Monthly Archives: November 2022

International news, Sports news

Feeling pain for Iranian team

Rarely do I ever comment on matters involving soccer, as I am not a fan of the sport. Hey, it’s just me … or maybe it’s an American thing.

Still, I am left with a feeling of empathy and dread for what might await the members of Iran’s national soccer team, which lost to the U.S. team 1-0. The loss eliminated the Iranians from the World Cup.

What now? Well, members of the Iranian team refused to sing their country’s national anthem the other day, drawing scorn from the ayatollahs who run the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Iranian soccer team now must return home.

What will they face? Imprisonment? Or worse, for God’s sake?

The athletes were expressing their support for the demonstrators who are rebelling in Iran against the government’s treatment of women. The only way they believed they could make their feelings known would be to remain silent when they played the Iranian anthem at a World Cup soccer match.

Do you recall when sprinters John Carlos and Tommie Smith raised their gloved fists at the Mexico City Olympics in 1968 during the playing of our national anthem to protest the plight of Black Americans? The public response in that moment wasn’t exactly warm and fuzzy, but the government took no action against these men. The sprinters are now considered heroes for the courage they demonstrated at the time.

Not so for the Iranians. The potential reaction from their government is frightening.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

media news

Enjoying the after life

No, I am not dead. Not by the longest shot imaginable. I am delighted to report that there once was a time — long ago — that I wondered whether I would enjoy my life once I quit working full time.

I am even more delighted to tell you that the answer is yes. Not just yes, but hell yes. I am enjoying myself more than I could have imagined when I was full of piss and vinegar.

Time has this way of tempering one’s passions. It tempered mine, to a degree, particularly the passion I had every day as I prepared to go to work as a newspaper journalist. It did temper my passion, though, for commenting on issues of the day. I remain dedicated to that proposition more than ever … or so it seems. The difference now is that my commentaries are solely my own and I do not answer to an editor of a publisher.

That is not to say that I am free of restraints. Good taste and societal norms do keep me reined in a bit … but it’s only just a bit.

I remain delighted and full of energy to keep writing this blog and keep my head in the game.

One of the things I learned a decade ago when my career ended that there surely is a post-journalism after life. I am living proof that it exists. Unlike the big after life, I am still around to tell you about it.

I just wanted to share the good news with you.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

It’s all about ‘equal protection’

Let’s set the record straight on a key constitutional point: the nation’s founders didn’t get it entirely correct when they drafted the U.S. Constitution in the late 18th century; it has needed amendments designed to provide for a “more perfect Union.”

The 14th Amendment, enacted in 1868, states, “nor shall any State … deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” The Equal Protection Clause contained in the first part of that amendment, therefore, means that no one shall be denied the right to marry the person they love. Period. Full stop.

That also means the U.S. Senate acted correctly this week when it cast a bipartisan vote to codify that same-sex and interracial marriage shall be part of the federal statutes.

The Supreme Court agreed with the Equal Protection Clause when it endorsed same-sex marriage in 2015. That protection, though, is in jeopardy, given the court’s recent ruling to strike down Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that legalized abortion. Conservative justices have hinted they might be inclined to strike down the Equal Protection Clause, too, the benchmark for the ruling that allowed same-sex and interracial marriage.

That cannot be allowed to happen.

It’s also instructive that two of the “no” votes in the Senate came from Texas’s two Republican senators, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, both of whom profess to be legal scholars. They, instead, are revealing their partisan stripes, appealing to the wild-eyed base within the GOP’s lunatic voters.

I could have predicted that Ted Cruz would have voted that way. Cornyn’s “no” vote is deeply disappointing. At least, though, they’re both on the record saying that they are unwilling to offer protection to all Americans, giving them the constitutional right to marry the person they love.

Next comes the House of Representatives. May that body show the wisdom demonstrated by most of their Senate colleagues and then send this legislation to President Biden’s desk for his signature that makes it the law of this great land.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Slammer awaits Oath Keepers’ boss

Well, what are we to make of the verdict that figures to send a disbarred Yale-educated lawyer to prison for a long time after being convicted of conspiring to commit sedition against the United States of America?

Stewart Rhodes has been convicted in federal court of seditious conspiracy for his role in organizing and launching the attack on the U.S. government on Jan. 6, 2021.

This is — to borrow a phrase — a big fu**ing deal!

Rhodes happens to lead the Oath Keepers, a vicious right-wing “militia” group that conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. They were among the traitors who beat Capitol Police officers nearly to death as they stormed into the Capitol Building. They were chanting “Hang Mike Pence!,” they sought House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, some of them defecated on the floor of the nation’s government.

They call themselves “patriots.” They are traitors!

This is the group that led the frontal assault on our government, the traitors that Donald J. Trump termed “very special people” who he said he “loves.”

The verdict today now takes the chief Oath Keeper out of the game. It effectively decapitates this dangerous organization. Will there be someone to step forward? Oh … maybe, but the Oath Keepers now ought to be on notice that they face future prosecution if they take part in the kind of hideous treachery that occurred on 1/6.

My hope now is that Stewart Rhodes gets the lengthiest prison sentence available under the law.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

These kids have come a long way

I got treated to a demonstration this morning that, to be brutally blunt, simply blew my mind.

Our Farmersville Rotary Club met today at the Farmersville Independent School District’s Engineering Lab, which is a repurposed grocery store site that Farmersville ISD outfitted to become a state-of-the-art technical learning center for students.

Suffice to say that these young people are doing things and conducting experiments that are eons removed from the days when I was attending shop class and learning how to operate a lathe.

FISD’s Engineering Lab features high-tech robotics and electronics that go so far over my noggin I cannot even begin to explain it. One demonstration, provided by a Farmersville High School student, featured machines that picked up discs and tossed them into mini-basketball hoops; you got more points if the discs landed inside the hoops, rather than just on the tray under the basket.

I could not believe my eyes.

The center — which opened this school year — is run by a young teacher, Marcus Edwards, who the FISD Superintendent Micheal French said was “anointed” to lead this effort for the school system. The students compete in international competitions, known as “The Worlds.” First-year FHS principal David Warren said the competition, held this year in Dallas, actually included students from overseas. The Farmersville students more than held their own while competing against students Europe and Asia.

I want to share this bit of good news with you here as my way of saying that our young folks are doing just fine as they learn the technical –and technological — skills they will need to succeed in life.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

media news

Everyone is famous … for 15 minutes!

Andy Warhol clearly was ahead of his time.

The avante garde artist once declared that “In the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.” I don’t believe he foresaw the advent of social media when he made that declaration.

But it has happened. Social media in all its forms have delivered fame to many millions of human beings who don’t deserve it, but who have it anyway.

Who knew?

To be brutally honest, the instant — if fleeting — fame is one of the aspects I detest about social media. I get that it’s an efficient way to get messages out there. I heard today how retired Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who got crossways with Donald Trump over the Ukraine matter that led to Trump’s first impeachment, continues to use Twitter to deliver his version of the truth.

Many of these instant celebrities have used social media, namely Twitter, just to promote themselves. That’s fine. I use Twitter, too, although my roster of followers is nowhere near where it is among many millions of others.

Thus, I cannot claim any sort of “fame.” No worries. I don’t intend to seek it.

I’m just going to sit on the sidelines and watch others grasp for fame. Many of them will get hold of it. They might keep it for a while.

I just wonder what Andy Warhol would be thinking today as we all watch his prediction pan out. He is likely laughing out loud!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Ignorance is no excuse

Donald Trump’s repeated efforts to feign ignorance about notorious and infamous political characters offends anyone with half a noodle in their noggin who knows a blatant lie when they hear it.

Trump is lying once again, I believe with all my soul, when he professes to “not know Nick Fuentes” — the avowed white supremacist, anti-Semite and Holocaust denier.

It reminds me of how Trump claimed to “not know a thing” about David Duke, the nationally known Ku Klux Klan grand dragon who endorsed Trump’s presidential candidacy in 2016.

He lied then, too.

Or when he equated Klansmen and Nazis with counterprotester in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017. Remember when he told of “good people, on both sides” of that bloody riot? There are no “good” Klansmen or Nazis — period!

Fuentes broke bread with Trump and Kanye West, the rapper who’s also spoken ill of Jewish people, the other day in Mar-a-Lago, Fla. This latest example of Trump playing only to his racist base of supporters provides without question a hideous example of this individual’s unfitness for public office.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Another whopper from The Donald

So … Donald Trump said that Kanye West brought the moronic anti-Semite, Holocaust denying, white supremacist with him to dinner at Mar-a-Lago.

And that he didn’t even know who Nick Fuentes is.

POTUS No. 45 expects us to believe that.

Quick reminder. Donald Trump has a Secret Service detail with him in Florida; it’s a perk provided former presidents. Does anyone on God’s Good Earth believe the Secret Service didn’t know who was traipsing through the door and that the agents on duty would not have told The Donald that one of ’em happened to be this moron?

As I have said many times, I do not believe a single word that flies out of Trump’s pie hole.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

economic news

Nothing wrong with ‘happy holidays’ greeting

Our annual holiday season is upon us. Thanksgiving has come and gone, the shopping frenzy has begun and many of are starting to stress out — already! — about getting the Christmas decorations put up and welcoming guests home for the festivities.

There was a time when a presidential candidate, Republican Donald J. Trump, promised to “require businesses” to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. You remember that, right?

Well, a president has no authority to issue such an order. Frankly, I want to offer a brief word in support of those wish me a “Happy Holidays.”

Here’s the thing. We meet total strangers at the store. We buy whatever it is we’re seeking. The person standing at the computerized machine (which used to be called “cash registers”) doesn’t know if we’re Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist or Wiccan, right?

I have never one time taken offense at a stranger offering a generic holiday greeting to me. Furthermore, I do not understand why anyone would take offense … let alone a one-time presidential candidate who I hasten to add has zero appreciation for why Christians celebrate Christmas.

With that, I’ll offer a happy holiday greeting to readers of this blog. It’s going to be a lively and joyful season.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, State news

Yes! on money for training center

Mention the word “Uvalde” and you’re going to get a smorgasbord of responses. One of them should be what the Department of Public Safety is asking of the Texas Legislature.

DPS is seeking that it calls a $466 million “down payment” on a statewide training center aimed at refining law enforcement responses to situations such as what occurred earlier this year at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.

The money hasn’t been officially requested as part of the DPS’s funding package. But it’s a must-spend, given what transpired in Uvalde.

You know the tragic story by now. Nineteen fourth graders and two teaches were slaughtered by a gunman. The response — or lack of response — by the Uvalde school district police force, DPS, county deputies and city police officers has been the subject of considerable discussion and debate in the months since the tragedy.

The Texas Tribune reports: The Texas Department of Public Safety wants $1.2 billion to turn its training center north of Austin into a full-time statewide law enforcement academy — starting with a state-of-the-art active-shooter facility that would need a nearly half-billion-dollar investment from Texas taxpayers next year.

“You play like you practice,” DPS Director Steve McCraw told budget officials last month. “You need to practice in a real environment.”

DPS operates a training center in Williamson. The “down payment” request seeks to provide a dramatic upgrade to the DPS effort to prepare its troopers for future situations such as what occurred at Robb Elementary School. Make no mistake: there will be another explosion of violence.

As the Tribune reports: A “state-of-the-art” active-shooter facility would be built with the first round of funding next year and could be used “right off the bat,” independent of the rest of the proposed upgrades, to immediately enhance active-shooter response by Texas law enforcement, McCraw said in a brief presentation before the Texas Legislative Budget Board on Oct. 4.

If fully funded over the next three budget cycles, the training academy would cost $1.2 billion and eventually include dormitories, a cafeteria and other elements, McCraw said.

Texas DPS wants $1.2 billion for academy, active-shooter facility | The Texas Tribune

I want to offer a hearty and heartfelt endorsement of what DPS is seeking from our Legislature. They are going to report for duty in January with a substantial surplus of funds. Here is a wise way to spend some of it … to help law enforcement protect our children from future madness.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com