Tag Archives: insurrection

national news

Waiting for hell to freeze

Hell will have to fall into the deepest freeze imaginable for me to accept the poll findings that suggest that Donald Trump could actually defeat President Joe Biden in a head-to-head matchup in 2024 for the White House.

For the ever-lovin’ life of me I cannot fathom where or how or who is supporting the twice-impeached former POTUS as he pretends to seek the presidency for the third time.

He slithered into the White House in 2017 after narrowly defeating Hillary Clinton while losing the popular vote by 3 million ballots. Then he got thumped by Joe Biden in 2020, garnering 7 million fewer votes than the eventual president.

Between those two elections he got impeached twice by the House for violating his oath of office. He managed to piss off damn near every ally this nation has in the world. He vilified Americans who opposed his election. He went through four White House chiefs of staff, an untold number of Cabinet officials and behaved for all the world like a moron who didn’t know what the hell he was doing with all that executive power at his disposal.

Now he is on the verge of being indicted possibly by three prosecutors, two at the state level and then the U.S. attorney general.

Oh, did I mention the insurrection he incited on 1/6? There. I just did.

And yet he remains — reportedly — the favorite for the GOP presidential nomination next year. God help us all!

Trump said he’s going the distance regardless of any indictments that end up in his lap. Fine. I am just waiting for the hammer to drop on his severely coiffed noggin.

Someone among the officials examining the crimes I believe he committed is going to make history by indicting a former POTUS for the first time in our nation’s history. Look also for the others to follow suit when the first indictment falls out of the sky.

Meanwhile, someone will have to explain to me how this clown can pretend to be a serious contender for an office he damn near destroyed during the single term he occupied it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Pence sees light … finally!

Let’s call it a “well, duhhh” moment, shall we?

Former Vice President Mike Pence spoke this weekend to a group of supporters and leveled some very harsh criticism directly at the man he served for a single term.

He said Donald Trump endangered the VP and his family by failing to act to end the violent insurrection that erupted on 1/6.

Hmm. Wow! I don’t quite know how to respond to that other than to state the obvious, such as, “Well, it’s about damn time, Mr. Vice President!”

Pence has been tippy-toeing around criticism Trump ever since the two men left office after Joe Biden and Kamala Harris defeated them in the 2020 election. He’s been reluctant to say out loud what the rest of the country has known all along, which is that Trump refused to call off the traitorous mob that threatened to “Hang Mike Pence!” while smashing windows, beating cops mercilessly and sh***ing on the floor of the Capitol Building on 1/6.

I don’t know what the former VPOTUS’s newfound anger signifies, other than a potential run for the presidency in 2024 … opposing the man who selected him to be VP in 2016.

If that’s the case, fine. Go for it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

So many topsy-turvy examples

There exist almost too many examples of how modern politics has been turned on its ear that I dare not try to list them all.

Instead, I’ll focus on just one astonishing example. It deal with how Republicans in Congress, members of a political party that once revered law enforcement, have turned their backs on the men and women in blue.

For example, many of the MAGA cult among the GOP stand with the traitors who stormed the Capitol Building on 1/6 while seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. When given a chance to support the officers who defended them on that day, they turned their backs on them, declining to support recognition for their heroism.

What the hell?

Republicans used to campaign on “law and order.” They formerly held law enforcement in the highest esteem imaginable. They rarely opposed anything to do with helping the cops do their jobs.

These days they accuse the FBI of “targeting” the mobsters who stormed the Capitol. A delegation of MAGA members of the House now want to conduct hearings into whether the jailed traitors are being “mistreated.” They are pushing for reforms in the corrections system.

Why the change of heart? It must be that the traitors were seeking to install a defeated president into an office he lost legitimately through a free and fair — and legal — election.

What’s at least as troubling is that there is no debating this topsy-turviness with them. They stand behind their perverted notion that law enforcement suddenly has gotten corrupt. They adhere to the trash being spewed about the 1/6 assault being a “mostly peaceful” endeavor. It was nothing of the damn sort!

It was a full-out attack on our system of government and for any so-called responsible politician to call it otherwise is a disgraceful example of political perversion that must be stopped.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Race to make history?

One of three people appears set to make history by being the first individual ever to indict a former president of the United States.

Who will get there first?

Will it be U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, Fulton County, Ga., District Attorney Fani Willis or Manhattan, N.Y., District Attorney Alvin Bragg?

I won’t lay down a wager. One of ’em appears set to pull the proverbial trigger on Donald J. Trump. That would be DA Bragg, who appears ready to issue an indictment alleging that a $130,000 hush money payment to a porn star from Trump wasn’t properly reported by the Trump Organization.

Whoever goes first well might give the other two political cover to act as they should and indict the former POTUS for, oh, let’s see: inciting the 1/6 insurrection, squirreling classified documents from the White House illegally at his glitzy joint in south Florida, seeking to overturn 2020 presidential election results by demanding that Georgia officials “find” enough votes to turn the state’s electoral college tally to Trump’s favor.

All of those allegations appear solid to me. However, it’s no one’s call except for the prosecutors who are examining this stuff.

The ex-POTUS is heading for some very bad news.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Keeping up with violence

That insurrection thing keeps growing wings and legs and it is beginning to take off in directions that few of us saw coming.

U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy gave the Fox Propaganda Channel about 40,000 hours of video showing the 1/6 assault develop in real time. Then the network’s chief propagandist, Tucker Carlson, shows carefully edited versions of the video and proclaims the assault on our government that day was no biggie.

Fox ought to fire Carlson for lying to his viewers. McCarthy ought to be impeached for giving Fox grist to further the lie about the assault. The attorney general and local prosecutors ought to indict a former POTUS for inciting the assault, for seeking to overturn the 2020 presidential election result and for obstructing justice in the wake of the pilfering of classified documents from the White House.

I concede that the first two things won’t happen. The third one likely will occur.

The crowd that stormed the Capitol on 1/6 intended to do serious harm to our system of government. Some of them wanted to kill the vice president, Mike Pence. Others of them sh** on the floor of the Capitol. Many others beat cops nearly to death.

Yet Carlson called it a peaceful protest? That they were “sightseers”? And McCarthy said he didn’t see Carlson’s broadcast the other evening?

I can’t stand this.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Pence to skip CPAC?

How interesting, eh? Former Vice President Mike Pence, who well might run for president in 2024, is going to skip the annual Conservative Action Political Conference that is set to begin this week.

Why? Oh, wait! It’s because many of the CPAC ranks of right-wing political radicals actually wanted to hang him when the 1/6 insurrection erupted on Capitol Hill.

They carried signs and shouted out their desire to kill the VP because he wouldn’t do what they demanded, which was to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and hand the result to Donald Trump … who encouraged them to do what they did on that terrible day.

Instead, Pence decided to follow the U.S. Constitution and simply preside over the counting of the Electoral College results that determined that Joe Biden won the election — and that Donald Trump lost it!

CPAC is thought to be a sounding board for conservative GOP presidential candidates. Not all of ’em, not this year!

Pence is staying away.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Mike Pence: making history

Mike Pence is one of 49 individuals who have held the office of vice president of the United States of America.

He has made history. Yes, this history-making vice president stands alone as the only person ever subpoenaed by a grand jury. He has been summoned to appear before the panel to testify about alleged criminal activity committed by the individual he served for four years.

Yes, that would be Donald John Trump.

Trump is being investigated for (a) inciting a mob to attack the government, (b) for spiriting classified documents out of the White House and (c) for conspiring to overturn the election results in Georgia by demanding that the state’s top election official “find” enough votes to steal a win for Trump.

The grand jury wants Pence to tell it what he knows about the first thing, the insurrection. He says he will fight the subpoena. He will cite some goofy “client” privilege, in that he spoke to Trump while both men were still in office.

Bulls***! That’s all I have for that notion.

As for Pence’s making history, he should stand alone as the only VPOTUS to serve a certifiable crook in the White House.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Pence plays VP dodge ball

What would happen if you or I received a subpoena from the attorney general of the United States? Would any of us be able to hide behind some nebulous “executive privilege” clause that protects us from answering questions under oath from duly constituted investigators?

Oh … I kinda doubt it.

However, former Vice President Mike Pence has been summoned by the Justice Department to tell the legal eagles what happened during the 1/6 insurrection. Pence said he won’t comply. He will bob and weave his way out of testifying, contending that what he and Donald Trump — the insurrectionist in chief — said to each other is privileged conversation.

It appears to be a monumental legal stretch for Pence to make that argument stick.

Pence reportedly wants to run for president. The fellow he served as VP, Trump, already is running for the office in 2024. Pence and Trump already are estranged … reportedly! I mean, Trump said the traitorous mob should have lynched him; he said Pence lacked the guts to overturn the 2020 election results; he accused Pence of being a wimp.

All the VP did on 1/6 was, shall we say, follow the law and the U.S. Constitution while presiding over a joint congressional session gathered to count the Electoral College votes and certify Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election.

For my money, Pence is playing a fool’s hand if he expects to get out of testifying. I don’t want to think of Pence as being a fool.

But then again, he agreed to serve with Donald Trump.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

Still waiting on AG

Merrick Garland has impressed me ever since I first heard of him as a man of high principle and of well … patience.

He once was selected to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, but saw his nomination derailed in 2016 by Senate Republicans who decided to play politics with President Obama’s constitutional authority to nominate justices to the highest court in the land.

Garland went back to the DC Circuit Court bench until he got tapped to become attorney general in Joe Biden’s presidential administration.

He now is overseeing — even from some distance — investigations into the goings-on of Donald J. Trump. He has handed off a key probe to a special counsel, Jack Smith, who appears to be closing the circle around Trump. Smith has subpoenaed former Vice President Mike Pence to testify under oath to a grand jury looking into Trump’s incitement of the 1/6 insurrection.

My sincere hope is that Pence complies, takes the oath and tells the truth. Will he do the right thing? He’s a man of deep faith, so I believe the Bible instructs him to follow the law.

Meanwhile, AG Garland is biding his time in collecting information that will help him determine whether to indict Trump for (alleged) crimes he committed while he was getting ready to depart the White House.

I once hoped for a quick end to this probe. I have changed my mind, which I am entitled to do. I believe it is critical for the AG to get it right. A mistake in evidence-gathering would spell disaster for the rule of law and for holding Trump accountable for the crimes I believe he committed.

Merrick Garland just doesn’t strike me as a gun-toting buckaroo. I will have faith that he will deliver the correct decision at the correct time and in the correct context.

The AG is just too damn smart to blow this gig.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

Will the ex-VP do the right thing?

Former Vice President Mike Pence often is held up as a paragon of moral rectitude, of unflinching loyalty to doing the right thing.

Well, we are going to learn — probably quite soon — whether the real man is true to his reputation.

A special counsel appointed to examine Donald Trump’s involvement in the 1/6 insurrection has subpoenaed Pence to testify before a grand jury. Pence was “in the room” when Trump exploded at him for his refusal to do Trump’s bidding on 1/6, which was to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Pence said he couldn’t do it, that the law wouldn’t allow it; nor would the U.S. Constitution. He was only able to preside over a joint congressional session that had gathered that day to certify the Electoral College result that elected Joe Biden president of the United States. That wasn’t good enough for Trump and he berated the vice president to break the law and violate his constitutional oath.

Special counsel Jack Smith wants Pence to tell him under oath what we all know happened that fateful and hideous day.

Will the ex-VP declare some bogus form of executive privilege — which he is not entitled to do — or will he answer the summons to talk to the investigators and tell them the whole truth?

From my seat in the North Texas peanut gallery, it looks for all the world as if Jack Smith is getting ready to do something really significant in this probe. He just needs one of the key players in this drama to come clean on what he knew and when he knew it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com