Monthly Archives: January 2021

national news

Constitution still works

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Over the life of this blog I have occasionally invoked the words of someone I consider to be one of the 20th century’s more underrated statesmen.

President Gerald Ford took office on Aug. 9, 1974 at the end of what at the time was thought to be the nation’s worst constitutional crisis. President Richard Nixon had resigned in the wake of the Watergate scandal and coverup.

President Ford took his oath of office and declared, “Our Constitution works.” Yes! It most certainly did then. It does now.

We are watching another crisis unfold before our eyes. I am going to stand foursquare behind the nobility of our nation’s founding governing document. It is working now. It will see us through this horrifying mess.

Donald Trump is 11 days from exiting the presidency. He incited a riot this week that could have resulted in the destruction of our democratic form of government. Five people died in the melee on Capitol Hill, which is where Congress was gathering in real time to perform a constitutional duty: ratification of the Electoral College vote that declared Joe Biden and Kamala Harris president and vice president of the United States.

Trump would not accept the voters’ verdict. He egged on the mob gathered before him to in effect storm the Capitol and stop the ratification. The rioters ransacked the Capitol Building. They occupied offices. They pranced through the Senate and House chambers while our elected representatives were holed up in safe places to avoid being harmed by the insurrectionists. Five people, including a D.C. police officer, died in the mayhem.

Our Constitution will work yet again. The House is considering whether to impeach Donald Trump once again. Pressure is mounting on the Cabinet and Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the Constitution’s 25th Amendment, which allows for the removal of a president who is incapable of doing his job.

Donald Trump is incapable of doing a job for which he is patently and demonstrably unfit.

And in just 11 days, Donald Trump — one way or another — will be gone from that office. President Biden and Vice President Harris will take over. The task of rebuilding and repairing our government will commence. It will take time and patience to restore order to this government of ours, which is both fragile and sturdy all at once.

President Ford stated it with profound wisdom in that earlier dark time in our history.

Our Constitution works.

national news

No, ‘both sides’ aren’t responsible for this tragedy

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Here comes the Trumpkin Corps’s defense of what Donald Trump did Wednesday morning to incite the rioters to attack the seat of our democratic system of government.

They are now pointing to “both sides” being complicit in this hideous demonstration of sedition that borders on treason. They suggest that the heated rhetoric coming from the left in defense of the Black Lives Matter protests is as responsible for the outbreak as the lunatics who stormed the Capitol Building after getting the virtual “go ahead” from their guy, Donald J. Trump, to do what they did.

No! The seditious act we witnessed, the storming of the Capitol with the intent of stopping Congress from ratifying President-elect Biden’s victory over Trump, will stand alone in the annals of infamy in this country.

Just as President Roosevelt declared the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 to be a “date which will live in infamy,” so will Jan. 6, 2021 stand as an infamous chapter in this nation’s glorious saga.

What’s more, it belongs to Donald John Trump and the morons who have swallowed his lie about the 2020 presidential election thievery.

We must not tolerate the attempts by the extremists who insist that both sides share the blame for what erupted in our nation’s capital this week. The act of treachery staged by the mob that ransacked the halls of Congress must stand alone as an act of betrayal of all that we cherish as a free nation.

That treachery rests with Donald Trump.

Joe Biden, national news

What if they had taken prisoners?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I continue to watch the news and continue to be saddened damn near to tears over the images I am watching.

They are the sight and sounds of rioters storming into offices inside the Capitol Building of the United States of America.

I am 71 years old. I have lived through a presidential assassination, have served my country in a war zone, have watched another president commit high crimes and then resign from office in the midst of what we all thought at the time was the “worst constitutional crisis” in U.S. history.

None of those prior events posed quite the threat to the very fabric of our national government than what we all witnessed in real time this week.

Donald Trump, the current president of the United States, incited the rioters to do the damage they did.

It is fair to ask: What if they had taken prisoners during their riot? What if they had managed to surround, say, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, or Senate leaders, or even the vice president, Mike Pence? What if they had taken them captive in their madness?

They didn’t. They did considerable damage to our public property. They broke windows. They ransacked offices. Five people — including a D.C. police officer — died in the melee.

They also have inflicted potentially grievous damage on our democratic form of government.

They were fueled by the lie that Donald Trump kept telling them, that the election that Trump lost was “stolen” by Democrats who engineered a theft that propelled Joe Biden into the presidency.

It was a despicable, reprehensible display of sedition. They sought to overturn the results of a free and fair election. They and their champion, Donald Trump, demonstrated for the entire world to see just how perilous is the state of our precious form of government.

In all my years, it was one of those events I never thought I would witness. It frightens me beyond what is reasonable. The government I took an oath to defend and protect while the country was at war for a time was in danger of falling to this madness.

Donald Trump’s inaugural speech featured a single memorable line, when he declared that the “American carnage would stop right here and now.” This individual’s term as president is ending with the kind of carnage most Americans never thought would be possible in this proud land of ours.

national news

Let’s not put this tragedy behind us

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Let’s be crystal clear, shall we?

The tragedy that unfolded this week in front of the world must remain at the top of our conscious thoughts for well past the long term. Let’s try … forever!

Donald Trump might be impeached a second time. He might stand trial a second time in the Senate. For all I know he might even be acquitted a second time by gutless Republican senators.

The insurrection we witnessed must not be allowed to be shoved aside. It’s nowhere near possible for us to simply say, “It’s time to move on.” I am one American patriot who intends to keep talking and writing about this until I no longer am able.

Trump will be out of office in 12 days. There isn’t much time to exact justice on this lawless individual. However, the House must clear the deck to get this job done; so must the Senate do its job.

You saw Trump say what he said. He told the mobsters they should storm the Capitol. They did. They damaged the center of our democratic institutions. They ransacked offices. Five people died! One of them was a police officer injured in a melee with rioters.

This is not the kind of tragedy you can place on the back shelf. Let’s not forget about it. Yes, we need to get back to the task of governing. We can do that when President Biden and Vice President Harris take their oaths of office.

But they face a steep hill to climb. It happens to be the mobsters who continue to believe the lies that Trump has fed to them. They will continue to believe in the phony voter fraud allegation. They will insist the election was stolen from their guy. They will continue to present a clear danger to our democratic system.

Let’s not be coy about the possibility — remote as it might seem — that they could do once again what they tried to do Wednesday night at the urging of the president of the United States.

We’re going to have a new president and vice president in office soon. We already have a newly reconstituted Congress. They all must govern effectively. I get that.

However, we also must never forget what we witnessed this week. Not only that, we also must not allow the repercussions of what we are feeling at this moment to subside, to disappear and for us to fill ourselves with any sort of false sense of security that all is good.

It isn’t. Not be a long shot.

national news

Impeach him once more!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Make no mistake, none at all, that I do not relish the idea of impeaching Donald J. Trump a second time just a few days before the end of his tenure as president of the United States.

But it needs to occur. The House of Representatives reportedly is set to take up debate on Monday of an article of impeachment. My sense is that the Democrats who run the House will be able to fast-track this article, sending it immediately to the Senate for trial.

This individual, Trump, is a danger to the nation. We saw the danger play out in real time on Wednesday. Trump stood before a mob of rioters and implored them to march on the Capitol. They did and all hell broke loose.

Then he told them he “loved” them, repeated the lie about voter fraud in the 2020 election. Oh, and then today Trump said he regrets the violence and that a “new administration” will take over.

The man continues to present a clear a present danger to the nation for every minute he remains in office.

An impeachment doesn’t mean removal. We know that already, given that the House impeached him in 2019, only to watch the Senate acquit him because only one GOP senator — Mitt Romney –had the courage to stand up for the rule of law and the Constitution.

Is this instance different from that one? Will it prompt Republicans in the Senate to steel themselves for what they must do, which is to convict Donald Trump of inciting violence against the government he took an oath to protect? Man, I hope so.

Uncategorized

Revisionists ignite the next Big Lie

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Those who revise what we all saw with our eyes and heard with our ears are at it … already.

Right-wing nut jobs are fomenting the lie that the riot that occurred Wednesday on Capitol Hill is the work of far-left political activists “disguised” as Donald Trump supporters.

The lie comes from Trump’s most frothing supporters in Congress, morons like Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida and Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama. They are suggesting that “antifa” followers are responsible for the carnage and vandalism we all saw occurring.

And yes, it occurred after Trump himself incited them the mob to do what it did. It occurred while Trump was praising them for expressing their anger and telling them he “loved” them.

We now are being urged to accept this B.S. from Trump sycophants that the riot was spurred on by those who despise Trump?

Be wary of the next Big Lie coming from the far right wing nut jobs.

national news

Trump won’t attend? Good deal … bye!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Now that Donald J. Trump has issued a Twitter statement, that means it’s official.

He won’t attend President Biden’s inaugural.

This hits me at two distinct levels.

The first level is that it is no surprise that Donald Trump won’t be present to watch his successor take the oath of office and assume the presidency of the United States. How in the world could he attend, given the events of this week and prior? He would subject himself to immense demonstrations of scorn from those of us who are appalled at what transpired on Capitol Hill this week. Make no mistake, Trump was a major instigator of the mayhem that erupted.

The second level is that Trump’s absence will toss aside yet another custom associated with the “peaceful transfer of power” from one president to the next one. Trump said Thursday he will work toward that end now that Congress has ratified the Electoral College vote. It was a hollow pledge, given what has transpired.

Moreover, you can bet your last buck that Biden isn’t about to say a single word of thanks/praise/conciliation toward the individual who has fomented the Big Lie about “massive vote fraud” during the election. To that end, the transition has been anything but peaceful, given the riot that erupted on Capitol Hill.

So, what would be the point of Trump attending the inaugural of Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris? There is none.

So, see ya, Donald Trump. I want you to live the rest of your days in ignominious oblivion. He has earned all the disgrace that is sure to fall at his feet.

State news

Trump soon to be gone; others, such as Sen. Cruz, will remain

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The tragedy of the riot that overwhelmed Capitol Hill this week will remain seared into our national soul for a long time.

What’s more is that even though the Perpetrator in Chief, Donald Trump, will be gone in (no more than) 12 days, many of his minions — those in power — will be on the job, manning their posts and perhaps trying to become the next spokesman for whatever cause Trump supposedly sought to move forward.

Truth be told at this juncture, I hope Trump is gone before President Biden’s inaugural on Jan. 20. He is a menace to the nation as he demonstrated by inciting the riot that stormed the seat of our government.

He’ll be gone. Soon!

Who will remain? The likes of Sen. Ted Cruz, the Texan who was among the ringleaders to challenge the Electoral College result that elected Joe Biden as president and Kamala Harris as vice president.

To hear Cruz say that “Democrats are playing politics” makes me want to scream at the top of my lungs. What in the name of bald-faced hypocrisy is he suggesting? That Republicans are pure and clean and filled only with righteousness? If there ever was a more political animal prowling through the halls of Congress, he or she would have to go a great distance to outdo the Cruz Missile.

I am ashamed to be represented in Congress by this individual. He has sickened me since the day he emerged out of nowhere to defeat Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in the 2012 Republican primary and then went on to be elected U.S. senator from Texas. It didn’t take much clairvoyance to determine immediately that Cruz had the White House on his mind when he entered the Senate. Sure enough, he sought the Big Prize in 2016, only to lose to Trump.

What slays me is how Cruz once referred to his GOP primary foe Trump as a “sniveling coward,” only to become that very thing as he lined up behind a president he once called a “pathological liar.”

Ted Cruz will be there after Trump exits. He will be joined by other sycophants. Make no mistake that I will think only of that riot and Cruz’s attempt to subvert the will of an electorate every single time I see his puss on TV or hear his voice.

national news

Former speaker takes his shot

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I once said the party of Lincoln and Reagan is off taking a nap. The nap has become a nightmare for our nation. The GOP must awaken. The invasion of our Capitol by a mob, incited by lies from some entrusted with power, is a disgrace to all who sacrificed to build our Republic.

So said former House Speaker John Boehner in a Twitter message.

I want to share it here for two reasons. One is for the message it contains. Speaker Boehner is right to condemn the riot on Capitol Hill.

I also want to share it for what Boehner’s tweet doesn’t do. It doesn’t call out by name of “some entrusted with power.” It doesn’t mention that the individual to whom Boehner no doubt is referring is none other than Donald J. Trump and the toadies in the House and Senate who continue to foment the lie about “rampant voter fraud” in the 2020 presidential election.

Had the former speaker shown the courage to name names and to paste the “seditionist” label on those who are responsible for the insurrection we witnessed, I would be delighted to heap unqualified praise on him.

Sadly, I cannot.

national news

Trump makes hollow plea

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I just watched a 2 minute 41 second video of Donald J. Trump declaring  that his fight to undermine democracy is over.

Yes, he acknowledged that President-elect Joe Biden will be inaugurated along with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. The time for “healing” has come, he said.

How astonishing that he would expect viewers such as me to believe he actually means the words he read from a prepared text, that the man who incited a riot this week on Capitol Hill now wants us to believe that his “only goal” in clinging to power was to protect the integrity of our electoral system.

Unbelievable.

I do not accept this individual’s statement — which doesn’t contain a single word of contrition for the role he played in igniting the mayhem that erupted inside the halls of our nation’s Capitol Building. We all watched as Trump egged on the mob, urging the rioters to walk to Capitol Hill to take back the government. 

Donald Trump will, in the words of conservative columnist George Will, carry a “scarlet S” — standing for “seditionist” — for the rest of his life. That is his legacy … forever.