Tag Archives: Donald Trump

crime news

Will the ex-POTUS implode?

As I watch the media cover the myriad investigations into Donald J. Trump, I am left to wonder this about the former president of the United States:

How is he going to react when — and I have no doubt that it will occur — the special counsel indicts him for felony crimes? Will he lose what is left of his mind? Will he say something we could deem as a direct physical threat to the special counsel, Jack Smith? If he does, will the feds then decide on the spot to arrest him for issuing such a threat?

I am growing increasingly concerned about Trump’s behavior as news keeps leaking about the state of Smith’s probe. Trump is running for POTUS again, but as a candidate under federal — and state — investigations, he places himself in considerable jeopardy by shooting off his pie hole.

This guy not only cannot tell the truth. He also cannot control himself. He doesn’t heed lawyers’ advice to stop talking about these legal matters. On and on he goes, blathering lie after lie.

My goodness. He has admitted to others that he kept “classified documents,” despite denying he did the obvious.  Trump then offered a jaw-dropping response to a question as to whether he told anyone about the documents: “Not really,” he said.

Huh? What the … ?

He has given the special counsel the ammo he needs to unload on the former POTUS when the time comes to indict him.

Back to my question: What will he do the moment he hears that Smith has asked the grand jury to indict him?

This individual’s behavior suggests to me that we need to watch him ver-r-r-r-ry carefully.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Is there a bottom to be found?

Donald Trump has done many astonishing things since he became a politician and joined the world of public policy.

One of them is how he has redefined what is acceptable behavior among our elected officials. He once bragged that he could “shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any voters.”

He might be right.

The problem as I see it, though, is that those blindly loyal voters are vocal but pitifully ignorant. They have sacrificed their own sense of decency in the name of fealty to a politician.

He also bragged about grabbing women by their private parts; he acknowledges openly his philandering; he denigrated a Vietnam War hero (and U.S. senator, John McCain); he mocked a physically challenged New York Times reporter; he admitted he’s never asked God for forgiveness.

But … hey. That’s OK in what passes for the minds of those loyal followers.

He’s redefined the standards we determine to be acceptable.

He lies routinely. Yet when his political foes call him out for the lies and for his assault on democracy, Republican Party primary voters chase those foes out of office.

My wish looking toward the future?

It is to restore the kind of “normal” behavioral standards we used to apply to those who seek our votes. I want the public to scorn and condemn those who boast of assaulting women, or who denigrate others on the basis of their physical challenges.

I have friends — and have members of my family — who profess to be devout in their belief in God, but who give the politician mentioned in this blog a pass. Why? Because they endorse the man’s policies … never mind his behavior, his personal morals. Who cares about stuff that used to be the barometer of a candidate’s fitness for office?

Maybe one day …

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

‘Something has to change’

Brett Baier, one of the propagandists who works for the Fox Propaganda Network, said this week, “Something has to change dramatically. There may be events that we don’t know. There may be other legal challenges that he faces” in order for Ron DeSantis to secure the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

OK, here’s a dramatic change for you to ponder. GOP voters have to come to their senses if they have any hope at all for their party to defeat President Biden next year.

By that I mean the Republican core of fanatics must abandon any thought of nominating a twice-impeached, indicted former POTUS for another go-round that is assuredly going to end in defeat for him and for what once was known as the Republican Party.

On second thought, if GOP primary voters are stupid enough to hang with Donald John Trump, they will deserve the shellacking they are going to get come Election Day.

And, yes, Trump is going to face “other legal challenges” along the way. You are welcome to take that straight to the bank. It’s gonna happen.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

DeSantis will need to sharpen his long knives

Ron DeSantis appears ready to declare his campaign for the U.S. presidency in 2024. This is going to be fun to watch.

Why? Because he is a Trumpkin … sort of.

Meanwhile, the other leading (alleged) Republican already has hung an unflattering nickname or two on the Florida governor, referring to him as Gov. De-Sanctimonious.

Here’s the question of the day: Will the GOP governor respond to Donald Trump’s digs at him, poking fun at his name?

As a follow up, I will pose this: Or will he continue to tiptoe around the idiotic notion that Trump — as the GOP frontrunner for the ’24 nomination — is too formidable a foe to take on directly?

To be honest, I have trouble understanding why Trump has decided to strip the bark off of DeSantis. The governor is following the Trump agenda battling “wokeism” (whatever that means), embracing a “don’t say ‘gay'” policy, declaring war on transgendered Floridians and attacking the Disney Co. for being tolerant of gay Americans.

I guess the only way Trump can maintain his frontrunner status is to take down any other politician who poses a threat to him.

And just so you know, it pains me greatly to even acknowledge that the twice-impeached, once-indicted (for now), convicted sexual abuser is even in the hunt for the GOP nomination. I will maintain my fervent hope that the law will swallow him whole.

As for DeSantis, well, the fellow has some tough decisions to make about how he intends to fight Donald Trump if he truly wants the Republican Party to nominate him for the White House.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Trump: accountable

I have been trying to process the guilty verdict handed down in that trial involving E. Jeanne Carroll and Donald J. Trump.

Carroll had sued Trump alleging he raped her in the 1990s. She didn’t get the rape conviction she sought, but she got damn near everything else.

So, with a jury deciding in less than four hours after an eight-day trial, we now can call Trump a sexual abuser and a slanderer. He sexually abused Carroll and defamed her character.

The jury decided Carroll should get $5 million in damages.

Trump said he plans to appeal. Here’s the best part: Trump is accusing the presiding judge of being a “Trump hater.”

Hmm. Well, consider this: The judge gave Trump every opportunity to change his mind and testify in his own defense. He didn’t.

The judge went far beyond what is normal by giving Trump ample avenues to defend himself. That isn’t the action of a “Trump hater.”

I am glad for Carroll. She didn’t deserve to be treated in a defamatory manner by Donald Trump. And Trump doesn’t deserve to be considered the frontrunner for the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination.

But if the GOP is going to nominate a twice-impeached, once-indicted (for now) and convicted sexual abuser for president, then the party is in far worse condition than any of us ever imagined.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

National mood: toxic

My eternal optimism is being tested to its limits by the current mood of the nation I love with all my heart.

It troubles me in the extreme to see the major political parties so deeply divided. I hurt at the prospect of congressmen and women expressing fear of working with their colleagues. I long for the day when these officials could differ on policy but remain friends in private.

When in the world did it occur? When did we become so full of hatred for each other? I know the answer to those rhetorical questions.

It occurred when Donald J. Trump rode down the escalator at Trump Tower and declared in 2015 that if he was elected president, he would ban Muslims from entering the country and would curb what he described as the tide of criminals streaming here from Mexico, accusing our hemispheric neighbors of being “rapists, murderers and drug dealers.”

It went downhill from there in a big hurry.

Then he declared that the media are the “enemy of the people.” He chastised gay Americans. He vowed to “make America great again.” He pitted Americans against each other.

He denigrated those who wanted to wear the uniform of the country in a time of war … a jab many of us took personally, if you get my drift.

The list is long. He left a nation damaged from his time in office. I am not going to believe the damage is permanent. That optimism in me wants to believe we can heal ourselves. I won’t let that belief go.

He is gone from public office. My sincerest hope of all is that he doesn’t ever return to public life, that the crimes I believe he committed will bring him down.

Meanwhile, my sincerest hope of all is that we can restore some semblance of collegiality and rid our public discourse of the extreme bitterness that infects it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Not wanting to climb aboard

You may count me as one of the few — apparently, it seems — observers of the 2024 presidential campaign who is unwilling to examine every little thing that flies out of the mouth of the 45th POTUS.

Why? Because I am not yet willing to buy into the harebrained notion that the immediate past POTUS is going to be nominated to run against President Biden next summer.

It’s not because I trust the judgment of Republican primary voters. I already have declared that I mistakenly overestimated the intelligence of the average GOP primary voter. He and she seem all too willing to give the twice-impeached and once (so far) indicted ex-POTUS a pass on his previous disastrous term in office.

They have forgiven him for denigrating a physically challenged New York Times reporter, for bragging about grabbing women by their private area, for applauding the “lock her up” chants at his campaign rallies, for admitting he never has asked for forgiveness, for disparaging the Vietnam War service of a genuine hero, the late John McCain.

Oh, and the insurrection he incited on 1/6? Pffft! Who cares, right?

I am going to place my faith on the indictments that are sure to come from Fulton County, Ga., and from the Justice Department. They are examining some mighty serious criminal behavior that Donald Trump (allegedly) committed. If he’s convicted of any of the crimes, he could spend a lot of years in prison … given the AG’s declaration that “no one is above the law.”

I just do not know how he can run for POTUS and fight to keep the hounds at bay.

Maybe I’m wrong. I hope to have this one right.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

Special counsel closes in

I am not a lawyer … and I don’t even play one on TV, but I have a hunch about a legal proceeding that I want to share.

It is that former Vice President Mike Pence’s testimony this week before a grand jury examining the 1/6 insurrection well might be the beginning of the end of Donald Trump’s idiotic quest for the presidency in 2024.

Special counsel Jack Smith summoned Pence to testify before the panel; Pence initially fought it, then he and the Pence-Trump legal team were told that the ex-VP had to testify.

Today, he did. Prosecutors sworn him to tell the truth and they then worked him over behind closed doors.

They likely asked Pence: What did Trump say to you in advance of the 1/6 assault on the government and what did you say to him?

I suppose it is possible that Pence could invoke the Fifth Amendment, which protects him against self-incrimination. Except that he isn’t the subject of the probe; Pence is a low-risk witness, given that on that terrible day he stood his ground and stood on the Constitution, which required him to do his duty that day, which was to preside over congressional certification of the Electoral College results from the 2020 presidential election.

Oh, yes, that’s the election that Joe Biden won over Donald Trump. 

Pence has told TV interviewers that Trump’s remarks that day were “reckless” and that they put “everyone in the Capitol that day” in dire danger. Indeed, traitors who stormed the Capitol threatened to assassinate Pence and then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

What did Trump do to stop it? Not a damn thing!

That’s the kind of testimony that the former vice president of the United States can deliver to the special counsel and the grand jury that will determine whether to indict the former president of the United States.

My non-lawyerly gut tells me the special counsel’s hammer is about to hit home … as it must.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

GOP voters = numbskulls

All right, gang, here’s a confession coming your way: I have been far too willing to overstate the intelligence of the average Republican presidential primary voter.

Therefore, I am going to presume the worst among my GOP friends, that they aren’t as discerning a group of voters as I have presumed for far too long.

Evidence of my misguided attitude? It is that Donald J. Trump stands out among the Republican pretenders for the presidency as the hands-down favorite for the party’s nomination next summer.

So help me, God in heaven. I never thought that Republican voters would be so gullible to believe that a twice-impeached, once (for now) indicted politician could emerge from a field of supposedly competent pols as the frontrunner.

What in the world is happening to our body politic?

A party that once stood for fiscal responsibility, for democratic rule over autocracy, for maintaining our standing as the world’s indispensable nation, for equality for all Americans has become an organization that is steeped in the politics of fear.

They tell us that Democrats intend to “take our guns away,” that they are “socialists” and that they condone pedophilia. They look the other way as Russia attacks a sovereign neighbor and seeks to bring Ukraine under the Russian jackboot.

Republicans are following the lead of the former POTUS, the guy who was impeached for seeking political favor from a foreign head of state and for inciting an assault on the Capitol Building as Congress was seeking to ratify the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Here he is again, never once conceding that he lost the 2020 election, seeking yet another turn in the Oval Office. And Republicans are lining up behind his overfed backside to support him.

Who knew — or thought — this could happen?

Well, not me.

I’ve been sitting out here in Flyover Country suggesting that Trump’s candidacy is going to flame out, that Republicans would come to their senses and look for someone else to lead their party. How silly and naive of me to think such a thing.

I’m not going to surrender my thoughts on the future of Trump’s candidacy. I will cling to the belief that the upcoming indictments — which constitute the main event in this titanic brawl — will doom his candidacy ultimately.

The legal system might be the only thing left to rid us of this hideous monster. We certainly cannot rely on Republicans’ (non-existent) good judgment.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Trump makes history!

Donald John Trump has made history, the kind of history that will be included in the first line of his obituary when that event arrives.

It will say he is the first former president of the United States indicted by a grand jury on allegations that he committed a crime.

Well … what now?

The law requires that the former POTUS show up to be charged formally. He will be fingerprinted, read his rights and will have his picture taken.

Oh … the allegation? The Manhattan, N.Y., grand jury says that he paid a porn start $130,000 to keep quiet about a one-night tumble he took with her in 2006, just weeks after his third wife gave birth to Trump’s fifth child. Trump denies he had the encounter with Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels, but he paid her anyway. Go … figure, eh?

The grand jury indicted Trump on a charge that he paid the sum illegally in 2016 while he was running for POTUS the first time.

Ohhh, boy. Ain’t this just a kick in patootie?

Now we must face the obvious question of whether this is just the first of a series of indictments. We have the Georgia district attorney investigating whether Trump sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election there; we have that evidence recorded from a phone tirade he launched against the Georgia secretary of state.

Plus … we have the Justice Department examining whether Trump broke the law when he took classified documents from the White House as he was exiting the building and, of course, whether he incited the 1/6 insurrection that sought to overthrow the U.S. government. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has said that “no one is above the law. No … one!” We’re going to find out if he means it.

I have thought the Georgia case was the easiest one to prosecute. Maybe that will pan out. Then again, there also appears to be mountains of evidence against the ex-POTUS on the insurrection and the classified documents matters as well.

But all that aside, what we have unfolding today is an unprecedented event in U.S. history with Trump standing alone as the only ex-POTUS to be charged with a felony.

This individual’s life is about to change forever.

Stand tall, Donald.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com