Tag Archives: GOP

national news

Must we be afraid?

Republican politicians and those who follow them have become adept at scaring the bejeebers out of folks.

Yes, the GOP is campaigning on fear. They tell us they fear their political foes are up to no good.

Let’s cite an example or two, or maybe three.

The GOP has told us since time began that Democrats and liberals are going to take away our guns. They want to disarm Americans. They do not subscribe to the Second Amendment’s guarantee that all Americans are entitled to “keep and bear arms.” They want voters to fear the worst on that matter.

Republicans want you to fear Democrats pushing a “woke” agenda that does all sorts of frightening things, such as “indoctrinate” our children into changing their gender, or seeking to convert everyone to becoming gay.

The GOP fears our children being taught about our nation’s history of racism. Republicans deny the existence of racist policies. They don’t want the Civil War taught as a lesson in states seeking to preserve slavery and their willingness to go to war with the U.S. government to keep slaves in bondage.

I hope you understand my point. The GOP has become a party of fear merchants. They are afraid of losing their grip on power and they want voters to join them in fearing the worst among their foes.

It’s frightening.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Liz Cheney a Democrat? C’mon!

You hear it from time to time, that Liz Cheney is going to become a Democrat after spending a lifetime as a Republican.

All I can say to that is … c’mon, man. It won’t happen. Not ever.

At least that’s my belief.

Cheney is the former Wyoming congresswoman who bolted GOP orthodoxy by being a staunch, vocal and ferocious critic of Donald J. Trump because, in many millions of Americans’ view, he violated his oath of office.

She paid for her rebellion by being ousted from the party and then by losing her 2022 GOP primary election to a Trumpkin.

But … is all of this reason for her to become a Democrat? No. It isn’t.

Cheney has said all along that she remains a pro-gun, pro-life, low-tax, fiscal conservative who believes strongly in the traditional Republican principles that led her to join the party of her father, former U.S. Rep. and ex-Vice President Dick Cheney.

Her only variation from what passes now for Republicanism is that she believes Donald Trump is a menace to the nation and should never, ever return to the White House … especially as president of the United States.

As for the talk about her joining the Democratic Party, it ain’t gonna happen … again, that’s my belief. Still, there is much to admire about a politician who is willing to pay the political price Liz Cheney paid while standing tall for democracy.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

economic news

Word of warning: Don’t default, GOP

The men and women serving in Congress as Republicans seem to have lost their collective minds.

They are threatening to allow the United States — for the first time in its history — to default on its debt obligations. They want to negotiate big spending cuts to, um, reduce the national debt before allowing the debt ceiling to be lifted.

If Congress and the president fail to reach an agreement, well, catastrophe looms. President Biden says he won’t negotiate over the debt ceiling, because it’s an action the government has taken since the founding of the republic.

If we default on our debts, all hell is going to bust loose. All hell, I’m telling ya!

I don’t know about you, but I do not want to see my retirement portfolio flushed away. Yet that is what well could happen if we default on our debts.

I hasten to add that when Republicans served as president, the GOP was OK with raising the ceiling. No problem, man. They locked arms with their Democratic colleagues.

I also want to point out that the latest GOP pol to occupy the White House ran the debt up at a greater pace than any other administration in history. Where was the Republican outrage over that? I know the answer: There was none!

Congressional Republicans need to quit playing games and threatening to bring calamity to hundreds of millions of Americans’ financial well-being.

Time is running out. Raise the damn debt ceiling!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

‘Representative democracy,’ yes?

When the founders created this great nation, they established a “representative democracy” in which those we elect to public office are charged with representing the majority view of those who send them to office.

Why, then, does the Texas Legislature — to cite just one example — continue to resist the will of the people who appear to support increasing the minimum age for those wishing to purchase firearms?

That’s what is going on here, according to a new poll published by the University of Texas.

The Texas Tribune reports: Released Wednesday, the survey from the University of Texas at Austin found 76% of voters support “raising the legal age to purchase any firearm from 18 years of age to 21 years of age.” Twenty percent of voters oppose the idea. Republicans back the proposal 64% to 31%.

Poll finds Texans support raising age to buy guns from 18 to 21 | The Texas Tribune

What is just as staggering as the overall support for such a measure is the significant majority of Texans who call themselves Republicans who also support increasing the minimum age.

Indeed, the GOP that controls the Legislature along with every single statewide office in Texas ought to listen to the will of the people for whom they work instead of the gun lobby that keeps funneling money to their campaigns.

I am not suggesting that increasing the age limit is the end-all to the spate of gun violence that plagues our society. It merely adds one more reasonable requirement for those wishing to purchase a firearm. While we’re at it, why not also include universal background checks to ensure that the gun purchaser isn’t a threat to those around him.

I doubt seriously the nation’s founders would approve of the way this political climate has shaken out 200-plus years after they created this representative democracy.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Monument to mass shooting victims? Yes!

Joe Moody has an idea that he hopes his fellow Texas legislators will move into final passage and ultimately into law.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear likely that the El Paso Democrat’s idea will see a fruitful end. He wants the state to erect a monument to all the victims of mass shootings in Texas. He wants the monument to be erected on the Capitol grounds to remind visitors — and legislators — of the crisis we are enduring with the spate of gun violence that continues to plague our society.

According to KERA-TV: “There are too many victims now, and there’s bound to be more in the future,” Moody said. “I remember when I was younger, and Columbine happened. It was unthinkable at the time. But in the years since, mass shootings have become almost commonplace.”

Moody’s community has felt the pain of mass shootings. He also served on a three-member legislative committee that examined the recent Uvalde massacre at Robb Elementary School.

As KERA reported: The text of the resolution lists mass shootings in Texas that date back to 1966, when a lone gunman killed 15 people from the clock tower at the University of Texas at Austin. The text continues by mentioning the 19 children and two teachers killed at Robb Elementary School in May 2022 and the back-to-back shootings in 2019. In early August of that year a gunman killed 23 people at an El Paso Walmart, and another shooter killed seven in late August in the Midland-Odessa area.

Texas Democrat urges Legislature to approve a monument honoring victims of mass shootings (ketr.org)

I fear the bill won’t go anywhere in a Legislature dominated by Republicans, who themselves are dominated by those who are reluctant to enact any meaningful anti-gun violence legislation. Yes, I refer to the gun lobby.

If only we could remove the stubborn resistance to significant gun reforms from the minds of our state legislators.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

GOP voters = numbskulls

All right, gang, here’s a confession coming your way: I have been far too willing to overstate the intelligence of the average Republican presidential primary voter.

Therefore, I am going to presume the worst among my GOP friends, that they aren’t as discerning a group of voters as I have presumed for far too long.

Evidence of my misguided attitude? It is that Donald J. Trump stands out among the Republican pretenders for the presidency as the hands-down favorite for the party’s nomination next summer.

So help me, God in heaven. I never thought that Republican voters would be so gullible to believe that a twice-impeached, once (for now) indicted politician could emerge from a field of supposedly competent pols as the frontrunner.

What in the world is happening to our body politic?

A party that once stood for fiscal responsibility, for democratic rule over autocracy, for maintaining our standing as the world’s indispensable nation, for equality for all Americans has become an organization that is steeped in the politics of fear.

They tell us that Democrats intend to “take our guns away,” that they are “socialists” and that they condone pedophilia. They look the other way as Russia attacks a sovereign neighbor and seeks to bring Ukraine under the Russian jackboot.

Republicans are following the lead of the former POTUS, the guy who was impeached for seeking political favor from a foreign head of state and for inciting an assault on the Capitol Building as Congress was seeking to ratify the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Here he is again, never once conceding that he lost the 2020 election, seeking yet another turn in the Oval Office. And Republicans are lining up behind his overfed backside to support him.

Who knew — or thought — this could happen?

Well, not me.

I’ve been sitting out here in Flyover Country suggesting that Trump’s candidacy is going to flame out, that Republicans would come to their senses and look for someone else to lead their party. How silly and naive of me to think such a thing.

I’m not going to surrender my thoughts on the future of Trump’s candidacy. I will cling to the belief that the upcoming indictments — which constitute the main event in this titanic brawl — will doom his candidacy ultimately.

The legal system might be the only thing left to rid us of this hideous monster. We certainly cannot rely on Republicans’ (non-existent) good judgment.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

SCOTUS strikes blow for restraint

The U.S. Supreme Court, the panel with that conservative supermajority, has done what many of us didn’t expect from it.

The court stemmed a judicial rampage launched by a lower court judge in Amarillo, who ruled that a tried-and-proven pill used by women to end pregnancies no longer is suitable.

The SCOTUS allowed the use of the pill approved 20-plus years ago by the Food and Drug Administration for several more weeks while appeals play out.

Two justices voted in the minority: Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. There might have been more, but only those two let their dissents be known.

The federal judge, Matthew Kacsmaryk, tossed judicial restraint out the window with his ruling against the drug. It is an ironic ruling, given conservative judges’ inherent dislike for what they call “judicial activism.”

The case now will go to the Fifth U.S. Circuit of Appeals, considered the most conservative appellate court in the federal system. I am going to hold out a glimmer of hope that the Fifth Circuit will follow the lead established by the Supreme Court and keep the drug in use.

Matthew Kacsmaryk, meanwhile, has breathed life into the upcoming political battle that well could determine whether Republicans maintain control of Congress in 2024 … and whether they can reclaim the White House as well.

Public opinion is not on the GOP’s side in this brewing battle for reproductive rights.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

State troopers to look for vote fraud? Please …

Someone will have to prove to me that the incidents of “widespread voter fraud” justify the deployment of Texas Department of Public Safety troopers to polling places to look for incidents of fraud.

Oh, brother. The ham-handed approach to this issue is disturbing to the max.

The Texas Senate has endorsed a plan to deploy the troopers. Why? Because Republicans — who else? — believe the threat of voter fraud makes the presence of troopers a proper deterrent to mischief.

The bill passed along party lines — imagine that, eh? One Senate Democrat, Borris Miles of Houston, calls it “another attempt of voter intimidation and suppression in Harris County.”

The bill’s GOP sponsor, Sen. Paul Bettencourt, also of Houston, said, “All too often, violations of election code occur and they’re not addressed.” Baloney!

I keep circling back to the dubious notion that the incidents of vote fraud justify this heavy-handed approach to solving a problem that truthfully does not exist.

Sen. Carol Alvarado, D-Houston, said the bill is “like taking a sledgehammer to swat a fly.” Yeah … do ya think?

The proposed law would allow the Texas secretary of state to appoint “election marshals,” who then would deputize other officers employed by DPS, who then would be authorized to order local election officials to halt conduct they believe violates state election law.

There just is something bizarre about the prospect of armed uniformed state police troopers patrolling polling places looking for mischief where none is likely to occur.

Weird.

This is what we’re getting in this new age of Republican government activism.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

religious news

GOP set to impose religion in public schools

Pass the Pepto … because my gut is starting to churn over a highly contentious issue making its way out of the Texas Legislature.

The state Senate has approved a bill that would require public schools in Texas to display the Ten Commandments.

Oh, boy! Here we go.

It’s headed to the House, with its own Republican majority. Any bets on whether it ends up on GOP Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk and on whether Abbott will sign it into law? I didn’t think so.

Why is issue so troublesome for me? For starters, I need to stipulate that I have no particularly strong personal objection to the Ten Commandments being displayed in public schools. The commandments, let us remember, are chronicled in the Old Testament, which tells of the instruction Moses received from the Almighty.

That’s out of the way.

However … the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution stipulates several civil liberties. The first of them declares that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion … ” Hmm. What does that mean, precisely?

It means, as I read it, that Congress’ prohibition is exclusive to that body. Meaning that Congress can’t enact a law. Does that also preclude state legislatures? Maybe I’m splitting hairs. I also understand fully that the founders created a secular government that is supposed to be free from religion.

Does it preclude religious influence? No, not that I can tell.

The Ten Commandments clearly are a religious statement, given to us by God Almighty. Public schools are government entities, paid for with taxpayer funds, some of which come from individuals and families that might object to any element of religion being installed in public school system. Is it fair to them to expose them to a statement they could find objectionable? No, which is what the founders realized when they created a secular Constitution.

I am not going to mount a protest if the Legislature sends this bill to Abbott’s desk and Abbott signs it.

I just fear we are about to head down that proverbial slippery slope.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

GOP pursues backward strategy

It is with decidedly mixed feelings that I offer a commentary on the pursuit of Republican presidential candidates — some of whom are announced, others are presumed to be running — to win back the White House in 2024.

Their strategies are backfiring. Rather than reaching out to the middle class, to independents, to women appalled at the GOP’s assault on their reproductive rights, the party is shoring up its support with his shrinking — but still fanatic — political base.

Why the mixed feeling? Because as a good-government progressive, I want Democratic President Joe Biden to be re-elected next year. GOP candidates are playing right into Democrats’ wheelhouse with their rigid ideology.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, one of the presumed Republican candidates for POTUS, is going after the Disney Corporation, which makes me go … huh?

DeSantis is faithful to the “don’t say ‘gay'” doctrine that seeks to denigrate gay Americans. He wants to ban books from public schools that teach students about racism. DeSantis and other hard-core Republicans also resist any effort to seek solutions to the gun violence that continues to kill innocent Americans seemingly every day. And, of course, he wants to invoke a nationwide ban on abortion.

DeSantis and the 45th president of the United States are the presumed frontrunners for the GOP presidential nomination. The ex-POTUS still cannot stop harping about The Big Lie and the long-since-debunked notion that the 2020 election was pilfered from him. No! The dude lost the election!

He also has been indicted and faces the probability of more indictments to come.

There likely will be others who will seek the GOP nomination. Former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson are in. Ex-VP Mike Pence might run, too.

Who among them will break away from the MAGA base’s infatuation with the ex-POTUS? Whoever does will proceed at his or her risk, as the MAGA wing controls the flow of events within the party.

How does that make this voter feel? Let ’em fight among themselves.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com