Monthly Archives: August 2021

legal news

Class-action lawsuit possible?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

If ever there could be a case for a class-action lawsuit against a high-profile public figure, I am beginning to think that elections officials throughout this great nation might have one.

The former Slanderer in Chief has defamed the reputations of county, state and local elections officials everywhere by insisting that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged,” that it was fraught with “widespread voter fraud” and that it was “stolen” from him.

Class-action suits usually are filed by large numbers of people or groups who contend they have been damaged by allegations made in public that defamed their character.

POTUS 45 has done all of that, and more, by suggesting the 2020 election didn’t really deliver the presidency to Joe Biden, that the former POTUS actually won in a “landslide.” Has he produced a scintilla, a shred, a sliver, a smidgen of proof for any of this? No! He just says these things and others believe him.

I do not believe anything that flies out of the liar’s pie hole.  Nor should anyone else … but they do, to their shame.

I have known too many dedicated elections officials in counties where I have worked over nearly 40 years in daily journalism. They all take their jobs seriously. They all take an oath to defend the Constitution and have followed that oath to the letter.

I realize I am not King of the World. For that matter, neither is the former POTUS who once declared that “I, alone, can fix” what is wrong with the nation. The stark truth is that he hasn’t fixed a damn thing. Just maybe there might be enough justice left in this world for local elections officials whose reputations have been damaged to take legal action against an individual who embodies political corruption in its lowest form.

national news

GOP earns sympathy

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It pains me to say this, but here goes anyway.

What has become of the Republican Party — a once-great political organization that has been hijacked by cultists — makes me miss the Grand Old Party we all used to know.

I say that as a card-carrying, true-blue good-government progressive who tends to favor Democratic Party policies over those proposed by the GOP. I have acknowledged on this blog that every presidential vote I have cast since 1972 has gone to Democrats … although the 1976 contest between President Ford and Jimmy Carter gave me pause to consider voting for the GOP incumbent.

What used to be normal among Republicans has become abnormal. GOP officeholders take the same oath of office as their Democratic colleagues. They swear to protect and defend the Constitution. They merely approach their defense and protection differently than Democrats. I accept those differences.

These days, that loyalty has shifted to an individual, to the former president who alleges vote fraud where it doesn’t exist. They stand with him and his idiocy. They ignore the actual oath they took to defend the Constitution. They call themselves “patriots” but their actions are far from patriotic.

The future of the Republican Party that I used to know remains clouded. I don’t know where it goes from here. Or how it rebuilds itself into a political party that can speak intelligently — as it used to do — about the differences it has with Democrats.

These days we see seasoned politicians giving way to a former president who cannot speak intelligently on the issues that matter. He blathers and bloviates. He spreads The Big Lie about vote fraud. The former POTUS cannot parse a single policy with the kind of clarity we used to hear from his fellow Republicans.

His base loves him nonetheless. They have taken the Republican Party hostage. Will the party leadership shed their bondage and escape? For the sake of sane and reasonable public discourse and debate, it must.

business news, national news

Who could have seen this coming?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Well now. A lawyer for the former Cheater in Chief says he will fight the order to release his client’s tax returns to Congress.

Who could have seen this coming? Oh, I don’t know. Just about … everyone!

According to The Hill: “There is no evidence of any wrongdoing here and I object to the release of the returns not only on behalf of my client but on behalf of all future holders of the office of the president of the United States,” Ronald Fischetti, a lawyer for (Donald) Trump, told The Wall Street Journal.

Think about the irony of that statement for just a moment.

“No evidence of any wrongdoing here.” That’s what the legal eagle says. My question is straightforward: If there’s “no evidence of wrongdoing,” then what in the world is the reason for withholding those returns, for keeping them from public view?

Trump attorney says he will fight release of tax returns | TheHill

The custom of releasing those returns arose from the Watergate scandal of 1973-74. Suspicion was rampant throughout the land about politicians’ wealth. Beginning with the 1976 presidential election, candidates of both parties agreed to release their income taxes to show the public they had nothing to hide.

To be sure, plenty of mega-rich individuals have sought the presidency in the more than 40 years since that time. For instance, Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential nominee in 2012, released his tax returns without a whimper.

The custom has held up over time. Then along came the 45th POTUS, who ran for the office in 2016. When he initially balked at releasing his returns, alarm bells began sounding all over the place. What’s he hiding? Is he as rich as he says he is? Are there business dealings he doesn’t want us to see? How much has he donated to charity? Is he paying his fair share of taxes?

The last question perhaps is the most pertinent, given that a president — along with Congress — helps set tax policy that forces all Americans to pay their share of taxes. I don’t know about you, but I want to know whether the president is doing his part, too, in paying for the government.

Of course, the 45th POTUS’s business dealings have become the subject of civil and criminal investigations. The former Liar in Chief said the feds are auditing his tax returns, so he can’t release them. The IRS says that’s malarkey.

Now his lawyer pledges to fight. Good luck with that. The former POTUS no longer can use the power of his office to stonewall what look to me to be legitimate requests to see his tax returns.

Give ’em up, Mr. ex-POTUS.

local news

Sen. Seliger takes aim at veto power

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Kel Seliger already has antagonized Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

Now he has drawn a bead (so to speak) on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. The Amarillo Republican state senator has filed a bill that seeks to overrule the governor’s line-item veto power.

According to Amarillo Matters, a political action committee based in the Texas Panhandle: Senator Kel Seliger filed a bill to remove Governor Greg Abbott’s line-item veto power. The move comes after Abbott used his Executive Power to veto Article X of the State’s budget, which includes funding for House and Senate lawmakers, their staffers, and those working in nonpartisan legislative agencies. In a tweet, Seliger said, “Out of frustration, the Governor vetoed all funding for the Legislative Branch because Democrats broke quorum. But, vetoing this funding doesn’t punish legislators who left. It punishes regular, hard-working folks who have nothing to do with voting for or against bills.”  

My hunch is that Seliger isn’t going to align with legislative Democrats in their dispute with the GOP over voting restrictions proposed in legislation. Democrats bolted the Legislature to deny the quorum required to enact legislation.

However, Seliger is correct in identifying Abbott’s motives and his hideous overreaction to what Texas legislative Democrats did. He isn’t punishing Democratic politicians. Abbott is taking his anger out on the hard-working staffers who have done nothing to incur the governor’s wrath.

national news

Newt sets new standard for idiocy

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Stand up, Newt Gingrich.

I want you take a bow and accept this dose of sarcastic admiration for the astonishing level of idiocy you have put forth.

The former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives has declared that one of his successors, Nancy Pelosi, is the greatest threat to democracy “in our lifetime.”

Here, though, is my favorite part. Newt writes: With the passive support of an apparently cowardly caucus, she is behaving as a dictator more like Fidel Castro, Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, or Nicolás Maduro.

To those who don’t detect why that’s my favorite passage, I’ll explain. It’s the part about “apparently cowardly caucus.” You see, it is astonishing in the extreme that a Republican who has been beholden and blindly loyal to the most crooked, amoral, vengeful, venal and ignorant POTUS in history would declare that the other side is “cowardly.”

The Republican congressional caucus has blazed a new trail of craven cowardice during the term in office of the former Bully in Chief.

Here’s the entire essay that Newtie wrote for Fox News: Newt Gingrich: Nancy Pelosi is the greatest threat to constitutional liberty in our lifetime | Fox News

Pelosi is standing up for the rule of law. She is holding the ex-POTUS accountable for the insurrection he incited on 1/6. Pelosi is acting totally within her constitutional duties as the leader of the People’s House. It is the ex-POTUS who doesn’t follow the law, who flouted his executive limitations while in office, who stiffed the legislative branch of government at every turn, and who told the riotous mob on 1/6 to “take back our government.”

He got impeached twice by the House, the second time inciting the insurrection that sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election … which he lost bigly to President Biden!

Now to listen to a former speaker of the House declare the current speaker is the “greatest threat to our constitutional liberty in our lifetime” is beyond reprehensible.

national news

Bipartisan deal is struck!

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

They’re slapping themselves on the back, high-fiving each other all around and telling themselves that they’re all great statesmen and women.

Why the enthusiasm on Capitol Hill? They have announced the framework for a bipartisan infrastructure deal that now is going to endure an arduous amendment process before it’s voted on and sent to President Biden’s desk.

I haven’t read the details of the bill, but I want to make this brief observation.

President Biden’s immediate predecessor kept announcing that an infrastructure bill was coming; he never delivered. Why not? He didn’t know to legislate. He didn’t grasp the concept of working with legislators who had their own constituencies with whom they had to deal. We never saw an infrastructure package, even though POTUS 45 kept promising one would emerge.

He got tossed in the 2020 election. Then a new man moved in. Joe Biden is a man of the Senate, having served there for 36 years before becoming vice president in 2009.

President Biden knows many of the men and women in the Senate. He worked with them as senator and as VP. He knows how to legislate. He knows whose buttons to push and how to cajole compromise from senators.

Granted, it hasn’t always gone smoothly since he ascended to the presidency. He is dealing with GOP cultists who still adhere to the fantasy that POTUS 45 will get back into office.

However, a deal has been struck. I credit the president for rolling up his sleeves and working with the Senate — and the House of Reps — to get this deal done.

We have a president on duty who knows how to govern. 

medical news

Smart guys get ignored?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Oh, how I enjoy these messages that pop up on my various social media platforms. This one showed up today and I just had to share a thought or two about what it tells us.

It tells me that contemporary society has chosen to dumb itself down and believe the know-nothings who say what we want to hear and ignore the experts who tell us what we need to hear.

The coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 4 million human beings worldwide, more than 600,000 of us in the United States. It’s dangerous, dammit! And we don’t need brainiacs to tell us that. The brainy corps of medical experts, physicians and infectious disease researchers are on board with what we need to know about the killer virus. It is that it could kill us if we don’t take proper precautions.

Oh, and we also need to get vaccinated to ward it off!

However, the public discourse is being drowned out by the dipsh**s who continue to insist that the experts are wrong. The know-nothings to whom I refer generally populate the right-wing airwaves and fill up space on right-wing publications.

Some of the more notable blowhards — Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Tucker Carlson — can barely find their backsides with both hands. Yet their pontification is being taken as gospel by those who share their world view.

All the while, we hear from learned medical scholars — such as CDC director Rachelle Walensky and Dr. Anthony Fauci — that the virus and its attendant variants pose an imminent danger to us. The reaction among too many of us? Nothing, man!

The 45th president of the United States brought a lot of experts on board when the pandemic first took hold. They provided him with sound advice. He chose to ignore most of the advice given to him by the likes of Fauci, Dr. Deborah Birx, CDC director Robert Redfield and Surgeon General Jerome Adams. He called some of them “idiots.” He spoke the language of the fellow know-nothings.

They continue to outshout the actual experts at this moment. That is to their shame and their disgrace. It’s also to the disgrace of those who choose to heed the morons who don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.

You may count me among the know-nothings. Which is why I choose to listen to the advice of the experts.

Sports news

UT, OU move to SEC? Well, it has its rewards

1 Comment

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I am not well-versed on the business of intercollegiate athletics to offer much reasoned commentary on the pending move of the universities of Texas and Oklahoma from the Big 12 to the Southeastern Conference.

I’ll leave the economics of it for others to parse and to examine. However, I want to proclaim that I see one big tangible benefit to seeing this move occur: One major football rivalry is going to revive itself and another one will remain intact.

Texas vs. Texas A&M? Remember those days? The Longhorns and the Aggies would play on Thanksgiving Day. The whole state stopped to watch that game. The Longhorn-Aggie rivalry was among the biggest and most cherished in all of college football.

Then it ended when A&M moved to the SEC a few years back. I lamented then the end of the rivalry, wishing it could return. Guess what. It’s gonna come back. Will they play the game as they did in the old days, on Turkey Day? I hope so.

Oh, and then we have the UT-OU rivalry, the Red River Showdown, the game that occurs every year during Texas State Fair time at the Cotton Bowl. That rivalry ain’t going anywhere, it appears to me, as both the “Horns and the Sooners are making the move to the SEC.

I just don’t want ’em messing with the location. It needs to stay in Dallas, which is just about smack in the middle between Norman and Austin.

I know not everyone is happy about this big change in the intercollegiate athletic landscape. It’s especially critical as it involves the football programs at schools such as Texas Tech, TCU and Baylor. I’ll leave it to them to figure out their next steps.

As for rivalries returning and retained … bring it!

national news

Diversionary defense emerges

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Those who seek to “defend” the attack of 1/6 on the U.S. Capitol do so in the form of a diversionary tactic designed to take our minds off the issue at hand.

Which is that a mob of terrorists assembled on the Ellipse that day and were incited to storm Capitol Hill to overturn the result of the 2020 election that delivered the presidency to Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Now comes the so-called “defense” of those actions by suggesting that law enforcement knew days ahead of time that an insurrection would occur but did nothing about it. The cops didn’t take any measures to defend the seat of our government, the argument goes.

And that is supposed to excuse what happened that day?

Good grief! The cause of the riot and its impact on our system of government is at issue. Whether the cops knew ahead of time that a monstrous riot was about to occur, in my mind, is beside what I believe is the fundamental point of the House select committee examination of the events of 1/6.

House committee members want to know what happened to produce the riot, what the 45th POTUS was doing as the riot was occurring, to whom did he speak and what he did tell them. The panel also wants to find solutions to prevent future attacks from occurring in the manner of the one that unfolded that day.

We all witnessed a history-shattering event. It was the first time in our nation’s history that a transition of power from one presidential administration to another erupted in violence. The attack was brutal, it was horrifying and it stained our national reputation indelibly. There surely can be some remedies found to prevent future eruptions if we can determine ways to make the police more responsive to terrorist threats.

However, I would prefer to spend far less time arguing over whether the cops did enough to stop an event  that well might have been unpreventable and devote the bulk of the committee’s time to examining what did, in fact, take place.

We need answers to a lot of questions.

local news, national news, political news

A silver lining in the vote fraud scam?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I want to make a declaration I never thought I could make, as it involves the 45th president of the United States, aka the ex-Moron in Chief.

All this scandalous nonsense about the security of the 2020 presidential election is going to produce future election cycles that no one is likely to be able to challenge at any level.

I credit the 45th POTUS for the security we will witness in real time of future elections: for president, for Congress, for state legislatures, for countywide office, for municipal and school district office.

Our attention has been riveted on the issue of election security. Granted, I do not buy for one second the veracity of the allegations that the 45th POTUS has leveled at the 2020 presidential election. I do, though, buy into the notion that our state and county elections officials’ alert levels have risen to unprecedented levels.

The future of our electoral system, I submit without reservation, actually looks brighter because we have spent so much time in this post-election period discussing the issue of ballot security.

I cannot begin to predict that there won’t be some crackpot in the future who will raise the noxious stink that POTUS 45 has raised since losing the 2020 election. He lost it bigly: 7 million ballots and a 306-232 tally in the Electoral College. He keeps yammering about vote fraud, but produces not a shred of evidence to substantiate his slanderous attacks on the electoral process.

There has been a positive result, though. I am quite certain the ex-Numbskull in Chief has elevated electoral security awareness all along the political chain of command. I have known many county clerks in Texas and Oregon who have worked themselves to near-collapse seeking to protect the integrity of the voting process. They have done their jobs well and with honor. Thus, they do not deserve to be slandered in the manner they have suffered from the mouth of POTUS 45.

They will no doubt redouble their efforts in the future.

I am certain our electoral process will remain secure, safe and legal.