Category Archives: national news

national news

Constitution still works

Gerald R. Ford became president on Aug. 9, 1974, and told the nation weary of scandal, “Our Constitution works.” 

It did then. It is working now as the House select committee assigned to get to the truth behind the 1/6 insurrection slogs on in its quest.

A president resigned in disgrace and President Ford took control just as the Constitution prescribes. A future president summoned a traitorous mob to “take back our government” on 1/6 and sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

The Constitution gives the speaker of the House the sole authority to appoint a committee to examine that horrible event. Speaker Nancy Pelosi followed the Constitution, and we now are watching that panel continue on its journey.

Where the committee concludes remains to be seen. I have my hope for what I want to see happen. If that hope doesn’t come true, then I am going to accept the panel’s findings, given that it is legally constituted and has done its duty as it sees fit.

Thus, we are witnessing in real time once again the durability and strength of the nation’s governing framework.

Those framers were smart men … don’t you think?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

A deal on guns … finally

Let me be clear: The deal in principle by a bipartisan group of U.S. senators doesn’t go nearly far enough to curb gun violence.

But … it is a baby-step start.

The Texas Tribune reports on the deal announced today: The tentative deal includes a mix of modest gun control proposals and funding for mental health. It would incentivize states to pass “red flag” laws, which are designed to keep guns out of the hands of individuals who pose a threat to themselves or others; boost funding for mental health services, telehealth resources and more school security; permit juvenile records to be incorporated into background checks for purchasers under the age of 21 and crack down on the straw purchase and trafficking of guns.

Deal on post-Uvalde shooting gun legislation reached in Senate | The Texas Tribune

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, the senior Texas Republican, is part of the senatorial team that hammered out the deal.

My own preference would have been to ban assault rifles, raise the minimum age requirements for purchasing firearms from 18 to 21 years of age and launch comprehensive universal background checks for every purchase.

That won’t come forward. House of Representatives Democrats want more. They’re likely to resist what the Senate is pitching.

I am not going to dig in just yet against this plan, which is good remember is just a deal in principle.

However, it is more than we got after Sandy Hook, after Columbine, after Las Vegas, after Sutherland Hills, Aurora, El Paso or Parkland.

Uvalde and Buffalo proved to be the catalyst to provide something.

It is far from ideal. However, I am going to accept it as possibly the beginning of a march toward more meaningful reform to end the gun violence that is killing too many innocent Americans.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Eyes are fixed on … Trump

There can be no doubt that Donald Trump has returned — once more! — to the forefront of our political stage.

I wish it weren’t so. My wishing, though, simply cannot deny the obvious.

The U.S. House 1/6 select committee has convened public hearings on national TV. We’ll get Episode Two tomorrow morning. Who’s at the top of our attention span? The Donald! Of course he is! 

The House panel appears to be building a case for indicting Trump for inciting the insurrection of 1/6. Members of the committee have yapped about the panel having enough evidence to recommend an indictment; I hope that speculation will cease. It’s not productive.

I guess Trump must like being the focus of our attention. It’s his modus operandi, or so I’ve been led to believe. He is, after all, a supreme narcissist, which by definition means he relishes this attention.

Whatever.

For as long as the winds keep drafting over Trump, I’ll be forced to comment on occasion on issues that develop regarding this carnival barker. I pledge to look the other way when he blathers some nonsense. As it relates to the committee and its findings, I intend to offer my views — for whatever they’re worth — on what they mean to the future of our democratic process.

Still, if only Trump would just disappear.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Keep our eyes open

We all need to be clear-eyed about what we are going to see and hear in the weeks ahead as the House 1/6 select committee conducts its hearings on national TV.

It is seeking to expose to the nation what it has learned through hours of testimony and thousands of pages of documents it has obtained bout the insurrection that sought to subvert our democracy and overturn the 2020 election result.

We will hear from Donald J. Trump’s defenders that the committee is on a witch hunt, that it is a partisan gathering of Democrats intent on destroying the ex-POTUS, that what happened on that day wasn’t so bad.

It’s not a witch hunt; the panel does contain two Republicans along with seven Democrats; Trump is engaging in a form of self-destruction by continuing to foment The Big Lie about “widespread voter fraud” that he knew did not exist; and what we saw was an unprecedented attack on our democratic process that included verbal threats against the lives of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence.

The committee is a duly constituted congressional body that has been charged with determining the cause of the insurrection, seeking solutions to prevent it from recurring and (hopefully) determine who should be held accountable for the ghastly event that unfolded.

Do not be fooled by those who say they “can’t defend Trump” but refuse to condemn his inaction on that day. Nor should we be fooled by those who point fingers at others for refusing to provide “adequate security” on Capitol Hill.

As we heard during testimony this past week from the brave Capitol Police officer, Caroline Edwards, she was trained to detain a limited number of subjects; she was not trained to engage in “hours of hand-to-hand combat.”

Let’s keep our eyes and ears open to what will be laid out before us.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

What about Dick Cheney?

Liz Cheney is getting some ridiculous pushback from those on the far right of her Republican Party over her condemnation of Donald Trump’s inciting of the 1/6 insurrection.

I cannot allow that resistance to go unchallenged.

The Wyoming GOP congresswoman is now being held responsible in some circles for the lies her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, told the nation about weapons of mass destruction that allegedly were possessed by the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

Let me be crystal clear on this.

Liz Cheney was a grown woman when her father pitched the notion that Saddam Hussein possessed WMD, which he and the George W. Bush administration used to justify the invasion of Iraq. She did not serve in the administration. Her father did. Therefore, she bears no responsibility for the lies that Dick Cheney fomented about WMD.

For those who now challenge Liz Cheney’s credibility in voting to impeach Donald Trump and for serving on the 1/6 House select committee is a classic case of “what about-ism” run amok.

Indeed, does it occur to anyone that perhaps Liz Cheney learned something from the deception that her father perpetrated on the nation in the lead-up to the Iraq War? Might that have served as a “teachable moment” to the VP’s daughter to tell the truth were she ever to seek and hold public office?

This nonsense that Rep. Cheney should be held to account for the actions of a family member is utter rubbish.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Do you see the irony?

Occasionally, I see irony where others might not realize it exists. Think for a moment about Donald Trump’s inauguration as president in January 2017.

He stood on the Capitol steps that day and made a declaration that became the signature line of his inaugural speech to the nation.

“The American carnage,” he said, “stops right here and right now.”

Oh, the conservative media just ate that stuff up.

But wait a second!

Just two weeks short of four years later, a whole lot of carnage took place on those very steps where Trump declared it would stop. The insurrection against the government involved the beat-down of Capitol Police officers by a mob of traitors seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Hey, it’s a whole lot more than just another of Donald Trump’s unkept promises. I just find the irony of the location of the insurrection and Trump’s bold assertion to be too much compelling to ignore.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Rage mounts hourly

I have said all along that the 1/6 insurrection is difficult to watch and it gets more difficult as time marches on, reminding me a bit of the 9/11 attack’s effect on my emotions.

Still, the House select committee’s hearing that came to prime time this evening has been riveting, even as it fills me with rage over what happened that day during the siege on Capitol Hill.

There will be more to learn and more to discern from the hearings that will continue over the course of several weeks.

I am left to wonder how in the name of governmental integrity those who dismiss what occurred on 1/6 can continue to deny what the rest of us witnessed yet again tonight.

It was not a “routine Capitol tour.” It was not a part of “normal political discourse.” It was not a “peaceful demonstration.”

Good grief, man! It was an insurrection against our democratic process! We have been told in the clearest terms possible that Donald Trump orchestrated it. He did nothing to stop in real time. Trump sought to cling to power and do something that no previous president ever had attempted, which was to commit an act of sedition against the government he took an oath to protect.

I am even angrier than ever at the man who masqueraded as the nation’s chief executive. I thought I had maxed out by anger.

Silly me. I need to get ready to get even angrier.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Where is outrage over child deaths?

Kevin McCarthy is furious. He is steaming hot over a threat made against Supreme Court Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh by someone who allegedly sought to assassinate him.

The House of Representatives Republican leader wants the House to enact a bill that would protect SCOTUS justices from threats. I happen to agree that justices on the nation’s highest court need maximum protection.

McCarthy said this on the floor of the House.

How many times do they have to be threatened? How many people have to be arrested with a gun outside their home? What would have happened had he not called 9-1-1? He didn’t just have a gun. He had zip ties. But somehow you want to leave. This bill could be on the president’s desk right now.

I just have to ask, though: Where is McCarthy’s outrage over the murders of dozens of school children and other innocent victims in supermarkets, houses of worship, movie theaters, concert venues and wherever else they are slaughtered by those wielding assault rifles?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Right wingers win the argument … so far

This is no great flash to those who are smarter than I am, but I have concluded how the right wingers out there are able to outshout the rest of us in this so-called “battle of ideas.”

They succeed because they appeal to Americans’ base instincts. We are so very quick to criticize those in power. The right wingers, therefore, are appealing to Americans’ lowest common denominator. It is fueled by ignorance.

Thus, when I see President Biden’s diminishing approval ratings in public polls, I see an opportunity for Biden’s supporters to strike back … and hard!

The obvious consequence will be that the quality of the political debate will sink faster a cruise ship that hits an iceberg.

The equally obvious alternative is to let the MAGA crowd win the argument, which then will lead to MAGA candidates emerging victorious.

I do not want that to happen. I do want the reasonable center-left and even some “mainstream Republicans” to tear a page from the MAGA playbook … and then hit the far right wingers with the same demagoguery they have been pitching.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Bring on the fireworks

I keep getting teased by reports of “explosive” testimony at the 1/6 hearings that will be televised beginning Thursday night.

One of the explosions reportedly will come from recorded testimony offered by Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner, who have told the House select 1/6 committee about what they saw during the insurrection, how they implored Daddy Donald Trump to “do something” to stop the riot and how Daddy Donald did, shall we say, not a damn thing.

Let’s remember something about the ex-POTUS: He has yet to express a single word of regret about what happened that day when he incited the riot that erupted on Capitol Hill; not a word of sadness over the death of the police officers, not a word of regret that rioters defecated on the floor of Congress; not a single expression of remorse that the crowd that gathered on The Ellipse that morning had spun out of control.

Now we well might be treated to “explosive” testimony from Ivanka and Jared that Donald Trump let the riot continue, allowed the traitors to threaten to “hand Mike Pence!” and conspired with others within the White House to launch a coup to prevent Joe Biden to assume the presidency he won in a fair, free and legal election.

Whatever occurs during the several days of televised testimony, you can count me as a surefire audience member who will be listening to every word. I’ll make sure I’m sitting far enough from the TV to avoid any blowback from the blast.

Johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com