Category Archives: national news

national news, political news

Pence a ‘traitor’? Wow!

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

There can be no greater example of the hijacking of a once-great political party than to see what happened the other day when former Vice President Mike Pence stood in front of a crowd at the Faith and Freedom Conference.

A few in the crowd shouted “traitor!” at Pence, who served as VP during the administration that left office this past January.

Traitor? That’s right. One of the most conservative politicians active today, a man of deep religious faith and admitted devotion to the POTUS in whose administration he served is called a traitor. Why? Because the VP refused to break the law by following the dictates of the former POTUS who wanted him to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

The Republican Party has become a cult. Its adherents no longer seem to believe in the rule of law. They believe instead in the Big Lie fomented by the ex-POTUS that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him.

So now the cultists are hurling hideous epithets at Mike Pence.

Mike Pence Heckled by Conservatives Who Shout ‘Traitor!’ During Weekend Speech (msn.com)

Do not misunderstand me on this point: I would never cast a vote for Mike Pence for any office ever. I remain astounded beyond measure at what we are witnessing as the GOP transforms into an angry mob.

national news

Who are the slackers, Congress?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The idiotic notion that federal employees do not need more time off from a federal holiday is laughable on its face.

It comes from Republicans in Congress who contend that the Juneteenth federal holiday signed into law this week by President Biden is just another excuse for federal employees to loaf instead of working on behalf of Americans.

Really? Who are the real slackers here? Congress is about to take a whole month off from legislating, debating and hammering out laws on our behalf. They’ll be back home or perhaps vacationing in posh locations abroad. They will contend they are doing their constituents’ work while at home, that they don’t really ever take time off.

Get real, jerks!

Juneteenth commemorates the day that Union soldiers informed blacks in Galveston that President Lincoln had issued a proclamation more than two years earlier that freed them from enslavement. Juneteenth is a holiday more than worthy of national recognition and honor.

Members of Congress are among the biggest slackers of any demographic group in the United States. So for the GOP caucus to rely on a moronic notion that granting more time off for federal employees makes me want to hurl.

national news

It’s still a huge lie

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I am in no position to challenge the wisdom of remarks attributed to one of society’s wisest men.

What’s more, I happen to agree with Rick Warren, the famed preacher and counselor to presidents.

I might add that “a lie doesn’t become the truth no matter how many times you repeat it.” I refer, of course, to The Big Lie that’s become the stuff of right-wing liars who continue to foment the notion that our most recent presidential election was stolen from one candidate and handed to President Biden.

The Big Lie won’t die. It needs killin’, man. It is being fed from the peanut gallery by a former POTUS who cannot accept that he lost fairly, squarely and legally to a superior candidate. He didn’t have the grace, class or dignity to attend the winner’s presidential inaugural. He retreated to his glitzy resort and has begun plotting to undermine Republican candidates for public office who had the temerity to criticize his actions relating to the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Rick Warren is right to suggest that a lie doesn’t become true even if a majority believes it. The good news, though, is that most Americans have not swilled The Big Lie poison, even though most of those who call themselves Republicans have signed on to the preposterous notion.

I also want to weigh in on the “evil” and “good” element of the quote that accompanies this blog post. It is that The Big Lie embodies the evil intent of the man who continues to give it life. I believe that POTUS 45 is full of evil motivation. For him to continue to suggest that thievery denied him re-election to the nation’s highest office is evil personified.

It is astonishing in the extreme that so many Americans have bought into The Big Lie, not because it has a ring of truth, but because it merely gives them a reason to concoct some pretext to be angry.

The Big Lie lives on in what passes for the hearts and minds of those who subscribe to a certain individual’s evil intent.

national news, political news

‘Theft’ of election drips with irony

Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images, Mark Makela /Reuters, AP, Cheney Orr/Reuters, AP.

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The irony is so rich, so thick that you can barely cut through it with the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Think about this for a moment. The immediate past president of the U.S. of A. alleges that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him. He preaches the Big Lie about rampant voter fraud that doesn’t exist. POTUS 45 and his minions keep yapping about how he will be “reinstated” and returned to power.

The irony is that they are proposing an element of electoral “theft” I never thought possible in this great country.

President Biden won the election, the results of which have been certified in every state and the District of Columbia. His Republican opponent keeps yammering about the 74 million Americans who supported his candidacy. Yes, the figure is impressive; it is the second-greatest number of votes ever cast for a presidential candidate.

However, Biden polled 81 million-plus votes, the greatest total ever amassed.

If the losing side of a brutal presidential campaign is going to suggest that electoral theft occurred, then why in the name of political sanity do they keep insisting on their own brand of thievery?

The irony in their argument simply forces me to dismiss it out of hand. You may take this to the pawn shop — or the bank — if you wish: I will never, not in a zillion years, cast the level of doubt on our nation’s electoral integrity we are hearing from right-wingers today.

They are denigrating the integrity of every state, county and local election official who work diligently to protect our most cherished democratic process. They have applauded the incitement of the insurrection that occurred Jan. 6. They have refused to honor the police officers who risked their lives to protect them against the riotous mob of terrorists who stormed the Capitol Building.

They are marching to the cadence being called by the individual President Biden defeated in the nation’s most secure election … ever!

For them to declare the election was stolen demonstrates willful ignorance of the very theft they seek to orchestrate.

The irony is astounding.

national news

Juneteenth receives deserved honor

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Texas has celebrated this glorious day for decades.

Now it’s time for the rest of the nation to join us.

Juneteenth will become the nation’s latest national holiday once President Biden puts his name on the legislation that sailed through the Senate unanimously and through the House in overwhelmingly bipartisan fashion.

It becomes the first national holiday since Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday was declared such in 1983.

I am delighted as a Texas resident to see this state take a front-and-center place in this discussion. June 19, 1865 was the day that African-Americans were informed in Galveston that they were, indeed, free from enslavement; the announcement came two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. News didn’t travel nearly as fast as it should have in those days … you know?

Cornyn calls GOP lawmaker’s position against Juneteenth ‘kooky’ (msn.com)

And so, with the exception of 14 GOP knuckleheads in the House, virtually the entire legislative branch of government is on board in that rare bipartisan event.

This day deserves the honor it is about to receive, as do the descendants of those who were declared finally free of humanity’s greatest sin.

national news

‘Audit’ won’t change a thing

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Earth to the cabal of Republican Party fruitcakes who just cannot free themselves from the death grip of the cult of personality surrounding the recent past POTUS …

The phony audits that are wrapping up in places like Arizona will not “change the outcome” of the 2020 presidential election. Joe Biden won the election. It has been certified, verified, signed into law. The former Dipsh** in Chief’s assertion of widespread vote fraud will never bear fruit.

According to The Hill: A majority of Republicans in the poll, 51 percent, indicated they think reviews of the 2020 election will change its outcome, including 29 percent who “definitely” think it will change the outcome and 22 percent who think it “probably” will change the results.

Majority of Republicans think state reviews will change 2020 outcome: poll (msn.com)

Umm. How can I say this? No. Nothing will change. The fruitcakes need to have their numb skulls examined.

national news

Domestic terror deserves national attention

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Yes, the headline on this blog is one of those no-brainers.

However, to hear the U.S. attorney general speak so forcefully about the threats posed by domestic terror reminds me of why I support this fellow and the individual who nominated him for the job, President Biden.

AG Merrick Garland continues to give voice to issues that need to be heard.

Just as he spoke the other day about the Justice Department’s commitment to ensuring that all Americans have access to the electoral process, he spoke again today about the existential threat posed by domestic terror.

We all saw that threat play out on Jan. 6 when the mob attacked the U.S. Capitol as members of Congress led by Vice President Mike Pence were certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election. Congressional Democrats and a handful of their Republican colleagues want a bipartisan commission to explore in detail the cause and effect of that insurrection. We know already what to call it: an act of rebellion against the government, incited by the immediate past president who continues to foment The Big Lie about the election being “stolen” from him.

The men who served as attorney general under the former president’s single term in office did not speak with anything approaching the passion and eloquence about domestic terrorism that AG Merrick Garland has done.

“We will never take our eyes off the risk of another devastating attack by foreign terrorists,” he said in remarks delivered today at the Justice Department. “At the same time, we must respond to domestic terrorism with the same sense of purpose and dedication.”

Attorney General Merrick Garland unveils plan to combat domestic terrorism – CBS News

CBS News reported: Administration officials, in briefing reporters on the strategy, pointed to an increase in politically, ethnically, and racially motivated acts of domestic terrorism in the U.S. over the years, including the congressional baseball shooting that took place four years ago this week, when a shooter opened fire on members of Congress because they were Republican. 

So it must proceed. FBI Director Christopher Wray has called domestic terrorism an even greater threat to Americans than terrorists from abroad. It is time to respond accordingly.

national news

Rep. Greene comes clean

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Given that I have spent a good bit of emotional capital — not to mention filled a fair amount of cyberspace with commentary on this congresswoman — fairness dictates that I offer a good word when she seeks to atone for her loud and brash mouth.

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the QAnon queen of the House, popped off not long ago comparing mask-wearing mandates to what Jews suffered during the Holocaust.

Rep. Greene toured the Holocaust Museum in Washington and then this week issued what looks to me to be a sincere apology for what she said.

“I’m truly sorry for offending people with remarks about the Holocaust,” Taylor Greene told reporters outside the Capitol on Monday. “There’s no comparison and there never ever will be.“

To be clear, this apology did not contain that non-apologetic cliche “If I offended anyone … “ This sounds to me like the real deal.

This is a good thing from this otherwise reckless ultra-right winger who’s been known to say some patently outrageous things.

Will this signal a new turn for the Georgia congresswoman? Has she found some form of religion that will enable her to retain a semblance of decorum and dignity in her public pronouncements? Time will tell if it lasts.

I just feel the need to express my own appreciation that on this matter, she had the good sense to own her mistake and seek to atone for it.

national news

Pipe down, Jim Jordan

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Jim Jordan is vying for the title of No. 1 U.S. House of Representatives A**hole.

I think he’s the favorite, given what he said today about President Biden attending summits in Europe.

According to Business Insider:

“While President Biden pals around with his buddies in Europe, the border crisis rages at home,” Jordan, a conservative lawmaker and staunch ally of former President Donald Trump, wrote on Twitter. This, despite Biden attending the same diplomatic summits that Trump did during his single term in office.

GOP Rep. Jim Jordan rips into Joe Biden for attending the same G-7, NATO summits with US allies that Trump went to multiple times (msn.com)

So, what’s the problem? Oh, I think I know. President Biden is a Democrat; Jordan is a Republican, as is his pal, the ex-POTUS to whom he preached blind loyalty even as he incited an insurrection that could have resulted in Jordan being harmed by the mob of terrorists.

Jordan needs to shut his trap.

national news

No Biden blind spot

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

A critic of this blog has accused me of having a “blind spot” regarding President Biden.

Hmmm. He prompted me to ponder that. I then decided that I do not have a blind spot concerning the 46th president of the United States. Heck, I’ve kept an eye on Biden for nearly as long as he entered the national political scene way back in 1972.

I know about his U.S. Senate victory and the death of his wife and daughter in that auto accident. I recall how he struggled with whether he should serve in the Senate.

I also know about how long-winded Sen. Biden could get. Specifically, I remember during a Senate confirmation hearing for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito how Biden lectured Alito on some matter for the entire five minutes he had been allotted to ask the SCOTUS nominee pertinent questions.

Plus, I recall how Biden got caught plagiarizing comments from a British pol and captured them as his own life story. The scandal doomed his first presidential quest in 1988.

I shucked the blinders long ago when it came to President Biden. I know of his flaws and his shortcomings as a politician. However, given the context of his election in 2020 and the (absence of) character of the opponent he defeated, I am going to give him every benefit of the doubt I can muster.

I want Joe Biden to succeed as president. I believe he is fully capable of succeeding whereas I never held such hope for that of his predecessor. Thus, when critics of this blog accuse me of having a “blind spot” concerning this president, I simply want to set the record straight.

Joe Biden is far from a perfect politician. I have known it for as long as I have been watching him. I just intend to give him sufficient room to repair the damage left by the guy he succeeded in the White House.