Tag Archives: GOP

Balloons have been flying over U.S. for … how long?

Is there a chance on God’s good Earth that a top military officer’s declaration that the Chinese have been using spy balloons for years will stop the unfounded haranguing of President Biden over this latest matter?

Nope! Not a chance.

Still, it is worth noting what the commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command has said about this practice by China.

Politico reports:

The military did not detect previous flights of Chinese spy balloons over the U.S. that took place during the Trump administration, a top general said Monday, due to a “gap” in the Defense Department’s ability to track certain airborne objects.

Gen. Glen VanHerck, head of North American Aerospace Defense Command, cited the issue as the reason that at least three spy balloon flights were not briefed to senior Trump officials at the time.

Top general says Trump-era spy balloons flew over the U.S. undetected – POLITICO

Republicans have blasting Joe Biden to smithereens because of the administration’s reportedly late response to the most recent People’s Republic of China space balloon. They have cited President Biden’s seemingly slow response to incompetence. Good grief! The president acted on advice from his top military command to wait until the balloon was over open water before shooting it down.

The action reportedly has angered the PRC. Too bad. Let ’em squawk. As for the GOP critics, once again they are playing politics with an issue of vital national security implications.

I’ll stick with Gen. VanHerck’s assertion that the PRC has done this prior to the Biden administration taking office. We didn’t know about their presence because the military intelligence network couldn’t detect them.

Where’s the GOP indignation on that matter?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

MAGA cabal goes nuts over this?

Let’s see … I must be slow on the uptake this morning, because I am trying to wonder what in the world has the MAGA cabal cult so wadded up over the Biden administration’s latest action.

The Pentagon discovered that a reported Chinese spy balloon was floating over North America, from Alaska, through Canada and across the rest of the United States of America. The military brass decided to analyze what they found. They waited until the balloon had left our airspace over land and then shot the sucker down over open water.

The intent in waiting to shoot the balloon down was to eliminate civilian damage or — God forbid — human casualties.

The Chinese said it was a civilian device doing “scientific research.” You don’t believe that, right? Neither do I.

But the Republican MAGA propagandists now say that President Biden dismantled Donald Trump’s anti-China deterrence program to enable the People’s Republic to spy on us at will. That’s BS!

The Pentagon now reports that during the Trump term, the Chinese sent several such balloons over U.S. airspace, but the then-commander in chief took no action against the PRC.

Good grief, man! I am one American patriot who believes the president did the right thing in waiting for the spy craft to be over the Atlantic Ocean before shooting it down with jet-fired missiles.

I am pretty certain that once our debris recovery teams pick up what’s left of the balloon that we’ll learn that the Chinese were up to no good. As for the timing of the shoot-down, it’s another nothing burger being cooked up by the MAGA gang.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Can’t wait for Cruz to declare

Ted Cruz well might declare his intention to run for president of the United States for the second time.

Good. I look forward to his declaration that he intends to be elected commander in chief and head of state. Someone surely will be waiting in the weeds to reveal to the rest of the nation what the Texas Republican U.S. senator did in February 2021 when thousands of Texans were freezing in the Winter Storm of the Century.

You’ll recall he jetted off to Cancun, Mexico while hundreds of Texans were freezing to death. The media uncovered Cruz’s getaway, ratted him out and then he returned … only to blame his daughter for talking him into going to the warm Mexico beaches.

The man is numbskull of the first order.

He ran against the GOP field in 2016 and was the last contender standing in Donald Trump’s way before bowing out. He called Trump all but the spawn of Satan. Then he became part of Trump’s Senate suck-up squad in the Senate after Trump got elected in 2016.

The guy is a gutless wonder. Go ahead and declare your candidacy, Ted … and then be prepared to answer for your cowardice.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Who’s playing politics?

How in this good ol’ world can Republicans say with a straight face that Democrats are guilty of “playing politics” when the GOP has turned the politics-playing game into an art form.

Consider the upcoming fight over the debt ceiling.

A Republican president ran up 20% of the total national debt during his single term in office. Congressional Republicans were silent when Donald Trump managed that feat. The debt happens to be on the books already as money is already spent. Meanwhile, the U.S. Constitution calls for the “full faith and credit” to be free of the political games now being played.

Now that we have a Democrat in the White House, congressional Republicans want to hold the national debt as a weapon to use against Democrats. What the hell?

President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met today to discuss this debt ceiling matter. McCarthy came out of that meeting and suggested the two men made progress in settling their disagreements.

I get that we need to control government spending. I’m fine with that as a matter of principle. However, the debt ceiling must be lifted to allow this nation to maintain its full faith and credit. Bringing the debt ceiling crashing down would bring financial ruin. That is the truth. How about raising the debt ceiling, which is always done, and then talk about looking for greater fiscal responsibility?

Refusing to raise the debt ceiling arguably is the most brazen act of political gamesmanship imaginable. Thus, when the GOP accuses Democrats of playing politics, they are projecting their own sin on their opponents.

It is beyond shameful.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Just quit, Rep. Santos!

What you see with this brief blog post is an example of just why a disgraced Republican member of Congress should no longer serve in the People’s House of Representatives.

George Santos lied his way to election from a New York congressional district. Now we hear he might be guilty of campaign fraud and assorted other crimes.

It is no “crime” to lie to your constituents. Still, that this nut case — who lied about every aspect of his personal, professional and educational life on his way to winning a 2022 congressional election — would continue to serve as a member of Congress is offensive on its face.

Furthermore, he cannot be taken seriously, as this meme suggests. It is just one of countless such pictures depicting this fraudulent member of Congress being someone he clearly is not.

Resign from Congress, George Santos … and go far, far away.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Partisanship rules in Texas Senate

My old buddy Kel Seliger’s departure from the Texas Senate is now becoming even more clear than it was when he announced his intention to forgo another term in the legislative body.

Seliger, an Amarillo Republican, had crossed swords with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick many times since 2015 when Patrick took over as the Senate’s presiding officer.

Now we see that Patrick has tossed aside a longstanding Texas Senate tradition by appointing just one Democrat to a committee chairmanship. That would be John Whitmire, a moderate from Houston who now serves as the Senate’s most senior member; Whitmire will chair the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.

Seliger has returned to private life in the Texas Panhandle, no longer having to tolerate Patrick’s petulance and his hyper-partisan approach to governance, neither of which is Seliger’s style.

Compare the Patrick method to that being practiced down hall the Texas Capitol hall in the House, where Speaker Dade Phelan — yes, another Republican — has resisted far-right-wing pressure to appoint only GOP House members to committee chairs. One of those right-wingers, state Rep. Bryan Slaton of Royse City, told me that Phelan is rewarding House Democrats unjustly because they do not hold a majority in the Texas House.

Phelan’s response. That’s just too damn bad … just live with it.

Patrick has tossed aside bipartisanship in running the Senate. As the Dallas Morning News stated in an editorial: Texas has serious business to get done to keep us moving forward as a state. Chances are the Senate will be hog-tied with business it shouldn’t be worrying about. That’s bad for Texans.

So it goes in the Texas Senate, which will be run by a lieutenant governor more interested in sticking it to Democrats than in welcoming them to cooperate in legislating matters that will benefit the whole state.

What a shame.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Get lost, Kari Lake!

When in the name of sore-loserhood is Kari Lake going to disappear from the public stage, never to be seen or heard from again?

The election-denying Republican candidate for Arizona governor hasn’t conceded that she lost to Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs and now wants the Republican National Committee to pay for part of the legal fees she is accruing by fighting the results of the 2022 election.

Memo to Kari Lake: You lost the election! There was no widespread corruption. No widespread fraud. They counted the ballots and you got fewer votes than your Democratic opponent.

Go home, Ms. Lake. Take a breather. Decide what you want to do for the rest of your life. Just stay the hell out of my sight!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Anger permeates our politics

Make no mistake that I will go to my grave never accepting the devolution of our nation’s political climate that has occurred in the past half-dozen or so years.

We have gone from a nation where political foes could break bread together, set aside their differences and act as friends to a nation where pols are afraid of those on the other side of the aisle.

Yes, that fear runs mostly among Democrats who are demonized by their Republican colleagues. The GOP side has taken to inciting physical threats to politicians’ health, to their well-being and to their family members.

What’s the source of this intense animus? Hmm. Let me think. Oh, gosh, it must be Donald John Trump, the former POTUS who stated publicly that it would be OK for rally attendees to “beat the crap” out of protesters. Or that he would be willing to “pay your legal bills” if the authorities brought them up on charges.

This stated expression of outright hostility by a leading politician has bled into the fabric of our system of government. Members of Congress — yes, chiefly Republicans — have echoed that mantra on occasion, suggesting that their opponents are to be reviled and scorned. They are the “enemy.”

To be fair, Democrats have responded with equally harsh rhetoric. Let me clear about something: Democrats have “responded” to their foes’ expressions of hatred. The response comes after the other side delivers the opening salvo.

The late Republican Vice President George H.W. Bush sought the presidency in 1988 by declaring his intention to seek a “kinder, gentler” political climate in Washington. I’m not sure he achieved that noble goal, but his intention was honest and forthright.

Let’s not misunderstand anything here. I don’t mind vigorous debate one bit. I welcome hearing both sides argue their points. I find it exhilarating. What I do mind is when one side accuses the other of hating America merely because they hold a contrary view on a policy matter. I long ago lost count of the number of times I have heard MAGA-leaning pols accuse others of hating this great land because they dispute the right-wingers’ world view.

This level of hatred, simply stated, is unacceptable.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

New U.S. rep to hold our debt hostage?

It is with chagrin that I must report that my new congressional representative has joined the cabal of right-wing fiscal hostage-takers in suggesting that we must cut spending before increasing the nation’s debt ceiling.

Keith Self, a McKinney Republican, wrote a letter to the editor of the Dallas Morning News in which he declared that unrestricted federal spending poses an existential threat to our nation’s economic health. Therefore, he implied, he won’t approve measures to increase the debt ceiling until we curb spending … and thus will put the nation’s “full faith and credit” in dire peril.

Self’s Third Congressional District constituents might have to watch their retirement accounts vanish if Self’s world view becomes policy in the House of Representatives.

Increasing the national debt has been a perfunctory act since the beginning of the republic. Only now, with the GOP’s narrow House majority being led by the MAGA cultists who comprise a loudmouthed minority of Republicans in the House, it has become an “issue” worth debating.

This is crap! Reneging on our national fiscal obligations would plunge the nation into economic “calamity,” according to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. Why do Republicans in Congress insist on threatening to do such a horrendous thing? What the hell kind of statement are they trying to make?

Furthermore, why are GOP members taking this posture only when we have a Democrat sitting in the White House? Where in the hell was the Republican insistence on spending cuts when one of their own — Joe Biden’s immediate predecessor — sat in the Oval Office?

These congressional clowns are showboating and grandstanding — and holding our life’s savings, yours and mine — hostage to their preening and prancing.

And the man who represents me in Congress is one of ’em.

Despicable.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Why the interest in the liar?

Why are so many Americans continuing to be interested in the happenings of U.S. Rep. George Santos, the individual who lied his way into public office?

By all rights, it shouldn’t really matter how a piss ante politician from New York got elected. I, for instance, live far away from the Republican’s district.

But … it does matter! Why? Because this fraud is now able to propose and vote on laws that have a direct impact on you and me, regardless of whether we are his constituents.

The dude has become a laughingstock. He is the subject of hilarious social media memes and late-night comedians’ jokes. Santos lied about damn near every aspect of his professional, educational and personal life. No one on this good Earth can believe a single word that flies out of the liar’s mouth.

That’s just part of it. Now comes word that he is under investigation for defrauding charities, stealing money from GoFundMe accounts.

How does this guy govern, even if he is just one of 435 members of the House of Representatives? The answer: He cannot!

Republicans are turning on him, which is good. Democrats, for their part, cannot take this idiot seriously at any level.

He will continue to be a major-league distraction every minute he sits in Congress, drawing his six-figure salary and making policy statements that impact our lives.

Therein lies the reason for the interest in this moronic liar.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com