Tag Archives: DC riot

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Tough ‘reality TV’ viewing awaits

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

This much is utterly certain: I am going to have a difficult time watching and listening to the U.S. congressional hearing into the Jan. 6 insurrection against the government.

The testimony I am hearing today from one of the Capitol police officers is compelling, disturbing and heartbreaking.

The video to which the world was treated at the start of today’s opening hearing is as difficult to watch as the 9/11 terrorist attack that occurred nearly 20 years ago.

To think that some in Congress — namely its Republican caucus members — equate the insurrection to a “tourist” excursion is the most outrageous insult I can imagine.

Proceed with wisdom and discernment, members of the House select committee. The world is watching.

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Let the probe begin

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

They’re going to start a congressional hearing that we all should hope will produce some clear-headed truth into what transpired on the Sixth of January this year.

That day we all witnessed an all-out assault on our democratic process by a mob of terrorists who could not accept that their hero — the 45th president — had lost a free and fair election to Joseph R. Biden Jr.

They engaged in the worst attack on Capitol Hill since the War of 1812. I am one American patriot who welcomes the select committee’s assignment given to it by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It is to find the truth and to present ways to prevent such an egregious attack on our system from recurring.

Pelosi picks Kinzinger for select panel … yes! | High Plains Blogger

Will the select panel — comprising members of both parties — be able to conduct their investigation fairly and without bias? I believe it will. I do not expect the rabid minority among Americans to accept anything they present. Their minds (such as they are) remain closed tightly to anything that would cast POTUS 45 in a negative light.

The committee will proceed as planned. It will call witnesses. It will grill them intently on what they knew, when they knew it and what they did in real time to prevent to horrifying assault from enveloping the Capitol.

The process the mob threatened had commenced the certification of President Biden’s election. Biden’s predecessor hasn’t yet accepted that he lost the election. He continues to promote The Big Lie about vote fraud. Indeed, it was The Big Lie that led to the assault on the Capitol, to the injury of dozens of people — including police officers on duty to protect the Capitol and those who work there — and the deaths of several others … including one of those valiant officers.

To think that congressional Republicans are resisting this investigation is mind-blowing to the max. However, the investigation will commence. I will look forward to the select committee finishing its job and reporting to the rest of the world what it learned.

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Pelosi picks Kinzinger for select panel … yes!

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Adam Kinzinger is going to join another courageous Republican on a select congressional committee with the aim of finding out what the heck happened on Jan. 6 when the Insurrectionist in Chief egged on a mob to storm the Capitol Building.

Kinzinger is one of a handful of Republicans who voted to impeach the ex-POTUS for that act. Another Republican House member, Liz Cheney, also is serving on the committee selected by Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

GOP House leader Kevin McCarthy blames Pelosi for politicizing the process. Hah! McCarthy needs to check his defiance at the door and ponder something.

Congress had the chance to select an independent bipartisan commission to examine the Jan. 6 riot. Republicans in both legislative chambers balked. They refused to appoint the commission. So this is what we get: a select panel chosen by a Democratic House speaker.

Pelosi vetoed two of five GOP House members McCarthy selected: Jim Jordan and Jim Banks. McCarthy’s response then was to yank the three who made the cut from the committee.

So … Pelosi is now moving ahead. She has a bipartisan select committee getting ready to do its work.

The insurrection of Jan. 6 was an unprecedented event. The mob of terrorists sought to overturn the results of a legal, free and fair presidential election. The committee will want to get at the root of what caused the riot and presumably seek ways to prevent a recurrence.

Reps. Kinzinger and Cheney believe in the rule of law. They are faithful to their oath to protect the Constitution, unlike most of their GOP colleagues, who proclaim their fealty to the ex-Moron in Chief.

I am looking forward to watching this committee slog through its task to reach a conclusion based on the evidence it will receive.

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Cheney’s star keeps rising

(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Liz Cheney continues to confound me … in a good and surprising manner.

The conservative Republican congresswoman keeps saying things and keeps demonstrating that not all actual Republicans are as loony as the former Dipsh** in Chief. The Wyoming lawmaker today stood foursquare behind a decision by Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to veto two GOP members’ involvement in a select committee assigned by study the Jan. 6 insurrection against the federal government.

Cheney also is a member of the select committee that next week will begin its task of rooting out the truth behind the insurrection/riot/mob attack on Capitol Hill.

My goodness, it makes me wonder whether Cheney’s fealty to the Constitution makes her a candidate for hands-down the most stunning party shift in the recent history of Congress. Would this longstanding Republican actually consider switching to the Democratic Party, given that the GOP she joined years ago no longer resembles the party that has been hijacked by the cultists who adhere to blathering of POTUS 45.

OK. It won’t happen. I get that Cheney remains a strong conservative. She is a Republican’s Republican.

She also is faithful to the oath she took to defend and protect the U.S. Constitution, which so many others within her party have failed to do. They are the villains in this drama that’s playing out. Cheney remains a hero in my book.

If only she could find it within her heart and mind that the party she joined has become an organization she no longer recognizes.

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GOP leader skulks away

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

That’ll teach ’em, right, Kevin McCarthy?

The U.S. House Republican leader decided today to pull all GOP members from a select committee chosen by Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Pelosi objected to the presence of two men McCarthy had added to the panel, Reps. Jim Jordan and Jim Banks. They were included on a panel that aims to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection that sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

These men are big fans and supporters of the guy who lost that election and voted to deny President Biden certification that he was the winner. Pelosi would have none of that.

McCarthy decided, therefore, to yank all Republicans. The only GOP House member left on the panel is Liz Cheney, who voted to impeach the former president for his role in inciting the Jan. 6 riot. Cheney, though, doesn’t fit the profile of today’s Republican Party, which is to pledge total, blind and unyielding fealty to the disgraced, twice-impeached former POTUS.

Cheney’s loyalty is to the Constitution, which makes her among the more inspired choices that Pelosi made to the select committee.

Here, though, is what really makes me scratch my noggin: How does McCarthy justify abandoning this select committee selection process, leaving this Jan. 6 probe solely up to Democrats, which he contends only will produce a “partisan” finding of culpability by the ex-POTUS and his GOP pals in Congress?

He could have selected five GOP members who aren’t as fervid in their defense of the indefensible, but no-o-o-o. He turned to Jordan and Banks.

Now he has abandoned any pretext of cooperation with Democrats. McCarthy has chosen instead to level accusations of “partisanship” and “politics” at Pelosi who, I feel the need to remind everyone here, has chosen a Republican to serve on this select panel.

Kevin McCarthy, meanwhile, has left the field in a fit of petulance that doesn’t advance the search for the truth into what happened when the mob stormed the Capitol Building and sought to overturn the democratic process.

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The chasm widens

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Nancy Pelosi has nixed the appointment of two Republican House members to a select committee she formed to examine the Jan. 6 insurrection on Capitol Hill.

The House speaker acted within her authority established under House rules. We clear so far?

OK, then House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy yanked all the rest of the Republicans he had chosen for the committee. He called Pelosi, a fellow Californian, a dictator who doesn’t give a damn about due process.

Here’s where I get a bit suspicious of it all.

Congressional Republicans had the chance to form an independent, bipartisan commission to conduct this examination. They chose to scuttle that idea. They knew what the result would be: that Speaker Pelosi would choose a select committee and would retain veto power over any GOP members selected to serve on the panel.

Why are they acting so outraged? Congressional Republicans are reaping what they have sown.

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GOP House members join key panel

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

U.S. House of Representatives Republican leader Kevin McCarthy came through with the names of five of his GOP colleagues to serve on the select committee that is going to examine the Jan. 6 insurrection.

One word of advice now goes to the committee chairman, Democrat Bennie Thompson of Mississippi: Keep a tight leash around the neck of Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, one of the five GOP members McCarthy has selected.

Of course, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has veto power over any selections for the panel. If she decides to allow the loudmouth Jordan to serve, then it falls on Chairman Thompson to keep Jordan focused on the task at hand: finding the truth behind the riot that killed five people, injured dozens more, damaged the Capitol Building and sought to overturn the results of an election that chose President Biden over the GOP incumbent.

Jordan was one of the GOP caucus members, you will recall, who voted against certifying the election results. The dude is a loose cannon. He tends to come unhinged while defending his hero, POTUS No. 45. He also tends to badger witnesses, not allowing them the opportunity to respond to his hectoring.

Jordan is likely to object to using the term “insurrection” to describe what happened on Jan. 6. Except that’s precisely what it was. Chairman Thompson, don’t let Jordan get away with trying to change the subject or trying to persuade the nation that the mob of domestic terrorists were not intent on doing harm to officials who were doing their constitutional duty, which was to certify the results of the Electoral College tally.

The GOP congressional caucus wouldn’t go along with an independent commission. The House select committee is the next best step toward determining what happened, why it happened and seeking ways to prevent a recurrence.

This panel needs room to do its job. It must not tolerate diversions from some members of its ranks. Listen up, Jim Jordan: Listen with your ears for once … and not your mouth.

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It was an ‘insurrection’

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

For several months now, I have been referring to the Jan. 6 riot as an “insurrection,” a term that reportedly gives congressional Republicans a case of the heebie-jeebies.

Senate Republicans didn’t like the term inserted into legislation that called for creation of an independent bipartisan commission to investigate the cause and effect of the insurrection; it also would have sought remedies to prevent it from happening in the future.

Well, you know what? I will continue to call it what it was: an insurrection against the government of the United States of America.

It was nothing short of that. It was a direct frontal assault on the very democratic process which on that day was certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election that resulted in Joe Biden and Kamala Harris  being elected president and vice president of the United States.

The ticket led by the 45th POTUS incited the insurrection, for which the House of Representatives impeached him for a second time. It was a big more of a bipartisan impeachment than the first go-round, with a handful of Republicans joining their Democratic colleagues in impeaching POTUS 45; what’s more, some GOP senators ended up voting to convict the disgraced ex-POTUS at trial.

My point, though, is that no one should shy away from calling the DC riot what it was: an act of insurrection against the government of the United States. For the GOP congressional caucus to dig in against the investigative commission because they dislike truth-telling language is a cheap and shallow attempt to deny the obvious.

The effort to get at the truth behind the insurrection must not end. The House has formed a select committee. It already includes one Republican House member; others should join the effort.

Let’s not be coy about what’s at stake. It is to find a way to prevent future insurrections from occurring.

Ever!

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GOP heroes do emerge

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I once asked — during one of the crises involving the 45th POTUS — whether there were any Republican heroes among members of the GOP congressional caucus.

Two of them have stepped up in the months since that individual left office.

One of them is U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, about whom I have written already on this blog. The other is Illinois U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger.

Kinzinger is standing tall and firm in the effort to explore and examine the Jan. 6 insurrection that the 45th POTUS incited with his Big Lie comments on the alleged theft of the 2020 presidential election.

The young congressman wants to know why his fellow Republicans wouldn’t want to look into the cause of the riot if they believe that Antifa, or Black Lives Matter or some other left-wing outfit provoked it. Nor does he understand why they won’t look into the cause of an event that could have put every member of Congress in dire danger of being harmed … or worse.

Kinzinger does pose the question that has piqued many of Americans’ curiosity. He wonders if GOP resistance to a thorough exploration of the insurrection would expose potential Republican complicity in the event. 

Hmm. Makes you wonder, yes?

Because he and Rep. Cheney are searching for the truth behind the assault on our democracy, they are being vilified by the cult followers who refuse to accept the legitimacy of the free, fair and legal election.

The challenges they face quite possibly could tell us plenty about the Republican Party to which they both remain faithful. Except that the party now has been hijacked by the con man who masqueraded as POTUS for four years.

Political heroes who seek to defend the Constitution and the democratic process do not deserve to be treated as pariahs. They should be honored, not pilloried.

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Liz Cheney produces conflicting emotions

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It is no secret to those who read this blog that Liz Cheney drives me batty.

The congresswoman from Wyoming is among the most conservative members of the House of Representatives. Her Republican credentials are impeccable, as she comes from a family led by a former defense secretary, congressman and vice president of the United States.

I didn’t support her decision to run for Congress; I believed her to be a carpetbagger, as she never spent much time in the state she now represents.

But, man, she is showing some spine, guts and conviction in standing against a president who sought to subvert the U.S. Constitution, is still seeking to overturn a free and fair election and has been the voice of idiotic demagoguery from the moment he became a politician prior to his run for the presidency in 2016.

Cheney voted to impeach the ex-POTUS. She stands foursquare on the oath she took to defend the Constitution. Rep. Cheney now is the lone Republican to join a House select committee that is going to examine the consequence of the Jan. 6 insurrection that the former POTUS incited.

House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy threatens to strip her of committee assignments. Liz Cheney continues to stand firm. To which I say … you go, Liz!

Rep. Cheney is taking a stand against blind fealty to a cult leader. She said the integrity of our democratic process is far more important than any loyalty she might feel toward any human being.

I am proud of the stand that Liz Cheney is taking on my behalf and on behalf of the country she took an oath to serve. Her oath makes no mention of any loyalty to a disgraced ex-president.

I salute Liz Cheney.