Tag Archives: Big Lie

national news, political news

Kari Lake: newest Big Liar

Kari Lake is trying to supplant Donald J. Trump as the nation’s most vocal proponent of some version of The Big Lie.

Lake, the failed Republican candidate for Arizona governor, is refusing to concede that she lost to Democratic Gov.-elect Katie Hobbs. Lake also is accusing county elections officials of fraud, incompetence and being crooks.

That’s right. If you don’t win, then hurl derogatory labels at professional election officials and hope that something sticks.

It’s not going to work.

Lake is a Donald Trump acolyte who has challenged the validity of the 2020 presidential election. She is an election denier! She vowed to overturn — were she elected governor — the Arizona presidential vote total that went for Joe Biden over Trump.

Kari Lake is exhibiting a profound case of political idiocy.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

media news

No ‘non-politics’ pledge this year

Years past have seen your friendly blogger — that’s me! — pledge to move away from politics during this holiday season.

I won’t make that pledge this year. I had only mixed success in keeping previous promises. This year I will forgo doing what appears to be the impossible … which is set politics aside in this period between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

However, I am making this pledge, which I am comfortable with, as I believe I can keep faith with it. Blog posts during this period will not contain the occasionally personal rhetoric I spew when referencing Donald J. Trump, the man I still consider to be an existential threat to our nation’s political fabric.

Accordingly, I don’t expect to be so visceral and angry even when referencing those who follow what passes for the former POTUS’s ideology. It is terribly tempting to speak the ugly truth about those who I believe hold treasonous views about our democratic process.

I’ll refrain from snorting fire.

That all said, I will continue to speak what I consider to be the truth about them, their cult leader, the misguided notions that come forth. I just won’t use angry rhetoric.

I also realize that having laid down that stipulation, readers of this blog will interpret my comments as being, well, unkind. That is their problem. Not mine.

If I sound unkind or mean, it’s all unintended. Therefore, I will offer a pre-emptive apology of a type I detest hearing from those in the news. If I offend you, I am sorry.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Deniers make no sense

The election deniers who continue to yammer about “theft” of elections and the rigging of outcomes that deliver losses to Republican candidates simply baffle me.

I do not understand how this alleged “rigging” is supposed to work. In Arizona, the election denying GOP candidate for governor, Kari Lake, refuses to concede that she lost to Democrat Katie Hobbs. Republican county officials in Cochise and Mojave counties refuse to certify the results because, they allege, of irregularities in the balloting.

This is nonsense. It is foolishness. It is dangerous.

These believers in The Big Lie have declared war on our democratic process. They cannot be allowed to spread their lies and do potentially irreparable harm to our cherished republic.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news, political news

Going to ignore Trump

I am going to make a solemn pledge and I expect y’all to hold me to it.

I hereby intend to ignore Donald J. Trump’s “candidacy” for president of the United States. His proclamations on the campaign trail will mean not a damn thing to me. I do not believe a single word that flies out of his mouth.

Now, I will keep both eyes on his legal trouble. I will have plenty to say on those issues as they unfold. His alleged candidacy? Not a chance.

There might be an occasion where Trump says something I consider defamatory. I’ll weigh my options then, take them on a case-by-case basis.

He won’t have an original idea to offer. He won’t offer a view for the future. He will continue to litigate The Big Lie involving alleged “widespread voter fraud” and the 2020 election.

There is no point in commenting on any of that.

So there. You may take that to the bank.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, political news

Big Liars defame election officials

The defamation of state, county and municipal election officials continues as the proponents of The Big Lie spew their rubbish.

When I hear the trash flow from the mouth of, say, Kari Lake in Arizona — the MAGA-loving Big Liar who lost the race for governor in that state — I am filled with rage on behalf of the people whose integrity she defames.

She said just the other day that Arizona election officials are incompetent and corrupt. Once again, she provides no proof of what she is alleging.

I worked with election officials during the nearly 37 years I toiled as print journalist. I did so in two states, in Oregon and Texas. To a person — be they Democrat or Republican — they were competent, filled to the brim with integrity and dedicated fully to the oaths they took to protect and defend the constitutions of the state and the nation.

They worked their tails off to ensure election integrity, whether they served the people of Clackamas County, Ore., or Jefferson, Randall or Potter County, Texas. I got to know all the county clerks whose job was to oversee elections and protect their integrity.

It simply sends my blood to a full boil when I hear tinhorn pols take pot shots at these dedicated public servants. Make no mistake about this fact: The individuals who incur the unjustified wrath of these politicians are the local folks, some of whom are elected officials themselves. Furthermore, they all take oaths of office that usually end with the phrase, ” … so help me God.”

Thus, the oaths are sacred. They are holy. They are not to be violated. Indeed, they are the same oaths the pols who accuse them of corruption themselves take.

The election deniers and MAGA types who level these baseless accusations are guilty of defaming the good character of others. They sicken me to my core.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news, political news

Now … for a positive outlook on election

With all the reaction — replete with blame over who did something wrong during the midterm election — I want to take a moment or two to ponder the positive takeaways one can get from the balloting.

Democrats held off the Republican “red wave” by maintaining control of the Senate and, also importantly, by minimizing the Republican ascent to majority status in the House.

When the ballots are counted, it appears that the GOP will occupy 219 House seats, compared to 216 Democrats serving in the lower chamber. Republicans need 218 to win an outright majority. They got one more than the bare minimum.

Who deserves credit for Democrats’ stronger-than-expected showing? I suppose you can start with the abysmal quality of many GOP candidates. Some of them didn’t deserve to be nominated by their party, let alone elected to public office.

I am struck by the message that voters seemed to deliver, which is that they are weary of the conspiracy nonsense. Voters favored candidates who vowed to govern. They sought out the thoughtful candidates who promised to stop demonizing local election officials, individuals who work hard to ensure and protect the integrity of our electoral process.

The process does work. It’s not perfect. But it works. It did so again in the midterm election.

I won’t seek to assess which politicians benefited from this election. It’s easy, I suppose, to wonder whether the midterm result enhances President Biden’s chances at re-election. I won’t go there. One message, though, seems to have resonated with voters. It is that Joe Biden does not deserve blame for worldwide inflation.

If he were to shoulder that blame, then he should bask in the notion that inflation appears to be lessening. Then again, I won’t assign that credit to him, either. Global economics is far more complicated than many of the MAGA types would have you believe.

The election is over. The task now awaiting Democratic and Republican politicians alike is determining how they intend to govern with such narrow majorities in the Senate and the House. Remember that if Democrats secure 51 seats in the Senate and Republicans finish with 219 seats in the House, neither party has any room for mistakes.

Still, the midterm election ended with democracy having a good day at the polls.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Election denier gets the boot

Kari Lake has just joined the roster of fellow deniers of the 2020 presidential election.

That is, she’s now a loser, having been defeated for the Arizona governor’s office by Democrat Katie Hobbs, who served as Arizona secretary of state and presided over the election that helped send Joe Biden to the White House.

Oh, did I mention that Lake had been endorsed by the man President Biden defeated in 2020, Donald John Trump? Well, you knew that.

Lake has been ardent denier of the truth, which is that Biden won a free, fair and legal election. Lake has been among the Big Liars who have alleged widespread voter fraud that did not exist.

Well, may this defeat signal the end of her presence on the national political scene … along with all the other liars.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Oz does what? Concedes?

Mehmet Oz did something that in another time wouldn’t be cause for comment. The here and now, though, prompts a brief response.

Oz lost his race for the U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania to Democrat John Fetterman. What did Oz do? He conceded the race and called for unity!

Why is that worth a hats off? Because Oz had been endorsed by Donald J. Trump, but shied away from some of Trump’s more outrageous mantras, such as The Big Lie about voter fraud tainting the 2020 presidential election.

Oz, though, stayed on the high road. Fetterman defeated the Republican by about 5 percentage points. Unlike his political benefactor, Oz had the good taste and grace to do with losing candidates have done since the beginning of the republic. He conceded the contest to his opponent.

If only the Big Liar in Chief would follow that lead.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Reason, sanity prevail

Let us praise the return of some semblance of sanity to the American political process with news out of Nevada that Democrats are going to retain control of the next U.S. Senate.

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto will return to Capitol Hill, ensuring that Democrats will occupy at least 50 seats on the upper legislative chamber. The number could rise to 51 if Sen. Raphael Warnock wins the Georgia runoff next month against Republican challenger Herschel Walker; I will root vigorously for that outcome.

What the returns tell me, though, is that American voters across the land are rejecting the Big Lie about alleged vote fraud; they want a return to reasonable debate and discussion; they are giving the heave-ho to notions promoted by those on the far right who condone violence as a form of political discourse.

We are seeing, it seems to me, a return of sanity and reason.

May it continue its regeneration from this day forward.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, national news, political news, State news

Bidding farewell to nutjobs

Let us now bid a hearty and heartfelt adieu to the bevy of blowhards who sought to infect government at all levels with their toxic views about election denial and how they intend to “make America great again.”

Many of them — not all, I am sad to acknowledge — got their proverbial melons thumped by Democrats in the 2022 midterm election. They were — and are — unqualified and unfit for public office. Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania is my example du jour of the kind of nut case that had no business taking a much more qualified opponent, John Fetterman, to the distance before losing the contest for the U.S. Senate.

Oz had been selected to run as a Republican by Donald John Trump. Oz’s political credentials, simply put, do not exist. He’s gone. I hope he’s gone forever.

Trump’s fingerprints are all over the political corpses that litter the roadway to oblivion. Election denier Doug Mastriano lost his bid to become Pennsylvania governor. Another denier, Kari Lake, might win the Arizona governor’s race over a more qualified Democrat, Kelly Hobbs; then again, those results could go either way.

Americans from coast to coast have been “treated,” if that’s the right word, to the foolishness and rubbish that come from so damn many so-called Republicans these days.

Texas, where I live, has its share of GOP dipsh**s as well. I’ll single out Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who won re-election to a third term despite being indicted — just months after taking office in 2015 — for securities fraud and for showing time and again that he cannot be trusted to represent the state’s interests with competence and fairness.

So … with that I want to say “so long” to the cabal of kooks who populated our ballot. I am proud to say that none of you got my vote or my stated support on this blog.

I remain committed to the policy of good government and I long for the day when we can return to a two-party system that produces vigorous discussion and debate on issues based on truth. The Big Lie needs to die as miserable a death as possible.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com