Tag Archives: MAGA

Joe Biden, national news

MAGA = serious threat

President Biden is correct to assert that the MAGA wing of the Republican Party poses an existential threat to our democracy.

These are the fruitcakes, the adherents of the Make America Great Again wing of the once-Grand Old Party, who continue to insist that The Big Lie is the Big Truth, that the 2020 election was stolen from the MAGA Liar in Chief and that there must be hell to pay for a transgression that did not exist.

The president has kicked into 2022 midterm election campaign mode. I welcome his return to the fight. Of course, the mainstream Republican Party — which ought to hail the president’s message as a comforting elixir — is condemning him for speaking the truth.

Donald Trump this week called for the immediate removal of Mitch McConnell as GOP Senate leader. Why? Because McConnell — belatedly, of course — is now speaking the truth about Trump, that the ex-POTUS poses a dangerous threat to the democratic process.

Milquetoast Mitch likely won’t fight back with the ferocity that such an insult deserves. He probably doesn’t want to pi** off the MAGA cultists who continue to consume the swill that Trump serves them about The Big Lie and how he’s being “persecuted” by those “far-left Democrats.”

Trump is becoming unhinged daily by defections from his ranks, by continuing negative developments into the investigation of his effort to steal the 2020 election.

There can be no doubt Joe Biden is right on this one, calling MAGA Republicans the nation’s greatest political threat.

They sicken me.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

MAGA takes new form

So … you think you know what MAGA means, yes?

It has become sort of a term of art, an acronym for Make America Great Again. But when you use the acronym form it becomes an adjective, as in “MAGA voter,” or “MAGA policy.”

Ah, yes. Now comes the newest MAGA, which is one that I would be inclined heavily to support. The new form stands for Mothers Against Greg Abbott.

This MAGA’s unofficial godmother is Austin resident Nancy Thompson, who told Sharon Grigsby of the Dallas Morning News that she has grown tired of Gov. Abbott’s miserable performance on gun violence, on COVID protocols, on abortion rights and the Republican Party’s “general assault on public education and kids.”

She wants to form a movement. Thompson says her Facebook page has more than 50,000 members. Local chapters are forming across Texas.

Grigsby reports that Thompson “describes the group as ordinary Texans fighting for their children’s future. ‘This isn’t about Republican or Democratic families,’ she said. ‘It’s about fighting for what’s right to keep all families safe and healthy.'”

Grigsby said she isn’t willing to wager on MAGA’s effort moving the political needle in Texas, particularly as it regards Abbott’s campaign against Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke. I believe she is right to hold back on any thought that this MAGA group is going to make any sort of dent in Abbott’s standing.

Whatever, this potential movement appears to be one more chink in the armor that has shielded Abbott and Texas Republicans quite well for the past 30 years.

Read Grisby’s essay here: How one Texas woman’s protest led to Mothers Against Greg Abbott and its viral abortion ad (dallasnews.com)

Grigsby asks: “Does Mothers Against Greg Abbott create a huge shift? Don’t count on it. But does it make a consequential dent? As one mother in its video campaign says, ‘They say nothing changes in Texas politics — until it does.'”

I am hoping for a change.

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

national news

Lesson in ethics

I watched an interesting bit of ethical correctness play out this week at a city council meeting I was covering for a newspaper for which I work on a freelance basis.

The Farmersville City Council made several appointments Tuesday night to citizen boards and commissions. One of the appointees was Sue Williams, who happens to be married to Terry Williams — who happens to serve on the City Council.

What did Terry Williams do prior to the vote? He motioned to the city attorney and asked to recuse himself from the vote. Terry Williams walked out of the council chambers and the council then voted to put Sue Williams on the board to which she had been nominated.

Why mention this? Ohhhh, because a member of the U.S. Supreme Court doesn’t have the semblance of ethical propriety to recuse himself from court matters involving his wife.

Justice Clarence Thomas has voted on matters related to The Big Lie promoted by Donald J. Trump, the defeated and disgraced former president who — to this very moment — hasn’t yet conceded that he lost the 2020 election to President Biden.

The most recent ethical transgression occurred a few weeks ago when the Supreme Court voted 8-1 to require Trump to turn over White House records to the House select committee examining the 1/6 insurrection. Who voted “no”? Justice Thomas.

Why did he vote no? It might have something to with the fact that his wife, Ginni, is an ardent MAGA follower of Trump and a believer in The Big Lie who attended the 1/6 rally but left before it turned into a violent frontal assault on the U.S. government.

Clarence Thomas clearly should take a page from the ethical book followed by a small-town city council member in North Texas.

Whereas Terry Williams saw the potential for conflict of interest were he to vote to accept his wife for a spot on a citizens panel, Clarence Thomas continues to ignore that gigantic blind spot.

Indeed, the justice would solve the problem altogether by resigning from the nation’s highest court — which he clearly should do.

johnkanelis_92@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

Uncategorized

Pulling for Democrats

I cannot hide my partisan leanings, so I won’t even try to pretend I am so politically neutral that I don’t care which political party wins control of policy making in my state.

Truth is, I do care. I am tired of Republican Party vise-grip control of policy in Texas. I might not mind so much about whether the GOP maintains control of state government, except that today’s Republican Party bears practically no resemblance to the party of the late former Gov. Bill Clements and the late U.S. Sen. John Tower.

Clements and Tower personified what has been called “establishment Republicanism.” These days, establishment GOP pols have become targets of epithets hurled at them by the MAGA crowd of cultists who adhere to the phony populism of Donald J. Trump. MAGA fanatics call these real Republicans, RINOs … Republicans in Name Only.

Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton are three amigos in pushing forward the MAGA agenda that seeks ostensibly to “make America great again.’

Earth to MAGA cultists: The MAGA mantra means nothing to me. America is great. It has been a great nation for far longer than I arrived on this good Earth.

The race for Texas governor is drawing a good bit of national attention. Democrat Beto O’Rourke is making his second run for statewide office in the past four years. He came close to defeating Ted Cruz in the 2018 race for U.S. Senate. Then he ran for president in 2020 and flamed out. Now he’s up once more … it might be his final run for statewide office.

I want Beto O’Rourke to defeat Gov. Abbott, who has been a terrible disappointment to me as the state’s chief executive.

Furthermore, I want to declare that my weariness of Republican Party dominance of public policy is no invitation for Democrats to veer too far off the mainstream middle ground that demands that many Texans are demanding to have their concerns heard, too.

It’s clear to me that Republicans aren’t listening to the vast middle ground. I consider myself to be a good-government progressive, which I believe requires plenty of compromise to find common ground.

Thus, we have an election coming up that could swing the state significantly away from the nastiness we see too often from Republican political leaders. May it come true.

Johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

 

national news

Right wingers win the argument … so far

This is no great flash to those who are smarter than I am, but I have concluded how the right wingers out there are able to outshout the rest of us in this so-called “battle of ideas.”

They succeed because they appeal to Americans’ base instincts. We are so very quick to criticize those in power. The right wingers, therefore, are appealing to Americans’ lowest common denominator. It is fueled by ignorance.

Thus, when I see President Biden’s diminishing approval ratings in public polls, I see an opportunity for Biden’s supporters to strike back … and hard!

The obvious consequence will be that the quality of the political debate will sink faster a cruise ship that hits an iceberg.

The equally obvious alternative is to let the MAGA crowd win the argument, which then will lead to MAGA candidates emerging victorious.

I do not want that to happen. I do want the reasonable center-left and even some “mainstream Republicans” to tear a page from the MAGA playbook … and then hit the far right wingers with the same demagoguery they have been pitching.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

GOP is capable of nominating weirdos, nut jobs

MAGA candidates are running amok in the Republican Party primary elections throughout the nation.

One or two MAGA goofballs are likely to be nominated for high public office by Republican voters in places such as Pennsylvania and North Carolina. There will be more of them.

They have earned the endorsement of Donald J. Trump — the MAGA in Chief.

My favorite candidate to earn the Trump seal of endorsement has to be Mehmet Oz, the one-time Dr. Oz who’s running for a U.S. Senate in seat in Pennsylvania. Get this: Oz doesn’t live in Pennsylvania. That didn’t matter one little bit to Trump, who gave Oz his endorsement because, I suppose, he’s a celebrity; Trump likes celebrities, right?

I’m not sure whether Trump’s anointing of Oz is going to work; he’s facing another MAGA-ite in Pennsylvania.

Republican voters have some key decisions to make. Do they want to throw their party over to the cult leader who keeps putting his ample ass into these primary fights?

Aww, hell. I don’t care if they do. Let them follow their cult leader over the cliff.

Trump is a menace to our governmental system simply by being on the fringes of a major party’s primary fight. Accordingly, it will fascinate me to no end to watch how the GOP primary season plays out.

Whether it becomes a MAGA haven or returns to semblance of its senses will depend on whether the voters have become intoxicated by the snake-oil swill served up by The Donald.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Rep. Jackson: shut up!

A strange thing has occurred — or it’s still occurring — as I continue to offer comment on a member of the Texas congressional delegation.

Republican Ronny Jackson represents the 13th District in the Texas Panhandle, where I lived for 23 years before my bride and I relocated in 2018 to the Metroplex.

I had been a bit hesitant to keep yapping about this right-wing blowhard. I mean, he was their congressman. I had my own right-winger — Van Taylor — to keep me occupied. Taylor, though, had a months-long affair with the former wife of an Islamic State officer, thus blowing a huge hole in his family-man image.

Well, Taylor is leaving Congress at the end of the year. Jackson is likely to be re-elected. He’s also becoming something of a national right-wing political figure, albeit for reasons that make my blood boil.

Jackson has become a darling of the right-wing media because he is so damn reckless, feckless and downtown stupid in his pronouncements about President Biden. He shows up on Fox News, on Newsmax and on One America Network to tell the audience that Biden is inept, incompetent and incoherent. The hosts nod approvingly and so Jackson goes on and on.

I believe he is nothing more than a right-wing dipsh**.

Ronny Jackson doesn’t know me from Adam. I only know of him through what I see on his Twitter feed and from reports of his appearances on the aforementioned right-wing media outlets.

Given that he has achieved some sort of national standing, though, I feel more comfortable telling readers of this blog what I think of his blathering.

I just want him to shut the hell up.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

MAGA this, MAGA that

Oh, how I find it so interesting the way some expressions take on lives of their own, how they become words suitable for conversation.

Take the word “MAGA.”

It’s an acronym, of course. It stands for Make America Great Again. The Donald Trump campaign for president in 2016 ran on that slogan. Trump managed to win in the biggest political fluke in U.S. history.

Since then, the term has become a noun and an adjective.

“I am going to a MAGA rally,” someone might say.

Or, “How about that MAGA sign?”

How about, “Can you believe the number of MAGAs out here?

The acronym as it’s pronounced does roll off the tongue. I prefer to avoid using it whenever possible. Except perhaps for purposes of making a point on my blog, which I am attempting to do at this moment.

To be candid, the term — and, more to the point, what its spell-out version tells us — just pisses me off. To say we are going to “make America great again” is to suggest the country has been less than great.

America is a great nation. It’s been great for a long time. We emerged from World War II as the planet’s pre-eminent military and economic power.

What’s more, the juxtaposition of MAGA in the presence of certain symbols fills me with rage. Picture a MAGA follower toting a Confederate flag or much worse, parading under a swastika. Do you get my drift? Good!

I get that Donald Trump’s campaign didn’t coin the phrase that has become an acronym. Bill Clinton said the same thing while campaigning for POTUS in 1992.

Still, it has taken on a life of its own. It’s become a dangerous metaphor for anger and paranoia.

It’s weird, man.

I just want to proclaim that the only time I use the term MAGA is to deride it … and those who adhere to it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com