Monthly Archives: July 2021

legal news

Yep, elections have consequences

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The old saying about how “elections have consequences” is playing itself out on the U.S. Supreme Court.

President Biden’s immediate predecessor was able to nominate three justices to the nation’s highest court during his single term. This week, we saw the effect of those nominations present itself in real time with a ruling that makes it more difficult to stem the Republican tide that seeks to make voting more difficult for Americans.

The court ruled 6 to 3 — with conservative justices winning the fight — on a ruling out of Arizona that keeps in place strict voter requirements that critics suggest aim to make it harder for traditionally Democratic citizens to vote.

So the battle will be joined.

The ruling makes it harder for ethnic and racial minorities to challenge the Arizona law, which places many restrictions deemed critical to the political balance of power.

These appointments to the nation’s highest court have reignited calls to expand the court from its current nine justices to, oh, 13 or 15. That’s a bad idea and I do not support such a drastic move. President Biden isn’t warm to the notion, either. He pledged to appoint a blue-ribbon commission of conservative and liberal legal scholars to find a way to reform the federal judiciary.

However, electoral consequences have this way of presenting themselves when courts make these difficult decisions.

Justice Stephen Breyer, appointed to the court in 1994 after being nominated by President Clinton, might retire soon. Breyer is among the liberals on the court. A nomination by President Biden isn’t going to change the court’s ideological tilt should he get the chance.

These key court rulings do make it imperative that we understand the consequences of electing presidents. They are huge, especially when the court system swings too far in the wrong direction.

In my humble view, it has done so.

national news

Liz Cheney produces conflicting emotions

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It is no secret to those who read this blog that Liz Cheney drives me batty.

The congresswoman from Wyoming is among the most conservative members of the House of Representatives. Her Republican credentials are impeccable, as she comes from a family led by a former defense secretary, congressman and vice president of the United States.

I didn’t support her decision to run for Congress; I believed her to be a carpetbagger, as she never spent much time in the state she now represents.

But, man, she is showing some spine, guts and conviction in standing against a president who sought to subvert the U.S. Constitution, is still seeking to overturn a free and fair election and has been the voice of idiotic demagoguery from the moment he became a politician prior to his run for the presidency in 2016.

Cheney voted to impeach the ex-POTUS. She stands foursquare on the oath she took to defend the Constitution. Rep. Cheney now is the lone Republican to join a House select committee that is going to examine the consequence of the Jan. 6 insurrection that the former POTUS incited.

House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy threatens to strip her of committee assignments. Liz Cheney continues to stand firm. To which I say … you go, Liz!

Rep. Cheney is taking a stand against blind fealty to a cult leader. She said the integrity of our democratic process is far more important than any loyalty she might feel toward any human being.

I am proud of the stand that Liz Cheney is taking on my behalf and on behalf of the country she took an oath to serve. Her oath makes no mention of any loyalty to a disgraced ex-president.

I salute Liz Cheney.

national news

POTUS = Consoler in Chief

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It shouldn’t be worthy of a comment here, but given what we have seen for the past four years, well … I’m going to offer a brief observation.

President Biden and his wife, first lady Jill Biden, today performed an unwritten role of being the nation’s first couple. They flew from Washington, D.C., to south Florida. Their duty was to console the loved ones waiting for word on the fate of those still missing in that horrible building collapse in Surfside, Fla.

Biden’s immediate presidential predecessor didn’t see much good to be had in performing that role. He was bad at it. He lacks empathy and compassion. Not so with President and Mrs. Biden.

The people still listed as missing in the debris left by the collapse have loved ones waiting to know their fate. Those loved ones needed a word of warmth from the president and first lady. They got it today.

It won’t produce a tangible result. The presence of the president and first lady only will tell the bereaved loved ones that their head of state stands with them. That’s good enough.

local news

Time of My Life, Part 60: Covering the worst among us

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

My career in print journalism exposed me to many fine public officials, people with servants hearts and those who listen to their better angels.

It also enabled me to see up close the very worst in our society.

I attended two Ku Klux Klan rallies during my years working for daily newspapers. The first of them took place in Orange County, Texas, just a bit east of where my family and I lived in Beaumont. The second rally occurred in Amarillo, in front of City Hall; the Amarillo rally in 2006 ended up being shouted down by counter protesters who marched onto the public parking lot blaring horns and beating drums.

The Orange County KKK rally took place around 1990. It’s worth mentioning today because contemporary society is talking more openly now about hate against minorities and about how the federal government for the past four years was turning its back on that hatred.

The event that triggered the KKK rally in Orange County involved a formerly all-white public housing complex that became home to an African-American man. The Klan didn’t like that the complex was integrating itself. So it decided to stage a rally to protest.

To be fair, it wasn’t a violent event. There were no counter protesters that I could see. The KKK honchos spoke what passes for their minds. They got cheers from the crowd.

The legendary newsman Dan Rather, a native Texan, has called Klan rallies a frightening thing to witness. To be honest, the Orange County KKK rally didn’t frighten me. I was appalled at the rhetoric I heard. I also was even more appalled at the reaction I overheard an audience member give to a media representative.

The media rep, from a local TV station, asked a woman why she supported the Klan. She said, and I remember this statement quite vividly: “Because I don’t want my fu**ing kids associating with those people.” 

Roll that one around for a moment or two. Who in the name of all that is holy would refer to their own children using such a profoundly reprehensible adjective?

We know the answer. It is the low-life who follows the hate-filled rhetoric of those who belong to an organization that used to lynch Americans whose only “sin” was to be born with black skin.

I was able to report on what I saw and heard that day. I wasn’t proud of what I witnessed. However, I came away vowing never to let those individuals out of my sight. It is better to keep them in front you rather than allowing them to skulk around in secrecy.

national news

Who is “#1”? Any guesses?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Well now. The indictment of Trump Organization chief bean counter Allen Weisselberg contains a term just about anyone could have predicted would be in there.

It refers to “Unindicted co-conspirator #1.” Hmmm. My noodle is rolling that one around.

Who in this whole wide world could that be?

Oh, wait. I think I know. It well might be the former president of the United States of America, the teller of the Big Lie and the guy who wants to control all that is contained within the Republican Party.

Weisselberg has pleaded not guilty to an assortment of tax charges against him in the indictment handed down today by a grand jury working with the Manhattan district attorney’s office led by Cyrus Vance Jr.

The former president calls the indictment the result of the greatest witch hunt in human history. There are many of us, though, who wonder the obvious: When will the man for whom the Trump Organization is named find himself surrendering to authorities the way his chief financial officer did this morning?

Hasn’t the former Imbecile in Chief boasted over the years that nothing happens with his company without his knowledge? Hasn’t he talked and talked and talked again about how he runs everything? How he knows everything?

Just think, too, that this idiot emeritus might want to run for POTUS yet again in 2024.

This is just me thinking out loud, but my strong hunch is that — despite the passion exhibited among his “base” of lunatic supporters — he ain’t gonna make the GOP cut next time around.

military news

Shut up … Mr. Ex-POTUS!

1 Comment

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The moron who once served as commander in chief is known already to be off his ever-lovin’ rocker.

Now he needs to shut his pie hole and leave policy and personnel decisions to those who succeeded him and his gang of thieves.

POTUS 45 now says Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley should resign because he has spoken out against those who question whether he is sufficiently patriotic. “Gen. Milley ought to resign, and be replaced with someone who is actually willing to defend our Military from the Leftist Radicals who hate our Country and our Flag,” Trump wrote in a statement sent out by his Save America PAC about the four-star general, who he appointed to the nation’s top military post in 2019 over the objections of then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.

Oh, my.

Trump calls on Milley to resign after report of a shouting match between the two (msn.com)

The ex-president is unhinged, unshackled and unashamed of his own conduct. If given a chance to choose between the one-time Carnival Barker in Chief and a man who has served with distinction and honor in the U.S. Army … well, I’ll go with the general.

DC riot

No way was it a ‘routine day of touring’

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Congressional Republicans have their Big Lie — alleging vote fraud in the 2020 election. Now they might have spawned a smaller, but still significant, lie about the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Now that the U.S. House of Representatives has voted to create a select committee to examine the cause and consequence of the riot against the government, it is good to examine the other “big lie” making the rounds on Capitol Hill.

It’s the one that suggests that the riot was nothing more than a group of “peaceful tourists” taking part in a tour of the Capitol Building. Indeed, some members of the GOP congressional caucus have uttered such trash.

It begs the question: When has a “routine tour” left feces on the walls of the Capitol Building, or smashed through windows, or assaulted police officers with weapons and pepper spray, or left two officers dead and many other participants injured?

Never in my entire life have I witnessed such an egregious attempt at lying, deceit and boorish conduct as we have seen among congressional Republicans who have resisted calls for a thorough examination of the insurrection we saw play out on Jan. 6.

They won’t call it what it was: an insurrection against the government. They won’t acknowledge the role that the 45th POTUS had in inciting the mob of terrorists.

This lie won’t ever rise to the level of The Big Lie, given that the riot occurred because the disgraced ex-POTUS made the phony allegation that day and ignited the mob to do what it did.

However, this lesser — but still significant — lie about the riot being nothing out of the ordinary is bad enough. It likely will scar the current cult that masquerades as a political party perhaps for the rest of its existence.

national news, State news

Abbott kicks around another political football

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Oh, my goodness, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. You have become such a disappointment to many of us you took an oath to serve.

You declare your intention to build a wall along our state’s southern border. You blast the Biden administration to smithereens over what you call a “failed border policy.” You decline to meet with Vice President Kamala Harris during her brief visit to El Paso to discuss border security issues with local officials.

Donald Trump visiting Texas border with Gov. Greg Abbott | The Texas Tribune

Then you slobber all over yourself and all over the disgraced former president of the U.S.A. when he comes a callin’ to — that’s right — level criticism of the Biden administration.

You and POTUS 45 are on the same silly song sheet on so many misbegotten matters.

Governor, you need to put partisan politics aside and think of the greater good … for once.  Your politics-playing over this border matter simply makes me sick, not to mention the way you fawned over the visit of an individual who no longer has any say over federal policy — and whose company has just been indicted on criminal charges.

POTUS 45 lost the 2020 election, governor. You know that, yes? President Biden inherited a border crisis from his predecessor. Has he done well in bringing it under control? I agree that Joe Biden can do better and I am going to give him the benefit of hope that he will do better. I mean, he’s only six months into a presidency fraught with many existential problems that need everyone’s concern.

The border is one of them.

Last time I checked, Texas is still one of 50 states governed by politicians with varying degrees of competence. Gov. Abbott, I know you do not need to be told this, but good governance is a team sport. It requires cooperation at all levels of government. The feds rely on states to assist when they can and vice versa.

How about stepping up your good-governance game, governor? You need to be part of a team working toward a common goal, which is to secure our border.

national news

Let the probe begin

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It’s not how many of us wanted this process to move forward, but I’ll accept it as a step toward rooting out the cause of the infamous insurrection of Jan. 6.

The U.S. House of Representatives, with just two Republican members joining their Democratic colleagues, today voted to form a select committee that will take a deep dive into the insurrection.

GOP Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois — both of whom voted to impeach the disgraced 45th POTUS for his role in inciting the riot on Capitol Hill — voted “yes” on the committee creation. They both also signaled a willingness to serve on that panel.

My version of political perfection would have produced a bipartisan commission approved by the Senate. The GOP caucus slammed that door shut, leaving any look into the event up to the House. The lower chamber’s approval does not require Senate endorsement, so the House will proceed on its own, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The Wall Street Journal reports: “It’s clear that Jan. 6 was not simply an attack on the Capitol building, it was an attack on our democracy,” Mrs. Pelosi said in a speech before the vote Wednesday. “Every member here knows that Jan. 6 was an attempt to subvert our democracy,” she said. “But many across the aisle refuse to admit the truth.”

House Approves Creation of Select Committee to Probe Jan. 6 Attack (msn.com)

Indeed, the Republican resistance to examining the horrific event simply boggles my mind. The mob that stormed Capitol Hill that day launched a full assault on the entire government. It targeted Republicans as well as Democrats. It injured several law enforcement officers; two of them died in the melee. So, members of the political caucus that professes to be strong on “law and order” has resisted efforts to get to the truth of the attack.

Moreover, they have dug in to fight efforts to prevent future attacks.

So now it falls on the Democratically controlled House to select the committee. Pelosi is indicating she might appoint at least one Republican to sit on the panel.

This isn’t the perfect path toward finding some key answers to this horrifying assault on our democratic form of government. Given the stubborn refusal by Republicans to seek the truth behind it, this select committee will have to do.