Category Archives: national news

national news

My favorite Republican is … ?

Eight years ago I took up for a man I labeled my favorite Republican running for president of the United States.

He is John Kasich, a former Ohio governor and a former chair of the U.S. House Budget Committee who, working with President Clinton, helped the nation achieve its first budget surplus since the 1960s.

Kasich had an impressive resume of accomplishment and I declared during the 2016 GOP primary campaign that were he to emerge as the party’s presidential nominee I just might cast my vote for him that fall.

It didn’t happen. The nomination instead went to a serial liar/philanderer/bomb thrower.

It was a large GOP field, as you recall. Too bad Gov. Kasich didn’t make the grade.

Another large field of Republicans is gathering to run for the party’s nomination in 2024. I am going to stick with the Democratic incumbent, Joe Biden, this time around … but I do have a favorite GOP contender emerging from the field.

It’s Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor, who is the only GOP candidate willing to speak clearly, unequivocally and without hesitation against the party’s seeming frontrunner, the guy who got elected in 2016.

Christie ran against the field in 2016, along with Kasich. He got drummed out. He then became a sycophant for the guy who would be elected. Christie led the transition team for a time before he got pushed aside.

I am not yet clear on what kind of policies Christie would adopt were he nominated next year to run against President Biden. If he adheres to a more moderate tone than the MAGA cult’s wishes, then I just could consider him as a recipient of my ballot-box support.

I need to hear more. For now, though, I am delighted to hear him peel the bark off the GOP frontrunner. We’ll see how he holds up when the Big Dog bites back.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Must stay on top of ex-POTUS

If only I could rid myself of having to say another word about the machinations of the 45th president of the United States.

Except that I cannot. Not while he remains at or near the top of the Republican Party presidential nomination hunt in 2024.

If only he’d go the hell away. He won’t. He lusts for attention and, boy howdy, he’s getting it now as the twice-indicted (for now!), twice-impeached ex-POTUS.

I am confident in predicting that there appear to be at least two more indictments coming his way. Fulton County, Ga., District Attorney Fani Willis is sending up signals that an indictment is imminent. All the ex-POTUS did there was demand that the Georgia secretary of state “find” enough votes to give the loser the state’s Electoral College tally.

The other indictment also appears set to come from the feds — again! — as special counsel Jack Smith continues his work on the ex-POTUS’s role in inciting the 1/6 assault on the government as Congress was preparing to ratify the Electoral College victory rolled up by Joe Biden in 2020.

All of this, I am saddened to say, puts bloggers and assorted commentators such as yours truly in an awkward place. We have to keep commenting on these goings-on. To be sure, I am not going to weigh in — per an earlier pledge — on every single campaign utterance that flies out of the crook’s pie hole.

I won’t apologize for believing I must comment on the issues surrounding this horribly unfit, immoral and disgraceful politician. I simply must explain myself and recognize three facts that are beyond dispute.

First, he is a former president of the United States. Second, he is the first POTUS ever indicted by the very government he once led. Third, those two facts make it impossible for me to ignore what’s happening — or what is about to happen — to a guy who ought to spend the rest of his miserable life in prison.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Please be right, Mooch

Anthony Scaramucci once served as communications director — briefly, I must add — during the Donald Trump administration.

Well, the Mooch has this to posit from the peanut gallery: He says Trump is so stressed out over the indictment handed down this past week that he’s going to drop out of the 2024 presidential race.

A south Florida grand jury indicted Trump on 37 counts in connection with his taking classified documents from the White House and stashing them in his Florida house in Mar-a-Lago.

Oh, he didn’t exactly have them secured, either. They were stacked in boxes in a bathroom, on shelves in plain view of anyone partying at the glitzy joint.

“I know President Trump’s personality reasonably well. Remember it wasn’t just 11 days for me, it was 71 campaign stops and a full year’s worth of work,” Scaramucci said. “He does not like this, he is stressed about it.”

Part of me wants Mooch to be right. I want Trump out of the way. I want him removed from the public arena. Then again, he would be so badly flawed, so baggage-laden that he would be a sitting duck for his foes.

Scaramucci says Trump ‘stressed’ over indictment, predicts he will drop out of 2024 race (msn.com)

Whether the ex-POTUS is stressed enough to drop out remains to be seen, of course. We can assume with relative ease, though, that special counsel Jack Smith’s announced indictment has made Trump’s life very uncomfortable.

It couldn’t happen to a more deserving scumbag.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, national news

Indictment = rich irony

The irony that shrouds Donald J. Trump’s indictment by a special counsel over his pilfering of classified documents is rich beyond all measure.

Think about this for just a moment because that’s all it will take for you to grasp what I’m talking about.

Trump won the 2016 presidential election essentially on a single issue, which is that he was able to tar Hillary Clinton with an undeserved label of crook because of those emails that disappeared into thin air. He spoke with intimate knowledge of the gravity of keeping classified documents away from the proper authorities.

He knew of the consequences that such a transgression could bring. He stood before campaign rally crowds that chanted “Lock her up!” It became a sort of political mantra for the first-time politician.

To be clear, what Clinton did while serving as secretary of state pales in comparison to what the indictments allege that Trump did upon departing the White House in January 2021. The indictment quote Trump extensively in the narrative that special counsel Jack Smith assembled in crafting the accusation.

Now the former POTUS says he did “nothing wrong.” Former Attorney General William Barr has said just recently that in “no universe is it possible” to excuse the taking of national security secrets, which Trump did, and store them as cavalierly as he did in his Florida mansion.

Again the irony abounds. Trump knew in 2016 that such behavior was wrong, that it was illegal and that it could land a POTUS or a former POTUS in prison.

Wow! As a former U.S. solicitor general, Neil Katyal, noted this afternoon: “I’m glad I’m a Hindu, because this sure sounds like karma.”

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, national news

This is a big … deal!

1 Comment

Well, they’re going to fingerprint the suspect, take his mug shot and listen to him plead “not guilty” to 37 counts contained in a federal indictment.

That will happen later today. I won’t spend another ounce of effort commenting on the proceeding that will occur later today.

I do want to offer a brief critique on the importance of the criminal suspect. He is the former president of the United States. He once took an oath to “protect and defend” the Constitution and to follow the laws of the land.

The very government he once led has now charged him — and the accusations appear credible — for violating that oath, for breaking the law and for failing to protect and defend the government.

This is gigantic, man!

Almost as horrific, though, has been the initial response of this clown’s supporters. They hadn’t read the indictment and began accusing the FBI and the Justice Department of “weaponizing” the process. They don’t care what the indictment states, or about the immense amount of detail it contains.

So much of the evidence revealed in the indictment, which comes from a grand jury in south Florida (where the suspect lives) is the result of the suspect’s own words. He knew he kept classified documents illegally. He knew he had to turn them over to the National Archives. He knew his lawyers were hamstrung by all of that … but he kept them anyway and then lied to the feds about what he turned over.

Is this man fit for public office? No. He wasn’t fit when he got elected POTUS in 2016 and he damn sure demonstrated his unfitness during his term in office, as he was impeached twice by the House of Representatives.

He has little regard for the troops he commanded, or for the men and women who have given their lives in defense of our way of life.

And yet … he continues to command the fealty of those who follow him blindly into oblivion.

Sickening.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Our world is turned upside down

You all know by now that my world has been turned inside-out, upside-down and is presenting daily challenges as I seek to find my footing along this journey I have been taking.

Part of that footing involves my seeking some understanding to the political climate that is causing such angst, anxiety and apprehension. I don’t know, frankly, how to deal with all of that while trying to navigate my way out of the darkness that befell me with my dear bride’s passing from cancer.

A former president has been indicted for crimes that allege an astonishing, reckless disregard for our national security; they prove beyond a doubt (as if we need more proof) that this ex-POTUS is unfit for public office. He vows revenge against those who are following the law by indicting him.

This individual’s political opponents in the growing field of presidential candidates are oddly reticent in condemning him over the indictment that lays out a most convincing case against him.

A couple of them have spoken out, but they pull their punches just a bit. Other GOP officials point at other political leaders and ask, “Why don’t the feds indict them, too?”

The juxtaposition of this political maelstrom with my personal struggle to regain my emotional equilibrium is intentional. I mean to say out loud that my keen interest in public policy would be tested to its extreme even without my personal struggle. That I am seeking to find some sense to what I am reading and seeing in real time while waging war with my emotions offers to you an illustration of what I am talking about.

I know I am not the only person on Earth who at this moment is struggling with personal tragedy. Others who are going through it know of what I am speaking.

The consequence of this confusion? It now falls on special counsel Jack Smith to explain this to each of us clearly, in bold letters, the impact that this legal crisis will leave on our system of government … and on our own emotional health.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

‘What-about-ism’ is no game

Congressional Republicans seeking to find some way to defend Donald Trump against a scathing federal indictment are engaging in a strategy that should be a game … except that it isn’t.

No way! Given the stakes involved, the GOP version of “what-about-ism” is ringing as hollow as a ripe watermelon.

I watched Sen. Lindsey Graham, the king of the Senate Trumpkins, fire back at ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos who sought simply to ask him whether he thinks Trump “did anything wrong.”

I’ll back up for a brief moment. The feds have indicted Trump on 37 counts involving the theft of classified documents from the White House. Special counsel Jack Smith announced the indictments involve obstruction of justice, violations of the Espionage Act and abuse of public office.

Graham sought this morning to compare Trump’s alleged crimes to Hillary Clinton’s use of personal email servers during her time as secretary of state. He said repeatedly that “nothing happened” to Clinton. Wrong! She was investigated thoroughly by the FBI, which determined she committed no crime.

That wasn’t good enough for Graham, who also said President Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence also had documents in their homes … just like Trump! No comparison.

The president and the former VP turned those documents over immediately to the feds, who then filed them with the National Archives.

Trump did nothing of the sort. The indictment states that Trump hid the documents from the FBI and instructed others to do the same thing. That, as you Americans would say, is “obstruction of justice.”

When I hear Republican suck-ups like Graham throw out the “What about the other guy?” response as a defense tactic for their own guy, I am left only to call it what it is.

Deflection.

They want to change the focus from their ally to their foes. It’s a phony dodge.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news, political news

My wish? Ban Trump from public office

As strange as it might seem for readers of this blog, I want to declare that I have no burning desire to see Donald J. Trump tossed into prison if he is convicted of the crimes for which he is under indictment.

My stronger wish is to ensure that Trump never again is allowed to seek — let alone hold — public office.

The 37-count indictment handed down by a south Florida grand jury is damning in the extreme. It looks to be ironclad. Special counsel Jack Smith has a mountain of evidence to pore over and present a trial jury eventually.

If Trump is convicted, then I suspect there will be prison time involved. He stands accused of taking classified documents in violation of the Espionage Act; he is accused of obstructing justice and of abuse of power. He is the first former POTUS to be charged in a criminal indictment by the Justice Department.

Dark days lie ahead for this individual.

He never should have been elected president in 2016. But he was. He got the rebuke he so richly deserved in 2020 when he lost to Joe Biden.

I do not want him anywhere near the Oval Office ever again.

You know what? There might be a deal to be had to help this crook avoid prison time. It might involve a permanent ban from seeking public office. I don’t know what Jack Smith is inclined to pursue, nor do I know what Trump is inclined to accept.

But as a red-blooded American patriot, I am fine with ensuring we keep Trump away from any public office. I want him out of public life altogether. He sickens me to my core.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, legal news, national news

‘No-name’ makes history

I would be willing to pay real American money to someone who could prove to me he or she knew who Jack Smith was when Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed him special counsel to examine the charges leveled against Donald J. Trump.

Well, this no-name “tough and dogged” federal prosecutor has made history in a major way by indicting Trump on seven counts related to the ex-POTUS’s squirreling away of classified documents at the end of his term in office.

Roll this around for just a moment. We now have the former commander in chief, the former head of the U.S. government’s executive branch being charged by that very branch of government on felony charges that could put the ex-POTUS in prison for the rest of his miserable life.

The Justice Department’s charges are serious, man. I have no idea what it all means to the political calculus in play as Trump campaigns for the presidency in 2024. The legality, though, is as clear as it gets.

And for crying out loud, spare me the “politicization” argument that is going to come from the MAGA crowd. Trump is going to make this a political case. He is going to accuse DOJ of “election interference.” Imagine, too, the hideously rich irony of Trump claiming election interference … given that he is the King of Election Interference!

Jack Smith has done precisely what Merrick Garland asked of him. He did it with professionalism, steely resolve and a commitment to the rule of law.

He now has become a household name. Who knew?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Pence boxes himself in

It took no time at all for former Vice President Mike Pence to box himself into a corner from which he will find it next to impossible to escape.

He said while announcing his 2024 presidential candidacy that no candidate should put himself above the Constitution and that anyone who does is “unfit” to be president; moreover, he said that anyone who demands others to do the same should “never be president again.”

Hmm. Who is he talking about? Oh, yeah: Donald John Trump!

But when CNN’s Dana Bash asked him if he would support the GOP presidential nominee if it happens to be Trump, Pence said, well, he would support him.

What the hell?

The former VP is going to stumble and fall flat on his face as he continues this bizarre tap dance around political reality.

Either he means what he says about Donald Trump being unfit for public office … or he is lying.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com