national news

It’s a secular document!

Marjorie Taylor Greene doesn’t know the Constitution she took an oath to defend and protect, as she exhibited tonight in a “60 Minutes” interview.

The fire-breathing Republican congresswoman from northwest Georgia said the United States needs to become a “Christian nation,” which prompted the interviewer, Lesley Stahl, to remind her that the First Amendment to the Constitution prohibits the establishment of a state religion.

Greene answered that the founders sought “spiritual guidance” when the drafted the nation’s governing document.

OK. Yes. They did. However …

The document they produced doesn’t make a single reference to Christianity, or to Jesus Christ or the New Testament. What’s more, Article VI in the Constitution says specifically that there shall be “no religious test” required of anyone seeking public office in the United States of America.

What part of “secular government” does this idiot not get?

I just had to weigh in against this moronic testimony from a second-term member of Congress who is earning her spurs by spouting dangerous demagoguery.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Live it to the fullest

PORTLAND, Ore. — One of the lessons I have gleaned from my journey out west in the wake of my bride’s passing from cancer has been something I’ve known all along.

However, it is being driven home to me as a stark reality. It is to live one’s life fully and to never, ever take for granted that you’ve got a lot of time left on this Earth.

Kathy Anne likely didn’t see the diagnosis coming when she received it on Dec. 26. We had hoped to buy her some time, that the treatment she was scheduled to receive could “control” the lesion sufficiently to give her a good quality of life.

It didn’t work out.

She was gone in six weeks. It was a stunning outcome to an event I didn’t believe was probable. Yes, it was possible and I suppose I knew it could end the way it did. I just didn’t expect it.

The journey through the Great American West will continue in due course after I finish visiting friends and family in and near the city of my birth. I believe, though, that I have reached one undeniable conclusion at the midway point of this journey.

It is that I am going to relish the sunrise every single morning I am able to do so. Every day will be an adventure. I might not verbalize it when I awake, but I will certainly realize it as each day unfolds.

That’s not a bad way to go as I keep taking these baby steps toward the light.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump

Mixed feelings about POTUS 45’s campaign

I remain fairly convinced that the 45th president of the U.S. isn’t going to stay in the race for the White House in 2024.

It doesn’t bother me in the least that he would drop out to concentrate on fighting the bucketloads of legal trouble standing before him.

Nor does it bother me were he to stay in. Why? Because the moron remains a highly beatable Republican nominee for POTUS if the GOP faithful is stupid enough to nominate him in 2024.

The first indictment from the Manhattan grand jury appears to be just the first of several such actions awaiting the ex-POTUS. The more serious charges — tampering with election results, inciting the insurrection on 1/6 and squirreling away classified documents — all are grounds for criminal prosecution … in my humble view.

Thus, it seems to me that it is unlikely that even this idiot can continue to campaign for the White House.

If he does, big fu***** deal!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Biden shows needed reticence

Joe Biden is good enough of a politician and a lawyer to understand that when a political foe is being indicted for crimes that it is best to just keep his mouth shut.

It was reporters’ efforts to get the president to comment on Donald Trump’s indictment on multiple counts relating to the hush money payment he made to an adult film star that prompted Biden to declare that he won’t speak about Biden’s legal difficulty.

Why should he speak out? Indeed, no lawyer in America would ever counsel an active politician to weigh in on something such as Trump’s indictment.

You see, President Biden is both. An active pol and a man with a decent legal education.

Moreover, you might be willing to bet your last nickel that the president has instructed every member of the Cabinet, the White House staff and even the foreign service officials on duty to dummy up. Don’t talk to reporters about any of this! Got it? Good!

One of the axioms in politics is that when your adversaries are in trouble, it is best to just let ’em stew in their own sauce. Donald Trump’s difficulties are just beginning.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Portland, you have a problem

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PORTLAND, Ore. — Allow me this paraphrasing of the comment astronaut Jim Lovell relayed to Earth when his moon ship was damaged in space: Portland, you appear to have a problem.

I say “appear” because appearances are all I have at this moment.

Driving through Portland this afternoon along Interstate 5, I noticed a number of tent clusters. I have heard, along with other Americans, about the homeless problem in my hometown. Today I saw evidence of what I have heard.

The clusters of tents also contain considerable amounts of litter, trash, debris. Quite unsightly? Yes! It assuredly is hard to look at.

Here’s my question: What is the city doing to alleviate this problem?

No community anywhere wants to be known as a haven of sorts for homeless citizens. Yet that is what I believe is occurring in this lovely city of about 650,000 residents living in a greater metropolitan area of 2.5 million folks. Portland has become a great city. It is attractive. It has a vibrant river running through it, which then empties into one of the world’s great rivers on the city’s northern boundary. It has a downtown district that has become — even with the spate of violence seen here in recent times — the envy of other cities.

But it does have this homeless population that requires safe housing in which to live.

Is the city up to the challenge it faces? Man, I hope so.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

Belief in the system

I happen to be a staunch and faithful believer in the U.S. criminal justice system, the one that relies on everyday folks such as you and me to deliver justice in the form they believe fits.

With that, it is incumbent on me to forgo any bitching about a system that could produce a verdict in a high-profile case involving a former POTUS who has just been indicted on unspecified charges involving a hush money payment he made to a woman with whom he allegedly had a one-night tumble in 2006.

I’ll tell you where I am going with this. Even though I want a criminal trial jury to convict Donald Trump of whatever he is being charged, I need to stipulate that I must accept an acquittal if that is what the jury decides in due course. I won’t like the verdict, but in the interest in fealty to my faith in the system, I need to accept it.

There is no way to predict what a trial jury would decide, even if it goes to trial. I am just preparing myself for the worst outcome, but you won’t see me marching in the streets to protest whatever a jury would decide.

Unlike the defendant in this case, I believe in the integrity of the system, in the Manhattan, N.Y., district attorney who presented the evidence to the grand jury and in the grand jurors who acted in good faith to deliver their indictment.

The ex-president won’t ever acknowledge that the system worked the way it is designed to work. Fine. Let him bitch.

I won’t stoop to his level of cynical ignorance.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Hometown = municipal pariah

PORTLAND, Ore. — I have returned to the very city where I was born … and which has become a whipping boy for those on the right who believe it has become some sort of “woke” haven.

Whatever that means!

You’ll remember the “defund the police” movement that flared after several incidents involving Blacks who had died in altercations with law enforcement officers. Portland became a sort of ground zero of that movement.

Protests got out of hand in some neighborhoods here. There were reports of violence, of government office buildings burned, of arrests made by cops.

One could surmise that Portland had gone rogue, that it was a city in flames, that its streets are filled with homeless people sleeping in tent cities under bridges.

I’ll speak briefly to the last point, which is that I saw few tents under bridges as I made my way through Portland along Interstate 5.

I glanced out the truck windows as I whizzed along the interstate and noticed that the city is still mighty pretty, even with the low overcast sky and the drizzle that persists here.

I am looking forward to examining the city, to reconnecting with family and friends, to receiving hugs from those who want to comfort me in my time of grief.

Moreover, I intend to see for myself what the city looks like — up close and personal — as I visit neighborhoods throughout this lovely place.

I’ll get back to you on what I find.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

A compliment? Yes, by all means!

EUGENE, Ore. — An extraordinary statement of affirmation came my way today from a reader of this blog. I want to share it with you.

Readers of High Plains Blogger know about the trek I have taken out west to get away from my house in North Texas in the wake of my bride’s passing away from cancer in early February. My intention has been to clear my head and to mend my shattered heart.

Frankly, I wasn’t expecting to receive the statement I got today from a gentleman I do not know well; indeed, he and I are only acquainted via social media. He wrote me to say that a friend of his just lost his wife of 45 years to cancer and he will recommend, in due course, that he take the same action I did … which is to get out of the house.

I am going to accept that statement as a compliment for the work I have produced on the road. I didn’t intend for it to be the kind of “therapy” that others might recommend.

However, I am growing ever so slowly away from the intense pain that still flares. It comes unexpectedly. It surprises me, even as I drive my truck while stroking Toby the Puppy as he sits on the passenger seat next to me.

Those fits are becoming a bit more manageable as I wend my way through the Great American West. Thus, my social media friend has recognized it and has indicated a desire to have his good friend follow the course I have blazed on my own journey out of the darkness.

I wish my friend’s friend well as he begins his own recovery.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Don’t cuff Donald

Donald Trump is now headed for arguably the worst day of his life when he appears next week before a judge and will be indicted officially for a felony he allegedly committed.

OK, so here comes something that might surprise you. I do not believe Donald Trump needs to be handcuffed when he is “arrested,” read his rights and then photographed for his mug shot.

Why not cuff the ex-president? Because I believe it is too provocative a gesture … and a gratuitous one at that! There appears be some rumbling out there about protesting the Trump indictment. Putting the ex-POTUS in handcuffs well could spur the nut jobs among the Trump cult to re-create the havoc that erupted on 1/6.

The word is that Trump will travel to Manhattan, N.Y., for his indictment. The judge presiding over the procedure ought to issue a gag order to seek to silence Trump, who has lost his mind over the indictment. The process should play out peacefully, in an orderly fashion and in accordance with the rule of law.

One way to ensure a peaceful process is to avoid the spectacle of seeing Donald Trump in handcuffs.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Trump makes history!

Donald John Trump has made history, the kind of history that will be included in the first line of his obituary when that event arrives.

It will say he is the first former president of the United States indicted by a grand jury on allegations that he committed a crime.

Well … what now?

The law requires that the former POTUS show up to be charged formally. He will be fingerprinted, read his rights and will have his picture taken.

Oh … the allegation? The Manhattan, N.Y., grand jury says that he paid a porn start $130,000 to keep quiet about a one-night tumble he took with her in 2006, just weeks after his third wife gave birth to Trump’s fifth child. Trump denies he had the encounter with Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels, but he paid her anyway. Go … figure, eh?

The grand jury indicted Trump on a charge that he paid the sum illegally in 2016 while he was running for POTUS the first time.

Ohhh, boy. Ain’t this just a kick in patootie?

Now we must face the obvious question of whether this is just the first of a series of indictments. We have the Georgia district attorney investigating whether Trump sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election there; we have that evidence recorded from a phone tirade he launched against the Georgia secretary of state.

Plus … we have the Justice Department examining whether Trump broke the law when he took classified documents from the White House as he was exiting the building and, of course, whether he incited the 1/6 insurrection that sought to overthrow the U.S. government. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has said that “no one is above the law. No … one!” We’re going to find out if he means it.

I have thought the Georgia case was the easiest one to prosecute. Maybe that will pan out. Then again, there also appears to be mountains of evidence against the ex-POTUS on the insurrection and the classified documents matters as well.

But all that aside, what we have unfolding today is an unprecedented event in U.S. history with Trump standing alone as the only ex-POTUS to be charged with a felony.

This individual’s life is about to change forever.

Stand tall, Donald.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Commentary on politics, current events and life experience