Tag Archives: 2020 election

national news

Another run for Donald?

The political world cannot seem to stop talking about Donald Trump and whether the two-time candidate for president wants to make a third run at an office in which he garnered fewer votes twice than his opponent.

Given that I cannot predict what this nimrod will do, I am left just to speculate out loud and wonder: Does this guy actually believe he can win after being impeached twice and has since been revealed to be an individual who is incapable of fulfilling the duties of his office?

It’s a stretch even for The Donald.

At least that’s my belief.

He has prided himself on his unpredictability. He said as much when he garnered more electoral votes in 2016 than Hillary Rodham Clinton. He was right. I couldn’t predict a single move this guy would make during his single term in office.

So, if he’s still an unpredictable moron, does that mean all this fancy footwork, this teasing his followers that he is going to run — again! — mean he doesn’t really intend to do it?

Let’s suppose for instance that Attorney General Merrick Garland indicts Trump for violating the Espionage Act by squirreling confidential documents away from the White House and hiding them in the basement of his Florida mansion.

How in the name of political idiocy can a man run for POTUS while fending off what could be a lifetime sentence in prison?

Or, what happens if the Fulton County (Ga.) district attorney indicts him for voter interference? Or if the New York AG indicts him for falsifying his net wealth to obtain loans?

I just am having trouble grasping how anyone — even someone as slimy and slippery as The Donald — can possibly run for president under those circumstances.

Well, I ain’t predictin’ nothin’, man. I am just going to remain skeptical that The Donald is going to take this plunge yet again. There well could be a crowded Republican Party primary field awaiting with opponents ready to skewer him over what we now know to be the truth about him.

OK. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking on my part. Accuse me all you want of bias. Or of hating Trump. I won’t deny any of it.

Nor will I deny loathing the sight of him clenching that tiny fist of his in that show of defiance intended to portray this coward as a tough guy.

If you do, don’t forget to accuse me as well of loving my country enough to prevent it from enduring any more misery that this individual can bring.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Vote fraud? Yes, but …

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The purveyors of The Big Lie keep insisting that the 2020 presidential election is the result of “widespread vote fraud,” of millions of dead people casting ballots, nations using orbiting satellites to manipulate votes.

Am I going to deny the existence of some voter fraud? No. I cannot possibly make that denial with a straight face. Nor can I presume that election deniers have anything credible to assert the “widespread” of the fraud they insist occurred in November 2020.

The “Big Liar in Chief,” Donald J. Trump, keeps leading the chorus of deniers. The cultists who hang on his every lying word hang on them as if they are gospel. They continue to foment The Big Lie and continue to insist they’re going to end it.

End … what? Precisely?

This is the ultimate frustration for those of us who happen to maintain reasonable trust in the local election officials who do a great job of protecting the sanctity of our cherished freedom to vote for the candidates of our choice.

I am more than willing to acknowledge that individuals here and there occasionally try to pull some funny stuff at the ballot box. They are caught and they are prosecuted. The conspiracy theorists out there will not be satisfied as long as they can cling to The Big Lie and pretend it is true.

They call themselves “patriots.” They are traitors.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, legal news, national news

So many options for AG and others to ponder

As I sit here in the peanut gallery far from Ground Zero in the Donald Trump investigation hotbed, I find myself thinking about the options that await the former president of the United States.

Only one of them looks good and at this moment it appears to be the farthest from taking shape.

Attorney General Merrick Garland is among those who are trying to determine whether to indict the ex-president on criminal charges. We also have the Fulton County (Ga.) district attorney looking into allegations of vote tampering and the New York state AG examining whether Trump’s business committed crimes. Oh, and then we have the House of Reps’ select committee examining whether Trump broke the law by inciting the mob of traitors to storm the Capitol on 1/6 and seek to stop the certification of the 2020 election … that Trump lost to Joseph R. Biden Jr.

There’s nothing cast in stone that says Garland must indict Trump on anything, let alone on the most serious charges he might be considering. The AG could determine there isn’t enough to send Trump to prison for the rest of his life, so he might decide to pursue lesser charges.

Then the DA in Fulton County, Fani Willis, also might determine that Trump didn’t really seek to interfere with the election by demanding that the state “find” enough votes to put him over the top.

New York AG Letitia James also could find that she doesn’t have the goods on Trump’s business, even though his chief financial officer has pleaded guilty to tax fraud and is awaiting a sentence.

And what about the House panel? The committee has compiled a mountain of evidence that suggests everything from inciting insurrection and dereliction of duty on 1/6. The testimony we have heard has been stunning in the extreme!

But you see, Trump is facing a mounting array of legal challenges … even as he supposedly ponders whether to run for the presidency yet again in 2024. My strong sense is that one of those challenges is going to fall hard on The Donald.

The least likely option would be for none of these probes to produce a formal criminal charge against the former president. I understand fully the gravity of taking such a step. I also grasp the blowback that would occur from the cultists out there who continue to excuse the ex-POTUS’s conduct at all levels in the period after the 2020 election.

It just occurs to me that the very last person on this Earth I would want to be is Donald John Trump.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Quibbling over concession?

It’s come down now to this: We’re now left to wonder whether a defeated candidate for Congress called an opponent to offer “congratulations” on the victory.

Let’s see. What have we heard?

Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming lost the Republican Party primary election this week to Harriet Hageman. Cheney is an avid foe of Donald Trump; Hageman received Trump’s endorsement because of Cheney’s stand on the rule of law.

Hageman thumped Cheney, who then stood before the nation and told us she called Hageman because the challenger got more votes than Cheney did. There was no mention of good wishes, an atta girl, statement of support from Cheney.

Then Hageman’s staff leaked something about Cheney reportedly calling the victorious candidate. The call reportedly lasted five seconds, with Cheney actually congratulating Hageman.

Cheney reportedly left a voice mail message.

Right-wing media, naturally, are all over this snippet. They contend that Cheney should issue a public statement congratulating Hageman and even offer to support her as she prepares — as expected — to take her seat in Congress next January.

Cheney has been vilified, demonized and otherwise termed into a GOP pariah simply because she remains faithful to the oath she took to protect the Constitution and our democratic process.

To be honest, she doesn’t owe Hageman anything more than a concession call. She delivered it. The story is over.

However, I do not expect it to be over. I fully expect right-wing media to continue harping on what should be a non-starter. Cheney deserves to be torqued over the treatment she has gotten from those who accuse her of being a “traitor” to a president who — dare I say — has broken multiple laws.

Then again, I need to remind everyone reading this message that Donald Trump himself lowered the standard for electoral decency by refusing to concede his own defeat in 2020 to Joe Biden, who whipped his sorry, overfed backside.

Therefore, we are witnessing more of this nonsense playing out in Liz Cheney’s valiant attempt to win re-election to her congressional office.

Our political process has gone bonkers!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Uncategorized

Ga. probe looms as major Trump threat

If I was a betting man — and I have to stipulate that I am nothing of the sort — I would wager that Donald J. Trump’s gravest threat to his future looms in the Fulton County, Ga., district attorney’s office.

The former president is under investigation in many venues: Congress, the Justice Department, Manhattan (N.Y.) and Fulton County.

It’s the Georgia matter that, to my way of thinking, presents Trump with his most serious threat. Why? Because the whole world has heard Trump’s own voice demand that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger “find” enough votes to swing the state from Joe Biden’s column to Trump’s.

Where I come from, I believe that amounts to a clear-cut, no-questions-need-asking, tried-and-true case of election tampering.

Oh, and there’s more to that recorded conversation. You might recall that Trump actually threatened Raffensberger with criminal prosecution if he didn’t do what the president wanted him to do.

I have been wondering ever since I heard about this: If this doesn’t constitute a crime, then what in the world qualifies?

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is pursuing this probe with all appropriate vigor. Indeed, I have thought all along that this case presented Trump with his most daunting set of allegations. What’s more — thanks to Raffensberger, who thought to record the phone conversation — we can hear the POTUS in his own voice pressuring the election official to, shall we say, “steal the 2020 presidential election.”

The House select committee that is pursuing the insurrection also is piling up a mountain of evidence that suggests criminality within the White House. The Manhattan probe, though, appears to be losing steam. The Justice Department probe? Well, Attorney General Merrick Garland has made it abundantly clear that “no one is above the law” and by “no one,” the AG means, well … no one.

If I were Donald Trump — and I am so glad that I ain’t — I would be sweatin’ bullets over what might be coming his way from Deep in the Heart of Dixie.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news, Uncategorized

Anger: so unbecoming

I hate feeling angry. I also hate that the people who represent me in the government we elect are angry with each other and seemingly with the world.

Who’s to blame for this anger? As my dear Mom would say: I’ll give you three clues … and the first two don’t count.

I have to circle back to the guy who lost the most recent presidential election, but whose own anger at losing it fairly, squarely and legally has prevented him from saying so. Thus, the anger has festered.

I won’t spend a lot of time and emotional capital lamenting the cause of this anger. I’ve traipsed down that road often and with extreme prejudice already.

What is so concerning to me is the fear that the anger will persist long after Donald Trump is no longer on the scene. Now, by “on the scene,” I am referring to his relevance as a political player. However, he is 76 years of age and eventually he’ll be seriously “no longer on the scene” … if you get my drift and I’m sure you do.

Even after he departs the good Earth, I fear his legacy will fester amid the anger he sowed the moment he rode down the escalator at that glitzy hotel of his and declared his intention to run for the presidency. His first words were to blame Mexico for sending us drug dealers, rapists and killers and then he vowed to ban all Muslims from coming to the Land of Opportunity.

Anger … anyone?

The anger has continued to grow in Congress, and it has spilled onto the floors of state legislatures, into city halls and county courthouses, into school board meeting rooms. Qualified educators are quitting the teaching profession they formerly loved because parents have grown angry over mask mandates to fend off the infectious pandemic that has killed about 1 million Americans.

Members of Congress say they cannot serve with members of “the other party” because of physical threats. Have I mentioned that most of the complaints come from congressional Democrats who point the finger at hyper-angry Republicans? There. I just did.

I am by nature a happy fellow. I do not like being angry. It’s not part of my DNA. Indeed, I hope that when my time on Earth runs out that I’ll be remembered as a nice guy whose first instinct was to think well of people.

I do have a fear that the anger that permeates so much of our life these days is becoming like an indelible stain that I cannot wash away.

Therein just might lie Donald Trump’s enduring legacy. He has built an angry society. It is so very unbecoming.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news, national security

Domestic terrorist gets 7 years in prison … yes!

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Guy Reffitt can now join an infamous — and likely growing — list of Americans who have been sent to the Big House for working to overturn the results of a free, fair and legal presidential election.

Reffitt lives just across Lake Lavon from your friendly blogger in Wylie, Texas. Today, he got slightly more than seven years in a federal prison for his role in whipping up the 1/6 insurrection attackers.

Reffitt didn’t actually enter the Capitol Building during the attack. He just whipped the crowd into a frenzy from outside the halls of power.

Texan Guy Reffitt sentenced to 7 1/4 years in prison for Jan. 6 riot | The Texas Tribune

His sentence, by the way, is the longest prison term handed out, so far, by a trial jury. So, this terrorist has set a record I am sure he would rather not possess. That is just too damn bad.

The Texas Tribune reported: “Reffitt sought not just to stop Congress, but also to physically attack, remove, and replace the legislators who were serving in Congress. This is a quintessential example of an intent to both influence and retaliate against government conduct through intimidation or coercion,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo.

It is good to see the wheels of justice continuing to grind along.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

’20 election: most secure … ever!

One of the more annoying aspects of The Big Lie and those who believe it to their everlasting shame is that the 2020 presidential election was so “fishy” that the system has been put on notice to ensure that future elections are not fraught with the kind of tomfoolery the Big Lie believers insist occurred in 2020.

That is so wrong that I cannot let it stand.

I hear such rubbish from my network of social media acquaintances. Several of them believe that the next election will be clean, secure and fraud-free only because of all the attention being paid to the shenanigans that allegedly occurred during the 2020 election.

Bear in mind that these nitwits suggest that the only electoral “theft” occurred in the presidential contest. They say that only Donald J. Trump was the victim of “widespread voter fraud.” No other races have been contested in quite the manner than the one that Trump lost to President Biden.

I feel the overwhelming need to remind everyone of this fact. Trump hired a first-rate electoral security expert, Christopher Krebs, to repair what he said was wrong with the electoral system.

Krebs then delivered on what the then-president instructed. He declared after the 2020 election that it was “the most secure election in U.S. history.” His reward for telling the truth? Trump fired him … and then proceeded to call him everything short of the Son of Satan.

The Big Lie is the biggest lie ever told to vilify our democratic process. It is a disgraceful display of petulance and arrogance from an individual who simply cannot stand the thought of losing.

The 2020 election set a standard for electoral cleanliness. The 2024 election for president, I am quite certain, will follow suit.

It will have nothing to do with a “fishy” result.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Political frenzy is upon us

We have entered into a type of season with which I will need to familiarize myself. I want to call the Season of Political Frenzy.

It seems like only yesterday that the 2020 presidential campaign ended. Joe Biden won the presidency over Donald J. Trump. Except that Trump didn’t concede, didn’t acknowledge publicly that Biden is the new president, didn’t offer any support for a “peaceful transition.”

It’s now two years later. The midterm election is upon us. Republicans have stars in their eyes about taking over control of the Senate and the House. The campaign is ramping up rapidly.

The midterm campaign isn’t even over and already the speculation is beginning to overtake many of us over whether President Biden will bow out, whether Donald Trump will make yet another run for the highest office in the land, who among Democrats might want to succeed Biden and who among Republicans might want to become the “anti-Trump” within the GOP.

I enjoy politics. I take a great interest in following the ebb and flow of the political tide. I have my favorite candidates and my preferred stance on the issues of the day.

The frenetic nature of the coverage, though, seems to be worsening with each election cycle.

Truth is, I want a return to boring politics.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Big Lie just won’t die!

Some things resist my occasionally feeble skill at reasoning things out; The Big Lie is one of them.

More to the point, what escapes my noggin’s intellectual capacity is how people actually continue to believe The Big Lie, which has been proven time and again — through many venues and forums — to be one of the biggest political hoaxes ever perpetrated.

The Big Lie is part of the crop sown by Donald J. Trump, who lost the 2020 presidential election but who continues to insist it was “stolen” from him. That he actually won “in a landslide.”

Sweet Mother of Jesus in Heaven! No! He didn’t win! He lost huge, man!

No one has produced anything resembling a shred of credible evidence that anything occurred that would have changed the outcome. President Biden earned 81.2 million votes; Trump polled 74.2 million ballots. Yes, the loser’s total is impressive.

But the winner got 7 million more of them!

Biden’s Electoral College count was significant as well. He earned 306 electoral votes, a good bit more than the 270 he needed to win election.

The Big Lie led to the second impeachment of Trump, who stood trial in the Senate actually after he left office. Yeah, he skated through the second trial the same way he did the first time, as too few Republican senators voted to convict the con man.

The Big Lie continues to fester in states all across the land. We are watching the possible rise to power of individuals who believe The Big Lie and who could launch the kind of coup that failed on 1/6, when the treasonous mob of attackers stormed the Capitol Building, threatened to “hand Mike Pence!” and sought to overturn the certification of Biden’s victory.

I cannot grasp how the carnival barker, Trump, has managed to sway the cult followers into believing something that is demonstrably false.

I might need therapy before this is ends.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com