Tag Archives: GOP

crime news, national news

Defund the FBI?

The right-wing extremists — the QAnon adherents and election deniers — need to be committed, sent to the nut house and left to fester in the dark.

These are the cretins who are calling for Congress to “defund the FBI” in the wake of the agency’s search of Donald Trump’s home in Florida for classified documents that Trump took from the White House when he left office in January 2021.

This is simply an astonishing thing to hear from those who proclaim to be “patriots” who believe in “law and order” and who declare that they are friends and allies of those who enforce our laws.

My … goodness.

Patriotic Americans wouldn’t vilify government agents who were acting on lawful orders. Nor would they attack law enforcement officers — such as what occurred on 1/6. Moreover, no friend or ally of police would ever present physical threats of harm to those who occupy the thin blue line that protects American society.

One Republican congressional candidate has actually said that Attorney General Merrick Garland should be executed. Can you believe that? Oh, sure you can! Why? Because it’s becoming part of the GOP mantra.

It’s disgraceful.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

You go, Liz … but only so far

I listened this morning to Liz Cheney explain why she remains adamant in her opposition to Donald J. Trump and why she intends to keep fighting to keep the ex-president far away from the White House.

I am all in on her effort to keep Trump out of the people’s house.

Then came some questions from ABC News’s Jon Karl, who wanted to know whether she is going to run for president in 2024 in an effort to forestall Trump’s possible nomination. She didn’t take the bait. That’s OK. I wouldn’t, either.

However, she reminded me once again why, despite the courage she is showing in fighting Trump, I generally oppose virtually all her political views.

She reiterated her stance as a pro-life, pro-gun, anti-tax Republican. She didn’t say it, but she did vote in favor of Trump’s agenda more than 93% of the time he was in office.

If Liz Cheney, who lost her Wyoming congressional GOP primary race this past week, is dedicated to keeping Trump out of power, then I’m all for it … and for her effort.

If lightning were to strike and Cheney gets nominated by Republicans in 2024, well … that’s where my admiration ends.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Goodbye, Louis Gohmert … don’t hurry back!

Louis Gohmert is the lamest of ducks. That’s the good news. Even better news is that he isn’t likely to return to Congress, where he didn’t exactly distinguish himself as a legislative giant.

Instead, Gohmert — a looney-bin Republican from Tyler — set himself apart as a gadfly and someone who is all too willing to foment The Big Lie about the 2020 presidential election.

Hey, that’s not the only Big Lie to which Gohmert attached his name. Gohmert was among those in Congress who once doubted whether Barack Obama was qualified to for president of the United States. He cited that phony notion that President Obama was born in Kenya, despite proof that the 44th POTUS was born in Hawaii.

Part of congressmen’s and women’s greatness must rest in the number of laws with their names on it. Gohmert authored one bill that became law. That’s it.

He spent the rest of his time in Congress acting like the royal pain in the ass he became.

Louie Gohmert leaves Congress with one law and many falsehoods | The Texas Tribune

Gohmert decided to run for Texas attorney general and finished last in the Republican Party primary this spring. Too bad, Louis.

I wish Gohmert’s leaving the political scene signaled a new day in Texas politics. I fear it won’t. There remain too many GOP loons out there ready to step up and take his place as a leader of the nut job wing of a once-great political party.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Wyoming = cult playground

Who would have thought Wyoming — one of the most Republican-leaning of our 50 states — would serve as a petri dish to examine what has become of a once-great political party.

Its sole member of the House, Liz Cheney, got hammered in the GOP primary, losing to Harriet Hageman by more than 30 percentage points. Hageman had earned the endorsement of the Cult Leader in Chief, Donald Trump. Why would the former POTUS go against a House member — Liz Cheney — who voted with him more than 93% of the time? Because Cheney voted to impeach Trump after he incited the 1/6 insurrection.

Let’s look briefly at Cheney’s electoral history in Wyoming.

  • She was elected in 2016 with more than 60% of the vote.
  • Cheney won re-election in 2018 by an even greater margin and then was named House Republican Conference chair, putting her third in line in power behind GOP leader Kevin McCarthy and GOP whip Steve Scalise.
  • Cheney won the GOP nomination in 2020 with 73% of the vote and the general election with a 69% margin.
  • Then came the 2022 Hageman/Trump cult buzzsaw.

Now she’s out … or will be by the end of the year.

The only thing Cheney did “wrong” was to turn against Trump, who has captured the hearts, minds and what passes for the “soul” of the Republican Party, which he has transformed into a cult cabal.

Wyoming has served up the perfect test case for what is wrong with the Grand Old Party.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Don’t walk away, Liz Cheney

Right-wing media commentators have been roughing up one of their own recently and it isn’t a pretty sight.

U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Republican and Donald Trump’s No. 1 political enemy, got thrashed in this week’s GOP primary. What has been the reaction from some in the conservative media?

They are calling on her to resign from the House now, step away from her role on the House select 1/6 committee and, in effect, keep her mouth shut.

She should do none of that. Cheney’s term in office expires at the end of this year, which means this good-government progressive wants her stay on her watch and continue to hold Trump accountable for the crimes he committed while inciting the 1/6 insurrection.

To be sure, I believe Cheney inflated the significance of her primary defeat by comparing her fate to what happened to the father of the Republican Party, America’s greatest president Abraham Lincoln.

Lincoln lost two congressional contests before being elected president in 1860, Cheney reminded us, as if to suggest that her own congressional loss might signal her ascent to the White House in the future.

She is getting way ahead of herself.

However, I do not for one instant believe she should step away. Cheney is providing a valuable voice of reason where few of them exist within her GOP.  Moreover, she is performing valuable service as vice chair of the committee led by Mississippi Democrat Bennie Thompson.

My advice to Rep. Cheney? Stay the course. Wyoming voters elected her to serve until the end of 2022. She has more work to do on behalf of the effort to preserve, protect and defend our precious democratic process.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news, national news

‘Law and order’ gives way to chaos

A truly astonishing metamorphosis is occurring within what we used to call a great American political party.

The Republican Party used to believe in law and order, in the sanctity of the badge that men and women wore while enforcing the law, in their belief that a strong police force was the best deterrent against runaway crime and chaos.

What’s happened to the GOP?

The FBI secured a legally acquired search warrant to allow agents into the home of a former Republican president of the U.S.A. and suddenly the FBI has become the enemy.

Now we find political progressives — whom conservatives once denigrated as being “soft on crime” — rushing to defend the FBI against the attacks coming … from the right!

The metamorphosis is unbecoming in the extreme. For instance, it features physical threats against FBI agents, with threats of “civil war” coming from the very individuals who in another era would never utter such nonsense out loud.

The world has gone nuts!

It seems the change is the direct result of the cult that has formed around a former president of the United States. The cult places idolatry of the former POTUS ahead of all else, even time-tested policies and philosophies that once formed the basis of the once-great political party.

For as long as the cult dictates how Americans shall behave, there will be no making sense of what is occurring. It does require those of us who oppose the cult to remain vigilant and alert to the dangers the cult followers present.

Indeed, any “talk” of civil war must not devolve into the real thing. We did that once in this country. It nearly destroyed us.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

One for two in midterms?

Handicapping political races is among the more dicey endeavors I ever have tried, which is why I am shying away from handicapping the 2022 midterm contests.

Specifically, it is dangerous to predict how the midterm elections will turn out, which party will control Congress’s two legislative chambers.

I do have an idea based on trends I keep hearing about.

The U.S. Senate might not flip from Democratic to Republican control. What’s happening? It appears the GOP is shooting itself in both feet by fielding certifiable nut cases in key races they had hoped to keep or flip into GOP control.

Mehmet Oz is running for the Senate in Pennsylvania. One problem: He doesn’t live there; he hangs his hat in New Jersey. His opponent, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, appears to be pulling away. GOP Sen. Pat Toomey is retiring, so that one might flip from R to D.

Ohio might go from red to blue also. Republican Sen. Rob Portman is retiring. Rep. Tim Ryan is the Democrat running to succeed him. The GOP challenger is J.D. Vance, another nut job. Ryan is leading and he, too, could pull away. Another state might go from R to D.

Democrats appear set to hold onto two seats formerly thought to be ripe for the picking. Sen. Mark Kelly is looking strong against his GOP challenger. My favorite contest this year could be Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock vs. GOP dumbass Herchel Walker. The Rs thought Walker could pilfer this one. They are wrong. Walker’s only claim to any sort of fame is his stellar college and pro football career. Beyond that? This man might be the most unfit candidate ever to suit up for a political office.

One more: GOP Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin might get tossed out by Democratic challenger Mandela Barnes. Oh, how I would love to see that occur.

The Senate stands at 50-50. When the ballots are counted in November, it could be a 53-47 Democratic majority.

The House? That one looks more problematic for Democrats, although I keep seeing that the projections for a “Red Wave” are diminishing from a tsunami to a pebble in a puddle.

It is going to be an invigorating and likely angst-ridden election season coming up. The spirit of our democratic process — despite Donald Trump’s efforts to subvert it — appears to be alive and well.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Cheney: losing candidate actually ‘wins’

You know, it’s not every day that a candidate for Congress from the least-populated state in America becomes an instant potential frontrunning candidate for the presidency of the United States.

I believe that is what is happening with Liz Cheney, the lame-duck Wyoming Republican congresswoman who on Tuesday got buried under a relative landslide.

Cheney lost the GOP primary to Harriet Hageman, whom Donald Trump had endorsed. Trump has a serious hate on for Cheney because Cheney had the temerity to cast a pro-impeachment vote against Trump after he incited the 1/6 insurrectionist mob on the Capitol Building.

Cheney now has become Public Enemy No. 1 in the world of Trump.

Now, what about Cheney?

She lost her bid for a fourth term in the U.S. House. She is the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney. She is as conservative as they come, yet she now is considered a Republican In Name Only because of her outrage at Trump’s incitement of the treasonous mob on 1/6.

Cheney did not congratulate Hageman while delivering her concession speech Tuesday evening. Instead, she said the “real work” is just beginning. Media observers picked up on what they believe is a thinly veiled declaration that she might run for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024 … particularly if Trump decides to jump back into electoral politics.

In a normal political environment, Liz Cheney’s loss in a Wyoming Republican primary would disappear from the news cycle before dawn of the next day. This isn’t a normal environment, though.

Liz Cheney now becomes a potential national player. She vows to devote the rest of her time in Congress seeking to keep Trump from re-entering the Oval Office. I wish her well in that effort.

The political landscape has become so topsy-turvy simply because Liz Cheney lost a Republican Party primary in a state that formerly mattered to few Americans.

It damn sure matters now!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

This is on you, Wyoming

I want to direct these remarks to Wyoming Republicans who, when the ballots were counted last night, voted against the government they swore to preserve and protect.

They put their own party ahead of the country. They stood behind an individual who seeks to dismantle our democratic system of government. They rejected an incumbent member of Congress who, for the past several years, has voted consistently in favor of the very issues many in that beautiful state hold near and dear.

I have one friend in Wyoming. I don’t know how he voted, but my guess is that he did not vote for the individual who won more votes than Rep. Liz Cheney.

Cheney conceded in fine fashion Tuesday night, but she said something that is going to carry over for a long while. Cheney, who lost to a Donald Trump-backed primary foe, declared that “now the real work begins.”

Hmm. Real work? Would that include, dare I ask, a potential run for president in 2024 in a Republican Party field that might include the former twice-impeached POTUS?

Cheney lost her state’s GOP congressional primary for the right reasons. She lost because she stood for the rule of law and because she remains faithful to the oath of office she took, the one that requires her to protect and defend the Constitution. Her opponent, Harriet Hageman, won the primary for the wrong reasons. She won because she has adopted The Big Lie and because she is more loyal to Trump than to the Constitution.

That is the state of play in Wyoming these days.

Liz Cheney vows to continue to work toward preventing Trump from ever darkening the White House door. I wish her well in that effort. As for the Republican voters who turned against her because of her fealty to the sacred oath she took, they all have slathered themselves in shame.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Is she for real … or what?

The quotation you see with this very brief blog post comes from the House of Reps’ QAnon queen herself, Marjorie Taylor Greene of the 14th Congressional District of Georgia.

Yes, she’s a Republican.

I don’t know quite how to respond to this comment. I have been advised by those on social media that it’s the real thing. It ain’t made up. She actually said this.

Oh, my.

Just think that his nitwit is actually voting on federal laws that we all have to obey. Just read the attached message and ask yourself: Did the people of this congressional district really buy into this when they put her into office?

Wow!

Johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com