Garza is not Paxton

I couldn’t help but chuckle under my breath when I read the opening two sentences of a recent Dallas Morning News editorial.

The paper stated: There is little we can find to recommend Rochelle Garza for attorney general except that she is not Ken Paxton.

Frankly, that’s enough. 

I suppose you could say the DMN was set to damn Garza with faint praise as it recommended her for election next week as Texas attorney general.

So, it did that with its editorial that spent most of its space condemning the lunacy that has accompanied Paxton’s two terms as the state’s chief law enforcement officer.

The Republican AG has been on the hot seat ever since he took the oath of office in January 2015.

A Collin County grand jury indicted Paxton in 2015 on a charge of securities fraud; he has yet to stand trial. Seven of his top deputies resigned and then blew the whistle contending that Paxton is guilty of felonious criminal conduct; the FBI is investigating the complaint. The Securities and Exchange Commission announced it was conducting an independent probe into the securities fraud matter; no decision has come down. Paxton has filed specious lawsuits contending that the 2020 presidential election was infected with widespread voter fraud; he has been laughed out of many courtrooms.

This guy wants another four years as attorney general, an office that requires its occupant to be squeaky clean. Paxton falls far short of that reasonable requirement.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Debate becomes casualty

One of the casualties of the current political climate happens to be a major battlefield loss for those of us who long for a return of political civility.

It is debate. Yes, it is become virtually impossible to debate those with whom one might have a political difference. The nastiness and the doubling down by the Trumpkins who read this blog has forced me to hunker down and no longer engage in active and lively debate over the issues.

It has come down to this: What is the point?

I know too many people on the other side of the wall with whom I once might have been able to argue a point, but who now stand wedded strongly to their point of view.

Come to think of it, so do I!

Political debate too often — even in the halls of government — morphs into name-calling, epithet-hurling, threats of physical harm. The same can be said among friends out here in Flyover Country.

Too many friendships have been torn apart, tossed aside because of political differences. Man, it ain’t supposed to be that way … you know? But it is.

Given the toxic environment that exists today, I am going to resist the temptation to engage anyone in serious discussion about political differences. Almost immediately, we end up talking past each other.

The value of debate, therefore, is lost.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Cannot comprehend the stupidity

Make no mistake about it. I will go to my grave never understanding how supposedly mainstream Americans can buy into the stupidity being peddled by so many Republican candidates for public office.

Yes, the midterm election is coming up rapidly. It appears that the GOP is going to wrest control away from Democrats in at least one congressional chamber. The House appears to be vulnerable to the potential politics of revenge that awaits once Republicans seize the gavel and committee chairmanships from Democrats.

What just utterly astounds me, though, is the idiocy being blathered by the MAGA-loving, election-denying cult followers of the most recent former GOP POTUS.

They belong to what I should refer to as the Dumbass Wing of the GOP. The espouse treasonous views that seek to undermine the integrity of our electoral process. Some GOP candidates for governor and secretary of state vow to “overturn” the results of the 2020 election. Why? Because they have bought into the Big Lie about the election being “stolen.”

What is stunning beyond all measure is that so many Americans have signed on to that bullsh**, believing the rubbish being spread about election integrity.

We have utterly incompetent candidates running under the Republican banner who stand a good chance of being elected to important public offices. They will then be able to foist their idiocy onto the public that believes it. I am left to wonder how long their supporters will hang with them once we’re all exposed to the chaos and confusion their policies are likely to bring.

I am going to offer all kinds of karma and prayer that seeks to stop on the onslaught I fear might be about to swamp Congress, some of our statehouses and even some of our school boards, which could elect book-burners and those who believe we need to purge our public schools of that phony “critical race theory” principle.

I am feeling the pangs of fear … and I don’t like it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Journey takes dramatic turn

My bride and I have been on a marvelous journey since we both retired from our full-time jobs more than a decade ago. The end of my career came suddenly; my bride chose to end her working life on her own.

We have been “living the dream” ever since. Well, this week our journey into retirement took a startling and dramatic new turn.

Our recreational vehicle travel time came to an end. We sold our RV after hauling it on a two-week excursion to the Pacific Coast. We visited friends and family along the way. We had a blast. We were comfortable in our downsized travel trailer.

But … a couple of issues emerged along the way. The trailer wasn’t working quite the way it was supposed to work. What did we decide while on the road? We decided (a) we are too old to deal with these niggling issues that keep cropping up and (b) that neither of us was skilled enough to repair these problems on our own.

We decided before we arrived at our California destination that the trip on which we had embarked would be our final one in an RV.

We’ll keep traveling. The difference will be that we intend to stay in hotels along the way, or at RV parks that offer cabins, or with friends and family scattered across this great land.

We’re taking a philosophical approach to this decision. We owned three RVs: two fifth wheels and a travel trailer. We took all of them to both ocean coasts, along the Gulf Coast, to the Great Lakes, throughout the Great Plains, over the Rockies, the Sierra Nevada, the Cascade Range, the Appalachains and we saw the western half of Canada.

We had a great run. We saw many places and had countless joyous experiences. It is now time to do something else. We have decided to take another leap of faith.

Where will our journey take us? That remains to be determined. However, we are confident we’ll know it when we get there.

We are still living the dream.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

When will indictment arrive?

All the smart money — and even some of the dumber dough — believes that Attorney General Merrick Garland is going to indict Donald J. Trump … for something!

So many questions lurk on the edges and even some in the guts of the issue.

When will the indictment(s) come? How far will the AG go in charging the former president of the U.S.A. with committing a criminal act? How does an indictment affect the former POTUS’s plans for running for the presidency again, if he’s indeed going to do so? What will be the response of Trump’s diminishing — but still frothing rabid — base of supporters?

I happen to believe that Garland could indict Trump on obstruction of justice, on violating his oath of office, potentially on contempt of Congress, on conspiracy to commit sedition.

It all turns on the events of 1/6. Trump incited the insurrection and no one on Earth is going to persuade me he didn’t do it.

However, Merrick Garland is nothing if not a realist. He knows the stakes are huge. If Republicans gain control of Congress after the midterm election, he faces the prospect of impeachment by Republicans still steamed over Democrats’ decision to impeach Trump twice.

The biggest obstacle to impeaching the AG, though, is that he is doing his job. Unlike the “high crimes” that produced two impeachments against Trump — seeking political favors from a foreign government and inciting the attack on the Capitol — Garland merely would be doing his job in accordance with the law.

That likely wouldn’t stop the GOP from seeking to make Garland “pay” for the impeachment of the former POTUS.

This is all part of the drama that awaits as Merrick Garland ponders what appears to be an inevitable action. I am waiting to see how this drama ends.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Where is protection for speaker?

The moron who broke into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco home and assaulted her husband, Paul, should have been stopped before he ever set foot in the place.

He wasn’t. Why? Because the individual who is third in line for the presidency of the United States doesn’t get the level of security afforded to the president and vice president.

That ought to change.

The speaker of the House arguably is the most powerful person in Congress. He or she calls the tune for legislation that flows from the chamber. Plus, the speaker is just two heartbeats away from assuming the powerful office in the land … if not the world!

Paul Pelosi was injured critically with a skull fracture. We all should wish him a complete recovery from his grievous injury.

As for the whether the speaker of the House deserves Secret Service protection, I am all in on calling for that upgrade in security protocol. The speaker’s power and influence in our government is too important to ignore.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Violence has no place

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins today uttered what should be considered a platitude, a no-brainer, a throw-away line.

Except that we now live in an era of intense anger that brings insane reactions to political differences.

“Violence has no place” in today’s society, Jenkins said in offering an update into her investigation into the attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.  Paul Pelosi suffered a skull fracture after being battered with a hammer by an individual who broke into the couple’s home.

Indeed, the DA is right to assert the obvious, that violence never should be used to settle political scores in a supposedly civil society.

The suspect, who faces a potential life sentence in prison if he is convicted of the myriad crimes for which he is being charged, was targeting the speaker, according to Jenkins. He was heard asking, “Where’s Nancy?” when he commenced his attack on Paul Pelosi. Hmm. Can we link that chant to a political cause, given that 1/6 Capitol Hill attackers were heard making the same request as they launched their insurrection against the federal government?

DA Jenkins should not have to remind us of the obvious, that violence never should be a solution to settling political differences. Sadly, the tenor of the times tells her to remind Americans what they already should know.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com