Category Archives: national news

national news

These Trumpsters told the truth

It is going to take me a long while to process fully what I heard this week in the televised testimony before the House select 1/6 committee.

We all heard several dedicated Donald Trump supporters set aside their personal support of the former POTUS and argue on behalf of concepts totally foreign to The Donald: the rule of law and the sanctity of their oaths of office.

Gabe Sterling and Brad Raffensberger of Georgia spoke the truth to power. So did Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers. They confronted Trump’s assertion that they could flip votes, overturn election results, “find” enough ballots to swing their states from Biden’s column to Trump’s.

They all voted for Trump. They were loyal to the man … to the extent of casting their ballots.

However, they refused to cross the line into lawlessness, which is what Trump wanted them to do. None of them would shirk their oaths of office. Speaker Bowers’s testimony was particularly riveting, as he said any notion of his forsaking his sacred oath was totally beyond his capacity as an elected public official.

Bowers, indeed, appeared to grow quite emotional as he testified before the House committee. It was, at some level, tough to watch. Then again, I was filled with pride that he continues to stand firm in his belief that he took the oath to protect the Constitution and to honor the laws of the land. He remained true to his oath.

As did Raffensberger, the Georgia secretary of state, and Sterling, one of his deputies.

They all demonstrated the incalculable value of public service.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Stop the tease, Democrats

I am going to make this plea once more to U.S. House Democrats serving on the 1/6 select committee.

Stop teasing us with declarations that you have provided proof “beyond a reasonable doubt” that Donald J. Trump should be prosecuted for his role in instigating the 1/6 insurrection against the government.

You see, I don’t need convincing. However, I do not want to get my expectations elevated to an unreasonable level that Attorney General Merrick Garland is going to indict Trump for inciting the assault on our government as members of Congress — and the vice president — were tallying the Electoral College totals from the 2020 presidential election.

That was the one Trump lost to Joseph R. Biden.

The televised hearings have been compelling. I have been riveted by the testimony. The witnesses who have told of Trump’s active participation in the conspiracy to overturn the election have painted a grim and frightening picture of an individual who was derelict in his duty to protect the Constitution and to quell the violence that erupted on Capitol Hill.

Let’s allow the AG to do his work without hearing the same things I am hearing from committee Democrats … that he’s got enough to prosecute.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Republicans turn on Trump

These congressional hearings are getting juicier and seem to be tightening the noose around Donald J. Trump’s proverbial neck.

We heard from two Georgia election officials about how Trump sought to bully them into “finding” enough votes to steal the election from Joe Biden. We also heard from a Georgia secretary of state who also wondered out loud how The Donald could brazenly seek to break the law.

These all are Republicans, who were ostensibly Trump supporters until the former POTUS decided to seek to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Jan. 6 hearing: Ga. election worker and her mother say Trump’s ‘lies’ led to death threats (msn.com)

The most gut-wrenching testimony, though, came from two Georgia election workers who had their reputations dragged through the mud. Trump and his lawyer, Rudolf Giuliani, singled out two women by name as seeking to dump illegal ballots.

The women told of the threats against their lives. According to Yahoo News: In a hearing before the House select panel investigating the events that led to the Capitol riot, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, an election worker in Fulton County, testified that false claims made by the former president, his personal lawyer and their allies about her and her mother, “Lady” Ruby Freeman, a temporary election worker, “turned my world upside down.”

It’s important to understand something about these two women: They are not public officials. They are volunteer poll workers who dedicate their time to public service. Yet they became targets of The Donald and his thoroughly disgraced — and disgraceful — lawyer. They spoke blatant lies about these women who today told their side of the tragic story.

I am awaiting word now from Trump and how he’s going to spin the things he said about Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman. He only will illustrate even more graphically his despicable nature.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Pence lies about ‘falsehoods’

Way to go, former Vice President Mike Pence. Just about the time you are beginning to bask in some sort of misplaced glory over what we have learned about your conduct on 1/6, you offer a patently ridiculous piece of sh**.

Pence said the following in an interview with Larry Kudlow, a one-time Trump economic adviser, who asked Pence: “Have you ever seen a president who refuses to accept blame, and I want to add to that, commits so many falsehoods? I’m being very polite here, calling it falsehoods – falsehoods, you know, on any given day. He’s out there saying stuff that just ain’t true. Have you ever seen anything like that?”

Pence responded: “Never in my lifetime. I said today that there has never been a time in my life where a president was more disconnected from the American people than we see today.”

Do you get where the former VP is saying? He is suggesting that President Biden is more of a liar than The Donald.

Well, so much for the kudos over refusing to break the law during the 1/6 insurrection. As of yesterday, Trump is still trying to cover the overfed backside of The Donald, the POTUS who actually said Pence “deserved” to be hanged, per the insurrectionists’ chants at the 1/6 assault on the nation’s Capitol Building.

I am at a total loss as to how this individual, Pence, is able to look himself in the mirror.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

1/6 hearing drama builds

Who could have thought that congressional hearings would produce so much drama?

I am one who anticipates it with today’s scheduled hearing on the insurrection that occurred 1/6. The star witness at the televised hearing will be a Georgia state election official whom Donald Trump demanded “find” more than 11,000 votes that would have turned the state’s electoral outcome from favoring Joe Biden to endorsing Trump.

Brad Raffensberger, a Republican Georgia secretary of state and acknowledged Trump supporter, refused to do The Donald’s bidding. What’s more, the world has heard Trump’s voice making the demand. Raffensberger, you see, had the foresight to record the phone conversation.

I am going to wonder how the Trumpkins are going to deny Trump said what we know that he said.

Let the drama continue.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Strange world, indeed

We have entered a strange time in our nation’s history when two sides of a great — and widening — divide cannot seem to make themselves heard by the other side.

I am going to refrain from the “both sides do it” argument; I will aim my fire at those on the far right of that divide, the Donald Trump cultists who — despite mountains of evidence to the contrary — continue to live in the fantasy created by The Big Lie.

That the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from their guy and that the theft lies at the heart of all that is wrong with the government. They refuse to cede an inch of that turf to reality, to the truth, to the facts that are spread before them.

Donald Trump brought in a fellow named Christopher Krebs to tighten the integrity of the 2020 election. Krebs did his job. He did it so well that when he declared that the most recent presidential election was the “most secure in the history of the nation,” Trump fired him. He didn’t want to hear the truth from his own guy!

And so … a needless, pointless and feckless battle rages on. There is no way in the world, or so it seems, to persuade the Trump Cultist Corps that their guy lost a free, fair and legal election to Joseph Biden Jr. They hang their message on The Big Lie that Trump keeps telling. Indeed, the Texas Republican Party just concluded its weekend meeting in Houston with a resolution that declares President Biden to be “illegitimately elected.”

Where in the world do we go from here?

I hate to think there is no way out of this blind alley. So, I won’t think it. I will retain my eternal optimism that eventually self-restorative sanity will take its resume in our national discussion. The alternative, as we have seen, is unacceptable.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Don’t swing and miss, Mr. AG!

Chris Christie, the former Republican governor of New Jersey and ex-federal prosecutor, has issued a stern warning to the 1/6 House select committee.

It is that if it recommends criminal charges should be filed against Donald J. Trump for his role in inciting the insurrection on 1/6, it had better have it buttoned up and secure for a conviction.

The committee — or Attorney General Merrick Garland — cannot afford to “swing and miss” on this matter if an indictment is to be issued.

Christie, a one-time Donald Trump GOP presidential primary opponent who then became an ally of the POTUS, possesses strong opinions and is able to articulate them sharply and cogently.

He does not believe that Merrick Garland ultimately is going to seek a criminal indictment against Trump. Why? It carries too much risk of a failed prosecution, Christie said this past weekend.

I agree with Chrisie on one point: The House panel and the attorney general cannot afford to get this one wrong. I will disagree, if only nominally, with whether Garland is going to wimp out on seeking an indictment.

Merrick Garland, to my eyes, appears to be a careful lawyer. He is studious and fair, or so his friends have said about him. He also is meticulous and careful to dot every “i” and cross every “t” before proceeding.

That makes me believe an indictment, if it comes, will be ironclad.

That is my hope … and I’m sticking with it to the finish line.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Boebert: ‘no’ on infrastructure bill, ‘yes on this project

Lauren Boebert is one of the Republican nut jobs who populate Congress. She opposes President Biden’s plan to improve the nation’s infrastructure, calling it “wasteful garbage.”

Oh, but she sure likes a bridge planned for her Colorado congressional district.

Which is it, Congresswoman Boebert? Are you for it or against it?

The bridge project is planned for Glenwood Springs. She sent Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg a letter declaring her support for the project.

I haven’t yet heard her justification for opposing the total bill but wanting the particular item to be completed.

Rep. Lauren Boebert called Biden’s infrastructure bill ‘wasteful’ and ‘garbage.’ Now she wants $33 million in infrastructure funding for a new bridge. (msn.com)

I will admit in all fairness that this sort of duplicity occurs all too frequently in Congress. Many congressional Republicans have opposed Biden’s spending initiatives, then they take credit for it when the money comes to their district.

It’s kind of disgusting.

Then again, Rep. Boebert is quite well known — even during her brief time, so far, in Congress — for bizarre behavior and demonstrably stupid rhetoric.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

 

national news

Pelosi is not part of this story

I generally don’t like responding to Internet trolls, but one guy who follows my blog keeps insisting that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi should’ve done a better job of “securing” the Capitol prior to the 1/6 insurrection.

Here’s what I found out: The Speaker of the House is not in charge of Capitol security. That’s the responsibility of the Capitol Police Board, which oversees the US Capitol Police and approves requests for National Guard assistance. Jane L. Campbell, president and CEO of the US Capitol Historical Society, says that “the Speaker of the House does not oversee security of the US Capitol, nor does this official oversee the Capitol Police Board.”

This comes from a CNN fact-check of a comment that came from Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, one of Donald Trump’s staunchest congressional defenders. To be sure, I am certain my blog follower won’t accept that the answer comes from CNN, which he likely considers to be a tainted news outlet, a purveyor of “fake news.”

My point, thus, is this: Speaker Pelosi is not part of the problem that befell the Capitol Police as its brave officers fought with the traitors who sought to overturn the 2020 election on 1/6.

She might have her share of faults … as a fallible human being. Capitol security isn’t one of them.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Accountability is essential

There can be no doubt over what must be the outcome of the 1/6 congressional probe.

It is that people in the highest levels of our government must be held accountable for their action — or inaction — on that terrible event in our nation’s history.

Yep. That’s you, Donald John Trump!

Trump says the televised hearings have drawn “terrible ratings.” You would expect such a shallow analysis from someone who made his living as a “reality TV” celebrity before entering politics in 2015.

But the truth is — as I survey it — that the hearings have delivered a wide range of evidence that suggests that Trump’s insistence on fomenting The Big Lie about the 2020 election produced the assault on the Capitol Building that sought to overturn those results.

Trump knew what he did was illegal, that it was unconstitutional and that it was immoral. Yet he persists to this very day to suggest there was widespread vote fraud in 2020 when — in plain fact — there was none.

He must be held to account for what he sought to do.

It will fall on Attorney General Merrick Garland and his legal team to tie all the loose ends together prior to making a decision on whether to seek indictments against Trump.

I hope he sees what many of us have seen.

That the former president of the United States is a criminal who needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com