Tag Archives: Donald Trump

national news

Prediction record remains in the tank

Well … it looks as though my miserable record of political prognostication remains in the dumper, given what’s being reported about what Donald J. Trump appears likely to do — maybe soon.

Major media organizations are reporting that Trump has made his decision. That he will seek the presidency again in 2024. Oh, my … be still my outright rage!

The twice-impeached crook who held the office for a term between 2017 and 2021 reportedly wants the office back in his grimy grip.

Against my better judgment and my horrible record, I went out on the ol’ limb and said Trump wouldn’t run in 2024.

But you know what? I am not going to wave the surrender flag just yet. All we know at this moment is that Trump is planning to make “an announcement.” Hmm. What will that “announcement” reveal? Any thoughts?

I just cannot get past the notion that Trump actually knows deep in what passes for a heart that he actually lost the 2020 election. Or that he understands that he is grievously damaged political goods, no matter the blathering of the shrinking mob of zealots who continue to stand by their cult leader.

Oh, and then we have what looks as though is a seriously legitimate possibility that the Department of Justice is going to indict the former Insurrectionist in Chief of serious crimes against the government. How does, oh, “conspiracy to commit sedition” strike you?

Thus, I find it strange in the extreme to believe that a former president who well could face a many-decades-long prison term actually will seek to sell himself to voters.

Then again … this is The Donald.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Sanity must prevail

Those of us who believe the world is full of far more sane people than insane individuals must cling to that notion tightly as we watch the 2024 presidential election field take shape.

Thus, it falls on me to declare once again that I believe sanity is going to win the day. Republicans are not going to commit an act of insanity by allowing a twice-impeached president, a two-time loser of the popular vote and an individual who well might be indicted for seditious conspiracy against the government to carry the party’s banner into the next presidential campaign.

Donald J. Trump cannot possibly believe he can be elected again to the nation’s highest office. Surely there exists a sufficient body of sane Republicans who also can prevent that catastrophe from occurring.

I say this because I have stated already that I do not believe that Trump is going to run for POTUS in two years. This individual has a sh**load of trouble awaiting him.

His business is failing.  He is in debt up to that muskrat-covered skull of his. The 1/6 insurrection probe has revealed to the world that Trump knew in advance that the attack he provoked would bring trouble and that he didn’t give a damn that the traitorous mob was screaming “Hang Mike Pence!” as they stormed the Capitol Building.

I will not believe that Republicans would dare nominate someone so corrupt, crooked, immoral and indecent as the guy who stumbled and bumbled his way into office, only to be revealed that he, indeed, is every inch the “phony” and the “fraud” that 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney described him.

My eternal hope still burns brightly with the belief that the world has more sane minds than insane minds.

Let it be so.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

media news

Trump legacy leaves scars

No matter what happens to Donald J. Trump and his political future, the individual’s legacy is going to leave lasting scars and wounds across the landscape.

The scars remain in the millions of destroyed friendships his presence on the political scene has inflicted.

I know of what I speak. I have lost some friends over the past five years because of disagreements over Trump’s “contributions” to American life. I blame Trump for that.

It sickens me terribly to admit these relationships have been torn asunder because of disagreements over policy. Except that Trump brings out the worst in many of us. I count myself as a casualty.

Even during the Watergate scandal of the 1970s, I maintained friendships through serious disagreements about President Nixon’s role in that hideous crisis. Of course, there was no such thing as “social media” in those days. We relied on TV and radio and printed media in the form of newspapers and magazines. These days, the communication is instantaneous, and it allows those of us to say things without giving our remarks a first– let alone a second — thought before speaking out.

Trump has mastered the manipulation of social media to the extent that he knows the impact he has on people’s relationships.

What troubles me the most is that some of these severed relationships — not many, mind you, but a few of them — involve people with whom I have been friends. Others, though, have involved individuals with whom I have casual contact, or who I have known only through social media. If they decide they dislike my world view and my loathing of Trump, they’re free to go their own way. I have done the same thing.

Many relationships have remained intact, largely because we don’t discuss politics when we’re in each other’s presence.

It’s the actual friendships lost that I mourn.

For that I will not forgive the source of that loss.

Damn you, Donald Trump!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Political perversion at its worst

The political perversion that is underway within what passes for the Republican Party cannot be illustrated more plainly than what well might happen to one of the party’s stalwarts in an upcoming GOP primary election.

Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming stands front and center among Republicans in her opposition to the lawlessness demonstrated by Donald J. Trump — particularly during the final weeks of his administration as POTUS.

Because of her fealty to the Constitution and the oath she took to protect and defend it, Cheney is facing the wrath of the Trumpkins who populate her party in Wyoming. She is running for re-election this year and has drawn stiff opposition within her party; Trump has endorsed one of Cheney’s rivals. Why? Because she believes in the rule of law and believes that Trump has violated that tenet by his re-telling of The Big Lie about why he lost the 2020 presidential election.

Cheney is as stalwart a conservative Republican as anyone in the House of Representatives. None of that matters to the Trumpkins who have censured her and effectively declared her to be persona non grata within the Wyoming GOP.

That’s because she refuses to profess her loyalty to Donald Trump.

This is a shameful perversion of principle and of the oath all members of Congress take when they enter the People’s House.

I am not going to predict that Cheney will lose her primary fight when the balloting occurs in Wyoming. I’ve seen the various polls and will admit that it doesn’t look good for her future.

I also must stipulate once more that she is not my favorite Republican serving in Congress. She is too conservative for my taste, which illustrates why these attacks on her anger me so much.

I guess, therefore, the political perversion is complete when a member of Congress with whom I have fundamental philosophical disagreements can win my support on the basis of her rage at a president who embodies all that is wrong with today’s Republican Party.

Go figure.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Strange world, indeed

We have entered a strange time in our nation’s history when two sides of a great — and widening — divide cannot seem to make themselves heard by the other side.

I am going to refrain from the “both sides do it” argument; I will aim my fire at those on the far right of that divide, the Donald Trump cultists who — despite mountains of evidence to the contrary — continue to live in the fantasy created by The Big Lie.

That the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from their guy and that the theft lies at the heart of all that is wrong with the government. They refuse to cede an inch of that turf to reality, to the truth, to the facts that are spread before them.

Donald Trump brought in a fellow named Christopher Krebs to tighten the integrity of the 2020 election. Krebs did his job. He did it so well that when he declared that the most recent presidential election was the “most secure in the history of the nation,” Trump fired him. He didn’t want to hear the truth from his own guy!

And so … a needless, pointless and feckless battle rages on. There is no way in the world, or so it seems, to persuade the Trump Cultist Corps that their guy lost a free, fair and legal election to Joseph Biden Jr. They hang their message on The Big Lie that Trump keeps telling. Indeed, the Texas Republican Party just concluded its weekend meeting in Houston with a resolution that declares President Biden to be “illegitimately elected.”

Where in the world do we go from here?

I hate to think there is no way out of this blind alley. So, I won’t think it. I will retain my eternal optimism that eventually self-restorative sanity will take its resume in our national discussion. The alternative, as we have seen, is unacceptable.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Eyes are fixed on … Trump

There can be no doubt that Donald Trump has returned — once more! — to the forefront of our political stage.

I wish it weren’t so. My wishing, though, simply cannot deny the obvious.

The U.S. House 1/6 select committee has convened public hearings on national TV. We’ll get Episode Two tomorrow morning. Who’s at the top of our attention span? The Donald! Of course he is! 

The House panel appears to be building a case for indicting Trump for inciting the insurrection of 1/6. Members of the committee have yapped about the panel having enough evidence to recommend an indictment; I hope that speculation will cease. It’s not productive.

I guess Trump must like being the focus of our attention. It’s his modus operandi, or so I’ve been led to believe. He is, after all, a supreme narcissist, which by definition means he relishes this attention.

Whatever.

For as long as the winds keep drafting over Trump, I’ll be forced to comment on occasion on issues that develop regarding this carnival barker. I pledge to look the other way when he blathers some nonsense. As it relates to the committee and its findings, I intend to offer my views — for whatever they’re worth — on what they mean to the future of our democratic process.

Still, if only Trump would just disappear.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Trump stock takes a tumble

Let’s assess the recent election results from down yonder in Georgia.

Donald Trump endorsed a candidate for secretary of state; he lost bigly to the incumbent.

Trump then decided to back the challenger to Gov. Brian Kemp; that challenger lost in a big way, too.

Why did the two incumbents earn the Wrath of Trump? Oh, they just decided to follow the law instead of “finding” enough votes for Trump to steal the election results from Joe Biden, who won the state’s electoral votes in the 2020 election.

The secretary of state, Brad Raffensberger, told Trump directly that what he wanted to do was illegal. Trump didn’t listen. He tossed fellow Republican Raffensberger aside and went with the challenger.

Same for Gov. Kemp. Trump endorsed U.S. Sen. David Perdue. Kemp swamped Perdue.

What is so very troubling is that the Georgia effort mirrors the kind of vengeance politics Trump is waging. He went after Wyoming U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney. He wants her defeated. Why? Because she also backs the rule of law. Never mind that her congressional voting record stands about 90% in line with Trump’s agenda while he held the office of president. Then again, Trump doesn’t give a damn about public policy; he cares only about what politicians do for him or to him.

I cannot help but believe that Trump’s grip on the Republican Party is slipping from his oily grasp. He recently pulled his endorsement of MAGA acolyte Mo Brooks, who since that pivot has experienced a surge in Alabama polls as he seeks to win the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate.

Trump keeps litigating the 2020 election result, which he lost. He has yet to articulate a single notion for the future. Hey, that is no surprise, because he doesn’t have a clue on where this country should go.

The former POTUS, therefore, is boring the GOP faithful to sleep.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Send in The Donald!

Did I just hear that the Kremlin published a list of public officials Russia has banned from entry? And do I also understand correctly that Donald J. Trump is not among the names on the list of individuals who would be denied entry into Russia?

Interesting, yes? Of course it is!

With that, let’s all hope The Donald decides to visit Russia. That he decides to arrange for a meeting with his pal Vladimir Putin. That TV cameras take pictures of the two of ’em smiling, laughing and getting along so famously.

What a marvelous PR “opportunity” that would present. Don’t you agree? Please, Donald. Go to Russia!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

political news

Donald Trump: frontrunner

Donald J. Trump is demonstrating yet another trait I find loathsome … imagine that, if you can.

He is a frontrunner, a guy who latches onto candidates he perceives as winners. He’ll endorse ’em, but then is likely to abandon ’em if they prove to be — to borrow a term — losers.

Trump once stood foursquare behind former U.S. Sen. David Perdue of Georgia. He endorsed Perdue’s bid for Georgia governor. Then it became clear that the incumbent Republican, Brian Kemp, is going to wipe Perdue out in the Republican primary set for next Tuesday.

Now the ex-POTUS has tossed Perdue aside, just as he did in neighboring Alabama. You see, decided to back Rep. Mo Brooks in the race for the Senate seat being vacated by Richard Shelby.

Trump had all kinds of glowing platitudes to throw at Brooks. Then the congressman’s political fortunes faltered. What did Trump do then? He tossed Brooks into the crapper.

All this just goes to show the fickleness of a Donald Trump endorsement for public office … which is another way of saying it ain’t worth a damn!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

political news, State news

Character no longer matters

This much is abundantly clear about today’s Republican Party: Character no longer matters, that party fanatics do not care whether the individuals who hold public office might be criminals, or that they are serial philanderers and admitted sexual assailants.

A Texas Tribune story published this week talks, for instance, about how Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is well-positioned to defeat challenger George P. Bush in next week’s GOP runoff for the attorney general’s office.

Why is that a big deal? Because Paxton has been under criminal indictment almost his entire time in office. Paxton has shamelessly challenged President Biden’s election in 2020. The FBI is investigating complaints filed by several top Paxton legal assistants, who allege criminal activity within the office.

Hey, no problem! The GOP is set to renominate Paxton for yet another term.

It’s all part of the pattern followed by the GOP cultists in this Donald Trump Era. Conservatives used to get their underwear tied into knots when liberal politicians got caught misbehaving.

Why Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s backers are unfazed by his scandals | The Texas Tribune

Character mattered to them in the days of Bill Clinton. Do you recall those days? I damn sure do. These days, one of their own pols — Donald J. Trump — actually boasted that he could “shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any votes.” The line drew laughter and gasps when he said it. It’s not so preposterous these days.

This is a large part of what troubles me about the demise of a once-great political party. It no longer stands for character. The only aim of GOP pols ought to be their ability to stick it to their liberal foes.

Ken Paxton has done so in Texas and he likely will win the GOP runoff next week, to the ever-lasting shame of the GOP faithful.

As for Trump … aww, hell! I have nothing to say about the former Sexual Assailant in Chief.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com