Category Archives: national news

national news

Call it ‘horrific’

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Horrific.

Simply horrific.

I am utterly astounded beyond belief at what is transpiring inside the White House — my house, your house, our house — as it regards the con man masquerading as president of the United States.

Donald J. Trump has demanded that Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensberger “find” 11,800 votes that would overturn that state’s presidential verdict in November. Georgia sent its electoral votes to President-elect Joe Biden. Trump wants those votes for himself and is asking Georgia’s top election official to break the law.

That all by itself is a violation of the law.

We have a lawless, amoral, narcissistic carnival barker seeking to subvert our democratic process. It might fall into the category of treason, but it looks for all the world like sedition, which is another way of seeking to overthrow government processes.

Donald Trump’s fomenting the latest Big Lie about “widespread voter fraud” is just beyond every pale I can imagine.

However, I am going to offer a glimmer of good news. Trump’s effort to overturn the election will fail. Congress on Wednesday will ratify what the Electoral College has certified, that Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris were elected Nov. 3. There will be an inauguration on Jan. 20. President Biden and Vice President Harris will take office on that day.

Donald Trump and VP Mike Pence will be gone.

That clear and unambiguous path out of this sheer madness gives me reason for hope that we will survive this horrific drama.

national news

Will new POTUS rethink whether to prosecute Trump?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

President-elect Biden is on record saying he has no interest in pursuing federal charges against his immediate predecessor once he leaves office.

Now we hear from the Georgia secretary of state declaring that Donald Trump might have violated federal law by pressuring him to find 11,000 votes to flip so that Trump could put Georgia in the “win” column from the 2020 election.

I believe they call it election tampering, yes?

Secretary of state Ben Raffensperger — a Republican — doesn’t say he wants Trump to be prosecuted, but that he well might face scrutiny from the Justice Department.

The recording of the phone call aired over the weekend suggests Trump was intent on strong-arming Georgia to flip the outcome. Federal statute specifically prohibits such chicanery. No one is above the law, correct? That means the POTUS can be prosecuted if he violates the law.

The phone call is about as “perfect” as the call Trump made to the Ukraine president to solicit dirt on Joe Biden.

Yep, the lame-duck president of the United States is out of control and out of his mind.

I now am wondering if the new president should be rethinking the notion of forgoing a federal probe into this latest criminal act by the current president.

national news

Ex-speaker blasts colleagues … who don’t hear him

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Former U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan is angry with his former Republican congressional colleagues.

Ryan believes they have embarked on an “un-American,” and “anti-conservative” strategy while seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Of course he is correct. One big problem exists, however. They don’t give crap what the former speaker thinks of their shenanigans.

According to Business Insider: “All our basic rights and freedoms flow from a fidelity to the Constitution and the rule of law,” Ryan, who represented Wisconsin in the House from 1999 until 2019, said in a statement. “This principle is not only fundamentally American but a central tenet of conservatism. Under our system, voters determine the president, and this self-governance cannot sustain itself if the whims of Congress replace the will of the people. I urge members to consider the precedent that it would set.”

Do you think any of the nimrods who are seeking to challenge President-elect Biden’s victory when Congress meets this week to certify the Electoral College tally from the election will heed these words?

Nope. They are hellbent on shaming the nation.

national news

Trump: Most dangerous POTUS in history

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The New York Times has published a story that begins with this paragraph:

President Trump demanded that Georgia’s Republican secretary of state “find” him enough votes to overturn the presidential election, and vaguely threatened him with “a criminal offense,” during an hourlong telephone conversation with him on Saturday, according to audio excerpts from the conversation.

Trump Pressured Georgia Official to ‘Find’ Enough Votes to Overturn Election (msn.com)

Now, let’s ponder the consequence of that news article brings to us.

To me it tells of a president seeking to coerce a state election official to change the outcome of an election and to threaten him if he doesn’t do what the president is demanding.

Have you ever heard of such a travesty? Can anyone recall any president in any era of any political party doing the kind of thing that Donald Trump has done in the wake of an election he lost … by a lot?

What we have on our hands — for the next 16 days — is a president who is out of control. He’s also out of his mind.

Every move he makes to overturn an election, to subvert democracy, to violate the very oath he took to defend the Constitution and abide by the law only ratifies what many millions of us have known since before the guy became president.

It is that he presents a dire danger to the very nation that elected him as its president.

We have corrected that grievous error and I am awaiting the moment when Joseph Biden takes the oath and rescues this country from the madman he will succeed.

national news

‘Compartmentalize,’ Mr. POTUS-elect

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Part of President Clinton’s success in the White House involved his ability to “compartmentalize” his relationships with political foes, including the politicians who sought his removal from office via impeachment after he messed around with a White House intern.

Clinton was able to set whatever personal animus he had for those individuals and work constructively with them to, oh, balance the federal budget and keep the economy steaming merrily along.

President Biden might encounter a similar challenge when he takes office in 16 days. At this moment, 11 Republican senators and 140 House members want to challenge his duly constituted election as president of the United States. They are dancing to the tune being called by the Seditionist in Chief, Donald Trump, who continues to rouse the rabbles by insisting there was voter fraud … where there wasn’t. Not even a little bit!

I am appalled to say that the Senate GOP ringleader appears to be the Cruz Missile, Texas’s junior senator Ted Cruz, who has managed to make me detest him more now than when he first entered the Senate.

Joe Biden has built a lengthy list of professional relationships with members of Congress on both sides of the great divide. He served for 36 years in the Senate, eight years as vice president. The man knows the players, he knows what makes ’em tick, can find their hot buttons without even trying.

He also will have to deal forthrightly with their insurgency, with the aim of subverting a legal, free and fair election. They want an “audit” of the results in several states before certifying the Electoral College vote this week. They won’t get the audit, but those 151 members of Congress will be on the record insisting on getting it.

How will the new president work with them? He must be able to compartmentalize those relationships the way President Clinton was able to do during his two successful terms in office.

If he can do that and give Americans the kind of leadership and governance that’s been missing for the past four years, President Biden will be able to craft a highly successful tenure in the nation’s highest office.

Here is hoping for President Biden’s success right out of the chute.

national news

‘Lock him up’!

(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Is it a crime for a public official to encourage another public official to break the law?

I kinda think it is.

What do you suppose Donald Trump was doing in that hour-long phone conversation with the Georgia secretary of state, asking him to “find” 11,780 votes cast for Trump so that he could reverse the outcome in Georgia of the 2020 presidential election?

From my vantage point, Donald Trump was berating the secretary of state into breaking the law.

This is further proof — as if anyone needed it — of Donald Trump’s supreme unfitness for the job he is going to surrender in just 17 days to President-elect Joe Biden.

Lock him up! Seriously!

Lock him up!

national news

Simply beyond belief

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

A friend of mine calls them members of the “Sedition Caucus” of the Republican Party.

Indeed, the 11 GOP senators and 140 House of Representatives members have collaborated to form what has to be the among the most dangerous political cabals in American history.

They want to challenge the results of this past year’s election that chose Joe Biden to be president of the United States. They contend, without a shred of evidence, that the result is tainted by voter fraud in key states that Biden won over Donald J. Trump. They want to launch an emergency 10-day “audit” of the results in several states to determine whether their claims of fraud can hold up.

Spoiler alert: They won’t!

To make matters even worse — if that is even possible — they have persuaded Vice President Mike Pence to join them. Pence is slated to preside next Wednesday over a joint congressional session to ratify the results of the Electoral College vote putting Biden into the presidency on Jan. 20.

Pence Backs Republican Lawmakers’ Plan To Object To Electoral College Results | 88.9 KETR

What the hell is going on here?

There was no fraud. There was no corruption. Americans cast their votes. They were counted. Biden got 81.3 million of them; Trump collected 74.2 million. The Electoral College ended up with Biden winning 306-232. The election was conducted under strict scrutiny by state and local officials adhering to all the protocols necessary to prevent hanky-panky at the polls.

Courts have ruled against all the challenges of the result. The former U.S. attorney general, William Barr, has determined there was no fraud. 

Now these kooks who serve in Congress want to conduct an audit? They are challenging the result of a duly constituted election? They want to sow even more division, suspicion and doubt into this democratic process? With the blessing of the current (for now) president of the United States?

Outrageous!

national news

Loony bin adds 11 GOP senators

(Photo by Bryan Thomas/Getty Images)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The Republican congressional cabal of kooks today grew by 11 members.

I cannot believe these once-serious-minded individuals have done this, but they have declared their intention to object to President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory when the Senate and the House of Representatives meet Wednesday to, um, certify the results.

They have joined their moronic Missouri colleague, Josh Hawley, in filing some sort of empty-headed protest over Biden’s victory, citing “widespread voter fraud” for which no one on Earth has presented a shred of evidence even existed.

Here’s the best part: One of the Gang of 11 dipshi** is none other than Sen. Ted Cruz, the Houston Republican whom I long ago dubbed the Cruz Missile.

To his credit, John Cornyn, Texas’s senior U.S. Republican senator, didn’t sign on to this idiotic ploy.

What these clowns/morons/know-nothings/idiots are seeking to do is commit what I consider an act of sedition. They are staging an open rebellion against our democratic process. They have joined 140 of their House GOP colleagues in contesting an election that Joe Biden won — and Donald J. Trump — lost in what election officials have declared to be the most secure election in U.S. history.

The 11 GOP Senate nimrods want to delay the outcome for 10 days while they conduct an audit of the process. Good ever-lovin’ grief, dudes! The courts have tossed out every one of Trump’s own challenges to the veracity of the election. The Electoral College has met as prescribed by the Constitution and declared that Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will take office on Jan. 20.

11 Senate Republicans say they will oppose Electoral College results Wednesday | TheHill

We have a bizarre drama playing out on the world stage. Republican members of Congress want to make some kind of show about their resistance to a Democrat winning election over one of their guys. What they are revealing to the world is an absolute disregard for the democratic process, which until this election cycle was thought to be an impenetrable barrier against the kind of dangerous insurrection that appears to be taking shape.

Finally, think also of this reality: The individual for whom they are embarking on this moronic mission, Donald J. Trump, is encouraging them to commit what I consider to be a subversion of the electoral process we all should honor.

This is as reprehensible as it can get.

national news

None of the inaugural trappings on tap

Photo courtesy of Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

You likely can take this to the bank.

Americans will not get to witness President-elect Joe Biden and Jill Biden arrive at the White House prior to the inauguration. There will be no scenes of Donald and Melania Trump greeting them with smiles, handshakes and hugs.

There will be no informal briefing between the outgoing and incoming presidents. The current and future first ladies won’t tour the residence, with Melania Trump showing Jill Biden where to find the linens.

No. All of that is tossed into the crapper.

When Barack Obama was leaving the White House in 2017, he and Michelle Obama greeted the Trumps at the White House. They mugged for the cameras and went inside. Obama talked to Trump about what to expect. Their wives visited informally. It was all done according to long-established custom.

It’s not that the Bidens don’t know their way around the people’s house. They’ve been there many times already, visiting many presidents … not to mention the one with whom Joe Biden worked for eight years, the aforementioned Barack Obama.

I will miss seeing the photos. Still, it’s probably just as well, given the river of bad blood that has flown from Trump in the wake of his loss to Biden in the election.

The Trumps will be gone. The Bidens will walk in and make themselves at home. That’s OK with me.

national news

How will history remember Trump?

(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It is totally fair at this point in Donald Trump’s term as president to wonder: How will history remember this individual?

Well … I do not believe it will be with much kindness or charity.

One can say truthfully that Donald Trump was a “transformational” president. That is, he transformed the office into one steeped in decorum and dignity into something decidedly less dignified and where decorum has been tossed into the crapper.

Trump told us he would be unconventional and he most certainly has been that. He also pledged to be “presidential,” which he has failed to do time and time and time again.

My mind has a tendency to wander and at times it wanders into strange places. Such as wondering what a Donald Trump presidential library would look like; what it would contain; what it would highlight. I have had the pleasure of visiting four presidential libraries: the Lyndon Johnson library in Austin, the Herbert Hoover library in West Branch, Iowa, the George W. Bush library and museum down the road in Dallas and the Jimmy Carter Center in Atlanta. They all highlight something about the president’s time in office.

Indeed, they all reveal plenty about the men and about the time in which they served.

What in the name of humanity is Donald Trump going to highlight in a library he might want to erect? Where would he put it? How in the world does this president get past several dark chapters: impeachment, the myriad sexual scandals, the investigations into corruption and perhaps the darkest of them all … his seditious actions since losing his bid for re-election?

It is going to be a tall order for historians to look back on this individual’s tenure without invoking the hideous, reprehensible behavior of the president. How he fired Cabinet officials and sennior staffers via Twitter. How he upbraided our nation’s strong and heretofore reliable allies. How he denigrated our military and our intelligence establishments in the presence of a man whose country, Russia, attacked our electoral system in 2016.

And then there’s the pandemic, which he blew off publicly while knowing privately that it was about to kill hundreds of thousands of Americans.

Trump’s time in office is winding down. I would hate to be charged with trying to tie a bow neatly around this individual’s term. It cannot be done. It will be a complicated and agonizing effort.

Aww, but what the heck. It can be just another “unconventional” chapter in the life of Donald John Trump.

I just want him to be on his way.