Tag Archives: MAGA

Cannot comprehend the stupidity

Make no mistake about it. I will go to my grave never understanding how supposedly mainstream Americans can buy into the stupidity being peddled by so many Republican candidates for public office.

Yes, the midterm election is coming up rapidly. It appears that the GOP is going to wrest control away from Democrats in at least one congressional chamber. The House appears to be vulnerable to the potential politics of revenge that awaits once Republicans seize the gavel and committee chairmanships from Democrats.

What just utterly astounds me, though, is the idiocy being blathered by the MAGA-loving, election-denying cult followers of the most recent former GOP POTUS.

They belong to what I should refer to as the Dumbass Wing of the GOP. The espouse treasonous views that seek to undermine the integrity of our electoral process. Some GOP candidates for governor and secretary of state vow to “overturn” the results of the 2020 election. Why? Because they have bought into the Big Lie about the election being “stolen.”

What is stunning beyond all measure is that so many Americans have signed on to that bullsh**, believing the rubbish being spread about election integrity.

We have utterly incompetent candidates running under the Republican banner who stand a good chance of being elected to important public offices. They will then be able to foist their idiocy onto the public that believes it. I am left to wonder how long their supporters will hang with them once we’re all exposed to the chaos and confusion their policies are likely to bring.

I am going to offer all kinds of karma and prayer that seeks to stop on the onslaught I fear might be about to swamp Congress, some of our statehouses and even some of our school boards, which could elect book-burners and those who believe we need to purge our public schools of that phony “critical race theory” principle.

I am feeling the pangs of fear … and I don’t like it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Violence has no place

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins today uttered what should be considered a platitude, a no-brainer, a throw-away line.

Except that we now live in an era of intense anger that brings insane reactions to political differences.

“Violence has no place” in today’s society, Jenkins said in offering an update into her investigation into the attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.  Paul Pelosi suffered a skull fracture after being battered with a hammer by an individual who broke into the couple’s home.

Indeed, the DA is right to assert the obvious, that violence never should be used to settle political scores in a supposedly civil society.

The suspect, who faces a potential life sentence in prison if he is convicted of the myriad crimes for which he is being charged, was targeting the speaker, according to Jenkins. He was heard asking, “Where’s Nancy?” when he commenced his attack on Paul Pelosi. Hmm. Can we link that chant to a political cause, given that 1/6 Capitol Hill attackers were heard making the same request as they launched their insurrection against the federal government?

DA Jenkins should not have to remind us of the obvious, that violence never should be a solution to settling political differences. Sadly, the tenor of the times tells her to remind Americans what they already should know.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Trump: quiet on Pelosi attack

Imagine my (non)surprise that Donald J. Trump hasn’t said a damn thing about the brutal attack on the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

A moron attacked Paul Pelosi in the couple’s home in San Francisco, inflicting serious injuries, including a skull fracture.

The assailant entered the house asking, “Where’s Nancy?”

Although the SF police — who took the assailant into custody — haven’t established a motive, it appears clear the moron was acting on his political instincts.

Donald Trump’s Silence on Paul Pelosi Attack Sparks Anger (msn.com)

Of course, Speaker Pelosi and the former POTUS have been longtime foes. Trump would consider her “the enemy.”

Still, the ex-president should show some decency in expressing publicly his sorrow over the attack on Paul Pelosi. Oh, wait! I almost forgot!

Donald J. Trump doesn’t possess a single decency gene in his overfed body.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Is this the nature of our politics?

What are we to surmise about the brutal attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of the U.S. House speaker?

An assailant broke into the Pelosis’ San Francisco home, asking, “Where’s Nancy?” Then he and Paul Pelosi started struggling and the assailant beat his victim brutally, fracturing his skull and inflicting assorted other injuries.

The police came while the fight was underway and arrested the suspect.

The motive for the attack hasn’t been established officially, so I am left to offer a bit of conjecture that I believe is on point.

It is that the assailant was looking to harm the speaker of the House for political reasons.

I have put two and two together and have come up with four. My strong hunch is that the idiotic assailant is a MAGA-loving adherent to the far-right wing of the Republican Party.

Is this the nature of disagreement these days? That those who believe in a different world view are going to physically assault their foes?

I am acutely aware that violence has existed in the American political system since the beginning of the Republic. Aaron Burr shot Alexander Hamilton to death in 1804 while settling some sort of political dispute.

But … that was then. We’re supposed to be a more “civilized society” these days. Now, though, we have instances of violence erupting, such as what occurred in the home of Paul and Nancy Pelosi.

I’ll conclude with this observation. I believe this sort of insanity should give all voters pause as they ponder for whom to vote during the midterm election. Do they really want to endorse the candidacies of politicians who espouse the idiocy that appears to have motivated the assailant to damn near kill the husband of a powerful politician?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Candidate victimized by snickers

By any reasonable measure, Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman should be elected U.S. senator from Pennsylvania in a few days.

His opponent in the midterm election is a former physician, Mehmet Oz, who boasts not one moment of public policy experience. Furthermore, Oz doesn’t even live in the state he allegedly wants to represent in the Senate.

As I write this brief blog post, Fetterman is running slightly ahead of Oz in the polling. Why is that? Because Oz and his Republican allies — led by Donald J. Trump — have made a stroke that Fetterman suffered a few months ago a campaign issue.

Has Fetterman lost any mental acuity? Is he less smart now than he was before the stroke? No and no. However, he has suffered what he admits to are “auditory” issues. He has trouble stringing sentences together.

I want to mention all this because of the nastiness that permeates the campaign to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Pat Toomey. The result of this election well could determine which parties controls the Senate in January; the Senate now is split 50 to 50. It’s a big deal, man!

I would hate for this campaign to turn on one side’s tittering over a serious man’s cognitive ability … which hasn’t diminished because of a stroke.

However, the cheapness of debate is exemplified in this contest and others featuring campaigns that include election denying/MAGA-loving Republicans and their Democratic foes.

That is what is playing out in Pennsylvania. It should not have come to this, with the result of a contest between a tested public policy veteran and a fraudulent carpetbagger now being too close to call.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Politics delivers bruising blows

LAVEEN VILLAGE, Ariz. — I guess it was the late Sen. Lloyd Bentsen who I heard say that in Texas, “politics is a contact sport.”

Yes. It is. However, a brief visit to a real-deal battleground state such as Arizona has exposed my bride and me to what has become a “contact sport” that can draw a good bit of metaphorical blood.

Arizona is where Donald Trump sought to delegitimize his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential race. It has carried over to the midterm election, where the ballot in Arizona is peppered with election deniers seeking to overturn the results of the election that President Biden won freely, fairly, legally and morally.

My favorite commercials happen to be those featuring Republican voters who say that GOP governor candidate Kari Lake is “too dangerous” to become the state’s next governor.

It’s been fun watching this campaign play out from our ringside seats. It’s a brief look, to be sure. We’ll get to watch the Texas campaign play out as Midterm Election Day approaches.

It’s coming on. Rapidly.

I am ready to cast my ballot and then get on with the rest of retirement living.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Hope slipping away?

Can it be that Democrats’ optimism about retaining control of at least one congressional chamber is slipping away? That’s what I am hearing as we enter the two-week home stretch prior to the 2022 midterm election.

I suppose it’s getting safer to say that Republicans are going to win a majority of the House seats, giving them the chance to lead the lower chamber. I am just going to shake my noggin at the prospect of a potential Kevin McCarthy speakership awaiting us. Ugghh!

What about the Senate? Some polling data suggest that seats that should be a cinch for Democrats are entering the too-close-to-call phase. Places like Pennsylvania, Georgia (for God’s sake!) and Nevada figure to be tossups. It’s the Georgia contest that causes me to froth at the mouth, with GOP dumbass Herschel Walker hanging tough against Democrat Sen. Raphael Warnock.

Then we have Pennsylvania, where Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman actually might lose to GOP foe Mehmet Oz, who doesn’t even live in the state he wants to represent in the Senate. What’s more, Oz is a borderline quack physician who earned his spurs as a TV pitchman.

I am going to hold out a glimmer of hope that the Senate can remain in Democratic hands. It’s important, the way I see it, for the country to advance some important legislation that cannot occur if Republicans seize control of the Senate. I want, for example, the Senate to codify the Roe v. Wade reproductive choice guarantee that the Supreme Court tossed aside after it stood as “settled law” for nearly 50 years.

Democrats got my blood pumping. Then they seemed to run out of steam. Republicans have regained the momentum, or so I am led to believe.

I don’t know. The midterm election will be a nail-biter. Given the quality of many of the MAGA-leaning Republicans on the ballot, the idea that it’s even close simply boggles my noodle.

My hope is being tested.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Vengeance politics is alive

Vengeance politics is alive and flourishing in what passes for the hearts of many contemporary politicians.

These days, I refer to our Republican members of Congress. They are salivating over the prospect of the GOP taking control of the legislative branch of government after the midterm election.

What’s causing the collective drool? The idea of investigating Democrats who — in their sordid minds — have committed high crimes and misdemeanors.

None other than Ohio blowhard Jim Jordan, the GOP House member accused of looking the other way while Ohio State coaches were molesting young athletes, has promised investigations once Republicans take control of the House. It’s hard to take Jordan seriously, given his blind fealty to the MAGA agenda, but I will take him seriously, indeed.

They want to investigate Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over the immigration “crisis” on our southern border. They want to investigate soon-to-retire senior White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci for dishing out bad advice on handling the COVID pandemic.

Some of the wackier among them want to impeach President Biden for … good grief, only God knows what lurks in their shallow brains.

Meanwhile, we have legislative matters that need attention Gun violence is one of them. Climate change, too. How about energy policy, or immigration policy, or reproductive rights issues? Does any of that interest the MAGA wing of the GOP? Hell … no!

They want revenge over Democrats outrage at the conduct of the most recent GOP president, the moron who sought political help from a foreign government and then incited the assault on our nation’s government after the 2020 presidential election. The House impeached him twice for those two misdeeds, but the cowards who comprise the Republican caucus in the Senate couldn’t muster up the courage to convict him of the obvious crimes he committed against the government he took an oath to “preserve and protect.”

If it comes to pass that Republicans take control of the House and Senate, I am going to stand watch to make sure I use this blog to remind them all of the oaths they, too, will take. They will place their hands on holy books and pledge to defend the Constitution of the United States. I fear their actions will put that document in danger.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Election deniers pose grave danger

I am trying like the dickens — with everything I can muster up — to be optimistic about the midterm election.

Except that those damn public opinion polls are showing an alarming — and frightening! — trend out there. It is that the election deniers, the MAGA Republicans, the Trump cult followers are faring shockingly well among voters prior to the balloting.

I am thinking about the race for Arizona governor, where MAGA fruitcake Kari Lake holds a slim lead over Democrat Katie Hobbs.

Hobbs is the secretary of state. Lake has vowed to “overturn” the results of the 2020 presidential election and work to return Donald Trump to the presidency he lost during that election. President Biden won Arizona by roughly 11,000 votes. The MAGA goons brought in those phony election analysts to perform a “forensic audit” of the 2020 balloting and, guess what … they found that Biden actually won the election.

That ain’t good enough for Kari Lake and other MAGA goons who support.

She’s not the only one. We have that MAGA moron in Pennsylvania, Doug Mastriani, pledging the same thing if he beats Josh Shapiro to be that state’s governor.

I cannot help but believe that if the MAGA wing of the Republican Party carries the day in these key elections that this country is in a serious world of hurt.

And what in the world is all this going to deliver for the 2024 election and the result it produces? If the election deniers hold public office, they promise to finish what the 1/6 insurrection effort sought to do after the 2020 election: overturn the result.

Are we really and truly prepared to walk down that path?

Man, if we are, then we are in much worse trouble than any of us ever imagined.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Pay attention to these contests

I am going to pay careful attention to the Princeton Independent School District Board of Trustees election coming up this fall.

It’s not because I have children in the school system. I don’t. My two sons are middle-aged men and one of them is Daddy to our 9-year-old granddaughter and they reside in nearby Allen.

I am interested in the PISD contests because I want to be mindful of the campaign material they put out. I want to look for evidence of any candidate who is going to sound off on that idiotic notion of banning what they call “critical race theory” from our school curriculum; or whether they intend to champion the banning of other textbooks that seek to cast any sort of negative eye on our history.

I keep hearing about how the MAGA crowd is seeking to penetrate our public schools. They are running candidates who adhere to some of the goofier — and frankly, dangerous — notions about how we should run our public-school systems.

I also intend to stay alert to candidates who talk openly about siphoning public money away to pay for school vouchers to allow parents to enroll their children in private schools. Moreover, I’ll be listening for rhetoric that suggests we should allow the re-entry of state-sanctioned religion into our public classrooms. I have said many times that religion should be taught in church, not in school.

Finally, I intend to listen for those candidates who want to put firearms into the hands of teachers and give them the go-ahead to use those weapons in the event of trouble inside our schools.

This will be a critical election. My intention simply is to learn as much as I can about these candidates and work — if I deem it necessary — to prevent certain candidates from being elected.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com