Monthly Archives: December 2021

DC riot

‘Fair and balanced’ now becomes ‘false and deceitful’

The hits just keep coming as they regard the Fox News Channel and the lies that continue to flow from a network that used to proclaim itself to be the “fair and balanced” presenter of news.

Wow! We hear now that Fox News personalities implored Donald J. Trump to stop the 1/6 insurrection. They emailed him, asked Don Jr. to tell Dad to make ’em stop rioting at Capitol Hill, urged White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to get Trump to intervene.

Trump did nothing. He didn’t heed the pleas of his own son, his own chief of staff or those of his favorite network talking heads.

A more serious aspect of this, though, are the lies that kept flowing from the pie holes of those same personalities. They told their viewers that the riot was not a big deal. That Trump was being vilified unfairly. That he didn’t incite anyone to “take back the government.”

The credibility — if you want to call it such — of the likes of Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Jeanine Pirro et al has been shattered into millions of pieces.

Unbelievable!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

Patience gets tested

It’s time for an admission: The latest surge in COVID-19 variants, this one is named Omicron, is testing my patience.

OK, that all said, I don’t intend to give up, to surrender to the virus that has now killed more than 800,000 Americans.

It’s just that these surges are driving me batty. Dr. Anthony Fauci wonders whether we’re prepared for another “surge” of cases caused by Omicron. Sheesh, man!

I am starting to believe what some medical experts have suggested: that we’ll never be free — as in totally free — of the virus. I don’t know if Dr. Fauci has said such a thing. He well might have; I just lose count of the warnings.

I simply am going to just suck it up with regard to masks, social distancing, frequent hand washing, generous use of hand sanitizer … those kinds of things.

My wife and most of my immediate family are vaccinated fully; my wife and I have received our booster shots, too, along with our sons and daughter-in-law. I hear that some members of my extended family are digging in against getting vaccinated against the killer virus; I hear they distrust what’s in the vaccine and one of my extended family members reportedly has said she won’t heed the warnings given by “liberals and Democrats.” She lives far away from us, bless her steely heart.

I’ll deal with the Omicron variant the way I have dealt with prior variants. I’m just gonna keep my distance, mask up and say a prayer that we can get this virus under control.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news, local news, State news

Paxton should pay a big price

What do you know about this? It appears that the Texas Republican Party primary race for attorney general is shaping as a fight over the incumbentā€™s self-inflicted legal difficulties ā€¦ not to mention the shame he has brought to the high office he occupies.

AG Ken Paxton has it coming to him.

Paxton was elected attorney general in 2014. The very next year he got indicted by a grand jury right here in Collin County on allegations of securities fraud. He continues to await trial in state court. He also has been chastised by the Securities and Exchange Commission; the FBI has launched a probe into complaints from former senior legal assistants at the AGā€™s office that Paxton has been behaving illegally; then he got that idiotic lawsuit tossed by the Supreme Court in which he sought to overturn the presidential election returns in several other states that voted for Joe Biden.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton facing challenges from all fronts | The Texas Tribune

Three Republicans have filed to run against Paxton: Land Commissioner George P. Bush, former Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman and U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert. Theyā€™re all singing off the same song sheet, which is that Paxtonā€™s legal troubles are enough to get him booted out of office.

I am glad to hear it. Yes, even from Rep. Gohmert, a fellow for whom I have zero respect.

Whatever does the job. Paxton is a joke, an embarrassment, a disgrace.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump, economic news

Turn ’em over, Donald!

Donald J. Trump has just been punched in the gut once again by a federal judge who says the former POTUS cannot keep his income tax returns away from congressional review.

So ā€¦ does that mean he turns ā€™em over to Congress? Not just yet, no doubt.

But he damn sure should. I want to see whatā€™s in them, you know?

Trump has been fighting off and on ever since he declared his presidential candidacy in 2015 whether to release the tax returns to public scrutiny, as other candidates have done since 1976. He said he would; then he said he wouldnā€™t or couldnā€™t; then he changed his mind again; then he said the Tax Man was auditing them, which means he cannot release them.

A federal judge Tuesday tossed out a lawsuit Trump had filed to keep the tax returns from Congress. He said Congress is entitled to review the returns, despite Trumpā€™s various specious claims.

Itā€™s all baloney. Trump knows it. So do the rest of us.

I have this suspicion weā€™re going to learn a whole lot more about Trumpā€™s ā€œfortuneā€ than we do now. That isnā€™t as rich as he claims to be. That he has business dealings with suspicious characters. That he gives practically nothing to charity.

You know. Fun stuff like that.

Cā€™mon, Mr. ex-POTUS. Release ā€™em!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Adaptability comes in handy

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I have written before about how adaptable I discovered I could be … such as when we moved from Oregon to Texas in early 1984, exposing all of us to a form of culture shock none of us really anticipated.

My adaptability continues to present itself as we have moved from place to place since settling in Texas. We now live in Collin County. I have just taken a temporary part-time job that takes me into downtown Dallas a couple times each week.

I discovered this morning something more about myself. I am actually getting kinda/sorta used to the rush-hour traffic I endure on the drive from Princeton into the Big D.

There’s really only one route I dare take: U.S. Highway 75, aka the Central Expressway. It’s a mess in the morning and in the early evening.

Understand this about the Metroplex: It is home to more than 7 million folks; it contains thousands of miles of multi-lane highway that take motor vehicle traffic in every direction imaginable. However, U.S. 75 is a major artery that requires many thousands of us to drive on it north-south into downtown Dallas.

I get slowed down frequently on my morning commute. Sometimes I am forced to stop. I used to grumble out loud when I saw the brake lights flash ahead of me; I no longer grumble, because it’s part of the task of getting to work.

It’s the adaptability, man! I am learning to just go with the flow. If I am late, I’m late. Ain’t nothin’ I can do about it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Poor Rand Paul; he’s getting criticized for seeking help

(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

I won’t shed a single tear for Sen. Rand Paul, who’s getting an earful from critics over his request for federal help for his Kentucky constituents.

Don’t get me wrong. Kentuckians need help. The tornadoes that tore through the state killed scores of people. They destroyed whole towns. They brought untold misery to many thousands of people.

Paul, the junior Republican senator from Kentucky, is asking for federal assistance. His request has drawn predictable criticism from those who remind him of how he has opposed other senators’ requests for federal aid to help their constituents. Why has he dug in? Because the nimrod has said the government must cut spending in other areas to “pay” for the aid it would give to citizens in dire need.

Now, as they say, the ol’ shoe is on the other foot.

Rand Paul’s constituents need help. They deserve to get it. Sen. Paul, though, needs to suck it up and face the criticism that is being directed at him.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Pence starts GOP chatter

Former Vice President Mike Pence has the Republican Party faithful chattering about whether he plans to run for president in 2024.

Oh, my. Let ’em talk among themselves.

Pence visited New Hampshire recently to shake a few hands and talk to the locals about, oh, possibly a Pence candidacy for POTUS. He says he is focused only on helping GOP candidates running for Congress in 2022. Sure thing, Mr. VPOTUS. I believe that … not!

As The Hill notes, though, a Pence presidential candidacy is going to pi** off the GOP cultists who are angry over the way he conducted himself on 1/6. What did he do to anger the Donald Trump cult cabal? Oh, all he did was follow the law, the Constitution and the oath he took to obey both by refusing to block the certification of the 2020 election result that gave us President Biden and got rid of Donald Trump.

Pence fuels speculation of 2024 presidential bid | TheHill

Thousands of rioters stormed the Capitol on 1/6, some of them yelling “Hang Mike Pence!” I guess the thought is that many of still want the former VP to hang from the gallows.

Absolutely disgusting.

A Pence candidacy surely will lend plenty of drama to a GOP primary campaign that might also include the 45th POTUS.

Sheesh!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Beto has a shot, if …

Photo by Richard W. Rodriguez/AP/REX/Shutterstock

A gentleman with whom I had breakfast today has a theory about the upcoming race for Texas governor I feel like sharing.

It goes like this …

Beto O’Rourke is likely to get hammered by Greg Abbott if O’Rourke is nominated by Democrats and runs against the Republican governor in the fall. But he has a possible path to victory.

It depends on whether Abbott fails to deliver on his promise to keep the electricity flowing this coming winter. If the lights go out because the electrical grid cannot withstand the demand placed on it by severe cold, then O’Rourke might be able to say, according to my friend, “I can do better than that.”

Sure enough. O’Rourke then would have to explain how he would ensure that the electric grid managers keep the lights on and our furnaces functioning.

Absent that, my friend said, O’Rourke has no chance to defeat a Republican governor in this still-quite-Republican state.

Gov. Abbott had better pray that the Electrical Reliability Council of Texas keeps the lights on for the duration of the winter. His political career might depend on it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmai.com

DC riot

Donald, it wasn’t ‘calming’

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Donald Trump continues to lie without shame, without an outward sense that he wouldn’t know the truth if it punched him in his overfed gut.

He is lying to this day about the remarks he delivered on the morning of 1/6 when he incited what I will take to my grave believing was an insurrection against the U.S. government.

“You’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong,” Trump said. “We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

The former POTUS told Fox News’s Laura Ingraham that his remarks were “calming.” Do the remarks I posted in the previous paragraph sounding “calming” to you? Well, they weren’t. They aren’t at this moment, either.

Indeed, we continue to learn more about the lengths that Trump traveled to seek to overturn the results of the 2020 election that chose Joe Biden to become president of the United States.

How in the name of rhetorical gimmickry do “calming” remarks produce a crowd reaction such as what occurred on 1/6?

Calming remarks? Not even close!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Most chaotic post-POTUS, too?

REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

Jeb Bush warned voters during the 2016 Republican Party presidential primary campaign about what we would get were Donald Trump elected to the nation’s highest office.

It would be “chaos.” The former Florida governor called it. He was spot on.

Of course, he didn’t last long during the GOP primary battle that year. However, his prediction has carried over into the post-presidency of the man who would serve a term as POTUS before being defeated for re-election in 2020.

The man’s post-POTUS time has been as chaotic as his time in office.

Who woulda thunk it?

He is trying to throw chaos into the search for the truth behind the 1/6 insurrection. He seeks to muck up the congressional inquiry through delay tactics. He is succeeding … so far!

There well could come a day when the chaos will expire. When order and reality will take hold. When we can learn the truth behind the riot that Trump incited.

I am hoping.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com