Tag Archives: Voter fraud

national news

Compromise fuels good government

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The older I get the more I believe in compromise and the less weight I place on the value of long-standing ideology.

Which is my way of suggesting that the haggling that’s occurring over (a) voting rights legislation and (b) infrastructure legislation is a sign of good government trying to find its way into law.

Congress is wrestling with itself over both of those notions. Republicans seem wedded to the “just say ‘no'” theory of government. Anything that comes from the Democratic president, Joseph R. Biden, is deemed DOA the moment it leaves his mouth.

Biden has long prided himself on being able to work with the GOP. He did so with great effect while serving for 36 years as a U.S. senator and then as eight years as vice president. Now, though, he is deemed the enemy of the GOP, even among his once-good friends … such as Sen. Lindsey Graham and Sen. Mitch McConnell. Oh well.

He threw a $2.25 trillion infrastructure package at the GOP. He apparently is willing to settle for a lot less than that. Still, most of the Rs ain’t budging. At least not yet.

As for voting rights, the GOP now has taken up the “states’ rights” mantra, contending that the feds shouldn’t interfere with states’ ability to write their own voting rules. Except that the Republican-led states, such as Texas, are seeking to disenfranchise millions of Americans who, as luck would have it, happen to vote mostly Democrat when they get the chance.

The GOP’s other mantra? Voter security, as if there was a huge breach in that security in the 2020 presidential election. Spoiler alert: There wasn’t any such breach!

But the two sides are slogging through an effort to find some level of compromise.

I am a good-government progressive. I am not wedded so much these days to ideology as I am to seeing government work. I want my federal government to work, to serve me and my family; we are paying the freight, along with you.

Stay busy, ladies and gentlemen who serve in government. We demand you find a way to compromise. Or else!

national news

This conspiracy theory is truly dangerous

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

This thought didn’t originate with me, but I want to share it here.

It goes like this: We suffer through plenty of conspiracy theories: faked moon landing; 9/11 was an “inside job”; Elvis is alive.

None of those “theories,” though, rise to the level of danger to the democracy than the one being perpetuated by those who believe that the 2020 election was stolen from the disgraced ex-POTUS who lost to President Biden.

Indeed, POTUS 45’s insistence himself that he is the victim of electoral theft is what gives this conspiracy nuttiness its dangerous quality. That a former commander in chief would suggest such a thing, given the security attached to the 2020 election, is beyond reprehensible.

He talks of electoral theft. He speaks of a “rigged election.” He tells us that he’ll be “reinstated” as POTUS by the end of the summer. How in the world does this lunatic look at himself in the mirror? How does he continue to live the lie he is preaching?

My absolute worst fear isn’t that he is right. He isn’t. Nor are the loons who follow his rants. My worst fear is that the conspiracy theories/nuttiness is going to live on and on … much like the other loony notions have lived on.

We’d best steel ourselves for a lifetime of insanity.

national news

It’s still a huge lie

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I am in no position to challenge the wisdom of remarks attributed to one of society’s wisest men.

What’s more, I happen to agree with Rick Warren, the famed preacher and counselor to presidents.

I might add that “a lie doesn’t become the truth no matter how many times you repeat it.” I refer, of course, to The Big Lie that’s become the stuff of right-wing liars who continue to foment the notion that our most recent presidential election was stolen from one candidate and handed to President Biden.

The Big Lie won’t die. It needs killin’, man. It is being fed from the peanut gallery by a former POTUS who cannot accept that he lost fairly, squarely and legally to a superior candidate. He didn’t have the grace, class or dignity to attend the winner’s presidential inaugural. He retreated to his glitzy resort and has begun plotting to undermine Republican candidates for public office who had the temerity to criticize his actions relating to the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Rick Warren is right to suggest that a lie doesn’t become true even if a majority believes it. The good news, though, is that most Americans have not swilled The Big Lie poison, even though most of those who call themselves Republicans have signed on to the preposterous notion.

I also want to weigh in on the “evil” and “good” element of the quote that accompanies this blog post. It is that The Big Lie embodies the evil intent of the man who continues to give it life. I believe that POTUS 45 is full of evil motivation. For him to continue to suggest that thievery denied him re-election to the nation’s highest office is evil personified.

It is astonishing in the extreme that so many Americans have bought into The Big Lie, not because it has a ring of truth, but because it merely gives them a reason to concoct some pretext to be angry.

The Big Lie lives on in what passes for the hearts and minds of those who subscribe to a certain individual’s evil intent.

political news

Show us fraud, GOP pols!

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Tom Cruise yelled famously in the film “Jerry Maguire” to “Show me the money!”

In that spirit, I am inclined to yell out to Republican politicians intent on perpetuating the Big Lie about the 2020 election: Show me the vote fraud!

GOP pols in states all across the nation keep pitching for “voter reforms” they contend will protect the electoral process from fraud that they imply is rampant. The keep feeding that fantasy that the 2020 presidential election was somehow, some way rife with corruption.

Holy cow, man! It was clean, free and fair. It also was the most secure election in U.S. history, according to a Trump administration official, Christopher Krebs, who was hired to ensure the election’s security.

I watched Texas state Rep. Briscoe Cain today rail on and on about protecting the state’s electoral system against fraud. He didn’t cite a single shred of evidence that fraud even exists. Yet this GOP lawmaker is being charged with crafting vote-restriction legislation aimed at making it more difficult for Texans to vote.

He is far from alone. Republican members of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House bellow and bluster continually about alleged voter fraud. It doesn’t exist in anywhere even close to the level that these pols keep implying.

It is maddening and infuriating in the extreme to hear allegedly responsible public figures make assertions that are patently untrue and then to foist legislation on us that they base solely on the lie they keep fomenting.

Our elections are the product of hard work at the local, county and state level. States such as Texas have worked diligently to protect our electoral system. Have they enacted a totally fool-proof process? No. Instances of fraud, though, are rare. They amount to an infinitesimal fraction of the millions of ballots that we cast.

When I hear politicians cite threats and fears of “widespread vote corruption,” I am left only to exclaim in the loudest voice I can summon to “Show me the vote fraud!”

Uncategorized

The Big Lie lives on

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Congressional Republicans continue to cling to The Big Lie … and it’s infuriating as hell.

One of them, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, told ABC News that Congress has a responsibility to track down every known instance of voter fraud it can find relating to the 2020 presidential election. When he was told that there is no evidence of widespread fraud, Paul insisted on following that lie down the ol’ rabbit hole.

“There are two sides to every story,” he told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. Except there isn’t another “side” to the lie fomented by Donald Trump, his acolytes in Congress and out here in Voter Land.

Then came Paul’s effort to defend his integrity by claiming that Stephanopoulos was calling him a liar. He wasn’t. Stephanopoulos said only that Paul and other GOP Trump cultists in the Senate have swallowed The Big Lie.

Let’s revisit what we know, OK?

Courts have ruled that there is no evidence of widespread fraud. President Biden won the election freely, fairly and without fraud. Every single state in the Union certified the results. The former Attorney General William Barr said there was no evidence of fraud on a scale that would determine the outcome of the election.

I get that no election is utterly and completely fraud-free. Every election since the founding of our republic has produced isolated incidents – a voter or two here and/or there – of people casting ballots illegally. Is that satisfactory? Of course not! It did not approach the level of “widespread fraud” that Trump alleged for the entire post-election period leading up to President Biden’s inauguration.

The Big Lie resulted in the terrorist attack on Capitol Hill and the second presidential impeachment of Donald Trump. It put members of Congress – including Sen. Paul – in dire danger of physical harm … or worse!

So, for the Trumpsters who remain in public office to continue to base their search for voter fraud on a lie – which they surely must know to be a lie – is the height (or depth) of hypocrisy.

Uncategorized

‘Big Lie’ emerges from the morass

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald John Trump did the impossible.

Yes, that’s right! He managed to elevate one lie above all the thousands of other lies he told during his term as president. I will call it The Big Lie that incited the terrorists to storm into the Capitol Building on Jan. 6; they sought to stop the counting of Electoral College votes that produced Joe Biden’s election as president.

The terrorists sought to do physical harm to the speaker of the House and the vice president of the United States, for God’s sake!

The Big Lie that Trump fomented was that the 2020 election was “stolen,” that Biden got elected on the basis of “widespread voter fraud.”

Well, we saw the result of how terrorists react to The Big Lie. They presumed the worst even though there isn’t a shred of evidence to support The Big Lie.

Trump has gone silent in the final few days of his term in office. That means he isn’t lying. The Washington Post tabulated a running count of Trump’s lies. The last I heard the Post had counted more than 30,000 of them.

This one, though, is an epic lie. It’s even more critical of a lie than Trump’s previous Big Lie, which was that President Obama wasn’t constitutionally qualified to run for the presidency because of his place of birth. The former Big Lie didn’t result in  the violence that the voter fraud lie produced.

So that lie stands as the winner of the unofficial title as The Big Lie. It is one for the history books. I didn’t think it was possible for Donald Trump to lift one lie above all the mess of lies he told.

But … he did! Wow!

national news

Is a capitulation possible?

(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Here’s a thought to ponder, not that I am predicting; just offering this item as a potential development that could really upset damn near everything we’ve been saying about Donald J. Trump.

Just suppose …

  • That after Congress ratifies the Electoral College victory that President-elect Biden won on Nov. 3, Trump throws in the towel.
  • That he decides there really is no path to “overturn” the results of an election that Biden won handily.
  • That he gives up his lawless and feckless fight and says — through gritted teeth — that Joe Biden is the next president of the United States. He wouldn’t offer congratulations or good wishes. He would just, um, say that Biden won the election.

Do you think it’s possible? Do you think that someone who is as mercurial and behaves as bizarrely as Trump is capable of just surrendering to the reality that we all know exists?

Sigh … I don’t think so, either. But with this idiot, you just never know.

national news

Call it ‘horrific’

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Horrific.

Simply horrific.

I am utterly astounded beyond belief at what is transpiring inside the White House — my house, your house, our house — as it regards the con man masquerading as president of the United States.

Donald J. Trump has demanded that Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensberger “find” 11,800 votes that would overturn that state’s presidential verdict in November. Georgia sent its electoral votes to President-elect Joe Biden. Trump wants those votes for himself and is asking Georgia’s top election official to break the law.

That all by itself is a violation of the law.

We have a lawless, amoral, narcissistic carnival barker seeking to subvert our democratic process. It might fall into the category of treason, but it looks for all the world like sedition, which is another way of seeking to overthrow government processes.

Donald Trump’s fomenting the latest Big Lie about “widespread voter fraud” is just beyond every pale I can imagine.

However, I am going to offer a glimmer of good news. Trump’s effort to overturn the election will fail. Congress on Wednesday will ratify what the Electoral College has certified, that Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris were elected Nov. 3. There will be an inauguration on Jan. 20. President Biden and Vice President Harris will take office on that day.

Donald Trump and VP Mike Pence will be gone.

That clear and unambiguous path out of this sheer madness gives me reason for hope that we will survive this horrific drama.

national news

Simply beyond belief

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

A friend of mine calls them members of the “Sedition Caucus” of the Republican Party.

Indeed, the 11 GOP senators and 140 House of Representatives members have collaborated to form what has to be the among the most dangerous political cabals in American history.

They want to challenge the results of this past year’s election that chose Joe Biden to be president of the United States. They contend, without a shred of evidence, that the result is tainted by voter fraud in key states that Biden won over Donald J. Trump. They want to launch an emergency 10-day “audit” of the results in several states to determine whether their claims of fraud can hold up.

Spoiler alert: They won’t!

To make matters even worse — if that is even possible — they have persuaded Vice President Mike Pence to join them. Pence is slated to preside next Wednesday over a joint congressional session to ratify the results of the Electoral College vote putting Biden into the presidency on Jan. 20.

Pence Backs Republican Lawmakers’ Plan To Object To Electoral College Results | 88.9 KETR

What the hell is going on here?

There was no fraud. There was no corruption. Americans cast their votes. They were counted. Biden got 81.3 million of them; Trump collected 74.2 million. The Electoral College ended up with Biden winning 306-232. The election was conducted under strict scrutiny by state and local officials adhering to all the protocols necessary to prevent hanky-panky at the polls.

Courts have ruled against all the challenges of the result. The former U.S. attorney general, William Barr, has determined there was no fraud. 

Now these kooks who serve in Congress want to conduct an audit? They are challenging the result of a duly constituted election? They want to sow even more division, suspicion and doubt into this democratic process? With the blessing of the current (for now) president of the United States?

Outrageous!

legal news

Barr breaks with POTUS

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

U.S. Attorney General William Barr is about to step away from public life, but before he goes he is dealing Donald J. Trump a punch in the gut.

To which I say: It is about damn time!

Barr today declared — two days before he departs the Justice Department — that there is no need for a special counsel to investigate alleged election fraud; nor is there a need to investigate the dealings of Hunter Biden, the son of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.

The gut punch occurs because Trump believes there is a need for a special counsel to look at both matters. Barr, who has been criticized roundly — and with justification — for his fealty to the president, is putting the finishing touches on his Justice Department career by telling us the truth about this bogus special counsel demand.

One is that there is no widespread voter fraud of the type Trump has alleged. Two is that the Hunter Biden matter is being handled responsibly by U.S. prosecutors in Delaware.

As NBC News has reported: “I see no basis now for seizing machines by the federal government — wholesale seizure of machines by the federal government,” he said, adding that he stood by his statement there was no widespread fraud that would affect the outcome of the presidential election.

I expect the Twitter tirade from Donald Trump to be forthcoming.