Monthly Archives: February 2023

local news

Commercial air travel is coming?

McKinney, Texas, is home to what they call a “national airport.” Well, it looks as though the city that runs the place is asking its residents for a serious upgrade at the terminal just down the road from where I live in Collin County.

The McKinney City Council is putting a $200 million bond issue on the May 6 ballot, asking residents to spend the money to create a commercial air terminal at the “national airport.”

I wish I could vote in that election. I just will have to endorse the notion of turning McKinney National Airport into a place where we can fly aboard a commercial aircraft.

I believe the community is ready to approve such a notion.

McKinney, just as Princeton is where I live, has entered serious growth mode. Just take a gander at all the commercial construction along Farm-to-Market Road 546 and you understand what I mean. Unlike Princeton, which is developing rapidly into a serious bedroom community with lots of houses springing up out of the dirt, McKinney is adding substantial professional and commercial development, too.

An airport upgrade, thus, seems to make sense as the Collin County seat continues to grow. What’s more, turning its national airport into a commercial transportation venue would save air travelers — such as me — the misery of driving all the way to Love Field or Dallas-Fort Worth airport.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Does he deserve a full sendoff?

A member of my family today posed a question I’ve not yet heard anyone else ask out loud.

“Do you think,” my family member asked, “that if Joe Biden is still around whether he would grant Donald Trump a full state funeral in case Trump were to die while Biden is in office?”

I don’t need to ask for a show of hands, but I’d bet real American money that more than one of us has given that question some thought.

I am one American who has thought it … but never said it publicly.

Suppose that the former president is not yet indicted, or tried or convicted of a crime before he keels over. Does he deserve a state funeral, the kind given, for example, to former President George H.W. Bush? If he does, who should show up? Who would pay their respects to the 45th POTUS?

To be sure, I would not be one of them. Trump still seems to command a substantial enough following to attract a large crowd of admirers to whatever funeral is arranged.

Does he lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda? Does the current president order flags lowered to half-staff? Does any dignitary whom Trump hasn’t insulted, vilified or defamed dare speak on his behalf? Do Americans take any salute to Trump seriously?

You see, these are the kinds of things that rattle around in my noggin these days as I watch the drama play out into whether the Justice Department or local district attorneys are going to indict the ex-POTUS and then put him on trial for multiple crimes.

One of them happens to be inciting an insurrection against the very government he took an oath to “defend and protect.”

Absent an indictment and a conviction, though, Trump is entitled to the legal presumption of innocence, which I suppose determines whether he would get a presidential sendoff that some would say he deserves.

The floor is now open for discussion.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Joe Biden

Biden flexes his muscles

An 80-year-old president cannot possibly claim to have muscles as supple as they once were, but last night Joe Biden showed his opposition that he possesses plenty of fight as he prepares for the next phase of the presidency.

That involves what is lining up to be a spirited campaign for re-election.

The venue was a joint congressional session and the president’s annual State of the Union speech. The MAGA cult that comprises a good portion of the Republican caucus in the House decided to heckle the president at some curious and, frankly, dubious points. Such as when he talked about saving Medicare and Social Security.

He took ’em on in the moment. Frankly, we witnessed a side of the president I didn’t believe existed.

He was brilliant! He played the GOP fire-breathers like a cheap fiddle. Along the way he has set the stage for a 2024 presidential campaign that is going to be — at least for this partisan — fun to watch.

To be sure, the right-wing propagandists will portray the speech as nothing more than game-playing. They trotted out Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders to deliver the GOP response. Instead of offering policy alternatives, she leveled attack after attack on the “woke mob,” against “left-wing Democrats” and otherwise painted a grim portrait of a nation in decline.

Good grief! The state of our Union is as strong as it ever has been!

That all said, I want to be among the many commentators to applaud President Joe Biden for taking the fight straight to the opposition. He showed me that he has plenty left to offer the world’s greatest nation.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Memories serve as salve

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I just discovered something about the grief I am enduring at this moment … which is that recalling memories of the loved one I just lost serves as a salve for the pain that continues to cut deeply into my heart.

Many of you know already that I lost my bride this past Friday to cancer. The diagnosis came the day after Christmas. Then she was gone.

My sons and I are planning a service soon here in North Texas. One of them joined me in meeting with the pastor who will officiate at Kathy Anne’s graveside service. The Rev. Mally Baum — who my bride and I only recently got to know when we began attending the church where Mally serves — asked me questions about my bride.

She wanted to know more about her life journey and about her faith journey. My son and I shared much with her. We laughed out loud at some of the goofy things my wife would say. We shared her story, talked about her upbringing, I recalled the day she appeared before me at the college we both attended, about our story together and how we insisted on holding hands when we walked together.

Remembering those things brings comfort to me and to my sons.

Is it pain free? Of course not! I still well up … easily, in fact. Then it passes.

My friends tell me the grief will not subside quickly. They remind, though, that it will eventually. I believe Joe Biden’s wisdom when he has told Americans that the tears we shed when we think of lost loved ones will give way to smiles and laughter.

It’s happening to me now. albeit in teeny, tiny increments.

Grief, indeed, can teach us much about ourselves. I am learning about myself in real time.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

military news

What? Pentagon disabled the spy balloon?

How about this: It turns out that the spy balloon caper that has Republicans and MAGA cultists all a-flutter is turning out to be the nothing burger many of us have thought all along.

You see, now we get word that the Pentagon spooks were able to “disable” the Chinese spy balloon as it crossed over U.S. territory before a fighter jet shot the sucker down off the South Carolina coast.

Hmm. Those folks at the Pentagon are good … you know?

The military brass also counseled President Biden to hold off on shooting down the balloon to minimize threats to humans on the ground and damage done by falling debris. So, the president heeded the brass and then acted responsibly.

Oh, but not according to the GOP wingnuts who have all but accused President Biden of being a closet Chinese agent. Their response has been laughable and ridiculous.

I’ll throw in stupid just to make it a trifecta.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

military news

Balloons have been flying over U.S. for … how long?

Is there a chance on God’s good Earth that a top military officer’s declaration that the Chinese have been using spy balloons for years will stop the unfounded haranguing of President Biden over this latest matter?

Nope! Not a chance.

Still, it is worth noting what the commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command has said about this practice by China.

Politico reports:

The military did not detect previous flights of Chinese spy balloons over the U.S. that took place during the Trump administration, a top general said Monday, due to a ā€œgapā€ in the Defense Departmentā€™s ability to track certain airborne objects.

Gen. Glen VanHerck, head of North American Aerospace Defense Command, cited the issue as the reason that at least three spy balloon flights were not briefed to senior Trump officials at the time.

Top general says Trump-era spy balloons flew over the U.S. undetected – POLITICO

Republicans have blasting Joe Biden to smithereens because of the administration’s reportedly late response to the most recent People’s Republic of China space balloon. They have cited President Biden’s seemingly slow response to incompetence. Good grief! The president acted on advice from his top military command to wait until the balloon was over open water before shooting it down.

The action reportedly has angered the PRC. Too bad. Let ’em squawk. As for the GOP critics, once again they are playing politics with an issue of vital national security implications.

I’ll stick with Gen. VanHerck’s assertion that the PRC has done this prior to the Biden administration taking office. We didn’t know about their presence because the military intelligence network couldn’t detect them.

Where’s the GOP indignation on that matter?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

Now he takes the Fifth?

Hey, let’s flash back to around the time of the 2016 presidential campaign, the one that Donald J. Trump won in the strangest political fluke in U.S. history.

Someone asked him about a political foe who was “taking the Fifth Amendment” to avoid self-incrimination. Trump’s response was that “anyone who takes the Fifth must be guilty of a crime.”

Well … maybe so, maybe not. Donald Trump’s point, though, wasn’t that far off.

Fast-forward to a year ago. We now have seen video evidence of Donald Trump testifying before a New York state grand jury on a financial case that was under investigation. What did the former president do? He took the Fifth! Not once, or twice or even dozens of times. He hid behind the Fifth Amendment’s protection more than 400 times while being questioned about his company’s financial dealings.

Why bring this up? Because the pathological liar wants to be POTUS again. At least that’s what he says. He is facing a potential indictment for crimes he might have committed against the government of the United States.

Donald Trump is entitled to invoke the protection afforded all citizens under the U.S. Constitution. I don’t question the legitimacy of his Fifth Amendment assertion. I just wonder — out loud — whether he is as “guilty of a crime” as he accused others who have invoked the same privilege.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

media news

Free speech not always totally free

Many years in journalism taught me many valuable lessons about the law, the Constitution and people’s ability — or their occasionalĀ  inability — to abide by various rules.

Let’s examine one of the clauses contained in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the one that says “freedom of speech, or of the press” shall not be “abridged.”

Many people assume — incorrectly, in my view — that the free-speech clause means one can say anything they want anyone they choose without any consequence or punishment.

Wrong!

I’ll cite this blog as an example of what I mean. The Constitution protects bloggers such as me, but only to a point. It says the government should “make no law” that limits what people can say, but it does nothing to keep me from blocking people from popping off irresponsibly. It is, therefore, my call to determine who is being irresponsible.

When I see someone commenting on a public official, I seek to weigh the value of the individual’s comment. If it lends any value to the public debate, then bring it on … by all means!

I lost count long ago of the arguments I would have with readers of opinion pages I edited in Oregon and in Texas who would challenge my decision to nix commentaries submitted for publication. They would say “but the Constitution gives me the right to say what I want.” No … it doesn’t. It gives me the right, I would respond, to determine what is suitable for print.

I would tell the reader that they need to buy a printing press, load it with ink and paper and say whatever the hell they want to say.

Most recently, I have nixed commentaries on this blog that suggest that President Biden is suffering from “dementia.” I will not allow that defamatory comment to stand on my blog. If the individual whose comments I have blocked continue with that trash, then I will block that individual from using this venue for any purpose.

It is my right — under the Constitution — to do such a thing.

There. Are we clear? Good.

Have a great day.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

No one is alone

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Those who have been following my recent journey through a medical challenge, through anxiety and now through grief will understand what I am about to write on this blog post.

It is that the passing of my dear bride, Kathy Anne, to cancer has shattered my heart into a million pieces. Maybe more. The diagnosis of malignant brain cancer came on Dec. 26 and her struggle ended just this past Friday.

We had reason to hope for a positive outcome. Then it became, well, tragic.

What I am learning through my grief is something that I have known intellectually for as long as I have been able to process such things. Which is that I am far from the only person who has lost someone so dear to me to a merciless killer such as cancer.

We started our life together more than 51 years ago. We chose each other to be our partners in life through every peak and valley that our life would confront. We aren’t the first couple to make that pledge. We won’t be the last.

I have to remind myself of that undeniable fact as I grapple with my own grief. I have to tell myself — and I have been doing so frequently in the past 48 or so hours — that I am truly not alone in this struggle.

As near as I can tell, that means this level of grief and sorrow has been with humankind since the very beginning … of time.

My word of advice, therefore, to others who will endure the heartache I am feeling at this moment is that you, too, should keep in mind that if others can get through this unbearable pain, then so can you.

My pain endures, but so will I eventually find the light at the end of this dark journey.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

How does he do it?

How in the world — in the name of political sanity — can one explain Donald J. Trump’s bizarre hold on what remains of the Republican Party?

I keep seeing this polling data that has the the twice-impeached former president, who is headed for criminal indictment in the lead (for the moment) for the GOP’s presidential nomination in 2024.

Maybe I should be applauding this idiocy. Maybe I should welcome the fact that Trump, who is severely weakened by his moronic behavior and the acknowledgement among many leading GOP pols that he is doomed to fail, might well steal the nomination next year.

Hey, I am biased to the max against this moron. But you know that already. I want President Biden to win re-election next year. I ought to welcome a Trump candidacy. It would be run the way the first two were conducted: slipshod, chaotic, no-preparation, no-platform.

Hey, dude won in 2016. I get that. He lost in 2020 because he couldn’t formulate a vision for the future and then has continued to promote The Big Lie about voter fraud that did not exist.

So, I am going to relax for just a bit and not worry about Trump’s seeming standing among Republicans, who apparently are so damn gullible that they well might nominate a certifiable idiot.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com