Tag Archives: DC riot

DC riot

Thank you, Rep. Rice

Tom Rice deserves a shout out, a high-five, even an atta-boy for standing firm in his decision to cast a vote to impeach Donald J. Trump.

Rice is a conservative member of Congress from South Carolina. He’s a Republican who’s been getting lots of grief from his own party for standing up for the rule of law and for casting what he calls a “most conservative vote” in favor of the U.S. Constitution.

He voted overwhelmingly for Trump’s agenda while The Donald was masquerading as POTUS. Then he said enough is enough and voted — along with nine other Republican House members — to impeach Trump when he incited the 1/6 insurrection.

Of course, and this is no surprise, Trump has called Rice a “disaster” as a member of Congress. Rice laughs it off. He faces a strong challenge in the upcoming state GOP primary.

GOP Rep. Tom Rice says impeaching Trump was ‘the conservative vote’ (msn.com)

If he loses his party’s nomination for another term in the House? No big deal, said Rice. He’ll stand forever on his vote to impeach Trump because it was the right thing to do.

I am proud of him. Thank you for taking a stand in favor of the Constitution. If only the ex-POTUS had any understanding of the importance of that vote.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot

Will TV time enlighten nation?

The U.S. House select 1/6 committee is taking its show into prime time next week, causing me to wonder if national exposure to the testimony the panel has gotten already is going to enlighten a nation that ought to already have been enraged over what happened on the Sixth of January, 2021.

I am outraged. Make no mistake about that. The nation’s great political chasm, though, suggests that too many Americans continue to believe — wrongly! — that the 1/6 insurrection was, well, no big deal. Oh, man! It doesn’t get any bigger than a crowd of traitorous rioters seeking to overturn the results of a free, fair and legal presidential election.

What the nation saw unfold that terrible day was a coup attempt orchestrated, incited and provoked by the nimrod who lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.

I do not need to be persuaded about what we saw. However, I intend fully to watch as much of the televised hearings that I can.

Just in recent days we have received some stunning reporting that Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short, warned that Donald Trump was going to abandon Pence, strip him of Secret Service protection, if he didn’t unilaterally overturn the results while the Electoral College vote was being tabulated.

Good ever-lovin’ grief! What in the world does it take for all Americans to realize that we had a madman in charge of the nation’s executive branch of government on that terrible day!

I will hope, therefore, that televising these hearings and revealing what the committee has heard in private is going to open the gates to the truth behind the insurrection.

Then what?

First things first, I reckon. The nation will get a chance to hear in real time what many of the principals involved on that horrible day were thinking and saying while the insurrectionists were killing people on Capitol Hill in their quest to subvert our democracy.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Hoping public hearings bring movement

Bennie Thompson, the Mississippi Democrat who chairs the House of Representatives 1/6 select committee, is going to convene a series of public hearings in early June.

The aim is to reveal to the public the nuts and bolts of what committee members have been hearing in private for seemingly forever. They have heard testimony about how Donald J. Trump orchestrated efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election — the one that Trump lost to Joe Biden. They have heard how Trump watched the insurrection unfold on Capitol Hill and did not a damn thing to stop it for more than three hours.

We’re going to hear from witnesses who have first-hand knowledge of what Trump knew, when he knew it and what he did about it.

Will any of this move the needle? Will it swing public opinion dramatically in favor of what the panel is seeking to do, which is to determine who is responsible for that riot and how to prevent such a thing from ever recurring.

I know this much: I intend to watch as much of it as I can from the comfort of my North Texas man cave.

I doubt my mind will change, if you get my drift. Still, it’s going to make for some compelling political drama.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Walls closing in on Trump

Surely there are others who believe as I do that the 1/6 House committee, the Department of Justice and perhaps a local district attorney or two are getting close to dropping the hammer on the most recent former president of the United States.

DOJ has asked for committee transcripts taken during about 1,000 witnesses’ testimony; a Fulton County, Ga., grand jury has been impaneled to examine whether Trump pressured state officials to find votes to overturn election results; we hear now about handwritten notes from Trump plotting ways to overturn the election — that Trump lost to Joe Biden.

This man, Trump, is one dangerous dude.

Lock him up!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

DOJ getting serious? Well …

The U.S. Justice Department has asked the 1/6 House select committee for transcripts. Lots of transcripts. They are taken from testimony collected by the panel in the search for the truth behind the insurrection and the riot that sought to undercut a free, fair and legal presidential election.

I can hear the progressives jumping for joy even from out here in Flyover Country. Fine. Let ’em jump.

Attorney General Merrick Garland has said time and again that he wouldn’t be bullied, coerced, pushed and prodded into acting prematurely in his search for the truth behind what Donald Trump knew on 1/6 and what he did or didn’t do to stop the rioters.

I am taking the AG at his word, which I consider to be quite honorable.

He also has pledged to follow the law “wherever it leads.” That means if he finds enough to recommend an indictment of the former POTUS, then that’s what he’ll do.

Let’s first try to get our arms around what Garland is trying to do. He is trying to gather information to help him determine what to do with it all. If there’s enough to indict Donald Trump, he’ll proceed. If there isn’t enough to do so, well, he’ll proceed down that particular path.

The progressive wing of the Democratic Party keeps yapping that Garland is moving too slowly. I wish they would keep their traps shut and let the man take care of business in the way that will guarantee a thorough outcome.

I trust the attorney general implicitly to conduct his investigation with due diligence and professionalism. That he is seeking transcripts from the 1/6 committee tells me the AG might be getting closer to making a key decision on the future of the 45th president of the United States.

My hope is that the future forestalls any effort for the ex-POTUS to seek public office ever again. Then again, I am not the individual in charge of making that call. I’ll leave it that matter to Attorney General Merrick Garland.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

SCOTUS loses ‘trust’?

Think of the irony of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas suggesting that the nation’s highest court has lost “trust” because someone leaked a draft document that hints that the court is poised to overturn a landmark ruling that legalized abortion in this country.

Justice Thomas spoke to a judicial conference in Dallas. “When you lose that trust, especially in the institution that I’m in, it changes the institution fundamentally. You begin to look over your shoulder. It’s like kind of an infidelity that you can explain it, but you can’t undo it,” he said.

Wow!

Clarence Thomas says Supreme Court changed by leak of draft abortion opinion (msn.com)

Excuse me for laughing out loud. The court also lost trust when one of its members, Justice Thomas, chose to take part in a ruling involving Donald Trump’s role in the 1/6 insurrection. Ginni Thomas, wife of the justice, is an avid Trumpkin and took part at the start of the demonstration that turned into an assault on our democracy on 1/6.

I believe Thomas should resign from the court. He won’t do the right thing. The next right thing would be to recuse himself from any court matter related to the former POTUS’s effort to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election. He won’t do that, either.

Oh, no. Instead, he is going to pontificate about the court losing the trust of the people because someone decided to leak a draft opinion that sets up a monumental battle between pro-abortion rights Americans and those who would make it a crime for a woman to decide to terminate a pregnancy.

Trust? Clarence Thomas has no moral standing to talk about whether the Supreme Court has lost it. Whatever loss it has suffered is due largely because of the associate justice himself.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Jackson must go!

Believe this or disbelieve it; it matters not one bit to me what you choose to believe, but I will say off the top that I truly dislike writing about Rep. Ronny Jackson, the Amarillo Republican who’s now in the news for reasons that have nothing to do with the service he is supposed to provide for the congressional district I called home for 23 years.

The House of Representatives select committee that’s examining the 1/6 insurrection will ask Jackson to appear before the panel. It seems he has information relevant to the committee’s search for the truth behind the insurrection, the riot and the effort to subvert our democratic process.

It astonishes me beyond belief that a freshman congressman representing a district out yonder in the Texas Panhandle can make so much news. This one does. He shows up on right-wing media broadcasts to spew his venom about President Biden and to say the 2020 election was stolen from Biden’s predecessor.

The former White House physician and former Navy admiral also is quick to suggest that the president should take a mental acuity test. Has he examined the commander in chief? No. He hasn’t laid a stethoscope on him.

This Twitter troll keeps defaming anyone who isn’t (a) a Republican or (b) Donald J. Trump. The man is a disgrace to the office he inherited.

I don’t know whether Jackson will agree to appear voluntarily. The guy just angers me beyond measure with his constant Twitter harangues and his quest to make an ass of himself.

The 1/6 panel wants to know what information Jackson might have had for the Oath Keepers to want to “protect” him from the traitorous mob that stormed the Capitol.

If he doesn’t comply with the “request” to testify, my hope is that the committee orders him to do so, then finds him in contempt of Congress if he digs in against it.

The guy shouldn’t command so much of my attention, but given that I care about the people he represents in Congress, I feel compelled to call this individual out for masquerading as someone who gives a damn about the 13th Congressional District.

He doesn’t.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Stand tall, rookie congressman!

Ronny Jackson had been a Republican member of Congress for all of about three, maybe four, days when the 1/6 insurrection erupted on Capitol Hill.

It appears that the brand new congressman from the Texas Panhandle has some information about that hideous event that the House select committee examining the riot wants to hear. So, the panel has asked Jackson to appear, along with Congressmen Mo Brooks of Alabama and Andy Biggs of Arizona to give the panel information it says it needs.

Ah yes, Rep. Jackson also was fingered in a report that the Oath Keepers, one of the right-wing crazy groups involved in the insurrection, reportedly said it wanted to “protect” Jackson from harm, as he had valuable information that the Oath Keepers wanted to preserve.

Good grief. It stuns me to my core that Texas Panhandle voters chose this clown to represent them in Congress. He has proven to be nothing more — and I mean nothing more — than a MAGA sycophant for the 45th POTUS.

Oh, the hits just keep coming.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

Is there an indictment in Trump’s future?

If we are to believe the New York Times reporting on this matter — and I do, generally — then it appears that Donald J. Trump will dodge the indictment bullet in the Manhattan district attorney’s office.

The newly installed DA, Aaron Bragg, appears to be closing up shop in his investigation into the Trump Organization’s business dealings. Many of his chief assistant prosecutors have quit the office. Bragg isn’t inclined to pursue the former POTUS any further.

Now, does that forestall a probe being conducted by New York Attorney General Letitia James? Hah! Hardly.

However, it could be argued that without the NYC prosecutor’s office going full tilt on its investigation, the AG’s office might be caught with fewer evidence-gathering tools at its disposal.

Nor does this mean that the 1/6 investigation ongoing in the U.S. House of Representatives is going to flicker out and die. House intel committee chairman Bennie Thompson plans to commence public hearings in June on his panel’s probe into the insurrection. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland is standing by with possible plans to take legal action against all sorts of players from the Trump administration. Hmm, maybe even against The Donald himself?

Oh, one more thing. We have that probe going on down yonder in Fulton County, Ga., where legal eagles are investigating whether Trump broke state law by demanding election officials to “find” enough votes to turn that state’s 2020 presidential electoral result from Joe Biden to Trump.

The plot is still pretty damn thick, even if the Manhattan DA is bowing out.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot

Public hearings to commence

Mark it down on your calendar — or perhaps log it into your smart phone: June 9 is when the House select committee investigating the 1/6 insurrection takes its hearings onto the public floor.

Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson vows a complete hearing before the whole world when he calls witnesses to testify on what they knew on that hideous day. He will make them tell the truth about when they knew it and whether the POTUS at the time, Donald Trump, is culpable in the effort to overturn our cherished democratic process with the aim of keeping Trump in power.

I don’t know about you, but I intend to watch as much of it as I can. I understand there will be roughly five days of public testimony.

I am going to look forward to hearing the Trumpkins defend the activities of their hero. Defend his inaction. His refusal to stop the attack on our law enforcement personnel guarding the Capitol Building.

Moreover, I am going to hope my stomach is strong enough to digest all the lies we are about to hear.

Ladies and gentlemen, pass the popcorn, because we are about to watch a political drama play out.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com