoo.com)

But … he said it.

Wow! I don’t believe any of us ever have seen a guided tour that included police officers being bludgeoned by rioters. Or by individuals smashing through windows. Or those who decided to take a dump on the floor of the Capitol.

Clyde objected to the formation of a bipartisan commission to examine the cause and effect of the Jan. 6 insurrection.

But for this idiot to suggest that the riot that killed five individuals was nothing more than a guided tour is — and the language fails me here — is the stuff of a traitor.

DC riot

Yes on Jan. 6 commission

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

What in the name of governmental transparency is the congressional Republican leadership seeking to hide from the public regarding the Jan. 6 insurrection?

The U.S. House of Representatives has voted — with 35 GOP members joining all House Democrats — to support a bipartisan panel to examine the events leading up to and including the insurrection occurred on the sixth day of 2021.

However, the commission faces a huge obstacle in the Senate, where it needs 60 votes to pass. A 50-50 Senate isn’t likely to get 10 GOP members to join their Democratic colleagues in enacting this commission.

House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy opposes it; so does Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell. Yep, McConnell — the guy who personifies partisan politics — calls the effort, um, too political.

House approves Jan. 6 commission over GOP objections | TheHill

We need a thorough factfinding mission. The idea is to appoint five Democrats and five Republicans to the panel. It would have subpoena power. Members from both sides would be able to have input into who to summon.

This notion is fair and equitable. It also would bring us many miles closer to the truth into what happened and why on the day terrorists stormed Capitol Hill and sought to block the certification of the 2020 presidential election.

I want answers. I am sure other Americans are demanding answers too. There needs to be a 9/11-style commission to seek the truth.

I have a good hunch I know what such a panel would discover … which I also have reason to believe lies behind the reluctance of Republicans to support it.

crime news

Trump now part of a ‘criminal’ probe

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Well now, it appears that Donald J. Trump might have a new line of crap to sling for those of his “political base” to embrace.

Hey, he can say that New York prosecutors are looking at alleged “criminal activity” inside the ex-POTUS’s sprawling business empire.

It won’t matter to the Trump fanatics out there. They seem to embrace the shenanigans upon which Trump built his organization. Now, though, the stakes well might be getting mighty hot for the former liar/imbecile/prevaricator in chief.

The Hill reports: “We have informed the Trump Organization that our investigation into the organization is no longer purely civil in nature. We are now actively investigating the Trump Organization in a criminal capacity, along with the Manhattan DA. We have no additional comment at this time,” Fabien Levy, a spokesperson for the New York attorney general’s office, said in a statement.

New York prosecutors investigating Trump Organization in a ‘criminal capacity’ | TheHill

Trump hasn’t commented on this latest bit of news. He has chided the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation into Trump’s financial matters as a “political witch hunt.” It’s a standard Trump mantra; it’s all political.

Now, it appears that the stakes are getting mighty steep.

I would love to be a fly on the wall of the room where Donald Trump might learn that he is being indicted on a felony criminal charge.

So would you like to watch Donald Trump’s reaction to such news … if it comes.

medical news

Vaccine arguments: idiocy

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The debate in this country over whether to get vaccinated against a disease that can kill you simply is astonishing in the extreme.

I cannot get past this utterly irrefutable fact: vaccines save lives and prevent misery, agony and heartache.

Polio struck millions of Americans. Then in the 1950s, they discovered a vaccine. What happened to polio in this country? It vanished. The same can be said of tuberculosis and smallpox. Same for diseases such as scarlet fever, the bubonic plague. We vaccinate our children against measles, mumps, chicken pox, you name it.

But now we have a disease that has killed nearly 600,000 Americans and the debate rages over whether we should get vaccinated. I even have members of my family who suggest — and this just blows my mind — that the Food and Drug Administration didn’t actually approve the vaccines that are being given to Americans and that these family members simply refuse to get vaccinated because, um, it’s all political.

We need to get past the politics that has poisoned the national discussion about the pandemic and how the government has responded to it. If we do not, then I am confident in projecting many more unnecessary deaths … and heartbreak.

State news

Abbott acts prematurely with this order

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has decided he knows what is best for local governments, including local school districts in their efforts to ward off the COVID virus among the people they serve.

He has issued an executive order that prohibits cities, counties and school districts from requiring masks for the people who work there or attend classes.

Sigh …

How many ways can we describe “overreach”? Abbott’s order offers an important marker.

As the grandparent of a North Texas second-grader, I am quite appalled that the governor would make this call as it regards local school districts. We call them “independent school districts” in Texas because we imbue local school trustees — supposedly — with the power to make decisions independent of other government intrusion.

Not so, apparently.

The Texas Tribune notes: While 30% of Texans have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, the vast majority of children are unvaccinated.

My granddaughter is one of them who hasn’t yet received a vaccine to protect her against the killer virus.

I believe the governor has acted prematurely to a degree that smacks of irresponsibility.

The Tribune also reports: Starting Friday, any government entity that tries to impose a mask mandate can face a fine of up to $1,000, according to the order. The order exempts state-supported living centers, government-owned or -operated hospitals, Texas Department of Criminal Justice facilities, Texas Juvenile Justice Department facilities, and county and municipal jails.

No Texas mask mandate in public schools, Gov. Greg Abbott says | The Texas Tribune

The virus is far from being eradicated. Yes, infection rates, hospitalization rates and deaths are down across the board. This makes everyone feel a little safer. Are we in the clear? Can we now declare victory?

Not yet.

Gov. Abbott has gotten way ahead of himself on this one.

International news

‘Quiet diplomacy’ might need more volume

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

President Biden is committed to working through “quiet diplomacy” to end the fighting between Israel and the terrorists who govern the Gaza Strip and who have been launching rockets into Israeli cities.

Allow me this caveat: The quiet diplomacy that Biden prefers might need to get a bit louder if matters don’t settle down soon in the region.

Biden keeps to ‘quiet diplomacy’ as calls for Israel-Hamas cease-fire ramp up (msn.com)

The Israelis have hit back hard at Hamas, which governs Gaza and the West Bank. Hamas has dedicated itself to the destruction of Israel and has launched the rockets to protest Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory.

It has targeted civilians. Hamas has been indiscriminate in killing innocent people.

President Biden should be able to use his formidable contacts with leaders in the region to seek to broker some sort of peace agreement. He is working the phones. He is talking through back channels. I wish him — and those in the region — all the very best to search for peace.

Quiet diplomacy, though, might not be enough. I hope the president is prepared to turn up the volume when the moment presents itself.

national news

Happy Trails, Part 192: Relief from hassles

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

LOST HILLS, Calif. — It occurs to me that the more time I spend in our RV traveling the nation’s highways the less time I spend thinking — let alone commenting on — about the issues of the day.

This retirement journey of ours has taken us from coast to coast to coast across this vast nation; we have seen about half of Canada as well. We have put tens of thousands of miles on two RVs and on our pickup we have named Big Jake.

And all along the way I find myself thinking less and less about the bad and the good of government policy, of the politics that drive and the individuals — aka the idiots — who make the pertinent decisions.

It’s restful emotionally if not always physically.

What happens then, when we return from trips to hither and yon? I feel more energized when we settle back into our permanent home, the one attached to the good Earth.

At the moment, though, I am fixated mostly on how to find our way to our next destination and to those beyond. We’re going to see family and friends and we also intend to explore and gawk at nation’s splendor in the western half of the United States of America.

The blog commentary on the comings and goings of those in public life will take a bit of a breather.

But I don’t intend to surrender the opportunity to comment on issues when they present themselves.

It’s just that our retirement journey tends to pull my attention away from the people and policies that used to occupy so much of my waking moments back when I worked for a living.

national news

Trump is back? Good grief!

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(Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald J. Trump might be set to re-enter the political arena.

He is a disgraced former POTUS who got hammered in his bid for re-election in 2020. Trump faces possible criminal indictments in New York City and Fulton County, Ga. He’s got a huge debt of $400 million coming due. He continues to foment The Big Lie about the 2020 presidential election.

You know all about The Big Lie. It’s the one that suggests that President Biden won because of rampant vote fraud. Except there was no such fraud. Biden won fairly, squarely and bigly.

Trump signals he’s ready to get back in the game | TheHill

But the ex-POTUS is going to engage in some political rallies. He’ll lend his voice on behalf of Republican candidates running in the 2022 midterm election.

His hijacking of a GOP only demonstrates how far the party has fallen. Trump is a classic Republican In Name Only. The man has few actual political friends, just a cabal of officeholders and contenders who fear what can happen to them if they cross Trump.

To think that one of them, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, says “no one” questions Biden’s legitimacy as our commander in chief. Uh, Earth to McCarthy … Donald Trump questions it.

He wants to be a player in the midterm campaign.

Sigh … 

I want the blowhard/carnival barker/ex-liar in chief to disappear.

crime news, local news, State news

Time to stop ‘cooking’ inmates

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Not long after I reported for work at the Amarillo Globe-News, I got an invitation to tour the William P. Clements Prison Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

It was, um, an edifying experience. I learned a lot about how TDCJ treats the 3,000-plus men who are serving some seriously hard time for felony crimes.

One of the things I learned in 1995 was that TDCJ did not supply air conditioning to the living quarters housing those convicts. That’s about to change, according to the Texas Legislature, which has approved a bill to pay for air conditioning units at the myriad units throughout the massive TDCJ system.

The Texas Tribune reports: “The reality is, in Texas, we are cooking people in prisons,” state Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, said on the floor when presenting his bill. “This is the right thing to do, it is the humane thing to do, and it’s something we should have done a long time ago.”

I don’t recall during my tour the assistant warden of the Clements Unit expressing outward concern about the summer heat that convicts had to endure while serving their time. The issue did come to my mind at the time, and I recall reminding the prison official of what happens if inmates determine they are being mistreated.

I recalled when U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice determined that crowded conditions were unconstitutional. What happened next changed the shape of the Texas prison system forever. The federal government took control of the state prison complex, forcing the state to go on a prison-building binge to relieve crowding.

Can there have been another lawsuit in TDCJ’s future had the Legislature failed to act? Hey, it’s not out of the question.

Accordingly, the Legislature appears set to cool the living quarters of the hundreds of thousands of men and women in state custody. According to the Texas Tribune: Currently, 70% of the state’s nearly 100 prison facilities do not have air conditioning in living areas. Some areas, like administrative offices and infirmaries, are air conditioned at all units.

The state is going to have a hefty bill to pay if this legislation becomes law. My sense is that given the plethora of lawsuits the state already has paid, the cost of providing A/C at its prison units might look like a bargain.

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

 

economic news, national news

POTUS punished for good deeds?

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It really must be true that “no good deed goes unpunished.”

Consider the following:

President Biden took office in January as the nation was struggling to cope with the COVID pandemic. He promised tens of millions of vaccines in his first 100 days. He succeeded gloriously in outpacing that projection.

Then came a surge in consumer demand of supplies they couldn’t purchase because of restrictions caused by the pandemic. The worldwide supply chain has been strained as manufacturers struggle to meet the immense demand.

The punishment comes in the form of inflation that now has the White House troubled by the impact of that huge demand and the still-limited supply.

The Hill reports: All of those factors combined to push the consumer price index (CPI) up 0.8 percent in April and 4.2 percent over the past 12 months, the fastest annual rate since 2008, the Labor Department reported this past week. When stripping out the more volatile prices for food and energy, the index registered the biggest monthly increase since 1982.

While the ramped-up consumer spending is a sign of increased optimism, the Biden administration faces political risks as Americans find themselves dealing with inflation levels that the country hasn’t seen in more than a decade.

Inflation fears grow for White House (msn.com)

Joe Biden is a seasoned political hand. He knows he will get pilloried for the inflation. There is no way on God’s good Earth he is going to apologize for the accelerated vaccine distribution and vaccination rates that have contributed to the “crisis” resulting in the inflationary pressure.