Tag Archives: MAGA

national news

Must stay on top of ex-POTUS

If only I could rid myself of having to say another word about the machinations of the 45th president of the United States.

Except that I cannot. Not while he remains at or near the top of the Republican Party presidential nomination hunt in 2024.

If only he’d go the hell away. He won’t. He lusts for attention and, boy howdy, he’s getting it now as the twice-indicted (for now!), twice-impeached ex-POTUS.

I am confident in predicting that there appear to be at least two more indictments coming his way. Fulton County, Ga., District Attorney Fani Willis is sending up signals that an indictment is imminent. All the ex-POTUS did there was demand that the Georgia secretary of state “find” enough votes to give the loser the state’s Electoral College tally.

The other indictment also appears set to come from the feds — again! — as special counsel Jack Smith continues his work on the ex-POTUS’s role in inciting the 1/6 assault on the government as Congress was preparing to ratify the Electoral College victory rolled up by Joe Biden in 2020.

All of this, I am saddened to say, puts bloggers and assorted commentators such as yours truly in an awkward place. We have to keep commenting on these goings-on. To be sure, I am not going to weigh in — per an earlier pledge — on every single campaign utterance that flies out of the crook’s pie hole.

I won’t apologize for believing I must comment on the issues surrounding this horribly unfit, immoral and disgraceful politician. I simply must explain myself and recognize three facts that are beyond dispute.

First, he is a former president of the United States. Second, he is the first POTUS ever indicted by the very government he once led. Third, those two facts make it impossible for me to ignore what’s happening — or what is about to happen — to a guy who ought to spend the rest of his miserable life in prison.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Happy Flag Day!

I want to wish Old Glory, our Stars and Stripes and the symbol of our democratic society a happy Flag Day.

Betsy Ross crafted a marvelous piece of cloth back in the day and, oh brother, it has withstood plenty of tests, crises and even some assaults on its very self.

Which brings me to my brief point.

We should celebrate Flag Day not just because we honor the cloth that we fly in front of our homes (as I do in my Princeton, Texas, home). We should honor what it symbolizes.

It is the symbol of liberty, and it embodies the very founding of our great republic. Remember that our nation came into being when our founders protested the rule of the English monarch. Therefore, we are a nation born out of dissent.

Therefore, the flag we fly — and we honor! — is the very symbol of that principle.

Should those who burn the flag to protest government policies be punished because they demonstrate their opposition in that manner? Not by government edict! The Constitution protects us against any government reprisal.

I’ll “punish” anyone who chooses to burn the flag in an effort to lure me to their point of view. I am likely to reject whatever point the flag burner intends to make.

It’s their right to do so. The flag they burn is the very symbol of that right. It is why I honor the flag by flying it proudly.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

‘What-about-ism’ is no game

Congressional Republicans seeking to find some way to defend Donald Trump against a scathing federal indictment are engaging in a strategy that should be a game … except that it isn’t.

No way! Given the stakes involved, the GOP version of “what-about-ism” is ringing as hollow as a ripe watermelon.

I watched Sen. Lindsey Graham, the king of the Senate Trumpkins, fire back at ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos who sought simply to ask him whether he thinks Trump “did anything wrong.”

I’ll back up for a brief moment. The feds have indicted Trump on 37 counts involving the theft of classified documents from the White House. Special counsel Jack Smith announced the indictments involve obstruction of justice, violations of the Espionage Act and abuse of public office.

Graham sought this morning to compare Trump’s alleged crimes to Hillary Clinton’s use of personal email servers during her time as secretary of state. He said repeatedly that “nothing happened” to Clinton. Wrong! She was investigated thoroughly by the FBI, which determined she committed no crime.

That wasn’t good enough for Graham, who also said President Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence also had documents in their homes … just like Trump! No comparison.

The president and the former VP turned those documents over immediately to the feds, who then filed them with the National Archives.

Trump did nothing of the sort. The indictment states that Trump hid the documents from the FBI and instructed others to do the same thing. That, as you Americans would say, is “obstruction of justice.”

When I hear Republican suck-ups like Graham throw out the “What about the other guy?” response as a defense tactic for their own guy, I am left only to call it what it is.

Deflection.

They want to change the focus from their ally to their foes. It’s a phony dodge.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news, political news

My wish? Ban Trump from public office

As strange as it might seem for readers of this blog, I want to declare that I have no burning desire to see Donald J. Trump tossed into prison if he is convicted of the crimes for which he is under indictment.

My stronger wish is to ensure that Trump never again is allowed to seek — let alone hold — public office.

The 37-count indictment handed down by a south Florida grand jury is damning in the extreme. It looks to be ironclad. Special counsel Jack Smith has a mountain of evidence to pore over and present a trial jury eventually.

If Trump is convicted, then I suspect there will be prison time involved. He stands accused of taking classified documents in violation of the Espionage Act; he is accused of obstructing justice and of abuse of power. He is the first former POTUS to be charged in a criminal indictment by the Justice Department.

Dark days lie ahead for this individual.

He never should have been elected president in 2016. But he was. He got the rebuke he so richly deserved in 2020 when he lost to Joe Biden.

I do not want him anywhere near the Oval Office ever again.

You know what? There might be a deal to be had to help this crook avoid prison time. It might involve a permanent ban from seeking public office. I don’t know what Jack Smith is inclined to pursue, nor do I know what Trump is inclined to accept.

But as a red-blooded American patriot, I am fine with ensuring we keep Trump away from any public office. I want him out of public life altogether. He sickens me to my core.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, legal news

Special counsel speaks fundamental truth

Jack Smith, with just a single sentence, today laid out the complexities of our criminal justice system and highlighted his personal integrity.

Smith emerged today to reveal the contents of the indictment issued against Donald J. Trump. The cascade of evidence looks — to my untrained eyes — like a slam-dunk case. If I could predict an outcome, it would be that Trump is going down … hard.

Not so fast, the Justice Department’s special counsel, said today.

Trump, Smith said, “is innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.”

So, there you have it summed up neatly in a single phrase uttered by a seasoned prosecutor who had been called to duty by Attorney General Merrick Garland. Smith’s wisdom highlights graphically how complicated our system is and how it must always be.

No matter how persuasive the evidence appears to be — and Smith’s 37-count indictment appears to be irrefutable — we have a judicial process that must run its course. Our Constitution provides a guarantee of the presumption of innocence, to which all U.S. citizens are entitled.

Donald Trump usually expresses outward fearlessness of anyone or anything. My own view of the former POTUS suggests he must be trembling in terror at the prospect of Jack Smith prosecuting this case against him.

Smith showed his ethical chops today by declaring his own understanding that in our system of jurisprudence, everyone is innocent until proven guilty.

The special counsel, therefore, has set a high bar for himself, which tells me he has every intention of clearing it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, legal news, national news

‘No-name’ makes history

I would be willing to pay real American money to someone who could prove to me he or she knew who Jack Smith was when Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed him special counsel to examine the charges leveled against Donald J. Trump.

Well, this no-name “tough and dogged” federal prosecutor has made history in a major way by indicting Trump on seven counts related to the ex-POTUS’s squirreling away of classified documents at the end of his term in office.

Roll this around for just a moment. We now have the former commander in chief, the former head of the U.S. government’s executive branch being charged by that very branch of government on felony charges that could put the ex-POTUS in prison for the rest of his miserable life.

The Justice Department’s charges are serious, man. I have no idea what it all means to the political calculus in play as Trump campaigns for the presidency in 2024. The legality, though, is as clear as it gets.

And for crying out loud, spare me the “politicization” argument that is going to come from the MAGA crowd. Trump is going to make this a political case. He is going to accuse DOJ of “election interference.” Imagine, too, the hideously rich irony of Trump claiming election interference … given that he is the King of Election Interference!

Jack Smith has done precisely what Merrick Garland asked of him. He did it with professionalism, steely resolve and a commitment to the rule of law.

He now has become a household name. Who knew?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Joe Biden, national news

What is Pence talking about?

Listening to former Vice President Mike Pence announce his presidential candidacy, I was struck by the nation he was describing to a roomful of supporters in Iowa.

The United States of America that the former VP was laying out there for us is a nation in decline, that we are angry and afraid of our future, that we’re heading straight to hell.

I was left to wonder: What in the name of truth-telling is Mike Pence talking about?

President Joe Biden inherited an office at a time the nation was suffering from a pandemic that would kill more than a million Americans. We had lost millions of jobs because employers couldn’t do business while fighting the COVID-19 virus. Our allies had lost confidence in our ability to defend them — and ourselves.

As for the pandemic, it’s now essentially whipped. The jobs are coming back by the hundreds of thousands each month. Unemployment remains at historic lows.

Mike Pence talked about how he would defend Ukraine against a war of aggression from the Russians. Did he offer anything different from what Joe Biden has done already? No. He didn’t!

I am not at all clear as to what the former VP would do to restore the nation. Or what he could do.

From my perch here in Collin County, Texas, the nation is functioning well. This is occurring despite the right wing’s best efforts to demonize the left, to attack that thing called “woke,”

I listened to much of Pence’s announcement today, powered through the platitudes and promises to “make America great again.”

However, I will suggest to the Pencekins out there who have swallowed that MAGA swill that America today is greater than it ever has been and that, yep … the best is yet to come.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Rep. Santos: without shame

George Santos is that rare politician who believes he can function as a “normal” elected official despite the enormous baggage he’s lugging around as a result of his lies and deceit.

The first-term Republican congressman from New York is an absolute, hands-down laughingstock. No one can possibly take seriously a single word that flies out of the mouth of this serial liar.

He got elected in 2022 by lying his way into office. Let’s see, he lied about:

His parentage, his professional career, his educational background, his marital status, his family’s connection to the Holocaust and 9/11. Oh, then he is accused of swindling money from someone he knows.

Santos’s constituents elected a mystery man.

Yet he now functions as if he hasn’t a care in the world beyond his duties as a congressman.

Good grief, man!

I don’t even know why I’m getting worked up over this. Dude represents a district far from my home in North Texas. But … he is able to vote on federal laws that affect all of us. I guess that gives me justification to gripe and bitch about this fraud.

Like the man who once sat in the White House, I am left to question every single utterance that flies out of Santos’s mouth.

He is just one of 435 House members. He needs to be shown the door. My hope is that the New York congressional district voters who sent him to D.C. in the first place will wise up when they cast their ballots again next year.

The guy is without shame.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Compromise wins!

President Joe Biden had reason to spike the proverbial football tonight, declaring outright victory in his protracted fight with the right-wingers over the debt ceiling.

He didn’t go there … to his great credit.

Instead, the president used his Oval Office speech tonight to offer congratulations to Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell — in addition to Senate Majority leader Charles Schumer and House minority leader Hakeem Jefferies — for putting the good of the country over the wishes of the extremists within their own partisan caucuses.

Biden noted that the deal that ends the debt ceiling discussion for the next two years doesn’t please everyone but it does good for the whole nation.

That is the fuel that makes a representative democracy run, the president noted.

Yes, he took some credit for legislation he has helped push through a deeply divided Congress. And why not? He’s running for re-election and you can rest assured fully that whoever runs against him in 2024 will raise a ruckus over perceived errors the president has made.

I am not enough of a policy nerd to quibble over the specifics of the deal that Biden and McCarthy hammered out. I did fear, however, the consequences of failing to get this deal approved by Congress. They affect me directly: Social Security income, my retirement account and veterans’ protection hit me right in the gut. I did not want to lose any of it.

Thanks to the president and the speaker, I won’t. Neither will millions of other Americans.

Thanks to the president and the speaker for pulling us away from that proverbial cliff.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

economic news

Economy is strong … period!

How in the world does one deal with the fearmongering on the right wing of the political spectrum that keeps fomenting the lie that our national economy is headed for the crapper?

President Biden keeps seeking to remind us of several undeniable facts: joblessness is at a historic low; new jobs are pouring in; business continues to make astounding profits; inflation is subsiding; the national budget deficit is shrinking; the national debt is receding, too.

It’s falling on deaf ears on the right. The right-wingers are looking for any advantage they can find as they seek to run against the president. They are fomenting yet another lie, that the economy is tanking.

Listen up, folks: The economy is not heading for the tank! The economy is showing remarkable resilience! Its strength is presenting itself almost daily!

I am going to use this blog to try to disabuse those who want to believe the liars that the economy is set to be flushed away.

It is not!

johnkanels_92@hotmail.com