crime news

Why not make the fight?

My thoughts on a New York Republican congressman have changed a bit in the past couple of days, and I want to express my new feelings here.

Chris Jacobs was running for re-election to his suburban Buffalo congressional district. Then he said he favored banning AR-15 rifles, one of which was used by the gunman who killed 10 people in a Buffalo supermarket; another gunman several days later then used an AR-15 to slaughter 19 children and two teachers in a Uvalde, Texas, grade school.

Jacobs’s support of an AR-15 ban and support for increasing the minimum age to buy weapons from 18 to 21 years of age drew the rage of New York conservatives. Jacobs then pulled out of his re-election effort.

Wait a second! Why not stay in the fight and argue vigorously for your position? If he knew he was doomed to lose his re-election effort, Jacobs could have stayed the course and fought until Election Day to make his case.

He didn’t do that. Instead, he took the path of least resistance … and denied voters of his district a chance to hear an honest debate about what is arguably the most compelling issue of the 2022 midterm election season.

It saddens me.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Gun lobby digs in on age requirement?

You have to be 21 years of age to buy a beer, a jug of wine or a mixed drink at your favorite watering hole.

To be emancipated from parental control? That’s generally accepted at age 21.

Some insurance companies won’t sell insurance to you until you turn 21, unless you’re in school.

What, then, is the reason we don’t require someone to be 21 years of age to purchase a firearm? The issue has burst onto the forefront in the wake of recent spasm of gun violence. The moron who shot those 19 precious children and two of their teachers to death in Uvalde turned 18 and then purchased an AR-15 rifle right after his birthday; he bought a second one days later.

President Biden has called on government to increase the age from 18 to 21. Republicans — naturally! — are digging in against even that modest notion.

The GOP is marching to the cadence called by the gun lobby.

These politicians are acting disgracefully.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Congressman quits … because he showed common sense!

An outrageous political development has just occurred that demonstrates how totally off the rails the once-great Republican Party has flown.

U.S. Rep. Chris Jacobs, a New York Republican, has ended his re-election bid because — and hold onto something with both hands — he said he favored a ban on assault rifles, a position that enraged GOP officials in his state so much that Jacobs has been forced to end his public service career.

Jacobs made the statement after the Uvalde school massacre and the Buffalo shopping market carnage.

“I want to be completely transparent of where I am in Congress. If an assault weapons ban bill came to the floor that would ban something like an AR-15, I would vote for it,” he said, according to Spectrum News 1. What’s more, Jacobs said he would favor increasing the minimum age of people purchasing a firearm from 18 to 21 years old.

That was too much for New York conservatives to handle. Jacobs, by the way, represents an area of suburban Buffalo, so he feels the community’s grief deeply.

What in the name of political sanity has gone wrong here?

According to The Associated Press: “The last thing we need is an incredibly negative, half-truth-filled media attack funded by millions of dollars of special interest money coming into our community around this issue of guns and gun violence and gun control,” he said, according to footage of his announcement. “Therefore today I am announcing I will not run for the 23rd Congressional District.”

GOP Rep. Jacobs to retire after backing assault weapons ban (msn.com)

This is an utterly insane development in the growing debate over gun violence in this country. A House member speaks honestly and candidly about his views on gun violence and he is then forced to withdraw because his views anger the rigid adherents to a philosophy that is on the wrong side of history.

Scary.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

My outrage is real

Mr. President, I have some news for you: I happen to be ahead of your call to make my “outrage” over gun violence central to my vote.

I made that call actually long before the Uvalde tragedy. Or even before the Buffalo slaughter in the supermarket.

You see, Mr. President, I am as outraged as you are — maybe even more so — at the cowardice exhibited by your Republican “friends” in Congress and their unwillingness to enact what you refer to as “sensible” gun-control legislation.

I listened intently to your remarks the other evening and I continue to stand with you as you grapple with the myriad crises that have befallen us.

President Biden Speech On Mass Shootings: “Make Your Outrage Central To Your Vote” In November | Video | RealClearPolitics

Our governor and lieutenant governor are up for re-election this year. Mr. President, I have heard your pleas for “unity” among Americans. I just cannot support either of these guys, Greg Abbott or Dan Patrick, because of their stubborn resistance to even discuss or debate gun legislation.

I also am going to ask our Third Congressional District candidates where they stand on gun control. I know what the GOP candidate will say; he’ll be a solid “no” on any legislative measure.

Furthermore, I also stand firmly on the notion that legislation does not have to mean we trample on the Second Amendment. I get it, Mr. President! So, to that extent you are preaching to the proverbial choir in our North Texas home.

I just feel the need to assure you, Mr. President, that you have many of us out here in your corner. Keep fighting, sir.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

‘Rule of law’ strikes

That darn “rule of law” keeps rearing its head in the 1/6 probe into the insurrection on Capitol Hill.

The latest target of the rule of law is former Donald Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro, who’s been slapped with a contempt of Congress indictment for failing to comply with a congressional subpoena demanding he talk to the 1/6 panel.

Don’t all those Trumpkins say they honor the rule of law, that no one is above it? Oh, wait! They also say the 1/6 committee examining the insurrection is not legally constituted. Of course, they are full of sh** when they say such a thing.

The House select panel chaired by Mississippi Democrat Bennie Thompson is charged with finding the whole truth behind the insurrection. Navarro was in the White House that day. He knows a lot of what went down as the crowd stormed Capitol Hill and threatened to kill the vice president.

Navarro is refusing to obey the rule of law. Therefore, the Department of Justice has indicted him.

I believe there will be a lot more indictments to come. They will demonstrate to everyone that the Trumpkins are just like their hero, the ex-POTUS. They’re all liars.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Cruz: loathsome to the max

There is no way for me to deny what I have believed firmly since the day Ted Cruz took office in 2013 as a U.S. Republican senator representing my family and me in Texas.

It is that he is the most loathsome politician I can think of this side of, say, Donald John Trump.

Cruz continues to make gurgling noises about wanting to run for president in 2024. He tried it once already, in 2016, He remained the last man standing in a crowded field that eventually succumbed to the cult following that gathered around Trump.

He once called Trump a “sniveling coward.” He then climbed aboard the Trump hay wagon, where he’s been sitting ever since.

The latest capper — gosh, there have been so many low points in this clown’s Senate career — is still unfolding. The lunatic shot up Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. He killed 19 precious children and two of their teachers. President Biden is trying to rally a grief-stricken nation to “do something” about gun violence.

Cruz’s response? He bloviates that the “radical Democrats” are seeking to “disarm Americans.” Oh, and then the rat boasts about his visit to Uvalde “the day after the shooting.” Big … deal!

The moron has zero public standing with me on that one, given how he hightailed it out of Texas in February 2021 while Texans were freezing to death in that horrific winter blast. Where was Ted? Basking in the sun with his family in Cancun!

I am sick and tired of this clown masquerading as a responsible public official when he is nothing more than a self-serving frontrunner seeking to further his own agenda.

Someone will have to show me a single piece of meaningful legislation with Cancun Ted’s name on it. Anyone?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

You tell ’em, Cancun Ted

Rafael Edward Cruz’s lack of self-awareness is simply stunning in scope.

The man aka Ted Cruz, the junior Republican senator from Texas, bloviated overnight about Democrats’ “far left-wing agenda” regarding gun violence. Then he inserted the notion that he ventured to Uvalde the day after the madman opened fire in Robb Elementary School, killing those 19 children and two teachers.

My first thought — so help me! — about his appearance in Uvalde was: Sure, like you stood your watch in February 2021 when hundreds of Texans were freezing to death in that winter storm.

Remember that one … Ted? I do! I recall how you jetted off to Cancun to soak in some Caribbean rays while the rest of us were suffering from Mother Nature’s winter wrath.

Spare me the drivel about your so-called concern about Americans’ gun rights. President Biden, contrary to what Cruz said, is not going to “disarm law-abiding Americans.”

Pathetic.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Once more, what about that ‘no’ vote?

My cheap-seat perspective has me wondering once again about what is transpiring in Amarillo.

My mind keeps asking: If city voters said “no!” to a bond issue to spend $275 million for a new civic center and City Hall, what makes it better for the City Council to act without voter perspective on the very thing they rejected nearly two years ago?

The council has issued $260 million in something called “anticipation note” to pay for the project that voters rejected. A local businessman, Alex Fairly, has challenged the city with a lawsuit filed in 108th District Court. Someone sent me a copy of the lawsuit and I have looked it over. It’s pretty straightforward. It alleges that the city is acting illegally with those anticipation notes, contending they aren’t meant to be spent on this enormous project.

Back to my question about that earlier vote against this idea.

Mayor Ginger Nelson said she wants the city to act in a way that doesn’t overload taxpayers. Hmm. The city tax rate would increase 29.5% with the anticipation note. The municipal tax rate would increase from 44 cents per $100 valuation to 57 cents. Is that too big a burden? Some folks might think so.

Amarillo City Council vote to fund Civic Center; challenged in court

I don’t believe cities, when handed an electoral defeat of the magnitude that occurred in Amarillo, should conduct the kind of razzle dazzle we’re seeing taking place. Voters who take their roles seriously as the “bosses” of those they select to govern have good reason in this case to wonder: How can the city’s governing council believe it can get away with this?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

2nd Amendment will hold up

If I sound repetitive with this brief blog post … well, that’s just too bad, because I have to get something once again off my chest.

It is that gun-owners’ rights activists are misstating the perceived threat to the Second Amendment as the nation seeks a legislative remedy to the spasm of gun violence that keeps rocking the nation.

U.S. senators are conducting bipartisan talks to find some solution to this crisis. We are locked in a death struggle against those who continue to deliver horror to innocent victims, such as the lunatic who did that very thing in Uvalde just the other day.

Democratic Sen. Patrick Murphy of Connecticut says he’s never seen such Republican “interest” in ending this crisis until now. He is working with GOP senators, such as John Cornyn of Texas, in that search for a solution.

The Second Amendment to the Constitution guarantees the right of citizens to “keep and bear arms.” It makes no declaration that legislation is prohibited, that Congress can enact no laws that seek to control who can acquire firearms.

We hear a lot of talk these days about efforts to “disarm” Americans in the wake of tragedies such as the one that struck those children and teachers in Uvalde. I have heard nothing that disarms any law-abiding American.

We can enact laws that require universal background checks for all firearms purchased; we can require Americans to be, say, 21 years of age to buy guns; we can approve red-flag laws that allow authorities to seize weapons from those deemed to be dangerous to own them.

None of those options jeopardizes the Second Amendment! Each of them seeks to enact common-sense solutions that allow every American who plays by the rules to own as many firearms as he or she can afford.

Let us cease with the demagoguery on guns.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Tragedy transcends politics

Some moments of crisis would seemingly dispel any notion of partisanship, or of division between the major political parties and those who lead them.

Such as, oh, the massacre of school children and their teachers.

It happened again the other day in Uvalde, Texas. President and Mrs. Biden came to Texas to hug the necks of victims of the madman who walked into Robb Elementary School and slaughtered his victims before a Border Patrol tactical squad shot him to death.

My question, though, is this: Why weren’t the Democratic president and the Republican governor, Greg Abbott sitting next to each other, sharing in the nation’s grief, pledging a joint effort to rid the nation of this scourge of senseless, insane gun violence?

Abbott has decided to forgo any such appearance with a man he criticizes at will. Biden deserves a brickbat, too, as he could have extended an invitation to meet with the governor while he was visiting the victims in Uvalde. He didn’t.

I don’t expect these men to share a solution. They damn sure should share the goal of ending the violence. Of seeking common ground. They could proclaim their joint dedication to putting an end to this madness while vowing to work out the details later. Is that an impossible task?

The great chasm seems only to widen these days when crisis strikes. It mustn’t be that way.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Commentary on politics, current events and life experience