Tag Archives: GOP

business news, economic news, local news

California isn’t an epithet

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. – Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has picked up on the Republican mantra to suggest that Texas shouldn’t become “like California.”

His campaign ads suggest that Texas Democrat want to transform the Lone Star State into a version of California. That’s a bad thing, he suggests.

But … is it?

My bride and I have traveled through much of the southern portion of the Golden State and have gotten a bit of an up-close look at why the state boasts a world-class economy.

Now, last I heard California’s gross domestic product output would rank it No. 6 or 7 among the world economies if the state were an independent country. Texas’s worldwide ranking, as I understand it, would be No. 9 or 10; still not bad, but not in league with California.

As I looked around the Bakersfield area – which the locals call the “Armpit of California” – I am struck by the abundance of petrochemical plants, of cattle trucks tooling along the highways, of massive feedlots where cattle producers fatten up their livestock for market. Does that remind anyone of anywhere with which they might be familiar? Sure. It reminds me of the Texas Panhandle, where we lived for 23 years before relocating to Collin County in early 2019.

Oh, and I also see my share of pro-Republican and anti-Democratic bumper stickers, TV campaign ads and assorted signage along the highways.

To be sure, I am acutely aware that California ain’t nirvana. I hear tales of horrific regulatory hurdles that homeowners and business owners must endure. I also know that the state suffered through a net population loss since the most recent census as folks are leaving the state.

Before you pile on and suggest we should pack our bags and move here … don’t even think about it. We aren’t moving. We have forged a great life during our 38 years as adopted Texans.

I just want to suggest that emulating the nation’s most populous and most prosperous state isn’t the epithet that some Texas politicians suggest.

Johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Don’t turn back on Ukraine

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Memo to Kevin McCarthy: If Republicans take control of Congress after the midterm election, y’all will trifle with trouble if you resist delivering as much aid as possible to Ukraine, which is fighting — successfully — for its independence against Russian aggressors.

The U.S. House GOP leader has said Congress might keep the checkbook open as the war progresses. My own view is that McCarthy is sending a chilling message to Ukrainians and is giving a bit  of comfort to Russian thug Vladimir Putin as he continues to prosecute his immoral and illegal war against Ukraine.

It seems plausible, in a bizarre way, for the Republican congressional leader t threaten to pull back on aid to Ukraine. The GOP’s titular leader, Donald Trump, has been cold-stone silent on the Russian invasion, seeming to imply an endorsement of the action that Putin took against a sovereign nation.

Is this the kind of congressional leadership this country needs in this time of dire peril? I think not!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

GOP leader: Coward!

I now am able to identify the poster boy for political cowardice, which I feel compelled to mention here given that my bride and I have visited his home state.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy needs to stand up, take a bow and yell from the highest roof he can find that “My name is Kevin and I am a coward.”

McCarthy serves as House of Representatives Republican leader. He wants to become the next speaker of the House, presuming that the GOP wins a majority of House seat after the midterm election.

McCarthy once chastised Donald J. Trump for refusing to act during the 1/6 insurrection. He made speeches on the House floor that condemned Trump’s inaction, his refusal to stop the assault on our democratic process.

Then the damnedest thing happen. Trump left office after the insurrection, holed up at his glitzy house in Florida and then McCarthy went there to have his picture made with the idiot he condemned after the insurrection. They stood there mugging for cameras. They shook hands and McCarthy acted for all the world like someone who didn’t say what he said on 1/6.

When the time came to impeach Trump a second time for inciting the assault on our government, McCarthy voted “no.” In the year and some months since that fateful impeachment, McCarthy has remained silent while evidence has piled up about Trump’s involvement in inciting the attack; he hasn’t condemned Trump for seeking to end the threat against Vice President Mike Pence’s life.

Where does that leave the House Republican caucus? It leaves them with deciding whether to anoint a coward as the speaker of the House … if that comes to pass.

McCarthy’s cowardice simply is an amazing spectacle to behold.

Johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, national news, political news

An independent view? Yes!

Every now and then, someone among my social media friends network will ask: Are you a Democrat … or what?

I am going to answer that one. I am an “or what.” That is to say I consider myself an independent who leans more toward the Democrats than to the Republicans.

However, I vehemently oppose straight-ticket voting. I applauded the Texas Legislature for eliminating that option for voters.

We don’t “register” in Texas with either party. Our primaries are considered open voting events. We go to the polling place and decide when we get there which primary will get our vote: Democrat or Republican.

I have entered the GOP primary many times over the years, particularly when we lived in Randall County, Texas. The Panhandle county is as exclusively Republican as any in the state, which means that Democrats rarely field candidates for countywide or legislative offices. That leaves voters such as me to decide to vote in the Republican Party primary to have our voices heard in government.

We have since moved from Randall County to Collin County, which is a more diverse region. We have seen our share of “Vote Republican” lawn signs, but we also see a smattering of “Vote Democrat” signs as well as we travel around the county. Such Democratic-leaning signs are not to be seen in good ol’ Randall County.

My point is to tell you that my voting record does lean heavily in the Democrats’ direction, but it is far from exclusively so. I am reluctant to attach a party label to my political principles.

My hope always has been that both Republicans and Democrats can believe in and work toward “good government.” Sadly, at this moment only the Democrats appear inclined to achieve that noble end.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump, national news

Racist senator earns condemnation

Wow! That was my first reaction to reports of what a U.S. senator said during a Donald J. Trump political rally over the weekend. He sought to label Black Americans as criminals.

It was as blatantly racist a statement as anything I’ve heard since the 1960s.

This came from the pie hole of Sen. Tommy Tuberville, an Alabama Republican, according to Yahoo.com:

As Republicans press crime as an election issue, Tuberville contended Democrats back reparations for descendants of slavery because “they think the people who do crime are owed that.”

“They are not soft on crime,” Tuberville said. “They’re pro-crime. They want crime. They want crime because they want to take over what you got. They want to control what you have. They want reparations because they think the people that do the crime are owed that.”

Holy … crap!

GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville promotes racist narrative about Black people, crime at Trump rally (yahoo.com)

This is an individual elected from a state with a population that is 26% Black. He was elected in 2020 to the U.S. Senate with zero experience in elective politics. He is a former football coach who worked with dozens of Black athletes.

Still, he said this. At a Trump campaign rally. Oh, and get this: The crowd that heard it clapped and cheered the speaker.

“They want reparations because they think the people that do the crime are owed. that.” I just felt the need to repeat that statement. It defies logic. Or humanity. Or anything resembling decent thought from someone elected to the U.S. Senate.

This is part and parcel of what has become of the Republican Party. It saddens me to say this, given that the party once held the key to enactment of civil rights legislation in the 1960s. Remember the “party of Abraham Lincoln?” It’s gone, man!

It’s been replaced by and large by something quite different, as exemplified by the mutterings of individuals such as Tommy Tuberville.

Black people are criminals, he says. Democrats demand reparations because those who “do the crime are owed that,” he says.

The English language cannot do justice to what is stirring in my gut at this moment.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news, political news

Cheapening of values

Americans of all stripes are witnessing in real time how our political values no longer hang on politicians’ stated views of key issues and their actions juxtaposed to their stated policies.

Consider what is occurring in Georgia, where the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate — Herschel Walker — has been revealed to be a stunning hypocrite on an issue that demands absolute sincerity.

In any other era, revelations that a staunch opponent of abortion would allegedly have demanded a girlfriend abort a pregnancy would spell the end of a candidacy. Herschel Walker would have resigned his candidacy and left the campaign for someone else to salvage.

These days? Georgia GOP voters are shrugging it off. Party leaders are backing Walker, doubling down on their support for this ignoramus who actually has said that “there is no shame” in demanding an abortion “if I had done it.”

Oh, there’s more. It has been revealed that Walker has four children with four women and has been estranged from at least one of his sons since the young man’s birth.

Remember, too, that Walker is campaigning as an evangelical Christian who opposes — he says — abortion in all cases; he makes no exception for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest or the health of the mother.

Despite all of that, Walker remains a potential spoiler in the race against Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, the incumbent who is seeking election to a full term.

Walker could still win this race! Why? Because it’s all about power! Republicans want to get control of the Senate. They are driven solely by the prospect of Herschel Walker — an individual with zero knowledge of any public policy — defeating a competent senator who, by the way, also serves as senior pastor of Ebeneezer Baptist Church in Atlanta … the same house of worship where the great Martin Luther King Jr. preached to the faithful.

Yes, we are witnessing a degradation of policy and the ascent of power as this hideous issue plays out.

It is a sickening turn of events.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news, political news

POTUS still has power

Let us assume for a moment or two that the worst thing happens — at least from my admittedly biased view — after the midterm election and Republicans gain control of both congressional chambers.

Such an event remains an open question. The House well could still flip; I am not sure about the Senate.

Were the Republicans to gain control, they need to do so in a significant fashion. As in, they would need what amounts to a super-majority in the Senate to sustain whatever it is the GOP caucus wants to accomplish. Why? Because President Biden has the veto pen at his disposal.

The Constitution sets a high bar for overriding a presidential veto, just as it does for convicting an impeached federal official, such as the president of the United States. Both congressional chambers must agree with a 2/3 vote to override a veto. No one in their right mind thinks the Senate is going to turn from a 50-50 body to a 67-33 Republican majority after the midterm election. I have made the case that Democrats actually have a decent shot at solidifying control of the Senate by winning a couple of seats for a 52-48 majority. The House also looks as though a GOP flip would be by a slim margin.

Given the intense partisanship that dictates how legislation flows in Congress, it would work well if both legislative chambers could find a way to craft more bipartisan legislation that could appeal (a) to Democrats serving in Congress and (b) to the Democrat who occupies the Oval Office … and who has that veto pen at his disposal.

Republicans, though, well could be getting ahead of themselves if they believe a much-touted “red wave” is afoot in the midterm election. Their overhyped confidence in the quality of some of the MAGA-ites running for high office could well bit ’em in the backside.

I sense the “wave” election is turning more into a ripple across a puddle … which gives President Biden an important tool he can deploy to fend off the extremists’ view of where they think the nation ought to go.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news, national news

Has Walker sunk himself?

Hershel “Georgia Dumbass” Walker finds himself denying an allegation that is beginning to look more credible by the hour.

Walker is the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, running against Sen. Raphael Warnock, the Democratic incumbent.

It turns out the Daily Beast is reporting that Walker paid for a former girlfriend’s abortion in 2009. It’s a big deal, man. Why? Because Walker has been proclaiming himself to be a devout pro-life advocate who opposes abortion at any level.

Walker denies the allegation. Except that the Daily Beast has obtained receipts with Walker’s signature on them, offering tangible evidence that the allegation actually is, um … true!

How does this clown Walker manage to keep within shoutin’ distance of Sen. Warnock in public opinion polling? National Republicans are doubling down on Walker’s behalf, declaring they’re sticking with their GOP guy.

I am not sure I can come up with a more hideous display of rank hypocrisy than what is being alleged in this instance. The Daily Beast is standing firmly behind its reporting; it has produced written documentation to back up what the ex-girlfriend has said happened.

To think this idiot Walker can possibly be elected to the U.S. Senate is utterly astounding beyond measure.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, national news

Chill out, congressman

Ronny the Carpetbagger continues his Twitter rants with more nonsensical demagoguery.

This guy, aka Ronny Jackson, the Republican who purports to represent the Texas Panhandle in Congress, is now suggesting Democrats are out to “destroy” the U.S. of A.

Well, how’s that going to happen?

By enacting crucial climate change legislation? By seeking to legislate an end to gun violence? By working with Republicans to enact critical infrastructure legislation? By restoring employment to pre-pandemic levels? By unifying NATO in resisting rampant and illegal Russian aggression in Ukraine? By seeking to curb the effects of climate change on the world?

Good grief. Ronny the Carpetbagger needs to look inward. If anyone is seeking to “destroy the country,” it’s the former Big Liar in Chief who continues to insist that non-existent widespread vote fraud cost him re-election in 2020.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news, political news

Rep. What’s Her Name says what?

“I am not going to mince words with you all. Democrats want Republicans dead and they have already started the killings.”

This comment has been attributed to U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Loony Bin, aka Rep. What’s Her Name.

I am not going to parse this bit of idiocy, but idiots need not get any more attention than they deserve. In her case, that means none.

Well, OK. The fact that I have mentioned her briefly means she’s getting a little bit of attention. Just know that were I to spend time commenting on all the stupidity that flows from What’s Her Name’s mouth, I would have time for nothing else.

I’m out.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com