Category Archives: national news

Now comes the 1/6 panel

Donald J. Trump’s business organization is guilty of tax fraud. That appears to be the prelim to the main event, which is ready for the bell-ringing any day now.

The House select 1/6 committee examining the insurrection and Trump’s role in inciting it is set to make its findings known to the public. Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson has spilled the beans, telling us that there will be “criminal referrals” contained in the report.

Hmm. Let’s see. Who might the committee “refer” for indictment? My hunch is that it will include Trump his own self.

Let us be clear. The committee cannot indict anyone. It must hand that duty over to the Justice Department, or the agent DOJ has chosen to represent it. That means the special counsel Jack Smith is likely to get the referral, given that Attorney General Merrick Garland has recused himself from any direct investigation into the insurrection or the document theft from the White House.

The only curiosity left to satisfy is learning whether fire-breathing Republican committee member Liz Cheney got her way in singling out Trump’s role. There reportedly has been something of a rift between Cheney and other panel members over how to focus its final report; others reportedly wanted to shy away from Trump’s role in the insurrection and focus instead on the systemic failures that led to it.

Whatever …

If the committee is going to make a criminal referral, it ought to go all the way to the top of the food chain. That would mean Donald John Trump.

I believe it has collected more than enough evidence to take this remarkable step toward seeking full accountability for that terrible day in our nation’s history.

Let ‘er rip, committee members.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Pollyanna? No, an idealist

One of the harshest criticisms I have received over many decades offering commentary on issues of the day came from a colleague of mine.

He called me a “Pollyanna.” I cannot remember the specific issue that prompted the dig, but it likely had something to do with the political climate of the time and my wish for a return to a kinder time. I guess my critic/friend didn’t ascribe to the same ideals as I did then … and still do today.

I might invite the Pollyanna brickbat once again by declaring that no matter how desperate the current environment appears, I am going to rely on my faith in the U.S. Constitution … yeah, the same Constitution that Donald Trump said we should suspend.

For starters, the Constitution is far stronger and more durable than the insane rants of a disgraced politician. Moreover, we have been through many crises that rival or even exceed the current tempest brewing over efforts to reject election results, or return Trump to the White House.

We endured two world wars, and in the past 75 years two other wars — in Korea and Vietnam — that tore at our fabric. We went to war in the Middle East, prompting yet another crisis of confidence.

We have endured presidential assassinations dating back to President Lincoln’s murder in 1865, presidential scandals — one of which forced a president to resign — the Great Depression and a Civil War.

What has been the common denominator, the one political structure that survived? The U.S. Constitution. It has held the nation together, albeit while showing plenty of wear and tear around the edges.

It will continue to hold us together. No matter how hard the MAGA cultists/traitors seek to undermine it, the Constitution will endure. So will our democratic republic … and so will the electoral process that is taking its share of heavy hits from those who have declared war on our founding document.

This is not the feel-good wish of a Pollyanna. It is the assertion of an old man, a veteran who went to war for his country and a patriot who remains committed to the glorious idealism that our nation’s founders envisioned.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Those books … they’re all true!

I have been able to purchase and read several volumes Donald J. Trump’s political career and the term he served as president.

“Rage,” “Betrayal,” “Peril,” “Confidence Man,” “One Damn Thing After Another” all seem to harp on a single theme. They speak to Trump’s narcissism, his arrogance, his ignorance of the law and of government, his lies, his lack of compassion or empathy, his phony faith.

They all come from differing perspectives. Even the book by William Barr, the former attorney general in the Trump administration, touches on all of those “qualities” exhibited by Trump.

Here’s the amazing thing about it all. They’re all true! They speak accurately, as we all have watched this individual’s behavior before, during and after his single term as president.

Yes, that first draft of history is being written. It looks to me as though the final form is taking shape.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Day of reckoning for GOP?

There should be no doubt about it, that the Republican Party’s hierarchy needs to stage a “come to Jesus” meeting on an issue involving the titular head of the party … the immediate past president of the United States.

Donald J. Trump has all but declared war on the Constitution, the document he once swore to defend and protect. He now believes that it is time to “suspend” the cherished governing document so that he can be reinstalled as POTUS.

So far —and it’s still early in this game of political chicken — too many Republican honchos have remained silent on this utterly frightening call from the former POTUS. There has been hardly any direct condemnation of this kind of rhetoric. Indeed, when pressed Sunday on the “This Week” TV news show, GOP Rep. Dave Joyce said he could support Trump if he is the party’s nominee for president in 2024. ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos pressed the congressman several times to disavow and condemn the language that came from Trump; he refused. Simply astonishing!

This is an unacceptable world view. To say out loud that it is time to suspend the Constitution is so beyond the pale it defies any sort of logic or reason.

Is there a chance on this good Earth that Trump will succeed? Not a chance! This idiocy, though, does fan the embers of those who continue to believe The Big Lie about the 2020 presidential election and it keeps alive the moronic view that Trump actually won an election that he lost.

Donald Trump needs to be chopped down and tossed into the political trash heap. The only viable means to ensure he is silenced is for the Republican Party leadership to condemn him — by name! — and turn its back on the trash he continues to sputter.

One obstacle stands in the way. It is the collective cowardice of those who purport to cherish the Constitution.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

 

What is wrong with Rs?

For as long as I can remember I have shied away from lambasting those who adhere to a political party’s ideology or follow its guidance over the cliff … just because party leaders tell ‘em to do it.

I can’t remain silent now as the Georgia runoff for the U.S. Senate approaches. My question is this: What in the world is wrong with Georgia Republicans who continue to stand behind the moron masquerading as a candidate for the Senate seat held by Democrat Raphael Warnock?

Herschel Walker is without question the most unfit, unqualified individual to run for the Senate in the past century. Hell, maybe ever!

And yet … we see political polls showing the race still in the neck-and-neck category.

My goodness! The list of disqualifiers for Walker is approaching the list that accompanies Donald J. Trump.

He preaches a strong anti-abortion stance, but has been accused by at least two women of forcing them to abort babies conceived by Walker himself. He stands as a “family guy,” but has nothing to do with many of the children he brought into this world. Walker claimed a tax exemption in Texas that goes to “primary residents” of this state … but he’s running for political office in Georgia. Walker recently spent several minutes on the stump mumbling nonsense about whether it’s better to be a vampire or a werewolf. Finally, Walker cannot speak with any semblance of intelligence about any serious policy matter.

Yet he continues to run close to Sen. Warnock.

This phenomenon makes me wonder out loud what I have kept to myself for virtually my entire adult life: Are grassroots Republican voters really that stupid?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Good to talk openly of hate

Our nation seems to have commenced an important conversation about hate speech which, as we should understand, necessarily can lead to hateful action.

The latest catalyst for this discussion was ignited in Mar-a-Lago, when two haters showed up for dinner with Donald J. Trump. One of them is the rapper Kanye West; the other is Nick Fuentes, the notorious anti-Semitic denier of the Holocaust and white supremacist.

And so, the conversation has commenced.

President Biden has weighed in, calling on politicians of all stripes to condemn hate speech. Many of them have done as the president has asked. Some of them, tragically, have not. Is this where I can say that the silence is coming from the Republican Party side of the great divide? Well, I just did.

One of the silent types, of course, is the aforementioned Donald Trump. It’s now being reported, by the way, that the most recent GOP POTUS recently sent a letter of support to the family members of the treasonous 1/6 insurrectionists. Oh … but that’s another shameful story for another time.

I want to stick with the hate speech angle.

It is good that we have this talk among ourselves. We need to keep our eyes and ears wide open and understand the consequences of the kind of speech that comes from too many of us. Those consequences too often result in violence; and that violence, also too often, turns deadly. Recent incidents show what happens when madmen vent their hate against Latinos, against gay people, against Black people.

This conversation is worthwhile. It is constructive. May it lead to an awareness that forces us to ban this kind of language from our vocabularies.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

GOP might lose seat in House? Really?

Did I hear this correctly, that a rural Arizona county’s refusal to certify the 2022 midterm election result could cost the Republican Party a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives?

That’s what might be playing out in Cochise County, Ariz., where officials are declining to certify the results on the basis of phony vote fraud allegations.

The payoff could be, well, staggering!

According to Bloomberg News: That would flip the results of the race for Arizona’s Sixth Congressional District, where Republican Juan Ciscomani holds a 5,232-vote lead over Democrat Kirsten Engel in unofficial results, as well as the race for state Superintendent of Public Instruction, where the Republican candidate has a narrow lead.

An Arizona County’s Refusal to Certify Election Results Could Cost GOP a House Seat (msn.com)

There you go. The MAGA cultists are so intent on proving a discredited allegation of election corruption that they are willing to sacrifice a Republican candidate for Congress.

Fine. Let ’em proceed! Let the rest of us laugh out butts off, too!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Kari Lake: newest Big Liar

Kari Lake is trying to supplant Donald J. Trump as the nation’s most vocal proponent of some version of The Big Lie.

Lake, the failed Republican candidate for Arizona governor, is refusing to concede that she lost to Democratic Gov.-elect Katie Hobbs. Lake also is accusing county elections officials of fraud, incompetence and being crooks.

That’s right. If you don’t win, then hurl derogatory labels at professional election officials and hope that something sticks.

It’s not going to work.

Lake is a Donald Trump acolyte who has challenged the validity of the 2020 presidential election. She is an election denier! She vowed to overturn — were she elected governor — the Arizona presidential vote total that went for Joe Biden over Trump.

Kari Lake is exhibiting a profound case of political idiocy.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Ignorance is no excuse

Donald Trump’s repeated efforts to feign ignorance about notorious and infamous political characters offends anyone with half a noodle in their noggin who knows a blatant lie when they hear it.

Trump is lying once again, I believe with all my soul, when he professes to “not know Nick Fuentes” — the avowed white supremacist, anti-Semite and Holocaust denier.

It reminds me of how Trump claimed to “not know a thing” about David Duke, the nationally known Ku Klux Klan grand dragon who endorsed Trump’s presidential candidacy in 2016.

He lied then, too.

Or when he equated Klansmen and Nazis with counterprotester in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017. Remember when he told of “good people, on both sides” of that bloody riot? There are no “good” Klansmen or Nazis — period!

Fuentes broke bread with Trump and Kanye West, the rapper who’s also spoken ill of Jewish people, the other day in Mar-a-Lago, Fla. This latest example of Trump playing only to his racist base of supporters provides without question a hideous example of this individual’s unfitness for public office.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Another whopper from The Donald

So … Donald Trump said that Kanye West brought the moronic anti-Semite, Holocaust denying, white supremacist with him to dinner at Mar-a-Lago.

And that he didn’t even know who Nick Fuentes is.

POTUS No. 45 expects us to believe that.

Quick reminder. Donald Trump has a Secret Service detail with him in Florida; it’s a perk provided former presidents. Does anyone on God’s Good Earth believe the Secret Service didn’t know who was traipsing through the door and that the agents on duty would not have told The Donald that one of ’em happened to be this moron?

As I have said many times, I do not believe a single word that flies out of Trump’s pie hole.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com