Tag Archives: Congress

national news

NY GOP finds its … jewels

Well … it turns out the local Republican Party that formerly backed a lying sack of sh** who got elected to Congress has discovered some courage after all.

The Nassau County (N.Y.) GOP promised a “big announcement” today regarding Rep. George Santos. It delivered the goods.

How? By demanding that Santos resign from Congress immediately because he is a serial liar who made up his personal and professional record and pitched it to gullible voters who elected him to the House of Representatives.

Not surprisingly, Santos said he isn’t quitting. He will continue to represent the people who elected him.

My own question from far away is: Which George Santos is going to represent them?

This clown has no business serving in the People’s House, which belongs to you and me, not to a nimrod such as Santos who fabricated his educational background, his professional history, his family history, his personal life and hell, maybe even his dog’s name for all I know.

What we’re going to witness for every single day this disgraceful liar serves in Congress is a parade of reporters pressing him for details on why he lied the way he did and how he can possibly be expected to tell the truth on anything.

Does that remind you of anyone else in politics these days? Hmm. Let me think. Oh yeah, that would be the Serial Liar in Chief who served as president from 2017 until 2021.

I’ll just have to accept this fact: I won’t believe a single word that flies out of George Santos’s mouth. The idea that someone such as this would enact laws that affect all Americans makes me sick.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Social media: celebrity makers

Social media have this way of making me crazy, as in they tend to make celebrities out of politicians who in another line of work would be relegated to sitting on stools with dunce caps on their noggins.

Consider, if you will, the current crop of Republicans serving in Congress. I want to direct your attention to the MAGA types in particular, the dim bulbs who believe they toss out pearls of wisdom when in reality they spew bullsh**.

Yet the media glom onto their sanctimonious drivel. We are treated on the nightly news and throughout the day on cable news networks to the spewing of the likes of those who — pardon the candor — cannot find their rear ends with both hands.

Yet there they are. Calling attention to themselves, as if they are important enough to have their words actually matter. Well … they don’t matter. Yet we hear from loudmouth numbskulls such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz, Paul Gosar and any other right-wing dipsh** with an opinion. As the saying goes: Opinions are like a**holes … everyone has ’em.

I continue to long for the day when we can return to a political culture that mandated that congressional newbies keep their thought to themselves and step aside while the wise men and women of both congressional chambers speak for their respective bodies.

There used to be a saying that a member of Congress had to serve at least two terms in the House and half a term in Senate before being allowed to make speeches from the floor.

Given the intelligence level of many of the MAGA blowhards, that notion is sounding more appealing all the time. Perhaps by the time they get some actual political seasoning they might wise up to the way government is supposed to work.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Can they work together?

Hakeen Jefferies says he and Kevin McCarthy can work together when it matters. Count me as a skeptic … for the time being at least.

Jefferies is the newly minted U.S. House Democratic leader is the equally newly minted speaker of the House. Oh … McCarthy also is a Republican who had to fight through 15 floor-vote ballots before eking out enough support to get the speaker’s gavel.

Jefferies says he and McCarthy get along just fine, that they can “agree to disagree without being disagreeable.” Indeed, McCarthy said some pretty angry things about former speaker Nancy Pelosi, who in turn fired some nastiness at McCarthy.

Jefferies and McCarthy need to work together to craft legislation that President Biden can agree to sign into law. I fear that the task might be hampered by the MAGA crowd within the GOP House caucus that is intent on impeaching everyone who carries the title of Democrat.

Well, I will hold out a sliver of hope that the party leaders can forge a working relationship that puts country ahead of partisan concerns.

Many of us are watching you, gentleman.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Have they lost their mind?

Has the right-wing, nut job, MAGA-worshiping wing of the congressional Republican conference lost what passes for its collective mind?

They have denied the U.S. House of Representatives the ability to organize under the leadership of a new speaker. They have rendered the people’s House a legislative body in name only. Except that it doesn’t legislate a damn thing. It cannot function without a speaker.

The GOP nut job cabal continues to deny the party’s congressional leader Kevin McCarthy the job he says he deserves. That’s a highly debatable point. The point of this blog, though, is to underscore the low-brow idiocy that is driving this impasse.

I guess I should point out that the fellow elected from my congressional district — the 3rd District of Texas, Keth Self — is among those who are blocking the selection of a speaker. Nice going, dude!

The MAGA lovers think nothing of the consequence of having a House that is not functioning. The Senate is ready to go. The president is set to propose legislation.

The House is set to, um, do nothing. If American voters delivered any sort of message in the 2022 midterm election is that they want Congress to get to work. The nation is tired of the posturing, preening and prancing of right-wingers intent on making spectacles of themselves and embarrassing their political foes.

The only embarrassment belongs to the right-wing nut jobs.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Only half of a Congress …

Here’s something to ponder: At this moment, we have only half of a Congress.

There is no House of Representatives. All 435 members of the House are congresspeople-elect. None has taken the oath of office. Why? Because a cabal of Republican hardline, extremist, MAGA-supporting nut jobs are withholding their support for Kevin McCarthy as the next speaker of the House.

Nothing gets done without a speaker. No votes. No committee assignments. No swearing-in ceremonies. Not a damn thing, man!

Yes, the fruitcake caucus is holding our government hostage because they want the next speaker of the House to do its bidding … as if McCarthy isn’t already on board.

This isn’t good government. It is no government!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Of course they clapped … Tucker

Tucker Carlson, the right-wing blowhard who — to the best of my knowledge has zero foreign policy experience — cannot understand why Congress stood in virtual unison and applauded the remarks delivered by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Why, it’s as if Congress has blinders on, said the Fox News gasbag.

Well, as an old guy with whom I once worked, would say, “Well hell, fire and save matches.” 

Of course Congress would stand virtually as one — a couple of right-wing soreheads notwithstanding — to applaud the heroic head of state who is facing the Russian invaders’ onslaught with courage and grit.

And … so damn what if he showed up in his customary olive-drab military wear? Carlson called it a demonstration of “maximum disrespect.” Bullsh**, Tucker! Did you bellow your disgust when independent U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema presided over the Senate wearing a sleeveless denim blouse? Of course not, you nimrod!

Congress wants to help defend a democratic state against an onslaught initiated by a war criminal presiding over the Kremlin. Is it expensive? Well … yeah! It is! No one doubts that the United States is paying a hefty price in sending defensive weapons to Ukraine to help fight the Russian invaders.

Tucker Carlson: Congress Disagrees On Everything Bitterly, But When Zelensky Comes They All Applaud | Video | RealClearPolitics

Moreover, the Ukrainians are putting that expense to good use as they have seized the initiative on the battlefield and have pushed the Russians out of territory they seized.

As for Congress “clapping like seals” at Zelenskyy’s appearance before the joint legislative body, let ’em applaud. The Ukrainian president has earned our admiration.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Hope continues to spring forth

My optimistic wellspring isn’t bottomless, but it remains quite full. Thus, I want to share briefly my holiday wish for two levels of government: state and federal.

Two new legislative assemblies are about to take office. The Texas Legislature and Congress will be seated soon after New Year’s Day. They’ll take oaths to protect the Constitution and defend it against enemies “foreign and domestic.”

My hope for them both is that every one of the 535 members of the U.S. Senate and House, along with every one of the 181 members of the Texas Senate and House remain faithful to the letter of those oaths.

Accordingly, my hope is that two chief political executives, one Democrat and one Republican, work to bridge the chasm that divides the major parties within those legislative chambers.

I am acutely aware of President Biden’s demonstrated ability to do so. He served in the U.S. Senate for 36 years before becoming vice president in 2009, where he served ably for two terms. He has boasted of his ability to work with even the most conservative members of Congress. In fact, he was able to do so while serving as VP during the Obama administration.

So far as president, his legislative acumen has produced limited results. Biden has had to rely on Democrats in the House and Senate to carry legislation through to becoming law.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s legislative skill is less pronounced and less demonstrable. He did not serve in the Texas Legislature before becoming governor. He cut his government teeth as a trial court judge, as a Texas Supreme Court justice and as state attorney general.

As governor, he has toed a sometimes-harsh party line. My hope for Abbott is that he finds it within himself to seek common ground with legislative Democrats. I am not going to wait breathlessly for that to happen, but I will retain a glimmer of hope that he’ll deliver the goods.

These are not ambitious wishes from some chump sitting out here in the cheap seats. What I am asking is pretty minimal. Sometimes, even minimal requests can produce monumental results.

So, my hope continues into the new year.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Election over … get busy

I find no need to look back on the 2022 midterm election, which came to a wonderful end with the re-election this week of Raphael Warnock to the U.S. Senate.

Warnock’s victory extends by just a tiny bit Democrats’ majority in the Senate, enabling that body now to proceed with some important business on our behalf. I have said all I intend to say about the (lack of) quality in Sen. Warnock’s Republican opponent … except to speculate whether Herschel Walker will return to his mansion in Texas and consider running for politics here. God forbid …

What’s ahead for the Senate? Lots of business that Democrats can do — hopefully with Republican help. But with a 51-49 majority, Democrats now can lose one of their members to the other side and still have Vice President Harris waiting in the wings to break a tie. The good news for Democrats? It’s no longer as urgent a fallback position.

The Senate now can proceed with filling federal judicial vacancies. President Biden has nominated judges for these vacancies, but the Senate had been hamstrung by GOP obstructionists. They need to be filled. It is with great pleasure I acknowledge that the House of Representatives, with its slim GOP majority, has no voice on that matter.

To be sure, the Senate cannot act on its own without some assistance from the House. There needs to be legislation to codify women’s reproductive rights that the Supreme Court stripped away when it trashed the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion. Congress should seek legislation to make it even more difficult for lunatics to purchase firearms.

To be sure, the next Senate is going to have more election deniers among the ranks of senators. Two of them won election in Ohio and North Carolina. However, with Democrats’ position strengthened, the Big Lie believers can be silenced more readily.

The 2024 campaign for president is likely to commence soon. Joe Biden is sounding more like a candidate for re-election. Only heaven knows how many Republicans will step forward to seek their party’s nomination. That’s all well and good.

I am ready for a political breather.

Thus, I also am ready to watch the 118th Congress takes its oath and get to work.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, political news

Rep. Jackson: MAGA fool

Ronny Jackson has me scratching my noggin bloody. The newly re-elected freshman U.S. representative from Amarillo has emerged as one of the nation’s premier MAGA election denying nut jobs in Congress.

And to think he represents what used to be my congressional district, where my wife and I lived for 23 years before we moved to the Metroplex.

What drives me just this side of the funny farm are his incessant Twitter messages questioning President Biden’s fitness for office. Indeed, I have wondered about Jackson’s fitness for the office he occupies.

It staggers me as well to believe the residents of the13th Congressional District would re-elect this guy, let alone elect him in the first place in 2020.

The 13th District was represented for the entire length of my journalism career in Amarillo by Republican Mac Thornberry of Clarendon. Thornberry was a back bencher for much of his time in Congress. Then he earned the chairmanship of the House Armed Services Committee. For a time, Thornberry occupied a ringside seat of military policy, and he did his job with a huge measure of dignity and decorum I do not see in the individual who succeeded him.

What I continue to see in Jackson are the antics of a raving lunatic. I know that sounds strange to say, given that Jackson is a retired Navy admiral and is a former physician who served two presidents: Barack Obama and Donald Trump.

Since being elected to Congress after moving into the 13th District, though, Jackson has gone mad. He is a frequent guest on the Fox Propaganda Network, spouting the trash about Joe Biden –without, of course, ever being challenged by his interviewers.

Whenever I read a tweet from Jackson that accuses the president of being everything but the spawn of Satan, I cannot stop wondering: What in the world would Jackson do if the 13th Congressional District needed a presidential declaration in the case of dire emergency? Would he ask for it?

It is as if Jackson is burning every bridge there is between the congressional district he represents and the White House.

I just don’t get it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

business news, economic news

Pleading for an end to this labor dispute

I won’t sugarcoat this matter: The most difficult story for me to cover as a reporter and as an opinion writer and editor over the course of my nearly four-decade-long career was labor negotiation.

Thus, I am grateful to be on the sidelines as railroad unions and rail companies are battling head-to-head over a new contract. A strike might occur in one week. Or, the government might intervene to prevent what some observers are predicting would be a virtual economic collapse.

I want an end to this dispute. Now! I want the trains to keep hauling goods and commodities to their intended destinations.

As difficult as it was to cover these negotiations, it appears to me that the unions are making a relatively simple demand of the employers. They want paid sick leave, which is what employers all over the country give to those who work for them.

I am not sure how the rail companies deny what appears to be this basic demand from the unions. They want to be able to take time off to tend to their own health, or to the health of their family members … and get paid for it!

Congress is preparing legislation that would prevent a strike. Indeed, the stakes are huge, man. We could see the cessation of shipments, making even worse the “supply chain” issues that have plagued the economy. Oh, and inflation? That, too, likely could explode if we cannot get the goods to customers.

Economists say a strike would cost the economy $2 billion each day.

Do the union and rail company negotiators really want to be held accountable for the possible collapse of our economy? I do doubt it.

Get busy, folks. Settle this dispute!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com