Sports news

Tiger to tee it up!

The wait for a lot of golf fans — such as me — is about to end when Tiger Woods tees it up at the 2022 Masters Tournament in Augusta, Ga.

I am glad to see the 15-time major championship winner back in the game. His presence brings a level of excitement that, frankly, has been missing from golf since that horrifying accident more than a year ago that reportedly could have cost him one of his legs.

Woods tells us constantly that “no one is bigger than the game.” Actually, though, this fellow is the closest thing we have at the moment to someone who actually is bigger than golf. They don’t come around very often.

He has had his personal difficulties, his injuries. He has been forced to cope with unimaginable pressure.

Tiger Woods is a competitor through and through. I am glad he will be part of the Masters.

I just hope his legs hold up. Tee it up, Tiger.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot

Get off the AG’s back!

Allow me this additional demand of congressional Democrats and even some within the White House who are getting — allegedly! — annoyed with the pace of Attorney General Merrick Garland’s examination of the 1/6 insurrection and whether he intends to file charges against the former president of the United States of America.

Let the man do his job!

Democrats in Congress are reportedly peeved that Garland isn’t moving quickly enough. They want to see The Donald brought before the Bar of Justice for inciting the 1/6 insurrection and for doing nothing to stop it when it was occurring on Capitol Hill. Hey, so do I want to see the former A**hole in Chief brought to account for his action and inaction.

However, I am going to stand with the AG on this one. He said he won’t be pressured by Congress or by the White House to finish his task before he is ready to declare it finished.

Garland is on record many times already declaring he won’t be pushed, prodded or pressured by political forces. I am OK with that.

His career as a judge prior to becoming attorney general was marked by steady-as-you-go deliberation. What is so wrong with that as he works diligently with his staff of legal eagles at the Justice Department to ensure that they have all their ducks lined up before making a public decision?

Let us not lose sight of what else is at stake. Indicting a former president on felony criminal charges would set an astonishing precedent. Don’t you think? The AG must get it right and getting it right makes it imperative he run every trap he can find before delivering the goods.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

That was some storm!

We have lived in Texas long enough to know the value of being proactive in our preparation for storms when they erupt. Our proactivity paid off tonight.

How do I know that? Because my bride and I are convinced that when we are prepared for the worst, the worst quite often doesn’t arrive.

The weather forecasters were pretty excited tonight as they issued tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings. There were plenty of watches, to be sure. However, we don’t get overly concerned when they issue watch alerts; the excitement arrives when the “watches” turn to “warnings.”

Although we are relatively new to North Texas weather advisories, we did live for 23 years in the Texas Panhandle and nearly 11 years along the Gulf Coast, regions where the spring season brings plenty of explosive weather.

My wife made sure we were ready to hunker down in the bathroom, in the interior of our Collin County home. We had a mattress that we would pull over us.

Ahh, yes. The worst of it all has passed. We were ready for the worst. It didn’t visit us.

We are grateful beyond measure.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

KBJ to make history

Forgive me for using the initials to describe the next associate justice to the U.S. Supreme Court. KBJ, of course, is the distinguished judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who today stands poised to join the nation’s highest court as the first Black woman ever nominated for the post.

Judge Jackson will make history when the full Senate casts its vote to confirm her. Indeed, she received a needed boost toward a bipartisan confirmation when Republican Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joined GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine in announcing their support for Judge Jackson’s nomination.

With all 50 Senate Democrats set to hold firm, KBJ will be confirmed later this week.

This is a big deal, folks. Even some Republican senators noted the historical significance of President Biden’s nomination of Judge Jackson in announcing their intention to oppose her joining the SCOTUS.

Many Republican senators have noted Jackson’s stellar qualifications, her background, her temperament, her courage, her legal brilliance. They cannot support her, they said, because of her “judicial philosophy.”

Yeah … whatever.

Leave it to bomb-throwers like Ted Cruz of Texas, though, to say that Judge Jackson will become the most “far left” judge in Supreme Court history. I don’t take seriously anything that comes out of Cancun Ted’s pie hole these days. I mean, anyone who would abandon his constituents who are freezing to death by jetting off to Cancun — as Cruz did a year ago — only has earned Texans’ scorn.

Back to Judge Jackson’s pending confirmation …

This is a gigantic event. I applaud President Biden for keeping his 2020 campaign pledge by appointing a supremely qualified African American woman to the nation’s highest court. I applaud those senators who have supported her nomination. And I salute Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for the service to the country she is about to deliver.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Biden says it clearly: Putin committed war crimes

President Biden has said it clearly and without equivocation: The world has seen with its eyes the depravity and destruction that Russian armed forces have brought to Ukraine, that they have committed crimes against humanity and that the man who rules Russia, Vladimir Putin, needs to be held accountable for those atrocities.

Russian forces have withdrawn from many areas, repositioning in the eastern parts of Ukraine. They have left behind unmistakable evidence of executions committed by those soldiers against civilians. Ukrainian forces have uncovered mass graves containing the bodies of victims shot to death with single bullets in the back of their heads.

Putin’s forces did that. The man who commands them, therefore, must be held to account for what those forces have done.

The withdrawal of Russians also has revealed the immense destruction brought to Ukraine by the bombs, artillery shells and rockets sent against civilian targets. We look at those pictures and are aghast at the devastation of entire blocks of buildings. Apartment complexes are blown to bits. So are hospitals, schools and houses of worship, for God’s sake!

Those who have a hint of an understanding of how the Russian military is set up should have no illusion of the independence of the field commanders. They don’t have it. They act on orders from the top of the chain of command.

The man at the top? Vladimir Putin.

He has committed war crimes.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news, State news

Don’t spend my money, Mr. AG

The hits just keep mounting for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Not only is Paxton in a Republican Party runoff to keep his job, he is being pounded for spending taxpayer funds to pay for his legal defense against complaints over the way he conducts his office.

What a joke! Except that I ain’t laughing.

Paxton reportedly spent at least $43,000 in public money to pay for legal defense fees. The Texas State Bar filed complaints alleging misconduct over Paxton’s specious lawsuit seeking to overturn the 2020 presidential election result. Critics have noted that the Texas Constitution does not require AGs to be members of the State Bar and they contend it is inappropriate for taxpayers to foot the bill for a public official’s private law license.

There is that, as well as the pending state trial over allegations that Paxton committed securities fraud violations. He has been under felony indictment since 2015, the first year of his time as attorney general.

My own wish is that Paxton just resign. He is an embarrassment to the state.

Now comes the news that he is using public money — my money and your money — for private use.

Keep your grubby mitts off my dough, Mr. AG!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

Blunt said this about KBJ?

Roy Blunt, the lame-duck Republican U.S. senator from Missouri, said some strange things about Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson today while being interviewed on ABC News.

Blunt said Jackson’s expected confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court will be a “high point” in U.S. history; he said she is well qualified; that she has a good educational background; that it is past time for the SCOTUS to have an African American woman among its ranks; that she has a good legal mind.

Then he said he will vote “no” on her confirmation. Why? Because of her judicial philosophy.

Good grief!

It was a bizarre recitation that exhibited Blunt’s political cowardice as he prepares to retire from the Senate at the end of the year.

I cannot recall ever hearing someone say so many positive things about a political appointee before declaring he wouldn’t support that person to the seat to which she has been nominated.

Weird. Simply weird.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Home rule panel slogs on

Princeton’s home-rule charter committee is moving forward on drafting a document that it hopes will be ready for the city’s voters to decide this coming November.

I am hearing a bit of chatter that the city’s effort to craft a governing document that enables the city to govern itself might not pass voters’ muster when they cast their ballots. I do hope that chatter is wrong.

The basis for that chatter comes from the city’s misstep in setting up the committee. Voters gave the city permission to create a charter committee this past November. It didn’t have enough members. The city then disbanded the committee and formed a new one. The process delayed the municipal vote, which now is tentatively set for this fall.

I am going to bank on the notion put forth by Mayor Brianna Chacon, who told me that the city’s burgeoning population has brought in a fresh new set of opinions on this issue. It will need those outlooks to reverse four previous citywide rejections of previous charter proposals.

The dealbreaker in those elections was the annexation. The 2017 Texas Legislature took that issue off the table by enacting a law that requires cities to obtain property owners’ permission to annex their property. Thus, that argument is no longer valid.

I am going to hope that Princeton is able to enact a city charter so it becomes a home-rule city instead of a general law city that is governed by rules established by state statutes.

Indeed, the city’s population has exploded. Princeton now is home to an estimated 20,000-plus residents. That number is growing each day. I see it happening in my neighborhood, where houses are spring up like prairie weeds.

There is no end in sight.

I wish the home-rule panel as it slogs its way through the process of drafting a document that will enable Princeton, Texas, to set its own rules for how it governs itself.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Putin is a war criminal!

Vladimir Putin is a war criminal who needs to be arrested, shackled and sent to jail where he would await trial before an international court that will decide whether he has committed crimes against humanity.

The Russian tyrant has ordered bombs, artillery shells and rockets to destroy hospitals in Ukraine. His orders have resulted in the deaths of children, expectant mothers and countless other civilians. Putin has committed “the original war crime” specified by the Geneva Convention of 1864, according to “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley.

Can there be any more reason, therefore, to arrest Vladimir Putin and charge him with the most heinous crime imaginable? I think not!

Ukrainian fighting forces have beaten back the Russian invaders, forcing them to abandon their strategic goal of capturing Kyiv, the capital city of Ukraine. The Russians are retreating at this moment toward the east, possibly to reassemble and seek other targets to attack.

Putin’s attack on Ukraine was thought when it began to focus on military targets. Wow! Many of us were dead wrong about that assumption. The videos we see of the carnage throughout Ukraine are shocking and horrifying in the extreme.

The outrage around the world is mounting as these images make their way into people’s homes.

***

That said, allow me this brief segue toward the thoughts expressed by the current U.S. president and his predecessors. Five living former presidents have been watching these crimes unfold along with the rest of the world. Four of them have condemned Putin’s actions with passion and righteous anger. The most recent former president — you know to whom I refer — has talked of Putin’s “genius” and how “savvy” he was to attack Ukraine; moreover, he has asked Putin to dig up dirt on President Biden in the midst of this bloody war.

Vladimir Putin is a war criminal. He must be held accountable for his unspeakable cruelty.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, International news, military news

Putin: war criminal?

This would be an incredibly difficult case to prove in an international court of law, but there could be evidence mounting that Russian thug/tyrant/despot Vladimir Putin has committed war crimes in his so-far-unsuccessful effort to subjugate Ukraine under the alleged might of his armed forces.

Russian troops are withdrawing from previously held territory in Ukraine and are leaving behind mass graves with the corpses of hundreds of civilians killed shot to death with single bullets in the back of their heads. They appear to have been executed by the Russian invaders.

Then comes the question: Were they acting on orders from the Kremlin?

Accordingly, I suppose one could ask whether there could be rogue commanders in the field acting on their own. Whatever the case, it all — or most of it, at least — falls on the lap of the former KGB spy master who now runs Russia as its commander in chief.

The despicable level of violence is being revealed now as Russian forces pull back from Kyiv and other key Ukrainian cities. Whether they merely are repositioning themselves for a new round of attacks remains to be determined. Whatever the intent, it is clear the Ukrainians are waging one hell of a fight against a force believed at the beginning of this conflict to be so powerful that it would steamroll its way into Kyiv.

They ain’t steamrolling anything.

The Russians, though, appear to have engaged in egregious crimes against humanity. Someone at the top of the Russian chain of command needs to be held accountable.

Let’s see. I believe that would be Vladimir Putin.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Commentary on politics, current events and life experience