Monthly Archives: February 2022

local news

‘Real heroes’ at work

Michael Sullivan is the chief of police in a city I cover for the Farmersville Times, a weekly newspaper in Collin County.

He is the top cop and emergency services coordinator in Farmersville and this week he repeated something he told me this past week about the men who comprise the city’s utility department. They are the “real heroes” who stood tall against Mother Nature’s winter wrath. I want to applaud the chief for recognizing these individuals and I also want to echo his thoughts about the heroic duty they performed under intensely miserable circumstances.

They aren’t alone, for sure. Utility crews in every North Texas community were hard at work during the nasty freezing rainfall that blanketed communities throughout the region.

Sullivan delivered an after-action report this week to the Farmersville City Council. He spoke of the heroic actions of the utility crew led by Jeramy Young, who supervises three men: Chase Conger, Danny Ruff and Cody Atchley. They fought to restore power that failed virtually throughout the city this past week. Roughly 1,700 electric meters went silent as power failed; frozen tree limbs collapsed and pulled power lines away from their source. Homes and businesses went dark in the dead of night.

It was cold, wet and downright miserable. Yet the men climbed into their “buckets” at the end of extension arms that hoisted them high above the ground where they worked to restore electricity.

That’s pretty darn heroic, if you want my humble opinion.

For his part, Sullivan this past weekend made sure the residents living in the smattering of homes that still lacked electricity were OK, that they were aware of the warming shelter set up at a local church, and that they were able to get a shower or a hot meal. That, friends, is the act of a Good Samaritan.

Again, this story played out in communities all across the region. I want to single out the work of Police Chief Michael Sullivan, Farmersville Fire Chief Kevin Lisman and his volunteers, city staffers and the heroes who work for the city utility department. They and all the others exemplify the best of us.

Well done … and thank you!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

That would be some pay raise!

Swallow hard, Fort Worth residents, if you intend to grant your city council the pay increase it is asking of you.

To be crystal clear, I don’t have a dog in that hunt, given that I live a couple of counties over, in Collin County. But, dang! That’s a hefty raise to accept. Voters will get the chance on May 7 to decide if their council members and mayor deserve what they’re asking.

Here’s the deal: Council members would get a bump from $25,000 annually to $76,000; the mayor’s salary would jump from $29,000 a year to $99,000.

Say it with me: Wow!

Newly installed Mayor Mattie Parker said the council has earned the big boost. “We want to serve well on behalf of the people of Fort Worth, the fastest-growing city in the country,” Parker said at Tuesday night’s council meeting. “I think we’re worth it, frankly.”

Parker believes that Fort Worth’s elected body deserves to be more on a par with neighboring Dallas, where the mayor earns $80,000 annually; council members earn $60,000 per year.

Fort Worth tried to boost the council’s pay in 2016, but voters rejected that measure. I don’t know what Cowtown’s residents are thinking today, except that they might be mirroring much of the discontent with government at all levels and, thus, could be reluctant to grant such a huge pay increase.

I remember a couple of years ago when Rockwall County commissioners granted themselves a gigantic pay increase while limiting raises for county employees to a fraction of what commissioners got for themselves.

What’s more, I moved to Collin County three years ago from Amarillo. Do you know how much that city’s council earns? Ten bucks per meeting! Plus expenses if they travel somewhere representing the city. I will add that Amarillo is a city of more than 200,000 residents, so it ain’t exactly what you would call a “tiny burg.”

It’s fair to ask whether Fort Worth’s municipal work force is going to see a significant pay increase, too, while the politicians at the top rake in the kind of dough they’re asking voters to give them.

Fort Worth city council puts pay raises on the May ballot | wfaa.com

What might be a better alternative? Perhaps an incremental raise would do the job, raising council members’ salaries a little at a time.

This all-at-once approach seems a bit too much to swallow.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot, national news, political news

Mitch uses the ‘I-word’

How about that Mitch McConnell, invoking what I will call the “I-word” in describing what took place on 1/6? He has called it a “violent insurrection” that Donald Trump incited with his fiery “take-back-the-government” rhetoric.

Well … the Senate Republican leader has found his long-lost voice.

He has rebuked the Republican National Committee for censuring two GOP House members — Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois — for serving on the select committee examining the 1/6 riot.

McConnell rebukes RNC, calls Jan. 6 ‘violent insurrection’ (msn.com)

“It was a violent insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election from one administration to the next,” McConnell said Tuesday.  Yes, i damn sure was all of that, Sen. McConnell.

You said so in an eloquent Senate floor speech a few weeks after the riot. Then you back away from all of that. You continued to support Donald Trump’s position as the leader of the GOP. Now, though, Trump has insulted McConnell perhaps once or twice too often.

I want McConnell to stand firm in his description of what took place and why it occurred. A mob of traitors stormed the Capitol Building seeking to overturn a fair election; they did so at the urging of Donald Trump.

The ex-Liar in Chief needs to be held accountable. The men and women charged with acting violently need to be prosecuted.

What’s more, Mitch McConnell and other Republican politicians need to stand for the rule of law.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news, political news

GOP hotshot speaks for other GOPers

Chris Christie said something the other day that other distinguished Republicans reportedly think in private but are too chicken to say it out loud.

Christie, a former New Jersey governor, ex-presidential candidate and former confidant of Donald Trump, said this to radio gabber Hugh Hewitt:

“January 6 was a riot that was incited by Donald Trump in an effort to intimidate Mike Pence and the Congress into doing exactly what he said in his own words last week: overturn the election. He wanted the election to be overturned.”

There you have it. The truth spills out, again … this time from a Republican of some note.

Chris Christie said what a lot of Republican are thinking about January 6 (msn.com)

Perhaps the ex-governor is trying to restore his reputation as a tough talker who doesn’t give a damn about the consequences. Or perhaps — and this is likely a stretch — Christie is just plain fed up to his eyeballs with the incessance of The Big Lie that Trump keeps repeating, that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

Good grief! It was the most secure election in history. The guy Trump hired to ensure its security said so — and then got fired for telling us the truth.

I am glad to hear Gov. Christie say out loud what he should have said all along. If only other Republicans — and that includes the voters out here in the cheap seats — would agree with the words of wisdom.

And then act on them.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, political news, State news

Paxton still favorite for AG? Ugghh!

(Photo by Erich Schlegel/Getty Images)

Recent public opinion polling in Texas sends a chill up my spine about the state of the race for attorney general.

The indicted incumbent who is under FBI investigation for alleged corruption in his office is the leading candidate among the four Republicans running for his seat. Yep, there you have it: Texas GOP voters appear to favor an incumbent who is facing potential prison time if a state trial jury convicts him of securities fraud.

AG Ken Paxton needs to be removed from office. Somehow. Some way. The state’s Republican voters have three fascinating choices to make when they vote March 1 in their primary. Land Commissioner George P. Bush, retired judge Eva Guzman and East Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert all want to succeed Paxton.

Of the three challengers, Gohmert is my least favorite, given his Donald Trumpian stance on all issues. Bush and Guzman are running as tough enforcers of the law who will throw criminals in jail, which is strange, given the AG is primarily a civil litigator. Whatever.

Paxton is a joke and a jerk.

I should add that the indictment for securities fraud came from a grand jury in Collin County, which Paxton represented during his unremarkable tenure as a state representative prior to his being elected AG in 2014. I mean, it’s not as though some far-left liberals in Travis County handed down the indictment; it came from the home folks, man!

The latest Dallas Morning News/UT-Tyler poll had Paxton leading with 33% percent, followed by Bush, Gohmert and Guzman. There well could be a runoff if none of them gets 50% or greater in the primary.

But the idea that Paxton remains in the lead tells me the state’s GOP voters just don’t give a crap about the cloud of suspicion that hangs over the incumbent who simply — in my view — is an embarrassment to our great state.

Sheesh!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news, political news

Listen to Uncle Mitt, Ronna

Mitt Romney is as pure a Republican as anyone can find. The Utah senator carried his party’s presidential nomination banner in 2012 but lost to President Barack Obama in that year’s election.

So, when the distinguished lawmaker questions the wisdom of the Republican National Committee’s censure of two GOP lawmakers, it would do the party’s elite to rethink what they’ve done.

Mitt Romney’s niece, Ronna McDaniel, is chair of the Republican National Committee. Uncle Mitt said this about the censure, according to Business Inside:

Speaking at the US Capitol, Romney said the resolution condemning his fellow Republicans “could not have been a more inappropriate message.”

“One, to sanction two people of character as they did. But number two, to suggest that a violent attack on the seat of democracy is legitimate political discourse is so far from accurate as to shock and make people wonder what we’re thinking,” Romney said.

Mitt Romney says he ‘exchanged texts’ with his niece and RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel after RNC censure of Cheney, Kinzinger over January 6 investigation (msn.com)

Romney reportedly exchanged text message with his niece, suggesting the very thing he said at the Capitol Building.

Indeed, for the party to censure Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger because they want to seek the truth behind the 1/6 riot by itself is idiotic and illogical.

Moreover, for Chairwoman McDaniel to dismiss the riot as a show of “legitimate political discourse” ignores what the whole world witnessed on 1/6 in real time. It bore no resemblance to anything “legitimate.” It was a riot staged by a mob of thousands of traitors … incited by the fiery rhetoric of the cult leader who masqueraded as president of the United States.

Listen to Uncle Mitt, Ronna. He speaks with much more wisdom than the moron you are backing.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

education news

CRT: not about ‘hating’ America

Someone has to explain to me: How does teaching our public school students about race, racism and discrimination indoctrinate them into a “hate America” thought process?

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says he intends to prevent teachers from educating students in his state about such things as slavery, racial discrimination and how that played a part in the development of our nation’s history.

They call it “critical race theory.” Perhaps it’s the name of the concept that has so many politicians up in arms. The terms “critical race” somehow are interpreted to mean that students who learn about racism in this country will grow up hating themselves as Americans, that they will be so darn ashamed of their country that will grow up to seek to create a vastly different country.

I don’t get it. I do not understand why public educators must be told they cannot teach such things to our students.

It is a fact that this country enslaved Black people. It is a fact that those people were denied the rights of citizenship in the country of their residence. It also is a fact that society didn’t value Black people as full-fledged human beings; they were deemed the “property” of their “owners.”

Shouldn’t teachers be allowed to educate students on what all of that means to citizens today? And shouldn’t teachers also be allowed to tell students what the country has done over many years to repair the damage that was done to those who were enslaved? Yes and yes … in my view.

I see nothing wrong with teaching children about the racial history of this country. It is a major part of our national story, the one that is still being written.

Someone has to explain why that is such a bad thing. Let’s discuss. OK? I’m all ears.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Watch for phony heroics among GOP candidates

Clearly it has become open season on the Joe Biden administration among Texas Republican candidates for public office. They all seem intent on positioning themselves as the polar opposites of the Democratic president … even if the office they seek has little to do with anything related to federal policy.

The Texas comptroller of public accounts provides an interesting example of what I am talking about.

The GOP incumbent Glenn Hegar is running a TV ad in which he declares that he is going to fight the Biden administration over protecting our southern border. How is he going to do that?

Hegar’s ad proclaims that he spent $3 billion on border security. I was wondering about an issue related to that bit of braggadocio: Does the comptroller have the discretionary authority to just send $3 billion in that manner, or must he do what the Legislature and the governor tell him to do?

I asked someone who covers state government extensively about that matter. He responded that government agencies have limited authority in some cases to exercise discretion in spending money, but the border money to which Hegar referred isn’t one of them. I have posed the question to the public information officer for the comptroller’s office and haven’t heard back from him.

I am left to wonder whether Hegar is misrepresenting his authority on that border security issue so he can muster up some anti-President Biden anger among Republican primary voters.

I will report back to you the response I get from the comptroller’s media flack.

Meantime, I’ll leave it to you to decide whether the state’s top bean counter — Glenn Hegar — might be, um, overstating his role in “keeping Texans safe from illegal immigrants.”

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

 

national news, political news

You go, Marc Short!

Former Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff has found his voice along with his former boss in the wake of Donald Trump’s Big Lie and his insistence that Pence could summarily overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Short told “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd that “snake oil salesmen” filled Trump’s vacuous skull with notions that Pence had more authority than the Constitution allowed. That he could have overturned the results of several Joe Biden-won states into votes for Trump.

Uhh, No. He couldn’t do that. To his credit, the former VP didn’t do it. He stood on the rule of law, even though the POTUS pressured him to act way beyond his constitutional authority.

Pence has said that “Trump is wrong” to have made that demand. Now we hear from Pence’s No. 1 guy in the administration, his chief of staff.

What’s more, Short told Todd that President Biden was “duly elected president of the United States” in 2020. Well, it took him a while to come around. He did and for that I am grateful.

Short has now joined a sort of hall of honor in becoming a new target for Donald Trump’s brain-dead epithets.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Sports news

NFL put on the spot

You have to give Brian Flores a ton of credit for shining the light on what appears to be a gigantic flaw in the National Football League’s hiring practices.

Flores is the African American former coach of the Miami Dolphins who has filed a lawsuit against the NFL for racial discrimination. It all makes me go … wow!

The NFL’s player rosters comprise about 70% African Americans. Until just recently, the league had precisely one Black head coach, Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Now it appears that the ranks of African American head coaches are swelling. The Dolphins hired Mike McDaniel as head coach and the Houston Texans reportedly are about to hire Lovie Smith as their new head coach.

Flores was denied a head coaching job after reportedly being told he had been hired. He got the message by mistake. The league operates on what is called the Rooney Rule, which mandates that teams must interview a certain percentage of African American coaching candidates. There is no requirement to hire an African American, but they are supposed to get an equal shot at these opportunities.

Flores doesn’t believe he got that equal opportunity. So he’s suing the league.

His lawsuit has opened up a gaping wound in the NFL’s coaching lineup. With only one Black head coach in a league that comprises a significant Black majority among its athletes, there must be some reform in the league’s hiring process. That is what Brian Flores appears to be accomplishing with this lawsuit.

I won’t comment on the merits of his complaint, because I know too little about it. I have this hunch that it won’t go to court and that the league is going to settle with Flores, likely paying the coach a hefty sum of money.

Meanwhile, I’d be willing to bet real American money that we’re going to see a lot of qualified African American coaches with well-paying jobs in the NFL … and it will happen real soon.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com