Monthly Archives: March 2022

local news, political news

Get busy, Rep. Taylor

Let’s examine a few numbers from the Third Congressional District race that is heading for a May runoff between incumbent Van Taylor and former Collin County Judge Keith Self.

With 99% percent of the vote tabulated from Tuesday’s Republican primary, Taylor has collected 31,168 votes.

Self has collected 16,959 ballots; third place went to Suzanne Harp, who collected 13,319 votes; fourth place went to Rickey Williams, who has 1,721 ballots; the fifth-place candidate is Jeremy Ivanovskis, with 814 votes. All told, the anti-Taylor vote count totals 32,133 ballots.

OK, they’re still counting ballots at the Collin County Courthouse. I don’t expect the percentages to change dramatically but consider the following.

Taylor needs to gin up a lot of return voters for the runoff, given that taken altogether, the challengers finished with nearly 1,000 more votes combined than Taylor reeled in. I don’t know anything about Williams or Ivanovskis, but I do know that Self and Harp are cut from the same kooky cloth; they are The Donald Cultists. Indeed, Harp calls herself an “America First Republican,” which is code for “I am a Trumpkin.” Moreover, Self has swilled The Big Lie potion about the 2020 election being “stolen” from The Donald.

Do you get my drift here? Self’s voters are highly motivated to turn out in the runoff. Harp’s supporters, I am going to presume, are far more comfortable with Self than with Taylor. They, too, might need little persuading to vote in the runoff.

As for Van Taylor’s bloc of supporters, they well might be a touch more apathetic than those who favor the surviving challenger or at least one of the also-rans in the Tuesday GOP primary.

Thus, the result of the runoff will depend on just two words: voter turnout. My advice to Rep. Taylor? You’d better get busy, young man … and start working the phone lines to those who voted for you in the primary.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, political news

Congressman faces runoff … holy crap!

Can it be even remotely possible that the North Texas Republican Party is actually going to fall for the trash being spewed by the far-right wing cabal of kooks who say a staunch GOP member of Congress has “betrayed” the party simply because he favored creation of an independent commission to examine the 1/6 insurrection on the nation’s Capitol?

Oh, and that he believes Joe Biden is the duly elected president of the United States and voted to certify the Electoral College result affirming that fact?

Well, the young man who represents my family and me in Congress is headed to a runoff in May. Van Taylor of Plano will face off against a former three-term Collin County judge, Keith Self. By all rights and whatever is left of political reason, Taylor should have breezed to his party’s nomination in Tuesday’s Republican Party primary. He didn’t make the 50%-plus one vote majority he needed to avoid the runoff. Self, a fellow who contends there was widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election and implies the presidency was stolen from The Donald, now gets a chance to defeat Taylor head to head.

What a freakin’ joke!

Now, I want to be clear. I do not support Van Taylor’s re-election. However, given the choice between Taylor and the wingnut who is challenging him, I would prefer the GOP nominate Taylor for a third term in the House. What frightens me about Self is that he appeals to that fanatic cult that still adheres to The Big Lie about the 2020 election. The cultists are more likely to vote in a runoff than some of the more, um, lackadaisical members of the GOP.

Then there’s the prospect of a loon such as Self being nominated by the GOP and carrying that whack-job message with him into the general election … and winning that race, too!

I will be unable to vote in the runoff, as I voted Tuesday in the Democratic Party primary.

This all puts me in an awkward position. To be crystal clear, my preference would be for Democratic nominee Sandeep Srivastava to be elected to Congress. I just shutter at the prospect of the Democratic nominee having less of a chance against The Donald Cultist than the incumbent, who at times has shown a willingness to reach across the aisle and work with Democrats … which his GOP primary foes have used as a strike against him.

This is a dangerous political moment, my friends.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

military news, national news

GOP loon disgraces herself

As much as I had hoped there wouldn’t be a display of disrespect of the president during his State of the Union speech, my hope was dashed about two-thirds of the way through President Biden’s speech to a joint congressional session Tuesday night.

Rep. Lauren Boebert demonstrated the lowest of the low points of where the modern GOP has sunk in recent years.

The president was speaking about his late son’s exposure to dangerous chemicals while serving in the Army during the Iraq War and was about to speculate as to whether Major Beau Biden’s exposure brought on the cancer that killed him; then Boebert — along with her QAnon colleague Marjorie Taylor Greene — decided to yell an epithet from the chamber. Boebert said something about Joe Biden being responsible for the deaths of 13 service personnel during the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.

That moment surely will go down in infamy. Boebert’s outburst drew boos even from her fellow Republican lawmakers.

She disgraced the office she occupies, disrespected the president and the commander in chief and showed the entire world that she lacks the class, grace and decorum to vote on laws that affect every single American.

I always have believed we are better than to send morons to Congress such as Lauren Boebert. I was wrong. I am not a constituent of hers, given that I do not live in the congressional district she was elected to represent. I am, however, a proud American patriot who obeys the laws on which she votes, which gives me standing to declare that I despise Lauren Boebert and everything she believes.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Biden nails the SOTU

I will not apologize to anyone about my partisan leaning; I merely will acknowledge what should be clear to anyone who reads this blog, which is that I support President Joe Biden’s agenda as he seeks to bring the nation back from the mess he inherited when he took office in January 2021.

Tonight, Joe Biden declared after ticking off a number of bipartisan agenda items that should receive universal support from Congress, that the “state of our Union is strong” because of Americans who stood against the ravages of deadly illness and are standing tall against the desires of a desperate foreign despot.

President Biden isn’t known as a sparkling orator, but tonight — in my view — he might have reset the office he occupies.

He appealed to Republicans sitting in front of him when he hailed the Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invaders; when he spoke to assuring better help from our government to American veterans; when he declared that our lives will no longer be dictated by our response to a pandemic.

He laid all of this out in an hour-long State of the Union speech and then delivered what I expected would be the punch line, that our Union is “strong.” It remains strong despite our challenges, despite the crises we are battling.

I was delighted that he spoke to our better angels and chose to steer clear of the political divisions of which we all are familiar. No mention of the 1/6 insurrection, no mention of The Big Lie. If I were a GOP congressional leader, I would congratulate and thank the president for staying on the high road. But … that’s just me.

To be clear, it needs to be said that GOP politicians sat on their hands when the president spoke about tax policy, about infrastructure improvement. I guess you can’t win ’em over on everything.

Still, my support for President Biden is stronger than ever tonight after watching him take command of the world stage and deliver in the most forceful language possible a clear warning to the Russian aggressors that they will pay dearly for their act of violence in Europe.

Accordingly, I concur with the president that the “State of our Union is strong.”

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Sports news

MLB needs to settle … now!

Major League Baseball, with its standing as America’s Pastime already in jeopardy, is about to possibly do irreparable damage to a game that many of us still love to watch.

I say that understanding that I have stated already that my love affair with the Grand Old Game isn’t what it used to be.

MLB has canceled opening day. The first series of games set for the end of March has been canceled. The players and the league owners are locked in negotiations. The team owners have locked the players out. The players are demanding more money — even though they say it’s “not about the money.” Spoiler alert: When they say it’s not about the money … it’s about the money!

Remember when a player strike canceled the 1994 World Series? I thought at the time that MLB had inflicted a moral wound on itself. I was wrong, which is no surprise, given that I am wrong far more often than I am right.

Still, I don’t feel good about the future of Major League Baseball if the two sides don’t reach an agreement quickly and get this preparation period for the upcoming season under way.

While we’re at it, we baseball fans need a long-term solution that lasts, say … forever!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

 

State news

Ceding power to the few

Good job, Texas voters — or should I say “non-voters.” You appear headed to a new level of apathy, laced with ignorance.

The word we’re getting is that Primary Election Day 2022 is going to conclude after 7 p.m. with a single-digit turnout among Texas Republicans and Democrats. You know what that means, I am sure. I’ll remind those who need reminding what it means to me.

It means that rather than taking these important decisions seriously and taking care of issues by ourselves, many of us are going to leave those decisions to those they don’t know. Those who might harbor vastly different political philosophies than you do.

I long have said that good government works best when more of us take part in nominating and electing those who we deem fit to represent our interests in government. It works less well when we leave those decisions up to others.

To borrow a phrase from the Marine Corps, those of us who vote in these elections are “the few and the proud.” That’s fine if you are recruiting men and women to fight our battles; it’s not fine if we leave these decisions to someone else.

This is Round One of the 2022 election season. The Main Event will occur in November. That won’t produce any great shakes, either.

Abysmal, man. Just abysmal.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Putin does the impossible

Vladimir Putin has performed what should be considered an impossible task. The Russian dictator has managed to unite virtually the entire world against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Get a load of this: Switzerland and Sweden, two of Europe’s most adamantly neutral nations, have lined up solidly in the Ukraine camp. Switzerland has imposed a virtual ban on all Russian banking activity; Sweden has decided to send military equipment to assist the Ukrainians in their fight against the Russian aggressors.

Nations have banned Russian aircraft from flying into their air terminals. Embassies have been shuttered. The ruble is now worthless because virtually no country on Earth wants to do business with the Russians.

Get a load of this: Millions of people have marched in streets around the world, including — and this is fantastic! — in Moscow. Even the Russians are calling for an end to the invasion.

Vladimir Putin is now seen across the good Earth as a pariah. Russia’s third-rate economy is being dismantled daily. He is not without his allies, in China, in Belarus and, oh yes, even a former U.S. president.

Putin, though, has shown the world how to unite people of widely disparate religious and political views. They are united against the hideous military action that Putin has launched against a sovereign nation, which by the way has put up a ferocious resistance against the invaders.

This is an international reaction I cannot remember ever witnessing unfold in real time.

It is a sight to behold.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Keep talking

on the border with Belarus. Talks between the warring nations concluded and the negotiators retired to their respective headquarters.

That’s the bad news. The good news? They are going to keep talking to each other.

Meanwhile, the Russian invasion of Ukraine isn’t going as well as Russian dictator Vladimir Putin had hoped. I keep hearing he hasn’t yet deployed the full force of the military arsenal lined up against Ukrainians. Still, for the Russians to think they could walk into Ukraine without getting a serious resistance is foolish in the extreme.

I will hold out hope that as long as the warring nations are talking that there will be a chance they can find a way to stop the shooting, the bombing and the killing. I figure the longer the fighting goes without the Russians being able to march into the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, the better the chance for a deal to talk their way into something approaching a solution.

Now, if only someone could explain to me why the Russians decided to invade in the first place.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

This isn’t child abuse, Gov. Abbott

When I think of the term “child abuse,” I think of someone delivering physical harm to a child, or tormenting them emotionally, or hurling epithets in an effort to denigrate them.

Getting medical care for a transgender child, one who wants to change their gender identity? No. Not … even … close.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has been accused by the right-wing nut jobs running against him in this year’s Republican Party primary of not being “conservative enough,” has declared his intention to label the transgender matter I just described as “child abuse.”

That is a gigantic step toward reprehensible governance by someone who has disappointed me greatly ever since he became governor in 2015. My disappointment has now become disgust.

The Texas Tribune reports:

Shelly Skeen, a senior attorney with Lambda Legal, said it’s highly unlikely that a judge would justify child abuse charges or removal of a child based solely on the use of gender-affirming therapy.

“Texas law has a very clear definition of what child abuse is, and it’s not this,” Skeen said.

… Child abuse investigations based on gender-affirming care are almost unheard of in Texas. Officials at the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services say that there have been three reports last week “meeting the description in the AG opinion and Governor’s directive” but offered no other details. No investigations have been launched, officials said.

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/02/28/texas-transgender-child-abuse/

Greg Abbott has lost his marbles if he thinks he can obtain a successful prosecution on gender-affirming care by calling it a case of “child abuse.”

We are heading down the slipperiest of slopes with this kind of nutty proclamation coming from the Texas governor’s office.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com