Tag Archives: GOP

national news

Why worry about Santos?

For the life of me I cannot fathom easily why I should give a damn about a freshman Republican congressman from New York.

But I kinda do give a damn! Here’s why.

George Santos has been indicted by the Department of Justice on a number of charges related the bucketload of lies Santos told while getting elected to Congress in 2022. They relate to mail fraud and campaign expenses.

Santos has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges.

Whatever … here’s the deal about this serial liar.

He has become a top target of Democratic Party strategists looking to flip the House district back to their corner after Santos’s surprise victory in 2022.

Santos probably ought to just resign his seat and concentrate on defending himself in court. Were he to do that, it would reduce the GOP’s razor thin House majority even more, giving Speaker Kevin McCarthy even more reason to complain about sleepless nights.

Let me remind you, too, that McCarthy had to make a whole lot of concessions to the MAGA wing of his GOP caucus just to win election as speaker … on the 15th ballot.

Thus, it becomes important that George Santos be held accountable for (a) the lies he told to get elected and (b) the allegations that he misspent campaign money given to him by those who swallowed the baloney he served them.

I suppose I should mention, too, that even his Republican colleagues cannot stand him. Do you recall seeing anyone standing with this liar defending him for the deceitful campaign he waged?

I suppose one of the lessons all voters should take from this loser’s saga is to remain vigilant when someone talks about family members surviving the Holocaust or 9/11. Santos’s lies on those tragedies helped open the door to all the lies he told to win voters’ trust.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

economic news

They must avoid debacle

The debt-ceiling debacle that might befall the nation is an event that no sane politician anywhere should want to occur.

Republicans for the first time in the nation’s history are threatening to withhold the votes to raise the debt ceiling because they want cuts in spending to which they have contributed along with their Democratic colleagues.

Now that a Democrat is in the White House, though, Republicans are insisting on massive spending cuts to offset what historically — since the beginning of the republic — has been a pro forma vote to increase the debt ceiling. Where was the GOP outrage over spending when Republicans were in the White House?

Failure to do so would put the nation in default for the first time ever. The consequence of that? Well, every economist on Earth says the nation would spiral into economic catastrophe.

Millions of jobs would be lost; interest rates would skyrocket, making home- and auto-buying impossible; the stock market would collapse; retirement accounts would vaporize; and — this is where it really hits home for me — Social Security payments would be suspended.

I am on a fixed income. I rely on my Social Security income to pay my own bills. What’s more, if my retirement account goes poof!, then I won’t have that money on which could pay those bills.

How can I say this clearly? Do not allow any of this happen, GOP members of Congress! You will pay dearly for it at the next election.

That ain’t a threat. It’s a lead-pipe promise!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Slaton quits House … good riddance!

Bryan Slaton, who was about to be expelled by his colleagues in the Texas House of Representatives, has decided to spare himself the humiliation of being booted out of office.

He quit the office on his own!

Slaton, a Royse City Republican, had been investigated for having sex with an intern after serving her alcohol. A House committee had recommended he be expelled from the House, which was set to vote Tuesday on whether to throw his sorry backside out of the place. There still might be a vote, even though Slaton’s gone from the body.

Well, the second-term legislator is done embarrassing the House in which he served, the state that must live by the laws he endorses and his constituents who sent him to the House to do their bidding … which did not include boorish behavior.

This self-proclaimed Christian conservative, a married man who said with no appreciation for the irony he expressed about he now gets to “spend time with my young family,” has disgraced himself.

State Rep. Steve Toth, R-The Woodlands, said this on social media: “His resignation gave no apology to the young woman he violated, his wife whom he betrayed or his district that he failed. No remorse. No acceptance of responsibility. He’s the victim that rides off into the sunset. That was the resignation of a narcissist.”

Good riddance!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Don’t misrepresent vote

Memo to Marie Biggs, a Democratic precinct chair in Collin County, Texas: You need to cease misrepresenting the nature of the recent election to the Collin College Board of Regents.

I returned home today after spending a couple of nights way and found a single-sheet flyer in my front door. It speaks to the need for Democrats to get out and vote for three candidates running for the board of regents: Megan Wallace, Scott Coleman and Stacey Donald.

“Turnout has been extremely low,” Biggs wrote in her note. “That means we have a chance t beat the MAGA Republicans on the Collin College board,” she wrote.

Hold on a second, Ms. Biggs! The college board is elected on non-partisan ballots. No one runs as a Democrat or a “MAGA Republican.” A regent or a candidate for the board can adhere to policies that tilt one way or the other.

However, to call on voters to “vote for the following Democrats” constitutes a gross misrepresentation of the election.

It reminds me of a ploy I witnessed in Amarillo in the late 1990s in the race for mayor, another non-partisan office. A candidate seeking to defeat incumbent Mayor Kel Seliger sent out literature asking “all good Republicans” to vote for her. I was editing an opinion page at the local newspaper and we called out Mary Alice Brittain for doing the same thing that Marie Biggs did this weekend. Brittain lost the race for mayor … and then disappeared.

Listen up, Ms. Biggs: Take care in characterizing these campaigns.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

When is it enough?

When in the name of national sanity is enough going to be enough, that the latest case of mass slaughter at the hands of a madman with an AR-15 will prompt some legislation that could prevent future carnage?

The latest spasm of violence occurred just down the highway from my North Texas home — and even closer to my precious family members who live in Allen. The Allen Outlet Mall was the scene when a lunatic got out of his vehicle and opened fire. He killed eight people, including a 5-year-old before an Allen Police Department officer arrived and shot the gunman dead.

I want to shake the cop’s hand one day and thank him for his service to the community.

Meanwhile, we hear from President Biden who — once again — ordered flags to fly at half-staff and also called for a ban on AR-15s and asked Congress to approve universal background checks and increase the minimum age of purchasing a firearm from 18 to 21.

And what do we hear from Texas pols? GOP Gov. Greg Abbott said the answer lies in mental health treatment. Yes, governor, it does … but it must not be mutually exclusive to what the president is seeking.

Texas GOP U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, meanwhile, said he and his wife are praying for the families and the community. Thanks, senator, but prayers aren’t working. Then comes newly elected U.S. Rep. Keith Self, another Republican who represents Collin County in the House, with a remark that “God is in charge” of everything. Right, Rep. Self. Explain how God continues to allow this kind of slaughter to recur.

I agree with Gov. Abbott about the need to wage war against mental illness. I also agree with President Biden about banning AR-15s and high-capacity magazines, background checks and raising the age of those who want to buy firearms. These approaches are not mutually exclusive!

I want to remind everyone that most Americans — of all political stripes — favor the approach that Biden seeks. Yet our governing institutions keep ignoring the will of the people.

All the while, lunatics keep slithering into plain view to slaughter innocent victims.

Enough is enough!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Must we be afraid?

Republican politicians and those who follow them have become adept at scaring the bejeebers out of folks.

Yes, the GOP is campaigning on fear. They tell us they fear their political foes are up to no good.

Let’s cite an example or two, or maybe three.

The GOP has told us since time began that Democrats and liberals are going to take away our guns. They want to disarm Americans. They do not subscribe to the Second Amendment’s guarantee that all Americans are entitled to “keep and bear arms.” They want voters to fear the worst on that matter.

Republicans want you to fear Democrats pushing a “woke” agenda that does all sorts of frightening things, such as “indoctrinate” our children into changing their gender, or seeking to convert everyone to becoming gay.

The GOP fears our children being taught about our nation’s history of racism. Republicans deny the existence of racist policies. They don’t want the Civil War taught as a lesson in states seeking to preserve slavery and their willingness to go to war with the U.S. government to keep slaves in bondage.

I hope you understand my point. The GOP has become a party of fear merchants. They are afraid of losing their grip on power and they want voters to join them in fearing the worst among their foes.

It’s frightening.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Liz Cheney a Democrat? C’mon!

You hear it from time to time, that Liz Cheney is going to become a Democrat after spending a lifetime as a Republican.

All I can say to that is … c’mon, man. It won’t happen. Not ever.

At least that’s my belief.

Cheney is the former Wyoming congresswoman who bolted GOP orthodoxy by being a staunch, vocal and ferocious critic of Donald J. Trump because, in many millions of Americans’ view, he violated his oath of office.

She paid for her rebellion by being ousted from the party and then by losing her 2022 GOP primary election to a Trumpkin.

But … is all of this reason for her to become a Democrat? No. It isn’t.

Cheney has said all along that she remains a pro-gun, pro-life, low-tax, fiscal conservative who believes strongly in the traditional Republican principles that led her to join the party of her father, former U.S. Rep. and ex-Vice President Dick Cheney.

Her only variation from what passes now for Republicanism is that she believes Donald Trump is a menace to the nation and should never, ever return to the White House … especially as president of the United States.

As for the talk about her joining the Democratic Party, it ain’t gonna happen … again, that’s my belief. Still, there is much to admire about a politician who is willing to pay the political price Liz Cheney paid while standing tall for democracy.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

economic news

Word of warning: Don’t default, GOP

The men and women serving in Congress as Republicans seem to have lost their collective minds.

They are threatening to allow the United States — for the first time in its history — to default on its debt obligations. They want to negotiate big spending cuts to, um, reduce the national debt before allowing the debt ceiling to be lifted.

If Congress and the president fail to reach an agreement, well, catastrophe looms. President Biden says he won’t negotiate over the debt ceiling, because it’s an action the government has taken since the founding of the republic.

If we default on our debts, all hell is going to bust loose. All hell, I’m telling ya!

I don’t know about you, but I do not want to see my retirement portfolio flushed away. Yet that is what well could happen if we default on our debts.

I hasten to add that when Republicans served as president, the GOP was OK with raising the ceiling. No problem, man. They locked arms with their Democratic colleagues.

I also want to point out that the latest GOP pol to occupy the White House ran the debt up at a greater pace than any other administration in history. Where was the Republican outrage over that? I know the answer: There was none!

Congressional Republicans need to quit playing games and threatening to bring calamity to hundreds of millions of Americans’ financial well-being.

Time is running out. Raise the damn debt ceiling!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

‘Representative democracy,’ yes?

When the founders created this great nation, they established a “representative democracy” in which those we elect to public office are charged with representing the majority view of those who send them to office.

Why, then, does the Texas Legislature — to cite just one example — continue to resist the will of the people who appear to support increasing the minimum age for those wishing to purchase firearms?

That’s what is going on here, according to a new poll published by the University of Texas.

The Texas Tribune reports: Released Wednesday, the survey from the University of Texas at Austin found 76% of voters support “raising the legal age to purchase any firearm from 18 years of age to 21 years of age.” Twenty percent of voters oppose the idea. Republicans back the proposal 64% to 31%.

Poll finds Texans support raising age to buy guns from 18 to 21 | The Texas Tribune

What is just as staggering as the overall support for such a measure is the significant majority of Texans who call themselves Republicans who also support increasing the minimum age.

Indeed, the GOP that controls the Legislature along with every single statewide office in Texas ought to listen to the will of the people for whom they work instead of the gun lobby that keeps funneling money to their campaigns.

I am not suggesting that increasing the age limit is the end-all to the spate of gun violence that plagues our society. It merely adds one more reasonable requirement for those wishing to purchase a firearm. While we’re at it, why not also include universal background checks to ensure that the gun purchaser isn’t a threat to those around him.

I doubt seriously the nation’s founders would approve of the way this political climate has shaken out 200-plus years after they created this representative democracy.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Monument to mass shooting victims? Yes!

Joe Moody has an idea that he hopes his fellow Texas legislators will move into final passage and ultimately into law.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear likely that the El Paso Democrat’s idea will see a fruitful end. He wants the state to erect a monument to all the victims of mass shootings in Texas. He wants the monument to be erected on the Capitol grounds to remind visitors — and legislators — of the crisis we are enduring with the spate of gun violence that continues to plague our society.

According to KERA-TV: “There are too many victims now, and there’s bound to be more in the future,” Moody said. “I remember when I was younger, and Columbine happened. It was unthinkable at the time. But in the years since, mass shootings have become almost commonplace.”

Moody’s community has felt the pain of mass shootings. He also served on a three-member legislative committee that examined the recent Uvalde massacre at Robb Elementary School.

As KERA reported: The text of the resolution lists mass shootings in Texas that date back to 1966, when a lone gunman killed 15 people from the clock tower at the University of Texas at Austin. The text continues by mentioning the 19 children and two teachers killed at Robb Elementary School in May 2022 and the back-to-back shootings in 2019. In early August of that year a gunman killed 23 people at an El Paso Walmart, and another shooter killed seven in late August in the Midland-Odessa area.

Texas Democrat urges Legislature to approve a monument honoring victims of mass shootings (ketr.org)

I fear the bill won’t go anywhere in a Legislature dominated by Republicans, who themselves are dominated by those who are reluctant to enact any meaningful anti-gun violence legislation. Yes, I refer to the gun lobby.

If only we could remove the stubborn resistance to significant gun reforms from the minds of our state legislators.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com