Tag Archives: GOP

national news

Nut Job Wing holds GOP sway

Staff photo by C.B. Schmelter 

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It well might be that the Establishment Wing of the Republican Party is about to throw in the towel in its fight against what I am willing to call the Nut Job Wing of the GOP.

The Nut Jobs within the party are being led by a cabal of fruitcakes, know-nothings, airheads, conspiracy theorists, goofballs … dare I go on? You get the point.

Georgia U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the woman I have dubbed the QAnon Queen of the GOP caucus, is just the latest example of a nut job who has grabbed the party by its proverbial family jewels. She compares Democrats to Nazis and says mask and social distancing mandates aimed at protecting us from a killer virus are akin to what Jews suffered during the Holocaust.

Do you get the connection? Democratic “Nazis” are making us do things that compare to sending innocent people to the gas chamber.

The congressional GOP leadership condemned MTG for her idiocy, and then ran for the tall grass. The Georgia congresswoman has been stripped of her committee assignments, to be sure. That hasn’t silenced this idiot. She continues to spew hate-filled garbage, which of course is her right; we do have that First Amendment that all honor, even when it protects nut jobs such as MTG.

The Republican establishment just cannot bring itself to drop the hammer on the likes of MTG, Rep. Matt “The Alleged Sex Trafficker” Gaetz … or certainly not even the former Liar/Imbecile/Carnival Barker in Chief, Donald J. Trump.

It leaves me utterly flabbergasted.

national news

Six GOP heroes emerge

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Well, just as I was castigating the congressional Republican caucus for being packed with cowards and suck ups, we see six GOP heroes emerge from the Senate ranks to do the right thing regarding a bipartisan commission to examine the Jan. 6 insurrection.

These six Republican senators voted to advance the bill creating the commission; the problem, though, was that the bill needed 10 GOP senators to carry it out.

The six heroes are: Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine, Rob Portman of Ohio, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Ben Sasse of Nebraska.

I had heard already that Romney would vote “yes” on the bipartisan commission bill; I also had surmised Murkowski would vote to move the idea forward. I couldn’t predict what Collins or Sasse would do, as they have been a bit up-and-down on this issue of holding Donald Trump accountable for inciting the insurrection.

Six GOP crossover votes, though, weren’t enough. The commission needed 10 Rs to advance the bill.

But I’ll stand and cheer the six GOP senators for forgoing the bullying and bluster that Trump no doubt will level at them and voting their conscience … and for doing the right thing in seeking the whole truth behind the insurrection.

national news

Party of Lincoln becomes Party of Cowards

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Ah, yes. Here we are with the Party of Lincoln now standing tall as the party of cowardly fealty to a fraud posing as one of their own.

That’s all I can surmise now that the Republican Party leaders in Congress have torpedoed a bill that would create a bipartisan commission to study the causes, effects and consequences of the Jan. 6 insurrection that could have toppled our democratic government.

Congressional Republicans have stonewalled a move by Democrats to create a commission comprising members of both major parties that would have sought to lay bare all the events leading up to the insurrection.

The GOP is now the party that is beholden to the cultist who sat as president for a term that ended in January. Donald Trump has bullied, blustered and bellowed his way into the skulls of politicians who now do not dare do anything to anger the ex-POTUS.

We are witnessing a shameful abrogation of the oath they all took when they assumed office.

These men and women signed on to a once-great political party that used to fight for equal rights for all Americans. It now fights to protect the backside of a politician foments the Big Lie about alleged electoral “theft.” Donald Trump doesn’t want a bipartisan commission to examine the intricate details of an event that threatened the safety of politicians doing their constitutional duty, which was to certify the results of a presidential election.

The Republican Party has become a haven for cowards.

national news

Here comes the ‘tax and spend’ criticism

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Let’s get ready for the standard Republican criticism of Democratic presidents.

Joe Biden’s proposed budget projects a $1.8 trillion deficit for the next fiscal year. Why? Because he wants to put Americans to work rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure. He also intends to seek tax increases on corporations and wealthy Americans who got a bit tax break during the Donald Trump administration.

The GOP is going to resist, to be sure. Republicans are going to level the boiler-plate criticism that Democrats are the party of tax and spend policies.

Biden budget to run $1.8T deficit to finance spending plans (msn.com)

Except that Republicans did a variation of the very same thing when they ran the show during Donald Trump’s term. They pitched spending programs, but didn’t want to increases taxes to pay for them.

So, what’s changed now? We now have a Democrat in the White House and Democrats running the show on Capitol Hill.

Ah, yes. Politics knows no shame.

State news

What’s the rush, Lt. Gov. Patrick?

(AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Dan Patrick continues to exhibit traits that just pi** me off royally.

The Texas lieutenant governor is trying to pressure another fairly loathsome politician — Gov. Greg Abbott — into calling a special legislative session in June. Why? Because the lieutenant governor wants the Legislature to enact some conservative bills that aren’t going to make it to Abbott’s desk when the regular session ends in a few days.

Dan Patrick calls for special session of the Texas Legislature | The Texas Tribune

Left undone are bills, for instance, that would ban transgender students from competing in high school sports activities, would prohibit local governments from using taxpayer funds to pay for lobbyists and punish social media companies for “censoring” Texans based on their political viewpoints.

Abbott calls Patrick’s demand “premature” and has urged legislators to get “conservative legislation to my desk” before the regular session adjourns.

Good grief! The Legislature is coming back to work later in the fall to work on redistricting and reapportionment — which is required under the U.S. Constitution. Special legislative sessions happen to cost a lot of money. That doesn’t bother Patrick in the least or so it would appear. It does bother me, given that they do all this work on my dime, as well as on yours.

I suppose if the Legislature is intent on getting this “conservative” agenda enacted, it could wait until after it finishes the redistricting work it is required to do. Although if I had my druthers, I would hope the Legislature would leave these issues alone.

business news

Bipartisan solution still MIA

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

President Biden had the congressional Republican caucus in his hands … then he lost them.

Or has he?

Biden has this massive infrastructure package on the table. He is seeking some Republican buy-in.

The president talks a good game. He wants his GOP pals to join him and his fellow Democrats to join in the effort to fix roads, bridges and ports while also protecting families.

I had high hopes he could persuade what’s left of the GOP moderate mini-caucus to sign on. Those hopes are fading with the likes of Sen. Susan Collins of Maine suggesting that Republicans aren’t likely to spend so much money.

President Biden has a lot of experience working across the aisle with Republicans. He contends he has many friends on the other side; they speak kindly of him, too. Those Republicans, though, face pressure of another kind. They do not want to offend the still-significant number of their constituents who remain wedded to the Big Lie promoted by Donald J. Trump … you know the one about the “theft” of the 2020 election by voters who cast illegal ballots. Well, they didn’t steal anything. The only theft I can see is the pilfering of politicians’ honor and integrity.

It is carrying over into President Biden’s desire to achieve something close to a bipartisan solution to this infrastructure package.

I won’t give up hope that the president can deploy his vast knowledge of the political system to benefit millions of Americans who desire to see government work for them.

DC riot

What about these ‘blue lives?’

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Congressional Republicans and their followers around the country are proud to declare that “blue lives matter.”

I join them in that mantra. It is true that police officers put their lives on the line whenever they suit up for duty to protect and serve us all.

Why, then, are GOP congressional members digging in while resisting efforts to get at the whole truth behind what happened on Jan. 6 when a Capitol Police Department officer was killed while trying to fend off a horde of insurrectionists intent on overturning the results of a free, fair and legal election?

Doesn’t the “blue life” that was lost that day matter? Of course it does!

But now the GOP is claiming that Democrats and others among the Republican caucus are playing politics with whatever findings could come from a bipartisan commission tasked with determining the root cause of the insurrection.

Who is playing politics? It is the Republican leadership in Congress that shudders at the notion that we are going to learn once and for all what we all know: that Donald Trump, the insurrectionist in chief on that horrible day, is responsible for the attack on the government he took an oath to protect and defend.

national news, Uncategorized

What happened to GOP?

3 Comments

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

This question needs asking: What in the world has happened to the Republican Party?

It was hijacked decades ago by conservatives who grew weary of the party’s longstanding tradition of liberal thinking, of outreach to racial minorities, even of reasonable fiscal restraint and limited government interference.

It now has become a cult of personality. A once-great party is driven by its belief in the lunacy of the Big Lie, that an election was stolen through something they call “rampant vote fraud.”

The cultist who leads this moronic notion is Donald Trump, a former one-term president who actually incited a mob of terrorist rioters to overturn an election he lost.

As CNN’s Fareed Zakaria has noted in a special on his cable network, “Trump is gone” but his movement lives on.

Yes, this is the party that Trump once led even though he lacked any knowledge, let alone experience, in political life.

In an odd way, today’s GOP has switched places with what used to constitute the bulk of the Democratic Party. The old Democrats — particularly in the South — was populated by segregationists who resisted efforts to grant equal rights to black Americans. That version of the Democratic Party did not adhere to the loony notions of an individual, however, the way that the current Republican Party has glommed onto the imbecilic notions pitched by The Donald.

It is distressing for me to watch this devolution of a once-great political party. I say that as someone who hasn’t yet voted for a Republican for president. I go back a ways, having cast my first presidential vote in 1972.

Now that I am older, I could be persuaded to vote for a Republican for the nation’s highest office — except that the party is an extension of what is now being called “Trumpism.”

It is a horrible — and horrifying — fit, to be sure.

DC riot

Yes on Jan. 6 commission

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

What in the name of governmental transparency is the congressional Republican leadership seeking to hide from the public regarding the Jan. 6 insurrection?

The U.S. House of Representatives has voted — with 35 GOP members joining all House Democrats — to support a bipartisan panel to examine the events leading up to and including the insurrection occurred on the sixth day of 2021.

However, the commission faces a huge obstacle in the Senate, where it needs 60 votes to pass. A 50-50 Senate isn’t likely to get 10 GOP members to join their Democratic colleagues in enacting this commission.

House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy opposes it; so does Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell. Yep, McConnell — the guy who personifies partisan politics — calls the effort, um, too political.

House approves Jan. 6 commission over GOP objections | TheHill

We need a thorough factfinding mission. The idea is to appoint five Democrats and five Republicans to the panel. It would have subpoena power. Members from both sides would be able to have input into who to summon.

This notion is fair and equitable. It also would bring us many miles closer to the truth into what happened and why on the day terrorists stormed Capitol Hill and sought to block the certification of the 2020 presidential election.

I want answers. I am sure other Americans are demanding answers too. There needs to be a 9/11-style commission to seek the truth.

I have a good hunch I know what such a panel would discover … which I also have reason to believe lies behind the reluctance of Republicans to support it.

local news

Yes, welcome them, but no need to embrace them

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

An earlier blog post compels me to make a declaration.

In no way at all do I object to Amarillo (Texas) Mayor Ginger Nelson welcoming New Mexico Republicans to her city; the NM Republican Party took its annual conference across the state line because of objections to the state’s ongoing COVID pandemic protocols.

Fine. Whatever they want to do is fine with me. That’s their call.

Nor should it bother anyone in Amarillo, even if they disagree politically with the GOP, or the Democratic Party … any political organization on Earth.

Ginger Nelson’s welcoming of the New Mexico GOP conference crossed a couple of important lines.

One line is that the mayor — by embracing the ideology expressed by the likes of Reps. Ronny Jackson (the former Navy admiral who moved to Amarillo to run for Congress) and Jim Jordan of Ohio — has thrown in with the nuttiest of the nut jobs of the current Republican Party. Nelson did not advertise herself as a 2020 election conspiracy theorist when she won re-election earlier this month. Now, though, she has aligned herself with those nut jobs. Jackson and Jordan stand among the few and the ridiculous in their view of Donald Trump’s Big Lie.

The other line involves the non-partisan nature of her elected office. Her cuddling up to the GOP in this manner reminds of the time a 1990s candidate for Amarillo mayor, Mary Alice Brittain, sought to recruit “good Republicans” to vote for her over the incumbent mayor, Kel Seliger. I called Brittain out at the time for poisoning the non-partisan nature of the office she sought. The good news is that she didn’t win and has disappeared from the Texas Panhandle political grid.

I shudder to think that Mayor Nelson, who I believe has done a stellar job as the city’s presiding elected official, is about to cross the line that separates her non-partisan duties from partisan political hackery. 

Please say it isn’t so, Mme. Mayor.