Category Archives: national news

national news

Missing the GOP

You may choose to believe or disbelieve this; it doesn’t matter to me. However, I am going to speak the truth about something that has troubled me since the arrival of the MAGA/QAnon/Big Lie crowd.

It is that I miss the Republican Party I used to know and that I grew up studying and seeking to understand.

The Republican Party has been consumed, swallowed whole and re-cast into a political organization I don’t recognize.

It’s not that I am a closet Republican. Indeed, I consider myself to be an independent who tilts more toward Democratic policies than to Republicans’ world view.

I do favor a strong national defense; I generally support nuclear energy; I am a strong family values American patriot.

I also believe rich Americans should pay more in taxes; that government can be an instrument to help those who need assistance; and that American Civil Liberties Union’s mission to embrace our Bill of Rights should be a model for all pols to emulate.

The Republican Party is now run by a cabal of kooks who insist that our 2020 presidential election was stolen from the most recent GOP president; that a tyrant in Moscow is somehow justified in invading a sovereign nation; that we should overturn a standing law that legalized abortion in this country; that conservative judges indeed can legislate from the bench; that climate change is a hoax; and that globalism — in a world that is shrinking — means we are surrendering our sovereignty.

How in the world does one debate with that crowd?

Thus, it is that Republican Party that once stood for principles worth defending no longer exists. The Grand Old Party is being run by wackos, fruitcakes and extremists. What’s more, the GOP insists that everyone else in this great country join them! Those of us who disagree with ’em are the “enemy,” and must be destroyed.

I want a return to some semblance of what we used to have in this land: two major political parties that could debate their differences and then honor the decision of the voters who then decide which side has won the argument.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

DeSantis will need to sharpen his long knives

Ron DeSantis appears ready to declare his campaign for the U.S. presidency in 2024. This is going to be fun to watch.

Why? Because he is a Trumpkin … sort of.

Meanwhile, the other leading (alleged) Republican already has hung an unflattering nickname or two on the Florida governor, referring to him as Gov. De-Sanctimonious.

Here’s the question of the day: Will the GOP governor respond to Donald Trump’s digs at him, poking fun at his name?

As a follow up, I will pose this: Or will he continue to tiptoe around the idiotic notion that Trump — as the GOP frontrunner for the ’24 nomination — is too formidable a foe to take on directly?

To be honest, I have trouble understanding why Trump has decided to strip the bark off of DeSantis. The governor is following the Trump agenda battling “wokeism” (whatever that means), embracing a “don’t say ‘gay'” policy, declaring war on transgendered Floridians and attacking the Disney Co. for being tolerant of gay Americans.

I guess the only way Trump can maintain his frontrunner status is to take down any other politician who poses a threat to him.

And just so you know, it pains me greatly to even acknowledge that the twice-impeached, once-indicted (for now), convicted sexual abuser is even in the hunt for the GOP nomination. I will maintain my fervent hope that the law will swallow him whole.

As for DeSantis, well, the fellow has some tough decisions to make about how he intends to fight Donald Trump if he truly wants the Republican Party to nominate him for the White House.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Santos could survive expulsion effort

U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia put in on the table with these words: “I rise to give notice of my intent to raise a question of the privileges of the House. … Rep. George Santos be, and hereby is, expelled from the House of Representatives.”

Simple, yes? Santos is the liar who lied his way to winning public office. He also is under indictment for mail fraud and wire fraud.

Santos lied about virtually every aspect of his personal, educational and professional life while campaigning in 2022.  He duped the voters his New York district to elect the Republican.

Yes, he deserves to be booted out. It’s complicated. Why?

Because the Republicans hold a slim majority in the House; Santos represents a district that is traditionally Democratic. Speaker Kevin McCarthy needs Santos’s vote to advance MAGA Republicans’ agenda.

Compare that with what happened earlier this month in Texas, where state House members voted unanimously to kick GOP state Rep.  Bryan Slaton of Royse City out of the House.

The Republicans in Texas have a significant majority in the House. There is no political price for the GOP to pay for booting someone out of a safe Republican seat.

The GOP is walking a fine line in Washington. Thus, a vote to kick a serial liar out of the House — I am sad to report — appears doomed.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Get ready for bruising fight, Mme. VPOTUS

Kamala Harris, this message is directed at you, for your benefit and for — I hope — your political survival.

It appears, Mme. Vice President, that the Republican smear machine might be targeting you in unprecedented ways, using heretofore unseen and unheard messages aimed at denigrating you, your husband, and perhaps even your extended family.

You know your place in history as the first Black, first woman, first South Asian ever elected to the nation’s second-highest office. No need to remind you of that.

However, it is those trailblazing traits that will become targets for the GOP smear mongers. They’re out there.

We saw them try to demonize Barack Obama — the first Black man elected president — in 2008. There was the lie about his birthplace and about his associations with certain political luminaries. The GOP, led by Donald Trump, sought to make Barack Obama somehow unqualified to run for president, let alone serve in the office.

I can feel the same sort of thing happening to you, Mme. VP, as you campaign for re-election alongside Joe Biden.

I feel the compelling need to tell you that I consider you eminently qualified to serve as vice president. Yes, President Biden’s age is going to be a campaign issue, too. Get ready for the onslaught, Mme. Vice President, questioning whether you are up to the job if the need should arise. That will be the sexist element of the campaign against you.

I watched you during your time in the Senate as you took down political foes with steely questioning. I have no doubt — none at all! — that you brought that same backbone to the office you now hold.

I will just implore you to ensure that it holds up under what will be relentless attack. I have faith in you.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Why worry about Santos?

For the life of me I cannot fathom easily why I should give a damn about a freshman Republican congressman from New York.

But I kinda do give a damn! Here’s why.

George Santos has been indicted by the Department of Justice on a number of charges related the bucketload of lies Santos told while getting elected to Congress in 2022. They relate to mail fraud and campaign expenses.

Santos has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges.

Whatever … here’s the deal about this serial liar.

He has become a top target of Democratic Party strategists looking to flip the House district back to their corner after Santos’s surprise victory in 2022.

Santos probably ought to just resign his seat and concentrate on defending himself in court. Were he to do that, it would reduce the GOP’s razor thin House majority even more, giving Speaker Kevin McCarthy even more reason to complain about sleepless nights.

Let me remind you, too, that McCarthy had to make a whole lot of concessions to the MAGA wing of his GOP caucus just to win election as speaker … on the 15th ballot.

Thus, it becomes important that George Santos be held accountable for (a) the lies he told to get elected and (b) the allegations that he misspent campaign money given to him by those who swallowed the baloney he served them.

I suppose I should mention, too, that even his Republican colleagues cannot stand him. Do you recall seeing anyone standing with this liar defending him for the deceitful campaign he waged?

I suppose one of the lessons all voters should take from this loser’s saga is to remain vigilant when someone talks about family members surviving the Holocaust or 9/11. Santos’s lies on those tragedies helped open the door to all the lies he told to win voters’ trust.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Must we be afraid?

Republican politicians and those who follow them have become adept at scaring the bejeebers out of folks.

Yes, the GOP is campaigning on fear. They tell us they fear their political foes are up to no good.

Let’s cite an example or two, or maybe three.

The GOP has told us since time began that Democrats and liberals are going to take away our guns. They want to disarm Americans. They do not subscribe to the Second Amendment’s guarantee that all Americans are entitled to “keep and bear arms.” They want voters to fear the worst on that matter.

Republicans want you to fear Democrats pushing a “woke” agenda that does all sorts of frightening things, such as “indoctrinate” our children into changing their gender, or seeking to convert everyone to becoming gay.

The GOP fears our children being taught about our nation’s history of racism. Republicans deny the existence of racist policies. They don’t want the Civil War taught as a lesson in states seeking to preserve slavery and their willingness to go to war with the U.S. government to keep slaves in bondage.

I hope you understand my point. The GOP has become a party of fear merchants. They are afraid of losing their grip on power and they want voters to join them in fearing the worst among their foes.

It’s frightening.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Liz Cheney a Democrat? C’mon!

You hear it from time to time, that Liz Cheney is going to become a Democrat after spending a lifetime as a Republican.

All I can say to that is … c’mon, man. It won’t happen. Not ever.

At least that’s my belief.

Cheney is the former Wyoming congresswoman who bolted GOP orthodoxy by being a staunch, vocal and ferocious critic of Donald J. Trump because, in many millions of Americans’ view, he violated his oath of office.

She paid for her rebellion by being ousted from the party and then by losing her 2022 GOP primary election to a Trumpkin.

But … is all of this reason for her to become a Democrat? No. It isn’t.

Cheney has said all along that she remains a pro-gun, pro-life, low-tax, fiscal conservative who believes strongly in the traditional Republican principles that led her to join the party of her father, former U.S. Rep. and ex-Vice President Dick Cheney.

Her only variation from what passes now for Republicanism is that she believes Donald Trump is a menace to the nation and should never, ever return to the White House … especially as president of the United States.

As for the talk about her joining the Democratic Party, it ain’t gonna happen … again, that’s my belief. Still, there is much to admire about a politician who is willing to pay the political price Liz Cheney paid while standing tall for democracy.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

National mood: toxic

My eternal optimism is being tested to its limits by the current mood of the nation I love with all my heart.

It troubles me in the extreme to see the major political parties so deeply divided. I hurt at the prospect of congressmen and women expressing fear of working with their colleagues. I long for the day when these officials could differ on policy but remain friends in private.

When in the world did it occur? When did we become so full of hatred for each other? I know the answer to those rhetorical questions.

It occurred when Donald J. Trump rode down the escalator at Trump Tower and declared in 2015 that if he was elected president, he would ban Muslims from entering the country and would curb what he described as the tide of criminals streaming here from Mexico, accusing our hemispheric neighbors of being “rapists, murderers and drug dealers.”

It went downhill from there in a big hurry.

Then he declared that the media are the “enemy of the people.” He chastised gay Americans. He vowed to “make America great again.” He pitted Americans against each other.

He denigrated those who wanted to wear the uniform of the country in a time of war … a jab many of us took personally, if you get my drift.

The list is long. He left a nation damaged from his time in office. I am not going to believe the damage is permanent. That optimism in me wants to believe we can heal ourselves. I won’t let that belief go.

He is gone from public office. My sincerest hope of all is that he doesn’t ever return to public life, that the crimes I believe he committed will bring him down.

Meanwhile, my sincerest hope of all is that we can restore some semblance of collegiality and rid our public discourse of the extreme bitterness that infects it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

POTUS is as sharp as ever

I am going to offer a very brief warning to those who read this blog and who insist on hurling epithets at President Biden, alleging that he’s too old to run for a second term and that he’s lost his mental acuity.

Your blogger, that’s me, won’t accept that criticism or allow it on this blog. That’s right! I am going to keep my eyes peeled for those who insist that Joe Biden has lost his snap.

He has lost nothing. The president remains sharp and focused on the job of protecting us against enemies foreign and domestic. He is faithful to the oath he took when he became president.

Therefore, I simply am not going to allow that kind of defamatory criticism see light on this platform.

Are we clear? Good!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Embrace embodies Pence’s problem

Donald J. Trump’s embrace of a woman who has declared that Mike Pence should have been “executed” for his actions on the day of the 1/6 insurrection highlights a serious problem facing the former vice president of the United States.

Pence likely wants to seek the presidency in 2024. Trump already is in the race. The two men, of course, once were partners as POTUS and VPOTUS for a single term prior to the 2020 election.

Trump incited the assault on the Capitol on 1/6. The crowd stormed into the halls of the government looking for Pence and others. Pence was presiding at the time over a joint congressional session to ratify the results of the 2020 election. The crowd wanted to string Pence up.

How in the world does Mike Pence, therefore, campaign against Donald Trump, who still commands the fealty of the traitors — such as the nitwit he embraced this week in New Hampshire? Pence has been a highly reluctant critic of Trump. Yes, he calls Trump’s remarks on 1/6 “reckless,” but he also urged the House select committee reviewing the incident to not bring a criminal referral against Trump.

For that matter, only one leading Republican — former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — has shown the jewels to criticize Trump actively. The rest of ’em are dancing all around the issue and that includes Mike Pence.

I am one American patriot who is aghast, but surely not surprised, to see Trump hug on that moronic traitor. He signed some sort of program she shoved at him, mugging for the cameras. The guy is disgusting in the extreme, given that he has all but promised to pardon those accused of seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

So … the dilemma for Pence heats up as he ponders whether he wants to run for president in 2024. One of his potential foes happens to be the guy who endorsed the mob’s threat to kill him.

Nice …

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com