Monthly Archives: June 2021

national news

No Biden blind spot

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

A critic of this blog has accused me of having a “blind spot” regarding President Biden.

Hmmm. He prompted me to ponder that. I then decided that I do not have a blind spot concerning the 46th president of the United States. Heck, I’ve kept an eye on Biden for nearly as long as he entered the national political scene way back in 1972.

I know about his U.S. Senate victory and the death of his wife and daughter in that auto accident. I recall how he struggled with whether he should serve in the Senate.

I also know about how long-winded Sen. Biden could get. Specifically, I remember during a Senate confirmation hearing for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito how Biden lectured Alito on some matter for the entire five minutes he had been allotted to ask the SCOTUS nominee pertinent questions.

Plus, I recall how Biden got caught plagiarizing comments from a British pol and captured them as his own life story. The scandal doomed his first presidential quest in 1988.

I shucked the blinders long ago when it came to President Biden. I know of his flaws and his shortcomings as a politician. However, given the context of his election in 2020 and the (absence of) character of the opponent he defeated, I am going to give him every benefit of the doubt I can muster.

I want Joe Biden to succeed as president. I believe he is fully capable of succeeding whereas I never held such hope for that of his predecessor. Thus, when critics of this blog accuse me of having a “blind spot” concerning this president, I simply want to set the record straight.

Joe Biden is far from a perfect politician. I have known it for as long as I have been watching him. I just intend to give him sufficient room to repair the damage left by the guy he succeeded in the White House.

national news

AG to fight for voter rights … imagine that!

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Merrick Garland’s pronouncements in favor of all Americans’ right to vote was at the same time both expected and refreshing.

The U.S. attorney general said he would beef up the Justice Department’s civil  rights division legal staff to ensure that all Americans who want to vote are allowed to do so. Is that a monumental policy shift? Does such a commitment constitute a break from the norm at DOJ? Of course not!

Garland spoke to the nation just the other day and declared that DOJ would examine whether states’ efforts to toughen voting laws infringes on Americans’ civil liberties or their rights to vote in light of the Voting and Civil Rights acts of 1964 and 1965.

This might seem like a no-brainer, given that the attorney general takes an oath to do what Garland has proposed doing: protecting our rights.

Except that we didn’t hear that kind of rhetoric from his immediate predecessors, former attorneys general Jeff Sessions and William Barr, both of whom are on a different kind of hot seat at the moment.

Those gentlemen were virtually silent on the issue of protecting voters’ rights while they served during the previous president’s administration.

So it is with relief that we hear Attorney General Garland pronounce in clear and unambiguous language his intention to ensure that the act he calls a fundamental right of citizenship — voting — is available to every American who desires to have his or her voice  heard in this democratic process.

national news

Immigrants strengthen us

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Now that Gov. Greg Abbott has declared his intention to shut down the Texas border with Mexico all by himself, I want to say a word or two about immigrants and the strength they bring to this great country.

I am acutely aware that Abbott wants to end “illegal immigration” into this country. He wants to stop refugees who are seeking to enter the U.S. to flee oppression, crime, poverty and misery in their home countries. Hmm. Is that a bad thing for the United States?

Yes, they should enter the country legally. I know and accept it.

Abbott, though, has targeted specifically criminals who he said should be arrested, detained and then sent back. Let’s see. I think that has been occurring since, oh, about the time of the nation’s founding. However, the GOP demagogues continue to insist that President Biden has enacted an “open border policy” that allows for thugs to enter freely.

Why do I feel so strongly about immigrants? I am the grandson of four of them. They came here near the start of the 20th century in search of a better life. They left southeastern Europe. Two of them came from what one former POTUS would have called a “sh**hole country.” That would be Turkey, a mostly Muslim nation.

They came. They thrived. They produced their children, all of whom led productive lives; some of them served heroically on the battlefield during World War II; my dear Dad was one of them.

What separates immigrants from native-born Americans is one simple fact: All of them chose to come here. They weren’t granted U.S. citizenship merely as an act of fate, having been born here. They made conscious decisions to build new lives and to call the U.S.A. their “home.”

Someone needs to tell me, though, how many of those who seek to sneak into this country comprise the nefarious criminal element that a former president once said comprised most of them.

Immigrants have helped create this great nation. They should be honored, not vilified.

State news

Paxton faces huge obstacles

(Photo by Erich Schlegel/Getty Images)

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Ken Paxton might be the most seriously damaged political incumbent to seek re-election since, oh, the guy who lost the 2020 presidential race to Joe Biden.

Paxton is the Texas attorney general — a Republican — who has announced his intention to seek a third term in office. But wait! How does this guy think he’s going to breeze to a new term?

Paxton has been indicted and is awaiting trial in state court on securities fraud charges. A Collin County grand jury indicted its home boy (Paxton once represented the county in the Legislature) on a charge that he failed to notify authorities of his financial dealings while peddling securities information to clients.

There’s more. Seven of Paxton’s top legal aides filed a whistleblower complaint alleging that he used his office to steer business to a political crony. The FBI is looking into that one.

Now we hear that the State Bar of Texas wants to yank Paxton’s law license because he filed that idiotic lawsuit in the U.S. Supreme Court that sought to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in four states that voted for President Biden.

Land Commissioner George P. Bush has announced his campaign for AG. Next is likely to be former Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman.

Should we count Paxton out? Not by a long shot. You see, he’s a Republican incumbent who happens to have the backing of the aforementioned disgraced former POTUS, who holds astonishing sway over a gullible electorate.

If the AG survives all of this and wins re-election, then I only can surmise that Texas voters need to have their heads examined.

legal news

Justice Breyer should ignore the pressure

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Someone will have to explain to me why congressional progressives are getting all wound up over whether Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer needs to retire.

As in this summer when the current term ends.

Breyer is one of them. He’s a progressive justice on the nation’s highest court dominated these days by conservatives. The right wing holds a 6-3 majority on the high court. Breyer usually votes with the liberal wing comprising justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

Breyer is getting a bit long in the tooth to be sure. He was nominated by President Clinton in 1994 and was approved overwhelmingly by the U.S. Senate.

Liberals in Congress want him to retire, paving the way for President Biden to select another — presumably much younger — liberal justice.

I need to stipulate that a Breyer retirement and an appointment by Biden won’t change the court’s political tilt. It would remain  6-3 conservative-leaning panel.

Among the progressives calling for Breyer’s retirement, quite naturally, is the New York firebrand U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the second-term congresswoman who — for reasons that escape me — has become the go-to voice among progressives in Congress.

I have argued that Justice Breyer needs to listen to his own counsel on this one. That is why the framers created an ostensibly “independent” federal judiciary. Justices shouldn’t have to listen to others yap and yammer over what they should do. Do they stay or do they go?

As near as I can tell, Stephen Breyer still has his wits about him. He is able to do the job and he’s doing it well.

As for AOC and other progressives, they need to tend to their own business, which is writing laws and enacting them. The judiciary is an independent branch of government, which tells me that federal judges don’t need others to tell them when they should call it a career.

International news

Netanyahu is out!

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Benjamin Netanyahu is one of the world’s greatest enigmas, in my humble view.

The soon to be former prime minister of Israel toes a hard line against Palestinians, against the terror groups that hide among them, and to the security of his nation. I understand Netanyahu’s concern about Israeli security.

I spent more than a month there in the spring of 2009. I saw up close what Israelis face daily, being so close to nations that at various times either have wanted to destroy Israel or have actually gone to war with them to achieve that end. I mean, they require new homes to have fortified bomb shelters built in.

I sought an interview with Netanyahu while we were touring the country. He was too busy to meet with me, then a working daily journalist. Oh, well.

A coalition government has formed that will remove Bibi Netanyahu from office. He is going out with some rhetorical fire in his nostrils. He is criticizing President Biden for reasons that escape me, given the president’s long-standing support of Israel; it might have something to do with Biden’s insistence on a two-state solution to find peace with the Palestinians.

Netanyahu is Israel’s longest-serving prime minister. He has made plenty of enemies along the way, allowing the construction of Israeli home in the Palestinian-occupied West Bank. That is where my feelings conflict about Netanyahu. While I support the man’s insistence on protecting Israelis against Palestinian terrorists, I have difficulty with this move toward encroaching even more deeply into Palestinian territory with construction of homes for Israeli families. It’s as if he is picking a needless fight.

I am heartened by the belief that Israel will survive this huge power change. It is a beautiful, thriving and progressive country. It serves as something of an oasis in a parched and desolate region. I want them to succeed, as I have many friends there. I wish only peace for them.

It well might inch its way toward a permanent state now that Benjamin Netanyahu, a chief antagonist, is being pushed aside.

legal news

Bring the AGs to Congress

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Former attorneys general Jeff Sessions and William Barr say they were “unaware” of any effort by the Justice Department to snoop into the records of key congressional Democrats during the administration of the individual they both served.

Hmm. I believe they need to be summoned to Capitol Hill and forced to testify under oath that they are telling the truth.

We have a case here of a president flouting the rule of law, of ignoring the separation of powers, of intimidating his political adversaries. Sessions and Barr contend they weren’t party to anything of the sort.

I do not believe them. Nor do I discount the reporting of major media outlets that the ex-president ordered the Justice Department to dig up dirt on House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and his Democratic colleague Eric Swalwell.

We have a reprehensible example of a president not caring one damn bit about the oath he took to protect and defend the Constitution.

There needs to be a full accounting of who know what and when.

Bring the ex-attorneys general to Capitol Hill and make ’em tell the truth about what the heck happened during their time on duty.

State news

How much will it cost, governor?

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The individual who preceded Joe Biden as president of the United States used to proclaim that “Mexico is going to pay for the wall.”

It didn’t happen. It won’t happen. Not ever.

Now we have the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, declaring his intention to build a wall along the state’s lengthy border with Mexico. He isn’t making the same preposterous claim that the ex-POTUS did. However, we need some specifics on this matter if it manages to survive the expected challenges to whether it is even constitutional for a state to assume a federal responsibility.

Texas border wall may not be feasible, or even legal | The Texas Tribune

How much will it cost, Gov. Abbott?

You see, the U.S. Constitution requires in the Fifth Amendment that the government provide “just compensation” for any private property seized for public use. Texas’s share of public land comprises a tiny fraction of its total land mass along the border, which will require the state to pay a whole lot of money it takes from private ownership. So, we have that expense.

As for the rest of the price tag, which would be bound to skyrocket as the state grapples with ways to erect a secure border, well, we haven’t heard a word from Gov. Abbott on how much that might cost you and me.

The state’s economy happens to be performing quite well in the wake of this COVID pandemic. However, we shouldn’t be asked to spend an unspecified amount of money to seal off our southern border from “hordes of criminals” who, in my view, do not exist.

State news

Border wall? Not so sure, governor

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Call him the latest incarnation of the “Macho Man.”

Gov. Greg Abbott thinks he is going to take matters into his own hands by ensuring that Texas builds a wall along its entire border with Mexico. The details are to come later. If ever.

This one gives me trouble.

Why? Because border security is a national issue, not one left to states to determine individually. There well might be a constitutional issue involved with Texas deciding to go it alone in fencing off the state from its southern neighbor.

Texas governor says Texas will build its own border wall, leaves the details to later (yahoo.com)

I get that Abbott wants to arrest criminals who come here to do bad things. He made that point clear and in fact I happen to agree with that part of Gov. Macho Man’s proclamation. I don’t want to see the state infested with — in the words of the former POTUS — “rapists, murderers, drug dealers” either. Then again, there isn’t much evidence that such an infestation is occurring anyway with refugees fleeing their home countries in search of a better life in the Land of Opportunity.

Yahoo News reports: The ACLU of Texas disagreed. Abbott’s plan undermines the federal “right to seek asylum by jailing those fleeing danger and punishing them for seeking refuge in the U.S,” said ACLU staff attorney Kate Huddleston. “In this plan, Abbott is yet again scapegoating immigrants in an effort to distract from his own failures in governing and managing actual crises in Texas — like the historic winter storm that led to the deaths of more than 150 Texans — with cruel results.”

Abbott, of course, blames President Biden for the border crisis. Imagine that, eh? The governor well might seek to succeed the president in 2024, so he needs a campaign issue on which to run. It strains credulity to believe that none of this existed during Biden’s Republican predecessor’s term in office. It certainly did. Where was the criticism then? Hmm, governor?

Gov. Macho Man will need to strap on his flak vest and helmet as he takes incoming criticism from those who are going to question the wisdom of usurping what looks to be a federal job.

local news, medical news

Masks still visible

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Gov. Greg Abbott is just so doggone proud that “Texas is 100 percent back” from COVID-19 precautions.

Good for you, governor. Keep crowing. I just want to report that not everyone is buying the happy talk, at least not just yet.

My wife and I returned from a month on the road in our pickup and RV. We put just shy of 5,500 miles on our vehicles, visiting many states of various political persuasions between North Texas and the Pacific Ocean.

We came home Monday to Princeton. Do you know what I discovered upon my return to the neighborhood supermarket down the street and around the corner? I found a lot more exposed faces inside, but also a lot of masks still covering other faces.

If I had to take a wild guess I would say roughly 60 percent of the customers in the store were masked up. Store employees remain virtually fully masked.

To which I say: Good for them and good for us!

Look, Texas has done well in vaccinating residents as the medicine has become available. Most of my family here is vaccinated. We’re still waiting for our 8-year-old granddaughter to get the green light. She is behaving herself, understanding the concept of social distancing and the importance of mask-wearing.

I am a good bit away from ditching the masks we have in our truck. I want to resume what we used to call “normal life” as much as the next guy. I am willing and able to exercise some additional patience, though, awaiting for the all clear sign.