Tag Archives: GOP

crime news

Baffled beyond belief

Let me be abundantly clear about the state of play in the upcoming 2024 presidential election campaign.

I cannot understand and never will accept how it is that a former POTUS, twice impeached while he was in office who now stands indicted on allegations that he committed 91 felony crimes remains the favorite among those who subscribe to a major political party.

And that they are poised to nominate him to run for the office he lost in the previous election even if he is convicted of any of the felonies. 

I need someone to explain to me how a voting public can be so ignorant and blind to the reality posed by the consequences of a potential conviction. The man could face a sentence of effectively serving the rest of his life in prison.

Still, he might be nominated by the Republican Party to run for the presidency … yet again!

What the hell is wrong with this picture?

Donald Trump remains the top candidate for the GOP presidential nomination. He won’t show up for presidential debates to face his gaggle of GOP primary foes. His legal team is seeking to stall the start of four criminal trials in which Trump is a criminal defendant.

He said if he’s elected to the presidency, that he will be “the retribution” of those who believe he has been done wrong. He would pardon himself and the 1/6 traitors who sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election by launching the assault on our Capitol Building.

Some of Trump’s primary foes say his conduct was abhorrent and wrong … but they’d still support him if he’s the nominee.

Good grief!

I stand behind my belief he won’t be nominated. He might not even be eligible to run for office, given the Constitution’s stipulation that anyone who commits an insurrection or gives “aid and comfort’ to those who do is disqualified.

How in the world, though, have we come to the point where this is even a discussion topic?

environmental news, Joe Biden, national news

Politics turns ugly in times of need

Don’t you just hate the gamesmanship that develops among politicians when disaster strikes communities, and even entire states? I do. It drives me batty.

For example …

President Biden traveled to Florida to examine he wreckage brought by Hurricane Idalia. Biden is running for re-election. One of the candidates wishing to succeed him is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, one of a thundering herd of Republicans seeking his party’s nomination.

Biden says the federal government “will take care of Florida.” He added that “I don’t know” what the governor’s plans are during his brief visit to the “hurricane state.”

This kind of crap seemingly occurs all the time. Politicians seeking high public office just don’t dare be seen on camera cozying up to other politicians against whom they might be running.

Do you recall the time in 2012 when Superstorm Sandy devastated New Jersey? Democratic President Barack Obama went to the Jersey Shore to see the damage. Republican Gov. Chris Christie greeted him and was photographed — get ready for it — with his arm around the president’s shoulder. 

The response from Republicans was astonishing, to say the least. How in the world could a GOP governor be so damn friendly to a Democratic president who was just doing his job as the nation’s consoler in chief? 

How about the time Republican President Bush embraced then-Democratic U.S. Senate leader Tom Daschle after delivering his speech to Congress after the 9/11 terrorist attacks? Or when he sought to console New York’s Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer by cupping Schumer’s face in his hands on the floor of Congress?

It’s common knowledge, of course, that we have only president at a time and that individual is on call 24/7 to respond to emergencies when they occur. One of the occurred this past week in Florida and Joe Biden is answering that call. Why does it matter one damn bit whether the governor of that state is running for the office that Joe Biden now occupies?

It shouldn’t matter!

crime news, Donald Trump, legal news

Trump won’t testify … ever!

All this chatter I keep hearing from TV news talking heads about the possibility of Donald Trump testifying in any of the criminal trials awaiting him makes me want to laugh out loud.

Let’s settle the issue once and for all: Donald Trump will not testify in any of these trials. Why not? Because he cannot tell the truth. Thus, he becomes a candidate for perjury.

Trump cannot tell the truth about his involvement with the Jan. 6 assault on our government. He cannot speak truthfully about how he squirreled away those classified documents from the White House. He cannot speak truthfully about the co-defendants who also have been indicted.

Imagine him putting his hand on a holy book and swearing to tell the “truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”

It won’t happen. No judge worth a damn is going to summon Trump to court and demand that he tell the truth.

Donald Trump cannot comply with a judge’s order.

national news

Impeachment inquiry … of what?

Congressional Republicans are getting ready to launch what House Speaker Kevin McCarthy calls the next logical step toward an impeachment inquiry into President Biden’s conduct.

Which begs the question: What in the hell are they seeking to learn?

President Biden’s conduct as president, as VP and as a senator has been investigated beyond all that is reasonable. The man’s been at or near the political center stage almost from the day he assumed his Senate office in January 1973. That’s 50 years worth of digging and scratching for dirt on the guy.

Have they come up with anything? No! They haven’t!

Now he’s president of the United States and is running for re-election. The GOP is desperate to find something — anything! — they can hang round POTUS’s neck.

An impeachment inquiry is going to end up in the trash bin along with the other allegations of wrongdoing that have been the subject of social media chatter. However, it won’t stop the MAGA clowns who populate House committee chairs from continuing their futile search.

And so … much of the rest of the work that Congress must tend to will remain undone.

national news

GOP group shows cowardice

Admission time: I did not watch the initial Republican Party presidential “debate” in Milwaukee.

There. That said, I cannot comment on what I didn’t witness in real time. I can, however, offer a brief response to what I understand happened when a Fox Propaganda Channel moderator asked of the group of eight whether they would pledge to support the GOP nominee if it happens to be Donald Trump, who could be convicted of felonies against the U.S. government.

Six of them raised their hands, meaning they would support Trump if he’s the nominee. Two of them declined: former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

What does that tell me? It says that most of the individuals running for president are cowards, in that they cannot bring themselves to be critical of the prohibitive frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination.

Sickening.

national news

Are we in that much trouble?

This much is absolutely certain to me as I watch the 2024 presidential election campaign and its cast of characters play out.

Which is that if a once-great political party is willing to nominate someone who has been indicted four times for felonies against the very government he swore to “defend and protect” then we are in worse shape than I ever imagined.

I say that believing two things. One is that I do not believe Donald J. Trump will be nominated by the Republican Party; the other is that he is nominated, he will go down in flames in a Democratic Party landslide … current poll numbers notwithstanding.

I have seen the polls in Iowa, where the GOP is going conduct its caucus at the beginning of the new year. Polling data show Trump with a sizable lead among Republicans seeking the party nomination. The polls tell me that the MAGA base that Trump courts is energized. The gullible goons who comprise that base cannot — or will not — grasp the reality that their guy could be sentenced to prison before they count the votes in Iowa.

Prosecutors have asked for a January 2024 trial on the indictment stemming from his role in inciting the assault on our government on 1/6. Think about that just a moment. Donald Trump could campaign for the presidency after being convicted of a federal felony crime! Dude could spend the rest of his miserable life in prison!

But at this moment in our nation’s otherwise glorious history, we stand on the verge of a criminal defendant being nominated by a major political party to become POTUS … again, after being impeached twice by the House of Representatives the first time he held the office.

I am shaking my noggin vigorously.

crime news, national news, political news

Why not debate ’em … Trump?

You know, it doesn’t really matter to me whether Donald J. Trump will be on a Republican Party primary presidential debate stage with the other guys who want to knock him off.

Truth is, I don’t give a royal rat’s rear end about Trump, or today’s version of the GOP. However, his reported absence from the upcoming debate stage does pose a question or two for me, which I would like to speak to briefly. So … I will.

Some of the GOP frontrunner’s foes are taking aim at him. Mike Pence, Chris Christie, Asa Hutchinson all have spoken critically of him, his conduct, his lack of “vision” for the future.

I want someone to ask Trump this question: What in the world do you have in the way of agenda for the next four years and beyond? This individual has none. He doesn’t speak to the future. Instead, he chooses to relitigate the 2020 election … which he lost to President Biden!

Let’s not be coy, either, about the indictments. He’s got four of them stacked up, waiting for trials. The feds have indicted him twice; two states, New York and Georgia, have indicted twice as well.

Trump can spare us all the BS about “not wanting to elevate” the others’ standing. The truth is he has no solutions. He cannot speak coherently about the future. He vows to be his fans’ “retribution.”

He is the frontrunner among the MAGA morons who dominate the GOP. And why is that? Because his “base” is too damn ignorant and gullible to realize how seriously damaged he has become and how much damage he brings to a once-great political party.

OK, I fibbed about not giving a “rat’s rear end” about Trump. Of course, I do, which is evident in the frequency of my writing about him. I care about Trump’s future only because I love my country and I do not want it sucked down the toilet drain of Donald Trump’s so-called “ideology.”

As to whether he belongs on the stage with the other GOP presidential candidates … sure he does, but only because he needs to be held accountable politically for the nonsense he continues to barf onto the public stage.

local news, political news

Congressman: a non-funny joke

Let’s just lay a couple of cards on the table and see how they play, shall we?

Amarillo and the Texas Panhandle — a region of the state I know well — are served in Congress by someone who doesn’t belong there. Republican Ronny Jackson became embroiled in an incident at a rodeo near Amarillo the other day. He got roughed up by cops patrolling the event and then used language that — to say the very least — is totally unbefitting a member of Congress.

Jackson said he was trying to help a teenager who was under duress. Police say he was interfering with their efforts to do the same thing. A tussle occurred and Jackson got handcuffed briefly.

After being freed of the cuffs, Jackson launched a series of f-bombs at the cops and threatened Carson County Sheriff Tam Terry politically, saying in effect he would ensure he loses the next time he runs for re-election.

I’ve heard the bodycam audio of the incident and, so help me, it sounds to me like something one doesn’t say if (a) he is an elected member of Congress and (b) is totally in control of himself and is not intoxicated. Per the latter point, Jackson has been known to imbibe … you know?

I have taken a dim view of Jackson ever since he moved to Amarillo in 2020 to run for the seat vacated by longtime U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry, a native of Donley County and an individual who knows the region well. I can say without an ounce of equivocation that Thornberry never would be caught saying the things to a police officer that flew out of Jackson’s pie hole.

This incident likely will blow over eventually. Panhandle voters will move on to something else. Jackson’s behavior will be swept away and he probably — as much as I hate to acknowledge it — will be re-elected in 2024. After that? Rumors are flying that he might decide in 2026 to challenge John Cornyn for the senior Republican’s U.S. Senate seat. It all would be a shame.

My own belief is that he has disgraced himself.

local news

More to the story? Hmm …

You can describe me as not entirely surprised that there might be more to a story involving a Republican congressman who — reportedly — helped someone in distress in a rodeo outside of Amarillo.

It turns out there might be more to examine in the conduct of Rep. Ronny Jackson.

Reports initially stated that Jackson rushed to aid a teenager who was having a seizure in a rodeo in Carson County. Now comes word from Sheriff Tam Terry that Jackson threatened him politically if he didn’t examine the incident further.

According to the Texas Tribune: After the congressman was released, he demanded Carson County Sheriff Tam Terry call him and investigate the incident. During that call, Terry, a Republican, said that Jackson warned him that he would “bury me in the next election.”

Moreover, we now hear from a police report that sheriff’s deputies tried to clear the area, but that Jackson refused their orders, screaming at deputies who — according to reports — were merely trying to do their job.

Jackson’s office also said that the congressman had not been drinking, but wait … now we hear that he was seen imbibing in adult beverages prior to all hell breaking loose.

“Congressman Jackson was not drinking and was prevented from giving medical care in a potentially life-threatening situation due to overly aggressive and incompetent actions by the local authorities present at the time of the incident,” said Kate Lair, a spokesperson for Jackson. “Again, he was asked to help the teenager when no other uniformed medics were present. Congressman Jackson, as a trained ER physician, will not apologize for sparing no effort to help in a medical emergency, especially when the circumstances were chaotic and the local authorities refused to help the situation.”

Ronny Jackson cursed at, threatened officers in altercation at rodeo | The Texas Tribune

What the spokeswoman does not acknowledge, of course, is that Jackson has been perceived by many as a political hothead since taking office in the 13th Congressional District in 2021. He has been heard many times making hysterical statements about the “Deep State” and vowing to investigate the Biden administration for misdeeds that never occurred.

All of this gives the latest updated information about what happened in Carson County a bit more credibility.

 

national news

OK, I am ‘woke’

I am so busted. The meme you see here helps describe the individuals who are being demonized by politicians and their sycophants on the far right.

They detest “woke” policies. It has taken me some time to grasp fully what the term even means. I still am not entirely comfortable tossing it around so casually the way, for instance, that GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis is able to do.

He said he intends to “rid the nation” of woke policies. And turn it into what? A nation of intolerant a**holes? Are we going to be so closed-minded that we cannot stand to hear opposing points of view?

I won’t stand for a nation that becomes a one-think state.

Thus, I do stand as someone who is proudly “woke.”

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com