Monthly Archives: April 2022

International news

NATO stands as one

It is impossible to overstate the diplomatic victory that President Biden has scored as he seeks to get Russia to stand down in its military invasion of Ukraine.

The victory involves the unanimous support for Ukraine by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which leads me to hope — if not yet believe — that Russian goon Vladimir Putin will resist launching an attack on any of the NATO nations that border Ukraine.

NATO has this document called Article V, which declares that an attack on a single NATO nation is an attack on all of them. It reminds me of the warning President Kennedy issued in October 1962 when the USSR was erecting missile launch sites in Cuba; JFK told the Soviet leadership that an attack against any nation in the Western Hemisphere would bring a “full retaliatory response” from the United States.

President Biden has made essentially the same declaration, as has NATO, which is that the organization formed to protect Western Europe against the Soviet threat would respond collectively if the  Russians attacked any NATO state.

Think of where U.S.-NATO relations have gone since the Donald Trump administration. Trump castigated NATO over whether European members were paying their fair share of the cost. Yes, many of the nations have stepped up their financial load, but they did not trust the U.S. president to be there if a crisis exploded.

President Biden has helped restore that trust and in the process well might have acquired some leverage to keep the Russians from committing an act of utter foolishness.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Handle prisoner swaps carefully

Trevor Reed’s release from a Russian prison cell thrills me greatly. The young Texan, a former Marine, is now home after spending 900-plus days in prison for a crime he denies committing.

The Biden administration and members of the Texas congressional delegation worked hard to secure Reed’s release. He’s now home. I wish the young man well as he recovers his health and his emotional well-being.

Now, though, comes a word of caution.

President Biden agreed to swap Reed for a Russian who was held in our prison system. The exchange took place the way it’s done in the movies; the two men walked past each other without saying a word.

I will not dispute the need to do whatever it takes to Americans freed from wrongful imprisonment. I just hope we don’t get too carried away with this idea of releasing foreign bad guys who well could be released to do harm to us.

We still need to get two more Americans out of prison in Russia. Paul Whelan has been held for a couple of years on spying charges; Brittany Griner, a woman’s basketball star, was arrested by airport security agents for trying to board an airplane carrying cannabis products in her baggage.

We need to get these Americans home, too. I just want the administration to be careful about sending Russian lawbreakers back to where they could do harm to this country or our allies.

Do the ends justify the means? In this case, yes … but not every single time.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

Is there an indictment in Trump’s future?

If we are to believe the New York Times reporting on this matter — and I do, generally — then it appears that Donald J. Trump will dodge the indictment bullet in the Manhattan district attorney’s office.

The newly installed DA, Aaron Bragg, appears to be closing up shop in his investigation into the Trump Organization’s business dealings. Many of his chief assistant prosecutors have quit the office. Bragg isn’t inclined to pursue the former POTUS any further.

Now, does that forestall a probe being conducted by New York Attorney General Letitia James? Hah! Hardly.

However, it could be argued that without the NYC prosecutor’s office going full tilt on its investigation, the AG’s office might be caught with fewer evidence-gathering tools at its disposal.

Nor does this mean that the 1/6 investigation ongoing in the U.S. House of Representatives is going to flicker out and die. House intel committee chairman Bennie Thompson plans to commence public hearings in June on his panel’s probe into the insurrection. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland is standing by with possible plans to take legal action against all sorts of players from the Trump administration. Hmm, maybe even against The Donald himself?

Oh, one more thing. We have that probe going on down yonder in Fulton County, Ga., where legal eagles are investigating whether Trump broke state law by demanding election officials to “find” enough votes to turn that state’s 2020 presidential electoral result from Joe Biden to Trump.

The plot is still pretty damn thick, even if the Manhattan DA is bowing out.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Abbott shows smallness

You know, I wasn’t sure I should offer a comment on this, but what the hey …

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s response to the prisoner swap that brought Texan Trevor Reed home to his family didn’t contain a single publicly uttered word in praise of the Biden administration. Abbott did thank the Texas congressional delegation for the work it did to secure Reed’s release from a Russian prison, where he had been held for more than 900 days.

My question: Why couldn’t the governor have offered a good word for the work put in by the folks at the State Department, in the White House, and oh yeah … even by the president of the U.S.A. himself?

It just troubles me that Gov. Abbott appears to be so small-minded when it comes to these national triumphs.

I should add that another GOP politician, Sen. John Cornyn, took a moment to “applaud President Biden and the State Department” for their work in securing Reed’s freedom.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Hoping to see re-birthed courthouse

I take at least two trips a year to Bonham, in Fannin County, to see my doctor at the Sam Rayburn VA Medical Center.

This next visit coming up soon is going to reward me — I hope sincerely — with a look at a refurbished courthouse in the middle of Bonham’s downtown square.

I’ve written about it before on this blog, as well as reported on it for KETR-FM radio, where I serve as a freelance reporter for the station’s website.

Fannin County Judge Randy Moore has been salivating — figuratively, of course — over the prospect of settling back into the courthouse. The construction fences and the barricades came down in March.

The building is occupied. To which everyone I have spoken to in county government is expressing a huge sigh of relief and accomplishment.

According to KXII-TV: “It means everything to me,” said Barbara McCutcheon, the treasurer of the Fannin County Historical Commission. “I’m gonna cry. It was such an honor to work on it.”

The county secured a grant from the Texas Historical Commission and supplemented that money with a bond issue that voters approved in 2016. The final product came in over budget, but that did not deter the effort to complete the job. The COVID-19 pandemic, though, did throw a roadblock or two in front of the county along the way.

“It stopped a lot of things in its tracks, and you say, ‘well, how did that stop it?’ Well, we couldn’t get hinges for the doors,” said Judge Moore, according to KXII.

Still, the project is done. I am looking forward very soon to seeing it up close.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Greene vs. Boebert? Wow!

What in the … ? Do you mean to suggest there might be trouble in Looney Tunes Land with two right-wing nut jobs — Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert — at each other’s throats?

Get a load of it. Greene, R-Ga., and Boebert, R-Colo., apparently aren’t quite the QAnon soul sisters many of us outsiders perceived them to be.

It appears Boebert detests being associated with Greene. The two freshman Republican congresswoman got into a heated exchange over Greene’s recent appearance before a white supremacist organization, which I guess didn’t go down well with Boebert.

Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene got into such a heated confrontation that another lawmaker had to step in to intervene: report (yahoo.com)

They both belong to the right-wing Freedom Caucus. Boebert reportedly is seen more as a “team player” than Greene, who I understand tends seek headlines on our own. Hey, she’s pretty good at that, you know?

I don’t really give a rat’s rear end about these two individuals, other than I want them defeated, never to darken Congress’s door again.

I just find it strangely satisfying to know about the fracture within the GOP loony bin caucus.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot

Public hearings to commence

Mark it down on your calendar — or perhaps log it into your smart phone: June 9 is when the House select committee investigating the 1/6 insurrection takes its hearings onto the public floor.

Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson vows a complete hearing before the whole world when he calls witnesses to testify on what they knew on that hideous day. He will make them tell the truth about when they knew it and whether the POTUS at the time, Donald Trump, is culpable in the effort to overturn our cherished democratic process with the aim of keeping Trump in power.

I don’t know about you, but I intend to watch as much of it as I can. I understand there will be roughly five days of public testimony.

I am going to look forward to hearing the Trumpkins defend the activities of their hero. Defend his inaction. His refusal to stop the attack on our law enforcement personnel guarding the Capitol Building.

Moreover, I am going to hope my stomach is strong enough to digest all the lies we are about to hear.

Ladies and gentlemen, pass the popcorn, because we are about to watch a political drama play out.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

Investigate? For what?

Ronny “The Twitter King” Jackson keeps yammering about launching an investigation into Dr. Anthony Fauci when Republicans take control of Congress after this year’s midterm election.

Jackson, the rookie congressman from Texas’s 13th District, doesn’t specify what the charges against Fauci would entail. Hmm. Why do you suppose that’s the case?

I figure it’s because the moron doesn’t have a clue. He’s just angry because Fauci keeps telling us it is wise to mask up, to keep our distance from strangers and to take other precautionary measures against getting sick from the COVID-19 virus.

As for Jackson, the nimrod who’s got his share of troubles staring him in his puss, he ought to show a bit more respect for one of world’s premier infectious disease doctors. Indeed, he ought to lay low on Twitter for a while as the House Ethics Committee determines if he broke the damn law by using campaign funds for personal expenses, which has been alleged against this clown.

Jackson, let’s recall once was nominated to become veterans affairs secretary by Donald J. Trump. He pulled his name back after allegations surfaced about his conduct, relating to accusations of harassment, drinking on the job and dispensing drugs a bit too cavalierly.

So, he moved to the Texas Panhandle, ran for Congress and then got elected. Good grief!

He’s been nothing but an insufferable pain in the ass ever since, firing off Twitter messages incessantly castigating the commander in chief and, of course, Dr. Fauci.

I am waiting with bated breath to see what in the name of demagoguery the former doctor — Jackson — plans to investigate about the job Dr. Fauci has done while helping us navigate our way out of this pandemic.

I just wish the Twitter King Jackson would just shut the hell up.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

How bad will it get?

Karl Rove, the man once known derisively as “George W. Bush’s brain,” has laid out what he believes will occur when they count the midterm election ballots in November.

He writes in the Wall Street Journal, “Even Democratic strategists now admit the midterms will be disastrous for their party. “It’s going to be a terrible cycle for Democrats,” Doug Sosnik, one of the party’s best grand strategists, recently told the New York Times. The question is how big the calamity will be. A freeway pileup? Category 5 hurricane? Or Krakatoa with all the attendant consequences?

I do not intend to question the sincerity of Sosnik’s assertion, as reported by Rove, but it kind of begs a question that’s been rattling around my brain for the past few weeks.

It goes like this: Might it be even remotely possible that Democratic strategists are laying out a worst-case scenario with a glimmer of hope that if their losses are less than expected that they can claim a sort of moral victory?

Or, there’s this: Is it possible that the gloom-doom-despair prognosis is hiding some positive outcome, that Democrats actually could retain control of one of the congressional chambers?

I realize that politics can be a cynical game. Politicians and their hired guns — be they Democrat or Republican — look for any angle they can find to suit their agenda.

Since I am perched in the cheap seats out here in Flyover Country, I am nowhere close to the heartbeat of the nation’s political center. I am just wondering whether there could be a bit of gamesmanship being played.

These things do happen. I am just sayin’, man.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, local news, State news

Lucio deserves new trial

I cannot overstate the significance of the support that a woman condemned to die in Texas prison execution chamber is receiving from both sides of the great political divide in this state.

Melissa Lucio has received a stay of execution from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. She was slated to die on Thursday for the death of her 2-year-old daughter 15 years ago.

I believe she deserves a new trial, given all the doubt about her conviction and the allegation that the state withheld evidence from her defense team.

What continues to amaze me is the support she is getting from tough-on-crime conservatives in the Legislature, led by Plano Republican state Rep. Jeff Leach, who had the honor of telling Lucio this week about the CCA decision to forestall her execution. Lucio’s reaction was to sob uncontrollably.

Leach is a former member of the ultra-conservative Texas Freedom Caucus; he resigned from the caucus a while ago, citing some issues with the hardline positions it was taking. He still is a conservative, but he appears to be a man with an actual heart.

I applaud the leadership he is taking in fighting for Melissa Lucio.

I happen to oppose capital punishment, but you likely know that already. I also oppose the partisan divide that too often splits politicians along party lines even when the issue compels them to seek common ground.

One of those issues is seeking justice for a prison inmate who might have been convicted wrongly.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com