Tag Archives: Donald Trump

national news

GOP abandons Cheney?

(Photo by Marc Piscotty/Getty Images)

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Even though I know in my gut this won’t happen, I feel the need to suggest it as a possible political explosion that could upend the whole damn clown show unfolding on Capitol Hill.

U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming is facing a potentially serious Republican primary challenge next year. Why? Because she voted to impeach a Republican president for inciting the insurrection that damaged Capitol Hill and killed five people.

The GOP fanatics who are faithful to POTUS 45 are livid with Cheney. House GOP leadership stripped her of her standing as chair of the GOP caucus.

Cheney remains a conservative lawmaker. I cannot help but wonder whether there is a limit to the insult and denigration she is willing to take from members of her own political party.

Might there be a partisan switch in Cheney’s future, on the basis that the party she joined has become a cult that adheres to the mindless rants of one man and has forsaken its responsibility to the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law?

I get that it is as likely to happen as the sun rising in the west tomorrow morning. Still, the political tides have turned many politicians into members of the opposing party.

I remember when former state Rep. Warren Chisum of Pampa, Texas, switched from Democrat to Republican. He said plainly that he is the same man he was when he joined the Legislature, but that the Democratic Party had changed its identity.

As for Cheney, she could continue to serve as a conservative in Congress … even as a Democrat. Congress over its long history has welcomed many conservatives to the Democratic caucus in both legislative chambers.

It’s just that the Republican Party now seemingly belongs to the twice-impeached former POTUS who incited a bloody riot on Jan. 6 that sought to overturn the results of the November 2020 presidential election.

How in the world does someone of Cheney’s strong Republican ties remain loyal to a party that no longer is loyal to her or to her belief in the rule of law?

OK. I know I am spitting into the proverbial wind on this one.

It’s worth pondering.

national news

‘Club’ door will slam shut on this guy

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

One of the more exclusive clubs on Earth currently comprises just five members. However, only four men are being allowed inside whatever passes for a clubhouse frequented by its occupants.

I refer to the Former U.S. Presidents Club. It once was a revered de facto institution. The men who once served as commander in chief occasionally would huddle together, talk among themselves, perhaps even offer some advice to the current president of the United States.

Four of these men seem all willing to engage in this kind of time-honored camaraderie. Then there’s the fifth former POTUS. No. 45 is wired so differently. It defies any form of logic to understand how the 45th POTUS — whose name I will continue to refuse to publish on this blog — ever can assimilate with his colleagues, all the men who once had the nuclear codes, who lent aid and comfort to the nation in grief, performed the myriad written and unwritten duties of the high office.

Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama represent different political parties. Three of them are Democrats; one is a Republican. Even among the Democrats didn’t always walk in lockstep with each other. They all had a serious common thread that binds them at several levels. They all were humbled by the office. They all are true-blue patriots. They all carried themselves with dignity. They all accepted political defeat when fate turned against them.

Then there’s the fifth former POTUS.

He embodies none of that. He won’t accept publicly that President Biden defeated him. He continues to lie. He denigrates fallen heroes of past wars.

The most immediate past POTUS likely never will be welcome inside the Former Presidents Clubhouse. Why should he be welcome? The former Numbskull in Chief has worn out his welcome to the political arena. He continues to hurl insults and invective at all of the men who preceded him.

I wouldn’t object one little bit if the other POTUSes simply kept the clubhouse door locked to prevent No. 45 from entering it.

national news, national security

Bolton discounts POTUS 45 return

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It is no secret to anyone who reads this blog that John Bolton is far from my favorite public official.

He served for a time as national security adviser to the one-time Liar in Chief. Then he got fired, or he quit, or something in between happened.

He now says that the 45th POTUS won’t run make another run for the White House in 2024. He also said recently that the former Imbecile in Chief is “unfit for public office.”

Hmm. Really? Do ya think?

Of course Bolton is correct on that presumption. He found out the hard way, I suppose, when he took the job as national security adviser. He sought to give advice to the POTUS on threats to the nation, only to be rebuffed for reasons no one can quite grasp.

I am inclined under normal circumstances to wonder why Bolton didn’t declare his former boss’s unfitness for office in real time, while he was serving in the White House. Then it occurs to me: It wouldn’t matter to the base of Republicans who continue to hang onto POTUS 45’s every hare-brained pronouncement.

Whatever, Bolton’s view today of the ex-POTUS is worth more than a bucket of spittle.

medical news

Why target Dr. Fauci?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

There is so much to unpack about the ongoing controversy surrounding the COVID pandemic and our nation’s effort to defeat it that I am left to separate these issues and examine them one at a time.

For instance, why has Dr. Anthony Fauci become a target of the far-right wing goofballs out there who now are applauding Americans’ refusal to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Just to revisit Dr. Fauci’s entrance onto the national stage for a moment, I feel the need to remind everyone of a thing or two.

POTUS 45 brought him aboard ostensibly to provide medical advice on how to respond to the pandemic as it began to tighten its grip on the nation in early 2020. The ex-POTUS made an inspired choice, given that Fauci has long been renowned as the nation’s leading infectious disease expert.

Then he debunked the counsel that Fauci gave. The then-Numbskull in Chief called Fauci an “idiot,” and accused him of overstating the severity of the disease.

The president left office after being defeated by President Biden. The criticism of Dr. Fauci has continued. Members of Congress are calling for Fauci to be fired. Why? Beats the hell out of me!

Dr. Fauci has become a lightning rod for those who continue to insist that vaccines present some threat to their health. Meanwhile, the good doctor insists the vaccines are effective, they are safe, they prevent people from being infected by a disease that can kill them.

It’s fallen on deaf ears and become — if you can believe it — live ammo for the critics to fire back at the doctor and his friends and allies in the Biden administration.

Fauci spoke with uncharacteristic emotion when he referred to the conservative political action conference in Dallas this past weekend where attendees actually cheered reports of Americans declining to be vaccinated. Do these nimrods want Americans to die?

So, the criticism continues. What should be a universally unified effort to fight a killer disease has been split along partisan lines. To think, too, that an esteemed medical professional — with stellar and unimpeachable credentials built over many decades — has become a target of right-wing goofs who think they know more than he does.

Astonishing.

national news

Challenge to stay focused on future

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Photo by Alex Brandon/AP/Shutterstock 

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It remains a serious challenge for me to remain focused intently on the future when the immediate past POTUS keeps lying blatantly, incessantly and without regard for the consequences … if any exist within his realm of cult followers.

The former Nitwit in Chief told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo that the terrorist who stormed the Capitol Building on Jan. 6 was “shot in the head” as she sought to come out of the building.

He is lying. The woman who was shot was hit in the shoulder and she was shot while she was trying to break into the building to do untold harm to whomever was unlucky enough to stand in her way.

The idiot continues to foment the Big Lie about the 2020 election being stolen as a result of vote fraud. He lies about being reinstated as POTUS by the middle of August. He lies about every single issue under the blazing sun.

And yet …

The cultists believe him. I am going to share one brief notion about that, which is that the cultists who perpetuate the Big Lie are as guilty as the idiot who promotes it initially.

national news

Big Lie believers: lost cause

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

As far as I know no one in my circle of friends or my immediate family members is a believer in the Big Lie fomented by the disgraced former POTUS and his legion of fruitcakes.

Accordingly, that saves me from having to do what I believe is an impossible task: persuading them that the Big Lie about “rampant voter fraud” in the 2020 presidential election denigrates our cherished democratic process.

President Biden won that election. He won a free, fair and legal process. It was certified by the Electoral College. There is no evidence to suggest anything approaching vote fraud on a scale suggested by the former Liar in Chief.

However, it became abundantly clear to me months ago that there is no persuading the cultists who follow that nitwit of the folly of their desire to overturn what has been called “the most secure election in U.S. history.”

And it is folly to the nth degree. 

The cultists have swilled so much of the Kool-Aid offered by their disgraced leader that there is no turning back. Just as the former Imbecile in Chief has demonstrated, the cultists are incapable — or unwilling — to acknowledge they are wrong.

They call themselves “patriots.” They are traitors to the Constitution. To the government they purport to love. To our country and its grand tradition of electoral security.

I just am happy that no one in my circle of friends and acquaintances has taken any form of ownership of the Big Lie. Were they to do so and were I to find out about it, well … our relationship would end on the spot! Guaranteed!

national news

Ex-POTUS = anti-democracy

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Spoiler alert: I am about to break my vow to ban the name of the 45th president of the United States from this blog; I will mention his name once … that’s it.

Donald J. Trump’s name is going to become synonymous with nefarious and evil efforts to undermine our democratic process.

You see, the 45th president has decided to make the integrity of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost, the primary issue in the 2022 midterm election. He is going to continue fomenting The Big Lie that the election was fraught with widespread vote fraud.

The one-time Liar in Chief wants to be reinstated as POTUS. It won’t happen in a zillion years. President Joe Biden won the election fairly, squarely and legally. Despite the shenanigans being played out in places such as Arizona — where they’re conducting that fake “audit” of returns — President Biden will hold onto the office at least through January 2025.

None of that will stop the ex-Imbecile in Chief from seeking to overturn an election he lost bigly. Biden captured 7 million more votes than his predecessor; Biden’s electoral vote margin mirrored that of his predecessor in 2016.

The disgraceful and treasonous conduct of Biden’s immediate predecessor will inscribe him forever as the individual who could not accept defeat. He could not bring himself to congratulate the winner for defeating him. The ex-POTUS cannot acknowledge that he now owns an epithet he likes to hang on others: loser.

He will seek to harvest the mistrust he has helped sow into the numb noggins of those who follow him. He will use The Big Lie as grist to elect more dipsh**s just like him.

The major casualty in all of this trash-talk is the democratic process itself. The ex-POTUS won’t prevail in his effort to overturn the most secure election in U.S. history. However, I fear for the well-being of the democratic process that is being assaulted day and night incessantly by the one-time Carnival Barker in Chief.

This moron’s name will — and most certainly should — live in infamy.

national news

POTUS 45 won’t run!

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Allow me to venture way out on a limb that I realize could break and send me tumbling into some form of rhetorical heap … which has happened to me before.

It is that the man who preceded President Biden until January of this year isn’t going to seek the presidency again in 2024.

The one-time Numbskull in Chief is dropping hints that he has made his mind about the 2024 campaign. He told his boy, Fox News blowhard Sean Hannity, that he has made the final call. Then he proceeded to say some things about President Biden that suggest a run for the White House is in the works.

How can I say this? OK, here goes: No one with a criminal indictment hanging over his head — not even this clown — would want to expose himself to the prying eyes of every political foe out there.

The ex-Dipsh** in Chief’s company has been indicted by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office on tax charges. Fifteen of them, to be exact. The Trump Organization’s chief money guy, Allen Wiesellberg, has been accused of bilking the feds out of millions of dollars in income tax revenue.

Do ya think this probe might find its way to the top of the heap? Hmm. I’m betting yes. It will.

Either the ex-POTUS is certifiably insane to believe he won’t suffer several — and likely mortal — economic wounds from this indictment, or he’s going to skate away cleanly.

My ol’ trick knee is throbbing once again. It does this once in a while. The throb is telling me that the DA has the goods on the Old Man.

He will be left to bellow from the peanut gallery, accusing President Biden of being the Son of Satan, the most unpatriotic POTUS in history. This one is great, by the way: He also suggests that Biden wants to take down the Jefferson Memorial and replace it with something honoring civil-rights gadfly Al Sharpton.

This is the blathering of a man who twice lost the actual vote for president, squeaked by in an Electoral College victory the first time and then got smoked by even more votes the second time.

POTUS 45 is nuttier than a pound of pistachios.

national news

Ex-POTUS played dirtier than dirty

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Well now. The hits just keep coming months after the previous president of the United States has left office.

We hear the latest revelation about Donald J. Trump, which is that he allegedly ordered the Justice Department to seize the personal records of at least two congressional Democratic critics of his; moreover, the DOJ went after the records of several key House Intelligence Committee staffers; and, get this, DOJ also took the personal records of a juvenile.

Why? According to reporting from the New York Times, Trump was so very concerned about leaks stemming from Robert Mueller’s investigation that he wanted to find their source. So he went after congressional Democrats.

This is the kind of thing that ought to send chills up the spines of any good-government advocate. It violates the separation of powers between the executive and legislative government branches; it reveals that a president is willing to sic federal authorities on perceived political enemies; it suggests that the POTUS has zero regard for the rule of law.

Hmmm. Imagine that, if you dare. I believe Donald Trump was impeached twice because he has zero regard for the law.

He won’t be impeached a third time. However, this latest live grenade will not subside any time soon. Nor should it.

political news

Here he goes, calling for ‘reparations’

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

No one with half a brain in their skull ever thought Donald Trump would go away quietly into the night once he left the White House.

With that the ex-POTUS has criticized President Biden’s myriad policy decisions and then in a fascinating twist has called for China to pay “reparations” totaling $10 trillion because, according to Trump, the COVID pandemic began with a leak in a Chinese laboratory.

There you have it. The ex-president drawing conclusions and assigning blame well well before the world has a clue as to source of the killer pandemic.

Trump vows to be a player in Republican politics and said the “movement” he founded has only begun. Reassuring, yes? No … it isn’t.

He blasted Biden’s border policies, his economic policies, his defense strategy.

According to the Wall Street Journal: The Democratic National Committee, in a statement, chided Republicans for sticking with Mr. Trump and said Mr. Biden is overseeing an economic recovery and “a return to normalcy.”

Trump Criticizes Biden Policies, Calls for Covid-19 Reparations From China (msn.com)

So the president will proceed. Trump will proceed, too, along his weird path toward what he believes will be a return to power. Trump will keep yammering. He will get the Trump Cult fanatics heated up.

Oh, and let’s not forget how Donald Trump will keep reciting the Big Lie about vote fraud and electoral theft.