Tag Archives: Big Lie

national news

Big Lie believers: lost cause

By John Kanelis / [email protected]

As far as I know no one in my circle of friends or my immediate family members is a believer in the Big Lie fomented by the disgraced former POTUS and his legion of fruitcakes.

Accordingly, that saves me from having to do what I believe is an impossible task: persuading them that the Big Lie about “rampant voter fraud” in the 2020 presidential election denigrates our cherished democratic process.

President Biden won that election. He won a free, fair and legal process. It was certified by the Electoral College. There is no evidence to suggest anything approaching vote fraud on a scale suggested by the former Liar in Chief.

However, it became abundantly clear to me months ago that there is no persuading the cultists who follow that nitwit of the folly of their desire to overturn what has been called “the most secure election in U.S. history.”

And it is folly to the nth degree. 

The cultists have swilled so much of the Kool-Aid offered by their disgraced leader that there is no turning back. Just as the former Imbecile in Chief has demonstrated, the cultists are incapable — or unwilling — to acknowledge they are wrong.

They call themselves “patriots.” They are traitors to the Constitution. To the government they purport to love. To our country and its grand tradition of electoral security.

I just am happy that no one in my circle of friends and acquaintances has taken any form of ownership of the Big Lie. Were they to do so and were I to find out about it, well … our relationship would end on the spot! Guaranteed!

national news

Ex-POTUS = anti-democracy

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By John Kanelis / [email protected]

Spoiler alert: I am about to break my vow to ban the name of the 45th president of the United States from this blog; I will mention his name once … that’s it.

Donald J. Trump’s name is going to become synonymous with nefarious and evil efforts to undermine our democratic process.

You see, the 45th president has decided to make the integrity of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost, the primary issue in the 2022 midterm election. He is going to continue fomenting The Big Lie that the election was fraught with widespread vote fraud.

The one-time Liar in Chief wants to be reinstated as POTUS. It won’t happen in a zillion years. President Joe Biden won the election fairly, squarely and legally. Despite the shenanigans being played out in places such as Arizona — where they’re conducting that fake “audit” of returns — President Biden will hold onto the office at least through January 2025.

None of that will stop the ex-Imbecile in Chief from seeking to overturn an election he lost bigly. Biden captured 7 million more votes than his predecessor; Biden’s electoral vote margin mirrored that of his predecessor in 2016.

The disgraceful and treasonous conduct of Biden’s immediate predecessor will inscribe him forever as the individual who could not accept defeat. He could not bring himself to congratulate the winner for defeating him. The ex-POTUS cannot acknowledge that he now owns an epithet he likes to hang on others: loser.

He will seek to harvest the mistrust he has helped sow into the numb noggins of those who follow him. He will use The Big Lie as grist to elect more dipsh**s just like him.

The major casualty in all of this trash-talk is the democratic process itself. The ex-POTUS won’t prevail in his effort to overturn the most secure election in U.S. history. However, I fear for the well-being of the democratic process that is being assaulted day and night incessantly by the one-time Carnival Barker in Chief.

This moron’s name will — and most certainly should — live in infamy.

DC riot

No way was it a ‘routine day of touring’

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By John Kanelis / [email protected]

Congressional Republicans have their Big Lie — alleging vote fraud in the 2020 election. Now they might have spawned a smaller, but still significant, lie about the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Now that the U.S. House of Representatives has voted to create a select committee to examine the cause and consequence of the riot against the government, it is good to examine the other “big lie” making the rounds on Capitol Hill.

It’s the one that suggests that the riot was nothing more than a group of “peaceful tourists” taking part in a tour of the Capitol Building. Indeed, some members of the GOP congressional caucus have uttered such trash.

It begs the question: When has a “routine tour” left feces on the walls of the Capitol Building, or smashed through windows, or assaulted police officers with weapons and pepper spray, or left two officers dead and many other participants injured?

Never in my entire life have I witnessed such an egregious attempt at lying, deceit and boorish conduct as we have seen among congressional Republicans who have resisted calls for a thorough examination of the insurrection we saw play out on Jan. 6.

They won’t call it what it was: an insurrection against the government. They won’t acknowledge the role that the 45th POTUS had in inciting the mob of terrorists.

This lie won’t ever rise to the level of The Big Lie, given that the riot occurred because the disgraced ex-POTUS made the phony allegation that day and ignited the mob to do what it did.

However, this lesser — but still significant — lie about the riot being nothing out of the ordinary is bad enough. It likely will scar the current cult that masquerades as a political party perhaps for the rest of its existence.

political news

Here he goes, calling for ‘reparations’

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By John Kanelis / [email protected]

No one with half a brain in their skull ever thought Donald Trump would go away quietly into the night once he left the White House.

With that the ex-POTUS has criticized President Biden’s myriad policy decisions and then in a fascinating twist has called for China to pay “reparations” totaling $10 trillion because, according to Trump, the COVID pandemic began with a leak in a Chinese laboratory.

There you have it. The ex-president drawing conclusions and assigning blame well well before the world has a clue as to source of the killer pandemic.

Trump vows to be a player in Republican politics and said the “movement” he founded has only begun. Reassuring, yes? No … it isn’t.

He blasted Biden’s border policies, his economic policies, his defense strategy.

According to the Wall Street Journal: The Democratic National Committee, in a statement, chided Republicans for sticking with Mr. Trump and said Mr. Biden is overseeing an economic recovery and “a return to normalcy.”

Trump Criticizes Biden Policies, Calls for Covid-19 Reparations From China (msn.com)

So the president will proceed. Trump will proceed, too, along his weird path toward what he believes will be a return to power. Trump will keep yammering. He will get the Trump Cult fanatics heated up.

Oh, and let’s not forget how Donald Trump will keep reciting the Big Lie about vote fraud and electoral theft.

Joe Biden

‘Normal’ looks so special

By John Kanelis / [email protected]

A brief conversation with a member of my family brought to mind something I have thought since the Donald Trump Era came to a halt and we welcomed in a new era of “presidential normality.”

My family member couldn’t speak angrily enough about the way Trump conducted himself in office. I responded that my own view is that a “non-traditional presidency” wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing if the president exhibited any form of competence. That is one of the many shortcomings that Trump brought to the office; he didn’t know anything about government and his actions reflected a knee-jerk, chaos-driven philosophy. The man is incompetent. Not to mention crooked, amoral/immoral and narcissistic. Oops, I just did.

Which brings me to this point.

President Biden’s normal approach to governing now looks special in its own right. It’s not that Joe Biden has scored dozens of key legislative victories. He has just one so far: the COVID 19 relief package that passed with zero Republican help. He well could roll up some more wins with only aid from fellow Democrats. That’s fine.

The Trump method just didn’t work. The Biden method — which features attempts at compromise and jaw-boning with the loyal opposition — holds considerable promise … if only the GOP members of Congress would cut the POTUS just a bit of slack. The problem, though, is that the GOP caucus is being dominated by the Loony Bin Wing, the Trump adherents who keep fomenting the Big Lie about 2020 presidential election vote fraud that did not exist.

I am going to stick with the guy who ran for office vowing to “restore our nation’s soul.” He’s got a ways to go before he can declare full restoration. The normal approach to governing, though, looks pretty good to me.

national news

I hate conspiracies

By John Kanelis / [email protected]

I hate conspiracies, conspiracy theorists and I truly laugh out loud at times at those who keep conspiracies alive and kicking.

The latest conspiracy du jour is what has been called the Big Lie. It’s the one pitched, promoted and perpetuated by Donald J. Trump, the ex-POTUS who lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden. He keeps feeding the conspiracy that the election was stolen by rampant vote fraud. It wasn’t. That should be the end of it, but oh no-o-o-o!

The Big Lie lives on.

We know all about the other big conspiracy theories that do not die as dead as the victims of the original act.

Lee Harvey Oswald pulled the trigger three times and killed President Kennedy in Dallas in November 1963. A commission led by Chief Justice Earl Warren confirmed that Oswald acted alone. I believe the Warren panel. I do not buy into the nutty notions that have been kicked around for 58 years since since that terrible day. They talk about the mob conspiring to kill JFK; or the CIA; or it was President Lyndon Johnson. They talk about a second shooter that day in Dallas, or a third one, maybe even a fourth shooter.

Accordingly, Sirhan Sirhan shot Sen. Robert Kennedy in the head in June 1968, delivering a mortal wound after RFK won that state’s Democratic Party presidential primary. He was wrestled to the ground by those accompanying the senator. Now, though, comes the conspiracy theorists led by the late senator’s own son, RFK Jr., to suggest that Sirhan didn’t do it or that he didn’t act alone.

In both of those cases I am left only to ask what I consider the threshold question: How in the name of state secrets does anyone keep such a conspiracy hidden from public view for nearly 60 years? Answer: They don’t because there is no conspiracy to keep hidden.

We hear conspiracies all the time. Most of the time they make for silly entertainment. Nothing more.

The Big Lie, though, is a conspiracy theory that presents a serious danger to our cherished system of government.

That one needs to die a quick death.

national news

Go away, Donald

By John Kanelis / [email protected]

I continue to await the day when I no longer can wonder what in the world is going to fly out of Donald Trump’s mouth, what ends up on the news, what gets people yapping and yammering about this and/or that bit of nonsense.

Sadly, that day hasn’t yet arrived. The 45th POTUS keeps making news. Damn that dipsh**, anyway!

Some of the news isn’t of his making, at least not directly. We have those ongoing investigations that have turned into criminal probes of alleged illegal conduct. That’s newsworthy, right?

Then we have the other stuff, such as his declaring war against certain Republicans — politicians from his own political party (allegedly!) — who fail to do his bidding … as if it matters any longer what he says or does. I mean, the guy lost an election bigly against President Joe Biden.

And then — and how can we forget this — he continues to foment the Big Lie about how President Biden “stole” the election by taking advantage of “rampant vote fraud.”

There … was … no … vote … fraud!

That hasn’t stopped the butt wipes in Arizona from conducting that phony “audit” looking for miscounted ballots that would give the state’s electoral votes to Trump instead of where they already have been certified, in President Biden’s cache of votes.

I am sick and tired of Donald J. Trump. I want him off the grid. I want to concentrate on people in public life who really matter to me — and to the rest of the country that is trying to come back from the pandemic chaos that the ex-POTUS only worsened.

national news

Trump is back? Good grief!

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(Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

By John Kanelis / [email protected]

Donald J. Trump might be set to re-enter the political arena.

He is a disgraced former POTUS who got hammered in his bid for re-election in 2020. Trump faces possible criminal indictments in New York City and Fulton County, Ga. He’s got a huge debt of $400 million coming due. He continues to foment The Big Lie about the 2020 presidential election.

You know all about The Big Lie. It’s the one that suggests that President Biden won because of rampant vote fraud. Except there was no such fraud. Biden won fairly, squarely and bigly.

Trump signals he’s ready to get back in the game | TheHill

But the ex-POTUS is going to engage in some political rallies. He’ll lend his voice on behalf of Republican candidates running in the 2022 midterm election.

His hijacking of a GOP only demonstrates how far the party has fallen. Trump is a classic Republican In Name Only. The man has few actual political friends, just a cabal of officeholders and contenders who fear what can happen to them if they cross Trump.

To think that one of them, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, says “no one” questions Biden’s legitimacy as our commander in chief. Uh, Earth to McCarthy … Donald Trump questions it.

He wants to be a player in the midterm campaign.

Sigh … 

I want the blowhard/carnival barker/ex-liar in chief to disappear.

national news

Trump: a national peril

REUTERS/Sarah Silbiger

By John Kanelis / [email protected]

I take no pleasure in asserting what I believe in my heart … that Donald J. Trump presents a dire and existential threat to the nation he once governed.

Of all the men who preceded him as president — and there have been some serious losers/wack jobs/crooks/criminals, none of them come as close to presenting the threat to our very governmental fabric that Donald Trump presents.

He continues to spew the Big Lie about the 2020 presidential election. His minions in the House of Representatives are about to boot the GOP caucus chair from her post because she stood on principle. He threatens anyone who crosses him. Trump has not a shred of decency to stop the assault on our electoral process that is underway in Arizona, where conspiracy theorists are concocting scenarios they hope will deny President Biden the votes he won legitimately.

Donald Trump is a threat to our national security. To our very governmental fabric. To the balance of political power.

Do I like saying these things about him? No. Of course not!

When the votes were counted in the 2020 election, Donald Trump could have picked up a phone and congratulated the winner, Joe Biden. He could have wished him well. He could have pledged his support. Trump could have declared his intention to oversee a smooth transition of power. He could have welcomed the president-elect and his wife to the White House, shown them around the place and then sat there at the inaugural and clapped politely when the new president took his hand off the Bible as he was sworn in.

No. Donald Trump didn’t do any of that. Indeed, he incited a riot by a terrorist mob on Jan. 6. He turned his back on Vice President Mike Pence, who was presiding over the certification of the Electoral College victory that Biden rang up. Trump has turned his back on Pence, who did his constitutional duty and had to be holed up in a secure location while the terrorists were yelling “Hang Mike Pence!” as they stormed into the Capitol Building.

To think, therefore, that most Republican voters have swallowed that poison that Trump has dished out — believing that the election was “stolen” — is utterly beyond anything I ever could have imagined.

Donald Trump continues to threaten the nation. Anyone with a sense of shame would be, well, ashamed. This individual simply defies any norm of decency, dignity and decorum.

national news

House GOP to define itself

By John Kanelis / [email protected]

The U.S. House of Representatives Republican caucus is facing a defining moment this week.

It will have a chance to define itself as being willing to push forward a serious agenda or whether it will serve as a cabal of toadies for a disgraced, defeated for president of the United States, the former Liar in Chief who continues to foment the Big Lie about the 2020 presidential election, that it was stolen from Donald Trump by “rampant vote fraud.” There was no rampant fraud. It’s a lie. It’s the Big Lie.

The moment will come in a vote over whether to replace Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming as the Republican caucus chair and seat Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York in her place.

Cheney is a right-wing conservative lawmaker with serious GOP chops, being the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney. She also is a principled conservative who was as appalled and aghast as others were at the insurrection that Donald Trump — the aforementioned Liar in Chief — incited on Jan. 6. She voted to impeach Trump.

That doesn’t sit well with most of the GOP caucus. They fawn over Trump and are fearful of what he could do them if they were to cross him, the way Cheney did.

So up steps Stefanik, a Trumpster to the core. She has bought into the Big Lie. She is loyal to the Liar in Chief. And so … the House GOP caucus will get to choose her over Cheney, which they appear set to do on Wednesday.

It surely will mark a dismal moment in the history of a once-Grand Old Party.

There’s a glimmer of good news in this key vote. It well good pi** off enough serious Republicans to turn their back on the Big Lie … and on Donald J. Trump.