Monthly Archives: May 2022

local news

Jackson must go!

Believe this or disbelieve it; it matters not one bit to me what you choose to believe, but I will say off the top that I truly dislike writing about Rep. Ronny Jackson, the Amarillo Republican who’s now in the news for reasons that have nothing to do with the service he is supposed to provide for the congressional district I called home for 23 years.

The House of Representatives select committee that’s examining the 1/6 insurrection will ask Jackson to appear before the panel. It seems he has information relevant to the committee’s search for the truth behind the insurrection, the riot and the effort to subvert our democratic process.

It astonishes me beyond belief that a freshman congressman representing a district out yonder in the Texas Panhandle can make so much news. This one does. He shows up on right-wing media broadcasts to spew his venom about President Biden and to say the 2020 election was stolen from Biden’s predecessor.

The former White House physician and former Navy admiral also is quick to suggest that the president should take a mental acuity test. Has he examined the commander in chief? No. He hasn’t laid a stethoscope on him.

This Twitter troll keeps defaming anyone who isn’t (a) a Republican or (b) Donald J. Trump. The man is a disgrace to the office he inherited.

I don’t know whether Jackson will agree to appear voluntarily. The guy just angers me beyond measure with his constant Twitter harangues and his quest to make an ass of himself.

The 1/6 panel wants to know what information Jackson might have had for the Oath Keepers to want to “protect” him from the traitorous mob that stormed the Capitol.

If he doesn’t comply with the “request” to testify, my hope is that the committee orders him to do so, then finds him in contempt of Congress if he digs in against it.

The guy shouldn’t command so much of my attention, but given that I care about the people he represents in Congress, I feel compelled to call this individual out for masquerading as someone who gives a damn about the 13th Congressional District.

He doesn’t.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Stand tall, rookie congressman!

Ronny Jackson had been a Republican member of Congress for all of about three, maybe four, days when the 1/6 insurrection erupted on Capitol Hill.

It appears that the brand new congressman from the Texas Panhandle has some information about that hideous event that the House select committee examining the riot wants to hear. So, the panel has asked Jackson to appear, along with Congressmen Mo Brooks of Alabama and Andy Biggs of Arizona to give the panel information it says it needs.

Ah yes, Rep. Jackson also was fingered in a report that the Oath Keepers, one of the right-wing crazy groups involved in the insurrection, reportedly said it wanted to “protect” Jackson from harm, as he had valuable information that the Oath Keepers wanted to preserve.

Good grief. It stuns me to my core that Texas Panhandle voters chose this clown to represent them in Congress. He has proven to be nothing more — and I mean nothing more — than a MAGA sycophant for the 45th POTUS.

Oh, the hits just keep coming.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Will miss Sen. Seliger

Kel Seliger called me today, saying he had “no reason at all” other than just to catch up.

The Republican Texas state senator and I had a nice chat. I won’t reveal the content of our conversation, but I do want to offer a comment, which I more or less shared with Seliger this morning.

It is that I will miss his service in the Texas Senate, where he has served with distinction and honor for the past 18 years. He is bowing out of political life and returning to what many of us would consider to be a more “normal” lifestyle. That is, he will do what his wife asks of him and will spend a lot more time with his sons, their wives and his new granddaughter.

Seliger’s Senate District 31 seat stretches a long way through West Texas, from the Panhandle’s border with Oklahoma to the Permian Basin more than 250 miles away. Kevin Sparks will be elected to the seat in November. Sparks lives in Midland, representing the oil and natural gas industries.

One of the many things I admired about Seliger was his fluency in Permian Basin-speak, which equaled his fluency in Panhandle-speak. Seliger knows the Panhandle — from grange halls to feedlots. He also became well-versed in fossil fuel issues down yonder in Midland and Odessa.

Sparks will face a challenge in equaling Seliger’s knowledge of the vast district. From what I can gather, though, Sparks is a right-wing toadie who is going to do every single thing that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick wants him to do; Seliger resisted that pressure. It got him in trouble with Patrick, which leads me to another reason I grew to admire Seliger’s service to the state. He wouldn’t be pushed around by a vengeful pol who doesn’t know the first thing about issues affecting West Texans.

Seliger popped off about one of Patrick’s key aides and Patrick responded by stripping Seliger, a former Amarillo mayor, of chairmanships and key committee assignments.

Seliger’s political career is winding down. I will hope for the best for my former neighbors and my many friends in the Panhandle that the new guy will step up and represent their interests with as much vigor as he will represent the Permian Basin.

At this moment, I am doubtful.

Still, it was good to catch up with my friend.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Wow! We did learn this guy’s name

Eleven years ago, I posted an item about a seminal event in our ongoing war against international terrorism.

I wrote: I would pay serious money to shake the hand of the young man who took out bin Laden. But we’ll never know his name or see his face. Wow! What a turn of events.

Man, was I ever wrong about that, about not knowing “his name” or seeing “his face.”

Would I shake his hand now? No! Why? Because the special forces operator who claims to have fired the shot that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011 violated what I always have understood be part of the Navy SEAL ethos, which is that no one should take individual credit for a mission that was executed by an entire team.

I won’t write this guy’s name here. He’s written a book about what he did and, I presume, made a ton of cash on his role on that mission.

I certainly want to offer a salute to our national security team for finding bin Laden, for working out the immense detail needed to accomplish the mission, for the incredible work that occurred during two presidential administrations since 9/11 to find this demon and for ridding the world of an existential menace.

Meanwhile, I will continue to scorn the nimrod who decided to make a spectacle of himself.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

entertainment news

Questions will linger

OK, let’s see where we stand with this tragic mystery.

A music superstar, Naomi Judd, has just died of what her daughters and her husband have termed “mental illness.” Judd’s husband has issued a statement declaring there would be no further details provided on the cause of death. He has asked for the public to respect his family’s privacy.

I, too, am shocked and saddened to hear of Naomi Judd’s death. I am not a huge fan of The Judds, the name of her twosome with her daughter Wynona. However, I grieve for them and for the terrible loss they have suffered.

My point is simply this: I believe the family of someone who built a huge career and following from an adoring public should be a bit more forthcoming on the circumstances of that superstar’s death.

You have asked the same questions as I have been asking since I heard the terrible news. What precisely took this woman from the public entertained? How does “mental illness” produce a physical malady that can prove fatal?

I also am quite certain that some reporter eventually is going to learn the details of what happened over the weekend and will reveal it to the world.

I don’t pose this inquiry out of malice. Or out of morbid curiosity. Indeed, additional information about the illness that claimed the life of a genuine music superstar — and well-established public figure — could produce what they call a “teachable moment” for those who are suffering from mental illness.

That all said, I am now going to pray privately for the family Naomi Judd leaves behind.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

GOP could doom itself

Were I to rub a crystal ball and seek to predict the outcome of the 2022 midterm election, I might come up with …

The notion that the Republican Party is going to nominate enough certifiable fruitcakes to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Take the leading GOP candidate for Arizona governor, Kari Lake, as one example.

The nimrod whom GOP voters might nominate has declared that she won’t recognize President Biden as being legitimately elected in 2020. She will work to overturn her state’s electoral result and hand the victory in Arizona to the loon Biden defeated for the presidency.

Therein might lie Democrats’ best chance to keep control of government. That is if Republicans manage to nominate similarly demented candidates for the U.S. House and Senate this year.

Hey, it can happen.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

media news

Story breaks my heart many ways

The reporting from Ukraine is breaking my heart for many reasons, some of which I did not expect when it began flooding our homes with information in that faraway land.

One reason is so obvious I shouldn’t have to mention it. The destruction is beyond belief. The pain of the people who endure it also defies my ability to comprehend how they cope and how they can hope for a better future.

But then I watch the broadcast and cable TV journalists covering the event and I am filled with compassion for them as well. What are they feeling when they confront such misery? How do they possibly report the news dispassionately?

I did not have the honor — and that’s how I would describe it — of covering a war in real time back when I worked in the field full time. The closest I came occurred in 1989 when I visited the Killing Fields at Choeng Ek, Cambodia, where the survivors of the Khmer Rouge genocide had erected temples containing the skulls of thousands of victims dug from mass graves.

I visited with those who lived through that horrifying episode. I can recall one comment from a woman with whom I was visiting. She told me, “If the Khmer Rouge come back, we all will become soldiers.”

I got on the bus that would take us back to Phnom Penh … and I sobbed.

Thus, I have difficulty imagining how the reporters covering the Ukraine War can avoid getting caught up in the raw emotion of seeing the destruction being inflicted on brave people in real time.

For all I know, they are sobbing, too. That doesn’t make them less professional. It just reveals their humanity.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

media news

A citizen of the world …

It just occurred to me — and I mean that quite literally — that this blog of mine has filled me with an appreciation I didn’t quite expect when I started it all those years ago.

I feel more like a citizen of the world writing on High Plains Blogger.

I now shall explain.

Each day I post items on this blog. Some days are busier than others. Almost without exception, though, I get readers — or at least those who take a quick look at an entry — from all over the world. Yes, the entire planet is reading High Plains Blogger.

In addition to the United States, I get frequent hits from places like Ireland, Germany and The Netherlands. I believe I know why those countries show up on my daily blog log sheet: I have friends in Germany and The Netherlands; as for Ireland, one of my sons has many friends there and I suspect they are reading what my boy’s old man is thinking, given that he shares practically everything I post on the blog with his social media network.

Other frequent hits come from unexpected locations: Vietnam is one; Kenya is, too; Ecuador, France, Chile and Japan show up frequently.

All of this seems to give me a greater sense of connection to the rest of the world. I’m just a chump blogger with opinions on a whole array of matters large and small, but the blog gives me a chance to share my musings with a world that seems to be getting smaller all the time.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

War with NATO? Seriously?

Now we are hearing reports that Russian madman Vladimir Putin is telling his people they should prepare for war against the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which makes me believe more than ever that Vlad has a screw loose in that spook’s brain.

I cannot think of a worse outcome for Putin’s illegal, unprovoked invasion of Ukraine than for him to send missiles into NATO countries bordering the Russian frontier.

We have this “thing” called Article V, which states that an attack against one NATO nation is an attack on all of them. All of them includes the United States of America.

To be clear, President Biden has said he will do everything within his immense power as U.S. commander in chief to keep our fighting men and women off the battlefield against Russia. I believe the president.

Putin, though, has far more to worry about than just the U.S. presence among NATO’s alliance of nations. The combined NATO military force constitutes an overpowering adversary. Does the Russian madman really intend to wage war against NATO? I want to believe the answer is no.

These chilling reports from Moscow, though, give me cause to think Putin really is mad.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

media news

Journalists get some love … finally

You know how I feel about journalists and the craft they pursue with joy and passion; after all, I am one of them, even though I no longer do it “for a living.”

Watching the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last night, with all of its attendant silliness, insults, self-deprecation and happy talk leading up to the event, I was filled with pride to hear the president of the United States speak well of the work they do on our behalf.

President Biden understands — at least he says so publicly, which is enough for me — that the media deserve the constitutional protection granted them by the nation’s founders. Think of that. A “free press” is the only private enterprise guaranteed by the nation’s governing document.

The dinner took a few moments to salute those among the media who have died in service to the public. They have been taken by the war machines that grind on throughout the world.

The media have become the bogeymen and women of contemporary society. We have heard a former president label the press the “enemy of the people” and have witnessed the ex-POTUS’s followers threaten members of the media who are doing their job.

We didn’t hear that from the head table at the WH Correspondents’ Dinner. Instead, we heard the media receive the recognition they have deserved since the founding of our great nation.

I want to express my sincere thanks and gratitude for the praise that came into my living room. I never was a member of the White House press corps. I have plenty of colleagues, acquaintances and actual friends who have served near that nerve center. I stand with them with them in awe for the work they have done and continue to do.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com