Tag Archives: 2020 election

local news

Feeling unprecedented anger

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What in this weird world is it about Donald J. Trump that makes me respond with such visceral anger at anything that expresses support for this guy?

And what is it that makes me do things I wouldn’t have dreamed of doing in response to other politicians with whom I have disagreements?

Case in point …

I ventured into a convenience store the other evening in Princeton, Texas, where I live. I went there looking for a bag of chips to satisfy my munchy craze. I picked up the chips, turned to pay and then I noticed a rack full of Trump propaganda. There were Confederate symbols, bumper stickers that said, “Let’s go, Brandon,” one that said, “Fighting terrorists since 1861,” one that pitched a “Trump 2024” campaign. There were an assortment of other materials pronouncing support for this clown.

I put the chips back on the shelf and walked out. I have since vowed I never will darken that convenience store ever again.

So help me, I have not yet come to grips with the intense anger I feel toward this guy. My goodness, he came within a whisker of destroying the presidency, he lost an election and then sought to overturn the results of that free, fair and legal balloting. Why? Because he cannot stand the notion of losing an election to a better man.

He is vengeful. Trump is as crooked as a dog’s hind leg. He is an amoral narcissist with delusions of godhood.

Wow! OK, I feel better now that I got that off my chest.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Biden lays out curious dilemma

President Biden today laid out a most fascinating aspect of The Big Lie as he marked the first year since the former Liar in Chief incited the riot that sought to overturn our democratic process.

The Big Lie as told and retold by the 45th POTUS is that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him. Why, then, did Republicans do so well down the rest of the ballot in many states? Biden asked, wondering why GOP candidates running for governor and Congress weren’t bitching about “rigged” returns.

He answered his question. It was because the only candidate for public office to question the integrity of the election system was the GOP candidate for POTUS. He lost the election. He won’t accept the result. So, he decided to cast aspersions on the election officials who conducted the most secure election in U.S. history.

Indeed, if there were serious flaws in the integrity of the election, there surely would have been questions asked about all the down-ballot races that were decided by razor-thin margins.

Just to be clear: the contest for president of the United States in 2020 did not fit the category of “narrow victory.”

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot, national news

Ready for grim remembrance

(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Let’s be clear: Tomorrow will be a day of grim memories; there will be no cause for celebrating an “anniversary” of an event that still roils our political system.

It was a year ago that an angry mob stormed Capitol Hill. You know what happened next, so I won’t belabor the point with this blog post.

What we are learning in the year since has been Donald Trump’s response to it. How he did nothing for 187 minutes after the insurrectionists first breached the Capitol grounds. We also have heard about the multiple takes it took for him to complete a video in which he said he “loved” those “special people” who wanted to “Hang Mike Pence!”

What’s more, we have heard how his oldest children, Ivanka and Don Jr., implored Daddy POTUS to stop the rioters, to call them off, to end the violence. Daddy Donald did nothing. He is, therefore, complicit in the damage brought to the Capitol and to the lives that were harmed — and lost! — in the melee.

This gives us reason to cheer? Hardly! The men and women who stormed the Capitol were not patriots by any measure or any way you can define the term. They were intent on destroying our democratic process. They were traitors to the nation.

So, too, was the lunatic who incited the riot.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

When will lying stop?

Someone once said — and I am going to paraphrase it — that a lie can lap the field before the truth jumps out of the starting blocks.

So it is with the myriad lies that continue to flood our minds, our airwaves, our newspaper columns. The lies deal with mostly with The Big Lie, the one that suggests that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from Donald Trump. It wasn’t, of course.

When will the lying run its course? When will enough of us will say, “Enough is enough; enough, already!”?

Will that moment arrive sometime in this new year that is about to dawn on us? Someone needs to tell me, “Yes. It will happen.”

Too many Americans continue to kneel in front of the cult leader who once occupied the U.S. presidency. He is perpetuating The Big Lie. He has yet to say out loud that Joe Biden defeated him in the freest, fairest, most legal, most secure presidential election in U.S. history. He talks about the election being “rigged” in 2020 and yet he seeks to rig it in real terms by persuading state election officials to pursuing legal avenues to overturn the results of the most recent presidential election.

Do you see the irony in this “rigged election” scenario?

I am acutely aware of the naivete in wishing the lying will stop. I know that politicians of all stripes aren’t always truthful. They say they are, but we all know better. The lying that comes from the Trump cultists takes that truism an illogical step further.

Accuse me of being naive if you wish. I will declare right here that I want the lying to stop and I will express the hope that my wish will come true.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot

1/6: no ‘anniversary’

I want to offer a word of advice to media types who are going to commemorate the year that has passed since the 1/6 insurrection.

Do not call the year an “anniversary.” Please.

Why? Because my understanding of the word usually implies a happy event. An event that makes one smile. An anniversary is something to remember with fondness.

I recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of my marriage to my wife. We had a joyous celebration that day with family members who came to share it with us.

I cannot use that word to describe the events of 1/6. I do not have a word to replace the term “anniversary.” I’ll look to come up with one.

Just don’t look for that word to appear in this blog whenever I choose to discuss the events of that hideous day in our nation’s history.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Pence starts GOP chatter

Former Vice President Mike Pence has the Republican Party faithful chattering about whether he plans to run for president in 2024.

Oh, my. Let ’em talk among themselves.

Pence visited New Hampshire recently to shake a few hands and talk to the locals about, oh, possibly a Pence candidacy for POTUS. He says he is focused only on helping GOP candidates running for Congress in 2022. Sure thing, Mr. VPOTUS. I believe that … not!

As The Hill notes, though, a Pence presidential candidacy is going to pi** off the GOP cultists who are angry over the way he conducted himself on 1/6. What did he do to anger the Donald Trump cult cabal? Oh, all he did was follow the law, the Constitution and the oath he took to obey both by refusing to block the certification of the 2020 election result that gave us President Biden and got rid of Donald Trump.

Pence fuels speculation of 2024 presidential bid | TheHill

Thousands of rioters stormed the Capitol on 1/6, some of them yelling “Hang Mike Pence!” I guess the thought is that many of still want the former VP to hang from the gallows.

Absolutely disgusting.

A Pence candidacy surely will lend plenty of drama to a GOP primary campaign that might also include the 45th POTUS.

Sheesh!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Did POTUS take a beating?

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Let’s flash back for a moment about 30 years to the presidency of George H.W. Bush.

Going back that far, every new president suffered political setbacks in Virginia and New Jersey, meaning that the governors races in those states went to the winner from the opposing party.

Bush 41, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump all suffered those embarrassments.

Joe Biden on Tuesday only suffered half of it. Virginia went from Democrat to Republican. New Jersey’s Democratic governor, Phil Murphy, managed to win re-election.

Now, does this lessen the impact of this bellwether election? Is President Biden’s agenda now in the clear? Hardly.

It’s just that the president somehow managed to avoid the embarrassment that befell his five predecessors who saw the governorships in those key states flip from their own party to the party on the other side.

It’s complicated. Yes?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

If only he would call off the cultists

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This won’t happen, not ever, but I feel the compelling need to get something off my chest.

One man can stop the intimidation, bullying and threats against local election workers, if only he possessed a shred of decency.

Donald John Trump is wholly responsible for fomenting the anger that continues to fester against those who do their jobs the best they can, only to be undermined by the former POTUS who continues to insist that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him via “widespread voter fraud.”

It wasn’t. President Biden won fairly, legally and ethically.

Yet the former POTUS continues to inflame passions with The Big Lie. He is posing a dire threat to those who acknowledge publicly that the cultists who follow the former POTUS are threatening them. Worse, they are threatening election officials’ families, including their children.

One such official from Pennsylvania told a congressional hearing today about the continual threats he gets from supporters of the man who lost the 2020 election. Supporters of the ex-POTUS have called this fellow a “traitor” because he refused to reverse the results of the election. Traitor! Think about that for a moment … maybe two.

This is the new normal? Is this where we have sunk? Is this the kind of nation we have become, that individuals who do their jobs in accordance with the law cannot go through the day without facing verbal and actual threats by those who disagree with the outcome of a free and fair election?

One guy holds the key to bringing all of this to an end. He could call a press conference and demand without equivocation that his supporters must stop … as in right now.

He won’t do that. Because he lacks the moral character to do the right thing.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Patrick’s ‘bounty’ payoff affirms refusal to give money

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Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has affirmed for me why I generally do not give money to political candidates.

Campaign finance law allows them to spend it foolishly, as Patrick has just done by shelling out $25,000 to a Pennsylvania poll watcher who caught a single individual voting illegally in that state in 2020.

Patrick had promised to pay as much as $1 million to anyone who could prove “widespread voter fraud” in the 2020 election. He has sent just one check, though, totaling 25K to the poll watcher.

You see, there isn’t any “widespread vote fraud” to be found. Not in Texas. Not in Pennsylvania. Nowhere, man!

Which brings me back to my point. The money came from Patrick’s campaign stash. If I had given money to Patrick’s campaign, I would be damn angry that he is spending a dime of his campaign money for this kind of foolishness. It comes from the pockets of those who believe in a candidate.

It boggles my noggin to think that anyone who gave to this blowhard’s campaign would actually endorse his writing a check for a single case of someone voting illegally … in another state!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Yes, but he still lost!

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Those who adhere to the cult beliefs of the 45th president of the United States keep telling us that the will and wishes of “74 million American voters” should not be ignored.

OK. I get that. More than 74 million voters cast their ballots for the guy who finished second in the race for the presidency in 2020. That is the second-greatest vote total ever recorded; the greatest vote total was rolled up by President Biden, who pulled in more than 81 ballots.

And, yes, they were legitimately cast ballots.

So, to the sore losers who cannot accept that their guy finished second in a two-man for the presidency in 2020 I say only: Get the fu** over it!

They won’t. Not as long as their cult hero continues to foment The Big Lie about vote fraud and insist that even with all the “forensic audits” he is demanding that he still won the 2020 election.

There have been many photo finishes over many decades of presidential elections. Richard Nixon lost to John F. Kennedy by 100,000 votes in 1960; he accepted the result and moved on. Al Gore lost to George W. Bush in 2000; that election wasn’t settled until the Supreme Court stopped a recount in Florida with Bush leading by 537 ballots; Bush was awarded the state’s electoral votes and he took the oath … after Gore conceded defeat and pledged his support of the new president.

The yammering that continues to this day about POTUS 45 collecting 74 million votes ignores the obvious, which is that his opponent received 7 million more votes and won the election!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com