Tag Archives: Donald Trump

national news

Keep speaking, Rep. Cheney

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It occurs to me that congressional Republicans might not be doing themselves any favors if they oust Rep. Liz Cheney from her GOP caucus leadership post.

Cheney, who’s become a target of Donald Trump cultists within the GOP caucus, well might be relieved of her No. 3 position on the party leadership ladder.

She intends to keep speaking out about how the party has been hijacked, kidnapped and perverted by the cultists who adhere to the ex-POTUS’s nonsense, namely the Big Lie about the 2020 presidential election.

Think of it. Rep. Cheney might now be free to speak her mind without additional fear of retribution.

Cheney wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post. She said this: “Trump is seeking to unravel critical elements of our constitutional structure that make democracy work — confidence in the result of elections and the rule of law. No other American president has ever done this,” Cheney wrote.

Cheney hits ‘Trump cult of personality,’ says she’ll keep speaking out | TheHill

Keep talking, Rep. Cheney.

national news

GOP set to make hideous choice

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Has it really come down to this?

The Republican congressional caucus might be on the verge of purging its leadership of a true-blue conservative lawmaker with impeccable party credentials.

Why? Because she voted to impeach a president who incited a deadly riot on Jan. 6 and because she stands on certain principles that all patriotic Americans ought to follow: that no one is above the law.

Rep. Liz Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and No. 3 in the GOP caucus leadership pecking order, might be voted out of her post because she believes that Donald Trump’s fomenting of the Big Lie about the 2020 election presents a danger to our democratic system of government.

And for that the GOP might send her to the back bench?

That is unbelievable, except that is what has become of a once-great political party.

The GOP has become a cult of personality beholden to someone who had no business being elected president of the United States in the first place. When he was elected in 2016, Donald Trump began the systematic dismantling of every political norm he could grab.

Along the way, he formed the astonishing cult of believers who adhere only to the whims and machinations of one man at the expense of good governance.

That individual has refused to this day to accept the fact that he lost an election and has taken the cult following to dangerous levels of blind fealty. It is a sight to behold.

I am not a fan of Rep. Cheney. Except for this notion: She is standing for a principle that I used to think transcended the partisan political divide. The principle is the rule of law.

Donald Trump incited an insurrection. The House of Reps impeached a second time for it. Cheney was one of 10 Republican House members to join their Democratic colleagues in holding Trump accountable for his incitement.

For that she is being punished? Because she stands for the belief that our Constitution and our democratic system of government — which she swore to protect — are more important than the political standing of one man?

Scary, man!

media news, national news

No First Amendment problem

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

A word to the right-wing wackos who are going bonkers over Facebook’s decision to keep Donald Trump off the social medium … for now: settle down and take a deep breath!

The Trump cultists in Congress are bitching about so-called First Amendment infringements because Facebook, a privately held media company, has decided it cannot allow someone to use its platform to call for an insurrection against the U.S. government.

That is what Trump did on Jan. 6. So it banned the former president. It decided to make a firm decision later on the extent of Trump’s banishment.

As for Trump’s First Amendment free speech guarantee, it is still there. Trump can yap, yammer and yeowl all he wants about the 2020 election being “stolen.” Of course that is just so much bullsh**. Trump knows it. I certainly do. So do you as well.

The First Amendment allows Trump to spew such nonsense. It doesn’t prohibit a private firm from exercising its own policy-making ability on who gets to speak out and who faces the muzzle.

So, right-wing blowards? You need to pipe down.

DC riot, media news

Facebook makes right call

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

This won’t surprise anyone in the least, but I happen to believe Facebook’s oversight board made the right call in keeping Donald Trump away from the social medium.

The board made its decision known this morning, citing Trump’s incitement of the insurrection on The Sixth of January, the one that sought to overturn the results of a free and fair election that chose Joe Biden to be president and threw Trump out of office.

Trump used Facebook as a method of stirring up the rioters who stormed the Capitol Building, killing four individuals — including a police officer — threatened to “Hang Mike Pence!” and sought to hunt down other elected officials.

It was an insurrection against the government and it sought to destroy the democratic process.

The decision carries some stipulations, according to the New York Times, which reported: But the board also said that Facebook’s penalty of an indefinite suspension was “not appropriate,” and that the company should apply a “defined penalty.” The board gave Facebook six months to make its final decision on Mr. Trump’s account status.

“Our sole job is to hold this extremely powerful organization, Facebook, to be held accountable,” Michael McConnell, co-chair of the Oversight Board, said on a call with reporters. The decision “did not meet these standards,” he said.

Facebook’s Ban of Trump Upheld by Oversight Board (msn.com)

I can hear the outcry building now. Conservatives are going to bitch about Facebook being too friendly to liberals, that the platform seeks to punish those who hold views that differ from their own. Baloney!

As I have followed this tempest, Facebook based its decision to ban Trump because the ex-POTUS keeps telling the Big Lie about the 2020 election being “stolen” from him and that his words had a demonstrable effect on the rioters who sought to pillage and plunder the seat of our federal government.

Is that really a partisan matter? No, it is not!

The overseers of Facebook have given the platform six months to decide on Trump’s status. Take all the time you need and have been given, Facebook. Donald John Trump is a menace, a disgrace and is the true “enemy of the people.”

DC riot, Donald Trump

No, Sen. Hawley, they had no ‘right’ to do what they did

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I will just speak from my gut.

Josh Hawley is a dangerous young man. The Republican U.S. senator from Missouri already had crafted his infamy by being among those senators to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election, which chose Joe Biden as the next president of the United States.

Then he said this just today about the mob of terrorists who were gathering at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6: “They had every right to be there.” 

If their intent was to storm the Capitol, to interfere with Congress doing its constitutional duty to certify the results of the election, to injure police officers and kill one of them, to threaten bodily harm to the vice president and speaker of the House, to defecate on the floor of Congress … then they had no right to be there.

And yet the junior senator from Missouri continues to stand by that hideous raised-fist photo of him saluting the mob waiting to storm the place where our Congress writes laws to which we all must obey.

Why did the rioters do what they did? Because the man who was soon to leave the presidency, Donald J. Trump, exhorted them to “take back” the government from forces he alleged had “stolen” the election and given it to President Biden. He continues to foment The Big Lie and members of Congress — such as Sen. Hawley — cheer on the disgraced ex-president.

Josh Hawley now is widely believed to aspire to a presidential run in 2024. How does that make you feel? Warm and fuzzy? Do you want to place the nuclear codes in the hands of an insurrectionist? Do you trust this guy to “defend and protect” the very Constitution he sought to destroy by challenging the result of a free, fair and duly certified presidential election?

What’s more, he now is defending the terrorists who committed the single greatest assault on our government since, oh let’s see, the Civil War.

The danger that Sen. Josh Hawley presents to this country cannot be overstated.

medical news

Dr. Fauci’s voice has a certain … lilt

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Surely others have seen and heard what I have seen and heard from Dr. Anthony Fauci, the infectious disease guru who has become a household name since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

What would that be? It would be the lilt in his voice — and were he to stand and stroll down the street a certain spring in his step.

Dr. Fauci now serves as President Biden’s chief medical adviser. He had the same title (in name only) while working in the Donald Trump administration. The difference between then and now is simple and is as clear as it gets: Fauci is able to speak clearly and bluntly to Americans without being challenged by the president of the United States.

Fauci sought to do all of that while working in the Trump administration. He would tell us that mask-wearing saves lives only to be slammed to the mat by Trump, who at one point called Fauci “an idiot.”

These days? He says the same thing and gets an endorsement for his expertise and receives rhetorical backing from President Biden.

When I watch Dr. Fauci being interviewed by news talking heads I see a man who has been liberated from the heavy hand of a president who refused to let his experts speak for an administration led by a functionally ignorant chief executive.

Anthony Fauci has been set free. He is enjoying being able to speak with candor and with the authority he has built brick by brick over many decades studying diseases just like COVID-19.

national news, political news

Trump has tight hold on GOP … but he won’t run in ’24

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It is time to try to dispel any notion that Donald J. Trump is going to run for president of the United States in 2024.

I just cannot in any way, shape or imagined form see how the former president makes a credible case for his nomination by the Republican Party to run for POTUS.

Why not? Let’s see.

He is facing possible criminal indictments in two jurisdictions: Manhattan, N.Y., and Fulton County, Ga. One of them involves possible campaign finance and tax fraud; the other involves possible coercion and bullying of an elected official.

Trump has a huge debt coming due, on the order of $400 million.

He continues to spew the Big Lie about alleged “theft” of the 2020 election.

Trump lost re-election in 2020 because voters across the board had gotten sickened by his incessant lying, his insults, his bullying, the chaos and confusion and his complete and unabashed incompetence when it came to governance.

How does a former president parlay any of that into something positive? How does he sell himself to an electorate that already has been exposed to this idiot’s self-aggrandizement.

Spare me the idiocy that he “controls” a huge portion of the GOP electorate. I will place my bet that the Trump “base” is going to shrink particularly if indictments are brought.

Oh, and then we’ll see what happens if former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani squeals on Trump if federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York hang a federal indictment on him.

Nope, the stars aren’t aligning well for Trump to make another run for the presidency. Which is more than just fine with me.

This guy just needs to get the hell out of our sight.

local news

Trumpism boiled down

1 Comment

By John Kanelis / johnkanelils_92@hotmail.com

It occurs to me as I read my Twitter feed that the voters in the congressional district where I once lived are being exposed to a boiled-down version of Trumpism from their elected House of Representatives member.

Rep. Ronny Jackson is a Republican — duh!— who now lives in Amarillo. He didn’t live anywhere near the Texas Panhandle before deciding to run for the 13th Congressional District seat being vacated by fellow Republican Mac Thornberry. He moved to the region. He got elected in November.

Ever since taking office, Rep. Jackson has been doing something that Thornberry rarely did. He fires off Twitter taunts constantly.

He has suggested that President Biden is destroying the country. That Biden is leading us toward a “communist” state. That the border crisis is all on Biden. That Democrats are trying to take away people’s right to own firearms.

Do you get where I am going with this? Republican congressmen and women all across the land who adhere to Donald J. Trump’s view of how the world should be have taken to this social medium.

That’s Jackson. All the way, man.

He isn’t sending Twitter messages out about how to improve farm policy. Or about how to protect Lake Meredith National Recreation Area. Or how to preserve Alibates Flint Quarry National Monument — the only national monument in Texas! Hell, he isn’t even tweeting about whether Interstates 40 and 27 should be shored up in a national infrastructure bill.

Oh, no. This clown has hopped onto the Donald Trump clown car parade and is spewing the same brand of demagogic nonsense that flows from Trump’s pie hole.

I am going to presume that most of his constituents are OK with it. They just adore Donald Trump and might want him to run again for POTUS. Their congressman is parroting his hero, too.

You want to know what has happened to the Republican Party? Look no further than the 13th Congressional District of Texas.

It is so very disgusting.

national news

Trump keeps grip on GOP

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump’s vise grip on the Republican Party remains a gigantic mystery to me.

He is, in no particular order:

  • An inarticulate business mogul.
  • A liar.
  • A philanderer.
  • Someone who entered politics at its highest level with zero public service experience.
  • A guy who bragged about sexually assaulting women.
  • A conspiracy monger.
  • And, yes, a racist.

And yet this guy continues to retain this grip on a political party he hijacked in 2016. He demands complete loyalty and those who are loyal to only to him give it willingly.

For Republicans, fealty to Trump’s election falsehood becomes defining loyalty test (msn.com)

Thus, we are entering the netherworld between presidential election campaigns. Those who want to run for president must pledge their loyalty to Donald Trump or else be thrown to the wild dogs. How in the world do potential political opponents of Trump campaign against this guy … were he to declare his candidacy for the presidency again?

He bullies his GOP rivals by threatening to “primary” them in 2022. Trump already has drawn a bead on the likes of Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who voted to convict Trump of inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection. Trump just cannot stand the thought of politicians adhering to the Constitution, of being more loyal to that document than to him.

How does he maintain that grip on the once-great party? How does he demand — and get — complete fealty from other egotists who also happen to serve in Congress?

It’s a mystery to me, man. So help me I cannot wrap my noggin around how this guy — of all guys — manages to perform this act of political bondage.

national news

Why defend myself?

3 Comments

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

We live in strange times these days.

The strangeness was brought to us in full bluster by none other than Donald J. Trump, who had the good luck (for him) of winning the presidency in 2016. He’s out of office now (which is so very good for the rest of us).

However, I find myself having to defend my support of President Biden, especially when I compare him to Trump. To be sure, there really is no way to compare a seasoned, lifetime politician — and I mean that in a positive way — to someone with zero political skill, which I believe is an essential quality one needs in a president.

I also want to make this point once again. Joe Biden was not my first choice to succeed Donald Trump. However, when he emerged from the huge field of Democratic primary contenders, then I was all in. We needed to get rid of Trump. Which we did in November 2020.

President Biden is far from the perfect pol but he’s a damn sight better than the imbecile he defeated. He has served in public life for half a century. Trump has served in public life for four years; the rest of his adulthood he spent enriching himself and trashing other human beings.

To that end, I am comfortable expressing my pro-Biden bias. I know it’s out there for all to see. I make no apologies for it.

As for Trump, the less I can say about him, the better it is for me. Not to mention for the rest of us, given that he will be off our radar.