Tag Archives: insurrection

International news

War grabs media’s attention

War has this way of grabbing everyone’s attention, even yanking other compelling stories off the front page, pushing them off the air, relegating them to “old news.”

So it is these days with a ground war erupting in Ukraine. Russian armed forces have invaded a neighboring, sovereign nation on the orders of dictator Vladimir Putin. Media around the world are reporting on it to us who want to know how this war will play out.

I am unsure how I feel about our limited attention span. I remain deeply interested in the congressional inquiry into the cause of the 1/6 insurrection. Moreover, I want to know how the House committee is progressing in its search for the truth. It will get there in due course and I plan to be waiting with bated breath when the panel reaches its finish line.

President Biden has an aggressive agenda to help boost our already-recovering economy. It is stalled in the Senate. I want to know whether the president can parlay his extensive legislative experience into working out a compromise that can push the Build Better Back bill — or some facsimile of it — to a fruitful conclusion.

There remains a boatload of issues to be resolved, if only congressional Republicans can find a way to work the Democratic president instead of obstructing him at every turn.

OK, so all of that will still be there once our attention looks elsewhere, once we remove our gaze from Ukraine. I want that moment to arrive sooner rather than later. Not because I lust for a chance to see all those matters resolve … but because I want an end to the bloodshed.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Walls close in on The Donald

Just in case The Donald suffers from claustrophobia, well … he’d better learn to deal with it as them ol’ walls are closing in on him with revelations that the House select committee looking into the 1/6 insurrection has found ample evidence of criminal wrongdoing on the part of the 45th POTUS.

The panel has introduced evidence that suggest strongly that The Donald engaged in a criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.

The evidence appears to be the product of emails from Trump lawyer John Eastman, who orchestrated a grand plan for The Donald to coerce other officials to flip the results of a legal election.

According to CBS.com: The filing also describes how Eastman advised Trump to “press an unconstitutional plan” and sought to persuade Vice President Pence and his advisers to go along with the effort. And the committee revealed how, as the January 6 attack at the Capitol was underway, Eastman and Pence’s lawyer traded blame over the violence. In one email, Pence’s lawyer Greg Jacob wrote, “thanks to your bull***t we are now under siege.” Eastman responded, “The ‘siege’ is because YOU and your boss did not do what was necessary to allow this to be aired in a public way so that the American people can see for themselves what happened.”

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-criminal-conspiracy-house-january-6-committee/

The walls are getting mighty close to choking off The Donald. Oh, how I want to see this crook carted off. Whether it occurs, of course, remains to be realized.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, political news

Congressman faces runoff … holy crap!

Can it be even remotely possible that the North Texas Republican Party is actually going to fall for the trash being spewed by the far-right wing cabal of kooks who say a staunch GOP member of Congress has “betrayed” the party simply because he favored creation of an independent commission to examine the 1/6 insurrection on the nation’s Capitol?

Oh, and that he believes Joe Biden is the duly elected president of the United States and voted to certify the Electoral College result affirming that fact?

Well, the young man who represents my family and me in Congress is headed to a runoff in May. Van Taylor of Plano will face off against a former three-term Collin County judge, Keith Self. By all rights and whatever is left of political reason, Taylor should have breezed to his party’s nomination in Tuesday’s Republican Party primary. He didn’t make the 50%-plus one vote majority he needed to avoid the runoff. Self, a fellow who contends there was widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election and implies the presidency was stolen from The Donald, now gets a chance to defeat Taylor head to head.

What a freakin’ joke!

Now, I want to be clear. I do not support Van Taylor’s re-election. However, given the choice between Taylor and the wingnut who is challenging him, I would prefer the GOP nominate Taylor for a third term in the House. What frightens me about Self is that he appeals to that fanatic cult that still adheres to The Big Lie about the 2020 election. The cultists are more likely to vote in a runoff than some of the more, um, lackadaisical members of the GOP.

Then there’s the prospect of a loon such as Self being nominated by the GOP and carrying that whack-job message with him into the general election … and winning that race, too!

I will be unable to vote in the runoff, as I voted Tuesday in the Democratic Party primary.

This all puts me in an awkward position. To be crystal clear, my preference would be for Democratic nominee Sandeep Srivastava to be elected to Congress. I just shutter at the prospect of the Democratic nominee having less of a chance against The Donald Cultist than the incumbent, who at times has shown a willingness to reach across the aisle and work with Democrats … which his GOP primary foes have used as a strike against him.

This is a dangerous political moment, my friends.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, political news

Taylor a RINO? Wow!

Van Taylor needs some help from an unexpected source. That would be little ol’ me, your friendly good-government progressive blogger.

You see, the two-term Republican U.S. House representative is getting pounded by a Trumpkin cabal of idiots who consider Taylor to be a Republican In Name Only. Good grief! The young man is as Republican as they get. He won’t collect my vote on Tuesday when we get to cast our ballots in the Texas primary.

Taylor, though, will get this word in his defense as a Republican who is far from what the RINO hunters contend he is.

They castigate him for voting in favor of an independent commission to examine the 1/6 insurrection. That’s a no-no in the half-baked minds of the Donald Trump acolytes. The independent commission idea died a quick death in the Senate. Taylor then voted against creating a House select committee. Why? Because he said the select panel would be too political. That’s crap, of course. However, that first vote is like an indelible stain on the congressman.

The ultra-right-wing group calls itself RINO Reckoning. It is based out of Ohio. It has searched for so-called RINOs around the country and has found Taylor to be a prime target. He has drawn some far-right foes in the GOP primary, such as former three-term Collin County judge Keith Self, who alleges there is ample evidence of “widespread voter fraud” in the 2020 presidential election.

What utter bullsh**! Self is revealing his idiocy with every statement he makes about The Big Lie.

Van Taylor’s candidacy has put me in an admittedly awkward spot. I dislike his view of conservatism. However, I truly hate the message being put forward by those on the far-right wing of his party. They comprise a dangerous gang of traitors.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot, Donald Trump, national news, political news

Trump far from in the clear

Two top prosecutors from the Manhattan (N.Y.) district attorney’s office have quit, reportedly throwing a criminal investigation into Donald J. Trump into some state of disarray. The chatter suggests the new DA has choked on deciding whether to indict Donald for any sort of allegation associated with a longstanding criminal probe into his business dealings.

Does this mean Trump is home free? That he has nothing about which to worry? Oh, no. Far from it.

DA Alvin Bragg reportedly has balked on proceeding with indicting Donald. Two of his top legal eagles quit simultaneously, suggesting to many observers that there’s a major disagreement within the DA’s office on how to proceed.

But let’s hold on for a minute. This is one investigation. Do I want it to end now? No! As an ardent critic of Donald Trump, my preference would be for the DA who took over from a veteran prosecutor — Cyrus Vance Jr. — to follow the evidence and the law all the way to the end.

However, the New York attorney general, Letitia James, is still working on our own investigation into Trump’s alleged business chicanery. Let us also remember that the Trump Organization already is has been indicted on charges of tax fraud and other matters.

Oh, and then we have yet another criminal investigation down yonder in Fulton County, Ga., where DA Fani Willis is examining whether to prosecute Donald on a charge of interfering in a state election process. Donald did demand that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger “find” enough votes to swing the state from Joe Biden’s column to Donald Trump.

Finally, there’s the House select committee examining Trump’s role in inciting the insurrection on 1/6. We now hear of possible cooperation with the committee from key Donald Trump acolytes, such as Rudolph Giuliani and — get a load of this! — Ivanka Trump, the elder daughter of Donald. The Justice Department already has indicted one key Trump aide, Steve Bannon, on a charge of contempt of Congress for his refusal to comply with a congressional subpoena.

This is all my way of suggesting that the resignations of the DA’s office prosecutor might not be as big a deal as many are making of it. The quitters might have stalled the progress of that probe by virtue of their resignation. It isn’t the end of Donald Trump’s troubles. Not by a very long shot!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Nothing ‘legit’ about violent protest

As one American patriot who believes in civil disobedience, I feel the need to set the record straight on why the 1/6 riot and all those incidents of violence aboard commercial aircraft are so damn disturbing.

There is not a single, solitary aspect of either event that one can describe as “civil disobedience.” The Republican National Committee recently issued a statement calling the 1/6 insurrection an expression of “legitimate political discourse.” I have participated in many such actual events that featured “legitimate political discourse.” None of them bore a shred of resemblance to the violence that erupted on Capitol Hill that day.

And yet, that nonsense came from RNC chair Ronna Romney McDaniel, who sought to tamp down the description of the event. She and other Republicans are uncomfortable with calling it an insurrection. However, to my eyes that is precisely what it was; the rioters sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. If that isn’t an insurrection, then the term has no meaning whatsoever.

Indeed, the Justice Department has indicted the ring leaders of the riot on a charge of “conspiracy to commit sedition,” which bears no significant difference to the insurrection term that others are throwing around.

The Justice Department has received a request from aviation regulators to allow a permanent ban on air passengers who attack flight crews or fellow passengers while their aircraft is in flight. DOJ should follow the recommendation and allow the permanent ban on those who are accused of such hideous mayhem at 30,000 feet above the Earth’s surface.

A group of eight GOP U.S. senators doesn’t want those miscreants banned. They contend the idiots are expressing legitimate concerns about mask mandates on commercial aircraft. Bullsh**! They are putting others in potentially mortal danger by engaging in fistfights with flight attendants or, in at least one case, by trying to open one of the fuselage doors as the aircraft is at cruising altitude.

Civil disobedience? My ass!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news, political news

Stand tall, Liz Cheney

Liz Cheney has become the living, breathing face and voice of what is wrong with today’s Republican Party, and I want to salute her for the stance she has taken in the ongoing search for a cure to the assault we have witnessed on our democratic process.

Liz Cheney is as conservative a Republican as one can find in the U.S. Congress. She represents a sparsely populated state in the Mountain West, Wyoming, and has voted consistently conservative during the years she has served in the U.S. House of Representatives.

She is no Republican In Name Only. Far from it. She is the antithesis of what I consider to be the current RINOs who populate the once-great political party. She is the real deal.

Her “crime” in the eyes of the Donald Trump cultists is that she has called out the former president for the acts of disloyalty he has displayed. He has violated the oath he took when he became president in 2017. Liz Cheney now serves on the House select committee that seeks to find the truth behind the cause and effect of the 1/6 insurrection that Trump incited with that speech on The Ellipse.

That is a non-starter for the cultists, but for demonstrating that she is loyal to the oath that Trump has betrayed she now has become persona non grata within her party. The Wyoming GOP has censured her. The Republican National Committee has scolded her publicly, along with Rep. Adam Kinzinger, the other Republican serving on the House 1/6 committee.

Liz Cheney has earned this salute only because she is doing the job she swore an oath to do faithfully. In normal times, this loyalty to her oath wouldn’t be such a big deal. These are not normal times. Liz Cheney is performing an act of political courage.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump, national news, political news

How did this guy get elected?

(AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)

As I watch the congressional probe into 1/6 trudge along — hopefully to a constructive conclusion — and then listen to the focus of that probe, the 45th POTUS, I have come to an inescapable finding.

It is that I will go to my grave wondering how in the name of political wisdom did Donald J. Trump ever get elected president of the United States in first place. And how in the name of all that is sane and rational did this guy ever avoid getting tossed out of office on his oversized backside after the House of Reps impeached him twice?

He preaches The Big Lie about the 2020 election. His cult followers cheer him on. Trump teases them with hints about possibly running again in 2024 in an astonishing bid to get elected a second time to an office he had no business at all ever occupying even one time.

I read this idiot’s comments, given that I prefer to read them than listen to the sound of his voice. I then wonder: What the hell is this guy saying?

The list of treachery, transgressions and outright treason are too numerous to check off here. You know what they are, what they entail, and you know of the damage they have done individually and collectively to our cherished system of representative democracy.

Trump’s election in 2016 is a case study of a politician benefiting from astonishing luck. The popular phrase du jour of that election cycle was that Trump managed to draw “an inside straight,” while winning the Electoral College and losing the actual vote by 3 million ballots to Hillary Rodham Clinton. I have read many accounts over the years since that fluke victory that Trump never believed he would win. When he did win, he was caught flat-footed, with no clue on how to form a government, let alone actually know how to govern.

Four years later, he got drummed out of office by a seasoned politician. He never accepted Joe Biden’s victory and skulked out of Washington the day before President Biden’s inaugural.

The 1/6 committee continues to gather information and sworn testimony from those who witnessed the disgraced ex-POTUS on the day of the traitorous riot on 1/6. We’re getting bits of info here and there about revelations on fake electors seeking to overturn the legitimate election results; about Trump sitting in the White House residence cheering on the rioting traitors; about the ex-POTUS considering blanket pardons for all the scoundrels who pooped on Capitol floors while shouting out their desire to find and “hang” VP Mike Pence.

There is much more to chronicle. I’ll leave it to you to piece together all that you have seen and heard from this moron.

I always have expected us to elect the best among us to public office. To think that one of the very worst among us managed to blunder and bumble his way into the White House simply defies my ability to explain it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot, national news

Wanting end to probe

I understand fully that many millions of Americans are fixated at this moment on the Super Bowl; indeed, I am watching it myself.

Allow me this momentary diversion back into what is transpiring in Washington, D.C. That would be the congressional probe into 1/6, the riot that sought to disrupt the counting of electoral votes from the 2020 presidential election.

You know what happened on 1/6. The mob of traitors stormed the Capitol Building and pooped on the center of our democracy. They sought to murder the vice president of the U.S., Mike Pence, and the speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.

I am ready for the probe to end. I know the House committee chaired by Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., has more work to complete. I hope it can continue at the pace it has been working so far. It needs to finish this probe well before the midterm election. I believe it will.

I also believe the committee is going to produce some constructive recommendations on how to prevent such an insurrection from occurring ever again. I will wait with bated breath to see what the panel suggests.

Moreover, I also want Donald Trump to be held accountable for inciting the riot. I know he did; you know he did; Trump knows he did.

One final thought: I don’t give a damn about whatever political implications this probe will have on the midterm election or on the 2024 presidential election.

I want the probe to conclude, and I am waiting to see who pays for the damage done to our democratic process.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot, Donald Trump, national news

‘Worse than Watergate’

Carl Bernstein knows an existential threat to American democracy when he sees it, given that he had a front-row seat at one of the worst threats ever imagined, the Watergate scandal of the 1970s.

However, he said that the Donald Trump unraveling is worse than Watergate because this crisis lacks something that Watergate contained: heroes among Republicans who told the president, Richard Nixon, that he couldn’t survive an impeachment and a Senate trial. Thus, Nixon quit the office and headed off into the sunset of oblivion.

Donald Trump isn’t facing that kind of threat from within his party, the same party of Richard Nixon.

Carl Bernstein Says Trump Investigation is “Far Worse Than Watergate” | The View – YouTube

Bernstein and his Washington Post colleague Robert Woodward covered the Watergate scandal as it unfolded in late 1972, into 1973 and ended with President Nixon’s resignation in August 1974. Bernstein and Woodward became journalism legends and their work stands forever as the definition of investigative reporting.

I have to agree with Bernstein, that Donald Trump’s assault on the rule of law, on our democratic process, on the nation’s cherished electoral system presents a greater threat to the nation than a “third-rate burglary” that devolved into a coverup and an abuse of presidential power that drove a president from the pinnacle of power.

We need answers to the 1/6 insurrection and we need to take measures to prevent a tragic recurrence.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com