Tag Archives: Donald Trump

legal news

Trump ‘will be charged’

Let’s stipulate something up front: Glenn Kirschner is no friend of Donald J. Trump. Indeed, Kirschner is a noted critic of the ex-POTUS and someone who speaks frequently and loudly about why he detests the idea of Donald Trump ever holding the office of president.

However … Kirschner is an experienced prosecuting attorney who once served in that capacity for the U.S. Army. He said today that after listening to Attorney General Merrick Garland’s remarks on National Public Radio that The Donald is facing criminal conspiracy charges from the Department of Justice.

Newsweek reported:

“We begin with the cases that are right in front of us with the overt actions and then we build from there,” the attorney general said. “And that is a process that we will continue to build until we hold everyone accountable who committed criminal acts with respect to January 6.”

Hundreds of Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol after the then-president at a nearby rally urged them to march to the federal legislative building and to “fight like hell.” More than 780 of Trump’s supporters have been indicted for their actions that day, with some saying in court that they believed they were carrying out Trump’s orders.

Then Kirschner posted this item via Twitter:  “Accordingly, the only rational conclusion that can be drawn from AG Garland’s promise is that . . . TRUMP. WILL. BE. CHARGED. Because #JusticeMatters.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-will-be-charged-kirschner-concludes-after-ag-garland-s-remarks/ar-AAUU2Im?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531

I am not a lawyer (duh, obviously!) but I am going to presume that an experienced barrister can detect nuance that goes over the heads of us laypeople.

Garland has promised to follow the law wherever it leads. He also has pledged to never let politics guide any decision he makes on behalf of the federal agency he leads. I believe AG Garland is an honorable man and that he will obey the oath he took and will keep the promise he has made.

If the path he follows leads him to The Donald’s doorstep, then I expect him fully to indict the former president of the United States on a charge of conspiring to overturn the results of a duly constituted presidential election.

Wouldn’t that just be a kick in the rear end?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Dare I read Barr’s book?

William Barr is about to have a book published that tells the world what the world already knew: that Donald Trump is a dangerous psychopath who flew “off the rails” after losing the 2020 presidential election.

There. Having established that bit of knowledge, I am likely to pass on purchasing the former U.S. attorney general’s book. Why? Because he isn’t likely to tell me anything I don’t already know or already strongly believed about The Donald.

When Barr got the call to become AG after The Donald fired Jeff Sessions, I held out hope that Barr would become an enforcer of the law and the Constitution. I never imagined he would become a Trump toadie capable of perverting the law to suit The Donald’s machinations. Barr had served honorably as AG in the final phase of President George H.W. Bush’s administration. I was terribly wrong.

Now he’s telling the world what we all knew. I am glad he is coming clean. I only wish he had done so earlier, had resigned earlier than he did and revealed to us that the one-time head of state/commander in chief is off his ever-lovin’ rocker.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news, political news

Pence has grown a pair?

What do you know about this? It appears that former Vice President Mike Pence has grown a pair of … um … well, you know what I mean.

Pence has told a group of Republicans that there is “no room” in the party for those who apologize for Vladimir Putin. Gosh! About whom do you suppose Pence is referring?

According to Newsnation: “Where would Russian tanks be today if NATO had not expanded the borders of freedom? There is no room in this party for apologists for Putin,” Pence said, according to excerpts from the speech, which was closed to reporters. “There is only room for champions of freedom.”

https://www.newsnationnow.com/politics/pence-hits-trump-no-room-in-gop-for-apologists-for-putin/?utm_campaign=NewsNation-trending-now&utm_source=thehill.com&utm_medium=newsnation-cross-brand

The word is out that he is stretching the divide that is growing between Pence and the guy who selected him to be vice president for four years prior to losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

It’s time to move past the 2020 election, Pence said. It’s time for the party to start plotting a course for the future, he said.

It took Pence a long time to become his own man. Too long, if you ask me. Even when the ex-POTUS threatened Pence because he did his job on 1/6 and certified President Biden’s election, he remained silent.

That now appears to be changing.

It’s not that Pence is going to get my vote if he decides to run for POTUS in 2024. However, I want to take this moment to offer him a word of support simply for demonstrating a smidgen of courage.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, political news

Get busy, Rep. Taylor

Let’s examine a few numbers from the Third Congressional District race that is heading for a May runoff between incumbent Van Taylor and former Collin County Judge Keith Self.

With 99% percent of the vote tabulated from Tuesday’s Republican primary, Taylor has collected 31,168 votes.

Self has collected 16,959 ballots; third place went to Suzanne Harp, who collected 13,319 votes; fourth place went to Rickey Williams, who has 1,721 ballots; the fifth-place candidate is Jeremy Ivanovskis, with 814 votes. All told, the anti-Taylor vote count totals 32,133 ballots.

OK, they’re still counting ballots at the Collin County Courthouse. I don’t expect the percentages to change dramatically but consider the following.

Taylor needs to gin up a lot of return voters for the runoff, given that taken altogether, the challengers finished with nearly 1,000 more votes combined than Taylor reeled in. I don’t know anything about Williams or Ivanovskis, but I do know that Self and Harp are cut from the same kooky cloth; they are The Donald Cultists. Indeed, Harp calls herself an “America First Republican,” which is code for “I am a Trumpkin.” Moreover, Self has swilled The Big Lie potion about the 2020 election being “stolen” from The Donald.

Do you get my drift here? Self’s voters are highly motivated to turn out in the runoff. Harp’s supporters, I am going to presume, are far more comfortable with Self than with Taylor. They, too, might need little persuading to vote in the runoff.

As for Van Taylor’s bloc of supporters, they well might be a touch more apathetic than those who favor the surviving challenger or at least one of the also-rans in the Tuesday GOP primary.

Thus, the result of the runoff will depend on just two words: voter turnout. My advice to Rep. Taylor? You’d better get busy, young man … and start working the phone lines to those who voted for you in the primary.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot, Donald Trump, national news, political news

Trump far from in the clear

Two top prosecutors from the Manhattan (N.Y.) district attorney’s office have quit, reportedly throwing a criminal investigation into Donald J. Trump into some state of disarray. The chatter suggests the new DA has choked on deciding whether to indict Donald for any sort of allegation associated with a longstanding criminal probe into his business dealings.

Does this mean Trump is home free? That he has nothing about which to worry? Oh, no. Far from it.

DA Alvin Bragg reportedly has balked on proceeding with indicting Donald. Two of his top legal eagles quit simultaneously, suggesting to many observers that there’s a major disagreement within the DA’s office on how to proceed.

But let’s hold on for a minute. This is one investigation. Do I want it to end now? No! As an ardent critic of Donald Trump, my preference would be for the DA who took over from a veteran prosecutor — Cyrus Vance Jr. — to follow the evidence and the law all the way to the end.

However, the New York attorney general, Letitia James, is still working on our own investigation into Trump’s alleged business chicanery. Let us also remember that the Trump Organization already is has been indicted on charges of tax fraud and other matters.

Oh, and then we have yet another criminal investigation down yonder in Fulton County, Ga., where DA Fani Willis is examining whether to prosecute Donald on a charge of interfering in a state election process. Donald did demand that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger “find” enough votes to swing the state from Joe Biden’s column to Donald Trump.

Finally, there’s the House select committee examining Trump’s role in inciting the insurrection on 1/6. We now hear of possible cooperation with the committee from key Donald Trump acolytes, such as Rudolph Giuliani and — get a load of this! — Ivanka Trump, the elder daughter of Donald. The Justice Department already has indicted one key Trump aide, Steve Bannon, on a charge of contempt of Congress for his refusal to comply with a congressional subpoena.

This is all my way of suggesting that the resignations of the DA’s office prosecutor might not be as big a deal as many are making of it. The quitters might have stalled the progress of that probe by virtue of their resignation. It isn’t the end of Donald Trump’s troubles. Not by a very long shot!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news, political news

Now he’s just ‘Donald’

I have made a command decision on my blog. Future references to Donald J. Trump are going to be limited to just use of his first name.

Yes, I will hereby make initial references to the former Liar in Chief using his first and last name; subsequent references will be simply “Trump” or “Donald.” I think I’ll stick with “Donald” most of the time.

Hey, I can make that decision regarding my blog. Because it is my blog.

I refused during his term in office to link the terms “President” and “Trump” consecutively; I have held true to that just now, if you get my drift.

Therefore, I am no longer going to use the term “former president,” or “ex-president,” or even “former POTUS” to describe Donald in the future. He doesn’t deserve any sort of respect. He won’t get it from me.

I hope to dial back the frequency of blog posts referring to Donald. I’ll do my best to be more selective.

Hang with me, OK? Thanks. Now … let’s go on down the road together.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news, State news

Keep blathering about vote fraud … Donald

You know what? I think I am going to offer Donald J. Trump some campaign advice going into the upcoming election season — and I don’t mean the 2022 midterm election, but rather the 2024 presidential election.

It is this: Go ahead, Donald, and keep yapping about the “stolen” election in which you lost to President Biden. Please, keep reminding Americans of all political stripes what a complete ass you have made of yourself by (a) not conceding defeat in a free, fair and legal election and (b) questioning the integrity of an electoral system run at the local level by dedicated public servants.

Trump keeps repeating The Big Lie. Great! Go for it, Donald! Your resistance to forgetting the past kinda reminds me of how Ann Richards lost her re-election bid for Texas governor back in 1994. A novice pol named George W. Bush defeated Richards by staying focused on his campaign talking points, as well as by the incumbent governor’s own refusal to offer a vision on how she would govern the state for the next four years.

I recall well how it was watching that campaign unfold. Richards sought to live on the laurels of her election in 1990 in a race she was supposed to lose to Midland oil mogul Clayton Williams, who then destroyed his own campaign through a major gaffe about comparing rape to the bad weather, suggesting women should just “relax and enjoy it.”

So, we fast-forward to today and we hear Trump continuing to yap, yowl and yammer about “massive voter fraud” that did not exist in 2020. It didn’t. Honest! It was fair and legal. Just like the folks assigned to protect its security promised it would be.

Trump, though, keeps living in the past. He keeps reciting The Big Lie. He keeps losing court battles over myriad issues and legal challenges.

Stay with it, Donald. If it makes you feel like you’re going to win the hearts and minds of voters whose support you would need in your futile and feckless attempt to get back into office, then … what the hell?

Go for it! Few things would make me happier than to watch your political career go down in flames.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Who is Vlad Putin?

Just as I vowed when he got elected U.S. president that I wouldn’t link the words “President” and “Trump” consecutively, I am having similar pangs to resist using the term “president” to refer to Vladimir Putin, the goon and deep-cover spy who runs Russia.

Vladimir Putin is a thug. He is a killer. He once ran the KGB, the Soviet Union’s spy agency. He’s a bad dude. As in really, really bad, man.

Yeah, he has been elected president. Do you believe those elections were as free and fair as those we conduct in this country? Hell, no! Putin has rewritten the rules to in effect make himself a lifetime leader.

His “rigging” of elections in Russia makes me wonder something about his best American pal, Donald J. Trump. Why hasn’t Trump bellowed and blustered about how the Russians rig their elections, rather than denigrating the U.S. electoral system? If the ex-Liar in Chief wants an example of corrupt elections, he needs to focus his fire on how the Russians keep electing Putin. Oh, wait. Trump wanted to become friends with Putin, and he cannot be Vlad’s BFF by criticizing the system that keeps returning him to power in the Kremlin.

I believe I’ll keep resisting using the term “president” to refer to the Russian leader. “President” is a title I reserve for legitimately elected leaders or leaders who don’t bring shame and disgust to their high office. Donald Trump fits the latter description to a “t” and there’s nothing legit about how Vladimir Putin attained the office he now occupies.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

 

DC riot, legal news, national news, political news

A lockup in Trump’s future?

I am trying to imagine what I thought not so long ago was an impossible ending to a former president’s legal difficulty, but which is be. ginning to look entirely possible … although not yet probable.

It is that Donald Trump might face a criminal indictment on multiple fronts. For tax fraud. For interfering in a state election. For violating a federal law designed to protect national security. Hmm. I might have missed something, but you get the picture … yes?

Trump’s business already is under indictment for multiple allegations, including tax fraud; the Manhattan (N.Y.) district attorney’s office alleges that his business inflated the cost of real estate to get sweeter loan deals. No can do, folks.

The Fulton County (Ga.) district attorney is examining whether Trump broke the law by pressuring the Georgia secretary of state to “find” enough votes to swing Georgia from the Joe Biden win column to Trump; hey, we have that act on recording.

The latest might be the most serious of all, in that the National Archives has alleged that Trump spirited classified documents from the White House and stashed them in Mar-a-Lago, Fla., where Donald and Melania Trump live; the Presidential Records Act expressly forbids such thievery of national security documents.

All told, if Trump is indicted and convicted of these crimes, he faces a lengthy prison term.

Isn’t that just rich?

And I haven’t mentioned — until this very moment — the House select panel looking into the 1/6 insurrection incited by Trump on that terrible day just two weeks before he left office.

Moreover, we’re beginning to find out that Donald Trump — who boasted of his fantastic business acumen — isn’t nearly as rich as he bragged about being. That, folks, doesn’t surprise me in the least. I always have said — and I have said so here — that people who are rich and smart don’t boast about it. That the ex-POTUS would keep yapping about his wealth and his smarts only tells me he is neither as rich or as smart as he wants to believe.

The most maddening aspect of this moron’s trail of idiocy is that he continues to have this weird hold on Republican Party voters’ skulls.

But … let’s allow the legal process to play out. I can wait.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

business news, national news

Will Trump take Fifth? Hmm?

You might recall the several times Donald Trump has declared that “innocent” people have no reason or justification to fall back on the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the one that protects citizens self-incrimination.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, we might get the chance to see if Trump really and truly believes it. You see, a judge has ordered the former POTUS, his oldest son Don Jr. and daughter Ivanka to testify — under oath — about their financial dealings that are under investigation by the Manhattan district attorney.

So, Trump will take an oath to tell the truth. If he has nothing to hide from investigators, he’ll talk. Isn’t that right? I don’t that’s going to happen.

His company already is under indictment for assorted felony accusations, such as tax fraud.

The walls appear to be closing in around Trump and his family. His son, Eric, already has hidden behind the Fifth Amendment, invoking it hundreds of times during questioning by prosecutors. Do you wonder what Daddy Trump told Eric after he left the conference room? Might he have called Eric a “loser”?

The smart money, based on what I have heard on the news, suggests that Trump’s lawyers will tell him to “not say a word.” His only option, therefore, is to invoke the Fifth Amendment.

But … hey. C’mon, Donald. An “innocent” man should be able to speak freely. Right?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com