Category Archives: national news

national news

Cheney goes out with a roar

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Say what you might about lame-duck U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, I’ll just add this: She is going out of office with a mighty roar and not a whimper.

She reportedly said this recently about her arch enemy, fellow Republican Donald J. Trump: “No honest person can now deny that Trump is an enemy of the Constitution.”

Ouch, man!

Cheney earned a primary challenge this year for standing up for the Constitution and standing against Trump’s aim to undermine it, to gut it, to reverse a free, fair and legal election for president in 2020. Cheney got thumped hard by Wyoming Republican voters. She has been a lame duck in name only ever since.

Cheney has served with courage, determination and distinction on the U.S. House select committee examining the insurrection that Trump incited. I already have expressed my admiration for this true-blue, rock-solid Republican conservative lawmaker.

She has been punished only for defying a former president whose sole aim is to cling to power.

I am one American patriot who will hold her forever in the highest esteem possible.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, national news

Ah, yes, the ‘sarcasm’ defense

Congress’s reigning QAnon queen, Marjorie Taylor Greene, has tossed out the old “it was sarcasm” canard in response to criticism she has received for making what sounds for all the world like a statement of a traitor.

Greene told a roomful of MAGA sycophants that had she been running the show on 1/6, the assault on the Capitol that day would have succeeded and that Donald Trump would have been able to overturn the 2020 presidential election result and returned to the White House.

They cheered her for those treasonous remarks. Did she say in the moment that it was all for fun? Did she walk any of it back? Ohhh, no. She responded only when others began reporting on the remarks and calling them what they are: the moronic muttering of an individual who has no business making laws that affect you and me.

The Georgia Republican, feeling emboldened I am sure by her re-election this past month, is getting ready to return for just her second term in the House of Representatives. To think that this certifiable idiot has been able to win election in the first place, win re-election to a new term and then possibly take the reins of congressional leadership is utterly astounding.

God help us!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Immigration reform: It’s not dead!

Reforming our nation’s immigration policy is among the top-tier issues that needs congressional attention when the next Congress convenes next month.

Having laid down that predicate, I want to declare that I do not have a magic formula to offer on this blog. There, I just made that declaration.

But I want our political leaders — namely the MAGA types and those who want to build walls around the country — to stop demagoguing the issue and demonizing those who seek entry into The Land of Opportunity.

A multi-faceted approach is in order.

We need to streamline the asylum-seeking process. We need to remove the threats to eliminating the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals — aka DACA — program for those who entered the country illegally. We ought to allow DACA recipients who have resided in this country and who want to attend college to pay in-state tuition to our public colleges and universities, something we have tried in Texas.

Donald Trump took office in January 2017 and declared war on illegal immigration and illegal immigrants. I get that our immigration problems have spiraled into crisis. The then-POTUS, though, imposed a ban on any Muslim who wanted to enter the country; he vowed to build a wall along our southern border and make “Mexico pay for it”; we haven’t developed a coherent immigration policy, let alone any meaningful reforms for decades.

President George W. Bush sought immigration reform during his two terms in office. President Barack H. Obama followed him and he, too, pushed for reforming our immigration policy … to no avail. Trump failed as well.

Now it falls on President Joe Biden. He and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas are hearing reckless rhetoric about “impeachment” over the immigration matter.

How about settling down and getting to work on a bipartisan measure that seeks to streamline the process for those seeking asylum while giving the Dreamers reason to hope that the only country they ever have known will welcome them as future citizens?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Now will GOP reassess itself?

Mitt Romney’s loss to President Obama in the 2012 presidential election prompted the Republican Party to determine it needed a thorough examination of its future.

The party pledged to search its soul and look for ways to appeal to more Blacks, Hispanics, suburban women and other demographic groups known to be friendlier to Democrats.

I don’t know what the party came up with, but four years later it nominated a certifiable racist, sexual assailant, pathological liar as its presidential candidate. Donald Trump then won the 2016 election. The party since has taken many steps backward from where it was when Romney led the GOP.

I want the Republican Party to reassess its position these days as much as Republicans do … if only for different reasons.

I remain committed (more or less) to Democratic Party principles. I also want a return to honest debate pitting philosophies against each other. Today’s Republican Party is too enamored with The Big Lie, with MAGA demagoguery and with fealty to Donald Trump.

Furthermore, I want to state for the record once again that Trump entered politics in 2016 without spending a moment of his disgusting life working to improve people’s lives. Even after serving a term as president, public service remains an unknown concept to Trump.

I would welcome a return to honest and vigorous debate. I relish a good fight between politicians with serious policy disagreements. We aren’t getting that quality of discourse now. Instead, as we just witnessed, we saw a stable of Republicans defeated because they had earned the anointment of the twice-impeached former POTUS, who backed them because they swilled the Big Lie Kool-Aid.

We can do better than that.

Mitt Romney’s narrow loss a decade ago should have taught Republicans a valuable lesson. It didn’t. Maybe now the GOP will heed the message that voters are telling them.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

POTUS makes agonizing call

President Joe Biden deserves the benefit of some compassion and whole lot less of the back-stabbing and second-guessing he is getting from right-wingers over Brittney Griner’s release from a Russian gulag.

Griner came home to Texas after being released in a negotiated prisoner swap that sent arms dealer Viktor Bout back to Russia. The MAGA crowd has been leading the boo birds in criticizing the deal that has resulted in another American, Paul Whelan, remaining in Russian captivity.

Let’s be clear about what went down.

The White House had been negotiating with the Kremlin over securing Griner’s release. As it turned out, the Russians had settled on a deal that meant it would be Griner for Bout. That was their final offer.

So … Biden accepted the deal.

Had he refused, we would have gotten no one out of Russia.

It is fair to ask: Would the right wingers out there have accepted a no-deal over what we got?

Let us also recognize the president’s pledge to keep working to secure Paul Whelan’s release. Whelan has been held on a phony spying charge for four years. It’s instructive that Whelan’s family — and even Whelan himself — have been gracious in acknowledging Griner’s release from the Russian hoosegow.

Yes, we all want Paul Whelan to come home. No one should be happy that he remains locked up. It angers me, too, that he wasn’t part of the deal that brought Griner — a celebrated pro basketball athlete — home to her family.

However, I am not going to “blame” President Biden for the deal he struck.

He has acknowledged the difficult choice he faced. Hey, it’s why he’s making the big bucks as president of the United States.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Impeach Biden … for this?

Marjorie Taylor Greene stands all alone among the dumb-dumbs who occupy too many seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The Georgia Republican — known to be a QAnon queen, an election denier, a MAGA fanatic and all-round detestable individual — says President Biden should be impeached for (get a load of this!) agreeing to bring Brittney Griner home from a Russian prison.

Hmm. OK. Let’s parse this for a minute, eh?

Greene wants former Marine Paul Whelan to come home, too. Here’s a news flash: So do I, so does Joe Biden, so do all Americans with half a heart.

President Biden has told us all — except that Greene apparently wasn’t listening — that he will “not stop” working to bring Whelan home. The Russians, we also have learned, insisted on a one-for-one swap, Griner in exchange for the arms dealer Viktor Bout.

Does anyone believe seriously that Joe Biden doesn’t want Whelan to come home?

Meanwhile, what’s with the impeachment talk from the moronic congresswoman who just won re-election to her second term in the House? What is the “high crime” she would seek to hang on the president?

OK, I know she isn’t alone among the MAGA cultists who comprise much of the House GOP caucus. She’s got plenty of loudmouthed company, such as Matt Gaetz of Florida, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Paul Gosar of Arizona, and Jim Jordan of Ohio to name just four of ’em. They all must sit around in the House cafeteria conspiring to create all the mischief they can muster up.

Frankly, Marjorie Taylor Greene and her ilk should give us all plenty of concern. She stands to wield outsized power in the next Congress, which will be run by Republicans who hold onto a slim majority. She will have the ear of the next speaker of the House.

To think that this individual actually votes on laws that affect all of us. Wow! This person’s stupidity is a thing to behold.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Sinema bolts Dems … OK, so what?

So … Sen. Kirsten Sinema of Arizona no longer belongs to the Democratic Party, choosing to register as an independent.

You may count me as one American — who cheered mightily for Democrats to capture an actual majority in the Senate — to be not as chapped as many others out here in the cheap seats.

Sinema has rankled many Democratic partisans by declaring she no longer ascribes to party doctrine. She wants to vote independently, serving the needs, wishes and demands of her Arizona constituents.

I ask you: Why is that so terrible?

The question will be whether she caucuses with Democrats the way two other independents do: Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont. If she does, then I believe she can be counted on as much as Democrats always counted on her vote on key issues. She has shown a rebellious streak, even when she was a card-carrying Democrat.

As Politico reported: “I don’t anticipate that anything will change about the Senate structure,” Sinema said, adding that some of the exact mechanics of how her switch affects the chamber is “a question for Chuck Schumer … I intend to show up to work, do the same work that I always do. I just intend to show up to work as an independent.”

Sinema switches to independent, shaking up the Senate – POLITICO

I can recall a time in the 1990s when another partisan lawmaker refused to toe the party line. Republican Congressman Larry Combest of Lubbock stuck his finger in Speaker Newt Gingrich’s eye on farm policy, namely the Freedom to Farm bill. Combest told Gingrich publicly that he worked for the farmers and ranchers of West Texas and did not work for Newtie. He pissed Gingrich off to no end.

Combest remained a steadfast Republican for his entire time in Congress, unlike Sinema’s decision to toss her party label aside … but the message then was the same as what Sinema is delivering now.

Democrats still control the Senate, no matter what Sinema decides ultimately on with which party she will caucus.

My advice to the partisans? Chill out!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, national news

Here comes the report!

I already have marked down — in a manner of speaking — the date in which the House 1/6 select committee is set to reveal its findings into the insurrection, the attack on our government and whether the Donald J. Trump did what many millions of us know he did.

Which is that he incited the assault intending to stop the transition of power to the Joe Biden presidential administration.

Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., has spilled a few of the beans, meaning he has told us the committee plans to issue “criminal referrals” to the Department of Justice. In other words, the panel is going to recommend that someone gets indicted for the hideous events of 1/6.

The big date is Dec. 21. Think of the irony for just a moment. That is the date of the winter solstice, meaning it’s the day with the shortest span of daylight during the calendar year. The day of prolonged darkness, therefore, could be the darkest day in Donald J. Trump’s life. Why? Because the panel well might recommend indictments for the 45th POTUS for his role in inciting the attack and for purposely doing nothing to stop it as the mob stormed Capitol Hill.

There had been reports of disagreements among committee about the focus of the report. Rep. Liz Cheney reportedly argued for the committee to focus intensely on Trump’s role; others said the focus should turn elsewhere, such as recommending steps to prevent future such assaults.

There can be both.

I also want to caution us all about what the referrals might involve. They could recommend indictments related to the assault. There could be referrals to cases involving witness tampering. The field happens to be wide open.

My own belief is that Trump committed at least one demonstrable offense in calling for the insurrection and for refusing to stop it.

I am going to await the date of the panel’s report with keen interest.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Election over … get busy

I find no need to look back on the 2022 midterm election, which came to a wonderful end with the re-election this week of Raphael Warnock to the U.S. Senate.

Warnock’s victory extends by just a tiny bit Democrats’ majority in the Senate, enabling that body now to proceed with some important business on our behalf. I have said all I intend to say about the (lack of) quality in Sen. Warnock’s Republican opponent … except to speculate whether Herschel Walker will return to his mansion in Texas and consider running for politics here. God forbid …

What’s ahead for the Senate? Lots of business that Democrats can do — hopefully with Republican help. But with a 51-49 majority, Democrats now can lose one of their members to the other side and still have Vice President Harris waiting in the wings to break a tie. The good news for Democrats? It’s no longer as urgent a fallback position.

The Senate now can proceed with filling federal judicial vacancies. President Biden has nominated judges for these vacancies, but the Senate had been hamstrung by GOP obstructionists. They need to be filled. It is with great pleasure I acknowledge that the House of Representatives, with its slim GOP majority, has no voice on that matter.

To be sure, the Senate cannot act on its own without some assistance from the House. There needs to be legislation to codify women’s reproductive rights that the Supreme Court stripped away when it trashed the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion. Congress should seek legislation to make it even more difficult for lunatics to purchase firearms.

To be sure, the next Senate is going to have more election deniers among the ranks of senators. Two of them won election in Ohio and North Carolina. However, with Democrats’ position strengthened, the Big Lie believers can be silenced more readily.

The 2024 campaign for president is likely to commence soon. Joe Biden is sounding more like a candidate for re-election. Only heaven knows how many Republicans will step forward to seek their party’s nomination. That’s all well and good.

I am ready for a political breather.

Thus, I also am ready to watch the 118th Congress takes its oath and get to work.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Warnock wins! I can breathe now

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OK. There will be plenty to say in the days to come about what the nation has just witnessed in Georgia.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock has been re-elected to a new six-year term. It was a nail-biter. Frankly, I did not believe Sen. Warnock would have this kind of difficulty securing his victory over Republican Herschel Walker.

But … he did.

What I am going to try to assess over the immediate term is how in the world Walker held up as a serious candidate for the Senate.

I am shaking my head at the prospect that Walker actually could win this race. I am delighted, though, to know that Sen. Walker is returning to his post in the Senate. He is a good man who — as he pointed out during his campaign — actually “knows what he is doing.”

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com