Tag Archives: insurrection

DC riot

That’s it! Blame Pelosi!

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Ahh, yes. The Republican counter strategy to the congressional hearing that commenced today to examine the Jan. 6 insurrection is taking quick shape.

The GOP is seeking to turn our attention to the Democratic speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. The Republican top guns are asking: What did the speaker know in advance of the terrorist riot and why didn’t she do anything to stop it?

You got that? I think it’s called “projection.”

The House select committee today heard from four Capitol and Metropolitan police officers who were among those who were injured in the melee that erupted when POTUS 45 incited the mob to march on Capitol Hill; he wanted them to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election.

The mob broke into the Capitol Building, defecated on the floor, sought out Pelosi and chanted “Hang (Vice President) Mike Pence!”

They launched an all-out assault on our democratic process. Meanwhile, the then-Liar in Chief did not a damn thing to stop the riot.

So now the moron’s GOP allies want to project blame for the riot on Pelosi?

Give me a f***ing break!

None of us should stand still for this trash. The GOP continues to downplay the significance and the horror of that event. Indeed, it should stand directly next to other infamous dates in our history: 9/11, Dec. 7, to name just two. 

For the Republican congressional leadership to seek to divert our attention away from the cause of the insurrection is reprehensible on its face. Then again, it only goes to prove that they cannot defend the indefensible.

national news

No huggin’ and kissin’

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The U.S. House of Representatives select committee assigned to get to the truth behind the Sixth of January insurrection against our democratic process convened its hearing today.

The nation saw a good bit of video from the treasonous riot by terrorists who stormed Capitol Hill that day.

What the did not see was anything resembling what the 45th POTUS said occurred. We didn’t see “huggin’ and kissin'” by D.C. and Metropolitan Police officers with the crowd that stormed Capitol Hill.

Oh, no. We saw violence in the flesh! We saw men and women beating officers within an inch of their lives. We heard them scream “traitor!” at police officers seeking to defend the Capitol against the riotous mob.

Hugging and kissing? It, um, wasn’t there.

And yet … we are going to hear an interpretation of those hideous events by Republican defenders of the former Insurrectionist in Chief. They will seek to turn the tables on Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who appointed the select panel. They will wonder out loud about security concerns that Pelosi reportedly knew prior to the riot.

The former POTUS hasn’t yet taken an ounce of responsibility for inciting the riot. He hasn’t yet accepted that he lost the 2020 presidential election. The ex-Moron in Chief hasn’t yet done a single thing to demonstrate loyalty to the Constitution, to the government, to the sacred democratic process.

The select panel, which comprises seven Democrats and two Republicans, will seek to get to the truth behind what happened that day.

If I could ask one thing of the panel, I want them to look at this: I want them to probe deeply what the then-POTUS was doing inside the White House while the mob threatened to hang Vice President Mike Pence. 

What’s more, let us not be shy or coy about what we’re talking about here. The riot was an insurrection in its purest form. It was a day — to borrow a phrase — that will live in infamy.

national news

Tough ‘reality TV’ viewing awaits

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

This much is utterly certain: I am going to have a difficult time watching and listening to the U.S. congressional hearing into the Jan. 6 insurrection against the government.

The testimony I am hearing today from one of the Capitol police officers is compelling, disturbing and heartbreaking.

The video to which the world was treated at the start of today’s opening hearing is as difficult to watch as the 9/11 terrorist attack that occurred nearly 20 years ago.

To think that some in Congress — namely its Republican caucus members — equate the insurrection to a “tourist” excursion is the most outrageous insult I can imagine.

Proceed with wisdom and discernment, members of the House select committee. The world is watching.

national news

Cheney’s star keeps rising

(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Liz Cheney continues to confound me … in a good and surprising manner.

The conservative Republican congresswoman keeps saying things and keeps demonstrating that not all actual Republicans are as loony as the former Dipsh** in Chief. The Wyoming lawmaker today stood foursquare behind a decision by Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to veto two GOP members’ involvement in a select committee assigned by study the Jan. 6 insurrection against the federal government.

Cheney also is a member of the select committee that next week will begin its task of rooting out the truth behind the insurrection/riot/mob attack on Capitol Hill.

My goodness, it makes me wonder whether Cheney’s fealty to the Constitution makes her a candidate for hands-down the most stunning party shift in the recent history of Congress. Would this longstanding Republican actually consider switching to the Democratic Party, given that the GOP she joined years ago no longer resembles the party that has been hijacked by the cultists who adhere to blathering of POTUS 45.

OK. It won’t happen. I get that Cheney remains a strong conservative. She is a Republican’s Republican.

She also is faithful to the oath she took to defend and protect the U.S. Constitution, which so many others within her party have failed to do. They are the villains in this drama that’s playing out. Cheney remains a hero in my book.

If only she could find it within her heart and mind that the party she joined has become an organization she no longer recognizes.

national news

The chasm widens

3 Comments

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Nancy Pelosi has nixed the appointment of two Republican House members to a select committee she formed to examine the Jan. 6 insurrection on Capitol Hill.

The House speaker acted within her authority established under House rules. We clear so far?

OK, then House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy yanked all the rest of the Republicans he had chosen for the committee. He called Pelosi, a fellow Californian, a dictator who doesn’t give a damn about due process.

Here’s where I get a bit suspicious of it all.

Congressional Republicans had the chance to form an independent, bipartisan commission to conduct this examination. They chose to scuttle that idea. They knew what the result would be: that Speaker Pelosi would choose a select committee and would retain veto power over any GOP members selected to serve on the panel.

Why are they acting so outraged? Congressional Republicans are reaping what they have sown.

national news

GOP House members join key panel

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

U.S. House of Representatives Republican leader Kevin McCarthy came through with the names of five of his GOP colleagues to serve on the select committee that is going to examine the Jan. 6 insurrection.

One word of advice now goes to the committee chairman, Democrat Bennie Thompson of Mississippi: Keep a tight leash around the neck of Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, one of the five GOP members McCarthy has selected.

Of course, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has veto power over any selections for the panel. If she decides to allow the loudmouth Jordan to serve, then it falls on Chairman Thompson to keep Jordan focused on the task at hand: finding the truth behind the riot that killed five people, injured dozens more, damaged the Capitol Building and sought to overturn the results of an election that chose President Biden over the GOP incumbent.

Jordan was one of the GOP caucus members, you will recall, who voted against certifying the election results. The dude is a loose cannon. He tends to come unhinged while defending his hero, POTUS No. 45. He also tends to badger witnesses, not allowing them the opportunity to respond to his hectoring.

Jordan is likely to object to using the term “insurrection” to describe what happened on Jan. 6. Except that’s precisely what it was. Chairman Thompson, don’t let Jordan get away with trying to change the subject or trying to persuade the nation that the mob of domestic terrorists were not intent on doing harm to officials who were doing their constitutional duty, which was to certify the results of the Electoral College tally.

The GOP congressional caucus wouldn’t go along with an independent commission. The House select committee is the next best step toward determining what happened, why it happened and seeking ways to prevent a recurrence.

This panel needs room to do its job. It must not tolerate diversions from some members of its ranks. Listen up, Jim Jordan: Listen with your ears for once … and not your mouth.

national news

It was an ‘insurrection’

1 Comment

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

For several months now, I have been referring to the Jan. 6 riot as an “insurrection,” a term that reportedly gives congressional Republicans a case of the heebie-jeebies.

Senate Republicans didn’t like the term inserted into legislation that called for creation of an independent bipartisan commission to investigate the cause and effect of the insurrection; it also would have sought remedies to prevent it from happening in the future.

Well, you know what? I will continue to call it what it was: an insurrection against the government of the United States of America.

It was nothing short of that. It was a direct frontal assault on the very democratic process which on that day was certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election that resulted in Joe Biden and Kamala Harris  being elected president and vice president of the United States.

The ticket led by the 45th POTUS incited the insurrection, for which the House of Representatives impeached him for a second time. It was a big more of a bipartisan impeachment than the first go-round, with a handful of Republicans joining their Democratic colleagues in impeaching POTUS 45; what’s more, some GOP senators ended up voting to convict the disgraced ex-POTUS at trial.

My point, though, is that no one should shy away from calling the DC riot what it was: an act of insurrection against the government of the United States. For the GOP congressional caucus to dig in against the investigative commission because they dislike truth-telling language is a cheap and shallow attempt to deny the obvious.

The effort to get at the truth behind the insurrection must not end. The House has formed a select committee. It already includes one Republican House member; others should join the effort.

Let’s not be coy about what’s at stake. It is to find a way to prevent future insurrections from occurring.

Ever!

national news

Liz Cheney produces conflicting emotions

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It is no secret to those who read this blog that Liz Cheney drives me batty.

The congresswoman from Wyoming is among the most conservative members of the House of Representatives. Her Republican credentials are impeccable, as she comes from a family led by a former defense secretary, congressman and vice president of the United States.

I didn’t support her decision to run for Congress; I believed her to be a carpetbagger, as she never spent much time in the state she now represents.

But, man, she is showing some spine, guts and conviction in standing against a president who sought to subvert the U.S. Constitution, is still seeking to overturn a free and fair election and has been the voice of idiotic demagoguery from the moment he became a politician prior to his run for the presidency in 2016.

Cheney voted to impeach the ex-POTUS. She stands foursquare on the oath she took to defend the Constitution. Rep. Cheney now is the lone Republican to join a House select committee that is going to examine the consequence of the Jan. 6 insurrection that the former POTUS incited.

House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy threatens to strip her of committee assignments. Liz Cheney continues to stand firm. To which I say … you go, Liz!

Rep. Cheney is taking a stand against blind fealty to a cult leader. She said the integrity of our democratic process is far more important than any loyalty she might feel toward any human being.

I am proud of the stand that Liz Cheney is taking on my behalf and on behalf of the country she took an oath to serve. Her oath makes no mention of any loyalty to a disgraced ex-president.

I salute Liz Cheney.

DC riot

No way was it a ‘routine day of touring’

1 Comment

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Congressional Republicans have their Big Lie — alleging vote fraud in the 2020 election. Now they might have spawned a smaller, but still significant, lie about the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Now that the U.S. House of Representatives has voted to create a select committee to examine the cause and consequence of the riot against the government, it is good to examine the other “big lie” making the rounds on Capitol Hill.

It’s the one that suggests that the riot was nothing more than a group of “peaceful tourists” taking part in a tour of the Capitol Building. Indeed, some members of the GOP congressional caucus have uttered such trash.

It begs the question: When has a “routine tour” left feces on the walls of the Capitol Building, or smashed through windows, or assaulted police officers with weapons and pepper spray, or left two officers dead and many other participants injured?

Never in my entire life have I witnessed such an egregious attempt at lying, deceit and boorish conduct as we have seen among congressional Republicans who have resisted calls for a thorough examination of the insurrection we saw play out on Jan. 6.

They won’t call it what it was: an insurrection against the government. They won’t acknowledge the role that the 45th POTUS had in inciting the mob of terrorists.

This lie won’t ever rise to the level of The Big Lie, given that the riot occurred because the disgraced ex-POTUS made the phony allegation that day and ignited the mob to do what it did.

However, this lesser — but still significant — lie about the riot being nothing out of the ordinary is bad enough. It likely will scar the current cult that masquerades as a political party perhaps for the rest of its existence.

DC riot, national news

House to OK select probe of Jan. 6

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi can count votes as well as any politician who’s ever served on Capitol Hill.

With that knowledge in the bank, she is planning to ask House members to vote on choosing a select committee to do something the U.S. Senate choked on: investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection against the U.S. government.

What do I think about this? I believe Pelosi is going to proceed where she must go, but I also believe she is going to invite ferocious criticism from those who think she is stacking the deck against any sort of impartial finding into what transpired on that terrible day.

A mob of terrorists stormed Capitol Hill. They crashed through windows, beat cops nearly to death. They wanted to stop the certification of the Electoral College victory that President Biden earned in the 2020 election. They attacked our governmental process. They threated the lives Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence.

But the Republican caucus in Congress doesn’t want a probe to look into it.

So, Pelosi is going to ask the slim Democratic majority in the House to approve establishing a select House committee.

The committee won’t comprise just Democrats. Pelosi is slated to ask House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy to select GOP members to join this panel. I am quite interested to see who McCarthy picks, whether he finds Republican moderates or taps the shoulders of GOP conspiracy goons to muck up the works.

Speaker Pelosi is doing what she must do, given the Senate Republicans’ refusal to do what they should have done in proceeding with a bipartisan commission to examine the riot, its consequences and recommend ways to prevent this kind of insurrection from recurring.

I also hope that Pelosi’s select committee, presuming the House approves it, will be thorough and will offer recommendations for preventing a recurrence.

As for GOP resistance to the work that will commence, let ’em gripe. They only will undermine their own credibility as the nation seeks to understand the cause of what we all saw develop as the terrorists launched a frontal assault on our democratic process.