Monthly Archives: March 2022

local news

Panhandle to get new Senate face

Get ready, my old friends in the Texas Panhandle. You are about to get a new brand of legislative representation in the Texas Senate. It will come in the form of a state senator who represents your interests but who lives way down yonder in Midland, more than 200 miles away.

Kevin Sparks will be the new state senator from District 31. He won the Republican Party primary election this past week.

I don’t much at all about Sparks, other than I believe he was recruited by Empower Texans — a far right political action organization out of Midland — to run for the seat vacated by longtime Republican Sen. Kel Seliger of Amarillo. Empower Texans is a toxic organization and I detest what it stands for and what it has done to try to undermine the political leadership in the Panhandle, where my wife and I lived for 23 years before moving away in 2019.

They have their guy now slated to take his seat in District 31.

My hope is that Sparks does as much to represent the entire district, which runs from the Permian Basin all the way to the Panhandle’s border with Oklahoma. Seliger was as fluent in Permian Basin-speak as he was in Panhandle-speak when he served in the Senate. So was his Republican predecessor, the late Teel Bivins, also of Amarillo, who served the region from 1989 until 2004, when he left to become U.S. ambassador to Sweden. The same can be said of Bivins’s predecessor, Amarillo Democrat Bill Sarpalius.

The Panhandle has essentially owned that Senate seat since the proverbial Flood. Thanks to the GOP’s efforts to reconfigure the state’s legislative boundaries, the district lost several Panhandle counties and added some more down south, thus shoring up the strength of whoever wanted to run for the seat from the Permian Basin region.

There was a time when we could call our state senator or run into him at a local restaurant. I lost count of the times I would be sharing a meal with Kel Seliger in Amarillo and his attention was diverted to whomever walked by and wanted to chat. I doubt that will be the case with Sen. Sparks dining anywhere in Amarillo or Canyon.

That makes it imperative that he elevate his presence in the “other end” of the sprawling Senate district, which now happens to be the Panhandle, which until January 2023 had one of its own representing its interests in the Texas Senate. That task now will fall to an outsider.

Don’t let ’em down up north, Sen.-to-be Sparks.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

economic news, International news

Keep it in perspective

I couldn’t resist sharing this item that showed up on my social media feed this evening. I never really know who comes up with these gems; I do learn something from them.

My lesson here? It is that the pain, suffering, bloodshed, misery, anxiety, mourning and grief that Ukrainians are feeling at this moment put every little petty annoyance we might have in their proper place.

Gas prices going up? I don’t like it any more than the next person. However, it is good to keep some matters in context — such as what this message suggests we do.

More than 1 million Ukrainians reportedly have fled their country ahead of the Russian military onslaught initiated by the madman Vladimir Putin. Those who have stayed behind to fight the Russians are putting their lives in dire peril.

I won’t like paying more for the fuel that goes into my truck. However, I don’t believe I should bitch about it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

It ain’t child abuse

Greg Abbott never struck me in the years I covered him while working in daily journalism as a man with a mean streak; that was before he became Texas governor and now his meanness is on display.

Abbott wants to prosecute parents of transgender children for child abuse. Why? Because they want their children to undergo what is called “gender-affirming care.” He has the endorsement of the state’s indicted attorney general, Ken Paxton, who is another piece of … work.

What is gender-affirming care? The Texas Tribune reported:

Areana Quiñones, executive director for the Texas nonprofit organization Doctors For Change, defined gender-affirming care as judgment-free, individualized care oriented toward understanding and appreciating a person’s gender. Providers often work with counselors and family members to ensure they have everything they need to navigate the health care system.

Under the gender-affirming model of care, more time is spent allowing kids to socially transition instead of focusing on medical treatment. A social transition consists of the steps a child takes to affirm their identity. An example could include allowing a child assigned male at birth to grow their hair or use a different name and wear clothing that better fits their identity.

Is that the stuff of child abuse? I think not.

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/08/04/gender-affirming-care-transgender-texas/

What’s happening is that Gov. Abbott, who just breezed to the Republican nomination for a third term as governor after being challenged from the right wing of his party, is trying to assuage concerns among the nut jobs in his party that he isn’t conservative enough. Yeah … he is.

This ridiculous attack on children who express legitimate concerns about their sexuality suggests a level of radical conservative thought that shouldn’t have a place in setting state policy.

Child abuse is clearly defined as physical or emotional damage inflicted on children. How gender-affirming care — as stated earlier in this blog post — falls into that category simply boggles my noodle.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Second gent? Really?

Forgive my nitpicking. I can’t help myself at times, so cut me some slack.

Never before has the spouse of a president or vice president been a man. Until now. Doug Emhoff is married to Vice President Kamala Harris. OK, so why do the media keep referring to Emhoff as the “second gentleman”?

We have a first lady in the person of Jill Biden. Emhoff’s marriage to the vice president, therefore, makes him the “first gentleman.” Isn’t that right?

If women occupied both the presidency and vice presidency and were married to men, then the husband of the VPOTUS would be the second gentleman. Not now. Doug Emhoff, so far, is the only male American to have been thrust into the political limelight by virtue of his marriage to the vice president.

Let’s be more accurate, eh? Or perhaps I just am not understanding something.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Tough to watch these scenes

My old age is showing, as I am finding it increasingly difficult to watch the televised images from Ukraine that show the entire world what Russian military forces are doing to those who live in a country those forces are seeking to conquer.

They make me very angry. No, I am not going to suit up and go to war, fighting alongside the Ukrainians. I am way too old for that.

I just become enraged when I hear rhetoric from those who suggest that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy should just give in to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s demands … whatever the hell he intends.

Putin has launched a humanitarian crisis in Europe not seen since World War II. The Ukrainians are trying to defend their country against naked, bald-faced aggression. Putin, who once ran the Soviet spy agency the KGB, once told Barbara Walters that he didn’t order anyone’s death while serving as the Evil Empire’s top spook, that he was more of an “analyst.” Do you believe him? Hah! Neither do I.

I am not sure I can stomach much more of this, not that it matters to anyone at the center of the fight. I just am left to vent my frustration and rage via this platform and hope it somehow trickles into the decision rooms of those who are committing these war crimes.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news, political news

Pence has grown a pair?

What do you know about this? It appears that former Vice President Mike Pence has grown a pair of … um … well, you know what I mean.

Pence has told a group of Republicans that there is “no room” in the party for those who apologize for Vladimir Putin. Gosh! About whom do you suppose Pence is referring?

According to Newsnation: “Where would Russian tanks be today if NATO had not expanded the borders of freedom? There is no room in this party for apologists for Putin,” Pence said, according to excerpts from the speech, which was closed to reporters. “There is only room for champions of freedom.”

https://www.newsnationnow.com/politics/pence-hits-trump-no-room-in-gop-for-apologists-for-putin/?utm_campaign=NewsNation-trending-now&utm_source=thehill.com&utm_medium=newsnation-cross-brand

The word is out that he is stretching the divide that is growing between Pence and the guy who selected him to be vice president for four years prior to losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

It’s time to move past the 2020 election, Pence said. It’s time for the party to start plotting a course for the future, he said.

It took Pence a long time to become his own man. Too long, if you ask me. Even when the ex-POTUS threatened Pence because he did his job on 1/6 and certified President Biden’s election, he remained silent.

That now appears to be changing.

It’s not that Pence is going to get my vote if he decides to run for POTUS in 2024. However, I want to take this moment to offer him a word of support simply for demonstrating a smidgen of courage.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news, political news

Divide becomes a chasm

I discovered a story online that I want to share with this blog post. It tells a sad story about a man in a rural community who feels more isolated than ever in his life. Why the isolation? Because he voted in 2020 for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for POTUS and VPOTUS, while most of his neighbors voted for the ticket that lost the 2020 election.

The result has produced a daily ritual of insults, epithets and assorted forms of verbal and emotional abuse.

The story ran in Politico. Here it is:

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/03/04/pennsylvania-rural-democrats-trump-neighbors-00008915

I can relate somewhat to what the principals in the article are feeling. I, too, voted for President Biden and Vice President Harris. We live in a suburban community in a North Texas county that voted nominally for The Donald in 2020.

The lonely Democrat told Politico that the landscape of Dubois, Pa., is littered with profanity-laced signs cursing Biden and Harris; the signage also heaps praise on Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence.

According to Politico:

“We’ve never seen this before,” says Joanne Fitzpatrick, a Democrat from DuBois, running through a tally in her head of anti-Biden signs that still cover her town and surrounding communities. “I’m not a prude by any stretch, but it’s offensive. We’ve just never seen this level of vulgarity after an election — and so long after the election at that.”

“In a civilized society,” she added, “we just don’t do that.”

Well, I guess we do. Then again, I believe she was implying that her community isn’t exactly “civilized.”

I don’t recall this level of visceral anger, either. I have lived long enough to recall previous presidential campaigns that were full of venom and vitriol. We had the campaigns of 1968 and 1972 overshadowed by the Vietnam War; the 1988 campaign featured the tearing down of one candidate because he wouldn’t mandate reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools; there was 2000 and the campaign that ended being decided by the Supreme Court.

All these campaigns, though, had something in common. The loser conceded to the winner. The losing candidate did so in 2016 when she lost to Donald Trump.

The difference this year? The incumbent who lost, Trump the cult leader, hasn’t conceded. Instead, he has stoked anger among the ardent followers of his losing effort by repeating The Big Lie about the election being “stolen” via “widespread voter fraud.” There was no widespread fraud. Or electoral theft.

And therein is the cause of the deep divide that has widened into a chasm. It seems unbridgeable, as seen in the story told about the rural Pennsylvania community highlighted in the Politico article.

It is a shame. The terrible divide between neighbors never would have widened had the loser of the 2020 election done what others before him have done. If only he could have summoned the grace and class to admit he lost and extended his hand to those who defeated him.

Yes, elections have consequences. So, too, do their responses.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Another ‘big lie’ surfaces

You might remember a fellow the U.S. media dubbed “Baghdad Bob,” the Iraqi disinformation minister who insisted the Iraqis were winning on the battlefield during 1991’s Operation Desert Storm even as we could witness in real time Iraqi armor being destroyed by our tanks and Iraqi soldiers surrendering by the thousands to our troops.

Vladimir Putin has ripped a page from ol’ Baghdad Bob’s book of lies by suggesting that Ukraine posed a legitimate threat to Russia, that Ukraine is being run by neo-Nazis who detest the Russians. Therein lies Putin’s supposed justification for launching an unprovoked war against Ukraine.

Just as Baghdad Bob was proven to be the fool, so will Vladimir Putin be revealed as the liar he is, as there is no Nazi involvement in Ukraine’s government. I shall remind you that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish and whose family members perished during the Nazi Holocaust in the 1940s.

So, for Vladimir Putin to suggest that Zelenskyy is a closet Nazi would be laughable on its face … except that people are dying in what has becoming the largest land war in Europe since World War II. No one should laugh at anything that comes from Vladimir Putin’s mouth.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

business news, environmental news, International news, local news, national news

Long-term solution needs attention

The immediate impact of the world’s current crisis in Ukraine has been profound and powerful with the skyrocketing cost of fossil fuels — the gasoline and diesel we pour into our motor vehicles to get us from place to place.

It is affecting our plans here in North Texas, forcing my wife and me to rethink our travel plans as we move through this challenging year.

With that I want to offer a brief look at how this nation ought to deal with the immediate crisis. We ought not worry ourselves sick over immediate solutions but look ahead farther down the proverbial road at longer-term fixes. I refer to “green energy.”

We still consume a lot of oil-based products we pump out of the ground. That energy source is finite. There’s only so much of it we can remove from beneath Earth’s surface. Once it’s gone, it’s gone … forever.

Texas, though, has taken the lead on renewable energy sources, along with continuing to be among the world’s leaders in producing fossil fuels. We are continuing to invest in wind energy and in solar energy.

As far as I can tell, that old wind is going to keep blowing until the end of time. Take it from me, as someone who spent 23 years on the West Texas Caprock, I am well-acquainted with the power of wind and the potential it brings to keep the lights on. Any kilowatt hour we can generate from a wind turbine takes away what we need to produce from fossil fuel.

The Russians keep talking about cutting off oil supplies to Europe and beyond. The United States still imports some oil from Russia. If the Russians make good on a threat to cut us off, too, then the price is going to skyrocket to even higher levels.

The climate-change deniers debunk green energy as the stuff of washed-up hippies. Baloney! It is a serious alternative to the way we fuel our current lifestyle. Is there a short-term repair to the damage we are feeling at this moment? Not really. If we look at the longer term, we can keep our eyes on the bigger prize, which is the harvesting of energy from endless sources.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Don’t weaponize ‘patriotism’

Patriot” is not a word that ever should be used as a campaign weapon, as a slogan, or as a cheap throwaway line to appeal to political fanatics. Same can be said for “patriotism.”

However, I am typing this brief blog post because I am infuriated at what has become of those two terms that I happen to take far more seriously than I do any politician’s desire to use them to his or her advantage.

You know who I am talking about, yes? If not, I’ll explain. I am talking about the far-right wingers out there, adherents to the cult created by The Donald. The promoters of The Big Lie. The morons who stormed the Capitol Building on 1/6 and beat police officers senseless while proclaiming themselves to be “patriots” loyal to an insurrection that sought to subvert American democracy.

I say all this as a proud American patriot. I believe I am the real thing, not some made-up figment of a cult leader’s delusional view of himself. I have been married to the same woman for 50 years. I pay my taxes regularly. I am a proud Army veteran who went to war for my country. I choke up at the sound of marching bands playing the National Anthem.

I also abhor the notion that The Donald’s cabal of fruitcakes, kooks and nut jobs can pretend to be patriots and usurp the true meaning of the term for their own perverted world view.

Far-right candidates for public office throw the terms “patriot” and “patriotism” around like any cheap political slogan or jingle. Let me be crystal clear: It pisses me off! Royally!

So … one’s proclamation of their “love of country” is nothing on which they should base a cheap slogan. In the current political climate, I am quite certain any politician who proclaims their patriotism in an effort to win my vote is more than likely going to lose it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com