local news

Open road awaits

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As you know by now, my retirement journey has taken a dramatic — and so very tragic — turn in recent weeks.

My bride, Kathy Anne, passed away from cancer. I miss her every minute of every day.

But … the journey we took together is about to resume, but with one significant difference — which I do not need to explain.

Still, I am preparing to hit the road with Toby the Puppy, who’s all in on the travel plans. I’ve told him in vivid detail about our plans. He listened. Wagged his tail. Pawed my arm. He’s good to go!

I intend to make this a journey of adventure. I will travel along some fairly familiar rights-of-way, having made this trek before with my bride. But not all of it will be familiar. The return trip home to North Texas will include some remote stretches of highway through the Nevada mountains, into Utah and then north of Santa Fe, N.M.

Kathy Anne and I always loved to take new, unexplored routes on our travels. I will continue that tradition as best I can during the month Toby the Puppy and I are on the road. And … as some of my friends have requested, I intend fully to chronicle my journey on this blog.

As I have mentioned already, my mission is to clear my head and mend my heart. I won’t set my expectation for success too high; indeed, I won’t set any expectation. I will take this journey one day at a time … which will be the setup for how I intend to live the rest of my life.

So, the open road is clear.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Permanent Daylight Time?

Well, kids … we sprang forward overnight, an event that produced the usual ration of griping — some of it good-natured — about the loss of an hours’ sleep and showing up late for some appointment this morning.

To be honest, I’ll stipulate that the time change — from Standard Time to Daylight Saving Time — doesn’t bother me. I’m manic about setting clocks the night before. So, when the alarm goes off on Day One of Daylight Time, I usually am ready to get the day started.

All that said, I am wondering if the Texas Legislature ever will finish the job it tried to finish in its 2019 session when it ran out of time before referring a time-change measure to Texans that fall.

You might recall that the Legislature was pondering a three-choice option for voters. We were supposed to get a chance to state whether we wanted to shift to permanent Daylight Saving Time, permanent Standard Time or keep it the way it is, with a twice-annual time switch.

I stated then that if given a choice, I would prefer to go to a permanent Daylight Saving Time. I like the extended daylight at the end of the day. A permanent Standard Time setup would put the sun down too early in the evening for my taste.

But … as I noted, switching back and forth is not a big deal for me.

There might be a congressional push to make it a federal law, simply taking this entire matter out of the states’ hands. A few states already have forsaken Daylight Saving Time, preferring to not monkey around with switching clocks.

This whole concept has been around for a while. Switching to Daylight Saving Time was intended to save energy, allowing Americans to avoid turning on their lights in the late afternoon. I’m fine with that, too. So, why not make it permanent?

Eschewing the time-switch would be a nod to those who dislike the government mandating such behavior. Switching to a permanent time system would satisfy conservatives; hey, we seem to agree on something! How about that?

This debate is likely to flare yet again in Congress. I say “flare” because that’s what always seems to happen in that sharply divided body. Maybe they can put their partisan differences aside — finally! — and agree on this simple idea.

Or, they can simply let the states decide. Well, Texas legislators? Will you do it?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Pence sees light … finally!

Let’s call it a “well, duhhh” moment, shall we?

Former Vice President Mike Pence spoke this weekend to a group of supporters and leveled some very harsh criticism directly at the man he served for a single term.

He said Donald Trump endangered the VP and his family by failing to act to end the violent insurrection that erupted on 1/6.

Hmm. Wow! I don’t quite know how to respond to that other than to state the obvious, such as, “Well, it’s about damn time, Mr. Vice President!”

Pence has been tippy-toeing around criticism Trump ever since the two men left office after Joe Biden and Kamala Harris defeated them in the 2020 election. He’s been reluctant to say out loud what the rest of the country has known all along, which is that Trump refused to call off the traitorous mob that threatened to “Hang Mike Pence!” while smashing windows, beating cops mercilessly and sh***ing on the floor of the Capitol Building on 1/6.

I don’t know what the former VPOTUS’s newfound anger signifies, other than a potential run for the presidency in 2024 … opposing the man who selected him to be VP in 2016.

If that’s the case, fine. Go for it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

media news

Take Fox off the air?

I am beginning to lean in the direction of those who believe that the Fox network needs to be yanked off the air over its egregious sin of promoting propaganda and forsaking its license to report the news.

The Fox Propaganda Network is facing the harshest condemnation imaginable over its refusal to acknowledge what its on-air personalities expressed in private: which is that the Big Lie promoted by the 45th president of the United States was false and that Joe Biden was elected legally and fairly in 2020 as the nation’s 46th president.

Dominion Voting Systems has filed a billion-dollar lawsuit against Fox claiming the network defamed it over the Big Lie, alleging vote fraud where none existed.

A bigger issue is at stake. Should the network be allowed to remain on the air pushing its falsehoods amid mountains of evidence that its leadership knew it was doing so but were more concerned about losing viewers than in telling the truth?

The Federal Communications Commission would seem to have a monster on its hands. Will the FCC do the right thing? Is the “right thing” to pull Fox off the air?

I am beginning to think that’s the only option.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

economic news

Taxing the rich: sensible

President Biden’s decision to seek greater tax loads for wealthy Americans makes sense on a couple of levels.

He unveiled his plan while announcing a proposed $7 trillion federal budget he said would reduce the deficit by $3 trillion over the next decade. Biden wants to protect programs such as Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. As an elderly American patriot, I welcome the president’s initiative.

Taxing those who make more than 400 grand annually? That makes sense too.

It does because even by increasing the tax burden by a few percentage points will not make rich Americans “un-rich.” They’ll still be wealthy beyond belief. They just will have to pay more to finance the government from which they seek favors.

Billionaires will still be billionaires.

Moreover, it makes no sense to realize that working-class Americans pay more per capita in taxes than rich folks.

Spare me the argument that taxing rich Americans will harm the economy. It damn sure won’t! We’re all in this together, isn’t that right? So, make the rich men and women pay their fair share of taxes and — so help me! — find some method of closing those damn loopholes through which they avoid paying taxes.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Itinerary set … ready to ride!

All righty, gang, I am proud to announce that my trek out west has been cast in stone … more or less.

My bride, Kathy Anne, would be shaking her head at me as I planned every stop along the way to the Pacific Ocean and back home. I even went so far as to make reservations at campgrounds and motels along the way.

She wouldn’t have done it that way, but she would be cheering me along the way as I venture away from the house we shared for too-brief a period. I need to get away. And so … I will.

I plan to do some sightseeing on my journey. I am going to spend two nights near the south rim of the Grand Canyon. We went there a couple of times years ago, hiking along the Bright Angel Trail to a plateau overlooking the Colorado River. It was 3 1/2 miles down and, yes, the same distance back. The vertical drop from the rim is about 3,000 feet, which gives you an idea of the torturous hike we took to return to the top of the trail.

Toby the Puppy and I aren’t planning any such hike on this trip.

I am going to spend a night in Visalia, Calif., which is just west of Sequoia National Park. I am going to drive to the park and look at those extraordinarily tall trees.

I’ll be seeing family and friends along the way.

The weather in California has been, shall we say, a bit dicey. I’ll need to remain flexible. I have mentioned already that I am an adaptable fellow. I do not hope to demonstrate my adaptability chops on this trek.

The Pacific Northwest also beckons. It was where I came into this world, where my bride and I got acquainted and where I have many friends and family awaiting.

The trip home will be scenic, too. I’ll be traveling for a stretch along the “Loneliest Highway in the Nation,” U.S. 50 before turning south toward Santa Fe, N.M. and then into West Texas.

More friends and family await in Texas.

All in all, I’ll be on the road just a bit longer than a month. I look forward to this journey. My aim is to clear my head and mend my broken heart.

The head-clearing is easy. The heart-mending? I am not yet sure how that will work. I will hope at the very least that I will be able to return home to North Texas with a smile on my face and knowing that Kathy Anne enjoyed the ride with our puppy and me.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

economic news

‘Pork-barrel spending’ has vanished?

Whatever happened to the term once used by budget hawks to vilify politicians who spend money “recklessly”?

That would be “pork-barrel spending.” It has vanished, seemingly, from the contemporary glossary of verbiage in today’s contentious political climate.

I remember when a former U.S. senator from Texas, Republican Phil Gramm, would boast about “bringing home so much pork, I was afraid I would come down with trichinosis.”

“Pork” is the term that refers to special project appropriations that members of Congress sneak into legislation. You know what I mean: money for bridges, airport control towers, road-and-highway improvements, federal office complexes. The late Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, another Republican, once was vilified for his “bridge to nowhere” for which he managed to get money appropriated.

I am not entirely opposed to “pork-barrel spending” if the project that the Congress member is pushing actually does some good for the public. I mean, these men and women, do work for us. We demand certain things from our lawmakers and, as always, it takes money to make those things appear in our states and congressional districts.

In Collin County, Texas, we have a first-term Republican, Keith Self, representing our interests. I don’t hear much about his work to ensure federal money to improve our infrastructure. Instead, I hear him talking about “election integrity,” and a whole array of social issues that, frankly, mean next to nothing to me.

And our state’s two GOP U.S. senators — John Cornyn and Ted Cruz? They, too, are busy condemning Democrats to concentrate on matters of more immediate concern to their state.

If the MAGA crowd among the GOP congressional caucus is interested in controlling federal spending while they threaten to renege on our national debt — a truly catastrophic proposal — then they will resurrect “pork barrel spending” as a fiscal talking point.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

So many topsy-turvy examples

There exist almost too many examples of how modern politics has been turned on its ear that I dare not try to list them all.

Instead, I’ll focus on just one astonishing example. It deal with how Republicans in Congress, members of a political party that once revered law enforcement, have turned their backs on the men and women in blue.

For example, many of the MAGA cult among the GOP stand with the traitors who stormed the Capitol Building on 1/6 while seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. When given a chance to support the officers who defended them on that day, they turned their backs on them, declining to support recognition for their heroism.

What the hell?

Republicans used to campaign on “law and order.” They formerly held law enforcement in the highest esteem imaginable. They rarely opposed anything to do with helping the cops do their jobs.

These days they accuse the FBI of “targeting” the mobsters who stormed the Capitol. A delegation of MAGA members of the House now want to conduct hearings into whether the jailed traitors are being “mistreated.” They are pushing for reforms in the corrections system.

Why the change of heart? It must be that the traitors were seeking to install a defeated president into an office he lost legitimately through a free and fair — and legal — election.

What’s at least as troubling is that there is no debating this topsy-turviness with them. They stand behind their perverted notion that law enforcement suddenly has gotten corrupt. They adhere to the trash being spewed about the 1/6 assault being a “mostly peaceful” endeavor. It was nothing of the damn sort!

It was a full-out attack on our system of government and for any so-called responsible politician to call it otherwise is a disgraceful example of political perversion that must be stopped.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

media news

Battles waged over time

I fought many battles with readers of publications where I worked during my nearly 37 years as a full-time print journalist.

One kind of fight is what I want to highlight with this blog post.

Occasionally I would get caught between two extremists — one on the far right and the other on the far left. They would accuse me of being in cahoots with those on the “Other Side.”

It was a fight I was destined to lose every … single … time.

There was a physician in Beaumont who was an avid anti-abortionist. He thought — incorrectly, I must add — that because I was pro-choice on the issue that I was “pro-abortion.” Indeed, I have that squabble these days with some readers of this blog.

But back to my point … which is that the physician, who happened to be a pretty good writer, would submit articles for my consideration to appear on our opinion pages. I would submit them and would draw fire from pro-choice readers asking, “Why do you let that crackpot have any space on your page?” 

I would answer that his opinions are his alone and he is entitled to express them, as long as he doesn’t tell outright falsehoods. The doctor didn’t do that. Therefore, I would consider each piece on its merits and would determine whether they saw print.

I moved from Beaumont to Amarillo in January 1995 and found myself caught in the middle of a spat between two men, one of whom was a staunch Democratic Party activist, the other was an equally staunch religious leader who adhered to, um, a more conservative world view.

They both considered me to be the Spawn of Satan, for vastly different reasons. I was destined to be vilified by both of them. Get this, though: I actually was more dialed in to the lefty’s world view than the other gentleman. It’s just that my giving the righty any space in the paper was tantamount, in the lefty’s mind, to knuckling under to the other side.

I don’t really miss that kind of fight, now that I have stepped away from the daily grind. These days I am content to be a semi-retired blogger who dabbles now and then with covering community news for a group of weekly newspapers and for a public radio station.

I like it this way.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Go ahead … testify

The Manhattan, N.Y., district attorney has invited Donald J. Trump to testify before a grand jury examining a hush money payment he made to a porn star before he became president of the United States.

Trump has said all along he has “nothing to hide.” That he’s done “nothing wrong.” That it’s all a “witch hunt” aimed at sullying his reputation — if that’s even possible!

DA Alvin Bragg is examining whether the hush money was filed properly by the Trump Organization, which already has been indicted for tax fraud. The porn star, Stormy Daniels, received the money to keep her quiet about a tumble she took with Trump — which Trump denies ever happened.

OK. So … why wouldn’t he testify? Oh, wait! I know why not. He cannot tell the truth.

He would have to swear to tell the truth under threat of committing a perjury, which is a crime. Except that Trump cannot speak truthfully about anything.

Oh, well. Never mind. He won’t testify. I get it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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