Tag Archives: DC riot

national news, national security

Get to the root of the Capitol Hill riot

(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Those of us who are old enough to remember it likely would provide the same answer to this question: What is the most serious security breach in our nation’s history?

I would answer: 9/11. Terrorists flew three passenger jets into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and could have crashed a fourth jetliner into the Capitol Building were it not for the bravery of the passengers who fought them for control of the jet and crashed it into a field in Pennsylvania.

The tragedy of 9/11 prompted a thorough investigation into what went wrong and it produced some important reforms in the fight against international terrorism.

Now we have another monumental security breakdown staring us in the face. It occurred this past Wednesday when rioters stormed up Capitol Hill and ransacked the Capitol Building. They sent members of Congress – as well as Vice President Mike Pence – scurrying for cover. They were gathered to perform a pro forma constitutional act of ratifying the Electoral College vote that declared Joe Biden elected president of the United States. Donald Trump sought to contest that result and, well, he has contested it in hideous fashion!

Now comes the question: What in the name of national security happened and how did the D.C. Metro Police Department, the Capitol Police, and the Secret Service not respond more forcefully and quickly to the mayhem that was unfolding?

I am one American patriot who believes we need to create another blue-ribbon, bipartisan commission to study in detail what went wrong and provide solutions for how to prevent this kind of tragedy from recurring.

I also am one of millions of Americans who was horrified at what I watched on my TV screen. Donald Trump exhorted the rioters to march on Capitol Hill and “take back” the government. The rioters began their march and then all hell broke loose.

A commission charged with finding answers would have many questions to probe. They include:

  • Given Donald Trump’s threat that “something big” would occur on Jan. 6, why wasn’t the Capitol Building swarming with security personnel who could repel the advance of the rioters?
  • Why did some of the cops appear to many of us seem to assist rioters into the building?
  • Others have posed this notion, but I’ll repeat it here: Had the rioters been ransacking the Capitol been Black Lives Matter protesters, there is little doubt that police would have reacted much differently than they did with the pro-Trump mob. The question: Is that a valid assertion?

Was there a massive breakdown in security of our nation’s government? I want answers. I believe a blue-ribbon commission given free rein to search for the truth can provide the answers we need to hear.

BLOGGER’S NOTE: A version of this blog was posted initially on KETR-FM’s website.

national news

Is America ‘great again’ yet?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I have some words to share with the MAGA-hatters who might be reading these messages of mine.

We all know what MAGA means. It has become the acronym du jour for “Make America Great Again.”

I have used it a time or two — and that’s about it — as a verb, as in “Let’s all MAGA!” It usually shows up as an adjective to describe those who adhere to the message made infamous by one Donald J. Trump.

Have we done it? Those who subscribe to the MAGA world view, I want to know whether we have “made America great again.”

I was astonished beyond my ability to articulate at the sight of MAGA-hatted rioters plundering the U.S. Capitol Building. Think of the ghastly irony of that, if you have the stomach for it; I am not sure I can quite process it fully.

The MAGA crowd stormed into the Capitol alongside others carrying the flag of traitors, aka the Confederate flag. Think as well of that particular irony. MAGA-hatters profess to want to return America to greatness while ransacking the heart of our democratic system along with those plundering with them under the banner of the flag representing a confederation of states that sought to destroy America. Oh, and why did they want to tear the nation apart? They launched the Civil War to retain their right to own slaves.

Wow, man! How does it feel, MAGA-hatters? Have you accomplished all you set out to do?

national news

Ulterior motive surfaces

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

There appears to be an ulterior, but noble nonetheless, motive behind the House of Representatives’ effort to impeach Donald Trump a second time, just days before he leaves office.

The House will vote Tuesday or Wednesday to impeach Trump for inciting the riot that erupted on Capitol Hill this past Wednesday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi knows the Senate won’t take the measure up until no earlier than Jan. 19; Joe Biden will take office the next day.

The Senate won’t consider the impeachment article possibly for weeks, maybe months from now. The aim I have read is to give President Biden some time to get the executive branch of government formed, confirmed by the Senate and then getting them all to work on solving the myriad problems confronting us.

The ulterior motive? It is to ban Trump from ever seeking public office again. House members could insert language into the single impeachment article that says Trump must not be allowed to run for president, or for that matter for a school board or county commissioner seat ever again.

He incited the riot that killed five Americans. He sought to overturn the results of a free and fair election. He needs to be punished for it. If the Senate trial won’t convict him and, thus, toss his sorry a** out of office, it has the authority to rule that he must be barred from seeking any public office.

We now shall see whether our federal lawmakers can complement that authority with the will to do what is right.

national news

‘Come and Take It’?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

While watching the hideous insurrection erupt on Capitol Hill this past week, I was struck by the preponderance of at least two banners toted by the rioters who stormed into the halls of our democratic government.

One was the Confederate flag. Imagine that for a moment. The flag of traitors waving “proudly” in the hands of those supporting Donald Trump’s call for insurrection against the government.

Another was a banner with the phrase “Come And Take It,” featuring an image of some sort of assault rifle. These are the Second Amendment enthusiasts who comprise a sizable portion of the mob.

I want to focus briefly on the Second Amendment.

I suppose those who carried that banner want to send a message to President Biden and the new Congress, which is: Don’t mess with my rights to “keep and bear arms.” 

That “come and take it” mantra disturbs me to the core. I am not aware of any serious proposal being considered that would “take” guns away from citizens who own them for the right reasons: to hunt game, to shoot at targets, to protect their homes and loved ones from those who would do them harm, or just to own.

No one is going to “come and take” weapons from those individuals. Yet the notion being put forward by pro-Second Amendment zealots is that government aims to raid our homes and confiscate every weapon agents can find.

That is pure demagoguery. It panders to fear mongers. It seeks to frighten Americans needlessly.

Do I believe we ought to toughen gun laws? Absolutely! I have used this blog as a forum to call for legislative solutions that specifically do not inhibit Second Amendment guarantees that we can “keep and bear arms.”

All of this is being ignored by the zealots who contend that any effort to enact stricter guns laws is inherently an attack on Americans’ gun-owning civil liberties. It is no such thing.

How about toning down the fiery rhetoric? How about commencing this discussion once again with a new president and a new Congress that can find solutions to the ongoing epidemic of gun violence?

No need to fly that “Come And Take It” banner … especially while the nut jobs among us are attacking our system of government.

national news

Can new year be worse than the old year?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Millions of Americans welcomed 2021 with gusto, bidding 2020 a not-too-fond farewell and good riddance.

We wished for a better year.

But then the feces hit the fan just six days into the new year. This past Wednesday the world witnessed a frontal assault on our nation’s Capitol Building when angry Donald Trump mobsters stormed Capitol Hill to launch what has been called a coup against the government. It was at least an insurrection against the very government that Trump swore to defend and protect.

Instead, he exhorted the mob to march to Capitol Hill and do what they did, which is to seek the destruction of our national government.

The year 2020 was bad enough. The world is still fighting the pandemic. It has killed more than 370,000 Americans. Our national response has been pitiful. Our lives have changed and not for the better.

The year 2021 dawned with the hope of vaccines on the way. My wife and I are on waiting lists hoping to get a call that our turn has come up, that we’ll be protected against the virus.

We do have a new president and vice president set to take office in 11 days. Trump will be gone, never to be seen on the national political stage ever again. That gives me hope that the new year will be better than the old one.

If only we can avoid a repeat of the hideous rebellion we witnessed unfold inside halls of the building that houses our precious government.

I mean, at this moment on Day 10 of 2021, the new year isn’t looking so good.

Donald Trump, Joe Biden, national news

These wounds won’t heal quickly

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Let’s start with the obvious.

The wounds on our nation inflicted by the rioters who stormed the Capitol Building this week won’t heal any time soon. They will fester at least for as long as the nation remains transfixed on the doings of the man who instigated the riot: Donald John Trump.

I want the wounds to heal a soon as possible. However, I believe we need to remain vigilant and alert to what brought the havoc to the doorstep of our democracy.

Donald Trump will be gone from the White House in 11 days. The House of Representatives appears set to impeach for a second time early next week. The Senate isn’t likely to convene a trial in time to decide whether to convict him. Still, President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will be in office on Jan. 20 and they can get right to work dealing with the issues that matter the most.

Like, oh, that pandemic.

Trump wants to remain a political factor. My strong hope is that if the House impeaches him and the Senate convenes a trial after he leaves office that senators can muster up some sort of nerve and approve a provision that bans Trump from seeking public office ever again. He has proved demonstrably that he is unfit for public office. I want the Senate to codify that unfitness with an outright ban.

None of that will silence the mobsters who stormed into the Capitol Building. They could surface again. Indeed, there appear to be threats that Trumpsters could demonstrate on the day that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris take office. Our fondest hope should be that the D.C. police force is better prepared to respond to violence if it presents itself a second time.

Even as we allow time to lapse from the events of this past Wednesday we should be as alert to the rumblings from within our nation as we have continued to be to those we hear from terrorists abroad.

The rioters who stormed into the seat of our representative democracy are domestic terrorists who inflicted grievous damage on our system of government.

Donald Trump’s exit from the political stage cannot occur quickly enough. He’ll be gone, but the damage he and his followers have done will take time to heal.

FBI

FBI: Antifa not involved!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

A friend of mine noted on social media that this bit of news won’t convince anyone’s crazy uncle, but the FBI has concluded something critical about the riot that overwhelmed Capitol Hill on Wednesday.

It is that the Antifa movement was not involved in the mob that stormed the nation’s Capitol Building. The riot killed five people, inflicted heavy damage on the structure itself and sent members of both congressional chambers — as well as Vice President Mike Pence — scrambling for cover to protect them against the mob.

Antifa is that leftist conglomeration of Americans who protest fascism in its various forms. Some right wingers have suggested that Antifa sympathizers were disguised as MAGA-hatted rioters.

The FBI has said “no,” that isn’t  the case. The feds have found no evidence of any leftist infiltration of the pro-Donald Trump mob that invaded the Capitol Building, where Congress was conducting its pro forma duty of ratifying Joe Biden’s election as president of the United States.

I agree with my friend that the FBI findings won’t persuade the frothing Trump faithful. It just needs to be stated that the nation’s top law enforcement agency has put the lie to, um, another lie.

national news

BLM protests vs. Capitol Hill riot? Let’s ponder that one

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Let us consider something that needs to be said about why the nation should be outraged at what transpired Wednesday afternoon and evening on the steps of the U.S. Capitol Building.

Right-wingers are growing fond of comparing the riot to the Black Lives Matter protests that admittedly turned violent in many cities across the nation. They cite the difference in the casualty counts; the length of time the disturbances lasted; the scope of one vs. the the other.

What makes the tragedy that unfolded Wednesday so graphic and so hideous is its context. It occurred — and I will write slowly so everyone can understand my meaning — within the halls of our democratic system of government. 

You want some more context? Try this one out: They were incited by the president of the United States, who four years ago took an oath to “defend and protect the Constitution of the United States.” And he swore to God in Heaven that he would be faithful to that pledge.

Donald John Trump this week smashed that oath to smithereens one final time.

I also want to be clear about something else. This blog has decried the violence that has occurred during the BLM riots. I recognize fully that violence does not constitute any sort of “peaceful assembly” or an effort to seek redress of grievances against authority.

That said, let us not compare one series of events to a singular attack on the very foundation of the nation we all profess to love.

The Capitol Hill insurrection stands alone.

national news

No, ‘both sides’ aren’t responsible for this tragedy

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Here comes the Trumpkin Corps’s defense of what Donald Trump did Wednesday morning to incite the rioters to attack the seat of our democratic system of government.

They are now pointing to “both sides” being complicit in this hideous demonstration of sedition that borders on treason. They suggest that the heated rhetoric coming from the left in defense of the Black Lives Matter protests is as responsible for the outbreak as the lunatics who stormed the Capitol Building after getting the virtual “go ahead” from their guy, Donald J. Trump, to do what they did.

No! The seditious act we witnessed, the storming of the Capitol with the intent of stopping Congress from ratifying President-elect Biden’s victory over Trump, will stand alone in the annals of infamy in this country.

Just as President Roosevelt declared the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 to be a “date which will live in infamy,” so will Jan. 6, 2021 stand as an infamous chapter in this nation’s glorious saga.

What’s more, it belongs to Donald John Trump and the morons who have swallowed his lie about the 2020 presidential election thievery.

We must not tolerate the attempts by the extremists who insist that both sides share the blame for what erupted in our nation’s capital this week. The act of treachery staged by the mob that ransacked the halls of Congress must stand alone as an act of betrayal of all that we cherish as a free nation.

That treachery rests with Donald Trump.

State news

Trump soon to be gone; others, such as Sen. Cruz, will remain

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The tragedy of the riot that overwhelmed Capitol Hill this week will remain seared into our national soul for a long time.

What’s more is that even though the Perpetrator in Chief, Donald Trump, will be gone in (no more than) 12 days, many of his minions — those in power — will be on the job, manning their posts and perhaps trying to become the next spokesman for whatever cause Trump supposedly sought to move forward.

Truth be told at this juncture, I hope Trump is gone before President Biden’s inaugural on Jan. 20. He is a menace to the nation as he demonstrated by inciting the riot that stormed the seat of our government.

He’ll be gone. Soon!

Who will remain? The likes of Sen. Ted Cruz, the Texan who was among the ringleaders to challenge the Electoral College result that elected Joe Biden as president and Kamala Harris as vice president.

To hear Cruz say that “Democrats are playing politics” makes me want to scream at the top of my lungs. What in the name of bald-faced hypocrisy is he suggesting? That Republicans are pure and clean and filled only with righteousness? If there ever was a more political animal prowling through the halls of Congress, he or she would have to go a great distance to outdo the Cruz Missile.

I am ashamed to be represented in Congress by this individual. He has sickened me since the day he emerged out of nowhere to defeat Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in the 2012 Republican primary and then went on to be elected U.S. senator from Texas. It didn’t take much clairvoyance to determine immediately that Cruz had the White House on his mind when he entered the Senate. Sure enough, he sought the Big Prize in 2016, only to lose to Trump.

What slays me is how Cruz once referred to his GOP primary foe Trump as a “sniveling coward,” only to become that very thing as he lined up behind a president he once called a “pathological liar.”

Ted Cruz will be there after Trump exits. He will be joined by other sycophants. Make no mistake that I will think only of that riot and Cruz’s attempt to subvert the will of an electorate every single time I see his puss on TV or hear his voice.