crime news

The gift just keeps giving

Admission time … I haven’t read the 800-page-long report issued by the House select 1/6 committee on the crimes committed by the former president of the United States and many of his minions.

I’ll get around to reading the executive summary, which I understand is about 150 pages.

But … from what I understand this is the gift that keeps giving for those of us who are repulsed by Donald Trump’s conduct during the 1/6 insurrection and the efforts he undertook to keep The Big Lie alive in the minds of the traitors who stormed the capitol building two weeks before Trump left office.

What’s more, the committee appears to have wrapped its findings up in a tidy — albeit voluminous — bundle of information that it will turn over to the special counsel, Jack Smith, who has been assigned by Attorney General Merrick Garland to pore through the evidence and decide whether to indict the former POTUS.

I believe the AG has enough evidence to proceed. The question for me is whether he has the guts to do what he must, which is indict Donald Trump and put this crooked, corrupt, immoral narcissist on trial for violating the oath of office he took to “protect and defend” the Constitution.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Sickening boorishness on display

Political boorishness is a remarkable trait to witness unfolding in real time, especially when it is aimed at a visiting head of state.

Consider what happened Wednesday night as most members of Congress stood and applauded the entry of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy into the House chamber to speak to a joint session of Congress.

At least two Republican House members — members of should be called the MAGA Cult Cabal — chose to sit on their hands. I refer to Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Matt Gaetz of Florida.

Think for just a moment about the man they were snubbing. President Zelenskyy came to this country at considerable risk to his safety to speak to Americans about the struggle he is fighting against the illegal and immoral invasion of his country by Russian military forces.

He spoke to us from the podium in the House chamber in English. He offered his profound and heartfelt thanks for the support shown by President Biden and by members of both parties serving in the House and Senate. He told us the money we are spending for Ukrainian defense is “not charity,” but it is an “investment” in Ukraine’s struggle on behalf of democratic principles.

Not everyone is on board with that, obviously. Boebert and Gaetz represent a segment of Congress that prefers to attach strings to our aid to Ukraine. However, for these two nimrods to sit on their hands and not extend to a heroic head of state the courtesy of their applause is reprehensible on its face.

They sat there intending to make some sort of idiotic statement.

It is fair to wonder whether the likes of Boebert and Gaetz will ever condemn in loud voices the war crimes that are occurring in Ukraine as Russian thug Vladimir Putin orders his troops to fire on schools, hospitals and residential developments, inflicting casualties on women and children.

They remain silent on those events while demonstrating their boorishness in the presence of a hero.

Sickening.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

It is so cold …

The winter blast that is beginning to pummel North Texas — and the rest of the region — reminds me of a story I like telling about the late O.A. “Bum” Phillips, the legendary football coach of the Houston Oilers and New Orleans Saints.

My old haunts in the Panhandle already are shivering.

I cannot prove Bum said this. Even if he didn’t, it sounds like something Bum would have said.

He took the Oilers to Buffalo to play the Bills in a late-season game. The weather was hideous. Wind, rain, snow, ice, bone-chilling temps. The Oilers won the game.

Afterward, Bum delivered — I believe — a classic answer to the question from the reporter: “How did you like coaching in the cold weather.”

Bum said: “Cold? This ain’t cold! I used to coach in Amarillo, Texas.” 

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

‘Your money is not charity’

Almost with exception, great speeches produce phrases or sentences that those who hear them will remember and perhaps repeat in conversation.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tonight delivered one of those great speeches.

In it he told a joint session of Congress and the nation that sends these lawmakers to serve there: “Your money is not charity. It is an investment in the global security and democracy that we handle in the most responsible way.”

And so, with that the Ukrainian president who is leading his nation in the fight for its life against Russian invaders delivered a statesmanlike rebuke against those in Congress who are resisting the effort to fund Ukraine’s courageous effort.

He spoke to a joint congressional session not in his native language, but in English. He spoke from his valiant heart and with the conviction of a man dedicated to standing against tyranny, just as his forebears — and ours, too — did eight decades ago in the struggle against Nazism.

Yes, this brave leader delivered a speech for the ages.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Why must we worry about our grid? Ridiculous!

Texans everywhere are bracing for a serious winter blast set to hammer us later this week.

And as we get ready for it, we are asking ourselves and each other: Do you think our electrical grid will hold up to the demand for energy? That is an absurd question in this state, arguably the energy capital of the world.

However, here we are. From here in Princeton to Pampa, from Presidio to Palestine we are wondering about the Electric Reliability Council of Texas ability to manage the state’s electric-generation capacity.

Why worry about ERCOT? Why, hell. It was just less than two years ago when ERCOT failed us. We lost power. We lost water generation. Hundreds of Texans froze to death.

ERCOT says the grid will hold up. So do our politicians, led by newly re-elected Gov. Greg Abbott. They tell us the state has plenty of energy to withstand this brief, but intensely bitter cold blast coming in the next few hours.

Pardon me for doubting the assurances. I remember the misery we endured. It was too brief of a time ago. That shouldn’t have occurred … but it damn sure did!

We’re taking measures in our house to prepare for the worst. I just hope our neighbors are, too. If enough of them prep for the deep freeze, then we’ll be all right.

Why must it come to this?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

business news

Hillary and others were right? Uhh … yeah!

“It proves that Hillary Clinton was right all along Nancy Pelosi was right all along; Chuck Schumer was right all along; the Democrats were right all along. Reporting from The New York Times was right all along; the Washington Post, too, was 100% correct all along. Donald Trump was not under audit. Donald Trump was lying. He was desperate to hide the truth from Americans.”

So said a TV host today in comments relating to the former president of the United States and his stubborn refusal to release his tax returns for public review.

The host is Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC and her point off the top is that Donald Trump never was being audited by the Internal Revenue Service as he insisted as the reason why he couldn’t release his returns.

So … he lied? Wow! Who woulda thought that was possible?

Some of us — such as this blogger — noted long ago that Trump never even produced any proof that the IRS was auditing his returns. For its part, the IRS said its rules prohibited it from commenting on specific cases. The agency, though, did say that audits do not prevent anyone from releasing the returns.

Back to the returns that finally have been turned over to the House Ways and Means Committee, they haven’t yet revealed everything about Trump’s business dealings, but it has shown has been a doozy so far.

They show that Trump had negative income in four of the six years covered by the release of the returns. What does that mean? Well, I believe it means that Trump’s continual bragging about his business brilliance was — to borrow a phrase — a bald-faced lie.

This information reveals him to be the business fraud that many of us suspected of him all along. Just think, therefore, of the phony claim of business acumen being used as a campaign ploy to get him elected POTUS in 2016. Wasn’t that part of the carnival barker’s alleged “charm” to voters?

The public has a right to know the details of a president’s finances, regardless of what politicians might say. Now the public is on the cusp of knowing a great deal about the fraud who presented himself as the world’s most astute business executive on his way to being elected to the world’s most powerful public office.

Let the chips fall.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Election denier makes right call … imagine that

One of the more fascinating aspects of the Texas secretary of state’s findings about the integrity of the 2020 election is that the secretary of state is an election denier.

Imagine that, eh?

John Scott is leaving office soon, returning to private life. When Gov. Greg Abbott appointed him as the state’s chief election official, many critics were quick to say that Scott has called the result of the 2020 election into question, criticizing what he called “irregularities” in the vote process.

Well, it turns out that the audit his office did in four of the state’s most populous counties found what many of us have said all along: There wasn’t “widespread voter fraud” in Texas.

It reminds of the “forensic audit” done in Arizona earlier this year by the Cyber Ninja outfit hired to examine claims of widespread fraud in that state. They came up empty, despite fears that the Cyber Ninjas were nothing more than a stalking horse organization for the Big Liars — in that it had no experience auditing election returns.

Now we have the Texas secretary of state confirming that Collin, Dallas, Tarrant and Harris counties’ elections were done above board and were free, fair, legal and correct.

Who knew?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

business news

Trump tax returns to go public

Republicans blasted the decision to release the returns, warning that the move will usher in a new era of disclosing personal financial documents as a “political weapon.”

What you see in the preceding paragraph comes from The Hill newspaper, quoting Republicans who are critical of a decision to release Donald Trump’s tax returns, turning them over to public inspection.

They are wrong to fear the weaponizing of tax returns.

The U.S. House Ways and Means Committee today voted along party lines to release six years of Trump’s taxes. The ex-president fought their release. He didn’t want to disclose to the public what previous presidents and presidential candidates had done since 1976.

So, what in the world should GOP officials fear now?

House Ways and Means Democrats who voted to release the tax returns now will give the public an inside look at the tax burden — or lack of burden — the one-time president had to bear while he was demanding that you and I pay our taxes.

It’s fair game.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Trumpism likely to outlive its founder

No matter what fate holds in store for Donald J. Trump, my fear now is the survival of the political movement he sired and foisted onto the rest of us.

Trumpism is likely to outlive its founder, the megalomaniacal businessman who is now facing the real possibility of being indicted for felony crimes associated with his losing the 2020 presidential election.

The House 1/6 select committee has referred criminal allegations to the Justice Department, charging Trump with obstruction of justice, inciting an assault on the U.S. Capitol, conspiring to commit an insurrection.

That doesn’t count the investigation that special counsel Jack Smith is conducting into the taking of classified material from the White House and storing it in unsecured rooms at Mar-a-Lago. Talk about a serious violation and a threat to national security … eh?

Donald Trump’s days as a major political figure appear to be vanishing like the sun into a smoggy dusk. He will not be elected president in 2024. It now is looking unlikely that he’ll even win the Republican Party nomination. He is facing an oncoming stampede of legal difficulties, starting with the aforementioned potential indictments.

Then we have the financial doom that awaits. New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed a $250 million lawsuit against the Trump Organization, which also has been pounded with guilty verdicts on assorted tax violations.

But … here’s the kicker. The election deniers who did survive the slaughter many of their ilk suffered in the midterm election remain on the scene. They continue to foment The Big Lie about vote fraud. Why, even the Texas secretary of state has determined there was no such widespread fraud in Texas. That will not shut the traps of the treasonous blowhards who continue to insist the 2020 election was “stolen” from their cult hero.

Thus, that thing called Trumpism is likely to survive for a good while longer than its creator. May the rest of us remain vigilant and alert to the lies they continue to sputter.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

No ‘widespread voter fraud’ in Texas!

Guess what … after all that bellowing, blathering and bloviating about “widespread voter fraud,” the Texas secretary of state has determined that the 2020 election was secure.

We can sleep better now.

Secretary of State John Scott, who is leaving office in two weeks, conducted a thorough audit of four of Texas’s most populous counties. They are Collin (where I live with my wife and one of our sons and his family), Dallas, Tarrant and Harris counties.

Scott’s team found no evidence of widespread fraud, despite the yammering of those who believe the 2020 election was fraught with corruption. There were some reported COVID-19 “irregularities,” but they amounted to a major nothing-burger in the grand scheme.

So … may we now put this crap into the ground where it belongs?

The Texas Tribune reported: (Tarrant County elections administrator Heider) Garcia added that Collin County, which the report considered a “model” of how Texas elections should be run, could perhaps offer some tools to further improve Tarrant County’s elections. Both counties are in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

That, right there, gives this Collin County resident comfort knowing that our ballots were counted properly and recorded for history’s sake as being legitimate.

Audit shows Texas elections secure despite COVID “irregularities” in 2020 | The Texas Tribune

I am delighted to know that the state’s audit of our system proved what many of us have known all along … that claims of widespread voter fraud are the work of demagogues and liars.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

 

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