Tag Archives: DC riot

local news, national news

Riot fills me with rage

Without fail, whenever I watch video or hear audio from the 1/6 insurrection, my blood boils, my pulse quickens, my face gets a bit flushed, I get angry as hell at the perpetrators of that event.

Every time. Every … single … time.

So, when Wylie, Texas, resident Guy Reffitt got convicted this week of five felony charges stemming from his role in the treasonous act against our government, I got angry all over again. The news media showed me what that crowd of terrorists was doing.

My anger only worsens when I hear sh** fly out of the mouth of those who defend nimrods like Reffitt. His wife is one of them. She said the Justice Department is trying merely to make an example of her husband. What utter crap!

Guy Reffitt made an example of himself. The moron didn’t need DOJ’s help in that regard. He recorded his own participation in the riot. We have audio and visual proof of the things he said and did on that horrendous day.

And then for Republican members of Congress to suggest that they were engaged in “legitimate political discourse” offends me beyond any measure. They are causing the founding fathers to spin in their graves. The First Amendment, I hasten to note, mentions “the right of the people peaceably to assemble … ”

Was there anything “peaceable” about that riot? Nope. It was a violent act of treason.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news, national news

One down, more to go

Guy Reffitt is likely heading to prison, possibly for decades, for his role in the 1/6 insurrection. The native of Texas and resident of Wylie — a town just across Lake Lavon where my wife and I reside — sealed his own fate with his stupidity.

It took a jury three hours to return a five-count guilty verdict against Reffitt, who was ratted out by his 19-year-old son. What was the nimrod doing? He “lit the fire” that ignited inside the Capitol Building on 1/6 and then actually recorded his own fiery rhetoric on social media.

The Hill reported: A jury found the Texas native guilty of attempting to obstruct the certification of the 2020 presidential election, transporting guns from Texas to D.C., bringing a firearm into restricted grounds of the Capitol, interfering with Capitol Police and threatening his son and daughter upon returning from the riot.

It was that compelling evidence that persuaded the jury to ramrod a guilty verdict against the guy who belongs to some nimrod group called the Texas Three Percenters. He went to Washington on 1/6 carrying firearms, such as rifles and handguns. What was he going to do with all that firepower? He was going to storm the Capitol Building and drag politicians out by their hair, or so he said, and do … something to them.

Hey, it’s all recorded for the entire world to hear.

What a dipsh**.

The federal government has arrested more than 700 people in connection with the insurrection. Reffitt is the first of them to be convicted. He will face sentencing on June 8. He could get 60 years in prison.

Whether it’s the max or something less, my strong hope is that he gets put away for a long time.

Then let’s get on with prosecuting the rest of the traitors.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Don’t weaponize ‘patriotism’

Patriot” is not a word that ever should be used as a campaign weapon, as a slogan, or as a cheap throwaway line to appeal to political fanatics. Same can be said for “patriotism.”

However, I am typing this brief blog post because I am infuriated at what has become of those two terms that I happen to take far more seriously than I do any politician’s desire to use them to his or her advantage.

You know who I am talking about, yes? If not, I’ll explain. I am talking about the far-right wingers out there, adherents to the cult created by The Donald. The promoters of The Big Lie. The morons who stormed the Capitol Building on 1/6 and beat police officers senseless while proclaiming themselves to be “patriots” loyal to an insurrection that sought to subvert American democracy.

I say all this as a proud American patriot. I believe I am the real thing, not some made-up figment of a cult leader’s delusional view of himself. I have been married to the same woman for 50 years. I pay my taxes regularly. I am a proud Army veteran who went to war for my country. I choke up at the sound of marching bands playing the National Anthem.

I also abhor the notion that The Donald’s cabal of fruitcakes, kooks and nut jobs can pretend to be patriots and usurp the true meaning of the term for their own perverted world view.

Far-right candidates for public office throw the terms “patriot” and “patriotism” around like any cheap political slogan or jingle. Let me be crystal clear: It pisses me off! Royally!

So … one’s proclamation of their “love of country” is nothing on which they should base a cheap slogan. In the current political climate, I am quite certain any politician who proclaims their patriotism in an effort to win my vote is more than likely going to lose it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Walls close in on The Donald

Just in case The Donald suffers from claustrophobia, well … he’d better learn to deal with it as them ol’ walls are closing in on him with revelations that the House select committee looking into the 1/6 insurrection has found ample evidence of criminal wrongdoing on the part of the 45th POTUS.

The panel has introduced evidence that suggest strongly that The Donald engaged in a criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.

The evidence appears to be the product of emails from Trump lawyer John Eastman, who orchestrated a grand plan for The Donald to coerce other officials to flip the results of a legal election.

According to CBS.com: The filing also describes how Eastman advised Trump to “press an unconstitutional plan” and sought to persuade Vice President Pence and his advisers to go along with the effort. And the committee revealed how, as the January 6 attack at the Capitol was underway, Eastman and Pence’s lawyer traded blame over the violence. In one email, Pence’s lawyer Greg Jacob wrote, “thanks to your bull***t we are now under siege.” Eastman responded, “The ‘siege’ is because YOU and your boss did not do what was necessary to allow this to be aired in a public way so that the American people can see for themselves what happened.”

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-criminal-conspiracy-house-january-6-committee/

The walls are getting mighty close to choking off The Donald. Oh, how I want to see this crook carted off. Whether it occurs, of course, remains to be realized.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot, legal news, national news, political news

A lockup in Trump’s future?

I am trying to imagine what I thought not so long ago was an impossible ending to a former president’s legal difficulty, but which is be. ginning to look entirely possible … although not yet probable.

It is that Donald Trump might face a criminal indictment on multiple fronts. For tax fraud. For interfering in a state election. For violating a federal law designed to protect national security. Hmm. I might have missed something, but you get the picture … yes?

Trump’s business already is under indictment for multiple allegations, including tax fraud; the Manhattan (N.Y.) district attorney’s office alleges that his business inflated the cost of real estate to get sweeter loan deals. No can do, folks.

The Fulton County (Ga.) district attorney is examining whether Trump broke the law by pressuring the Georgia secretary of state to “find” enough votes to swing Georgia from the Joe Biden win column to Trump; hey, we have that act on recording.

The latest might be the most serious of all, in that the National Archives has alleged that Trump spirited classified documents from the White House and stashed them in Mar-a-Lago, Fla., where Donald and Melania Trump live; the Presidential Records Act expressly forbids such thievery of national security documents.

All told, if Trump is indicted and convicted of these crimes, he faces a lengthy prison term.

Isn’t that just rich?

And I haven’t mentioned — until this very moment — the House select panel looking into the 1/6 insurrection incited by Trump on that terrible day just two weeks before he left office.

Moreover, we’re beginning to find out that Donald Trump — who boasted of his fantastic business acumen — isn’t nearly as rich as he bragged about being. That, folks, doesn’t surprise me in the least. I always have said — and I have said so here — that people who are rich and smart don’t boast about it. That the ex-POTUS would keep yapping about his wealth and his smarts only tells me he is neither as rich or as smart as he wants to believe.

The most maddening aspect of this moron’s trail of idiocy is that he continues to have this weird hold on Republican Party voters’ skulls.

But … let’s allow the legal process to play out. I can wait.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Nothing ‘legit’ about violent protest

As one American patriot who believes in civil disobedience, I feel the need to set the record straight on why the 1/6 riot and all those incidents of violence aboard commercial aircraft are so damn disturbing.

There is not a single, solitary aspect of either event that one can describe as “civil disobedience.” The Republican National Committee recently issued a statement calling the 1/6 insurrection an expression of “legitimate political discourse.” I have participated in many such actual events that featured “legitimate political discourse.” None of them bore a shred of resemblance to the violence that erupted on Capitol Hill that day.

And yet, that nonsense came from RNC chair Ronna Romney McDaniel, who sought to tamp down the description of the event. She and other Republicans are uncomfortable with calling it an insurrection. However, to my eyes that is precisely what it was; the rioters sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. If that isn’t an insurrection, then the term has no meaning whatsoever.

Indeed, the Justice Department has indicted the ring leaders of the riot on a charge of “conspiracy to commit sedition,” which bears no significant difference to the insurrection term that others are throwing around.

The Justice Department has received a request from aviation regulators to allow a permanent ban on air passengers who attack flight crews or fellow passengers while their aircraft is in flight. DOJ should follow the recommendation and allow the permanent ban on those who are accused of such hideous mayhem at 30,000 feet above the Earth’s surface.

A group of eight GOP U.S. senators doesn’t want those miscreants banned. They contend the idiots are expressing legitimate concerns about mask mandates on commercial aircraft. Bullsh**! They are putting others in potentially mortal danger by engaging in fistfights with flight attendants or, in at least one case, by trying to open one of the fuselage doors as the aircraft is at cruising altitude.

Civil disobedience? My ass!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news, political news

Stand tall, Liz Cheney

Liz Cheney has become the living, breathing face and voice of what is wrong with today’s Republican Party, and I want to salute her for the stance she has taken in the ongoing search for a cure to the assault we have witnessed on our democratic process.

Liz Cheney is as conservative a Republican as one can find in the U.S. Congress. She represents a sparsely populated state in the Mountain West, Wyoming, and has voted consistently conservative during the years she has served in the U.S. House of Representatives.

She is no Republican In Name Only. Far from it. She is the antithesis of what I consider to be the current RINOs who populate the once-great political party. She is the real deal.

Her “crime” in the eyes of the Donald Trump cultists is that she has called out the former president for the acts of disloyalty he has displayed. He has violated the oath he took when he became president in 2017. Liz Cheney now serves on the House select committee that seeks to find the truth behind the cause and effect of the 1/6 insurrection that Trump incited with that speech on The Ellipse.

That is a non-starter for the cultists, but for demonstrating that she is loyal to the oath that Trump has betrayed she now has become persona non grata within her party. The Wyoming GOP has censured her. The Republican National Committee has scolded her publicly, along with Rep. Adam Kinzinger, the other Republican serving on the House 1/6 committee.

Liz Cheney has earned this salute only because she is doing the job she swore an oath to do faithfully. In normal times, this loyalty to her oath wouldn’t be such a big deal. These are not normal times. Liz Cheney is performing an act of political courage.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, Donald Trump

No one is above the law? We’ll see

It has become cliche to declare that “no one is above the law,” that every American citizen must face the same potential punishment for crimes committed, no matter their standing as public officials or as former public officials.

Well, I think we’ll have to see how that plays out as it involves Donald John Trump.

The ex-president of the United States is facing a boatload of allegations that could be proven true. To be fair, those allegations also could wither and die.

Trump occupies a unique place in our nation’s roster of former elected officials. He’s either revered or reviled. Count me among the latter group of Americans. That is my way of suggesting that I hope the “no one is above the law” cliche plays out properly, that not even Donald Trump could avoid time behind bars if the allegations against prove true.

He faces possible indictment in Georgia for trying to coerce a statewide elections official to “find” enough votes to allow him to win that state’s electoral votes in 2020; he lost the state to Joe Biden. A congressional select committee has summoned dozens of Trump aides to testify before the panel about what Trump did on 1/6 when he incited the traitorous mob to storm Capitol Hill. A New York City district attorney has indicted Trump’s company on allegations of fraud; we will get to see whether the Boss — Trump himself — was a party to allegations of inflating his wealth to obtain loans.

I hasten to add that if your run-of-the-mill rich guy is convicted of any combination of these crimes, he would be fitted with a prison jump suit and sent to the slammer. If Donald Trump gets convicted of any of these allegations, do you believe he will go to jail, or to prison? My heart tells me Trump should be sent to the lockup. My head suggests that Trump — if a jury declares him guilty of any of the crimes for which he could be charged — is going to skate free of any time behind bars.

No one is above the law? We might get to see whether that’s true … or just a tired cliche.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot, national news

Wanting end to probe

I understand fully that many millions of Americans are fixated at this moment on the Super Bowl; indeed, I am watching it myself.

Allow me this momentary diversion back into what is transpiring in Washington, D.C. That would be the congressional probe into 1/6, the riot that sought to disrupt the counting of electoral votes from the 2020 presidential election.

You know what happened on 1/6. The mob of traitors stormed the Capitol Building and pooped on the center of our democracy. They sought to murder the vice president of the U.S., Mike Pence, and the speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.

I am ready for the probe to end. I know the House committee chaired by Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., has more work to complete. I hope it can continue at the pace it has been working so far. It needs to finish this probe well before the midterm election. I believe it will.

I also believe the committee is going to produce some constructive recommendations on how to prevent such an insurrection from occurring ever again. I will wait with bated breath to see what the panel suggests.

Moreover, I also want Donald Trump to be held accountable for inciting the riot. I know he did; you know he did; Trump knows he did.

One final thought: I don’t give a damn about whatever political implications this probe will have on the midterm election or on the 2024 presidential election.

I want the probe to conclude, and I am waiting to see who pays for the damage done to our democratic process.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot, Donald Trump, national news

‘Worse than Watergate’

Carl Bernstein knows an existential threat to American democracy when he sees it, given that he had a front-row seat at one of the worst threats ever imagined, the Watergate scandal of the 1970s.

However, he said that the Donald Trump unraveling is worse than Watergate because this crisis lacks something that Watergate contained: heroes among Republicans who told the president, Richard Nixon, that he couldn’t survive an impeachment and a Senate trial. Thus, Nixon quit the office and headed off into the sunset of oblivion.

Donald Trump isn’t facing that kind of threat from within his party, the same party of Richard Nixon.

Carl Bernstein Says Trump Investigation is “Far Worse Than Watergate” | The View – YouTube

Bernstein and his Washington Post colleague Robert Woodward covered the Watergate scandal as it unfolded in late 1972, into 1973 and ended with President Nixon’s resignation in August 1974. Bernstein and Woodward became journalism legends and their work stands forever as the definition of investigative reporting.

I have to agree with Bernstein, that Donald Trump’s assault on the rule of law, on our democratic process, on the nation’s cherished electoral system presents a greater threat to the nation than a “third-rate burglary” that devolved into a coverup and an abuse of presidential power that drove a president from the pinnacle of power.

We need answers to the 1/6 insurrection and we need to take measures to prevent a tragic recurrence.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com