national news

Stand tall, counselor

Pat Cipollone is about to get his 15 minutes of fame, notoriety, infamy … whatever the case may be.

On Friday, the one-time White House counsel during Donald Trump’s term in office, will talk to the House select committee examining the 1/6 insurrection. He’ll get a chance to tell the panel what he said to Trump while the then-POTUS was seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election … the one that Trump lost to Joe Biden.

An earlier witness, Cassidy Hutchinson, told the committee about things Cipollone said, warning Trump that the actions he was proposing would end up sending everyone in the White House to prison.

Now the former White House lawyer gets to say it all himself, out loud and on the record.

The walls continue to close in on the former Nitwit in Chief.

This is so much fun to watch!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Graham shows his duplicity … again!

Can there be a more duplicitous hypocrite serving in the U.S. Senate than Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina?

Oh, there likely are a lot of ’em serving alongside Graham, but he’s outdone himself this week.

Graham declared that he won’t comply with a subpoena issued by Fulton County (Ga.) District Attorney Fani Willis, who wants to talk to Graham about why he sought to intervene in Georgia’s 2020 presidential election returns.

You know the story. Georgia voted for Joe Biden over Donald Trump. The ex-president sought to pressure election officials to “find” enough votes to turn the state into a Trump victory. Graham took part in that coercion. Fani Willis wants to talk to him about that.

Hence, the subpoena.

Graham, though, won’t comply with it. He calls it “all politics.”

Here’s an idea. If Graham insists he did nothing wrong and if he also insists that the exercise is a political stunt, why doesn’t he go and “set the record straight”?

I think I know why he won’t comply. It’s because DA Willis has an ironclad case of bullying and coercion on Trump’s part and on Graham.

Let’s remember that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger recorded Trump demanding that Raffensberger “find” enough votes needed to flip Georgia. The ex-POTUS committed an act of tampering with a state electoral process.

For my money, Fani Willis has potentially the most airtight case of all of them proceeding against the former POTUS.

As for Graham, who has been a major Trump suck-up ever since he dropped out of the 2016 GOP presidential primary, he is defying what should be obvious, that no one is above the law. When a duly elected prosecutor summons you to testify before a grand jury, you do what you’re told. Indeed, Graham has served as an Air Force lawyer and no doubt has issued that warning to witnesses summoned during courts martial.

I am heartened only by my belief that the walls are closing in on Donald J. Trump.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Sanity must prevail

Those of us who believe the world is full of far more sane people than insane individuals must cling to that notion tightly as we watch the 2024 presidential election field take shape.

Thus, it falls on me to declare once again that I believe sanity is going to win the day. Republicans are not going to commit an act of insanity by allowing a twice-impeached president, a two-time loser of the popular vote and an individual who well might be indicted for seditious conspiracy against the government to carry the party’s banner into the next presidential campaign.

Donald J. Trump cannot possibly believe he can be elected again to the nation’s highest office. Surely there exists a sufficient body of sane Republicans who also can prevent that catastrophe from occurring.

I say this because I have stated already that I do not believe that Trump is going to run for POTUS in two years. This individual has a sh**load of trouble awaiting him.

His business is failing.  He is in debt up to that muskrat-covered skull of his. The 1/6 insurrection probe has revealed to the world that Trump knew in advance that the attack he provoked would bring trouble and that he didn’t give a damn that the traitorous mob was screaming “Hang Mike Pence!” as they stormed the Capitol Building.

I will not believe that Republicans would dare nominate someone so corrupt, crooked, immoral and indecent as the guy who stumbled and bumbled his way into office, only to be revealed that he, indeed, is every inch the “phony” and the “fraud” that 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney described him.

My eternal hope still burns brightly with the belief that the world has more sane minds than insane minds.

Let it be so.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Hope vs. reality

My fond political hopes keep running headlong into political reality as the race for Texas governor slogs on.

I saw two public opinion polls this week that filled me with conflicting emotions.

A CBS News poll said Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is holding onto an eight-point lead over Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke. I want O’Rourke to win and I want Abbott to pay for his hideous performance in fighting the immigration crisis, the COVID crisis, gun violence and the energy crisis.

Then came a new poll, from the Texas Politics Project, which declares that O’Rourke is six points behind Abbott. What’s more, the latter survey tells us the margin is narrow than it was in 1994 when upstart GOP nominee George W. Bush defeated Democratic incumbent Gov. Ann Richards.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s lead over Beto O’Rourke narrows, poll finds | The Texas Tribune

First poll runs into reality. Second poll speaks to my emotion.

Which of those do I believe? I’m grown up enough to know that Democrats in Texas always have a steep hill to climb.

However, I am an individual with a deep reservoir of hope. It’s not bottomless, but it’s still pretty deep.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

Keeping faith in AG

You have read on this blog that I trust Attorney General Merrick Garland implicitly to carry out his duties as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer.

Now that I have reaffirmed that trust, I feel compelled to say the following: I will place my trust that the AG will follow the law in its strictest sense and will make a determination on whether to prosecute Donald Trump based solely on what the law allows him to do.

Put another way: I will accept, albeit with gritted teeth, a decision to forgo a criminal indictment against the former president.

I happen to believe fully in our federal legal system. It’s not that I don’t recognize flaws in prosecution when I see them. Bear in mind, though, that I am the farthest thing imaginable from a lawyer. My mind isn’t trained in the legal intricacies of criminal or civil investigation.

So, when a top-tier lawyer — such as Merrick Garland — goes through the rigorous process of determining whether a former president of the U.S. should be prosecuted for crimes, I am left only to accept whatever decision the AG has reached.

I suppose I should stipulate that my layman’s noodle has concluded that Trump has committed crimes against the government. He bullied the Georgia secretary of state to “find” enough votes to steal the state’s electoral votes from Joe Biden; he knew of plans seat fake electors on 1/6; Trump incited the insurrection that sought to “hang Mike Pence”; Trump knew all that he sought to do was illegal, but he insisted on pursuing The Big Lie.

The question for Merrick Garland, as near as I can tell, is this: Can we convict this guy? The attorney general cannot afford to let Trump slither away should he indict him. Indeed, the nation’s governing process cannot afford to have Trump hanging around out there, sowing discord and distrust in our electoral system.

I believe Donald J. Trump is guilty of high crimes against the government. However, I am not pursuing this. The AG, a learned man of impeccable character, is riding in the hottest seat imaginable.

I hope he reaches the correct conclusion. If he decides to go another way, well, he will put my faith in our federal system to a stern test.

It will remain strong.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

309 = epidemic

Let us ponder for a brief moment a simple number: 309.

That is the number of what we call “mass shootings” that have occurred in the United States just in the current calendar year.

Now, where I come from, they would be inclined to call that an epidemic. Yes, 309 incidents of mass shootings — defined as when we have more than four fatalities — have occurred in the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave. That’s just in 2022!

At this very moment, I am not feeling too damn free and I certainly am not feeling brave about the prospects of venturing too far from home.

They had a Fourth of July parade in suburban Chicago, for God’s sake, when the latest terrorist attack occurred. Authorities have just announced that a seventh victim has died from injuries suffered at the grimy hands of the shooter.

When in the name of all that is sacred is enough going to be enough?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Paranoia is growing

Make no mistake about this, which is that with each incident of random gun violence the more frightened I am becoming of attending any sort of outdoor activity.

An afternoon at the movie theater? Shopping for groceries at the supermarket? Driving in heavy traffic along a busy highway? A holiday parade celebrating the nation’s independence?

Forget about it!

The Highland Park, Ill., shooting that killed six people and injured a couple dozen others has driven me just about to the breaking point.

I hate feeling so nervous, so anxious, so frightened at what is happening in this country?

Not only that, we have a family that gives us worry, too, as they go about their day.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

education news

Pols step up correctly!

My previous blog spoke well of the Texas State Board of Education’s decision to keep teaching elementary public school students about “slavery” and to forgo the use of a term called “involuntary relocation” in our curriculum.

I want to highlight one aspect of that decision. It came unanimously. Yes, 15 members of the SBOE voted as one. Why is that a big deal? Because the SBOE comprises politicians who are elected to the office. They run as Republicans and Democrats. They have constituencies to which they must appeal. They represent vastly different districts drawn across our vast state.

They come from different ideological backgrounds, bias and political leanings.

Yet on this matter, they spoke with one voice.

Make no mistake, the SBOE made the correct statement. The term “slavery” should remain in our public school curriculum to remind our children of the darkest chapter in our nation’s history.

That the SBOE locked arms on this matter is cause for high praise.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

education news

SBOE pushes back on language change

Well, I’ll be deep fried and rolled in oats. The Texas State Board of Education, a committee of 15 politicians elected to a panel that determines public school curriculum, has shown some needed guts.

The SBOE appears to have squashed an idea to change the way schools teach second graders about slavery. A group of educators had pitched an idea to call the enslavement of human beings as “involuntary relocation.”

The SBOE said “no” to that idea. Texas’s public schools will continue to teach our children about “slavery,” and will keep the language as it has been presented.

Yahoo News reported: While involuntary relocation isn’t an entirely unknown term in social studies, it often “has relationships to refugees and forced displacement due to violence or ethnic cleansing,” said Neil Shanks, clinical assistant professor of middle and secondary education at Baylor University.

In this case, Shanks added, the term appeared to be “intended to water down the issue of slavery.”

Texas board of education strikes down proposal to call slavery ‘involuntary relocation’ (yahoo.com)

Let’s understand that slavery is the darkest chapter in our nation’s otherwise glorious story. We shouldn’t dilute its impact by introducing the kind of terminology that means next to nothing. “Involuntary relocation?” What the hell is that?

The State Board of Education, to its great credit, voted unanimously to stay the course on teaching our children about the evils of slavery.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

AOC offers sound idea

Here’s a thought that comes from a member of Congress but is one I want to present here as food for thought.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, one of the House’s most outspoken progressive members has suggested that any member of Congress who sought a pardon from the president of the United States should be expelled from that body.

Follow me on this.

AOC noted that during the House committee hearings on the 1/6 insurrection we learned that several House members sought a pardon from Donald J. Trump. According to AOC, one who seeks a pardon is admitting his or her guilt in committing a crime.

Hmm. Fascinating, yes?

Reps. Jim Jordan, Matt Gaetz, Louis Gohmert, Mo Brooks and Marjorie Taylor Greene all were identified by witnesses as House members who sought pardons from Trump. Why? They must have known all hell was going to break loose on 1/6, as did Trump.

They’re all right-wing, wacko Republicans. Thus, you could expect that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — an ardent Democrat — would take a hard line on whether her colleagues should remain as members of the people’s House. However, AOC — with whom I have some problems in the past — makes a valid point about whether these GOP nimrods deserve to keep their seats in the House.

If they have admitted to a crime for which they sought a pardon from the lame-duck POTUS, then they have admitted that they have committed a felony. If that is their admission, do they then deserve to remain in their House offices, drawing pay from taxpayers’ wallets and making public policy decisions that affect every American?

No! They do not!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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