legal news

DOJ weighs in with indictment of Bannon

If we were waiting for U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to announce his intention on how he would handle a contempt of Congress citation for a key adviser to Donald J. Trump, well … we need not keep waiting.

A federal grand jury answered it for us when it indicted Steve Bannon on a charge of contempt of Congress.

That means without question that the DOJ takes Congress’s subpoena of Trump administration advisers and aides seriously enough to indict them on federal felony charges.

We have just witnessed a serious warning shot to others who will follow Bannon’s lead in refusing to appear before a House select committee that is looking into the 1/6 events and the riot incited by Trump.

Garland said the Justice Department remains committed to following the law, which he said has occurred with the grand jury indictment of Steve Bannon.

Will the former POTUS adviser plead guilty to avoid a trial? Or will he go all the way? I don’t know how he intends to defend himself. He cannot possibly claim to operate under presidential executive privilege authority; courts have ruled already that Trump no longer possesses that authority. President Biden won’t grant it, either.

We now will get to watch whether the Department of Justice has the muscle to go the distance with this matter. Let’s hope it flexes its muscle accordingly.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

A tip of the hat to Sen. Murkowski

Were I wearing a hat, I would tip it toward U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, who has announced her plans to seek re-election in the face of a challenge from someone who has earned the endorsement of the 45th POTUS.

Why has the former Liar in Chief endorsed someone other than the GOP incumbent? Because Murkowski has said some unkind things about the ex-Insurrectionist in Chief, which has drawn his ire. He just cannot tolerate anyone who puts the rule of law above loyalty to himself.

Sen. Murkowski announces reelection bid in a race featuring a Trump-backed GOP challenger (msn.com)

I have no stake in this fight other than to wish that the Senate remain under the control of senators who aren’t beholden to The Big Lie and the cultists who insist that the 2020 election was stolen from the former POTUS.

I’m standing with Sen. Murkowski as she seeks to fend off this primary challenge.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Fruitcake ratio unworthy of boast

Texas is a big state, with lots of people who call it home and lots of politicians elected to leadership positions.

Thus, it stands to reason that Texas would be home to an inordinate number of assorted fruitcakes, goofballs, nut jobs and, dare I say it, dangerous zealots.

State Sen. Bob Hall recently joined the High Plains Blogger nut job “honor roll,” with statements criticizing the vaccines available to inoculate us against the COVID-19 killer virus.

He is far from alone. My goodness, we have loons making national headlines daily with their preposterous statements.

Sadly, almost all of ’em are Republicans. Ye gads, man!

U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert of Tyler is my unofficial captain of the goofball squad. He is a “birther” who continues to question whether Barack Obama was qualified to seek and to serve as president of the U.S. Former Texas GOP chair Allen West is a close second in the running. He once called Democrats “communists.” Then we have Sen. Ted Cruz, the lunatic who continually inserts his foot in his mouth while proclaiming his intention to block every single initiative that comes from President Biden or Democrats in Congress.

I’ll stop with those three. The state’s roster of nut cases is too voluminous to continue. You’ll get my drift.

We love living in Texas. My wife and I established a good life here when we ventured from Oregon in 1984. Our sons have acclimated themselves well (I believe) to Texas culture; indeed, they both came of age here.

We have watched the state make a dramatic transition from a mostly Democratic state to a solidly Republican one during our time here. I don’t begrudge the rise of the GOP per se. What I do begrudge is the surrender of mainstream conservatism to the goofiness that prevails in so many quarters here.

I always presumed Texas pols were smarter than to be snookered by the cult leader who seized control of the GOP in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.

Silly me. What in the world was I thinking?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump

Trump to take office … in 2025?

I just read an article that said two things.

One is that Donald Trump is now the favorite to take office as POTUS in January 2025.

The other thing is that we should be “very afraid.”

I am “very afraid” … but only if the first thing happens. I do not believe it will occur.

Tim Miller wrote the article for The Bulwark. Miller is a Republican strategist. He also is a vehement anti-Trumpster. He said Trump is the “odds-on favorite” to win the presidency.

Oh … my … word.

Donald Trump Is Now the Odds-On Favorite to Be President in 2025 – The Bulwark

I just attached a link to The Bulwark article. Look at it for yourself. Please do look at it. Then decide whether you believe a twice-impeached, disgraced con man will actually be able to persuade enough voters to send him back to the White House.

Good grief …

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

military news

Relishing the recognition

Oh, how I am relishing the love and respect that comes to veterans these days.

Veterans Day 2021 is about to pass into history, but I have to offer a brief word of thanks to Americans who take the time to express their thanks for the service millions of us have given to the nation.

Why relish this now? In this day and time?

Because I came from an age when it wasn’t always the case. I am a member of the Vietnam War generation. I served for a time in that war zone. I came home and was greeted with … well, what I have called raging indifference. Some of us took the blame for a war policy that went badly. Yes, Americans blamed the warriors for carrying out the lawful — if mistaken — orders from the top of the chain of command.

That is not the case today. For that I am grateful and appreciative of the expressions of thanks I get fairly routinely.

The nation’s collective attitude seemed to change about the time the Persian Gulf War ended in early 1991. It was a brief, but violent conflict. Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and took command of that nation’s vast oil reserves. President George H.W. Bush declared the occupation of Kuwait “will not stand.” President Bush ordered the mustering of a half-million troops in the region.

Then we launched air attacks against Iraq. Then the troops rolled into Kuwait. We took control of the country after just a few days. Then our troops came home to the kind of welcome we hadn’t seen since the end of World War II.

They were victorious! They accomplished their mission. We were proud of them. Who led the national cheering? Vietnam War veterans organizations were instrumental in that effort. I am proud of the work they put in to welcome home the men and women who liberated Kuwait.

The love and respect has continued as we have welcome troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Thus, Veterans Day has become the kind of celebration that our veterans have deserved all along.

Thank you, America.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot

What does it take?

What in the name of political sanity will it take for congressional Republicans to comprehend the danger they pose for the country by enabling their cult leader to continue his assault on the U.S. Constitution?

Well, most of the GOP caucus, anyway.

Virtually all House and Senate Republicans continue to look the other way while the former Insurrectionist in Chief wages war against the Constitution. He wages war against the rule of law. He defies Congress and its efforts to get to the truth behind what I believe was a full-on frontal assault, an insurrection.

The former Liar in Chief is a danger to the nation he once governed and to the very principle of representative democracy.

Daily, damn near hourly, we hear new reports of efforts to block the result of the 2020 election. This individual won’t concede he lost to Joe Biden. He won’t allow his key aides and advisers to answer congressional subpoenas to testify about what they know about 1/6 and the riot that damn near took down our government.

This is a frightening example of how fealty to an individual presents an existential threat to the democratic government we all profess to love and cherish. Indeed, this moron took an oath to protect it. He now seeks to destroy it.

How can that possibly be acceptable in the eyes of these clowns who represent a formerly great political party?

It is a mystery I cannot solve. If only I could.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

military news

Veterans Day story for the ages

I want to share a story about a particular U.S. Army veteran, a man I did not know, but who is a dearly beloved member of my family.

His name was George Filipu. He was my grandfather, Mom’s dear, sweet father. I was born in December 1949. My Papou and my Yiayia came to meet me when I was about three weeks old. He died later that day of a heart attack. Note: I want to refer them by the Greek terms for “grandfather” and “grandmother.” 

But when he first arrived in the United States in the early 1900s, he and my Yiayia got married. In November 1918, he decided he wanted to enlist in the Army. At that time U.S. immigration policy granted instant citizenship to non-citizens who wanted to serve in the military.

Papou wanted to serve, so he joined the Army because he wanted to get into the fight in Europe; I refer to World War I.

Then something happened for the betterment of the planet: they signed an armistice and the fighting stopped. Papou’s military service was cut short.

However, because of the policy that granted him citizenship, he was able to maintain his American citizen status. I want to add that, according to stories handed down by Mom and her brothers Phil and Jim, Papou wore his pride in his new country on his sleeve as well as in his heart.

He and Yiayia loved this country beyond measure. They never returned to the “old country.” Yiayia in particular refused to return, saying, in effect, “This is my home and this is where I will remain.”

Yiayia lived a long life after Papou died. She passed away on the Fourth of July 1978. We are certain she chose that day to leave this world because (a) she loved this country deeply and (b) she wanted to make sure we would remember it.

My Papou, George Filipu was willing to fight for the country that he, too, loved. He was a proud U.S. Army veteran.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Gun control does not violate our rights

As I watch the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse unfold in Kenosha, Wisc., I am pulled back toward an argument I have sought to make.

Which is that there must be a legislative remedy to the violence that erupted when Rittenhouse allegedly shot two people to death while packing an AR-15 assault weapon.

Rittenhouse faces a potential life sentence if a jury convicts him of the crime for which he has been charged. The young man sat in the witness chair today and told the court how the rifle he purchased “looked cool.” He had no intention of using to hunt animals or to protect his home. It “looked cool.”

That’s it.

Rittenhouse was packing the rifle while strolling down a Kenosha street during a protest against the Black Lives Matter protesters who marched to object to the shooting of an African-American by white police officers.

I cannot get past the notion that there must be some sort of legislation to be written that does not infringe on our Second Amendment guarantee that allows us to “keep and bear arms.” I am all for the amendment’s provision. I also believe there must be a way to craft some sort of control mechanism that does not prohibit law-abiding, rational American citizens from owning firearms.

I just do not see the Second Amendment as an “all or nothing” guarantee.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

military news

He was my favorite veteran

My favorite veteran would have turned 100 this past May. He never saw his 60th birthday … and I remember him with great fondness.

That is him in the picture. He is the sailor standing at the door, guarding it with a British Royal Marine. I should tell you that the room on the other side of the door contained the Allied naval commander in the Mediterranean and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

My favorite veteran, of course, is my dad Pete Kanelis.

Dad imbued in me a love of country. He was a true-blue patriot. It was his country, right or wrong. He went to war for the nation that welcomed his parents to its shores at the turn of the 20th century. My grandparents came to America not knowing a word of English; they spoke Greek in the home. Dad didn’t learn English until he went to school in Pittsburgh, Pa.; he told me his first day ended when he ran home crying because he couldn’t understand what anyone was saying.

He learned the language.

On Dec. 7, 1941, Dad was sitting at home in Portland, Ore., listening on the radio to reports of what happened that morning in Hawaii. He was a 20-year-old college student. Dad left the house, took a bus downtown and went to the armed forces recruiting station intending to enlist in the Marine Corps; the USMC office was closed. He walked across the hall to join the Navy … on the very day we were attacked by Japanese forces.

My favorite veteran reported for duty several weeks later as the nation mobilized to fight the tyrants in Europe and Asia. He went to Navy boot camp for three weeks and then shipped out to England.

Dad saw combat in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations. He swam for his life after an Italian dive bomber sank his ship in the Med. Dad participated in the invasions of Sicily and Italy, landing at Salerno in 1943.

His Navy career ended in the Philippines, where he was staging for an invasion of Japan. President Truman then decided to drop The Bomb on Hiroshima and then Nagasaki. The war ended. Dad came home. He married my mother. He welcome me into the world in late 1949; the first of my two sisters came along in March 1951, while the youngest of us arrived in April 1957.

He didn’t volunteer much about what he did during The War. However, he would talk about it when someone asked.

He was part of what they call The Greatest Generation. He answered the call to duty, he did his duty, then he came home and got on with the rest of his life. If only it hadn’t ended so early.

He is my favorite veteran and I honor his service to the nation he loved beyond measure … while honoring as well all of those who wore the nation’s uniform.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Cruz makes ass of himself … again

(Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

Ted Cruz doesn’t have many pieces of legislation with his name on it. He does, though, have a remarkable ability to make an ass of himself.

Such as his most recent foray into the dumbass/dipsh** blind alley.

The Texas Republican U.S. senator decided that Big Bird is a commie and that he shouldn’t be touting the mandates requiring vaccines to battle the COVID-19 virus.

Earth to the Cruz Missile: Big Bird is a fictitious character, part of the PBS family of critters that entertains youngsters all across the nation.

Of course, this is the guy who decided to jet off to Cancun while Texans were freezing to death this past February; yeah, he came back home when the fecal matter hit the fan. The damage was done.

Now this clown has taken on Big Bird? Is this guy serious?

Don’t answer that. I know that he isn’t. He is a horse’s backside.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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