Tag Archives: Donald Trump

legal news

Is there an indictment in Trump’s future?

If we are to believe the New York Times reporting on this matter — and I do, generally — then it appears that Donald J. Trump will dodge the indictment bullet in the Manhattan district attorney’s office.

The newly installed DA, Aaron Bragg, appears to be closing up shop in his investigation into the Trump Organization’s business dealings. Many of his chief assistant prosecutors have quit the office. Bragg isn’t inclined to pursue the former POTUS any further.

Now, does that forestall a probe being conducted by New York Attorney General Letitia James? Hah! Hardly.

However, it could be argued that without the NYC prosecutor’s office going full tilt on its investigation, the AG’s office might be caught with fewer evidence-gathering tools at its disposal.

Nor does this mean that the 1/6 investigation ongoing in the U.S. House of Representatives is going to flicker out and die. House intel committee chairman Bennie Thompson plans to commence public hearings in June on his panel’s probe into the insurrection. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland is standing by with possible plans to take legal action against all sorts of players from the Trump administration. Hmm, maybe even against The Donald himself?

Oh, one more thing. We have that probe going on down yonder in Fulton County, Ga., where legal eagles are investigating whether Trump broke state law by demanding election officials to “find” enough votes to turn that state’s 2020 presidential electoral result from Joe Biden to Trump.

The plot is still pretty damn thick, even if the Manhattan DA is bowing out.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump

Give it a rest, Donald … oh, wait!

Part of me wishes Donald J. Trump would stop yammering about an electoral theft that didn’t occur. Then it dawns on me: Why not keep up the charade, given that more Americans are tuning that nonsense out of their minds?

Gerald Baker, former editor in chief of the Wall Street Journal, is the latest conservative to say that The Donald needs to stop yapping about the “voter fraud” that didn’t occur during the 2020 presidential election.

Wall Street Journal Editor Has Had It With Republicans Who Back Donald Trump’s Big Lie (msn.com)

In an opinion piece published Monday, Baker wrote that many prominent Republicans and major donors don’t actually believe Trump’s election lies and would love for him to “go quietly away.”

“It is a desire expressed as fervently in private as it is assiduously and dexterously avoided in public,” said Baker, who served as the WSJ’s editor-in-chief until 2018.

Well, geez. Keep talking about it, Donald. Yeah, it’s old “fake news.” Yeah, it never happened. Sure, Trump has yet to produce a shred of evidence to back up his specious claims of electoral theft.

It’s getting real old, Donald.

So, keep fomenting The Big Lie … loser!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

media news

I hereby offer an apology

An apology is a rare thing to receive on a blog, but I am about to offer one now. I made a pledge — maybe more than once — to move on from Donald J. Trump and to concentrate exclusively on the here and now and to look only at pols I consider to be relevant.

I am sorry for failing to make good on that promise.

It’s not entirely my fault. You see, Trump keeps injecting himself into the news. Since this blog is about the news, public policy, politics and at times the individuals who make news, well, it becomes imperative for your friendly High Plains Blogger to comment on it.

Trust me when I say this, because it is the truth: I want Donald Trump to disappear. I want him gone from the public stage. I want him removed from the nation’s conscience.

He won’t honor my request and simply vanish. Poof! Be gone, Donald!

Where do we go from here? I won’t make any more promises I likely cannot keep. So I’ll keep commenting on The Donald’s comings, goings and musings as long he keeps retaining some viability in the nation’s political process.

I won’t comment on every single thing that flies out of the liar’s pie hole. I can make that pledge. So there.

Please accept my apology … and keep reading and sharing my thoughts. I appreciate those who do.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump

Remember that this guy still got elected

Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin have written a book that lays bare even more of the reprehensible examples of how Donald Trump conducted himself as president of the United States.

It is titled “This Will Not Pass.” We have learned a lot of its contents already. How Trump sought help to overturn the 2020 election and how he demanded that governors flatter him and “ask nicely” for federal aid to help them cope with natural disasters.

The book by two seasoned New York Times reporters is just the latest in a string of tell-all tales about life working in the Trump administration. It ain’t pretty, man.

Let us remember something, though, as we ponder whether any of this might forestall a Trump for the presidency a third time in 2024. It is that this disgusting excuse for a human being managed to get elected POTUS in 2016 after:

  • Disparaging a war hero and declaring that he preferred warriors who “aren’t captured.”
  • Mocking a New York Times reporter’s disability.
  • Admitting in an interview that he grabbed women by their genitalia.
  • Admitting to committing adultery on his first two wives and then paying a woman hush money to keep quiet on a tryst he had while married to his third wife — who had just given birth to the couple’s son.
  • Mocking a Muslim Gold Star couple who had the temerity to criticize him during the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

Just so we’re clear. I am not at all convinced that The Donald is even going to run for POTUS in ’24. I see evidence that his support among actual Republicans is eroding. He is making bizarro endorsements of candidates, picking individuals on the basis of their fan appeal and not on any policy pronouncements.

I just want to caution everyone — and I have to remind myself of this, too — against throwing dirt on the former A**hole in Chief’s face.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

Ex-top doc sounds off

Now that he is free of the wrath that could come from the Oval Office, a former U.S. surgeon general has spoken out against a ruling that came from a federal judge that he says was delivered out of “animus” against the current president of the United States.

So said Dr. Jerome Adams, the surgeon general during the Donald Trump administration. Adams said the ruling issued by U.S. District Judge Kathryn Mizzelle, a Trump appointee, was not based on the law, but was based instead on her anger toward President Biden.

Mizelle ruled that the government’s mask mandate was illegal, allowing passengers on public transportation can travel without having to wear masks … even as COVID cases are ticking up yet again.

Dr. Adams wrote this on Twitter: Remind me – which schoolhouse rock explains to kids how a single unelected judge has the power to endanger their lives in public settings? I’m just a judge- I’m just a judge, and I’m hurting you cuz I’ve got a grudge…

Judge Mizelle came under intense criticism after she tossed aside the Biden administration mask mandate, chiefly because the American Bar Association had determined her to be “not qualified” to occupy a federal judgeship. Trump nominated her anyway, even after he lost the 2020 presidential election. Hey, I don’t begrudge Trump for fulfilling a duty to which he was still duly constituted to do. It’s just that he found a jurist with minimal experience for a lifetime appointment.

And if we are to believe the musings of the man who served as surgeon general — and I am inclined to do so — then we have a so-called judicial “conservative” who decided to “legislate from the bench.”

Aren’t conservative judges supposed to avoid crossing such a line?

There once was a time when even a medical professional, such as Dr. Adams, would have incurred the relentless wrath of a president for speaking the truth to the public. Jerome Adams faced that probability when he served at the pleasure of Donald Trump.

Those days are gone. Thank goodness … and thanks to Dr. Adams for speaking out.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot

Why protect this guy?

Questions abound from reports that 1/6 insurrectionists sought to “protect” a U.S. congressman, a Republican who hails (now!) from the Texas Panhandle.

Recently released text messages reveal that Oath Keepers — the yahoos who helped lead the 1/6 riot on Capitol Hill — sought to shelter Rep. Ronny Jackson of Amarillo from being harmed by the rioters who stormed the Capitol at the urging of the then-POTUS.

Let us not forget that this same mob of traitorous rioters was shouting “Hang Mike Pence!” in a direct threat to the vice president, who was presiding at that moment over a congressional certification of the results that saw Joe Biden defeat Donald Trump in the 2020 election.

Gosh, do you think any of the Oath Keepers were among those seeking to kill the vice president, while at the same time were seeking to protect a member of Congress, a guy who had been in office about three days at the time of the riot?

We need some answers … as in right now!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

Election consequence plays out

I cannot let this item go without a brief comment.

Federal Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle ruled this past week that President Biden’s mask mandate violated the Constitution. Then the Transportation Security Administration decided to forgo its mask mandate — related to the COVID pandemic — on public transportation, such as airplanes, trains and buses.

So, who is Judge Mizelle? She is a judge whom Donald J. Trump nominated to the federal bench after losing the 2020 election and after he began challenging the veracity of that result with his baseless claims of voter fraud. You know … The Big Lie!

Mizelle also is just 33 years of age; I have no problem with her youth. However, she graduated from law school just eight years before becoming a judge.

Furthermore, the American Bar Association determined that Mizelle is “not qualified” to adjudicate from the federal bench.

Let that sink in for a moment: not qualified, according to the ABA.

Sheesh!

To think, therefore, that critics of Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee — Ketanji Brown Jackson — were quick to label a stellar jurist as somehow unfit for the nation’s highest court are now standing behind someone who tossed out a mask mandate while COVID infection rates are increasing in most of the states of this vast nation.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

religious news

Easter greetings reveal plenty

Make no mistake about it: The differences between Joe Biden and the man he succeeded as president of the United States were on full display in the respective Easter greetings the two men sent out today.

President Biden’s message was full of hope, given the nature of the Christian holiday, commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. “As we reflect today on Christ’s Resurrection, we are reminded that with faith, hope, and love — even death can be defeated,” the president tweeted. “From our family to yours, we wish you hope, health, joy, and the peace of God, which passes all understanding. Happy Easter and may God bless and keep you.”

Biden and Trump release very different Easter messages (msn.com)

Then came this from Donald J. Trump, who used his Easter message to launch an attack on New York Attorney General Letitia James: “May she remain healthy despite the fact that she will continue to drive business out of New York while at the same time keeping crime, death, and destruction in New York!” reads a message from Trump’s Save America political action committee, which also calls James a “racist.”

Wow! Enough said.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

RNC loses will to fight

It is clear to me that the leadership of a once-great political party has lost its will to stand and fight for what it believes.

The Republican National Committee’s decision to bow out of future presidential debates — at the primary and general-election levels — has demonstrated to me that the party has been taken over by cowards.

Think of it. The titular head of the party, Donald J. Trump, is the former Coward in Chief. He bitched out loud during his term as president that the press is the “enemy of the people.” He yapped and yammered preparing for presidential debates with the fellow who beat him in 2020, Joe Biden, that the joint appearances were stacked against him.

Trump has managed to project his cowardice onto the leadership of the RNC, now led by Ronna Romney McDaniel. Here’s an example of how McDaniel shows her cowardly nature: She used to be proud to wear the name of her uncle, Mitt Romney; these days, because The Donald despises Romney, she has dropped the “Romney” from her name and now goes by Ronna McDaniel. It’s a little thing. Then again, it really isn’t.

Now the RNC has decided that it won’t rely on journalists to moderate future presidential debates. Its decision, therefore, to pull out of future events sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates — a non-partisan group — suggests it has swallowed the swill served by The Donald.

The nation has come to rely on these joint appearances to help voters make decisions on who is best suited to lead the country. And, yes, at times individuals emerge from these events whom no one expects. I am willing to argue that Donald Trump pulled off that very surprise during the 2016 presidential primary season.

So, what happened to The Donald? He lost re-election in 2020 and promptly blamed everyone else for his loss, ignoring the undeniable truth that the presidency he ran failed. He threw blame at the feet of the debate organizers.

Now we have the Republican National Committee continuing to adhere to the whims and machinations of the twice-impeached and defeated POTUS.

Cowards. All of ’em!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

They want this guy back?

Just think: a lot of Americans want to see this guy returned to the office he denigrated, disrespected and devalued damn near each day he occupied it.

I saw this social media meme and wanted to share it here. I don’t know its source; it doesn’t matter. I believe its content, although I need to put a couple of the barbs in some proper context.

The bit about “killing more Americans than Hitler” and losing “5 million jobs” is attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic, which wasn’t entirely Donald Trump’s fault. Yes, he did downplay the seriousness of it as the killer virus began its path of death and destruction through the nation and around the world. That helped contribute to the calamity that befell the nation in 2020 and 2021.

And yet, millions of Americans continue to say he “told it like it is.” No, he didn’t. He told it the way he wanted us to believe it to be.

I should add that the 45th POTUS also told an estimated 35,000 lies, put many of our international alliances in jeopardy, mocked people with disabilities and prisoners of war and — this is the best one — became a Vladimir Putin enabler by refusing to admit the Russian tyrant is a killer and by refusing to condemn him for interfering in our electoral process.

Puh-leeeze …

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com