Members of the House select committee examining the 1/6 insurrection and assault on the Capitol Building have set the table nicely for the rest of the televised hearings we’re going to watch.

Oh, and make no mistake: I will watch them all … if I can.

Committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney — one of two Republicans serving on the panel — has set the stage for a possible recommendation of criminal indictments against Donald J. Trump. Chairman Bennie Thompson said as much, too, suggesting that the evidence the committee has seen to date present a planned, orchestrated plot conducted from within the Oval Office to overturn the 2020 presidential election results and keep Trump in power.

From my perch in the cheap seats, that is an illegal act. Trump broke the law. Attorney General Merrick Garland well might find he has no choice but to send this matter to a grand jury, which then could indict the 45th president of the United States on federal felony charges.

I guess a quick word of thanks is in order to Chairman Thompson for letting us see this investigation play out in our living rooms.

Not that I need convincing. I am learning a bit more about the Constitution and the protection it provides against the kind of lawlessness we witnessed unfolding in that attack on our democratic process.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Americans are likely to witness one of the most artful dodges in the nation’s political history.

My only hope is that most Americans will see it for what it is: an effort to cover the backside of a corrupt, immoral and ignorant president who endorsed an insurrection and didn’t lift a finger to stop it when it occurred.

We’ve just seen Day One of the televised hearings of the House of Representatives select committee examining the 1/6 insurrection.

Donald Trump was responsible for inciting the assault on our nation’s capital and our democratic process. I reached that conclusion long ago.

We are going to hear recordings of Republican congressional leaders condemn the president’s non-response to the insurrection. They will tell us once again that Trump provoked the attack. That he is singularly responsible for the effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Now, though, they stand with the criminal who masqueraded as our commander in chief. How are they going to defend what clearly is the indefensible conduct of a man possessed with the burning desire to cling to power.

The former POTUS’s daughter has said she endorses the view of then-Attorney General William Barr, who said Trump’s claim of “widespread voter fraud” in the 2020 election is nothing but “bullsh**.”

Now we have learned that The Donald actually endorsed the chant of “Hang Mike Pence!” that came from the traitorous mob, telling aides that the former vice president of the United States deserved to be hanged. Incredible!

So, again comes the question: How in the name of democracy do the Trump toadies in government and across the land defend this individual? 

Well, there will be an effort made to deflect what we have heard and seen with our ears and our eyes. Americans of conscience must not let this deflection succeed.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I am awaiting the start of televised testimony tonight into the insurrection that sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

I’ll admit to having made up my mind long ago about what happened, who is responsible and what should occur. Still, I await the testimony tonight and in subsequent 1/6 House select committee hearings with a bit of eager anticipation.

I know that Donald Trump incited the riot. I also know that he did nothing to stop it. I know he hasn’t expressed the slightest shred of public regret or sadness at the loss of life and the injuries suffered that day. I also believe the Justice Department should indict the ex-POTUS on charges of conspiring to commit sedition.

My mind will not change as a result of these hearings. Indeed, it might harden. I well might feel more inclined the believe the very worst about a man I have despised long before he became a politician.

But … I intend to watch. You’ll be hearing from me in the days to come. Honest.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I am full of equal parts hope and fear as the U.S.  House 1/6 select committee prepares to air in public much of what it has heard in private about the insurrection that occurred on the Sixth of January, 2021.

I hope that the public will rally around what I am certain will be appalling evidence that the former president conspired to overturn the results of a fair and legal election.

My fear is that The Donald’s cultists will be energized to label it all as “fake news” and well could win the argument that will ensue.

Moreover, I hope that the public’s rage at what it learns will erode even more Trump’s hold on the Republican Party, that he will be seen as the clear and present danger to the democratic system of government he once took an oath to protect.

Then again, I fear that the Trumpkins’ grip will tighten and the GOP will continue to nominate certifiable nut jobs to high office.

We’re coming up on the 50th anniversary of the burglary at the Democratic National Commitee offices in the Watergate complex. On June 17, 1972, seven dipsh**s were caught rifling through files. The coverup that ensued found its way to the White House. President Nixon had to resign.

He quit because he was told by Republican senators he didn’t have the support within the body to survive an impeachment trial.

My hope is that enough Republicans will surface after the public revelations of the 1/6 insurrection that Trump will be forced into hiding, never to be seen or heard from again.

My fear is that the Republican Party today is populated by cowards.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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