Monthly Archives: August 2023

national news

Another first-time event …

It’s always been clear to me that if you live long enough you are likely to see damn near everything and anything.

When I entered this world more than 73 years ago, I never imagined I would see: a presidential assassination, the eruption of a volcano, the resignation of a president. But … I have witnessed all of that.

Now comes a former U.S. president indicted by the federal government — the same government he vowed to “defend and protect” — who stands charged with committing crimes while still serving as president.

I am merely left to shake my head in disbelief.

The ex-POTUS is going to stand trial eventually on four indictment counts. I want to join those who hope the federal trial will be televised so that Americans can see with their own eyes what is transpiring in the courtroom. I don’t want conspiracy crackpots to allege the ex-POTUS is being railroaded.

Indeed, a televised federal trial would be yet another event I thought I’d never see. Here’s hoping for some courage by those empowered to make that call.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com 

legal news

Smith ‘fan club’ forms

First things first: I must stipulate that I am not a member of any Jack Smith Fan Club, nor do I intend to join one or form one in my North Texas neighborhood.

That all said, I now shall declare that Jack Smith’s standing among those of us looking for accountability and justice in the conduct of a former POTUS has shot into the stratosphere.

The meme that showed up on my social media feed suggests that there might have been a chance that special counsel Jack Smith might “fear” Donald Trump. Not … a … chance!

The good news about Smith, though, is that he isn’t going to seek affirmation for doing his job. Attorney General Merrick Garland selected Smith to lead this investigation because the AG didn’t want to become entangled in a case involving the current POTUS, Joe Biden, and the man he defeated in the 2020 election.

Smith has done his duty with zero leaks, with little fanfare and with a maximum degree of professionalism. Yet those aspects of the job he has done has elevated the special counsel to hero status. Go figure.

The former president has managed to get Republicans in Congress to knuckle under to his threats. Not so with Jack Smith, who in reality has no more cause to stand firm against Trump than the sycophants who kowtow to Trump within the GOP House caucus.

Yes, I get that House GOP members face the prospect of losing their seats in primary elections. But they take oaths to defend the Constitution, not to march in lockstep behind a cult leader.

Jack Smith took a similar oath when he took on the role of special counsel. His loyalty to his oath, therefore, has given him an exalted status only because he is doing the job he signed on to do.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Sports news

Up close with The Greatest

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Anyone who knows me well — family members and my closest friends — understands that Muhammad Ali is my all-time favorite professional athlete.

Well, gang, today I walked into the Muhammad Ali Museum and Center to pay my respects to The Greatest.

It is, to say the very least, a stunning display on Main Street in downtown Louisville that honors the three-time heavyweight boxing champion. Moreover, it speaks in great detail to the social consciousness he exhibited by refusing induction into the Army in 1967 and for the sacrifice he endured when the pro boxing authorities deprived him of his ability — at the peak of his physical prowess — to make a living by beating up other men.

The Champ was The Greatest. I need no convincing of that. The chatter we hear from time to time about whether Ali would defeat, say, Mike Tyson or Lennox Lewis — two of The Champ’s boxing descendants — is just mindless chatter.

In my humble view, and I am no expert, a prime-time Muhammad Ali would make mincemeat of those two fine athletes. But that’s just me.

The exhibit does explain that Ali was a flawed man. He was a womanizer who treated his wives terribly. It speaks as well to the rhetoric he spouted by declaring that all white people were “devils.” I long have found that “devil” nonsense to be just that. The Champ’s boxing team comprised the likes of Angelo Dundee, Ferdie Pacheco and other white dudes who guided him to the pinnacle of his sport.

As for the Parkinson’s disease that turned this monumental chatter box into a silent statue of a man, one exhibit speaks to whether the brutal sport that Ali practiced contributed to his illness. It says “no!” A physician who examined Ali says the disease would have taken The Champ down without the punishment he endured while fighting. Yes, I know that’s a debatable point. I just won’t engage in that discussion.

The museum is a marvelous tribute to this city’s most notable son, a man who went on to become what many have argued “the most famous person on this Earth.” 

I am so glad I took time to visit this fantastic exhibit to The Greatest of All Time.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Smith: strategic thinker

Jack Smith is about as strategic a thinker as I can imagine, given the nature of the indictment handed down this week by the federal grand jury involving Donald Trump’s role in the 1/6 assault on our nation’s government.

Consider this: The grand jury indicted Trump on four counts of conspiracy to defraud the government, to obstruct justice, to overturn the results of an election and to deny the people’s right to have their votes counted. A conspiracy necessarily means others are involved, but no one else is indicted.

Instead, they are “unindicted co-conspirators.” Most of the names have been made public and they include some big hitters.

Yet, Trump stands as the sole indicted criminal defendant. Smith’s goal? It is to grant Trump a “speedy trial,” which an individual who proclaims his innocence as vehemently as Trump does should welcome … correct? But he’s not welcoming it.

Trump’s foot-dragging tells me he has plenty to hide from the special counsel, who in turn has compiled several mountains of evidence that I believe well could produce a conviction.

My hope is that the results of this pending trial come far sooner than later to enable voters to decide whether this country is on the way toward the abyss or is set to climb to new heights of greatness.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, legal news

Strike three … Trump!

Now we know what we have suspected all along, which is that special counsel Jack Smith has indicted Donald Trump on four counts of conspiracy to mount a coup to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

To think that Trump has bellowed since losing to President Biden that the election was “rigged,” that it is illegitimate.

Smith made monumental political history today. Is this reason to cheer? To high-five each other? To applaud the legal team that has assembled these incredibly detailed charges against a former president?

No. It is a time for serious reflection and for hoping the criminal justice system works its will.

I am not cheering tonight. I am trying to digest what has come forth.

Smith’s indictment reportedly is detailed. It is meticulous. It is historic in a way that many of us are having difficulty measuring. Trump is the first former POTUS ever indicted by the Justice Department. The indictment handed down today by a grand jury alleges that the former POTUS sought to overturn a free and fair election.

What in the name of democracy is up with that?

Jack Smith made it clear once again today that Trump is entitled to the presumption of innocence, but said he intends to press for a “speedy trial.”

Trump continues to tell us he did nothing wrong on Jan. 6, 2021. If so, then let this individual mount his defense and seek to persuade a jury that he should be acquitted. Does an innocent man seek to delay the proceeding? No, yet Trump is almost certain to obstruct the progress of this prosecution.

What now? The nation is about to enter a historic chapter in its long and glorious story. Donald Trump stands indicted on allegations that he sought to overturn an election he lost. It was a fair and legal determination by American voters … and one of the counts of the latest indictment alleges that Trump sought to deny voters that sacred right.

This is no time to cheer and slap the backs of our friends and political allies. It is a time to take seriously what a duly constituted grand jury has determined, that a one-time president of the United States committed a criminal act against the very government he took an oath to “defend and protect.”

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Cynicism is worrisome

So many of my friends have fallen into a world of acute cynicism, given the state of affairs in our great land.

They wonder if we ever can get back what we seemingly have lost in this Age of Donald J. Trump, which is a shared purpose, a sense of commonality and whether we ever again will be able to reach deep within ourselves to find it.

Some friends have said it’s gone forever. That the Trump cult — the MAGA morons as I have been calling them — has destroyed our national will.

I do not believe that’s the case. I do believe we have it within ourselves to pull our collective heads out of that dark place and find our way into sunlight. How do we do it? I haven’t a single, solitary clue!

I am left to rely on my belief in the Constitution as the sturdiest governing document ever crafted. It isn’t perfect. More work lies ahead, with amendments to be crafted, approved and ratified.

We have been through many crises over the 200-plus years of our national existence. They’ve included warfare, multiple presidential scandals, economic calamity, disease, dark impulses within the souls of many Americans. This thing we’re enduring now is unique in one regard, though: It seems to rest on the political fortunes of one individual.

I will not accept any notion that suggests that a doddering old man who once held the nation’s highest office is strong enough to take this country down.

Cynicism be damned!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com