International news

End of Russian space flights on tap?

Holy crap! I hadn’t thought of this, but one of the casualties of the Russian invasion of Ukraine might be the Russian space program that ferries astronauts from other countries — including the United States — to the International Space Station.

You see, many nations are pulling far away from Russia as it seeks to conquer Ukraine in a senseless and seemingly pointless — but bloody — invasion. That means U.S. astronauts, who have no way to fly into space, given our nation’s ending of its manned space program, will have no way to rocket into orbit.

I am an avid follower of the space effort and I want to see Americans orbiting our good Earth. I also want the war in Ukraine to cease, ending the bloodshed and heartache.

Former astronaut Scott Kelly, who spent a year aboard the ISS after being flown there aboard a Russian rocket, predicts the Russian space program could collapse if the Russians have no one else to take into space. Hey, we pay ’em good money to fly our people into orbit; so do other nations.

Vladimir Putin has yet another reason to call a halt to this brain-dead invasion.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

War grabs media’s attention

War has this way of grabbing everyone’s attention, even yanking other compelling stories off the front page, pushing them off the air, relegating them to “old news.”

So it is these days with a ground war erupting in Ukraine. Russian armed forces have invaded a neighboring, sovereign nation on the orders of dictator Vladimir Putin. Media around the world are reporting on it to us who want to know how this war will play out.

I am unsure how I feel about our limited attention span. I remain deeply interested in the congressional inquiry into the cause of the 1/6 insurrection. Moreover, I want to know how the House committee is progressing in its search for the truth. It will get there in due course and I plan to be waiting with bated breath when the panel reaches its finish line.

President Biden has an aggressive agenda to help boost our already-recovering economy. It is stalled in the Senate. I want to know whether the president can parlay his extensive legislative experience into working out a compromise that can push the Build Better Back bill — or some facsimile of it — to a fruitful conclusion.

There remains a boatload of issues to be resolved, if only congressional Republicans can find a way to work the Democratic president instead of obstructing him at every turn.

OK, so all of that will still be there once our attention looks elsewhere, once we remove our gaze from Ukraine. I want that moment to arrive sooner rather than later. Not because I lust for a chance to see all those matters resolve … but because I want an end to the bloodshed.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Putin = sociopath

As the world recoils in horror at the sights and sounds coming from Ukraine for the past few days, I am left only to conclude that we are witnessing the results of a dictator’s sociopathic proclivity.

Vladimir Putin launched a war against Ukraine, running up those proverbial “false flags” that suggest ethnic Russians were somehow in danger and that Ukraine was being run by Nazis.

Putin has ignored what has been considered the modern “normal conduct” of warfare. Instead of targeting strictly military installations, the Russian goon has ordered the bombing of civilian targets. Office buildings, apartments, residential neighborhoods. They all contain helpless, defenseless civilians … including children.

The sociopath is committing crimes against humanity.

For what purpose? To bring Ukraine back into the Russian fold. Putin seems to have decided that Ukraine is his for the taking. So, he’s going to take it.

This is a dangerous individual. This is the guy the immediate past president of the United States courted. He told us it would be better if we were “friends” with Putin than to face him on the other side of a shooting war. Sure thing. However, Putin acted not out of defiance of this country, but out of greed and a lust to return Russia to its recent authoritarian heritage rooted in the Marxist ideology that gave us the Soviet Union.

He seemingly cares nothing about the world’s reaction to his cruelty. My dog-eared dictionary describes a “sociopath” as someone who exhibits “aggressive anti-social behavior.”

Does that fit Vladimir Putin? Looks that way to me.

He’s a danger to the entire world.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Dare I read Barr’s book?

William Barr is about to have a book published that tells the world what the world already knew: that Donald Trump is a dangerous psychopath who flew “off the rails” after losing the 2020 presidential election.

There. Having established that bit of knowledge, I am likely to pass on purchasing the former U.S. attorney general’s book. Why? Because he isn’t likely to tell me anything I don’t already know or already strongly believed about The Donald.

When Barr got the call to become AG after The Donald fired Jeff Sessions, I held out hope that Barr would become an enforcer of the law and the Constitution. I never imagined he would become a Trump toadie capable of perverting the law to suit The Donald’s machinations. Barr had served honorably as AG in the final phase of President George H.W. Bush’s administration. I was terribly wrong.

Now he’s telling the world what we all knew. I am glad he is coming clean. I only wish he had done so earlier, had resigned earlier than he did and revealed to us that the one-time head of state/commander in chief is off his ever-lovin’ rocker.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Panhandle to get new Senate face

Get ready, my old friends in the Texas Panhandle. You are about to get a new brand of legislative representation in the Texas Senate. It will come in the form of a state senator who represents your interests but who lives way down yonder in Midland, more than 200 miles away.

Kevin Sparks will be the new state senator from District 31. He won the Republican Party primary election this past week.

I don’t much at all about Sparks, other than I believe he was recruited by Empower Texans — a far right political action organization out of Midland — to run for the seat vacated by longtime Republican Sen. Kel Seliger of Amarillo. Empower Texans is a toxic organization and I detest what it stands for and what it has done to try to undermine the political leadership in the Panhandle, where my wife and I lived for 23 years before moving away in 2019.

They have their guy now slated to take his seat in District 31.

My hope is that Sparks does as much to represent the entire district, which runs from the Permian Basin all the way to the Panhandle’s border with Oklahoma. Seliger was as fluent in Permian Basin-speak as he was in Panhandle-speak when he served in the Senate. So was his Republican predecessor, the late Teel Bivins, also of Amarillo, who served the region from 1989 until 2004, when he left to become U.S. ambassador to Sweden. The same can be said of Bivins’s predecessor, Amarillo Democrat Bill Sarpalius.

The Panhandle has essentially owned that Senate seat since the proverbial Flood. Thanks to the GOP’s efforts to reconfigure the state’s legislative boundaries, the district lost several Panhandle counties and added some more down south, thus shoring up the strength of whoever wanted to run for the seat from the Permian Basin region.

There was a time when we could call our state senator or run into him at a local restaurant. I lost count of the times I would be sharing a meal with Kel Seliger in Amarillo and his attention was diverted to whomever walked by and wanted to chat. I doubt that will be the case with Sen. Sparks dining anywhere in Amarillo or Canyon.

That makes it imperative that he elevate his presence in the “other end” of the sprawling Senate district, which now happens to be the Panhandle, which until January 2023 had one of its own representing its interests in the Texas Senate. That task now will fall to an outsider.

Don’t let ’em down up north, Sen.-to-be Sparks.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

economic news, International news

Keep it in perspective

I couldn’t resist sharing this item that showed up on my social media feed this evening. I never really know who comes up with these gems; I do learn something from them.

My lesson here? It is that the pain, suffering, bloodshed, misery, anxiety, mourning and grief that Ukrainians are feeling at this moment put every little petty annoyance we might have in their proper place.

Gas prices going up? I don’t like it any more than the next person. However, it is good to keep some matters in context — such as what this message suggests we do.

More than 1 million Ukrainians reportedly have fled their country ahead of the Russian military onslaught initiated by the madman Vladimir Putin. Those who have stayed behind to fight the Russians are putting their lives in dire peril.

I won’t like paying more for the fuel that goes into my truck. However, I don’t believe I should bitch about it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

It ain’t child abuse

Greg Abbott never struck me in the years I covered him while working in daily journalism as a man with a mean streak; that was before he became Texas governor and now his meanness is on display.

Abbott wants to prosecute parents of transgender children for child abuse. Why? Because they want their children to undergo what is called “gender-affirming care.” He has the endorsement of the state’s indicted attorney general, Ken Paxton, who is another piece of … work.

What is gender-affirming care? The Texas Tribune reported:

Areana Quiñones, executive director for the Texas nonprofit organization Doctors For Change, defined gender-affirming care as judgment-free, individualized care oriented toward understanding and appreciating a person’s gender. Providers often work with counselors and family members to ensure they have everything they need to navigate the health care system.

Under the gender-affirming model of care, more time is spent allowing kids to socially transition instead of focusing on medical treatment. A social transition consists of the steps a child takes to affirm their identity. An example could include allowing a child assigned male at birth to grow their hair or use a different name and wear clothing that better fits their identity.

Is that the stuff of child abuse? I think not.

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/08/04/gender-affirming-care-transgender-texas/

What’s happening is that Gov. Abbott, who just breezed to the Republican nomination for a third term as governor after being challenged from the right wing of his party, is trying to assuage concerns among the nut jobs in his party that he isn’t conservative enough. Yeah … he is.

This ridiculous attack on children who express legitimate concerns about their sexuality suggests a level of radical conservative thought that shouldn’t have a place in setting state policy.

Child abuse is clearly defined as physical or emotional damage inflicted on children. How gender-affirming care — as stated earlier in this blog post — falls into that category simply boggles my noodle.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Second gent? Really?

Forgive my nitpicking. I can’t help myself at times, so cut me some slack.

Never before has the spouse of a president or vice president been a man. Until now. Doug Emhoff is married to Vice President Kamala Harris. OK, so why do the media keep referring to Emhoff as the “second gentleman”?

We have a first lady in the person of Jill Biden. Emhoff’s marriage to the vice president, therefore, makes him the “first gentleman.” Isn’t that right?

If women occupied both the presidency and vice presidency and were married to men, then the husband of the VPOTUS would be the second gentleman. Not now. Doug Emhoff, so far, is the only male American to have been thrust into the political limelight by virtue of his marriage to the vice president.

Let’s be more accurate, eh? Or perhaps I just am not understanding something.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Tough to watch these scenes

My old age is showing, as I am finding it increasingly difficult to watch the televised images from Ukraine that show the entire world what Russian military forces are doing to those who live in a country those forces are seeking to conquer.

They make me very angry. No, I am not going to suit up and go to war, fighting alongside the Ukrainians. I am way too old for that.

I just become enraged when I hear rhetoric from those who suggest that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy should just give in to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s demands … whatever the hell he intends.

Putin has launched a humanitarian crisis in Europe not seen since World War II. The Ukrainians are trying to defend their country against naked, bald-faced aggression. Putin, who once ran the Soviet spy agency the KGB, once told Barbara Walters that he didn’t order anyone’s death while serving as the Evil Empire’s top spook, that he was more of an “analyst.” Do you believe him? Hah! Neither do I.

I am not sure I can stomach much more of this, not that it matters to anyone at the center of the fight. I just am left to vent my frustration and rage via this platform and hope it somehow trickles into the decision rooms of those who are committing these war crimes.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news, political news

Pence has grown a pair?

What do you know about this? It appears that former Vice President Mike Pence has grown a pair of … um … well, you know what I mean.

Pence has told a group of Republicans that there is “no room” in the party for those who apologize for Vladimir Putin. Gosh! About whom do you suppose Pence is referring?

According to Newsnation: “Where would Russian tanks be today if NATO had not expanded the borders of freedom? There is no room in this party for apologists for Putin,” Pence said, according to excerpts from the speech, which was closed to reporters. “There is only room for champions of freedom.”

https://www.newsnationnow.com/politics/pence-hits-trump-no-room-in-gop-for-apologists-for-putin/?utm_campaign=NewsNation-trending-now&utm_source=thehill.com&utm_medium=newsnation-cross-brand

The word is out that he is stretching the divide that is growing between Pence and the guy who selected him to be vice president for four years prior to losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

It’s time to move past the 2020 election, Pence said. It’s time for the party to start plotting a course for the future, he said.

It took Pence a long time to become his own man. Too long, if you ask me. Even when the ex-POTUS threatened Pence because he did his job on 1/6 and certified President Biden’s election, he remained silent.

That now appears to be changing.

It’s not that Pence is going to get my vote if he decides to run for POTUS in 2024. However, I want to take this moment to offer him a word of support simply for demonstrating a smidgen of courage.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Commentary on politics, current events and life experience