Tag Archives: DC riot

DC riot

No way was it a ‘routine day of touring’

1 Comment

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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.

national news

Let the probe begin

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It’s not how many of us wanted this process to move forward, but I’ll accept it as a step toward rooting out the cause of the infamous insurrection of Jan. 6.

The U.S. House of Representatives, with just two Republican members joining their Democratic colleagues, today voted to form a select committee that will take a deep dive into the insurrection.

GOP Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois — both of whom voted to impeach the disgraced 45th POTUS for his role in inciting the riot on Capitol Hill — voted “yes” on the committee creation. They both also signaled a willingness to serve on that panel.

My version of political perfection would have produced a bipartisan commission approved by the Senate. The GOP caucus slammed that door shut, leaving any look into the event up to the House. The lower chamber’s approval does not require Senate endorsement, so the House will proceed on its own, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The Wall Street Journal reports: “It’s clear that Jan. 6 was not simply an attack on the Capitol building, it was an attack on our democracy,” Mrs. Pelosi said in a speech before the vote Wednesday. “Every member here knows that Jan. 6 was an attempt to subvert our democracy,” she said. “But many across the aisle refuse to admit the truth.”

House Approves Creation of Select Committee to Probe Jan. 6 Attack (msn.com)

Indeed, the Republican resistance to examining the horrific event simply boggles my mind. The mob that stormed Capitol Hill that day launched a full assault on the entire government. It targeted Republicans as well as Democrats. It injured several law enforcement officers; two of them died in the melee. So, members of the political caucus that professes to be strong on “law and order” has resisted efforts to get to the truth of the attack.

Moreover, they have dug in to fight efforts to prevent future attacks.

So now it falls on the Democratically controlled House to select the committee. Pelosi is indicating she might appoint at least one Republican to sit on the panel.

This isn’t the perfect path toward finding some key answers to this horrifying assault on our democratic form of government. Given the stubborn refusal by Republicans to seek the truth behind it, this select committee will have to do.

DC riot, national news

House to OK select probe of Jan. 6

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi can count votes as well as any politician who’s ever served on Capitol Hill.

With that knowledge in the bank, she is planning to ask House members to vote on choosing a select committee to do something the U.S. Senate choked on: investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection against the U.S. government.

What do I think about this? I believe Pelosi is going to proceed where she must go, but I also believe she is going to invite ferocious criticism from those who think she is stacking the deck against any sort of impartial finding into what transpired on that terrible day.

A mob of terrorists stormed Capitol Hill. They crashed through windows, beat cops nearly to death. They wanted to stop the certification of the Electoral College victory that President Biden earned in the 2020 election. They attacked our governmental process. They threated the lives Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence.

But the Republican caucus in Congress doesn’t want a probe to look into it.

So, Pelosi is going to ask the slim Democratic majority in the House to approve establishing a select House committee.

The committee won’t comprise just Democrats. Pelosi is slated to ask House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy to select GOP members to join this panel. I am quite interested to see who McCarthy picks, whether he finds Republican moderates or taps the shoulders of GOP conspiracy goons to muck up the works.

Speaker Pelosi is doing what she must do, given the Senate Republicans’ refusal to do what they should have done in proceeding with a bipartisan commission to examine the riot, its consequences and recommend ways to prevent this kind of insurrection from recurring.

I also hope that Pelosi’s select committee, presuming the House approves it, will be thorough and will offer recommendations for preventing a recurrence.

As for GOP resistance to the work that will commence, let ’em gripe. They only will undermine their own credibility as the nation seeks to understand the cause of what we all saw develop as the terrorists launched a frontal assault on our democratic process.

national news

Why not probe the riot, GOP?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

A Facebook meme showed up today on my news feed that posed an interesting question.

It came in the form of a fake conversation between Wally and Beaver Cleaver. It goes something like this: Gee Wally, if Republicans think that Antifa, Black Lives Matter and assorted communists started the riot on Jan. 6 … why don’t they want to investigate it?

Hmmm. You know the answer to that one. I’ll offer my own view.

It’s because they don’t believe the lie they are telling. The know that BLM, Antifa and other lefty-leaning groups aren’t responsible for the attack on our democratic process. They know in what passes for their hearts that the attack was done at the behest of the moron who lost the 2020 presidential election, but who cannot to this very day declare that he lost fair and square.

We are witnessing the cult of personality at work. It has declared its fealty to a man and thrown aside any pretense of loyalty and adherence to the Constitution of the United States.

Still, little ol’ Beaver has asked his brother Wally a pertinent question. Don’t you think?

DC riot

Ex-VPOTUS takes pride in his Jan. 6 role

(AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Mike Pence said he is proud of the role he played during the Jan. 6 insurrection against the federal government.

Good. But should he shower himself with too much high praise? The former vice president of the United States should ponder the obvious. Mike Pence did what the law and the U.S. Constitution required him to do.

The former VP spoke Thursday at the Ronald Reagan library and spoke of the riot that erupted when the former Imbecile in Chief incited the angry mob to march on Capitol Hill. Matters got grievously out of hand, as you’ll recall.

“Now there are those in our party who believe that in my position as presiding officer over the joint session that I possess the authority to reject or return electoral votes certified by the states,” Pence said. “The Constitution provides the vice president with no such authority before the joint session of Congress.”

Pence said he’s ‘proud’ of role he played on Jan. 6 | TheHill

Pence was presiding over a joint congressional session to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election, which he and his running mate lost.

Don’t get me wrong. I am glad Pence followed the law. I am glad he wasn’t harmed by the terrorists who stormed the Capitol Building shouting “Hang Mike Pence!”

The former VP did the only thing he could do under the law, which was to preside over the counting of Electoral College votes.

Is that worthy of pride and high praise? Sure … but only if you believe Mike Pence had any options other than the one he was required to follow.

national news

Domestic terror deserves national attention

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Yes, the headline on this blog is one of those no-brainers.

However, to hear the U.S. attorney general speak so forcefully about the threats posed by domestic terror reminds me of why I support this fellow and the individual who nominated him for the job, President Biden.

AG Merrick Garland continues to give voice to issues that need to be heard.

Just as he spoke the other day about the Justice Department’s commitment to ensuring that all Americans have access to the electoral process, he spoke again today about the existential threat posed by domestic terror.

We all saw that threat play out on Jan. 6 when the mob attacked the U.S. Capitol as members of Congress led by Vice President Mike Pence were certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election. Congressional Democrats and a handful of their Republican colleagues want a bipartisan commission to explore in detail the cause and effect of that insurrection. We know already what to call it: an act of rebellion against the government, incited by the immediate past president who continues to foment The Big Lie about the election being “stolen” from him.

The men who served as attorney general under the former president’s single term in office did not speak with anything approaching the passion and eloquence about domestic terrorism that AG Merrick Garland has done.

“We will never take our eyes off the risk of another devastating attack by foreign terrorists,” he said in remarks delivered today at the Justice Department. “At the same time, we must respond to domestic terrorism with the same sense of purpose and dedication.”

Attorney General Merrick Garland unveils plan to combat domestic terrorism – CBS News

CBS News reported: Administration officials, in briefing reporters on the strategy, pointed to an increase in politically, ethnically, and racially motivated acts of domestic terrorism in the U.S. over the years, including the congressional baseball shooting that took place four years ago this week, when a shooter opened fire on members of Congress because they were Republican. 

So it must proceed. FBI Director Christopher Wray has called domestic terrorism an even greater threat to Americans than terrorists from abroad. It is time to respond accordingly.

national news

Rioters were not ‘patriots’

2 Comments

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

This must be noted with extreme vigor.

Whenever I see video of the Jan. 6 terrorist insurrection on the U.S. Capitol Building and hear mobsters declare themselves to be “patriots,” I want to scream at the top of my lungs.

The rioters who sought to dismantle the governmental process of certifying a duly constituted, legal and fair election were not patriots in any incarnation of the word.

I am a patriot. I pay my taxes. I follow the law. I have served my country in wartime. I am proud of my flag. I salute it appropriately. I am among many millions of Americans who consider themselves to be patriots. No one with whom I have any relationship ever would have done what the terrorists did on Jan. 6.

They stormed into the Capitol Building. They beat police officers with flags. They crapped on the floor of the halls of government. They shouted “Hang Mike Pence!” They posed physical threats to the leaders of our government.

Those are the actions of patriots? Would a patriotic American ever behave in such a reprehensible manner?

They were acting at the behest of a man who lost the 2020 presidential election. They were doing his bidding. Indeed, the ex-POTUS, the man who proclaimed his desire to put “America first,” instead put himself first.

They were patriots? They love the country? No. They do not. They detest the country and they deserve all the scorn that should come their way.

DC riot, national news

Rep. Cheney rules?

(Photo by Marc Piscotty/Getty Images)

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

GREEN RIVER, Wyo. — As we approached the Utah border with Wyoming, I was hoping to receive a unique form of greeting from the state we were entering.

I wanted to see a sign that said something like: Welcome to Wyoming, home of Rep. Liz Cheney, one of the few Republicans in Congress with a backbone.

We didn’t see it. However, as we trekked through this state I am left to wonder a thing or two about the embattled congresswoman.

Allow to me clear the air a bit.

I did not much care for Cheney’s decision to run for the lone U.S. House seat in this marvelous, sprawling and so very scenic state. She is an arch-conservative thinker, the daughter of an equally conservative former Wyoming congressman, defense secretary and vice president. What’s more, I considered her a carpetbagger, given that she did not grow up in this state; she is a child of Washington, D.C., where her dad served for so many years prior to becoming VP during the Bush 43 administration.

She was elected to the House. Then she did something so remarkable that it has given me a reason to rethink some of my original dislike of her as a politician.

Rep. Cheney voted to impeach Donald J. Trump in his second House impeachment. She was one of a handful of GOP lawmakers who agreed with most of the country: Donald Trump incited an insurrection against the government, which at the time of the Jan. 6 riot was certifying President Biden’s election. Trump is still having none of that and Cheney is having none of Trump’s insistence in the Big Lie that he was the victim of some massive electoral theft conspiracy.

She has said so with vigor and passion, so much so that nitwits like Florida U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz — the alleged child molester and sex trafficker — has come to Wyoming to criticize his fellow conservative colleague.

So it is with some measure of gratitude that I wandered through this state knowing that it is represented in the House of Reps by an individual who is willing to stand up the Trump cult of personality.

If only she could take the next step and endorse some of the progressive notions being kicked around by President Biden and his Democratic friends in Congress.

Well, we can’t have all that we want … right?

DC riot

We need a probe into Jan. 6!

2 Comments

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

If only the congressional obstructionist caucus — comprising Republicans, of course — would appreciate the gravity of the attack that occurred on Jan. 6.

They can’t or won’t accede to demands from Democrats that there needs to be a thorough accounting of the insurrection that occurred on that horrible day.

As many in Congress have noted: The nation’s Capitol has been attacked twice in its history and this attack, unlike the first one during the War of 1812, was done by Americans. It was an attack on our governmental process and it sought to overturn the results of a certifiably free, fair and legal presidential election.

Democrats are now left to weigh how they could proceed without Republican cooperation, which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer have insisted on.

As The Hill reported: In a call this week with House Democrats, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) floated four different routes Congress could take: have the Senate vote again on the House-passed bill to create an outside commission; form a select House committee, consisting of lawmakers hand-picked by leaders in both parties; allow several sitting committees to continue their probes into Jan. 6; or empower a single House committee, like Homeland Security or Oversight, to take the lead on the investigation.

Democrats debate shape of new Jan. 6 probe (msn.com)

Yes, we know the outlines of the event. Donald Trump held a rally on the Ellipse that morning. He revved up the riotous mob. The terrorists then marched on the Capitol Building. They stormed into the place. They injured many of the cops trying to protect members of Congress and the vice president from the mob. One of the DC cops died in the melee. Donald Trump did nothing to stop it.

A thorough investigation into the event can determine ways to prevent it from happening again. That solution lies at the heart of the need for this probe.

If only congressional Republicans would buy into the need to prevent a repeat of the attack that threatened them, too.

DC riot

Pence and Trump ‘may never agree’?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Mike Pence continues to demonstrate the suck-up qualities he put to dubious use while serving as vice president during the Donald J. Trump administration.

Consider what he told an audience in New Hampshire this week:

“You know, President Trump and I have spoken many times since we left office. And I don’t know if we’ll ever see eye to eye on that day. But I will always be proud of what we accomplished for the American people over the last four years,” Pence said to applause.

“And I will not allow Democrats or their allies in the media to use one tragic day to discredit the aspirations of millions of Americans, or allow Democrats or their allies in the media to distract our attention from a new administration intent on dividing our country to advance their radical agenda,” Pence continued.

Just to remind the former VP: The riotous mob that Trump incited stormed the Capitol Building with signs that screamed “Hand Mike Pence!” What’s more, Trump did not a damn thing to stop the onslaught after it spiraled out of control. Oh, and he didn’t call Pence for several days after he got out of the Capitol Building while hiding in a secure location to protect himself from the terrorist mob.

Do I really believe he and Trump have spoken “many times” since that hideous event?

Not for one second.

Yeah, Mr. VP,  we’ll all “move on” once we get a full accounting of what happened that day. In case Pence has forgotten, the mob launched a full frontal assault on the very democracy he and Trump vowed to “defend and protect.”