Tag Archives: Big Lie

national news

Cultists need help? Uh, yeah!

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“I’ve got to say if you’re out there and you believe those lies, even after they had been disproven, you’re stupid and you may want to call somebody — try to get in touch with a professional and see if you can be deprogrammed from the cult you’re now in.”

Who said this? Joe Scarborough said it. He’s a one-time Republican congressman from the Florida Panhandle. Scarborough is now an MSNBC morning talk show co-host; his wife, Mika Brzezinski is the other host.

He calls himself a conservative and I suppose he is. I mean, when he served in the House, he voted to impeach President Bill Clinton for lying about the seedy relationship he had with the White House intern.

He’s also a “never Trumper,” a guy who takes a great deal of joy out of firing rhetorical shrapnel at the ex-POTUS.

And … I have to say I agree with what he said about the “cultists” who adhere to The Big Lie repeated constantly by Donald J. Trump.

The Big Lie that says the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump has been disproven repeatedly. There was no “widespread vote fraud.” There was no electoral theft, at least not as Trump has tried to define it.

The cultists out there? Get some help. You frighten many of us.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Changing tune on panel timetable

Once, not long ago, I was yammering about the length of time the House select committee was taking as it examined the 1/6 insurrection on Capitol Hill.

I am changing my tune. I no longer am as concerned about the time it is taking for the committee to do its job. It has more work to complete. The immediate past president of the U.S. is in trouble — it seems to me. The panel must finish its work completely, assemble its findings and then report to the nation what it has determined.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Merrick Garland keeps reminding us that “no one is above the law” and that he will follow the evidence wherever it leads before deciding on indictments. When someone says that “no one is above the law,” I am going to presume he means, well, “no one.” That includes the former POTUS. Do I have that right? I hope you think so, too.

The finished product of this exhaustive hearing must include remedies for preventing the 1/6 insurrection from recurring.

Now, having said that I am changing my tune about the select committee’s timetable, I am not going to say it should go on forever. Time isn’t exactly in the committee’s corner. The midterm election in November could produce a change of legislative control when the next Congress convenes. The House may shift from Democratic to Republican control. I say “may shift” because that might not be the slam-dunk the GOP had hoped would occur.

With that, it still would be good for the current committee, chaired by Democrat Bennie Thompson, to finish its work prior to the midterm election and certainly before the next Congress takes its oath.

But don’t rush it, ladies and gentlemen?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Good news, sort of, surfaces

There’s a bit of good news to report from the latest round of midterm primary election results, some of which haven’t yet been declared official by various states.

It is that a number of the certifiable nut cases endorsed by Donald J. Trump have either won their Republican primary contests or are leading them with just a smattering of votes left to be counted.

Why is that good news? Why would this blogger see their seeming victories be a sign of better days?

It is because the Trumpkin wing of the GOP has clamped a stranglehold on the party. However, there exists a growing — at least I hope it is growing — pool of voters who have had it up to here with Trump’s constant yammering about The Big Lie.

The former POTUS’s cultists have glommed onto The Big Lie and are suggesting they’re going to get some payback if they manage to win the election this November against whomever they’ll face from the Democratic Party.

Democrats should — if they’re smart and have hired capable campaign staff — be able to paste the nut case label on the foreheads of their Trump cult opponents. That would be my hope.

It continues to astound me that so many Republican voters continue to insist that Trump truly was robbed of his “landslide” victory in the 2020 election by “widespread voter fraud.” The only electoral theft occurring comes from the GOP, led by its titular leader and his effort to overturn the results of the election.

But wait! Attorney General Merrick Garland well could have a whole lot to say about that effort and whether the former president has broken the law in egging on the mob of traitors who stormed the Capitol Building on 1/6.

My view? He damn sure did break the law! He needs to be prosecuted … but that’s just me.

If he is indicted and Merrick Garland can make the indictments stick, then the Trumpkins who have won their primary contests will have reached the end of their political journey.

There’s more good news!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news, national security

Domestic terrorist gets 7 years in prison … yes!

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Guy Reffitt can now join an infamous — and likely growing — list of Americans who have been sent to the Big House for working to overturn the results of a free, fair and legal presidential election.

Reffitt lives just across Lake Lavon from your friendly blogger in Wylie, Texas. Today, he got slightly more than seven years in a federal prison for his role in whipping up the 1/6 insurrection attackers.

Reffitt didn’t actually enter the Capitol Building during the attack. He just whipped the crowd into a frenzy from outside the halls of power.

Texan Guy Reffitt sentenced to 7 1/4 years in prison for Jan. 6 riot | The Texas Tribune

His sentence, by the way, is the longest prison term handed out, so far, by a trial jury. So, this terrorist has set a record I am sure he would rather not possess. That is just too damn bad.

The Texas Tribune reported: “Reffitt sought not just to stop Congress, but also to physically attack, remove, and replace the legislators who were serving in Congress. This is a quintessential example of an intent to both influence and retaliate against government conduct through intimidation or coercion,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo.

It is good to see the wheels of justice continuing to grind along.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

’20 election: most secure … ever!

One of the more annoying aspects of The Big Lie and those who believe it to their everlasting shame is that the 2020 presidential election was so “fishy” that the system has been put on notice to ensure that future elections are not fraught with the kind of tomfoolery the Big Lie believers insist occurred in 2020.

That is so wrong that I cannot let it stand.

I hear such rubbish from my network of social media acquaintances. Several of them believe that the next election will be clean, secure and fraud-free only because of all the attention being paid to the shenanigans that allegedly occurred during the 2020 election.

Bear in mind that these nitwits suggest that the only electoral “theft” occurred in the presidential contest. They say that only Donald J. Trump was the victim of “widespread voter fraud.” No other races have been contested in quite the manner than the one that Trump lost to President Biden.

I feel the overwhelming need to remind everyone of this fact. Trump hired a first-rate electoral security expert, Christopher Krebs, to repair what he said was wrong with the electoral system.

Krebs then delivered on what the then-president instructed. He declared after the 2020 election that it was “the most secure election in U.S. history.” His reward for telling the truth? Trump fired him … and then proceeded to call him everything short of the Son of Satan.

The Big Lie is the biggest lie ever told to vilify our democratic process. It is a disgraceful display of petulance and arrogance from an individual who simply cannot stand the thought of losing.

The 2020 election set a standard for electoral cleanliness. The 2024 election for president, I am quite certain, will follow suit.

It will have nothing to do with a “fishy” result.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Be careful, Democrats

“It’s not illegal but it sure is stupid. Be careful what you wish for. You may select somebody who actually wins and then you hurt the country as well as your own party.”

Who said that? None other than U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican and one of the few GOP senators to (a) declare that Donald Trump is a “phony” and a “fraud” and (b) congratulate Joe Biden on his election as president in 2020.

Here we are, two years later, and the chatter is all over the place about Democrats reportedly boosting Trumpkin candidates’ chances for nomination in their respective state primaries. Why? Because they suspect that general-election voters will reject them.

Not … necessarily, as Mitt is warning Democrats.

Mitt Romney says Democratic efforts to boost Trump-allied GOP election deniers is a ‘stupid’ approach: ‘Be careful what you wish for’ (msn.com)

I can recall similar stories of electoral tomfoolery occurring in 1980 when Republicans were deciding whether to nominate a far-right former California governor for president. Democrats crossed over to vote for Ronald Reagan in GOP primaries, believing he would be the weakest candidate to run against Democratic President Jimmy Carter.

It, um, didn’t work out.

Reagan won the presidency in a historic landslide in November 1980.

I don’t know how one should stop the MAGA crowd/Trump cultist/far-right-wing nut cases. It seems the more negativity that comes out against their guru — the former president — the more energized they become.

These individuals are nuttier than a Snickers Bar.

I believe primary voters in these remaining states should take Mitt Romney’s advice to heart. Texans no longer should worry about that counsel, as our primary is over and, yep, Republicans here nominated their share of Trump Cult kooks.

We long ago entered a sort of electoral twilight zone with the entry of Donald J. Trump into the world of politics.

I believe Democrats should take Sen. Romney’s advice seriously.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

What would happen if we did this?

I watched Steve Bannon’s tirade outside the courtroom today as jury selection in his federal contempt of Congress trial was completed. I was struck by this question: What would happen if you or I thought to thumb our nose at a congressional subpoena?

If it were me, I would be locked up and kept in the cooler until my trial began.

The House 1/6 committee summoned Bannon — a former Donald Trump senior political adviser — to testify before the panel in its quest to find the truth behind the 1/6 insurrection. Bannon said, in effect, “f*** you” to the committee. The Department of Justice, acting within its authority, then indicted Bannon on contempt of Congress.

Well, today Bannon challenged the legitimacy of the House committee’s very existence, let alone its legal authority to subpoena him. Then he launched into The Big Lie mantra that “Donald Trump won the 2020 election” and that “Joe Biden is an illegitimate president.”

That is his opinion. Bannon also is full of horse dookey … but that’s just my opinion.

It astounds me beyond measure how these individuals think they can defy what I am certain is a duly and legally constituted congressional committee charged with the task of investigating what most of us believe is a crime against the government.

Yet there is Steve Bannon, a fire-breathing ideologue who spews The Big Lie about vote fraud — which has been thoroughly and roundly discredited — while giving the middle finger to a congressional probe.

I shudder to think what would happen if I were to demonstrate such arrogance.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Lesson in ethics

I watched an interesting bit of ethical correctness play out this week at a city council meeting I was covering for a newspaper for which I work on a freelance basis.

The Farmersville City Council made several appointments Tuesday night to citizen boards and commissions. One of the appointees was Sue Williams, who happens to be married to Terry Williams — who happens to serve on the City Council.

What did Terry Williams do prior to the vote? He motioned to the city attorney and asked to recuse himself from the vote. Terry Williams walked out of the council chambers and the council then voted to put Sue Williams on the board to which she had been nominated.

Why mention this? Ohhhh, because a member of the U.S. Supreme Court doesn’t have the semblance of ethical propriety to recuse himself from court matters involving his wife.

Justice Clarence Thomas has voted on matters related to The Big Lie promoted by Donald J. Trump, the defeated and disgraced former president who — to this very moment — hasn’t yet conceded that he lost the 2020 election to President Biden.

The most recent ethical transgression occurred a few weeks ago when the Supreme Court voted 8-1 to require Trump to turn over White House records to the House select committee examining the 1/6 insurrection. Who voted “no”? Justice Thomas.

Why did he vote no? It might have something to with the fact that his wife, Ginni, is an ardent MAGA follower of Trump and a believer in The Big Lie who attended the 1/6 rally but left before it turned into a violent frontal assault on the U.S. government.

Clarence Thomas clearly should take a page from the ethical book followed by a small-town city council member in North Texas.

Whereas Terry Williams saw the potential for conflict of interest were he to vote to accept his wife for a spot on a citizens panel, Clarence Thomas continues to ignore that gigantic blind spot.

Indeed, the justice would solve the problem altogether by resigning from the nation’s highest court — which he clearly should do.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Big Lie just won’t die!

Some things resist my occasionally feeble skill at reasoning things out; The Big Lie is one of them.

More to the point, what escapes my noggin’s intellectual capacity is how people actually continue to believe The Big Lie, which has been proven time and again — through many venues and forums — to be one of the biggest political hoaxes ever perpetrated.

The Big Lie is part of the crop sown by Donald J. Trump, who lost the 2020 presidential election but who continues to insist it was “stolen” from him. That he actually won “in a landslide.”

Sweet Mother of Jesus in Heaven! No! He didn’t win! He lost huge, man!

No one has produced anything resembling a shred of credible evidence that anything occurred that would have changed the outcome. President Biden earned 81.2 million votes; Trump polled 74.2 million ballots. Yes, the loser’s total is impressive.

But the winner got 7 million more of them!

Biden’s Electoral College count was significant as well. He earned 306 electoral votes, a good bit more than the 270 he needed to win election.

The Big Lie led to the second impeachment of Trump, who stood trial in the Senate actually after he left office. Yeah, he skated through the second trial the same way he did the first time, as too few Republican senators voted to convict the con man.

The Big Lie continues to fester in states all across the land. We are watching the possible rise to power of individuals who believe The Big Lie and who could launch the kind of coup that failed on 1/6, when the treasonous mob of attackers stormed the Capitol Building, threatened to “hand Mike Pence!” and sought to overturn the certification of Biden’s victory.

I cannot grasp how the carnival barker, Trump, has managed to sway the cult followers into believing something that is demonstrably false.

I might need therapy before this is ends.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Texas GOP: certifiably loony!

Here is a statement from the Texas Republican Party, the dominant political organization in a state that comprises 29 million residents and drives a world-class economic engine.

“We reject the certified results of the 2020 presidential election, and we hold that acting President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was not legitimately elected by the people of the United States.”

OK! I’ve already declared that the Texas GOP has gone bonkers. Its leadership is certifiably crazy.

I just want to reiterate that The Big Lie as regurgitated by the Texas Republican Party is a poisonous dose of rhetoric that does absolutely nothing but harm our cherished democratic process.

For the Texas Republican Party to swallow that snake oil — to my mind — is too damn close to sedition for comfort.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com