Tag Archives: insurrection

DC riot

Riot wasn’t a riot?

(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Andrew Clyde has become a charter member of the Congressional Dipsh** of the Year Club.

The Georgia Republican has said publicly for all the world to hear that the Jan. 6 insurrection/riot/terrorist attack was none of that. That it was similar to a group of tourists strolling through the Capitol Building on a guided tour.

As Yahoo News reported: Clyde asserted that television footage from Jan. 6 showed people entering the Capitol and taking videos and pictures “in an orderly fashion” and “if you didn’t know the TV footage was a video from January the 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit.”

Really! Can this guy ever be taken seriously ever again on anything that pours out of his pie hole?

GOP lawmaker claims ‘there was no insurrection’ and Capitol riot looked like a ‘normal tourist visit’ (yahoo.com)

But … he said it.

Wow! I don’t believe any of us ever have seen a guided tour that included police officers being bludgeoned by rioters. Or by individuals smashing through windows. Or those who decided to take a dump on the floor of the Capitol.

Clyde objected to the formation of a bipartisan commission to examine the cause and effect of the Jan. 6 insurrection.

But for this idiot to suggest that the riot that killed five individuals was nothing more than a guided tour is — and the language fails me here — is the stuff of a traitor.

DC riot

Yes on Jan. 6 commission

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

What in the name of governmental transparency is the congressional Republican leadership seeking to hide from the public regarding the Jan. 6 insurrection?

The U.S. House of Representatives has voted — with 35 GOP members joining all House Democrats — to support a bipartisan panel to examine the events leading up to and including the insurrection occurred on the sixth day of 2021.

However, the commission faces a huge obstacle in the Senate, where it needs 60 votes to pass. A 50-50 Senate isn’t likely to get 10 GOP members to join their Democratic colleagues in enacting this commission.

House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy opposes it; so does Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell. Yep, McConnell — the guy who personifies partisan politics — calls the effort, um, too political.

House approves Jan. 6 commission over GOP objections | TheHill

We need a thorough factfinding mission. The idea is to appoint five Democrats and five Republicans to the panel. It would have subpoena power. Members from both sides would be able to have input into who to summon.

This notion is fair and equitable. It also would bring us many miles closer to the truth into what happened and why on the day terrorists stormed Capitol Hill and sought to block the certification of the 2020 presidential election.

I want answers. I am sure other Americans are demanding answers too. There needs to be a 9/11-style commission to seek the truth.

I have a good hunch I know what such a panel would discover … which I also have reason to believe lies behind the reluctance of Republicans to support it.

DC riot, national news

Civil discourse? It’s MIA

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

What in the name of uncivil backstabbing is going on atop Capitol Hill?

Democrats and Republicans continue to detest each other. My particular concern rests with GOP lawmakers who seem to pose an actual physical threat to their Democratic colleagues.

The latest high-profile confrontation included two relatively junior members of the House of Representatives. They haven’t been there but both of ’em have taken full advantage of their position to reap the highest profile possible.

The Memo: Lawmakers on edge after Greene’s spat with Ocasio-Cortez | TheHill

The House’s QAnon queen, Marjorie Taylor Greene, seemed intent on confronting lefty darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She followed AOC down the hall and out the door of the Capitol Building, berating her with every step. AOC didn’t respond.

Cortez has expressed concern for her physical safety because of antics performed by Greene and some of her other right-wing lunatic colleagues.

This seems to stem from the insurrection of Jan. 6. You remember that, yes? Donald Trump incited the terrorists to storm Capitol Hill. They did and shouted their desire to “hang Mike Pence!” as the vice president was doing his constitutional duty by certifying the Electoral College victory of Joe Biden over Trump.

It hasn’t abated much since that terrible day.

That the confrontation between Green and AOC, though, illustrates something strange about the current political climate. Both of these women are newbies to Congress; Greene was elected in 2020 and AOC was elected in 2018. Yet we find that the skyrocketing influence of social media has elevated both their profiles.

It well might be igniting the hard feelings that exist among members of the far left and the far right. It bothers and frightens me terribly.

As for MTG vs. AOC, hmmm … I’ll pull for the lefty.

Donald Trump

Make me happy … Donald

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald John Trump said this today:

“I’m loving what I do and I’m loving the result that we’ve had and I think people will be very happy with my decision.”

The decision to which he refers is whether he runs for president in 2024.

I’ll concede that I will be happy only if he makes the correct decision.

That would include the following conclusions:

  • I cannot be nominated by a Republican Party that has been decimated by my backstabbing, Twitter-loving messages.
  • Prosecutors are going to indict me on allegations that I committed several crimes in at least two states.
  • I already have lost two presidential election popular votes and I have embarrassed myself by declaring that the 2020 election was stolen from me because of rampant voter fraud.
  • There was no rampant fraud.

Is he going to do any or all of that? Oh … probably not.

If he jumps into the 2024 campaign, which would surprise me to no end given the obstacles he must confront, then I won’t be “happy” with his decision.

If he stays out of the race, well, that would bring a smile to my face.

DC riot, national news

Now comes the fight … maybe

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

This just in: U.S. Rep. Chip Roy of Austin might decide he wants to lead the House Republican caucus because the presumed heiress apparent, Elise Stefanik of New York, is too liberal.

Ah, yes. Let’s have a fight, shall we?

The House GOP caucus ousted Liz Cheney of Wyoming because Cheney is appalled at the conduct of Donald Trump. She happened to have the bad form to criticize the former president for inciting the Jan 6 terrorist attack on the Capitol Building while Congress was in the midst of certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Why, those Republicans just cannot stand the notion of one of their leaders criticizing such abhorrent conduct. So they booted Cheney out of her leadership post.

OK, that’s done. Now comes the fight to find a successor.

Roy said Stefanik’s voting record is too, um, moderate to suit his taste. He wants a fire-breather in that leadership job. Hey, kinda like Liz Cheney, whose own conservative credentials are beyond dispute.

Is Roy going to sing from the same page as Stefanik, giving Trump a pass on his insurrection-incitement? That appears for all the world to be the only credential any card-carrying GOP member of Congress needs these days to assume a leadership role.

This’ll be fun to watch.

Go ahead, Rep. Roy. Let’s see what you have.

national news

Liz Cheney: no martyr

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Frank Bruni is a superb columnist for the New York Times.

He is passionate about many issues dear to progressives, especially marriage equality; I mean, he is a gay man who writes frequently about the issue … and does so with superb rhetoric.

That all said, I believe he is mistaken when he implies in his latest column that Rep. Liz Cheney is positioning herself as a martyr of some sort. I don’t believe that’s happening.

Cheney is likely to lose her House Republican caucus chairmanship because she voted to impeach Donald Trump in January for inciting the infamous riot at the Capitol Building.

She remains what she always has been: a conservative Republican who voted overwhelmingly in favor of Trump’s agenda. That isn’t good enough to save her leadership post. The Trump cult that comprises most GOP House members want her gone.

So she’s going to keep harping against Trump. Good for her! Is she pretending to be something other than a conservative GOP lawmaker? I don’t see it.

Opinion | Is Liz Cheney a Martyr — or Just a Hack in Holy Drag? – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

DC riot

McCarthy makes it clear: He is a Trump toadie

(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Kevin “The Snake” McCarthy has thrown in with a Donald Trump sycophant in the intramural fight among Republican caucus members in the U.S. House.

The California lawmaker, the leader of the GOP caucus, said today he is backing Rep. Elise Stefanik in her bid to oust Rep. Liz Cheney from the Republican Caucus chairmanship.

McCarthy says he supports Stefanik for House GOP conference chair | TheHill

What did Cheney do to incur McCarthy’s wrath? All she did was vote to impeach Donald Trump after the ex-POTUS incited the insurrection of The Sixth of January. Cheney had the temerity to stand strongly in favor of the U.S. Constitution, which the terrorists who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 threatened directly. And, yes, Donald Trump was the instigator.

This is a disgraceful display from the House GOP leader. He makes me sick.

As for Stefanik, a New York Republican, she makes me sick, too. Her only credential is that she is a Trump toadie, a suck-up, a Kool-Aid swilling member of the Trumpkin Corps of acolytes who believes the election was “stolen” by some mysterious, nefarious cabal.

This internecine war among Republicans isn’t likely to end with Cheney’s expected ouster from the leadership of her party’s House caucus. Nor should it.

As for “leader” McCarthy, well … he makes feel like throwing up.

DC riot, Donald Trump

No, Sen. Hawley, they had no ‘right’ to do what they did

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I will just speak from my gut.

Josh Hawley is a dangerous young man. The Republican U.S. senator from Missouri already had crafted his infamy by being among those senators to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election, which chose Joe Biden as the next president of the United States.

Then he said this just today about the mob of terrorists who were gathering at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6: “They had every right to be there.” 

If their intent was to storm the Capitol, to interfere with Congress doing its constitutional duty to certify the results of the election, to injure police officers and kill one of them, to threaten bodily harm to the vice president and speaker of the House, to defecate on the floor of Congress … then they had no right to be there.

And yet the junior senator from Missouri continues to stand by that hideous raised-fist photo of him saluting the mob waiting to storm the place where our Congress writes laws to which we all must obey.

Why did the rioters do what they did? Because the man who was soon to leave the presidency, Donald J. Trump, exhorted them to “take back” the government from forces he alleged had “stolen” the election and given it to President Biden. He continues to foment The Big Lie and members of Congress — such as Sen. Hawley — cheer on the disgraced ex-president.

Josh Hawley now is widely believed to aspire to a presidential run in 2024. How does that make you feel? Warm and fuzzy? Do you want to place the nuclear codes in the hands of an insurrectionist? Do you trust this guy to “defend and protect” the very Constitution he sought to destroy by challenging the result of a free, fair and duly certified presidential election?

What’s more, he now is defending the terrorists who committed the single greatest assault on our government since, oh let’s see, the Civil War.

The danger that Sen. Josh Hawley presents to this country cannot be overstated.

DC riot, national news

Pence shows his wussiness

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I just have to say it out loud and as directly as I can.

Former Vice President Mike Pence is a wuss.

Whatever in the world keeps him from defending himself against scurrilous attacks from the imbecile with whom he was elected to lead this nation is utterly beyond me.

Pence is beginning to return to public life. He and Donald Trump lost their bid for re-election in November 2020. It is widely believed Pence wants to run for president in 2024. It also is thought that Trump might harbor the same ambition. These two men, therefore, could become Republican Party primary opponents.

As he reemerges onto the public stage, Pence sticks to the same strategy he used by Trump’s side: Total fealty (msn.com)

Will that bring any sort of criticism from Pence toward Trump. Not based on what he said this week. What is astounding to me is that Trump trashed Pence on Jan. 6 — the day of the insurrection — for failing to show “courage” because Pence wouldn’t seek to overturn the election results.

The Trumpkin Corps of fanatics followed Trump’s assertions. Many of them stormed the Capitol Building chanting “Hang Mike Pence!” while some of them defecated on the floor of the nation’s government. 

Someone will have to explain to me how a Pence-Trump rivalry — should it develop in the GOP primary for the White House in ’24 — is going to play out if the former VP continues to slobber all over the shoes of the former idiot in chief.

I don’t understand a lot of things, but I don’t think I’m a dunderhead. I simply am baffled beyond belief at the slavish fealty that Mike Pence shows toward the guy who doesn’t return a shred of loyalty to his most loyal suck-up.

DC riot

Liz Cheney is so correct

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Hell clearly has entered the deep freeze.

How do I know that? Because I happen to agree with U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, the Wyoming Republican who I once considered to be one of the GOP’s premier fire-breathers.

No longer do I hold that view.

Rep. Cheney was one of 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach Donald Trump over his inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection. Now she says that anyone in Congress who had a hand in voting to overturn the 2020 presidential election should be disqualified from running for president in 2024.

That means you, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.

Cheney ventured to a GOP retreat in Florida. As CNN reported: “I think we have a huge number of interesting candidates, but I think that we’re going to be in a good position to be able to take the White House,” she told the New York Post. “I do think that some of our candidates who led the charge, particularly the senators who led the unconstitutional charge, not to certify the election, you know, in my view, that’s disqualifying.”

You see why I agree with her? She makes sense. Cheney is a rock-ribbed, true-blue, dyed-in-the-wool Republican. She also understands the Constitution and values greatly the oath she took to protect and defend it. Unlike the nimrods in the House and Senate who voted to object to the results of a free and fair election that elected Joe Biden as president of the United States.

Liz Cheney thinks January 6 should be ‘disqualifying’ for some GOPers (msn.com)

I intend to stand with the likes of Liz Cheney any day over the machinations and lies being pitched by those who support the one-time Liar in Chief.