Tag Archives: insurrection

national news, political news

Wait for RINO epithets

Wait for it. They will come in due course, if they haven’t already been pouring in at Liz Cheney’s congressional re-election campaign office.

Rep. Cheney’s father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, is featured in a political ad in which he calls Donald J. Trump the “greatest threat to democracy” in the nation’s history.

You know what’s coming next, right? There will be exclamations from the Trump cultists that Dick Cheney’s views don’t matter, and that he’s a Republican In Name Only. Yep, Daddy Dick Cheney is a RINO in the eyes of those who continue to coalesce around Donald Trump.

Dick Cheney proclaims his pride in his daughter Liz’s efforts to expose Trump as the crooked fraud that he is.

The elder Cheney is trying to get his daughter re-elected to the House seat from Wyoming, the very seat Dick Cheney occupied before he left Congress to become White House chief of staff for President Ford. He then served as defense secretary for President George H.W. Bush before being tapped to run as VP with “W.”

The thing is, Dick Cheney also is right when he calls Trump a “coward” because he lies to his supporters about the so-called theft of the 2020 presidential election. The former VP says, instead, that Trump is the electoral thief, seeking to reverse the results of an election he lost handily.

I haven’t cheered much for Dick Cheney ever since he coerced President George W. Bush into going to war with Iraq on the false claim that the Iraqis played a role in events of 9/11; they played no role!

However, the ad he has participated in on behalf of his daughter give me pause to offer some much-appreciated praise for the man once called “the shadow president” during the two terms of the Bush administration.

Will the ad turn the tables and breathe enough life into Cheney’s campaign to resurrect it? It’s not likely. Then again, we ought to consider tossing the conventional political playbook into the crapper.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Changing tune on panel timetable

Once, not long ago, I was yammering about the length of time the House select committee was taking as it examined the 1/6 insurrection on Capitol Hill.

I am changing my tune. I no longer am as concerned about the time it is taking for the committee to do its job. It has more work to complete. The immediate past president of the U.S. is in trouble — it seems to me. The panel must finish its work completely, assemble its findings and then report to the nation what it has determined.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Merrick Garland keeps reminding us that “no one is above the law” and that he will follow the evidence wherever it leads before deciding on indictments. When someone says that “no one is above the law,” I am going to presume he means, well, “no one.” That includes the former POTUS. Do I have that right? I hope you think so, too.

The finished product of this exhaustive hearing must include remedies for preventing the 1/6 insurrection from recurring.

Now, having said that I am changing my tune about the select committee’s timetable, I am not going to say it should go on forever. Time isn’t exactly in the committee’s corner. The midterm election in November could produce a change of legislative control when the next Congress convenes. The House may shift from Democratic to Republican control. I say “may shift” because that might not be the slam-dunk the GOP had hoped would occur.

With that, it still would be good for the current committee, chaired by Democrat Bennie Thompson, to finish its work prior to the midterm election and certainly before the next Congress takes its oath.

But don’t rush it, ladies and gentlemen?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news, national security

Domestic terrorist gets 7 years in prison … yes!

1 Comment

Guy Reffitt can now join an infamous — and likely growing — list of Americans who have been sent to the Big House for working to overturn the results of a free, fair and legal presidential election.

Reffitt lives just across Lake Lavon from your friendly blogger in Wylie, Texas. Today, he got slightly more than seven years in a federal prison for his role in whipping up the 1/6 insurrection attackers.

Reffitt didn’t actually enter the Capitol Building during the attack. He just whipped the crowd into a frenzy from outside the halls of power.

Texan Guy Reffitt sentenced to 7 1/4 years in prison for Jan. 6 riot | The Texas Tribune

His sentence, by the way, is the longest prison term handed out, so far, by a trial jury. So, this terrorist has set a record I am sure he would rather not possess. That is just too damn bad.

The Texas Tribune reported: “Reffitt sought not just to stop Congress, but also to physically attack, remove, and replace the legislators who were serving in Congress. This is a quintessential example of an intent to both influence and retaliate against government conduct through intimidation or coercion,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo.

It is good to see the wheels of justice continuing to grind along.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump

Cheney appears doomed

Liz Cheney is facing the mother of all conundrums as she seeks re-election to another term in the U.S. House of Representatives from Wyoming.

You see, Cheney serves on that select House committee searching for the truth behind the 1/6 insurrection. She has been highly critical of Donald J. Trump and his role in revving up the crowd to assault the nation’s Capitol Building on the day Congress was certifying the Electoral College results from the 2020 presidential election.

Cheney has managed, therefore, to anger many of her constituents for simply speaking truth to power.

I fear we are going to witness in a few days a political bloodletting that will occur for all the wrong reasons.

Cheney appears headed for defeat in the GOP primary in Wyoming. Trump has endorsed a fellow cultist to defeat Cheney. Never mind that Cheney voted with the Trump administration more than 90% of the time during Trump’s term in office. Or never mind that she remains as fervently conservative in her views as ever.

Her “sin” is that she believes Trump was wrong to rile up the crowd, sending them into battle to take down our government on 1/6.

“She’s done us dirty,” said Sharon Tuggle, who identified to CNN as a Trump supporter. “Look at how she’s done Trump.” Tuggle added that Cheney lost her vote because of the congresswoman’s work on the Jan. 6 committee.

“She’s supposed to be supporting him,” said Tuggle. “She’s a Republican for crying out loud.”

“I find her work on the Jan. 6 committee just repulsive,” said another female voter.

OK. Let me spell this out one more time. Cheney’s oath didn’t mention Trump. She took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution, not Trump. That is what she is doing. She isn’t loyal to Trump. It’s the Constitution that deserves the undivided attention of all 535 members of Congress.

Be strong, Rep. Cheney. You have plenty of allies — such as yours truly — out here beyond your state’s borders.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

It was no mere ‘riot’

The more I see and hear from — and about — the 1/6 House committee examining the insurrection, the more secure I feel about some of the command decisions I made regarding how I would communicate on the matter through this blog.

What do I mean?

What occurred on 1/6 now looks for all the world like a premeditated attack on our nation’s governmental process.

Thus, I do not refer to it as a “riot,” which by definition is a spontaneous event that erupts during a protest, which brings me to Point No. 2.

I do not refer to that event as protest, nor do I refer to the mob who attacked the Capitol as protesters. The U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment refers to “the right of the people peaceably to assemble … ” The mobsters were traitors to the nation.

There was nothing “peaceable” about what we witnessed that day.

I long ago adopted the word “insurrection” to define on High Plains Blogger what occurred that day. A couple of critics have told me that no formal charge of insurrection has been filed against anyone. Testimony and eyewitness accounts of what transpired that day have confirmed — to my eyes, at least — that we did witness an insurrection.

I say all this with a heavy heart. Spare me the criticism that I am crying “crocodile tears” over what transpired on 1/6. It truly does pain me, as a red-blooded American patriot, to see this chapter being re-told in this fashion.

It is an abject lesson we all must watch and heed, no matter how much it hurts.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Keeping emotion in check

It is difficult to stop clapping, smiling and wishing that the big news announced this week will produce justice for those of us worried about the impact of the 1/6 insurrection.

But, dang! Here comes news that the Department of Justice has been conducting an active investigation into possible criminal activity by the immediate past president of the United States, the purveyor of The Big Lie, the guy who wanted to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election … which he lost!

Attorney General Merrick Garland has spelled out in terms that even I can understand that “no one is above the law,” and that DOJ is going to pursue anyone who was criminally culpable in the peaceful transition of power of one presidential administration to another.

Wow! Do you think, therefore, that the AG has his sights set on Donald J. Trump?

Looks like it to me.

However, my inclination tells me to hold off on the celebration that there might be a way after all to keep that charlatan away from the Oval Office.

The former Idiot in Chief was impeached twice. He got away both times because not enough Senate Republicans had the courage to convict him of either soliciting a political favor from a foreign power or inciting the 1/6 attack on the Capitol.

And all that yammering about the House select committee marching far ahead of DOJ in the hunt for the truth behind the insurrection? It now appears that Justice Department sleuths were doing their job all along, only in private.

From my vantage point it appears that the walls are continuing to close in on Trump. May they close to the point of making history with an indictment of the most crooked and venal individual ever to win election to the nation’s highest office.

Stay on the hunt, Mr. Attorney General.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news, national news

Go for it, Mr. AG

Given that I consider Attorney General Merrick Garland to be a man of high honor, integrity, honesty and candor, I will take him at his word when he declares …

That he would be willing to prosecute a former president of the United States for crimes against the government if the evidence he gathers leads him to that decision.

Even if it “tore the country apart”? asked NBC News anchor Lester Holt.

Yes, Garland said. Even that will not dissuade him from holding “everyone” accountable who has committed a crime involving the 1/6 insurrection.

“So, if Donald Trump were to become a candidate for president again, that would not change your schedule or how you move forward or don’t move forward?” Holt asked.

“I’ll say again that we will hold accountable anyone who is criminally responsible for attempting to interfere with the transfer — legitimate, lawful transfer of power from one administration to the next,” Garland answered.

Merrick Garland does not rule out prosecuting Trump over Jan. 6 (msn.com)

OK. Are we clear? Must we continue to hector, pester and harangue the AG over his intentions? That is unwise.

President Biden chose a man of impeccable integrity to become the nation’s chief law enforcement officer. I remain committed to the belief that AG Garland will do his duty thoroughly and completely.

I also happen to believe that Donald J. Trump should be prosecuted. But …  that ain’t my call.

I am going to hold out hope that if the facts lead us to Donald Trump’s feet that the attorney general will do what he must do to hold “everyone accountable” for the dastardly deed of seeking to overturn a free, fair and legal presidential election.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot

How does Pence remain silent?

Many things have been known to escape my occasionally meager skills at understanding certain matters, such as …

How in the world does former Vice President Mike Pence remain so silent when the whole world now knows that Donald J. Trump didn’t give a damn whether he got hanged by the mob of traitors who stormed the Capitol on 1/6?

Testimony has been revealed that on the day of the insurrection, with mobsters carrying signs that said “Hang Mike Pence!” the then-POTUS didn’t lift a finger to quell the violence. Nor did he call the VP to determine whether he was safe. Nor did he salute the VP for doing his constitutional duty.

Oh, no! All that Trump said that day about the vice president was that “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage” to overturn the 2020 presidential election and that “Pence let me down.”

What a piece of sh**!

But the ex-VPOTUS won’t condemn in unambiguous language what many of the rest of us find repugnant beyond belief. That the president was derelict in his duty that day. That he violated his sacred oath of office. That he has never expressed a single public word of remorse over what happened on 1/6.

Pence has been at the center of this investigation. Yet he remains curiously silent about the behavior on that horrifying day of the man who incited the whole thing with The Big Lie.

Go figure.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot

Hey, libs: Pipe down and let AG do his job

To be sure, I have spent a lot of emotional capital chastising conservatives over a whole array of issues. Today, though, I want to take aim at the progressives among us who are growing impatient with the pace of Attorney General Merrick Garland’s potential probe into Donald Trump’s role in the 1/6 insurrection.

Summing it up, I want to say that progressives need to settle down and quit acting as if the world is going to explode if Garland doesn’t meet their deadline for a decision.

The AG is examining whether to prosecute a former president of the United States of America — for God’s sake — on charges that might include conspiracy to commit sedition. Think of the seriousness, here.

It’s never been done before.

Now, do I believe Trump committed crimes while refusing to stem the attack on the Capitol on 1/6? Yes! I do! However, I am just a chump layman out here in the peanut gallery. I use www.highplainsblogger.com to say what I believe, which is my right as a red-blooded American citizen.

I will not have to pay the price, though, were I to seek a flawed indictment of a former POTUS.

Therefore, I am willing to give the attorney general all the room he needs to roam in search of evidence he believes will result in a conviction of unnamed, unspecified charges against Donald J. Trump.

Earth will not spin off its axis if Garland doesn’t meet the progressives’ deadline … whatever it is! He is a studious, careful, meticulous, learned lawyer. Let him do his job!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Hawley = chicken hawk

Josh Hawley has crossed some sort of threshold from mere MAGA-induced right-winger to cartoon character.

He’s now considered what one could call a chicken hawk. He talks a good game but is a scaredy-cat when the feces hits the fan.

Hawley is a Republican U.S. senator from Missouri. He was photographed the morning of 1/6 offering a clenched-fist salute to the mob of traitors gathering on Capitol Hill. The mob was getting ready to attack the government in an insurrection aimed at stopping the certification of the 2020 presidential election results.

The mob got riled up. Then it attacked.

Ahh, but where was Sen. Clenched Fist? He hightailed it to an undisclosed, secure location somewhere in the bowels of the bastion of our democratic government.

Now the senator who contributed to the attack was nowhere to be seen or heard until the mob dissipated, the cops restored order and Congress was able to finish the job it is constitutionally mandated to perform.

Sen. Tough Guy now is the object of well-earned derision in many quarters. You may count me — no surprise! — as one American patriot who detests the young senator.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com