Monthly Archives: October 2021

national news

Hypocrisy rules within GOP

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Senate Republicans such as Ted Cruz and John Cornyn of Texas have gotten their shorts all knotted up over the debt ceiling increase pitched by their Democratic colleagues.

And yet they had no trouble voting to increase the debt ceiling during the four years that Donald J. Trump was seeking it from the White House.

Ted Cruz and John Cornyn have mixed histories with debt-ceiling votes | The Texas Tribune

What gives? Why the change in heart? Oh, yeah. President Biden is a Democrat; Trump is a Republican. Politics has nothing to do with it, right? OK, let’s just say the answer is obvious: politics has everything to do with it.

Some Republicans kinda caved this week when they voted to allow a vote on whether to increase the ceiling. Cornyn was one of the GOP senators who went along with it. Cruz didn’t. He bitched about his colleagues surrendering to Democrats in a Senate floor speech.

Back to my question. Why was it OK to do it during the previous administration, but it isn’t OK now?

The GOP’s blatant partisanship and obstruction is so obvious.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

‘Civility is gone’?

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It took Joe Manchin a long time to state the obvious.

The West Virginia Democratic U.S. senator declared that “Civility is gone” after Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer criticized Senate Republicans over their obstruction of plans to increase the debt ceiling.

Spoiler alert, Sen. Manchin: Civility has been MIA for a long time on Capitol Hill.

‘Civility is gone’: Manchin slams Schumer broadside against GOP (msn.com)

A single tirade by Schumer doesn’t signal anything new regarding the state of play between the governing parties.

Manchin reportedly buried his face in his hands and then walked off the Senate floor on Thursday after Schumer unloaded on GOP caucus members.

Look, I wish we could rediscover civil discourse as much as the next guy. Yes, even as much as Sen. Manchin. However, the major culprit in killing political civility — to my way of thinking — happens to be the Republicans who have sought to obstruct rather than govern.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Gullibility: Is it terminal?

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How many times must one say the same thing, that The Big Lie being fomented by a defeated, twice-impeached POTUS is destructive to the very institutions that the former Liar in Chief vowed to protect and defend?

Yet he keeps telling it. That the 2020 election was “stolen” through “widespread voter fraud,” that President Biden isn’t really the president of the United States, that the ex-POTUS actually won an election he lost bigly!

But he does. He tells the lie. The gullible among his cadre/cabal of believers buy into it. They cannot be dissuaded that their leader is a pathological liar who cannot tell the truth if it were to slap him on his ample backside.

It’s a frustration that gnaws at people such as yours truly who continue to insist that the 2020 election was conducted freely, fairly, legally and ethically. I mean, the POTUS brought in a team of experts to ensure it would done that way prior to the election.

The team, led by election overseer Christopher Krebs, did what they were charged to do. They assembled a process that produced the most secure election in U.S. history. What did they get for their success? They got canned! The ex-Imbecile in Chief fired Krebs for proclaiming the election’s integrity.

So, the frustration mounts as the former POTUS keeps conveying The Big Lie and cementing his place as the most dangerous former POTUS in American history.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

Elections do have consequences

Well, folks. We are going to find out in due course — possibly soon — just how consequential presidential elections always have been.

The issue at hand is abortion and whether the Texas strict anti-abortion law will withstand judicial review. I happen to believe the law is unconstitutional, that it runs counter to what we long have thought was “settled law.” That the Roe v. Wade decision handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973 had been settled, that women had a constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy.

Oh, but wait. The issue is likely to end up in front of the SCOTUS again. Here is where the election issue comes in.

The 45th POTUS nominated three justices on the court. He was able to cement the conservative majority. The court is now lined up with six conservatives and three liberals. The conservatives, with — with Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch on board — well might decide that the Texas law is OK after all.

A federal judge in Texas, Robert Pittman — appointed by President Barack Obama — has declared the Texas law to be unconstitutional. It’s headed already to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which well could reverse Judge Pittman’s 100-page ruling. You can count on the Justice Department to take this matter up on the judicial ladder.

Hmm. Do you think Pittman’s ruling will hold up? Neither do I.

We need to ponder this when the time comes to ponder the next presidential election.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

Hoping judge’s ruling holds up

It is easy for me to cheer a ruling by a U.S. district judge in Texas that bans the state’s abortion ban.

I will cheer the ruling by Judge Robert Pittman. I fear the ruling won’t hold up.

Pittman said the state law that bans abortion after a woman has been pregnant for six weeks cannot be upheld. I agree with him. Then again, I am not a lawyer, let alone a judicial scholar.

The state law is cruel in that most women don’t even know they are pregnant until after six weeks. That didn’t stop the Legislature from enacting and Gov. Greg Abbott from signing it into law.

Pittman was selected for the federal bench by President Obama, which I suppose gives you a clue as to his political leaning … not that it should matter when it regards court rulings. Right?

The state is going to appeal Judge Pittman’s ruling. It will work its way through the appellate court system. It might even find its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, with its 6 to 3 conservative majority.

At least for the time being, though, the judicial system has come to the aid of women desperate to maintain control of matters that only they should be allowed to decide.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

What will we say when it happens?

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My mind does have this way of wandering into strange places on occasion, which I think is a consequence of being retired; too much time on my hands and too much time for my noggin to venture where it doesn’t usually go.

For example, I have been thinking about the day Donald J. Trump departs this good Earth. Hey, it’s gonna happen!

Tradition and custom usually mean that when political figures check out, politicians of all stripes gather to say generous things about the newly departed. When President Nixon died, the current president, Bill Clinton — obviously no fan of the deceased POTUS — gave a stirring eulogy at his funeral in California. President Obama did the same when he spoke at the late Sen. John McCain’s funeral in 2018.

Then again, how does one muster up the good will to speak charitably about a president who has spent his entire political career trashing, denigrating, defaming others? Most of his victims have been fellow pols.

I am not really wishing it to happen any sooner than it inevitably will. I simply am thinking out loud about the prospects when the opportunity presents itself.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

A reckoning is on its way

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It’s impossible to predict that such an event will occur, but one can certainly hope that it does … which is what I am going to do.

I am going to hope that a day of reckoning will come to those who continue to resist mandates to (a) wear masks (b) maintain social distancing and (c) receive inoculations against a killer virus.

Local governments across this great land are requiring people to protect themselves — and others! — against the virus that has killed more than 700,000 Americans; the number is sure to increase.

I cannot determine how the reckoning will occur or what form it will take. I just have this hope in my ticker that it comes to those who continue to insist that government “has no business” dictating how people can protect themselves.

Which, of course, is nonsense.

The government is able to tell us to wear seat belts when we travel in motor vehicles; it can tell us to put out cigarettes when we enter indoor public place; it can set speed limits on our public rights-of-way; it can require we have auto insurance when we drive.

Do I go on?

You get my point.

The COVID-19 virus is a killer. It needs to be stopped. Government has a role to play in ensuring we protect ourselves and our loved ones. And, oh yes, even perfect strangers.

Let’s quit the politicking on this matter.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump

Yep, he said it!

Yikes! Aack! What the … ?

I don’t know quite what to say other than to post a quote attributed to the 45th president of the U.S. of A.

He said the following: “Nobody has done more for Christianity or for evangelicals or for religion itself than I have.”

I guess I could add a “wow!”

Donald J. Trump’s hold on the evangelical Christian movement continues to baffle me. It also enrages me. He is the least moral man ever occupy the office of POTUS.

He is a liar, an admitted philanderer, an admitted sexual assailant. He has done “more for Christianity” than any other human being? Did he say that to a religious broadcaster? I presume so.

Well, there is this notion, that he would order businesses to wish their customers “Merry Christmas.” Do you remember that?

Sickening in the extreme.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot

Better get the 1/6 probe done quickly

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(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

If past is prologue as it relates to the 2022 congressional election, then it’s wise to urge the U.S. House select committee to finish its investigation into the 1/6 riot sooner rather than later.

As in … before the 2022 election.

After that, again if history is going to repeat itself, Republicans are going to take control of the House of Representatives; Nancy Pelosi no longer will be speaker and the GOP will likely move rapidly to shove the results of the 1/6 probe into the crapper.

Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., has issued subpoenas of several key White House aides who are privy to what occurred the day Donald Trump incited the riotous mob to storm Capitol Hill. I will call the riot what it was: an insurrection. The terrorists sought to block the certification of the 2020 presidential election results.

The panel, chosen by Pelosi, wants answers. So do many millions of Americans. As for who might be speaker if the GOP takes command of the House, he is a 1/6 riot denier. I refer to Kevin McCarthy, also of California.

The reality is that McCarthy has talked out of both sides of his pie hole regarding that terrible event. He scolded the POTUS immediately after the crowd dispersed, but then reverted to form and voted against creation of an independent commission to study the matter.

Thus, it become imperative for the House select panel — which contains two key Republican lawmakers — to finish the job to which it has been tasked.

We cannot — must not — tolerate another cover-up.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Grisham owns it … good!

I want to give Stephanie Grisham some points for coming clean on a key matter involving her time serving in the Trump administration.

She owns the mistake she made in refusing to speak out in real time what she was witnessing while serving as White House press secretary and as chief of staff to the first lady.

Grisham, who’s written a reportedly stunning tell-all book about her time in the White House, also said today that her boss — the 45th POTUS — is “unfit for office” and she hopes fervently he never darkens the White House door ever again.

She spoke of the Secret Service code name for Melania Trump; the agents referred to her as “Rapunzel,” named after the fictitious character who was afraid to leave the castle. Melania Trump reportedly spent most of her time in the White House residence because, according to Grisham, she dared not venture out to be seen by the public or the dreaded media.

Listening to her discuss her book, though, filled me with a bit of admiration for a public figure who is willing to own her mistakes. She said she was wrong to keep quiet about the Trump chaos as it was occurring. I accept that acknowledgment as an apology.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com