Tag Archives: GOP

national news

CPAC paints us as ‘enemy’

There they go again. The Conservative Political Action Conference, holding its annual meeting down the highway from me in Dallas, is labeling those of us who oppose its right-wing agenda as “the enemy within.”

Good grief, man! The particular epithet came from U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, the Florida loony bin Republican, who says all liberals are “socialists” who want the entire country to march in lockstep with their agenda … or else!

I don’t know what the “or else” is, other than to presume that it must involve some form of punishment.

Hey, but here’s the really bad news: Donald J. Trump is going to soil the CPAC stage on Saturday. Oh, he’ll feed the attendees more Big Lie crapola. He might drop another hint or two about whether he intends to run for POTUS in 2024.

He might … if he isn’t under felony indictment by the Justice Department for conspiring to commit sedition after the 2020 presidential election — which Trump lost!

Yep, in the CPAC world of Us vs. Them, those who hold different views are the “enemy within.”

Sickening.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Good news, sort of, surfaces

There’s a bit of good news to report from the latest round of midterm primary election results, some of which haven’t yet been declared official by various states.

It is that a number of the certifiable nut cases endorsed by Donald J. Trump have either won their Republican primary contests or are leading them with just a smattering of votes left to be counted.

Why is that good news? Why would this blogger see their seeming victories be a sign of better days?

It is because the Trumpkin wing of the GOP has clamped a stranglehold on the party. However, there exists a growing — at least I hope it is growing — pool of voters who have had it up to here with Trump’s constant yammering about The Big Lie.

The former POTUS’s cultists have glommed onto The Big Lie and are suggesting they’re going to get some payback if they manage to win the election this November against whomever they’ll face from the Democratic Party.

Democrats should — if they’re smart and have hired capable campaign staff — be able to paste the nut case label on the foreheads of their Trump cult opponents. That would be my hope.

It continues to astound me that so many Republican voters continue to insist that Trump truly was robbed of his “landslide” victory in the 2020 election by “widespread voter fraud.” The only electoral theft occurring comes from the GOP, led by its titular leader and his effort to overturn the results of the election.

But wait! Attorney General Merrick Garland well could have a whole lot to say about that effort and whether the former president has broken the law in egging on the mob of traitors who stormed the Capitol Building on 1/6.

My view? He damn sure did break the law! He needs to be prosecuted … but that’s just me.

If he is indicted and Merrick Garland can make the indictments stick, then the Trumpkins who have won their primary contests will have reached the end of their political journey.

There’s more good news!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Can’t we do better?

Surely you remember the time when we expected a lot more than usual from those we elect to represent our interests in, say, Congress.

I certainly do remember.

Today, we can scan the political horizon and find any number of nimrods, dipsh**s, fruitcakes and borderline psychos serving a the highest levels of government.

Since the Republican Party supposedly is on the ascent, I feel compelled to single out just a few GOP officeholders to make my point.

Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida is being investigated for having sex with underage girls; Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia says the Constitution doesn’t really separate church and state; Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado has declared that this is a Christian nation; closer to home, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has been under felony indictment on securities fraud charges and is favored to win re-election to a third term as the state’s top law enforcement officer.

I just have to mention, if only briefly, that we elected a president of the United States who admits to sexually assaulting women, who says he’s never sought forgiveness for mistakes he has made, who has admitted to cheating on all three women he has married, who once said he “could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and never lose any voters.”

Politics is supposed to be a noble profession. These days it is being practiced by run-of-the-mill nut jobs.

Scary, man.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Trumpkins may save Democrats

I will get right to the point. Senate Democratic candidates might have an easier time winning their midterm election contests than originally thought.

Their secret weapon? It well might be the quality of their Republican Party opponents.

Democrat Tim Ryan is facing off against a GOP foe endorsed by Donald Trump. J.D. Vance is digging himself into a deeper hole almost daily with his goofy pronouncements; the men are competing for an Ohio U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican Rob Portman.

John Fetterman is running against Mehmet Oz for the U.S. Senate seat that Pennsylvania GOP Sen. Pat Toomey is leaving behind. Oz is another Trumpkin. Fetterman is making a whole lot of hay over the fact that Oz doesn’t live in Pennsylvania. He is making wise use of social media to whittle away at Oz.

Sen. Raphael Warnock is a Democrat seeking re-election to his office. His GOP challenger, another Trumpkin, is Herschel Walker, whom I have dubbed the No. 1 dumbass of the 2022 midterm election.

These are three notable examples. It might be — and I won’t predict it — that Democrats can perhaps gain a bit of an advantage over the GOP in the Senate races this year.

The goofballs anointed by Donald J. Trump give me reason to smile.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

GOP might rescue Democrats

There can be no greater political irony imaginable than to think that Democrats’ greatest ally in the midterm competition against Republicans might be … Republicans!

The GOP was poised to grab control of both congressional chambers once we count the ballots of the midterm election. Then something odd happened: the godfather of current GOP, Donald Trump, began endorsing certifiable nut jobs for high office.

A.B. Stoddard, writing for RealClearPolitics, reports: Republicans are now panicked that what was once a dream election year could end up a nightmare. A recent report in Axios described GOP anxiety this way: “Top Republicans, once confident about winning control of the Senate in the midterms, fear they’ll blow it after nominating several deeply flawed candidates in winnable states, according to conversations with GOP strategists, pollsters and other officials.” The Senate candidates they are most worried about are Dr. Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania, Herschel Walker in Georgia, J.D. Vance in Ohio, Blake Masters in Arizona, and Eric Greitens in Missouri.

Oz, Vance, Greitens and Masters are seeking to keep Senate seats in Republican control. They all are trailing their Democratic foes. Walker is challenging a Democratic incumbent in Georgia and he, too, is trailing Sen. Raphael Warnock.

Trump’s recommendations haven’t exactly helped most of his endorsees. Many of the MAGA-friendly candidates are downright frightening. Herschel Walker comes to mind.

Will Trump and MAGA Candidates Slow the Red Wave? | RealClearPolitics

The so-called Red Wave well might swamp the House of Representatives. The Senate is looking like there might be an altogether different outcome than what many of us had expected.

If the GOP falls short, I believe they should look inward and ask: Can we do better than line up behind the lawlessness promoted by a twice-impeached POTUS?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Buckle up and wait for these results

There likely will be no clearer referendum on the health and status of today’s Republican Party than a primary vote set to take place next month in Wyoming.

U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, the state’s lone representative in the House, is running for re-election. She has been as staunch a conservative lawmaker as any in the House. She is fervently pro-life and pro-gun; she is anti-tax and has voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

But she’s being called a “dead woman walking” in the upcoming GOP primary because she is being challenged by a Trump cultist who has earned the endorsement of the twice-impeached former president.

Why worry about this election? Because Cheney has committed an unpardonable sin in the eyes of the cult cabal that follows Donald Trump. She has joined a select House committee seeking to know the truth behind the 1/6 insurrection and attack on the Capitol. She has said Trump is criminally liable for what occurred that day. She has been faithful to her oath, which she took to defend the Constitution.

That has earned her a spot on the Donald Trump sh** list of politicians who would dare to challenge him for, oh, breaking the law and doing something no other president in history has ever done … which is launch a coordinated attack on the peaceful transition of power after an election that he lost.

If the Wyoming primary voters oust Cheney, then I am certain it will signal the death of the Republican Party as we have known it. If Cheney fends off the challenger, which appears unlikely, then there might be hope that the GOP can cleanse itself of the soiling that Trump has brought to it.

I am pulling for Rep. Cheney. Not because I like her politics, but because the Republican Party needs someone in its ranks who will stand for the rule of law. It is fundamental to the success of this democratic experiment the nation’s founders left us.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Biden update: Stay the course, Mr. POTUS

Joe Biden is feeling lots of heat these days from the far left as well as from the far right. The right-wingers’ criticism is to be expected. The lefties, though, present a unique concern for the president of the United States.

I am insisting, thus, that President Biden continue on a path toward finding common ground with both ends of the spectrum. It is how he has been wired since he hopped onto the national stage after winning the 1972 election to the U.S. Senate.

Biden has been on — or near that stage — for the past 50 years.

Am I concerned about falling approval ratings? Sure. Who wouldn’t be? The RealClearPolitics poll average puts the president’s approval rating at around 39%. Don’t remind me how bad that looks compared to what other presidents have experienced. I get it … totally!

Even though I won’t blame the president for all the issues that are dragging his poll numbers down, I certainly understand the need for the head of state and government and our commander in chief to get more aggressive in his use of the bully pulpit.

I remain a good-government progressive, which is how I describe a politician willing to compromise to achieve legislative success. Joe Biden has shown an ability to do such a thing over his many years in public service.

Yes, he is going to face pressure from the progressive wing of his own party and from the obstructionist wing of the Republican Party.

Stay the course, Mr. President.

johnkanelis_9@hotmail.com

national news

Pure nonsense!

1 Comment

All righty, this seems to make a point better than I could ever make it about whether Herschel Walker, the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate from Georgia, is a certifiable dumbass.

I want to challenge anyone out there to parse this piece of verbal dooky and report back to me.

What in the hell is this idiot saying?

Let’s remember that this former football star who has earned the “full and complete endorsement” of Donald J. Trump wants to join a legislative chamber that once proclaimed itself to be the world’s “greatest deliberative body.”

This guy deserves to enter the Senate chamber? Not … a … chance!

I might be inclined to pay real American money to watch this guy debate the man he wants to defeat, Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock.

Meantime, someone please tell me what Walker said.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

‘Mitt’ becomes latest GOP four-letter word

I never thought this day would come, when members of the Republican Party – those who have swilled the snake oil peddled by a fraud – would turn on one of the party’s truest believers and use his name as a cudgel to beat their opponents bloody.

They would call them “Mitt Romney Republicans.”

Believe this or not, but the Donald Trump cultists are now using Sen. Mitt Romney’s name as an epithet. Yeah, that Mitt Romney, the junior senator from Utah, the 2012 GOP nominee for president who came quite close to defeating President Obama, the fellow who saved the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and the son of a successful governor of Michigan.

How in the world did Mitt earn the title of becoming a four-letter word in today’s GOP politics?

He voted to convict Donald Trump during the two impeachment trials that Trump faced during his term in office. That’s it! He sided with the rule of law on both occasions. He delivered an impassioned and emotional floor speech in the Senate prior to announcing his decision to vote to convict Trump during the initial impeachment trial, which came after the House impeached Trump for soliciting a political favor from the president of Ukraine in that so-called “perfect phone call.”

Mitt became the sole Republican senator in that first trial to seek a conviction. The second impeachment trial – caused by Trump’s inciting of the 1/6 insurrection – saw nine more GOP senators join Mitt Romney in voting to convict Trump.

All of this speaks so badly of a once-great political party, that its rabid followers of the ex-Narcissist in Chief would stoop so low as to label a one-time ideal Republican politician a pariah and a man worthy of political scorn among his fellow conservatives.

Hey, I didn’t vote for Sen. Romney when he ran against President Obama in 2012. However, my respect for him only has grown as he has remained loyal – along with a few of his GOP congressional colleagues – to the oath they took when they began their terms. It was an oath to protect the Constitution and to follow the law.

What in the name of fealty to the founders’ intent is wrong with that? Someone has to explain it to me.

Johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Sanity must prevail

Those of us who believe the world is full of far more sane people than insane individuals must cling to that notion tightly as we watch the 2024 presidential election field take shape.

Thus, it falls on me to declare once again that I believe sanity is going to win the day. Republicans are not going to commit an act of insanity by allowing a twice-impeached president, a two-time loser of the popular vote and an individual who well might be indicted for seditious conspiracy against the government to carry the party’s banner into the next presidential campaign.

Donald J. Trump cannot possibly believe he can be elected again to the nation’s highest office. Surely there exists a sufficient body of sane Republicans who also can prevent that catastrophe from occurring.

I say this because I have stated already that I do not believe that Trump is going to run for POTUS in two years. This individual has a sh**load of trouble awaiting him.

His business is failing.  He is in debt up to that muskrat-covered skull of his. The 1/6 insurrection probe has revealed to the world that Trump knew in advance that the attack he provoked would bring trouble and that he didn’t give a damn that the traitorous mob was screaming “Hang Mike Pence!” as they stormed the Capitol Building.

I will not believe that Republicans would dare nominate someone so corrupt, crooked, immoral and indecent as the guy who stumbled and bumbled his way into office, only to be revealed that he, indeed, is every inch the “phony” and the “fraud” that 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney described him.

My eternal hope still burns brightly with the belief that the world has more sane minds than insane minds.

Let it be so.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com