Tag Archives: MAGA

national news

MAGA cult makes me yearn for Contract with America class

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I never thought it could happen … but it has. The MAGA cult that dominates what passes for today’s Republican Party makes me yearn for a time when another class of GOP officeholders seized power in Congress.

The famous 1994 election that brought us the Contract With America led to Republican control of both congressional chambers for the first time in 40 years.

What makes that revolution different from this one is simple: issues.

The Contract With America class ran on issues. They vowed to enact term limits for members of Congress; they wanted to make Congress live by the laws it enacts on the rest of us; they sought a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. There were others, but the point is that the CWA crowd did something that the MAGA cabal has failed to do.

The CWAers sought to enact issues. Do we hear anything coming from the MAGA crowd that speaks to issues? No. They are vowing only to punish Democrats. They want to put Dr. Anthony Fauci in the dock and question him about the COVID-19 vaccines he has championed. They want to bring charges against Hunter Biden, the president’s son. They intend to punish any Democrat who played a major part in impeaching Donald Trump twice.

The CWA crowd didn’t push issues that I particularly liked at the time. The fact that it did run — and win — on issues rather than vengeance makes me yearn for the “good old days” when we could debate policy matters rather than quarrel over punishing our foes.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

economic news

New U.S. rep to hold our debt hostage?

It is with chagrin that I must report that my new congressional representative has joined the cabal of right-wing fiscal hostage-takers in suggesting that we must cut spending before increasing the nation’s debt ceiling.

Keith Self, a McKinney Republican, wrote a letter to the editor of the Dallas Morning News in which he declared that unrestricted federal spending poses an existential threat to our nation’s economic health. Therefore, he implied, he won’t approve measures to increase the debt ceiling until we curb spending … and thus will put the nation’s “full faith and credit” in dire peril.

Self’s Third Congressional District constituents might have to watch their retirement accounts vanish if Self’s world view becomes policy in the House of Representatives.

Increasing the national debt has been a perfunctory act since the beginning of the republic. Only now, with the GOP’s narrow House majority being led by the MAGA cultists who comprise a loudmouthed minority of Republicans in the House, it has become an “issue” worth debating.

This is crap! Reneging on our national fiscal obligations would plunge the nation into economic “calamity,” according to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. Why do Republicans in Congress insist on threatening to do such a horrendous thing? What the hell kind of statement are they trying to make?

Furthermore, why are GOP members taking this posture only when we have a Democrat sitting in the White House? Where in the hell was the Republican insistence on spending cuts when one of their own — Joe Biden’s immediate predecessor — sat in the Oval Office?

These congressional clowns are showboating and grandstanding — and holding our life’s savings, yours and mine — hostage to their preening and prancing.

And the man who represents me in Congress is one of ’em.

Despicable.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

economic news

MAGA cult = political arsonists

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The MAGA cult that has seized control of the Republican agenda in the U.S. House should really think long and so very hard about what it intends to do regarding the national debt.

The right-wing cabal within the GOP caucus wants to insist on spending cuts if the government seeks to increase its debt ceiling. What the right-wingers seemingly want is to cut Social Security and Medicare.

If they do not get their way and the nation defaults on its debts — for the first time in U.S. history — then all hell (and then some!) is going to break loose.

Americans’ retirement accounts well could vanish. Investors will bail out of the stock market en masse, driving stock portfolios into the dumper. The economy will collapse.

The national debt ceiling must be increased. Period, full stop and all that crap! Yet the MAGA crowd is insisting on something that’s never been considered, let alone been done … which is to cut spending as a tradeoff for doing what should be a routine matter.

Our nation’s founders enshrined our “full faith and credit” into Article IV of the Constitution, declaring that it must be honored — or else! The cultists who strong-armed concessions from Kevin McCarthy in exchange for their votes to make him speaker of the House, are ignorant of the founders’ intent. Then again, they’re ignorant about how to govern.

That is not dissuading them from making demands that are unreasonable, immoral and perhaps even unconstitutional.

They are hellbent on torching our system of government.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Speaker’s deal may prove costly … to him!

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s deal with the GOP “devils” well might come back to take a huge chunk from his backside.

Consider what he has done. He has allowed some of the most radical members of his party’s caucus to take seats on key committees assigned to protect our nation’s secrets. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar will serve on the House Oversight Committee …sheesh! Then we see that Rep. Lauren Boebert, another QAnon princess, will gain a key committee assignment after voting against McCarthy’s bid to become speaker.

Let’s not forget that McCarthy also has seated Rep. George “Serial Liar” Santos on committees, too … never mind that he lied to the voters in New York who elected him about every aspect of his personal and professional life.

Get this, too: Many of these MAGA cultists insisted on power to remove the speaker at the behest of just a single House member. What will happen when he pisses one of them off enough to call for his removal?

All of this seems to provide demonstrable evidence that McCarthy very well might be the least intelligent individual ever to serve in an office that is second in succession to the presidency.

God help us!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Come clean, Mr. Speaker

The White House has made a perfectly reasonable, rational and realistic demand of U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Come clean, Mr. Speaker, on the deals you struck with House conservatives to persuade them to vote you into the speaker’s office.

That’s what the White House — and many of us out here — want to know. What did McCarthy give away to the Freedom Caucus, the MAGA cabal?

They had formed a clique of “Never Kevin” House members. Then they became supporters, hugging his neck after he won the speakership after 15 votes among House members. How did they transform from Never Kevin voters to supporters?

The Hill reports: Deputy White House press secretary Andrew Bates warned that the extent of the deals between McCarthy and the roughly 20 Republicans who initially opposed his bid for Speaker are not fully known, but that they could wreak havoc on the economy and key government programs.

Yeah, no kiddin’.

White House calls on McCarthy to publicize details of deals with conservatives | The Hill

So, come clean, Mr. Speaker. What precisely did you give away to obtain that gavel? Hmm? C’mon! Tell us!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

‘Expunge’ impeachment? What the … ?

What in the world is going through what passes for U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s mind?

The nimrod Man of the House says he is considering whether to “expunge” the House record of its two impeachments of Donald J. Trump.

So, I am sitting out here in the middle of Flyover Country wondering: How in the world does that make a lick of sense? It doesn’t!

Expunging the record will not suddenly cleanse our memories of what happened. Trump had a “perfect phone call” with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in which he asked him for a “favor,” which was to find dirt on Joe Biden. No can do, said the House, which impeached him for seeking political help from a foreign government.

Then came the1/6 insurrection. The House impeached him again for inciting the assault on our nation’s Capitol with the aim of stopping the certification of the 2020 presidential election result and for his refusal to stop the assault as it was unfolding.

Historians will continue to record the events that led to the two impeachments. Americans — such as you and I — will remember them, too.

Ain’t no way to remove that stain from the presidency that Trump occupied.

Good, ever-lovin’ grief, man!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Love it or leave it? Hardly!

Something has been stuck in my craw ever since I became politically active … which occurred a long time ago. So, I am taking a moment to spit it out.

I came of age politically during the Vietnam War. Those of us who opposed conduct of the war were shouted down by those who hollered at us to “love it or leave it!”

You know what they meant, right? They meant that we should accept the United States for all its flaws and room for improvement or just plain leave the country.

Well … I want to explain myself on that one.

First of all, I donned an Army uniform for my country in August 1968. The Army then trained me to be a soldier and then sent me to Vietnam to take part in that aforementioned war. I did. I came home. But you know what? I was just as confused about why we were there as I was when I got my orders.

I wanted to improve the country of my birth. I wanted it to be a better place.

Do not misunderstand me on this. I love my country, flaws and all. I served my country honorably for two years when I went to war. However, I never have begrudged those who resisted service in the military for reasons that only they could feel. We all have principles. War resisters acted on their own set of values and I honor that belief.

The nation today seemingly is even more divided now than it was a half-century ago. The divisions are not so much along the line separating war and peace. They are marked by whether we are loyal to a politician or to the country and its Constitution.

I do not hear as much of the “love it or leave it” mantra that was all the vogue in the previous century. However, I know it’s still out there.

Accordingly, my craw is now clear of what had been stuck in there since my fellow Americans sought to get America’s critics to leave the country we all love as much as the faux patriots who sought to evict us.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Social media: celebrity makers

Social media have this way of making me crazy, as in they tend to make celebrities out of politicians who in another line of work would be relegated to sitting on stools with dunce caps on their noggins.

Consider, if you will, the current crop of Republicans serving in Congress. I want to direct your attention to the MAGA types in particular, the dim bulbs who believe they toss out pearls of wisdom when in reality they spew bullsh**.

Yet the media glom onto their sanctimonious drivel. We are treated on the nightly news and throughout the day on cable news networks to the spewing of the likes of those who — pardon the candor — cannot find their rear ends with both hands.

Yet there they are. Calling attention to themselves, as if they are important enough to have their words actually matter. Well … they don’t matter. Yet we hear from loudmouth numbskulls such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz, Paul Gosar and any other right-wing dipsh** with an opinion. As the saying goes: Opinions are like a**holes … everyone has ’em.

I continue to long for the day when we can return to a political culture that mandated that congressional newbies keep their thought to themselves and step aside while the wise men and women of both congressional chambers speak for their respective bodies.

There used to be a saying that a member of Congress had to serve at least two terms in the House and half a term in Senate before being allowed to make speeches from the floor.

Given the intelligence level of many of the MAGA blowhards, that notion is sounding more appealing all the time. Perhaps by the time they get some actual political seasoning they might wise up to the way government is supposed to work.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Democracy is damn ugly

Winston Churchill had it exactly right when he described democracy as the most awkward form government, but better than any other form of governance ever created.

He said in a 1947 speech before the British House of Commons: Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.

The world witnessed an example of it with the election of Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the U.S. House early today.

Ugghh! I couldn’t stand watching it. I am not happy with the result, either … but I’ll accept that it’s what we have. So, let’s move forward and hope the House and Senate can get something done for you and me.

To be candid, I don’t expect much from the House. McCarthy gave away a lot of the real power the speaker is supposed to have. He surrendered it to the right-wing, MAGA cabal within the GOP House conference.

The cultists hate McCarthy for reasons I don’t quite grasp. He’s one of ’em, for criminy sakes! Anyone who would be critical of the treasonous moron who incited the 1/6 insurrection and then venture to his glitzy estate for a photo op cannot be trusted? Give me a break!

Well, we have a House speaker. At least the lower chamber can start its work. That’s some semblance of progress … even though it developed from the ugliest start in the history of the republic.

Oh, and thanks for the wisdom, Mr. British Prime Minister. You were so correct as always.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Have they lost their mind?

Has the right-wing, nut job, MAGA-worshiping wing of the congressional Republican conference lost what passes for its collective mind?

They have denied the U.S. House of Representatives the ability to organize under the leadership of a new speaker. They have rendered the people’s House a legislative body in name only. Except that it doesn’t legislate a damn thing. It cannot function without a speaker.

The GOP nut job cabal continues to deny the party’s congressional leader Kevin McCarthy the job he says he deserves. That’s a highly debatable point. The point of this blog, though, is to underscore the low-brow idiocy that is driving this impasse.

I guess I should point out that the fellow elected from my congressional district — the 3rd District of Texas, Keth Self — is among those who are blocking the selection of a speaker. Nice going, dude!

The MAGA lovers think nothing of the consequence of having a House that is not functioning. The Senate is ready to go. The president is set to propose legislation.

The House is set to, um, do nothing. If American voters delivered any sort of message in the 2022 midterm election is that they want Congress to get to work. The nation is tired of the posturing, preening and prancing of right-wingers intent on making spectacles of themselves and embarrassing their political foes.

The only embarrassment belongs to the right-wing nut jobs.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com