Tag Archives: DC riot

crime news, national news

Insurrection + 100

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Where in the world does the time go?

It’s been 100 days since The Insurrection. I am not celebrating this momentous landmark. I will note it with shame and with disgust that the Big Lie that precipitated it lives on in what passes for the hearts and minds of those who followed Donald Trump’s exhortation to “take back the government” on Jan. 6.

We usually note the first 100 days of a new presidential administration. I’ll be happy to get to that in due course. Today, though, I want to commiserate over the Big Lie that needs to plowed asunder.

Donald Trump is holed up in Mar-a-Lago. He’s playing golf, entertaining allies, followers and friends. He steps out occasionally to say things in public that demonstrate just how evil — and yes, I’ll stick with that epithet — he truly is.

This individual’s evil intent foreshadowed The Insurrection of Jan. 6. He sought to derail the constitutional duty under way at that moment with Congress meeting to certify the result of the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost to Joe Biden.

Why in the name of human decency is it seemingly lost on the Trumpkin Corps that this individual has not yet condemned the violence that killed a Capitol Police officer, injured dozens more and resulted in the deaths of four more participants in that horrifying event?

It’s been 100 days since The Insurrection. Congress awarded members of the Capitol Police force the Congressional Gold Medal over the objections of 12 House members who disliked the term “insurrection” contained in the resolution. What the hell? That’s precisely what it was!

The Insurrection will remain in a state of dormancy for as long as The Big Lie exists, for as long as Donald Trump continues to insist that the election was “stolen” from him, for as long as his minions continue to believe it.

Why doesn’t Donald Trump just kill it dead by declaring he was wrong to launch The Insurrection and that Joe Biden is the duly elected president of the United States? Because he is consumed by evil intent!

national news

That’s how a POTUS should act

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway.

The nation today saw a display of how our president fulfills an unwritten — but still highly critical — aspect of his job. President Biden stepped up and did his duty as our consoler in chief.

The remains of Capitol Police Officer William “Billy” Evans were brought to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda, not far from where he died when a lunatic sought to plow through a security barricade Evans was manning.

Joe Biden stood up and spoke directly to Evans’ mother, the officer’s two children and to the children’s mother. He told us how he feels their hurt, their heartache. How does he know? Because he has buried two of his own children and his wife. He spoke to them — and to the nation in human terms.

Two senior political leaders who also spoke today in the Rotunda — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer — spoke directly to the Jan. 6 insurrection and the heartache being felt by the Capitol Police Department.

President Biden did not speak to that terrible day. He had no need to mention. Instead, he spoke directly to the children of the hero they were honoring and to the nation that continues to grieve over this senselessness.

That is what presidents do.

DC riot

Mitch gets roughed up by his guy … Donald

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

How much more verbal abuse can Mitch McConnell take from Donald Trump?

That’s my question of the moment after hearing what Trump said about the U.S. Senate Republican leader at that GOP donors dinner in Florida this weekend.

Trump called McConnell a “dumb son of a bi***” and a “stone-cold loser.” Oh, and Trump also lambasted other Republicans in the House and Senate who said some mean things about him, not to mention the insults he hurled at Democrats. Let’s not forget that Trump also trashed former Vice President Mike Pence because Pence didn’t do Trump’s bidding, which would have required him to violate the U.S. Constitution.

I ask this about Mitch because of something McConnell said about Trump shortly after The Donald left the presidency. He said — and this is astonishing — that he would “absolutely” support Trump were he to become the GOP’s 2024 presidential nominee.

He threw his support behind Trump after declaring that ex-POTUS was responsible for the Jan. 6 insurrection on Capitol Hill, that he “provoked” the mob of terrorists to storm the Capitol Building and prevent the counting of Electoral College votes certifying the election of Joe Biden as the next president.

So, McConnell endorses a possible — but in my view highly unlikely — Trump presidential candidacy. What does he get in return? Yet another verbal slap in the puss from the former Imbecile in Chief.

national news

Yep, Trump incited riot

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

This lawsuit isn’t likely to go anywhere, but it still needs to be pursued and discussed openly.

Several members of Congress have sued Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani for inciting the Jan. 6 riot that sought to subvert the nation’s democratic process.

The latest congressional representative to join the suit is Rep. Veronica Escobar, an El Paso Democrat, who said in a statement reported by the Texas Tribune: In Escobar’s statement, she recounts receiving text messages from her family asking if she was safe and noticing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other people being escorted away by law enforcement officers. She recalls hearing shouts, banging from the outside, being instructed by police to wear a gas mask and how “her heart began racing” as the riot unfolded.

It’s not clear to me what the plaintiffs hope to reap from a lawsuit against the ex-president and his personal lawyer.

Veronica Escobar joins suit accusing Trump of inciting Capitol riot | The Texas Tribune

But you know what? This discussion ought to move forward.

“President Trump did not incite or conspire to incite any violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6,” according to Jason Miller, a key Trump aide.

Miller needs a serious reality check. For that matter, so does his boss, Trump … although no amount of reality ever is going to persuade the former Insurrectionist in Chief of his wrongdoing.

The entire world saw what developed on Jan. 6. Trump kept hurling the Big Lie about the 2020 election, that it was “stolen” by those who perpetrated a phony “widespread vote fraud.” The crowd stormed Capitol Hill, broke into the Capitol Building, threatened to “hang Mike Pence!” and defecated on the floor of the seat of our democracy.

For as long as this chilling episode remains relevant, I welcome the members of Congress who have the courage to take their grievances against Donald Trump and his lawyer to court.

DC riot, national news

Mulvaney calls it correctly

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald John Trump’s delusion continues even as he tees it up at his posh South Florida resort.

The ex-president told Fox News that the Jan. 6 insurrection from the riotous mob of terrorists posed “zero threat.”

That brought a sharp rebuke from one of Trump’s chief defenders/enablers, former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, who told CNN that Trump’s remarks are “manifestly false.”

“I was surprised to hear the president say that … Clearly, there were people who were behaving themselves and then there were people who absolutely were not,” Mulvaney told CNN.

Mulvaney calls Trump’s comments on Capitol riot ‘manifestly false’ | TheHill

No. They were not behaving themselves.

And yet Donald Trump continues to lie incessantly.

The riot’s aim was to stop Congress from doing its constitutional duty on Jan. 6, which was to certify the results of the presidential election. It was a violent attempted insurrection. It was an act of sedition. It was profoundly violent and dangerous!

I am no fan of Mick Mulvaney. However, I am glad to hear him speak the truth about the delusion that rumbles around in the head of his former boss.

national news

Not an ‘insurrection?’ Are they serious?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The Terrible Ten members of the U.S. House of Representatives have shamed the Capitol Police Department officers who were injured in a desperate attempt to protect them from insurrectionists on Jan. 6.

Yep, their refusal to support honoring the police officers who fought off the mob still stick in my craw. Congress eventually voted to award them the Congressional Gold Medal over the objections of the 10 nut jobs who just didn’t like the word “insurrectionists” inserted into the resolution honoring the officers.

Oh, let’s not forget that one of the Capitol cops who fought the rioting terrorists died in the melee.

What in the name of democracy do you call a mob that stormed the Capitol Building, beat officers to a pulp with flag poles carrying Donald Trump banners and Old Glory? What do you call those who shouted “Hang Mike Pence!” while they stormed the halls looking for the vice president of the United States? What in the name of decency do you call those who defecated on the floor of our democratic institutions while seeking to do physical harm to Speaker Nancy Pelosi?

That isn’t an insurrection? They sought to stop the counting of Electoral College votes that certified the election of Joe Biden as president and Kamala Harris as vice president.

By any definition I can conjure up, that is an insurrection.

Every single House member and senator who seeks to call it something else should be removed from office. They have disgraced the very government they took an oath to protect and defend.

DC riot, national news, political news, State news

What is Texas AG hiding?

2 Comments

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

What in the name of full transparency is Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton hiding from the public he took an oath to serve?

This guy is beginning to redefine the term “slime bucket” by refusing to release the text of emails he sent and received while attending a rally that preceded the Jan. 6 insurrection against the federal government.

The Texas Tribune reports:

Several news organizations in Texas have requested copies of the attorney general’s work-related communications. The Texas Public Information Act guarantees the public’s right to government records — even if those records are stored on personal devices or online accounts of public officials.

After Paxton’s office refused to release copies of his emails and text messages, The Texas Tribune and ProPublica, The Austin American-Statesman, The Dallas Morning News, The Houston Chronicle, and The San Antonio Express-News are working together in an effort to obtain the documents and review Paxton’s open-records practices.

Ken Paxton refuses to release messages about attendance at pro-Trump rally | The Texas Tribune

Paxton attended the rally on The Ellipse, the one in which Donald J. Trump exhorted the mob to march on the Capitol Building and “take back” the government. You know what happened next, right?

Paxton was among the attendees. News organizations want to know what in the world he was doing there, what he said, what was said to him, whether he was a principal in the effort to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s election as president of the United States.

Paxton already has slimed his office. He is under indictment for securities fraud and is awaiting trial. The feds are examining a whistleblower complaint that he allegedly broke the law as attorney general of Texas. He filed that laughable lawsuit that sought other states to overturn their election results that helped elect Biden as president.

Now he is stonewalling media representatives seeking access to records to which they public is entitled.

What is he hiding? Hmm?

DC riot

GOP lawmakers shame themselves

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Twelve members of the U.S. House of Representatives should be ashamed of themselves.

These individuals, all Republicans, voted “no” on a resolution granting the Congressional Gold Medal to the Capitol Police officers who fought to protect Congress from a mob of terrorists who stormed the Capitol Building on the Sixth of January.

These lawmakers reportedly objected to language contained in the resolution that referred to the “insurrection” that occurred on that horrible day.

What? That is precisely what the nation and the world witnessed. The mob was provoked by Donald Trump to do precisely what it did do. If what we saw wasn’t an insurrection,  then there is no active definition of the word.

Indeed, 12 lawmakers allowed there to be a bipartisan vote to award the gallant police officers — one of whom died in the melee — the Congressional Gold Medal. The stellar demonstration of bipartisanship is to be saluted.

However, the idiotic refusal of those dozen GOP legislators — and they include Rep. Louie Gohmert of Tyler, Texas — deserves our national scorn.

The resolution will go to the Senate for its expected approval. Let’s just wait to see who among the members of that chamber follows the moronic path being blazed by their House colleagues.

national news

Who’s he kidding?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Who in the name of gullible listeners does Ron Johnson think he’s kidding?

The Wisconsin Republican U.S. senator is now trying to take back what he told the radio talk show host the other day about the insurrection of the Sixth of January on Capitol Hill.

I am certain beyond a doubt that he said that the crowd that stormed Capitol Building would “never” do anything to break the law, that they have “great respect” for law enforcement and that had the rioters belonged to Black Lives Matter or Antifa that he would have “been concerned.”

Now the Cheesehead nut job says the media twisted his remarks. That his statements were taken out of context. Huh?

Respect for law and order, for the police? What about the cops who were injured by the rioters/terrorists? Or the young Capitol Police officer who died from his injuries?

I heard what Johnson said. I heard all of it. I know what I heard.

Ron Johnson said it. He needs to own it. Oh, and while he’s at it he ought to resign from the U.S. Senate.

DC riot

Shades of ‘good people … on both sides’

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Ron Johnson has a screw loose in that vacuous noggin of his.

The Wisconsin Republican U.S. senator made a statement about the insurrection of The Sixth of January that truly makes me wonder about this clown’s fitness to serve in the World’s Greatest Deliberative Body.

He told a Wisconsin radio interview several things, two of which stand out in my mind.

One is that the insurrection didn’t “scare me at all” because the terrorists were Donald Trump supporters. But … had the shoe been on the proverbial other foot and Trump had won the 2020 election and had Black Lives Matters or antifa followers had rioted in that fashion, why, then he would have felt endangered.

The racist tenor of that remark stands alone. It is hideous in the extreme. Oh, but then he said something else that makes my spine shudder.

He said the terrorists were “law-abiding” citizens who “would never do anything” against the law. Look at the picture I posted with this blog. It shows terrorists storming into the Capitol Building. Hmm. Oh, and they killed a Capitol Police officer during the melee and injured several others, not to mention causing the deaths of about five other Americans.

To which laws were these lunatics abiding? None.

It reminds me of Donald Trump’s infamous declaration after the KKK/Nazi-inspired riot in Charlottesville when he declared there to be “good people … on both sides” of that deadly riot.

Someone needs to slap a straitjacket on Sen. Johnson.