FBI

FBI: Antifa not involved!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

A friend of mine noted on social media that this bit of news won’t convince anyone’s crazy uncle, but the FBI has concluded something critical about the riot that overwhelmed Capitol Hill on Wednesday.

It is that the Antifa movement was not involved in the mob that stormed the nation’s Capitol Building. The riot killed five people, inflicted heavy damage on the structure itself and sent members of both congressional chambers — as well as Vice President Mike Pence — scrambling for cover to protect them against the mob.

Antifa is that leftist conglomeration of Americans who protest fascism in its various forms. Some right wingers have suggested that Antifa sympathizers were disguised as MAGA-hatted rioters.

The FBI has said “no,” that isn’t  the case. The feds have found no evidence of any leftist infiltration of the pro-Donald Trump mob that invaded the Capitol Building, where Congress was conducting its pro forma duty of ratifying Joe Biden’s election as president of the United States.

I agree with my friend that the FBI findings won’t persuade the frothing Trump faithful. It just needs to be stated that the nation’s top law enforcement agency has put the lie to, um, another lie.

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BLM protests vs. Capitol Hill riot? Let’s ponder that one

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Let us consider something that needs to be said about why the nation should be outraged at what transpired Wednesday afternoon and evening on the steps of the U.S. Capitol Building.

Right-wingers are growing fond of comparing the riot to the Black Lives Matter protests that admittedly turned violent in many cities across the nation. They cite the difference in the casualty counts; the length of time the disturbances lasted; the scope of one vs. the the other.

What makes the tragedy that unfolded Wednesday so graphic and so hideous is its context. It occurred — and I will write slowly so everyone can understand my meaning — within the halls of our democratic system of government. 

You want some more context? Try this one out: They were incited by the president of the United States, who four years ago took an oath to “defend and protect the Constitution of the United States.” And he swore to God in Heaven that he would be faithful to that pledge.

Donald John Trump this week smashed that oath to smithereens one final time.

I also want to be clear about something else. This blog has decried the violence that has occurred during the BLM riots. I recognize fully that violence does not constitute any sort of “peaceful assembly” or an effort to seek redress of grievances against authority.

That said, let us not compare one series of events to a singular attack on the very foundation of the nation we all profess to love.

The Capitol Hill insurrection stands alone.

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GOP needs serious soul-searching

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Lisa Murkowski’s days as a Republican might be dwindling.

The U.S. senator from Alaska said so herself this week while she and the rest of us watched Donald Trump fire up the rioters who stormed Capitol Hill while seeking to stop Congress from ratifying Joe Biden’s election as the next president of the United States.

I don’t particularly care what Sen. Murkowski does, or how she plans to chart her political future. She said the GOP must not remain “the party of Trump.” If it does, then she well might turn away from the party that used to welcome her.

What does concern me about the Republican Party is that it has been hijacked by Trump, whose believers have taken to calling non-Trump-supporting Republicans “RINO,” or Republicans In Name Only. Let’s ponder that for just a moment.

Donald Trump had zero party involvement prior to declaring his presidential candidacy in the summer of 2015. He chose to run as an “R” because it presented the easiest path for him; goodness, he even said as much himself.

He has not governed as a Republican. He has no philosophical mooring. Trump’s guiding principle is welded to his personal brand and so the party leadership in Congress has hitched itself to Trump’s world view — whatever that is — while seeking to preserve leaders’ own political standing.

Sen. Murkowski’s decision to leave the GOP well might spur the party leadership to finally — finally! — do the kind of soul-searching it vowed to do after Mitt Romney lost to President Obama in 2012. It should commence that search even if Murkowski remains a member of the GOP.

A gentleman who has frequent disagreements with this blog’s view of Trump suggested to me recently that the two-party system we once knew is dead. “They both have moved so far right and left they are unrecognizable,” he wrote to me.

I believe we still have a two-party system. I disagree, though, on its configuration. There remains a mainstream Democratic Party comprising moderates and center-left thinkers. From my vantage point — and I acknowledge my own bias — the Republican Party’s heart and soul has been co-opted by the radical Trumpkin Corps that professes fealty to an individual … and has tossed party principles into the crapper.

I want a healthy debate on issues that matter. Thus, I want a return to a two-party system that we used to have in this country. That system cannot function as long as one of those two parties remains loyal to a con man/phony baloney carnival barker/seditionist who has disguised himself as a Republican.

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Constitution still works

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Over the life of this blog I have occasionally invoked the words of someone I consider to be one of the 20th century’s more underrated statesmen.

President Gerald Ford took office on Aug. 9, 1974 at the end of what at the time was thought to be the nation’s worst constitutional crisis. President Richard Nixon had resigned in the wake of the Watergate scandal and coverup.

President Ford took his oath of office and declared, “Our Constitution works.” Yes! It most certainly did then. It does now.

We are watching another crisis unfold before our eyes. I am going to stand foursquare behind the nobility of our nation’s founding governing document. It is working now. It will see us through this horrifying mess.

Donald Trump is 11 days from exiting the presidency. He incited a riot this week that could have resulted in the destruction of our democratic form of government. Five people died in the melee on Capitol Hill, which is where Congress was gathering in real time to perform a constitutional duty: ratification of the Electoral College vote that declared Joe Biden and Kamala Harris president and vice president of the United States.

Trump would not accept the voters’ verdict. He egged on the mob gathered before him to in effect storm the Capitol and stop the ratification. The rioters ransacked the Capitol Building. They occupied offices. They pranced through the Senate and House chambers while our elected representatives were holed up in safe places to avoid being harmed by the insurrectionists. Five people, including a D.C. police officer, died in the mayhem.

Our Constitution will work yet again. The House is considering whether to impeach Donald Trump once again. Pressure is mounting on the Cabinet and Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the Constitution’s 25th Amendment, which allows for the removal of a president who is incapable of doing his job.

Donald Trump is incapable of doing a job for which he is patently and demonstrably unfit.

And in just 11 days, Donald Trump — one way or another — will be gone from that office. President Biden and Vice President Harris will take over. The task of rebuilding and repairing our government will commence. It will take time and patience to restore order to this government of ours, which is both fragile and sturdy all at once.

President Ford stated it with profound wisdom in that earlier dark time in our history.

Our Constitution works.

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No, ‘both sides’ aren’t responsible for this tragedy

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Here comes the Trumpkin Corps’s defense of what Donald Trump did Wednesday morning to incite the rioters to attack the seat of our democratic system of government.

They are now pointing to “both sides” being complicit in this hideous demonstration of sedition that borders on treason. They suggest that the heated rhetoric coming from the left in defense of the Black Lives Matter protests is as responsible for the outbreak as the lunatics who stormed the Capitol Building after getting the virtual “go ahead” from their guy, Donald J. Trump, to do what they did.

No! The seditious act we witnessed, the storming of the Capitol with the intent of stopping Congress from ratifying President-elect Biden’s victory over Trump, will stand alone in the annals of infamy in this country.

Just as President Roosevelt declared the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 to be a “date which will live in infamy,” so will Jan. 6, 2021 stand as an infamous chapter in this nation’s glorious saga.

What’s more, it belongs to Donald John Trump and the morons who have swallowed his lie about the 2020 presidential election thievery.

We must not tolerate the attempts by the extremists who insist that both sides share the blame for what erupted in our nation’s capital this week. The act of treachery staged by the mob that ransacked the halls of Congress must stand alone as an act of betrayal of all that we cherish as a free nation.

That treachery rests with Donald Trump.

Joe Biden, national news

What if they had taken prisoners?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I continue to watch the news and continue to be saddened damn near to tears over the images I am watching.

They are the sight and sounds of rioters storming into offices inside the Capitol Building of the United States of America.

I am 71 years old. I have lived through a presidential assassination, have served my country in a war zone, have watched another president commit high crimes and then resign from office in the midst of what we all thought at the time was the “worst constitutional crisis” in U.S. history.

None of those prior events posed quite the threat to the very fabric of our national government than what we all witnessed in real time this week.

Donald Trump, the current president of the United States, incited the rioters to do the damage they did.

It is fair to ask: What if they had taken prisoners during their riot? What if they had managed to surround, say, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, or Senate leaders, or even the vice president, Mike Pence? What if they had taken them captive in their madness?

They didn’t. They did considerable damage to our public property. They broke windows. They ransacked offices. Five people — including a D.C. police officer — died in the melee.

They also have inflicted potentially grievous damage on our democratic form of government.

They were fueled by the lie that Donald Trump kept telling them, that the election that Trump lost was “stolen” by Democrats who engineered a theft that propelled Joe Biden into the presidency.

It was a despicable, reprehensible display of sedition. They sought to overturn the results of a free and fair election. They and their champion, Donald Trump, demonstrated for the entire world to see just how perilous is the state of our precious form of government.

In all my years, it was one of those events I never thought I would witness. It frightens me beyond what is reasonable. The government I took an oath to defend and protect while the country was at war for a time was in danger of falling to this madness.

Donald Trump’s inaugural speech featured a single memorable line, when he declared that the “American carnage would stop right here and now.” This individual’s term as president is ending with the kind of carnage most Americans never thought would be possible in this proud land of ours.

national news

Let’s not put this tragedy behind us

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Let’s be crystal clear, shall we?

The tragedy that unfolded this week in front of the world must remain at the top of our conscious thoughts for well past the long term. Let’s try … forever!

Donald Trump might be impeached a second time. He might stand trial a second time in the Senate. For all I know he might even be acquitted a second time by gutless Republican senators.

The insurrection we witnessed must not be allowed to be shoved aside. It’s nowhere near possible for us to simply say, “It’s time to move on.” I am one American patriot who intends to keep talking and writing about this until I no longer am able.

Trump will be out of office in 12 days. There isn’t much time to exact justice on this lawless individual. However, the House must clear the deck to get this job done; so must the Senate do its job.

You saw Trump say what he said. He told the mobsters they should storm the Capitol. They did. They damaged the center of our democratic institutions. They ransacked offices. Five people died! One of them was a police officer injured in a melee with rioters.

This is not the kind of tragedy you can place on the back shelf. Let’s not forget about it. Yes, we need to get back to the task of governing. We can do that when President Biden and Vice President Harris take their oaths of office.

But they face a steep hill to climb. It happens to be the mobsters who continue to believe the lies that Trump has fed to them. They will continue to believe in the phony voter fraud allegation. They will insist the election was stolen from their guy. They will continue to present a clear danger to our democratic system.

Let’s not be coy about the possibility — remote as it might seem — that they could do once again what they tried to do Wednesday night at the urging of the president of the United States.

We’re going to have a new president and vice president in office soon. We already have a newly reconstituted Congress. They all must govern effectively. I get that.

However, we also must never forget what we witnessed this week. Not only that, we also must not allow the repercussions of what we are feeling at this moment to subside, to disappear and for us to fill ourselves with any sort of false sense of security that all is good.

It isn’t. Not be a long shot.

national news

Impeach him once more!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Make no mistake, none at all, that I do not relish the idea of impeaching Donald J. Trump a second time just a few days before the end of his tenure as president of the United States.

But it needs to occur. The House of Representatives reportedly is set to take up debate on Monday of an article of impeachment. My sense is that the Democrats who run the House will be able to fast-track this article, sending it immediately to the Senate for trial.

This individual, Trump, is a danger to the nation. We saw the danger play out in real time on Wednesday. Trump stood before a mob of rioters and implored them to march on the Capitol. They did and all hell broke loose.

Then he told them he “loved” them, repeated the lie about voter fraud in the 2020 election. Oh, and then today Trump said he regrets the violence and that a “new administration” will take over.

The man continues to present a clear a present danger to the nation for every minute he remains in office.

An impeachment doesn’t mean removal. We know that already, given that the House impeached him in 2019, only to watch the Senate acquit him because only one GOP senator — Mitt Romney –had the courage to stand up for the rule of law and the Constitution.

Is this instance different from that one? Will it prompt Republicans in the Senate to steel themselves for what they must do, which is to convict Donald Trump of inciting violence against the government he took an oath to protect? Man, I hope so.

Uncategorized

Revisionists ignite the next Big Lie

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Those who revise what we all saw with our eyes and heard with our ears are at it … already.

Right-wing nut jobs are fomenting the lie that the riot that occurred Wednesday on Capitol Hill is the work of far-left political activists “disguised” as Donald Trump supporters.

The lie comes from Trump’s most frothing supporters in Congress, morons like Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida and Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama. They are suggesting that “antifa” followers are responsible for the carnage and vandalism we all saw occurring.

And yes, it occurred after Trump himself incited them the mob to do what it did. It occurred while Trump was praising them for expressing their anger and telling them he “loved” them.

We now are being urged to accept this B.S. from Trump sycophants that the riot was spurred on by those who despise Trump?

Be wary of the next Big Lie coming from the far right wing nut jobs.

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Trump won’t attend? Good deal … bye!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Now that Donald J. Trump has issued a Twitter statement, that means it’s official.

He won’t attend President Biden’s inaugural.

This hits me at two distinct levels.

The first level is that it is no surprise that Donald Trump won’t be present to watch his successor take the oath of office and assume the presidency of the United States. How in the world could he attend, given the events of this week and prior? He would subject himself to immense demonstrations of scorn from those of us who are appalled at what transpired on Capitol Hill this week. Make no mistake, Trump was a major instigator of the mayhem that erupted.

The second level is that Trump’s absence will toss aside yet another custom associated with the “peaceful transfer of power” from one president to the next one. Trump said Thursday he will work toward that end now that Congress has ratified the Electoral College vote. It was a hollow pledge, given what has transpired.

Moreover, you can bet your last buck that Biden isn’t about to say a single word of thanks/praise/conciliation toward the individual who has fomented the Big Lie about “massive vote fraud” during the election. To that end, the transition has been anything but peaceful, given the riot that erupted on Capitol Hill.

So, what would be the point of Trump attending the inaugural of Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris? There is none.

So, see ya, Donald Trump. I want you to live the rest of your days in ignominious oblivion. He has earned all the disgrace that is sure to fall at his feet.

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