State news

AG Paxton in dire peril

Maybe it’s just me, but I feel this rumbling in my gut that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is in some deep doo-doo … politically speaking.

Think about something for a brief moment.

When has any Texas Republican statewide officeholder faced the kind of intraparty challenge that Paxton is facing as the next primary campaign approaches. He has three Republican challengers already and a fourth one might be ready to jump into the race.

Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush has announced his intention to run; so has former Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman, along with state Rep. Matt Krause. Waiting in the wings might be U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert.

Here’s the fascinating dynamic shaping up. Bush and Guzman appear to be running as “establishment Republicans” who are fed up with Paxton’s legal troubles, starting with his pending state court trial on an allegation of investment securities fraud. Then we have Krause, a member of the ultraconservative Texas Freedom Caucus, who would tack farther to the right. Oh, and then we might get Gohmert, the unofficial leader of the Texas GOP Nut Job Caucus in Congress.

What does this mean for Paxton? It means — to my way of thinking — that he’s managed to pi** off disparate elements within his own party. One side considers him an embarrassment, the other side is pulling him in the opposite direction.

Ken Paxton is now one of four GOP candidates running for AG. I hope the number jumps to five … or even more.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Beto jumps in!

Beto O’Rourke today made official what many observers had speculated for some time, that he is going to run for Texas governor in 2022.

O’Rourke is a Democrat. The incumbent governor, Greg Abbott, is a Republican. It appears to be a fairly safe bet to suggest that O’Rourke will survive the Democratic Party primary next spring and that Abbott will be nominated by GOP voters at the same time.

That means the two of them will square off for Abbott’s job.

I want zero misunderstanding, as if there is any possibility of that occurring with this next statement: I want Abbott to lose his job!

He has been a disgrace as a governor and I say that with some regret. I knew him when he was a Texas Supreme Court justice and as state attorney general. I thought we had a nice professional relationship.

Abbott ran for governor after I left full-time journalism behind so our paths haven’t crossed since he took that office in 2015.

But, man, he has managed to piss me off royally since becoming governor.

I have detested his handling of the COVID pandemic and his refusal to let local governments take control of health matters in their communities. His support of that hideous anti-abortion bill and his declaration that he would work to “eliminate rape” from occurring is utterly laughable on its face. He has tacked so far to the right that there is virtually no room between himself and the precipice over which he would tumble.

Beto O’Rourke, a former Democratic congressman from El Paso, reached a high-water mark politically by nearly defeating Sen. Ted Cruz in the race for the U.S. Senate. He believes he still has the political chops to take on Abbott. I hope that is the case. Indeed, Abbott’s aforementioned COVID response and his legislative record have given O’Rourke plenty of ammo to use against the governor.

I hope he succeeds.

You go, Beto!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

How about cell phone ban enforcement?

My wife and I live in a house that is about 50 feet past a sign that marks the end of a “school zone” in Princeton, Texas.

I am mentioning that because of something I witness repeatedly: the sight of drivers using hand-held devices while they pass through a zone where such activity is illegal.

Indeed, using hand-held devices while driving a motor vehicle is against state law. The Texas Legislature made it so in 2019 and Gov. Greg Abbott signed the bill into law. It was a long slog to get it enacted. Then-Gov. Rick Perry vetoed an earlier bill on grounds that it infringed on driver’s “personal liberty.” Sheesh.

My point is that law enforcement officers surely have a headache trying to enforce this law. It’s one thing, I suppose, to pull someone over on a suspicion of illegal activity. Police officers I know have told me over many years they can act only when they witness a crime being committed.

So, does a police officer pull someone over when they witness that motorist yapping on a cell phone that he or she is holding up to his or her ear? I would hope that would be the case.

My witnessing of such law-breakers driving through my neighborhood, though, suggest to me that enforcement of this law isn’t a sufficient deterrent against motorists from fumbling with a cell phone while driving a two-ton motor vehicle … in a school zone!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

AG Garland rises to occasion

As I look at and listen to Attorney General Merrick Garland I am filled with an odd sense of fulfillment … and I wonder if he feels something akin to it, too.

In early 2016, President Barack H. Obama nominated Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court to succeed the iconic conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, who died suddenly while vacationing in Texas. Garland had served with distinction on the D.C. Appeals Court, so Obama thought he’d be a good fit for the highest court in the land.

The Republican majority leader in the Senate said “not so fast.” He blocked Garland’s appointment by declaring we were “too close” to a presidential election. Mitch McConnell wanted to wait until the 2016 election concluded. He was hoping the GOP nominee would win. His dream came true with the election of Donald J. Trump, who then selected the first of three justices to the high court.

Garland by then had gone back to work on the D.C. bench. Then came another nomination from another president, Joe Biden, who wanted Garland to become attorney general. The Senate, now in Democratic hands, approved his nomination and Garland is now standing his post at DOJ.

He is doing, in my view, the kind of stellar job of enforcing the law one would expect of him, given his credentials as a fair-minded jurist.

Yes, I saw the GOP stiffing of his nomination to the SCOTUS as a tragic event. McConnell demonstrated the kind of arrogance I frankly didn’t think was possible.

What’s more, I shudder to think what could happen after the 2022 midterm election and the GOP resumes control of the Senate. What might occur if another vacancy occurs on the SCOTUS, say, in early 2023. Would the Senate stiff the current president as it did the earlier one, citing the same specious reasoning for disallowing a nomination to go forward as prescribed by the U.S. Constitution?

I fear that would be the case.

Meanwhile, AG Merrick Garland is doing his job at Justice with supreme skill. It is just as many of us knew he would do.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

media news

‘Let’s go, Brandon’ explained

I guess I need to get out more.

This morning I awoke and while catching up on some overnight developments, I found the “Let’s go, Brandon” slogan plastered on several items. I looked up the origin of this phrase I’ve been seeing. I found this on Yahoo news:

Republican Rep. Bill Posey of Florida ended an Oct. 21 House floor speech with a fist pump and cryptically let out the phrase that’s disguised to be upbeat. A day later, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas tweeted the phrase. More recently, Southwest Airlines opened an internal investigation when a pilot used it over the loudspeaker.

The phrase originated at an Oct. 2 NASCAR race at the Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. Brandon Brown, a 28-year-old driver, had won his first Xfinity Series and was being interviewed by an NBC Sports reporter. The crowd behind him was chanting something at first difficult to make out. The reporter suggested they were chanting “Let’s go, Brandon” to cheer the driver. But it was clear they were saying, “(Expletive) Joe Biden.”

What does ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ mean? Everything you need to know about the Joe Biden insult (yahoo.com)

So now it has become a sort of right-wing rallying cry. Social media have carried it around the world, maybe even into outer space.

Again, as with the term “woke” — which still kinda flies over my noggin — I need to understand some of these trendy sayings that grow legs and traipse their way into contemporary public discourse.

I’m not sure how to use the “Let’s go, Brandon” phrase. Is it an epithet? Do I say it when I want to denigrate a liberal/progressive policy? Do I hurl it at President Biden?

I’ll just stick with what I know.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

economic news

Brickbats go with the bouquets

The Financial Times believes President Biden must understand he needs to take responsibility for the inflation that has plaguing the nation.

The London-based publication wrote this: Biden has promised to “build back better” after the coronavirus pandemic. His big spending has already helped to deliver a historic recovery, with US national income back at a level above its pre-pandemic peak. The challenge will now become harder: to demonstrate he can deliver higher living standards without jeopardising his pledge to tackle climate change.

The Financial Times notes as well that President Carter will be marked indelibly by the inflation that consumed his single term in office. Yes, there was that and the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979-81. The Times is correct, though, to project that Biden faces potential defeat in 2024 if he doesn’t sidle up to the issue now before it gets totally out of control.

I am not sure how much of the inflation issue is a direct result of presidential policies. He did inherit that pandemic and the “supply chain” crisis that has developed while the nation seeks to subvert the coronavirus.

It’s happening on President Biden’s watch. He cannot forestall a solution simply by blaming his predecessor.

Let’s get busy, Mr. President.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Sports news

Aaron Rodgers’s white lie still stings

We won’t call Aaron Rodgers’s deception about being “immunized” instead of vaccinated against the COVID 19 virus a “little white lie.”

It goes beyond little white lie status. Let’s just call it a lie.

The Green Bay Packers quarterback is continuing to pay the price in deserved recrimination for his refusal to tell the truth — to the public — about whether he had taken the vaccine. He had taken instead some sort of cocktail of drugs that included Ivermectin, the medicine prescribed for livestock as a de-worming agent. Yeah, yeah … I get that he was prescribed by a doctor who reportedly gave him some sort of “human form” of the agent that supposedly works against the virus.

He didn’t say that. All he said was that he is “immunized.”

My beef with Rodgers — who until now I had grown to admire as a Hall of Fame-quality QB — is that his moronic reaction to the blowback suggests he doesn’t get it. He won’t take ownership of the mistake he made in lying about his vaccination status.

Rodgers now becomes what politicians like to refer to as a “distraction.” His teammates are distracted by the furor over this matter. So are the fans and the media.

This damn story won’t go away. I am not sure it should go away until Rodgers’s comes clean and owns the controversy he has created.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

Just when you think you know someone …

… They toss a curve ball at you.

Here’s a case in point. A friend of ours informed me this week that she has avoided being vaccinated against the killer COVID 19 virus. Why? Because two members of her family — who happen to be medical professionals — have expressed “concern” about the vaccines being offered.

Hmm. I asked: What are the concerns? My friend said she didn’t know the particulars, just that her family members/medical pros said they didn’t know all there is to know about them.

So she has refused to take the vaccine.

OK. I then informed her that my bride and I have been fully vaccinated. We have taken the booster shots, too. We have zero qualms about the vaccines being developed by the Big Pharma firms.

I will admit to being taken aback by my friend’s reluctance. She and her husband both have been stricken with the virus. They got ill, but not terribly so. They recovered. They are now functioning fully, getting out and doing whatever it is they do.

I just have decided I am going to keep my distance for the foreseeable future. Maybe beyond.

Meanwhile, I will continue to trust the medical experts who tell us the vaccines are working and that any spikes in COVID cases involve those who have not been vaccinated against the virus.

I also will pray for our friends’ good health.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

What happened to Congress’s better angels?

There once was a time when we expected our elected leaders to represent the very best in us, yes?

What, then, has become of that standard in the halls of our Congress?

A Republican member of the House, Paul Gosar of Arizona, could be censured by his Democratic colleagues for posting an animation depicting him killing Democratic U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and attacking President Biden. Has there been any recrimination coming from the Republican side of the great divide? Has any of the GOP leadership scolded Gosar publicly for posting such a hideous depiction? No. Nothin’, man.

House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy has said nothing. Nor has any of the leadership team surrounding him.

Gosar could be censured. That means he will have to stand in the well of the House and listen to  his colleagues excoriate him. The critics are likely to be Democrats only. But his conduct casts shame on the entire House of Representatives, which contains a significant number of Republicans as well.

The better angels of our elected House have gone silent.

What a horrible shame on them!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Joe Biden

Biden term tainted unfairly

Try as I am with my little ol’ blog platform to set the record straight about the 2020 presidential election, I am wracked with fear that President Biden is going to be tainted unfairly over his election one year ago.

It is this idiotic notion that the presidential election is somehow corrupt, that Biden didn’t actually defeat Donald Trump.

Holy crap, man! He won! Biden collected 7 million more votes than Trump! He captured the Electoral College by the same “landslide” that Trump described as he won four years earlier against Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Trump had hired an acknowledged expert at securing elections prior to the 2020 election. The expert, Christopher Krebs, managed to wipe out any doubt over the integrity of the balloting. They counted the votes; Biden got more of them than Trump and then Krebs declared the 2020 election was the “most secure” in U.S. history. Trump went ballistic.

The cultists who follow Trump seem wedded to The Big Lie that the former POTUS is fomenting. The newly indicted former Trump adviser Steve Bannon said 42% percent of Americans believe the election was corrupt. I don’t necessarily accept Bannon’s figures. Still, there seems to be a solid body of Americans who have swilled the Kool-Aid served up by the Trump cult of personality.

What does this mean for President Biden? It means, as I see it, that Biden will be dogged at least through his current term by this ridiculous trash talk being offered by the man he defeated in 2020. It is nothing more than trash. Garbage. It needs to be flushed away.

If the former POTUS had a shred of decency, or any love of country, or any sense of doing the right thing, he would have conceded the election a year ago. He would have called the new president, wished him well, offered his support and then skulked into the darkness. He would have gone about pursuing whatever it is he intends to pursue in his post-presidential years.

But, oh no-o-o-o! That ain’t Trump’s modus operandi.

He has behaved disgracefully every day since he left the White House the day before President Biden took his oath of office.

So help me I’ll keep trying to persuade others of what I know to be true: Joe Biden’s election as the 46th POTUS is on the up-and-up. He won fair and square and President Biden deserves to be free of the taint that is staining his term in office.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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