Tag Archives: Donald Trump

crime news, Donald Trump, legal news, national security

Special master proving, well … he’s OK

Donald Trump’s insistence on the appointment of a “special master” to oversee the seizure of those classified documents at his Florida mansion was a troublesome event, to be sure.

Then a remarkable thing happened. The former president’s legal team and the U.S. Justice Department settled on a fellow with impeccable legal credentials. They both supported the appointment of senior U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie as special master.

Then another astonishing event occurred just yesterday. Judge Dearie — first appointed to the federal bench by President Reagan — began exposing glaring weakness in Trump’s assertion of “executive privilege” in spiriting those documents from the White House to Mar-a-Lago.

What do you know about that? A man thought to be a possible Trump toadie is turning into, um, someone who takes the rule of law seriously.

Mar-a-Lago: Trump Push for Special Master Appears to Be Backfiring (businessinsider.com)

Dearie is hearing evidence about whether Trump ever de-classified any of the documents. There appears to be zero evidence that Trump did anything of the sort and Dearie appears to be wise to that reality … and is acting accordingly.

This isn’t my original thought, but I’ll buy into the notion that Trump’s gamble about getting a special master to handle this case is blowing up in his overfed face.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, media news, national news

Dealing with trolls

I have reached what I think is a reasonable conclusion about some readers of this blog and those who are generally critical of the media.

I will try to explain myself.

Critics of this blog base their criticism on their perception of my politics. I lean left. Critics generally lean right. I have been relentless in my criticism of Donald J. Trump. Critics seem willing to give him a pass on his hideous behavior.

My conclusion is that they only are interested in what I say about politics in general or about Trump in particular.

I have sought over several years writing on www.highplainsblogger.com to cover a wide range of issues. Some of them go beyond pure politics. Some posts deal with real life and the joys and sorrows that go with living a long time.

I want to single out one critic who, when I write about my experiences serving our great nation in uniform, often does offer a word of thanks and gratitude … and I always appreciate his saying so.

Generally, though, he and others save their most intense fire for when I pontificate about the many failings of our immediate past POTUS.

How do I deal with it? I let ’em have their say. I’ve already delivered my view. I rarely have a need or certainly a desire to engage in an argument with someone whose mind is as made up as mine.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, Donald Trump, national news, political news

Why are we waiting to indict?

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Donald Trump’s legal difficulties should not be seen as some sort of uniquely American experience.

Other nations’ former presidents have been arrested, tried, convicted and sent to prison for their crimes. How is it that Donald Trump so far has avoided being read his Miranda rights, forced to don the cuffs and marched off to the slammer?

I think it’s because we ourselves as a nation that treats defendants with dignity. We don’t rush to arrest someone formerly in power. We are an “indispensable nation” that values the “rule of law.”

It’s fair to ask whether Donald Trump would treat other defendants with dignity. Or would he lead campaign rally cheers to “lock him up”?

We all know the answer.

Still, I get the feeling that time is not necessarily Donald Trump’s friend.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, FBI, legal news, national news, political news

Believing now that indictment is coming

From virtually the moment that he skulked out of town prior to the ceremony celebrating the guy who defeated in the 2020 presidential election, I have resisted the notion that Donald J. Trump would be indicted on charges of criminal behavior.

Today, though, my thoughts have changed … dramatically, I must add.

I believe that Attorney General Merrick Garland is going to indict the former president of the United States, making a huge bit of history in the process. The charges that Garland might level against Trump, though, remain an open question.

They include the most serious, say, obstruction of justice or conspiracy to commit sedition. Those are felonies that carry enormous prison terms if someone is convicted of the allegation.

There might be misdemeanor charges leveled, dealing with the handling of those classified documents that Trump squirreled away in his glitzy Florida estate.

Friends of mine who live in faraway lands have speculated that Trump would be hauled off in leg irons and handcuffs. Other friends of mine — those who are loyal to Trump — have said quite the opposite. They don’t defend the individual’s character, saying he “never would do” the things that have been alleged already. Instead, they challenge the motives of the federal investigation.

I believe Merrick Garland is as fine a public servant as we can find. His career as a federal judge was marked by universal praise — from the left and the right — for his judicial scholarship and the meticulous nature of his court rulings. Even when the Senate GOP leadership blocked his nomination to the Supreme Court in early 2016, they didn’t question his qualifications or the quality of the man; they were motivated by pure politics.

I am unaware of the particulars of the AG’s investigation. All I have to assess it is my belief in the character of the man leading it.

He has said that “no one is above the law.” By “no one,” he means, well … no one!

Therefore, I believe he has compiled enough evidence to cobble together a prosecutorial complaint against Donald John Trump.

Then we shall watch the full-scale implosion of a man deluded with notions of grandeur. It cannot happen to a more deserving individual.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump, legal news, national news, national security, political news

What’s with Barr?

More than a few Americans are wondering: What in the world has gotten into William Barr, the last man to serve as attorney general during the Donald Trump administration?

Barr succeeded Jeff Sessions as AG after Trump fired Sessions because Sessions refused to investigate the “Russia collusion” matter, citing potential conflict of interest; Sessions acted out of conscience and a standard of ethical behavior. Trump looked for an AG who he thought would be loyal to the president; he found one in Barr.

Barr did Trump’s bidding. His disgraceful whitewashing and deceptive misinterpretation of Robert Mueller’s probe into the Russian “collusion” matter will stand for all time as an attempt at pandering to the boss. Then he quit just near the end of Trump’s term. Barr had grown weary of defending Trump’s Big Lie about alleged widespread voter fraud during the 2020 election.

Now comes the “new” William Barr. He says Trump should never have taken those top-secret documents out of the White House and kept them in his Florida home. Barr’s critics say his “coming out” as Mr. Legal Straight Arrow is too little, too late. I am not going to pound Barr for his late-blooming fit of reason and sanity.

He’s speaking the proverbial truth to power. When is that ever a bad thing? He has been a frequent guest on Fox News talk shows to do precisely that. Indeed, he has walked into the belly of the beast to tell us all the truth about what is right and wrong in Trump’s pitiful attempts at defending the indefensible.

Why Barr is breaking from Trump — and the GOP — over Mar-a-Lago search | The Hill

I am going to give William Barr credit for telling the world what many of us knew already, that the ex-POTUS deludes himself with grandeur and visions of lifelong power. Do I wish Barr had spoken out while he served in the Trump administration? Certainly!

He’s doing so now. That’s all right with me.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

business news, crime news, national news, political news

How can GOP tolerate this?

I guess I’ll just have to resign myself to never knowing the truth while I am alive and breathing.

The “truth” to which I refer happens to involve how a once-great political party can be at one time a champion for “family values” and proclaimed that “character matters” can align itself with a cult figure who embodies the exact opposite of both principles.

Republicans today are wedded to the rubbish uttered, muttered and sputtered by Donald John Trump.

The thrice-married former POTUS has admitted to cheating on his first two wives and then paid a porn star $130,000 to remain quiet about a tryst she said she and the future POTUS had back in the old days. Trump denies the event occurred … but he paid her the money to keep quiet about it. Go figure.

I guess I should mention that the alleged tumble with the porn queen occurred just weeks after Trump wife No. 3 gave birth to his youngest son.

We are being flooded with information about the FBI search for top-secret documents taken illegally from the White House and socked away in the basement of Trump’s home in Florida. Republican response to it? Crickets, man.

In a way, though, the silence is a bit of a change in what had been the typical GOP response to allegations leveled against the former Cult Leader in Chief. Members of Congress had been quick to blame Democrats for “weaponizing” the process that resulted in two impeachments of Trump. I am hearing little justification for a POTUS taking those documents that belong to the public and do not belong to him.

Meanwhile, GOP congressional leaders remain shamefully silent as evidence piles up along several legal fronts. In Georgia, we hear about a grand jury taking testimony about Trump coercing state election officials to “find” enough votes to swing that state’s 2020 presidential election results to Trump’s favor. Does anyone in the GOP care about that?

Trump’s business is being probed for allegedly falsifying its assets in order to obtain loans. Are those the ingredients of a character-driven business empire?

The House select 1/6 committee is trying to finish its probe into Trump’s role in inciting the insurrection that sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Republicans don’t give a crap about that, either … except for the two GOP committee members, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.

I do not understand what has happened to the Republican Party. I thought I might learn the answer before they threw me into the ground.

Silly me.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump, local news, medical news

Rep. Jackson sings a single note

(Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

Ronny Jackson is becoming the master of a one-note samba, except that he’s terribly out of tune when he sings it.

Jackson is the Republican U.S. representative who lives in the Texas Panhandle. He’s a charter member of the Donald Trump cabal of cult kooks. As a physician assigned to care for the president, Jackson did that for Trump and for President Obama.

His time as the White House doc must make him — in what passes for his mind — an expert on the health of Trump’s presidential successor. Jackson keeps yammering about Biden’s mental acuity. He keeps saying incessantly that President Biden needs to submit to a cognitive ability test.

Bullsh**!

Jackson is no more qualified to question Joe Biden’s mental fitness for the job than I am. He’s never seen the president’s medical record. He’s never examined him. Jackson has never consulted with the president. Indeed, the idiot Trumpkin spends a good portion of his day appearing on right-wing media outlets and putting out Twitter messages talking about matters — such as Biden’s health — about which he knows nothing.

Here’s an idea: How about crafting legislation that will do some good for the Texans he represents in Congress?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news, national news, political news

Go ahead, Mr. POTUS, invite Donald

Protocol at times can be cause for heartburn, perhaps even a sleepless night or two.

President Biden has been invited as our head of state to Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, set for Sept. 19. The royal family has left it up to all the invitees to determine who will accompany them to the funeral.

OK, so you might be wondering: Does the current president invite his immediate predecessor to accompany him to London to say farewell to the universally beloved queen?

My take? Sure. Why not?

You also might be wondering: Would Donald J. Trump accept such an invitation? 

My guess? Not in a zillion years.

Joe Biden is a firm believer, it appears, in presidential tradition and custom, unlike his immediate predecessor. So, it would seem only fitting for the current president to include all the living former presidents to join him. Indeed, all these men — Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Trump — met with the queen during their times in office. They all have issued gracious statements in response to the death of the UK’s longest-serving monarch.

Trump, though, presents a unique set of issues. He hasn’t yet even acknowledged publicly that he lost to Biden. He continues to foment The Big Lie about “widespread voter fraud” that did not exist during the election. He has suggested he would issue blanket pardons for the treasonous assailants who attacked the Capitol on 1/6 were he sent back to the White House.

The evidence is mounting damn near daily that an indictment or three awaits the ex-POTUS for his role in inciting the violence on 1/6, not to mention the discovery of top-secret documents in the basement of his home in Florida. Sheesh …

Does he intend to play second-fiddle to Joe Biden on Air Force One? No way, man!

I believe President Joe Biden would be smart to extend the invitation … and then let Donald Trump live with the consequences of declining it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump, Joe Biden, national news, political news

Yeah, Donald, keep blathering

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I am going to steal a thought that appeared first on social media from a member of my family.

My cousin Jim posted an item I want to share: And he recently referred to the sitting president of the United States as the “Enemy of the people.” In Russia, one would disappear after such a comment.

Indeed, think about the idiocy of Donald Trump’s latest rant about the man who defeated him soundly in the 2020 presidential election.

He calls President Biden the “enemy” after Biden rolled up 81.2 million votes, 7 million more than Trump collected, with a 51% majority of all votes cast.

Doesn’t the ex-POTUS understand the irony of making such a hideous statement? In Russia, which is governed by his good buddy Vladimir Putin, he would have been arrested and thrown into some gulag in Siberia simply by making such a ridiculous assertion. And, no, there is no guarantee in Russia of “freedom of speech or expression.”

I know the answer to the question I posed. Trump cannot think at all beyond his own narcissistic desires. Mention the word “irony” to Trump and you might as well be speaking Martian to him.

This individual is a disgrace.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump, national news, political news

How do these candidates do it?

There can be nothing normal about today’s political climate, given what I understand is the amazingly strong showing among Republican candidates for high public office.

Bear in mind that these Republicans have been endorsed/anointed by Donald John Trump as heirs to the political idiocy to which he gave birth when he rode down the Trump Tower escalator in 2015 to announce his presidential candidacy.

For example, I just heard that dumb bell Herschel Walker is actually leading Sen. Raphael Warnock in the race in Georgia for Warnock’s seat in the Senate. The spread is just 3 percentage points, but the very idea that a dumbass like Walker can be taken seriously as a senatorial candidate simply blows my mind.

It’s neck and neck up yonder in Pennsylvania, where Trumpkin Mehmet Oz is running against Lt. Gov. John Fetterman for the GOP-held Senate seat that Pat Toomey is vacating. Oz doesn’t even live in Pennsylvania and has managed to make a hash out of damn near every issue there is to discuss. He’s still in the hunt.

Over in Ohio, another Trump cultist, J.D. Vance, is actually ahead of U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan in the race for the seat vacated by Sen. Bob Portman, one of the good-guy Republicans still in office.

These and other examples suggest to me that whatever political future Trump carves out for himself might be moot. He’s already won by leaving a large footprint on a once-Grand Old Party.

If he declines to run for POTUS in 2024, his candidates will carry the ball for him. If he decides to run and loses, he’ll still have that field of Trumpkins.

If he runs and wins … oh, jeez, I can’t finish that thought.

The 45th POTUS has endorsed a slate of losers, nut jobs and dumbasses. That much we know. What boggles my noggin is that some of them actually might win.

Go … figure.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com