Tag Archives: GOP

local news

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

political news

Get lost, Kari Lake!

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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

national news

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

economic news

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

national news

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

economic news

Who holds key to debt?

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A fascinating statistic is making the rounds out here in the Land of Ordinary Americans.

It involves the national debt, which is at its breaking point, and it speaks to the hypocrisy among Republicans who insist on spending cuts to counteract increasing the nation’s debt limit.

It’s this: One-quarter of the nation’s total debt was acquired during the four years that Donald Trump served as president. Furthermore, let us never forget — after all, Donald Trump damn sure won’t — that he is a Republican.

Thus, it becomes imperative to put this GOP yammering about spending cuts in its proper perspective.

Republicans in Congress were all but stone-cold silent during the time Trump was amassing the enormous debt. They weren’t demanding spending cuts the way they are these days with a Democratic president sitting in the Oval Office.

Why do you suppose that’s the case? Oh, I know! It’s politics, man, pure and simple.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Speaker’s deal may prove costly … to him!

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s deal with the GOP “devils” well might come back to take a huge chunk from his backside.

Consider what he has done. He has allowed some of the most radical members of his party’s caucus to take seats on key committees assigned to protect our nation’s secrets. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar will serve on the House Oversight Committee …sheesh! Then we see that Rep. Lauren Boebert, another QAnon princess, will gain a key committee assignment after voting against McCarthy’s bid to become speaker.

Let’s not forget that McCarthy also has seated Rep. George “Serial Liar” Santos on committees, too … never mind that he lied to the voters in New York who elected him about every aspect of his personal and professional life.

Get this, too: Many of these MAGA cultists insisted on power to remove the speaker at the behest of just a single House member. What will happen when he pisses one of them off enough to call for his removal?

All of this seems to provide demonstrable evidence that McCarthy very well might be the least intelligent individual ever to serve in an office that is second in succession to the presidency.

God help us!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Hey, GOP: Why change of heart over documents?

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Congressional Republicans have a lot of explaining to do … imagine that!

They have declared that Donald Trump’s purposeful theft of classified documents weren’t worth their time to investigate. Nor is his refusal to cooperate with Justice Department subpoenas to turn the documents over to the National Archives, which he was required to do when he left the White House in 2021.

Now we have a Democrat, President Joe Biden, who’s been caught with far fewer classified documents stashed at a think tank and also at his home in Delaware. Biden has vowed to cooperate fully with DOJ officials. Yes, the White House has been sloppy in answering questions about how the documents drifted from the White House to these off-site locations.

But now the GOP members of Congress want to launch a full-blown probe into this kerfuffle, which bears virtually no resemblance to the mess that Trump has created with his own classified document pilfering.

What the hell?

Hypocrisy is alive … and all too well on Capitol Hill!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Vengeance could be costly

Congressional Republicans’ vengeance agenda as the new Congress gets underway well could prove seriously damaging to any hope of the GOP maintaining control of the legislative branch of the U.S. government.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy — who will be remembered forever as the man who needed 15 ballots to eke out a victory for the speakership — takes office as the weakest and most feckless speaker in recent House history.

So … what does he do? He vows to kick Democrats off of key committees merely because of their vocal opposition to Donald J. Trump during his two impeachments and subsequent Senate trials.

Then he says he might consider “expunging” the record of Trump’s impeachment.

Then the House has announced a plan to form a committee that will investigate Congress’s earlier investigations of conservatives who ran afoul of the rules and possibly broke the law.

Oh, and now GOP members want to investigate whether the classified documents found at a D.C. think tank and at President Biden’s home violated the same rules that Donald Trump has all but admitted breaking when he spirited highly classified documents from the White House to his Florida mansion.

Then the House will consider whether to impeach President Biden, the homeland security secretary, the attorney general … along with finding dirt to fling at Dr. Anthony Fauci.

If there was a compelling message that voters delivered in the 2022 midterm election, it is that they want Congress to govern. They want positive results coming from Capitol Hill.

If Congress doesn’t deliver what voters want and instead gets hung up on ways to stick it to Democrats and to Joe Biden, well … the 2024 election could mean the GOP kisses its newfound power goodbye.

That damn karma is a real bitch … you know?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

NY GOP finds its … jewels

Well … it turns out the local Republican Party that formerly backed a lying sack of sh** who got elected to Congress has discovered some courage after all.

The Nassau County (N.Y.) GOP promised a “big announcement” today regarding Rep. George Santos. It delivered the goods.

How? By demanding that Santos resign from Congress immediately because he is a serial liar who made up his personal and professional record and pitched it to gullible voters who elected him to the House of Representatives.

Not surprisingly, Santos said he isn’t quitting. He will continue to represent the people who elected him.

My own question from far away is: Which George Santos is going to represent them?

This clown has no business serving in the People’s House, which belongs to you and me, not to a nimrod such as Santos who fabricated his educational background, his professional history, his family history, his personal life and hell, maybe even his dog’s name for all I know.

What we’re going to witness for every single day this disgraceful liar serves in Congress is a parade of reporters pressing him for details on why he lied the way he did and how he can possibly be expected to tell the truth on anything.

Does that remind you of anyone else in politics these days? Hmm. Let me think. Oh yeah, that would be the Serial Liar in Chief who served as president from 2017 until 2021.

I’ll just have to accept this fact: I won’t believe a single word that flies out of George Santos’s mouth. The idea that someone such as this would enact laws that affect all Americans makes me sick.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com