military news

But … we’re doing that, Mr. VPOTUS!

While listening the other day to former Vice President Mike Pence declare his 2024 presidential candidacy, I was struck by a theme he kept harping on.

We need to do all we can to support democratic nations, such as Ukraine, he said. The United States must take the lead in helping Ukraine fend off the illegal and immoral invasion by Russian forces, he added. We need to stand for democracy in Europe, Pence said.

But … wait!

We’re already doing that, aren’t we? President Biden has not just said all of that but has persuaded Congress to spend a lot of money to arm the Ukrainians, to train them in using the equipment we’re providing them. He has imposed punishing economic sanctions on Russia, persuading our NATO and EU allies to go along.

The Ukrainians are — as near as many experts can tell — winning the fight in the field against a demoralized, under-qualified Russian invading force.

How is that? Because the United States has stepped up as the world’s pre-eminent champion for democracy!

What does Mike Pence think we should do differently than what we have done already?

For my money? Not a damn thing!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Must stay on top of ex-POTUS

If only I could rid myself of having to say another word about the machinations of the 45th president of the United States.

Except that I cannot. Not while he remains at or near the top of the Republican Party presidential nomination hunt in 2024.

If only he’d go the hell away. He won’t. He lusts for attention and, boy howdy, he’s getting it now as the twice-indicted (for now!), twice-impeached ex-POTUS.

I am confident in predicting that there appear to be at least two more indictments coming his way. Fulton County, Ga., District Attorney Fani Willis is sending up signals that an indictment is imminent. All the ex-POTUS did there was demand that the Georgia secretary of state “find” enough votes to give the loser the state’s Electoral College tally.

The other indictment also appears set to come from the feds — again! — as special counsel Jack Smith continues his work on the ex-POTUS’s role in inciting the 1/6 assault on the government as Congress was preparing to ratify the Electoral College victory rolled up by Joe Biden in 2020.

All of this, I am saddened to say, puts bloggers and assorted commentators such as yours truly in an awkward place. We have to keep commenting on these goings-on. To be sure, I am not going to weigh in — per an earlier pledge — on every single campaign utterance that flies out of the crook’s pie hole.

I won’t apologize for believing I must comment on the issues surrounding this horribly unfit, immoral and disgraceful politician. I simply must explain myself and recognize three facts that are beyond dispute.

First, he is a former president of the United States. Second, he is the first POTUS ever indicted by the very government he once led. Third, those two facts make it impossible for me to ignore what’s happening — or what is about to happen — to a guy who ought to spend the rest of his miserable life in prison.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

‘Law and order’ party? A mirage!

Whatever happened to what we once called the “Law and Order Party”?

I think I have solved the mystery. The Law and Order Party never existed in the first place. It became a catchphrase coined in the 1960s for Republicans to get tough with (a) anti-Vietnam War hippies, (b) Blacks who were angry at the illegal and immoral indignities they were suffering and (c) anyone else who sided with them.

Many of us, me included, have been wringing our hands over the Law and Order Republicans who suddenly now want to “defund the FBI,” who accuse the Justice Department of “weaponizing” itself” and who — in the words of the dimwit GOP U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, believe we now are a “communist country” because a former POTUS has been indicted for criminal charges.

An actual Law and Order Republican would never stand still for the behavior that the ex-POTUS has done during his time in office and the period after he lost re-election.

I have concluded that the term “Law and Order Republican” is a fabrication. It meant nothing when they coined it in the late 1960s and it means even less than that now that the nation’s leading Republican pol is under indictment for crimes he allegedly committed after he got drummed out of the White House in 2020.

The former POTUS’s GOP pals are making a mockery of law and order — and the insistence at DOJ that every American is subject to the same standards and the same laws.

It is yet another slimy, stinking and sickening example of the hypocrisy that has infected a once-great political party.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Please be right, Mooch

Anthony Scaramucci once served as communications director — briefly, I must add — during the Donald Trump administration.

Well, the Mooch has this to posit from the peanut gallery: He says Trump is so stressed out over the indictment handed down this past week that he’s going to drop out of the 2024 presidential race.

A south Florida grand jury indicted Trump on 37 counts in connection with his taking classified documents from the White House and stashing them in his Florida house in Mar-a-Lago.

Oh, he didn’t exactly have them secured, either. They were stacked in boxes in a bathroom, on shelves in plain view of anyone partying at the glitzy joint.

“I know President Trump’s personality reasonably well. Remember it wasn’t just 11 days for me, it was 71 campaign stops and a full year’s worth of work,” Scaramucci said. “He does not like this, he is stressed about it.”

Part of me wants Mooch to be right. I want Trump out of the way. I want him removed from the public arena. Then again, he would be so badly flawed, so baggage-laden that he would be a sitting duck for his foes.

Scaramucci says Trump ‘stressed’ over indictment, predicts he will drop out of 2024 race (msn.com)

Whether the ex-POTUS is stressed enough to drop out remains to be seen, of course. We can assume with relative ease, though, that special counsel Jack Smith’s announced indictment has made Trump’s life very uncomfortable.

It couldn’t happen to a more deserving scumbag.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Happy Flag Day!

I want to wish Old Glory, our Stars and Stripes and the symbol of our democratic society a happy Flag Day.

Betsy Ross crafted a marvelous piece of cloth back in the day and, oh brother, it has withstood plenty of tests, crises and even some assaults on its very self.

Which brings me to my brief point.

We should celebrate Flag Day not just because we honor the cloth that we fly in front of our homes (as I do in my Princeton, Texas, home). We should honor what it symbolizes.

It is the symbol of liberty, and it embodies the very founding of our great republic. Remember that our nation came into being when our founders protested the rule of the English monarch. Therefore, we are a nation born out of dissent.

Therefore, the flag we fly — and we honor! — is the very symbol of that principle.

Should those who burn the flag to protest government policies be punished because they demonstrate their opposition in that manner? Not by government edict! The Constitution protects us against any government reprisal.

I’ll “punish” anyone who chooses to burn the flag in an effort to lure me to their point of view. I am likely to reject whatever point the flag burner intends to make.

It’s their right to do so. The flag they burn is the very symbol of that right. It is why I honor the flag by flying it proudly.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Any regrets on this choice?

This question has come to me more than once over the many years of my life in Texas.

It goes something like this: Do you regret moving from Oregon to Texas, given the strange political climate that has overtaken the Texas political leadership?

My answer: Not one bit. Not for a single moment.

My wife and I forged a fabulous life in Texas, living in three distinct communities. We moved to the Golden Triangle in 1984 with our two young sons. We then relocated in 1995 across this vast state to the Texas Panhandle after our boys had left home to attend college. Then came the final move to the Metroplex to be near our granddaughter, who came along in March 2013.

We came to Texas to move my career forward. We succeeded. It was a bit of a leap of faith, given that I had lived virtually my entire life in Portland, except for two years I spent in the Army. Kathy Anne had spent the bulk of her life there, too.

My career enabled me to have a ringside seat to watch the Texas political climate change. My craft as an opinion writer and editor for two mid-sized — but solid — daily newspapers gave me an up-close look.

Now, to be sure I need to state that politics hasn’t swallowed me whole. I worked hard at my job at the Beaumont Enterprise and the Amarillo-Globe News. When I went home to my bride, I left the travails of the day behind.

I don’t object to the questions about the decision my wife and I made together to uproot ourselves from what we knew in Oregon to what we would discover in Texas. It’s understandable that some might wonder if I question the wisdom of that decision.

All told, our life in Texas has given us a great ride. Yes, I am still struggling to find my way along the rest of the journey alone, as my bride is now gone. I learned long ago that I am an adaptable creature who isn’t hidebound by old habits.

Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, once said “There’s more to life than politics.” He was speaking to me at the time … and I nodded in agreement.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, national news

Indictment = rich irony

The irony that shrouds Donald J. Trump’s indictment by a special counsel over his pilfering of classified documents is rich beyond all measure.

Think about this for just a moment because that’s all it will take for you to grasp what I’m talking about.

Trump won the 2016 presidential election essentially on a single issue, which is that he was able to tar Hillary Clinton with an undeserved label of crook because of those emails that disappeared into thin air. He spoke with intimate knowledge of the gravity of keeping classified documents away from the proper authorities.

He knew of the consequences that such a transgression could bring. He stood before campaign rally crowds that chanted “Lock her up!” It became a sort of political mantra for the first-time politician.

To be clear, what Clinton did while serving as secretary of state pales in comparison to what the indictments allege that Trump did upon departing the White House in January 2021. The indictment quote Trump extensively in the narrative that special counsel Jack Smith assembled in crafting the accusation.

Now the former POTUS says he did “nothing wrong.” Former Attorney General William Barr has said just recently that in “no universe is it possible” to excuse the taking of national security secrets, which Trump did, and store them as cavalierly as he did in his Florida mansion.

Again the irony abounds. Trump knew in 2016 that such behavior was wrong, that it was illegal and that it could land a POTUS or a former POTUS in prison.

Wow! As a former U.S. solicitor general, Neil Katyal, noted this afternoon: “I’m glad I’m a Hindu, because this sure sounds like karma.”

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, national news

This is a big … deal!

1 Comment

Well, they’re going to fingerprint the suspect, take his mug shot and listen to him plead “not guilty” to 37 counts contained in a federal indictment.

That will happen later today. I won’t spend another ounce of effort commenting on the proceeding that will occur later today.

I do want to offer a brief critique on the importance of the criminal suspect. He is the former president of the United States. He once took an oath to “protect and defend” the Constitution and to follow the laws of the land.

The very government he once led has now charged him — and the accusations appear credible — for violating that oath, for breaking the law and for failing to protect and defend the government.

This is gigantic, man!

Almost as horrific, though, has been the initial response of this clown’s supporters. They hadn’t read the indictment and began accusing the FBI and the Justice Department of “weaponizing” the process. They don’t care what the indictment states, or about the immense amount of detail it contains.

So much of the evidence revealed in the indictment, which comes from a grand jury in south Florida (where the suspect lives) is the result of the suspect’s own words. He knew he kept classified documents illegally. He knew he had to turn them over to the National Archives. He knew his lawyers were hamstrung by all of that … but he kept them anyway and then lied to the feds about what he turned over.

Is this man fit for public office? No. He wasn’t fit when he got elected POTUS in 2016 and he damn sure demonstrated his unfitness during his term in office, as he was impeached twice by the House of Representatives.

He has little regard for the troops he commanded, or for the men and women who have given their lives in defense of our way of life.

And yet … he continues to command the fealty of those who follow him blindly into oblivion.

Sickening.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Our world is turned upside down

You all know by now that my world has been turned inside-out, upside-down and is presenting daily challenges as I seek to find my footing along this journey I have been taking.

Part of that footing involves my seeking some understanding to the political climate that is causing such angst, anxiety and apprehension. I don’t know, frankly, how to deal with all of that while trying to navigate my way out of the darkness that befell me with my dear bride’s passing from cancer.

A former president has been indicted for crimes that allege an astonishing, reckless disregard for our national security; they prove beyond a doubt (as if we need more proof) that this ex-POTUS is unfit for public office. He vows revenge against those who are following the law by indicting him.

This individual’s political opponents in the growing field of presidential candidates are oddly reticent in condemning him over the indictment that lays out a most convincing case against him.

A couple of them have spoken out, but they pull their punches just a bit. Other GOP officials point at other political leaders and ask, “Why don’t the feds indict them, too?”

The juxtaposition of this political maelstrom with my personal struggle to regain my emotional equilibrium is intentional. I mean to say out loud that my keen interest in public policy would be tested to its extreme even without my personal struggle. That I am seeking to find some sense to what I am reading and seeing in real time while waging war with my emotions offers to you an illustration of what I am talking about.

I know I am not the only person on Earth who at this moment is struggling with personal tragedy. Others who are going through it know of what I am speaking.

The consequence of this confusion? It now falls on special counsel Jack Smith to explain this to each of us clearly, in bold letters, the impact that this legal crisis will leave on our system of government … and on our own emotional health.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

‘What-about-ism’ is no game

Congressional Republicans seeking to find some way to defend Donald Trump against a scathing federal indictment are engaging in a strategy that should be a game … except that it isn’t.

No way! Given the stakes involved, the GOP version of “what-about-ism” is ringing as hollow as a ripe watermelon.

I watched Sen. Lindsey Graham, the king of the Senate Trumpkins, fire back at ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos who sought simply to ask him whether he thinks Trump “did anything wrong.”

I’ll back up for a brief moment. The feds have indicted Trump on 37 counts involving the theft of classified documents from the White House. Special counsel Jack Smith announced the indictments involve obstruction of justice, violations of the Espionage Act and abuse of public office.

Graham sought this morning to compare Trump’s alleged crimes to Hillary Clinton’s use of personal email servers during her time as secretary of state. He said repeatedly that “nothing happened” to Clinton. Wrong! She was investigated thoroughly by the FBI, which determined she committed no crime.

That wasn’t good enough for Graham, who also said President Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence also had documents in their homes … just like Trump! No comparison.

The president and the former VP turned those documents over immediately to the feds, who then filed them with the National Archives.

Trump did nothing of the sort. The indictment states that Trump hid the documents from the FBI and instructed others to do the same thing. That, as you Americans would say, is “obstruction of justice.”

When I hear Republican suck-ups like Graham throw out the “What about the other guy?” response as a defense tactic for their own guy, I am left only to call it what it is.

Deflection.

They want to change the focus from their ally to their foes. It’s a phony dodge.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Commentary on politics, current events and life experience