Tag Archives: Donald Trump

national news

Hey, Rep. Cheney: Keep messaging!

(Photo by Marc Piscotty/Getty Images)

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The U.S. House of Representatives Republican caucus has thrown in with the former Liar in Chief and decided that a truth-teller among its ranks has no place in its leadership.

Rep. Liz Cheney this morning was stripped of her title as chair of the House GOP caucus, the No. 3-ranking post among congressional Republicans.

Prediction: Liz Cheney isn’t going to skulk away quietly.

Indeed, she said today that she intends to do all she can to ensure that Donald Trump never sets foot in the Oval Office ever again.

Good for you, Rep. Cheney.

Be not confused here. I detest Cheney’s politics. I do admire her courage in standing firm against Donald Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 insurrection and her vote to impeach Trump a second time when he exhorted the terrorists to storm Capitol Hill.

Cheney told the truth about Trump. Her colleagues in the House are having none of it. They have shamed themselves and their governing institution.

national news

It’s all topsy turvy

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

My ever-lovin’ goodness.

I am cheering for Liz Cheney, a right-wing Republican member of Congress.

She is about to be stripped of her chairmanship of the Republican House caucus because … she is telling the truth about Donald Trump, the ex-POTUS and insurrectionist in chief.

It’s a dark day if you’re a Republican. I am not. I call myself a “good government progressive.” In Texas, in fact, we don’t register as Democrats or Republicans. We vote in open primaries. We get to vote in whatever primary we choose. The election judge might stamp our voter registration card with a “D” or an “R.” Or he or she might not.

Still, I dislike Liz Cheney’s politics. Too right wing for my taste.

However, she ain’t buckling under the pressure of the Trumpkin Corps. She is continuing to speak the cold, hard truth about Donald Trump, that he’s a threat to our government and that he needs to be stopped.

And so, the Republican poo-bas are going to relieve her of her chairmanship because she won’t swill the poison that makes believers of Trump’s Big Lie about the 2020 election being “stolen.”

Indeed, a dark day is going to dawn very soon on the national Republican Party.

national news

Trump: a national peril

REUTERS/Sarah Silbiger

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I take no pleasure in asserting what I believe in my heart … that Donald J. Trump presents a dire and existential threat to the nation he once governed.

Of all the men who preceded him as president — and there have been some serious losers/wack jobs/crooks/criminals, none of them come as close to presenting the threat to our very governmental fabric that Donald Trump presents.

He continues to spew the Big Lie about the 2020 presidential election. His minions in the House of Representatives are about to boot the GOP caucus chair from her post because she stood on principle. He threatens anyone who crosses him. Trump has not a shred of decency to stop the assault on our electoral process that is underway in Arizona, where conspiracy theorists are concocting scenarios they hope will deny President Biden the votes he won legitimately.

Donald Trump is a threat to our national security. To our very governmental fabric. To the balance of political power.

Do I like saying these things about him? No. Of course not!

When the votes were counted in the 2020 election, Donald Trump could have picked up a phone and congratulated the winner, Joe Biden. He could have wished him well. He could have pledged his support. Trump could have declared his intention to oversee a smooth transition of power. He could have welcomed the president-elect and his wife to the White House, shown them around the place and then sat there at the inaugural and clapped politely when the new president took his hand off the Bible as he was sworn in.

No. Donald Trump didn’t do any of that. Indeed, he incited a riot by a terrorist mob on Jan. 6. He turned his back on Vice President Mike Pence, who was presiding over the certification of the Electoral College victory that Biden rang up. Trump has turned his back on Pence, who did his constitutional duty and had to be holed up in a secure location while the terrorists were yelling “Hang Mike Pence!” as they stormed into the Capitol Building.

To think, therefore, that most Republican voters have swallowed that poison that Trump has dished out — believing that the election was “stolen” — is utterly beyond anything I ever could have imagined.

Donald Trump continues to threaten the nation. Anyone with a sense of shame would be, well, ashamed. This individual simply defies any norm of decency, dignity and decorum.

national news

Big Lie: alive and festering

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The Big Lie, the one fomented by Donald Trump, is alive and festering in Maricopa County, Ariz.

What gives? Well, a group of conspiracy theorists is ramrodding a supposed “recount” of votes cast during the 2020 presidential election. The Arizona vote ended up narrowly in President Biden’s total, giving him the state’s electoral votes.

The conspiracy nuts are looking for justification to turn the results over in the state’s most populated county. My prediction? They won’t find anything, at least not legitimately.

However, there is not a damn thing legitimate about what is happening in Arizona and in Maricopa County.

The Big Lie purveyors, who hang on the lie promoted by Donald Trump that the election was “stolen” through vote fraud, are on the hunt for anything they can use to give validation to the phony assertion about fraud that did not exist.

The so-called “audit” of the ballots is being done by individuals and organizations with zero election experience. They are Trumpkins in disguise. They have stooped to looking for evidence — and this is fantastic! — of “bamboo” in the paper used in ballots to confirm specious assertions of manipulation by nefarious forces in Southeast Asia.

We are witnessing a ridiculous attempt spurred on by a ridiculous former POTUS to overturn the results of a fair, legal and free election.

Sheriff Goes Ballistic After Arizona Recounters Demand Access To County Passwords | HuffPost

There will be nothing constructive gained from this form of idiocy, other than to confirm that those who are seeking to overturn the results are, indeed, certifiable idiots.

They are being fed The Big Lie. They consume it willingly and seemingly with glee. They stand behind a man elected to the presidency and then defeated in his re-election bid only because they adhere to the nonsense and the lies he throws out there.

Now they are messing around with an electoral process that has been deemed “the most secure in U.S. history.” Who made that assertion? Donald Trump’s choice to protect the electoral system, Christopher Krebs, who then got “rewarded” for doing his job by getting fired by the Liar in Chief. Someone has to explain to me how that makes a lick of sense.

So it is that the Big Lie is alive.

It is festering.

national news

GOP has gone to hell

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

There’s no nice way to say it, so I’ll just fire away.

The Republican Party has gone head first into the shi**er. It’s gone to hell. It no longer represents anything other than fealty to a hate- and fear-monger, an ignorant buffoon who had no business being elected POTUS.

Donald Trump’s vise grip on the once-great political party is shameful in the extreme.

The party has devolved into an organization that now stands and cheers for an alleged sex trafficker in Rep. Matt Gaetz, embraces the lunacy of QAnon queen and conspiracy theorist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene … and then boos and jeers actual Republicans such as Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah and Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming.

The House Republican leadership is set to boot Cheney out of her GOP caucus chairmanship. The party rank-and-file has turned its back on the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, Romney. What do these two politicians have in common? They voted to impeach and convict Donald Trump of inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection on Capitol Hill.

And so the party now slobbers all over Donald Trump’s shoes and demands that other politicians do the same.

What in the name of governance happened to this group of individuals? They have been taken hostage by an imbecile.

Wow! I … am … stunned.

national news

Liz Cheney: no martyr

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Frank Bruni is a superb columnist for the New York Times.

He is passionate about many issues dear to progressives, especially marriage equality; I mean, he is a gay man who writes frequently about the issue … and does so with superb rhetoric.

That all said, I believe he is mistaken when he implies in his latest column that Rep. Liz Cheney is positioning herself as a martyr of some sort. I don’t believe that’s happening.

Cheney is likely to lose her House Republican caucus chairmanship because she voted to impeach Donald Trump in January for inciting the infamous riot at the Capitol Building.

She remains what she always has been: a conservative Republican who voted overwhelmingly in favor of Trump’s agenda. That isn’t good enough to save her leadership post. The Trump cult that comprises most GOP House members want her gone.

So she’s going to keep harping against Trump. Good for her! Is she pretending to be something other than a conservative GOP lawmaker? I don’t see it.

Opinion | Is Liz Cheney a Martyr — or Just a Hack in Holy Drag? – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

DC riot

McCarthy makes it clear: He is a Trump toadie

(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Kevin “The Snake” McCarthy has thrown in with a Donald Trump sycophant in the intramural fight among Republican caucus members in the U.S. House.

The California lawmaker, the leader of the GOP caucus, said today he is backing Rep. Elise Stefanik in her bid to oust Rep. Liz Cheney from the Republican Caucus chairmanship.

McCarthy says he supports Stefanik for House GOP conference chair | TheHill

What did Cheney do to incur McCarthy’s wrath? All she did was vote to impeach Donald Trump after the ex-POTUS incited the insurrection of The Sixth of January. Cheney had the temerity to stand strongly in favor of the U.S. Constitution, which the terrorists who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 threatened directly. And, yes, Donald Trump was the instigator.

This is a disgraceful display from the House GOP leader. He makes me sick.

As for Stefanik, a New York Republican, she makes me sick, too. Her only credential is that she is a Trump toadie, a suck-up, a Kool-Aid swilling member of the Trumpkin Corps of acolytes who believes the election was “stolen” by some mysterious, nefarious cabal.

This internecine war among Republicans isn’t likely to end with Cheney’s expected ouster from the leadership of her party’s House caucus. Nor should it.

As for “leader” McCarthy, well … he makes feel like throwing up.

national news

Liz Cheney: My new hero

(Photo by Marc Piscotty/Getty Images)

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Man, it is hard to believe that I am actually pulling for Liz Cheney to fend off this idiotic challenge to her leadership post within the House Republican leadership hierarchy.

The Wyoming lawmaker is being vilified by the Trumpkins who have seized control of the party. Her offense? For voting to impeach Donald J. Trump after the then-POTUS incited the insurrection against the government as it was certifying the results of the 2020 election that went for President Biden over their guy, Trump.

I wouldn’t vote for Rep. Cheney if I lived in Wyoming. She is too much of a right-winger to suit my taste. On this single matter, I find myself rooting for her to survive the challenge launched by the likes of Trump-loving loons Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.

The House GOP caucus has been virtually silent about Gaetz, who’s being investigated for alleged sex trafficking. As for the QAnon queen Greene, I ain’t hearing much worry from the GOP on her, either.

So now we have Liz Cheney trying to fend off the GOP hyenas. I would much rather have a Republican Party that fuels its existence on the basis of policy differences rather than its fealty to a lunatic like Donald Trump.

I’m pulling for Liz Cheney. If she loses her House GOP caucus post, I hope she keeps her throat cleared and continues to tell her colleagues that they are making a terrible mistake in backing the purveyor of The Big Lie.

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Cheney vs. Stefanik? Weird, man

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I have done a little sniffing around about the individual who is likely to succeed U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney as the House Republican Conference chair.

Rep. Elise Stefanik is campaigning hard for the post among her GOP colleagues. She wants to be a leader among House Republicans. She has gotten the endorsement of the ex-POTUS, Donald Trump.

But … why?

Here’s what I have found out. Stefanik is not a mainstream or a Trump conservative. Her sole qualification for the job apparently is that she stuck up for Trump when he got himself in trouble over trying to seek political favors from a foreign government and then for inciting the insurrection.

A quick look at Stefanik’s still-scant congressional record reveals some interesting things.

Conservative political action groups rate her pro-Trump voting record at around 77 percent; Cheney’s is at about 92 percent. You want more? Let’s try these:

Stefanik voted against the Trump tax cut proposal in 2017; she voted in favor of the Equality Act that stood for greater rights for gay Americans; Stefanik opposed Trump’s decision to ban entry into the United States of people coming from certain Muslim countries; Stefanik was one of 14 Republicans to vote with all House Democrats to override Trump’s veto of a measure unwinding the latter’s declaration of a national emergency at the southern border.

Do you get where I’m going with this? She opposed Trump on several key Trump-supported initiatives. She was decidedly less conservative than Rep. Cheney.

Do you think for a nano-second that Donald Trump gives a rip about such mundane matters as, um, legislation and government policy? Hell no! All he wants is blind loyalty.

He isn’t getting it from Liz Cheney. Elise Stefanik has provided the requisite brown-nosing that the ex-POTUS demands.

A cult of personality? There you have it.

national news

First Amendment vs. Facebook

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Let’s take a look at the First Amendment, which has been revived as a talking point with regard to Facebook’s decision to keep Donald J. Trump off the platform for the time being.

Trumpkins keep yammering that Facebook is impinging on Trump’s First Amendment rights of free speech as a U.S. citizen.

Hold on.

The founders inscribed a fairly narrow guarantee when they wrote the First Amendment to our Constitution. They wrote:

“Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” 

The most important and salient words of that Amendment are the first five of them. “Congress shall make no law … ”

That means Congress is prohibited from interfering in all those freedoms guaranteed by the founders. It says nothing at all about what a private company can do to limit Americans’ expressions. Facebook is a for-profit organization. It has every right to ban whoever it wants from its platform. It chose to act after Donald Trump kept fomenting the Big Lie about the 2020 election, that it was stolen from him. He used Facebook to promote the Big Lie; Facebook gurus decided they would have no more of it.

Does this inhibit Trump’s First Amendment liberty? Not one bit. He can still make whatever statement he chooses, meaning he is free to lie his a** off!

I had many discussions over the years while working in daily journalism with those who challenged my authority as a newspaper editor to disallow them from expressing themselves on our pages. I would reject a submission if it dealt in falsehood. I would tell the author of that decision. The author would respond: “But the First Amendment allows me to say it.”

No, it doesn’t. It does give us all the opportunity to run their own publication and to allow whatever they want to appear on its pages.

So, the fight over the First Amendment continues as Donald Trump and his minions try to make an argument that is as hollow as the lies Trump keeps telling.

The nation’s founders got it right when they said “Congress shall make no law … “