national news

MAGA cult makes me yearn for Contract with America class

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I never thought it could happen … but it has. The MAGA cult that dominates what passes for today’s Republican Party makes me yearn for a time when another class of GOP officeholders seized power in Congress.

The famous 1994 election that brought us the Contract With America led to Republican control of both congressional chambers for the first time in 40 years.

What makes that revolution different from this one is simple: issues.

The Contract With America class ran on issues. They vowed to enact term limits for members of Congress; they wanted to make Congress live by the laws it enacts on the rest of us; they sought a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. There were others, but the point is that the CWA crowd did something that the MAGA cabal has failed to do.

The CWAers sought to enact issues. Do we hear anything coming from the MAGA crowd that speaks to issues? No. They are vowing only to punish Democrats. They want to put Dr. Anthony Fauci in the dock and question him about the COVID-19 vaccines he has championed. They want to bring charges against Hunter Biden, the president’s son. They intend to punish any Democrat who played a major part in impeaching Donald Trump twice.

The CWA crowd didn’t push issues that I particularly liked at the time. The fact that it did run — and win — on issues rather than vengeance makes me yearn for the “good old days” when we could debate policy matters rather than quarrel over punishing our foes.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

education news

School politics gets overly nasty

I fear a storm might be brewing in the community where my wife and I live and — to be candid it — makes me queasy to think of Princeton, Texas, as a place that could produce a serious culture battle.

The Princeton Independent School District is considering whether to ban all outside groups from using school venues for things such as, oh, rallies, fundraisers, luncheons.

It’s not that the school system wants to ban all of ’em. It appears the actual aim is to keep a certain group of constituents from using the venues: the LGBT community.

The PISD school board considered the item the other day, went into executive session, then came out and decided to send the matter to its legal counsel for advice on how to proceed.

I am just one voice in the community. I have no children or grandchildren enrolled in the school system. I just pay my taxes that help fund the school district. Thus, my conscience tells me to urge the school district to move away from banning all groups.

It is a ham-handed tactic that some on the school board apparently want to become part of an overall Princeton ISD strategy to keep certain people from using public property. We see this drama played out all over the country.

Some folks within the gay community want to use space in Princeton HIgh School to hold a gay pride event later this year. Some in the community object to it. They have friends on the school board who are willing to echo their objections. Two of their PISD school board friends were just elected to the panel and I sense they are moving this item toward some conclusion.

What is troubling to me is the idea that banning all groups means, well, all groups. That means church groups, Scout groups, veterans groups, homeowners association groups. They all would be denied use of public property — their property — for any purpose. Is that fair? No. It isn’t!

The school district, though, well might get advice from legal counsel that suggests it’s OK to ban them all. They can cite liability concerns or other safety-related matters. Except that any group also could be asked to sign documents that waive the school district from responsibility in case of an accident on school grounds.

Let’s not lose sight of what appears to be the cause of this discussion: foes of those who promote gay pride and want to express their pride on public property.

An outright ban on all outside use of that property is a slap in the face of those who pay for the right to use what is rightfully theirs.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

economic news

New U.S. rep to hold our debt hostage?

It is with chagrin that I must report that my new congressional representative has joined the cabal of right-wing fiscal hostage-takers in suggesting that we must cut spending before increasing the nation’s debt ceiling.

Keith Self, a McKinney Republican, wrote a letter to the editor of the Dallas Morning News in which he declared that unrestricted federal spending poses an existential threat to our nation’s economic health. Therefore, he implied, he won’t approve measures to increase the debt ceiling until we curb spending … and thus will put the nation’s “full faith and credit” in dire peril.

Self’s Third Congressional District constituents might have to watch their retirement accounts vanish if Self’s world view becomes policy in the House of Representatives.

Increasing the national debt has been a perfunctory act since the beginning of the republic. Only now, with the GOP’s narrow House majority being led by the MAGA cultists who comprise a loudmouthed minority of Republicans in the House, it has become an “issue” worth debating.

This is crap! Reneging on our national fiscal obligations would plunge the nation into economic “calamity,” according to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. Why do Republicans in Congress insist on threatening to do such a horrendous thing? What the hell kind of statement are they trying to make?

Furthermore, why are GOP members taking this posture only when we have a Democrat sitting in the White House? Where in the hell was the Republican insistence on spending cuts when one of their own — Joe Biden’s immediate predecessor — sat in the Oval Office?

These congressional clowns are showboating and grandstanding — and holding our life’s savings, yours and mine — hostage to their preening and prancing.

And the man who represents me in Congress is one of ’em.

Despicable.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Ernie would be proud

Dang! I regret not snapping a picture of a building in Amarillo that is the subject of this blog. That would be the Ernie Houdashell Randall County Annex.

You see, it is Houdashell’s name that gives me reason to comment. I am delighted to have seen the building with the late Randall County judge’s name on it. My bride and I made a quick trip to the Panhandle and we took a moment to gaze at Ernie’s name on the annex.

Houdashell died recently of complications brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. His passing saddens me to this day. He and I became acquainted shortly after my arrival in the Texas Panhandle in early 1995 when he was district director for state Rep. John Smithee, R-Amarillo. Houdashell gravitated to the county judgeship not long afterward.

He worked hard to acquire the site of a former store on Western Street and build a county annex in south Amarillo. The county seat is in Canyon, but the bulk of the business in the county occurs at its annex, which formerly was stuffed into a tiny structure on Georgia Street.

Houdashell wanted county employees to operate in a modern and spacious venue and wanted the public they served to avail themselves of all the services the county offers.

He fought, cajoled and negotiated a deal for the county to build the annex. Then he died. The county then rewarded Houdashell’s memory by putting his name on the shiny new courthouse annex.

Oh, one more thing. The old annex structure has been repurposed into the Texas Panhandle War Memorial Center, next to the memorial honoring all the individuals from the Panhandle who gave their lives in conflicts dating back to the Spanish-American War. Houdashell worked to acquire an Air Force F-100 fighter jet, an Army UH-1 Huey helicopter (similar to one on which Houdashell served while deployed during the Vietnam War) and a piece of the battleship USS Arizona that was sunk in the Pearl Harbor attack.

Again, he did that all of that because of his eternal love of the county he served with distinction and honor.

I will miss my friend forever and then some. Randall County has done well by inscribing Ernie Houdashell’s name on the county annex.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

Trump’s not off the hook

Some political and legal experts suggest that President Biden’s embarrassment over the discovery of classified documents in his home might forestall any effort to prosecute Donald J. Trump for the same thing.

Hah! Make that a hah, hah!

Those who are suggesting Trump is in the clear had better check the record. The ex-POTUS is being investigated for a greater number of alleged misdeeds than just the document caper that involves his taking of classified documents from the White House as he was vacating the presidency.

Attorney General Merrick Garland well might forgo a criminal indictment on that case.

But wait! Trump also has the matter of inciting the 1/6 insurrection. He’s also facing a potential indictment in Fulton County, Ga., for pressuring election officials in Georgia to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The dude is still lost deep in the criminal justice woods.

As for whether Donald Trump can still stand trial for violating federal law by squirreling away classified documents, I believe that is a real possibility.

The man’s troubles are just beginning.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Classified docs … are everywhere?

When in the world is this going to end, or will it ever end?

First we had Donald J. Trump pilfering classified documents — some of them top-secret docs — out of the White House and stashing them in his glitzy Florida mansion.

Then we learn that President Biden had a few documents in a think tank and then at his home in Delaware.

Now this … news that former Vice President Mike Pence had some classified documents in his house in Indiana.

What the hell?

The Biden docs were from his years as vice president and a few of them date back to his time in the Senate. Trump’s documents were solely from his single term as POTUS.

The find at the Pence house? Who knows their source or their contents?

This is beginning to feel like the tip of the proverbial iceberg. How many other top-flight pols who have left office are there to be discovered? I won’t name names. You know who I mean.

We have several living former presidents and vice presidents out there. We also have a number of former House speakers, Senate presidents pro tempore, key committee chairs and who knows who else possibly with documents that should have been turned in to the National Archives.

Let’s set aside the Trump matter. He has all but acknowledged publicly that he took the documents knowingly and with knowledge of their contents. The rest of ’em? That well might be the work of careless staffers who scarfed up the documents after senior officials had left office.

This is all beginning to have the feel and the appearance of an absurd bit of dark comedy. It’s damn near laughable … except that no one should be laughing.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

Reconnecting is so rewarding

We returned to a place we called home for more than two decades and — if you’ll pardon the cliche — had the time of our lives reconnecting with some dear friends we continue to miss.

Our visit to Amarillo’s primary mission was to wish our son a happy birthday. We were able to do so. But along the way, as he was working during the day, we caught up with a man who helped pastor us on our faith journey and then visited with a dear friend of my bride and her husband.

Oh, and then — at dinner — we reconnected with another good friend who happens to have become friends with our son.

Not bad … you know?

To be clear, we have many more friends in the Amarillo we were unable to see. Our time back was too brief to visit everyone we know and love. We had to scurry back to our home in Princeton, where treatment for my bride’s medical challenge awaits.

That is what we have done.

This quick-hit trip back to the High Plains, though, will be one for the books.

My wife and her dear friend had lost contact in recent times. They hugged and reminisced about the old days; my wife got her pal caught up on her current medical challenge. As we have heard throughout this trying episode, my bride has found her way onto many prayer lists.

Our pastor friend has been in his current job for 33 years. He is good at what he does, which is that he serves as “outreach” pastor at the church we attended in downtown Amarillo during the time we lived there. He, too, has become a dear friend over that time and we were able to catch up with his bustling family’s activities.

The doctor who insisted that my wife make this trip — even if it would interfere with her cancer treatment — appears to have been spot on … that she would get as much out of this journey from the Metroplex to the High Plains as any treatment she would receive.

He is correct. The reconnection had a restorative value that I will be hard-pressed to define.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

No similarity … seriously!

A friend posted this on social media, which I am sharing here: I believe it’s possible Biden doesn’t know how they got there … that staffers packed everything up carelessly. 

OK, let’s parse this for a brief moment.

The FBI keeps finding classified documents in President Biden’s home. They were put there after Biden served as vice president. Some of them date back to his time in the U.S. Senate.

Did the president knowingly stash them away? Did he do so with the expressed purpose of doing harm to our national security? C’mon!

Now we have the case of Donald John Trump. He took classified documents from the White House as he was leaving the place for the final time. He took them to Mar-a-Lago, Fla.

Trump has all but admitted taking the documents with full knowledge of their sensitivity. He has admitted to breaking the Presidential Papers Protection Act. He has said “they are mine.” He also has said he “declassified” the documents by “thinking about” declassifying them.

Is there an admission of wrongdoing in Trump’s response? Yep. I believe so. Has Joe Biden made any such admission? Has he said he knew he had those documents squirreled away? Nope.

Thus, my friend is onto something. A VP staffer was careless in handling the documents.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Biden plays into GOP attack strategy

What does one say about President Biden’s squirreling away of classified documents? Well, here’s what I have so far.

Joe Biden is playing directly into the Republicans’ strategy of attacking the president for anything at any time or for any political purpose.

It is particularly unsettling for those of us who continue to support Joe Biden to see this tempest erupt as Justice Department officials are examining a much-worse situation involving documents taken from the White House by Biden’s immediate presidential predecessor.

The Biden team is making a hash out of this story, giving their foes ammunition to fire at him. They are attempting to attach moral equivalence to the men’s actions. They aren’t remotely similar, other than they represent the presence of classified documents in unsecure places.

The White House communications outfit has to get a handle on this matter, in a major hurry. Any further bumbling by the White House “commo team” only heightens the political peril that Biden faces.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

On the road … safely

I am delighted to report that my bride and I drove 360 (or so) miles from Princeton, Texas to Amarillo.

Furthermore, I am even more delighted to report that there was nothing out of the ordinary occurring on that trek. Why gloat about that? Because my dear wife is recovering from brain surgery and I have been sharing the start of her journey back to good health with you on this blog.

Our son, who lives in Amarillo, is going to mark a landmark birthday very soon. We are thrilled to be able to help him celebrate.

Indeed, we had planned to make this trip even if her treatments for cancer had begun. The rehab doctor had all but insisted we make the trip even if her radiation and chemotherapy had begun. “She’ll get as much good from that trip as she would from the treatment,” he told us.

The treatment hasn’t yet commenced. It will begin soon … I hope.

She continues to show remarkable improvement in her strength, equilibrium and coordination as she continues to recover from the four-plus-hour procedure to remove a cancerous tumor.

We’ll enjoy our time with our son then skedaddle back to Collin County, where we will continue to prepare for the next leg on our journey.

She makes me so very proud.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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