Tag Archives: MAGA

media news

Free press is ‘essential’

President Joe Biden stood at the podium this weekend at the White House Correspondents Dinner and made a stern and steadfast declaration about the value of a free press.

“A free press is essential to a democratic society,” he said, “and it is not the enemy.”

I want to offer a brief endorsement of the president’s statement, as it reflects the kind of understanding that a free, aggressive and unfettered press brings to those in power and to those who make decisions that affect our lives each day.

I feel the need to offer this endorsement because of the pummeling the press has been taking during the past, oh, six or seven years. As a member of what the right wingers and the MAGA crowd calls the “mainstream media,” I have taken great personal offense at the epithets being hurled at hardworking, dedicated reporters who signed on to report truthfully and fairly.

Presidents of both political parties, with one notable exception, have understood the role that a free press plays in holding government officials accountable. Does anyone in power like negative reporting on his or her activities? Of course not! However, to a person — again, except one — acknowledge that criticism simply goes with the territory.

Donald J. Trump launched the war against the media with his proclamation that the media are “the enemy of the people.” He turned “fake news” into a cliche that his followers picked up. I won’t belabor the obvious hypocrisy in that label coming from the godfather of fake news and outright lies. I do, though, want to suggest that news that runs counter to officials’ point of view isn’t “fake”; it is the truth that officials just don’t always want to hear.

President Biden’s inherent understanding of the media’s role in keeping him and the government he inherited accountable for their actions is a welcome return to what has been the standard since the beginning of the Republic.

May the press always remain free of government interference … and able to keep our government’s feet to the fire.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Patrick picks needless fight

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick just continues to piss me off to no end at all.

Why? Because the fire-breathing head of the Texas Senate insists that the entire state must kowtow to his idiotic notion that everyone in the state believes as he does. It ain’t so … Dan.

Patrick’s petulance is showing itself as he continues to feud with House Speaker Dade Phelan over the House’s alleged refusal to approve the socially conservative agenda that is part of Patrick’s mantra. Patrick has taken to calling Phelan “California Dade,” an apparent reference to Phelan’s inclination to stick to a more business-friendly approach to legislation and steering the House away from the divisive socially conservative views that Patrick wants to see become law.

Such as? Oh, according to the Texas Tribune: That list includes bills limiting medical treatments for transgender kids; a push to end tenure as well as diversity, equity and inclusion practices in public universities; and a “school choice” push to allow parents to use state dollars to send their kids to private schools, which opponents say would harm the funding of the state’s public education system.

Texas House, Senate leaders clash in final weeks of Legislature | The Texas Tribune

Phelan, meanwhile, touts the House’s fiscally conservative budget, which is more in line with traditional GOP principles. That isn’t good enough to suit Patrick, who is threatening to force Gov. Greg Abbott to call a special session if the Legislature — which is set to adjourn its regular session in about a month — doesn’t pass Patrick’s ham-handed agenda.

Look, I get that Texas voters elected this guy as the state’s No. 2 government executive. And that voters elected a conservative Legislature as well. However, there remains a significant number of Texans — such as yours truly — who dislike the tone and tenor of the agenda that Patrick wants to shove onto Gov. Abbott’s desk.

The guy is a MAGA loon who seeks to appeal only to those on the far right who buy into his nonsense.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

SCOTUS strikes blow for restraint

The U.S. Supreme Court, the panel with that conservative supermajority, has done what many of us didn’t expect from it.

The court stemmed a judicial rampage launched by a lower court judge in Amarillo, who ruled that a tried-and-proven pill used by women to end pregnancies no longer is suitable.

The SCOTUS allowed the use of the pill approved 20-plus years ago by the Food and Drug Administration for several more weeks while appeals play out.

Two justices voted in the minority: Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. There might have been more, but only those two let their dissents be known.

The federal judge, Matthew Kacsmaryk, tossed judicial restraint out the window with his ruling against the drug. It is an ironic ruling, given conservative judges’ inherent dislike for what they call “judicial activism.”

The case now will go to the Fifth U.S. Circuit of Appeals, considered the most conservative appellate court in the federal system. I am going to hold out a glimmer of hope that the Fifth Circuit will follow the lead established by the Supreme Court and keep the drug in use.

Matthew Kacsmaryk, meanwhile, has breathed life into the upcoming political battle that well could determine whether Republicans maintain control of Congress in 2024 … and whether they can reclaim the White House as well.

Public opinion is not on the GOP’s side in this brewing battle for reproductive rights.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

GOP pursues backward strategy

It is with decidedly mixed feelings that I offer a commentary on the pursuit of Republican presidential candidates — some of whom are announced, others are presumed to be running — to win back the White House in 2024.

Their strategies are backfiring. Rather than reaching out to the middle class, to independents, to women appalled at the GOP’s assault on their reproductive rights, the party is shoring up its support with his shrinking — but still fanatic — political base.

Why the mixed feeling? Because as a good-government progressive, I want Democratic President Joe Biden to be re-elected next year. GOP candidates are playing right into Democrats’ wheelhouse with their rigid ideology.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, one of the presumed Republican candidates for POTUS, is going after the Disney Corporation, which makes me go … huh?

DeSantis is faithful to the “don’t say ‘gay'” doctrine that seeks to denigrate gay Americans. He wants to ban books from public schools that teach students about racism. DeSantis and other hard-core Republicans also resist any effort to seek solutions to the gun violence that continues to kill innocent Americans seemingly every day. And, of course, he wants to invoke a nationwide ban on abortion.

DeSantis and the 45th president of the United States are the presumed frontrunners for the GOP presidential nomination. The ex-POTUS still cannot stop harping about The Big Lie and the long-since-debunked notion that the 2020 election was pilfered from him. No! The dude lost the election!

He also has been indicted and faces the probability of more indictments to come.

There likely will be others who will seek the GOP nomination. Former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson are in. Ex-VP Mike Pence might run, too.

Who among them will break away from the MAGA base’s infatuation with the ex-POTUS? Whoever does will proceed at his or her risk, as the MAGA wing controls the flow of events within the party.

How does that make this voter feel? Let ’em fight among themselves.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

media news

Will Fox change its tune?

What does the settlement between the Fox Propaganda Channel and Dominion Voting Systems mean for the network that once called itself “fair and balanced”?

Only this, as far as I can see: The network will cease pushing the Big Lie about alleged voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election; the rest of its agenda appears to be intact and it will continue to appeal to the right-wingers who adhere to the narrative the network pushes out there.

Dominion sued Fox for $1.6 billion, contending the network defamed the company over unproved allegations that it manipulated ballots to deliver the 2020 election to President Biden. Fox knew the allegations were phony, yet its on-air talking heads kept spewing the lie. Dominion said “enough is enough” and sued Fox. The settlement means Fox will pay Dominion $787.5 million. It hasn’t issued an apology.

Frankly, though, I don’t care about the apology. I do care about Fox being held accountable for the lie it fomented. The judgment issued by the court holds the network accountable in the clearest terms possible.

Fox’s agenda remains fully assembled. The network does lay claim to a loyal base of viewers who listen only to their on-air personalities for the “news” they consume. Fox will continue to spew its propaganda, which I suppose is their right.

Lying to the point of defaming others, though, is off limits … to which I offer a hearty “amen.”

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Right-winger needs close scrutiny

How many times has this happened before? A politician who proclaims fealty to his wife, who stands on the shoulders of those who wrote holy scripture finds himself the subject of a possible investigation into conduct unbecoming of such a God-fearing human.

So it is with Texas state Rep. Bryan Slaton, R-Royse City, who has been accused of having sex with a legislative intern. Slaton, through his lawyer, calls the allegation trash. You would expect him to say such a thing.

Look, I am not going to presume this young man’s guilt. I do not know him well, but he and I are acquainted, if only through a couple of telephone conversations we have had since he took his Texas House seat prior to the start of the 2021 Legislature.

It’s just that pols such as Slaton open themselves up to extra-keen-eyed scrutiny when these allegations surface.

Former U.S. Rep. Van Taylor of Plano admitted to engaging in an affair with a woman while running for re-election in 2022. He, too, is a conservative Republican who touted his love for his wife. He made a big mistake, which he admitted to doing; Taylor then dropped out of his GOP primary race.

Do you remember the case of John Edwards, the 2004 Democratic nominee for vice president, who cheated on his late wife while she was battling cancer … all while parading her in front of crowds, telling them how much he loved her? Sickening!

These are just three examples of the danger of boasting about martial fidelity. I always find it offensive when a pol uses his wife as a political prop, declaring that we should vote for him because he’s been faithful to the vow he took to “love, honor and cherish” someone “for as long as both of you shall live.”

I hope for a quick resolution to this Bryan Slaton matter. Someone on his staff has corroborated the allegation. It falls now to a House committee to complete its probe into the veracity of the allegation.

It’s serious stuff, folks.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

Judicial activism anyone?

RICHFIELD, Utah — A federal judge in Amarillo, Texas, has offered yet another example of how the MAGA cult of the Repubican Party has turned traditional GOP orthodoxy on its ear.

The standard GOP mantra used to be that the party hated activist judges, that they shouldn’t “legislate from the bench.”

Well, welcome to the new world of GOP judicial activism.

It reared its repulsive puss in the form of U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who ruled this past week that the abortion drug mifepristone shouldn’t be used to terminate a pregnancy. He suspended its use, which the Food and Drug Administration approved more than 20 years ago, and which women for decades have relied on to end health-endangering pregnancies.

I write this blog while sitting in a community that likely endorses the judge’s activist stance. No worries. I’ll be gone in the morning.

To suggest that the judge has launched a legislative battle from the bench is to be guilty of grotesque understatement.

The judge is a Donald Trump appointee. He succeeded an iconic figure in Texas Panhandle judicial circles, the late Judge Mary Lou Robinson, who likely never — not in a million years — would have tossed out judicial precedent in the manner exhibited by her successor.

Kacsmaryk has done the dirty work of the GOP members of the MAGA cult in Congress. Never mind that most Republicans oppose the judge’s decision, along with a significant majority of all Americans, who want to protect a woman’s reproductive rights.

The Justice Department has filed an appeal with the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals and is preparing to take the matter to the top of the judicial food chain, the U.S. Supreme Court.

As for Judge Kacsmaryk, he has tossed aside GOP political precedent by invoking the most judicially activist position possible in wiping out women’s rights.

I am fairly confident that the women, along with many milliions of other Americans, are going to have their say when the 2024 election rolls around.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Join another state? Huh?

BURNS, Ore. — I have just breezed through a portion of my home state that appears to rival Texas — my new “home” state — as a hotbed for right-wing lunatics.

Granted, I only have read bits and pieces about this so-called “movement” in Oregon, so I don’t know many of the details.

It goes like this: Some residents of Oregon’s eastern counties want to detach themselves from Oregon and join the neighboring state to east, Idaho. I have no clue how they would accomplish such a thing, whether a statewide referendum — which is legal in Oregon — ever would pass. Do they do it legislatively?

It seems the folks in places like Malheur, Harney and Lake counties feel more akin to politicians in Boise than those who work in Salem. It seems the folks in places like Malheur, Harney and Lake counties feel more akin to politicians in Boise than those who work in Salem. Oregon is strongly blue; Idaho is just as strongly red. Oregon favors Democratic candidates for president; Idaho favors Republicans. Get it?

I saw only one outright political demonstration while breezing through Burns; it was a “Trump 2020” sign on the side of someone’s house, with the subtitle “Keep America Great.” I guess the folks didn’t get the memo, which is that Trump lost that election and that America is still the greatest nation on Earth.

There’s a tiny bit of similarity to those in the Texas Panhandle who want that part of the state to break off from the rest of it, believing that Austin doesn’t listen to the needs of those who live so far away. Well, they have chosen to ignore all the highway work that the Texas Department of Transportation is doing to improve rights-of-way in Amarillo and elsewhere.

And, of course, we have the secessionist cabal that wants Texas to become — once again — an independent nation. Umm, can’t do it. It’s illegal, you know?

The Oregon “rebellion” never will see the light of day. For that, I am glad. I like the state being the ninth-largest geographically in the nation. Besides, the wackos in eastern Oregon do a good job of reminding those who live in the rest of the state of their presence.

It’s best to keep everyone in plain sight.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Complaints are outrageous!

When I hear the likes of the MAGA cult and other right-wing fanatics denigrate the criminal justice system because it delivers decisions they dislike … it fills me with rage.

The denigration is in full swing in the wake of Donald Trump’s indictment by a Manhattan grand jury, which is about to level several criminal charges against the ex-president related to his paying an adult film star hush money to keep quiet about a fling the two of them allegedly had in 2006.

The DA in that case, Alvin Bragg, is a competent lawyer. He seated a duly constituted grand jury of ordinary folks to examine the evidence. The grand jury delivered its decision to indict Trump. Yet the former POTUS and his minions are claiming the DA and the grand jury are corrupt. They are politicizing this case.

I don’t believe any of that crap, any more than I believe the rubbish that the 2020 election was stolen, or that the Justice Department is “weaponizing” evidence just to get Trump.

I am a believer in the system. It is working as it should. Trump is likely to pay the price for misdeeds and possibly for criminal activity.

Is anyone on the take? I do not believe it … for an instant!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Predictable response

Politicians and other observers across the spectrum are reacting to Donald Trump’s indictment in totally predictable fashion.

The conservative media call the grand jury’s indictment of the 45th POTUS as a witch hunt, a “political persecution” and a case that won’t hold up. Other media suggest that Trump faces the prospect of actual prison time if a trial jury convicts him, presuming it goes to trial.

I don’t know what to think. I do believe that the hush money payment of 130 grand to Stormy Daniels is small potatoes compared to what is likely to come from other jurisdictions. The Fulton County grand jury might indict Trump on seeking to overturn an election result; the Justice Department is examining whether Trump sought to overthrow the government and obstructed justice by refusing to turn over classified documents he took on his way out of the White House.

The Manhattan indictment, though, is a big deal in this regard: It’s the first time in history that a former POTUS is accused of committing a crime.

This is going to be loads of fun to watch.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com