Tag Archives: Greg Abbott

State news

Hoping for the best

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

OK. I shall remain opposed the legislation that will become law effective Sept. 1.

However, I am going to enter a new phase of opposition. I want to give “permit-less carry of handguns” a chance to work until – or if – my worst fears become a reality.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed the bill into law the other day. It is the “constitutional carry” legislation that became a favorite of legislative Republicans. It allows anyone to pack a gun without even requiring them to take a mandatory gun safety course and passing a mandatory test. The state has had a concealed carry law on the books for decades. This new law renders the concealed carry law moot.

The Legislature did tweak the bill before sending it to Abbott’s desk.

According to the Texas Tribune: Before approving the bill, the Senate tacked on several amendments to address concerns by law enforcement groups that opposed permitless carry, worried it would endanger officers and make it easier for criminals to get guns.

The compromise lawmakers reached behind closed doors kept intact a number of changes the Senate made to the House bill, including striking a provision that would have barred officers from questioning people based only on their possession of a handgun.

The deal also preserves a Senate amendment enhancing the criminal penalties for felons and family violence offenders caught carrying. Among other Senate changes that made it into the law was a requirement that the Texas Department of Public Safety offer a free online course on gun safety.

Big-city cops opposed the law along with most Texans. So I don’t feel like the proverbial Lone Ranger in fearing what this law could produce, which could be a spasm of violence created by those who are packing heat under the new law.

To be fair, I had much the same fear about concealed carry legislation. To my pleasant surprise, the concealed carry law has not produced a huge tick in gunfights on the streets, or in the grocery store parking lot – or anywhere else, for that matter!

I am going to hold out hope that this new law can produce the same sort of reasonable reaction.

Will it turn me into an avid supporter of this law? Probably not. I am willing to honor the role as someone who accepts the law if not embracing it.

I will simply hope for the best.

Note: This blog was published initially on KETR.org.

State news

VP Harris to visit Texas … will Gov. Abbott be there, too?

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Vice President Kamala Harris, who’s taken her share of hits for failing — so far — to visit the U.S. southern border after being put in charge of handling the immigration crisis, is coming to see it for herself.

She arrives Friday in El Paso.

OK, she’s been a bit late in laying eyes on the crisis. Some of the criticism is warranted. I won’t pile on here.

Kamala Harris is set to visit the border (msn.com)

I do want to know, though, whether Texas Gov. Greg Abbott will be on hand to greet her as she arrives. Will the Republican governor meet with the Democratic VP to discuss common problems and search for common solutions? Or will he continue to take pot shots at the Joe Biden administration, declaring its immigration policy to be a failure while asserting his desire to build a wall along the state’s entire border with Mexico?

Good government requires teamwork among state and federal officials. Here is a chance, I submit, for Gov. Abbott to join with Vice President Harris in ensuring that Texas is on the same page with President Biden and his immigration team led by the vice president.

I hope to see Gov. Abbott on hand to lend his voice to this important discussion.

local news

Gov. Abbott’s wall gets little endorsement

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Today’s edition of the Dallas Morning News offered an interesting snapshot of public opinion on a plan that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is trying to foist on the state he leads.

I refer to the border wall Abbott wants to build along our state’s border with Mexico.

The Morning News today published 13 letters to the editor on its opinion page commenting on Abbott’s idea. Eleven of them came from writers who oppose the wall construction outright; one letter seemed somewhat neutral, proposing the state build a ravine along the border; one letter applauded Abbott’s leadership as governor.

Hmmm. It got me thinking. If the Dallas Morning News — which publishes a moderate/conservative editorial page — cannot find more support for Abbott’s wall than it did in today’s letters package, then what is the point of the governor’s wall-building initiative?

I certainly realize that a single day’s newspaper collection of letters to the editor does not constitute a scientific survey of public opinion. Still, it seems instructive to me that so many North Texas residents seem opposed to the idea. It’s not as if this part of the state is a haven for left-wing progressive thinkers … you know?

It brings me to the point of Abbott’s decision. Abbott says he is acting because of what he determines is the federal government’s failure to secure our border. He has bought into the clap-trap offered by the previous president that the “horde” of undocumented immigrants is full of criminals intent on harming Americans.

So Abbott wants to build a wall. He calls it a “down payment” on securing our state. Except that he is now treading on federal authority, which is charged with securing the nation. Abbott isn’t having any of that. If the feds won’t act, he said, then Texas will take matters into its own hands.

I happen to agree with most of my fellow North Texans who expressed displeasure with Abbott’s initiative. A wall is too costly and will ultimately prove to be ineffective. It also illustrates how a one-time reasonable Republican politician has morphed into a cult follower who has bought into the crazy notion that we are being overrun by criminals.

State news

Abbott inflicts needless pain

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Gov. Greg Abbott is playing hardball, all right.

Except that he has aimed his “high hard fastball” at hundreds of legislative staffers who do not deserve to suffer from the governor’s anger.

Get a load of this: Abbott has vetoed funds appropriated by the 2021 Legislature to pay legislators’ salaries … such as they are. The veto also takes aim at staffers’ salaries, the folks who do the hard work on behalf of the elected members of the Texas House and Senate. Texas legislators earn $600 each month, plus a per diem expense amount when they’re in session. They all have day jobs back home in their legislative districts or are wealthy enough to take time to serve in the state House or Senate.

Abbott is angry with House Democrats who walked off the floor of the legislative assembly in its waning hours. They managed to deny the Legislature a quorum needed to enact a controversial voter overhaul bill that Abbott said he wanted to sign into law. Oh, the law happens to be a turkey that has drawn the unified wrath of the Texas Democratic legislative caucus. It seeks to empower judges to more easily overturn election results, it reduces early voting opportunities, it takes a hard line against mail-in voting. In short, the GOP proposal makes it more difficult for Texans to vote.

The Democratic caucus opposes the effort to restrict voting opportunities.

Abbott’s punishment is much too broad and inflicts far too many collateral casualties.

“Texans don’t run from a legislative fight, and they don’t walk away from unfinished business,” Abbott said in a statement while vetoing the legislative funding measure. “Funding should not be provided for those who quit their job early, leaving their state with unfinished business and exposing taxpayers to higher costs for an additional legislative session.”

But again, what about the hardworking legislative staffers who have been caught in this game of political football? They need not be punished along with their legislators.

This isn’t my idea of good government. It’s heavy-handed government dictated by a governor who is letting his petulance get in the way of sound policy.

Note: A version of this blog was published initially on KETR-FM’s website, ketr.org

national news

Immigrants strengthen us

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Now that Gov. Greg Abbott has declared his intention to shut down the Texas border with Mexico all by himself, I want to say a word or two about immigrants and the strength they bring to this great country.

I am acutely aware that Abbott wants to end “illegal immigration” into this country. He wants to stop refugees who are seeking to enter the U.S. to flee oppression, crime, poverty and misery in their home countries. Hmm. Is that a bad thing for the United States?

Yes, they should enter the country legally. I know and accept it.

Abbott, though, has targeted specifically criminals who he said should be arrested, detained and then sent back. Let’s see. I think that has been occurring since, oh, about the time of the nation’s founding. However, the GOP demagogues continue to insist that President Biden has enacted an “open border policy” that allows for thugs to enter freely.

Why do I feel so strongly about immigrants? I am the grandson of four of them. They came here near the start of the 20th century in search of a better life. They left southeastern Europe. Two of them came from what one former POTUS would have called a “sh**hole country.” That would be Turkey, a mostly Muslim nation.

They came. They thrived. They produced their children, all of whom led productive lives; some of them served heroically on the battlefield during World War II; my dear Dad was one of them.

What separates immigrants from native-born Americans is one simple fact: All of them chose to come here. They weren’t granted U.S. citizenship merely as an act of fate, having been born here. They made conscious decisions to build new lives and to call the U.S.A. their “home.”

Someone needs to tell me, though, how many of those who seek to sneak into this country comprise the nefarious criminal element that a former president once said comprised most of them.

Immigrants have helped create this great nation. They should be honored, not vilified.

State news

How much will it cost, governor?

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The individual who preceded Joe Biden as president of the United States used to proclaim that “Mexico is going to pay for the wall.”

It didn’t happen. It won’t happen. Not ever.

Now we have the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, declaring his intention to build a wall along the state’s lengthy border with Mexico. He isn’t making the same preposterous claim that the ex-POTUS did. However, we need some specifics on this matter if it manages to survive the expected challenges to whether it is even constitutional for a state to assume a federal responsibility.

Texas border wall may not be feasible, or even legal | The Texas Tribune

How much will it cost, Gov. Abbott?

You see, the U.S. Constitution requires in the Fifth Amendment that the government provide “just compensation” for any private property seized for public use. Texas’s share of public land comprises a tiny fraction of its total land mass along the border, which will require the state to pay a whole lot of money it takes from private ownership. So, we have that expense.

As for the rest of the price tag, which would be bound to skyrocket as the state grapples with ways to erect a secure border, well, we haven’t heard a word from Gov. Abbott on how much that might cost you and me.

The state’s economy happens to be performing quite well in the wake of this COVID pandemic. However, we shouldn’t be asked to spend an unspecified amount of money to seal off our southern border from “hordes of criminals” who, in my view, do not exist.

State news

Border wall? Not so sure, governor

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Call him the latest incarnation of the “Macho Man.”

Gov. Greg Abbott thinks he is going to take matters into his own hands by ensuring that Texas builds a wall along its entire border with Mexico. The details are to come later. If ever.

This one gives me trouble.

Why? Because border security is a national issue, not one left to states to determine individually. There well might be a constitutional issue involved with Texas deciding to go it alone in fencing off the state from its southern neighbor.

Texas governor says Texas will build its own border wall, leaves the details to later (yahoo.com)

I get that Abbott wants to arrest criminals who come here to do bad things. He made that point clear and in fact I happen to agree with that part of Gov. Macho Man’s proclamation. I don’t want to see the state infested with — in the words of the former POTUS — “rapists, murderers, drug dealers” either. Then again, there isn’t much evidence that such an infestation is occurring anyway with refugees fleeing their home countries in search of a better life in the Land of Opportunity.

Yahoo News reports: The ACLU of Texas disagreed. Abbott’s plan undermines the federal “right to seek asylum by jailing those fleeing danger and punishing them for seeking refuge in the U.S,” said ACLU staff attorney Kate Huddleston. “In this plan, Abbott is yet again scapegoating immigrants in an effort to distract from his own failures in governing and managing actual crises in Texas — like the historic winter storm that led to the deaths of more than 150 Texans — with cruel results.”

Abbott, of course, blames President Biden for the border crisis. Imagine that, eh? The governor well might seek to succeed the president in 2024, so he needs a campaign issue on which to run. It strains credulity to believe that none of this existed during Biden’s Republican predecessor’s term in office. It certainly did. Where was the criticism then? Hmm, governor?

Gov. Macho Man will need to strap on his flak vest and helmet as he takes incoming criticism from those who are going to question the wisdom of usurping what looks to be a federal job.

local news, medical news

Masks still visible

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Gov. Greg Abbott is just so doggone proud that “Texas is 100 percent back” from COVID-19 precautions.

Good for you, governor. Keep crowing. I just want to report that not everyone is buying the happy talk, at least not just yet.

My wife and I returned from a month on the road in our pickup and RV. We put just shy of 5,500 miles on our vehicles, visiting many states of various political persuasions between North Texas and the Pacific Ocean.

We came home Monday to Princeton. Do you know what I discovered upon my return to the neighborhood supermarket down the street and around the corner? I found a lot more exposed faces inside, but also a lot of masks still covering other faces.

If I had to take a wild guess I would say roughly 60 percent of the customers in the store were masked up. Store employees remain virtually fully masked.

To which I say: Good for them and good for us!

Look, Texas has done well in vaccinating residents as the medicine has become available. Most of my family here is vaccinated. We’re still waiting for our 8-year-old granddaughter to get the green light. She is behaving herself, understanding the concept of social distancing and the importance of mask-wearing.

I am a good bit away from ditching the masks we have in our truck. I want to resume what we used to call “normal life” as much as the next guy. I am willing and able to exercise some additional patience, though, awaiting for the all clear sign.

State news

GOP no longer ‘pro-business’ party?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

If you thought that the Republican Party is the “pro-business” political organization, you might want to rethink that now-quaint notion.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican (of course), has signed a bill into law that punishes business for demanding that customers prove they have been vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus, the one that has killed nearly 600,000 Americans.

It seems that Abbott believes people have no need to prove to anyone they have been vaccinated against a highly communicable, infectious and still potentially fatal disease.

Sure thing, guv.

He can count me as one Texas resident has no problem providing proof to anyone that I have been vaccinated. Indeed, my wife and I got our shots relatively early and have been adhering to the mandates sought by federal medical authorities: masks, social distancing, frequent hand-washing, and so on.

The Texas Tribune reports: “Texas is open 100%, and we want to make sure you have the freedom to go where you want without limits,” Abbott said before signing the law, in a video he posted Monday on Twitter. “Vaccine passports are now prohibited in the Lone Star State.”

Sigh …

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signs bill to restrict “vaccine passports” | The Texas Tribune

I am puzzled by the notion that a political party that used to tout its love for private business and sought to grant business owners relative autonomy from government interference is now endorsing this heavy-handed approach to preventing them from protecting their employees and those they serve.

State news

Ex-GOP chair West to seek another office? Oh, boy!

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

One of my least favorite Republicans — ever! — has declared he is thinking seriously of running for statewide office in Texas.

That means governor. Allen West resigned as chair of the Texas Republican Party to declare that he well might run for governor. He said he wants to avoid any potential conflict of interest by holding a partisan job while seeking a public office. Well, good for you on that score, Allen West.

But this guy really pi**es me off! Seriously, man.

He moved to Texas just a couple of years ago to run for party chair. He got elected and then started picking fights with other Republican pols. He got into snits with Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dade Phelan. West’s beef with Phelan was the funniest of them all, as he called Phelan a “traitor” because he works relatively well with legislative Democrats.

You can’t have any sort of bipartisanship, right Mr. GOP Chairman?

What ought to become an issue in any sort of political campaign that West launches is his military record. He resigned from the Army as a colonel, but got caught up in a scandalous incident in which he was party to the brutal mistreatment of an Iraqi prisoner during the Iraq War. He left the Army to run for Congress in Florida. He served a single term. West moved to Texas.

I chuckle how he compares himself to some of Texas’s heroes. According to the Texas Tribune: “Many men from Georgia, many men from Tennessee, came here to serve the great state of Texas, and so we’re gonna consider it,” said West, who grew up in Georgia. He added that he was announcing his resignation, effective next month, so that there is no conflict of interest as he weighs his next political move.

Texas Republican Party Chair Allen West resigns | The Texas Tribune

Allen West seems to embody the carpetbagging trend we happen to see these days. U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson had never lived in the 13th Congressional District before moving to the Texas Panhandle to run for the office that Mac Thornberry vacated when he retired. Indeed, former Democratic state Sen. Wendy Davis moved from Fort Worth to the Austin area to run for a congressional seat, but lost that bid. Others have followed suit.

Now we have Allen West, who knows next to nothing about the specific issues related to Texas. Will this guy study up on West Texas water needs, or on North Texas’s transportation issues, or on Gulf Coast shoreline erosion problems?

Hey, if he doesn’t want to run for governor, West — who resides in the Metroplex — said he might look at seeking the 32nd Congressional District now held by Rep. Collin Allred, a Democrat.

Good grief!