Monthly Archives: November 2022

national news

McCarthy is no Pelosi

Having declared my faint hope that the cowardly U.S. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy will find the courage to stand up to the MAGA cabal within his congressional caucus, I want to offer a brief comparison to the woman he hopes to succeed as speaker of the House.

McCarthy will march to the MAGA cadence, I am quite sure. The current speaker, McCarthy’s fellow Californian Nancy Pelosi, also felt pressure from her progressive House members. They wanted her to impeach Donald Trump far sooner than she eventually did.

Pelosi stood firm against the likes of The Squad and other ultra-progressives. She, in effect, told them to pipe down and let her lead the House as she saw fit.

Pelosi eventually announced the impeachment inquiry after the then-president sought a political favor from the Ukraine president, seeking him to dig up dirt on Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. The speaker was not going to be pushed into acting prematurely.

Will the man who wants to be speaker show the same courage?

I am trying to stop snickering at the notion.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Will the coward find courage?

I have gone on record calling Kevin McCarthy, the man who wants to become speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, an unmitigated coward.

The House Republican leader is trying to muster enough House votes to be elected to the post he wants to inherit from Democrat Nancy Pelosi. He doesn’t have 218 votes yet, as some of the 222 GOP House members have said they want someone else to lead the body.

How can the coward demonstrate some needed courage in the event he takes the gavel from Speaker Pelosi? He can stand up against the MAGA wing of his GOP caucus, telling them to settle down and learn to work with Democrats if they hope to get anything constructive done in the118th Congress.

Some of the MAGA-ites have declared they do not want to work with Democrats. They say working with the other party is similar to surrendering to their philosophy.

The MAGA Republicans are feeling their oats these days, despite so many like-minded candidates losing in the midterm election to Democrats. They hold plenty of power as itis, but they want more.

Whoever ascends to the speakership — and it well could be McCarthy — can show significant courage by telling the MAGA cabal to, um … stuff it.

Will it happen? I am not holding my breath!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Sports news

Oregon State vs. Oregon

This is when it’s truly fun watching college football, when the team you’re rooting for loses, but you are still happy with the outcome.

So it was today as I watched Oregon State University come from way back to defeat the University of Oregon in a thriller in Corvallis.

The Beavers were down 31-10 late in the third quarter. Then they stormed back. The Ducks coughed the ball up a couple of times down the stretch; OSU took advantage. They were back in the game.

Why am I not sad? Well, I grew up in Oregon, but didn’t attend either school. Instead, I stayed home in Portland and attended Portland State University, with its downtown Portland campus and a football program that did not compete at the Division I level against the Ducks and Beavers.

My loyalty has been with the Ducks in recent years as they have ascended to near-elite status among football powers. They play the biggest of the big football schools: Ohio State, Georgia, LSU, Michigan, Tennessee … and so on. They’ve done well.

Now, though, come the Beavers. Their win today was their ninth win in 12 games, matching the Ducks’ record.

Yes, today has been a good day of college football.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, national security

Is Walker a Georgian … or not?

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Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensberger, has been in the news around the nation for the past two years.

His notoriety isn’t about to expire, given what has been revealed –allegedly — about the GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate in Georgia.

Herschel Walker keeps a “primary residence” in Tarrant County, Texas. Walker is running for the Senate from Georgia. What’s wrong with this picture? Well, it might be that Walker doesn’t live in the state he wants to represent in the Senate.

Oh … my. What does that mean for Raffensberger, the chief election official in Georgia? It means he might be forced, just a week before runoff Election Day, to disqualify Walker. Does he act now, sending a message to Georgians who are set to vote either for Walker or the Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock?

Raffensberger, newly re-elected as secretary of state, is no stranger to controversy. Donald Trump pressured Raffensberger to “find” 11,780 votes for Trump to swing the state that had voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 president election. Raffensberger declined, saying he could do no such thing under the law.

A part of me cannot escape the poetic justice that would be delivered if it is determined that Herschel Walker — a one-time University of Georgia football star — no longer calls Georgia home. That he actually is hanging his hat these days in Texas.

Why should anyone care? Because Democrats have a chance to win a 51st Senate seat, given them an actual majority in the upper legislative chamber.

It also goes to demonstrate in graphic terms the miserable quality of Herschel Walker as a candidate for the U.S. Senate.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Biden needs policy reset

I trust you’re sitting down while reading this brief blog post, so with that I’ll offer something some of you might not expect.

President Joe Biden needs to perform a serious reset on what is a serios foreign policy blunder: the immigration crisis along our southern border.

The first task at hand for the Biden administration is to use the term “crisis” in describing what is occurring along our border with Mexico.

That said, I will continue to resist Republicans’ demagogic accusation that President Biden favors “open borders.” He damn sure does nothing of the sort, given the number of immigrants our Border Patrol and state law enforcement officers are rounding up daily.

I get that using certain terminology doesn’t constitute a substantive policy change by itself. It does, though, fill the air with rhetoric that the administration understands the problem with which it is dealing.

The refusal to call it a crisis appears to be a Democratic Party thing. Recall that Texas Democratic governor candidate Beto O’Rourke refused to call the immigration issue a crisis. It cost him votes on Election Day.

Do I favor deporting every single illegal immigrant immediately back to the country from where they came? No. I do believe there absolutely needs some serious streamlining of the process that enables those seeking refuge from tyranny to seek permanent resident status.

What appears to be developing on our border is chaos feeding more chaos. That has to stop. The Biden administration also needs to call it what it is: a crisis.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, national news

Not all Rs are evil … honest!

Contrary to what some readers of this blog might presume, your blogger doesn’t hate all Republican politicians. Far from it.

The detestable Republicans out there are the subscribers to the MAGA cult doctrine espoused by believers in The Big Lie.

These are the pols among the cabal of cultists who refused to impeach or convict a president who incited the assault on our government, who sought to overturn the results of a free, fair and legal presidential election. Beyond that, there exists to this very minute Republicans who are willing to put country ahead of party.

These also are Republicans whose future concerns me as we move past the midterm election and look ahead to the 2024 election. About one-third of the Senate will be on the ballot and among those up for re-election are the likes of Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, the lone Republican who voted to convict Donald Trump in his first impeachment trial.

We witnessed already the damage that election deniers and MAGA worshipers can do to Republican officeholders. I am concerned, thus, for the future of the likes of Sen. Romney, who values his oath to the nation more than loyalty to an individual.

My congressional district in North Texas is going to be represented by a MAGA follower. I look for Republican Rep.-elect Keith Self to be front and center on the calls to look high and low for dirt on Hunter Biden, Anthony Fauci and would vote to impeach President Biden for make-believe transgressions.

We need more thoughtful pols — Democrats and Republicans — who understand that compromise is the most critical ingredient in creating good government.

I know they’re out there.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

economic news

Herschel shows chutzpah

Herschel Walker, the Republican candidate for U.S. senator from Georgia, likely doesn’t know what the word “chutzpah” means.

But he’s showing a whole lot of it.

Consider that Walker is receiving a tax break for a “primary residence” in — hold on! — Texas, where he apparently still lives.

So, you may wonder: How does this former football star pull this off? He might not. The Texas Tribune reports that he might violating Texas tax law with this dubious homestead exemption based on his “primary residence.”

The dictionary, by the way, describes “chutzpah” as a Hebrew word meaning “utter gall.”

Herschel Walker still gets tax break on $3 million Texas home | The Texas Tribune

Here’s a thought that’s been kicking around the past day or so: Herschel Walker — who is in a runoff against Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock — might be declared ineligible to run for public office in Georgia if he’s going to declare his residence to be in Texas.

I have referred to Walker as the nation’s premier dumbass. If what is being alleged is true, he is giving dumbasses everywhere a bad name.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump, national news

Trump’s place in history?

Is it too early to begin assessing Donald John Trump’s place in U.S. presidential history?

I don’t believe it is. I believe historians already are hard at work seeking to get their arms around an individual who won an election by securing enough Electoral College votes to defeat a highly qualified, eminently more sophisticated opponent in 2016.

He then began the lying campaign from the get-go, saying out loud he won by a “historic landslide,” which of course was nothing of the sort.

It got a whole lot worse from there.

In many respects, the Trump history is still being forged. Its final form will come when all the prosecutors are done examining whether he committed crimes while inciting the assault on our government, or when he took classified documents from the White House to his Florida estate, or whether he is guilty of tax fraud in the operation of his company, or whether he bullied Georgia election officials to “find” votes that would swing that state into his favor during the 2020 election.

Then again, even those myriad probes are enough to include in Trump’s legacy as a twice-impeached president of the United States.

I keep asking myself what Trump will do with his post-presidential life. Will there ever be a Trump museum and presidential library? Will he ever devote himself to any noble cause, or will he remain as fixated on his own aggrandizement as he was before he became a politician? How will this individual ever be involved with events that include his predecessors or his successors?

It might take a future generation of historians to craft an image of Donald Trump’s time at the pinnacle of political power that matches reality. The beginning chapters, though, surely can be drafted.

No matter what the cultists who adhere to what passes as doctrine in the mind of Donald Trump might say, the first draft will be anything but glorious.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, national news

Kinzinger stands tall

I wrote earlier today about the heroism U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney has exhibited in her defense of the oath she took to protect the Constitution against the assault on it led by Donald J. Trump.

Another Republican House member deserves high praise. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois has stood tall alongside Cheney in his criticism of Trump’s conduct post-2020 presidential election.

The major difference between Kinzinger and Cheney rests in the way their political careers are concluding. Whereas Cheney suffered a GOP primary defeat at the hands of a Trump/MAGA supporter, Kinzinger is leaving office on his own terms. He chose not to seek re-election this year and, thus, he declared himself to be a lame duck.

His lame-duck status has elevated him to a spot on the 1/6 House select committee examining the event — the attack on the Capitol by the mob of traitors that led to Donald Trump’s second impeachment.

Kinzinger has stood strong and firm against attacks leveled at him by the MAGA cultists who insist The Big Lie is true, that the 2020 election was “stolen” from Trump.

There surely will be a day when the Republican Party will shed its Donald Trump-crafted identity. That it will return to a party of principle and policy. I hope when that day arrives that Adam Kinzinger will be a part of that revival.

This earnest young man who served his country in uniform has earned the nation’s gratitude for standing firmly in support of the Constitution he pledged to protect.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Liz Cheney: GOP hero

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Now that I am in the mood to hand out kudos to public officials who are leaving the stage, I want to say a word or two in praise of a congresswoman I never imagined praising for her work on my behalf.

Stand tall, Liz Cheney.

Cheney is a Republican from Wyoming who this summer got drummed out of office in the GOP primary by a candidate who was promoted by the former POTUS. Why? Because Cheney chose to stand for the Constitution, chose to honor her oath to protect and defend the Constitution and because both of those matters went counter to the wishes of the POTUS who refused to do either.

She became a target of the MAGA cultists who profess fealty to Donald Trump.

Cheney hasn’t wavered in her commitment to the Constitution. She continues to serve on the House select committee formed to examine the 1/6 insurrection/attack on the Capitol. She blames Trump for inciting the attack. She has vowed to do all she can to prevent Trump from ever entering the Oval Office again. She is one of two Republicans — the other being Adam Kinzinger of Illinois — to serve on this committee; I will have more to say about Kinzinger later.

Liz Cheney makes no apologies for her staunch conservative views. She voted with Trump more than 90% of the time during Trump’s term in office. I truly understand her philosophy. She remains adamantly pro-gun, pro-life, anti-tax, and pro-small government. She is a conservative’s conservative.

Cheney also is equally adamant that she must follow her oath. She has done so gloriously in rising up against the ex-president who incited the assault on our government in an effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

I salute this public official. I wish her all the very best.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com