Tag Archives: Donald Trump

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This is ‘peaceful transfer’?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Whatever we were told about a presidential inauguration symbolizing the United States’ tradition of a “peaceful transfer of power” from one administration to the next one has been trampled under a stampede or rioters.

The mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6 has inflicted potentially mortal wounds on the nation’s tradition of that transfer of power. We used to boast about how we can change presidents peacefully even after bitter campaigns. How in the world can we make that claim in light of what has occurred since Nov. 3, when Donald Trump lost his re-election bid to Joseph Biden?

Trump built his resistance to Biden’s election on a lie, that the election was tainted by “widespread vote fraud.” The lie resulted in what transpired a few days ago when the terrorists marched to Capitol Hill and stormed into the center of our democratic government. It killed five people. The rioters ransacked the Capitol Building.

We have not experienced a peaceful transfer of power from Donald Trump’s administration to a government led by the man who beat him, Joe Biden, who will be inaugurated in a city swarming with 25,000 Army reservists deployed to deter rioters from repeating what they did the other day.

It is going to take a long time to repair the damage done by the terrorists and by the man for whom they marched against our system of government. It surely won’t be repaired in time for President Biden to launch his administration. Or the next president or the one after that.

It is not too much of a leap to suggest that we have lost another element of our national innocence. I hate to consider the notion that our peaceful presidential transition was merely a delusion. That it really didn’t exist except in our imagination.

It did for more than two centuries. It survived world wars, the Civil War, a Great Depression, constitutional crises.

Then we had an election between a career politician and a businessman who masqueraded as a president, a guy who said after he won the 2016 election that the vote count then was fraudulent as well. The result in 2020 turned Donald Trump out and he has resisted the outcome to the detriment of our entire nation.

I never thought I would witness this kind of transition. It is a nightmare in broad daylight.

national news

Biden facing tough prosecutorial call

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Joseph R. Biden Jr. laid down an important marker a while back when he said he had no interest in pursuing federal criminal charges against his predecessor as president of the United States.

I’ll just get this off my chest: I think that was the correct course for President Biden to take. However, Biden made that judgment prior to the events that occurred on Jan. 6, which is the insurrection that Trump incited with that hideous speech on The Ellipse.

The House of Representatives impeached Trump a second time just one week after that tragic event. Joe Biden will take his oath of office just one week after the impeachment.

Trump will stand trial in the Senate. What the senators do, of course, remains the Question For the Ages. A conviction won’t remove Trump from office; he’ll be long gone from the White House. It would deny Trump the ability to seek public office ever again.

Should the Justice Department pursue criminal sedition charges against a former president if it determines there is evidence that he committed a crime by telling the mob to walk down the street and “take back the government”? If it doesn’t pursue them, does that let Trump off the hook, letting him get away with a punishable felony?

Here’s another question. Would a federal prosecution put the soul of the nation — which President Biden vowed to restore — in even more dire peril? Would such a prosecution inflict mortal wounds on our national psyche?

I now am officially undecided on the pledge that President-elect Biden made, that he has “no interest” in prosecuting Trump.

Joe Biden might have to assess the national mood in real time as he faces whether DOJ should proceed with prosecuting Trump.

I am not suggesting that Trump should avoid all prosecution. State authorities are looking into myriad other allegations leveled against the president. They involve campaign finance violations, his personal finances, the activities of his closest advisers and even his own family and a host of other matters. Local prosecutors’ ability and willingness to prosecute Trump are beyond the federal government’s reach, which renders DOJ’s view irrelevant.

What’s more, I also believe that local authorities need to keep looking until they determine whether they have enough to level charges. And if they don’t …

President Biden’s lengthy political career, burnished by his legal background, prepared him to ponder the decision he likely must confront.

If only Donald Trump had exhibited a scintilla of decency on Jan. 6 by telling the rioters to stand down. He didn’t. He incited them to attack the bastion of the government of this great nation.

That’s why President Biden faces an agonizing decision.

national news

Why not tell ’em to ‘stand down’?

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(Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

This isn’t going to happen, but it’s worth raising this issue nonetheless.

Now that he is just five days from exiting the White House, this could be a time for Donald J. Trump to revive the shattered remnants of his hideous legacy. How might he do that?

By going on national TV, sitting behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office and telling his frothing fanatics to stand down, to call off whatever mayhem they intend to commit prior to and on the day of President-elect Biden’s inauguration.

The rioters vandalized and looted the Capitol Building on Jan. 6. Five people — including a D.C. police officer — died in the melee. The rioters reportedly intended to bring physical harm to elected officials while stopping them from certifying the results of the presidential election.

Trump then issued a statement professing his “love” for the rioters while urging them to “go home.”

He then came back with another, more fulsome statement, but it wasn’t believable.

Accordingly, there might not be any way on Earth that Trump can say anything at all that we could believe. Reports of states ramping up security at their capitols troubles me terribly. It troubles millions of other Americans as well.

I don’t believe Trump will do it, but given the blind loyalty the Trumpkin Corps gives to the words that come from their guy, a call for the lunatics to end their siege against the federal government could calm the storm.

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Hoping to be done with Trump, but …

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

You may choose to believe this or … disbelieve it. Makes no difference to me.

I had hoped to be done, finished with Donald J. Trump the moment President Biden took office. Biden will take office next week and for that I remain hopeful for a new day.

Sadly, none of us will be finished with Trump just yet. You see, we have this impeachment trial to follow and to assess as it convenes and progresses for the time it takes to render a decision on Trump’s culpability in the hideous attack on Capitol Hill that occurred Jan. 6.

Senators will debate openly about the evidence that the House of Representatives prosecutors will present them. I don’t know what the debate will entail precisely or the extent to which Trump’s defense team will be able to, um, defend what I consider to be the indefensible.

However, Donald Trump will remain the focus of this important debate and, dammit anyway, he will remain in our sights even as we move on to watching and commenting on the Biden administration.

The scuttlebutt now concerns whether there might be 17 Republican senators serving in a Senate that is split 50-50 on party lines who will deliver guilty verdicts on whether Trump committed “incitement of insurrection” against the U.S. government. The Constitution sets the bar high for conviction of a president; it requires a two-thirds vote among senators.

I can think right now of roughly four, maybe five, senators who can cross over and join the Democrats. One of them might include the Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, who has endorsed the House impeachment; he remains mum on how he intends to vote.

Again … this is all about Donald Trump. I suppose at one bizarre level he likes it that way, given that he remains at the center of attention, unwanted as it might appear to be.

Alas, only a little while longer.

Then he’ll really be gone.

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Trump leaving office just as he entered it: awash in chaos

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.

The Chaos President is living up to his unofficial title.

Donald Trump is now five days away from being relieved of his title as president of the United States. It cannot come a moment too soon. Frankly, I wish he had left after a Senate conviction on his first impeachment but it wasn’t meant to be.

He is about to leave and the media are tripping over themselves trying to cover his imminent departure.

Chaos … anyone?

The House of Representatives has impeached Trump a second time. The legal eagles who defended him the first time are bolting. He is left now to be defended reportedly by Rudy Giuliani who — if reports are accurate — isn’t being paid for the work he has done already for the embattled, embittered and disgraced president. But seriously, how does one defend the indefensible, inciting a riot in the halls of our democratic system of government?

As for the rest of the White House, only the closest aides — comprising family members mostly — remain on duty. Trump has been closeted somewhere in the WH residence, having been deprived of his Twitter fetish.

Still, the media wonder. Where is Donald and what on Earth will he do once he’s out of office?

Jeb Bush says ‘I told you so’ | High Plains Blogger

To borrow a phrase from the infamous slogan seen one day on the back of the first lady’s jacket: I don’t really care … do you? 

national news

We live in frightening times

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(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

My head is spinning, but my heart is, oh, filling ever-so slowly with hope for a better day.

Donald Trump is six days from exiting the nation’s most glorious, exalted and powerful public office. Joe Biden will take the oath and along with Kamala Harris will start the task of rebuilding what Trump has damaged.

Trump supporters keep yammering about the need now to “unify” the nation rather than put the impeached president on trial in the Senate. Two thoughts cross my mind on that matter.

First, unification will arrive when we hear the evidence produced for senators to consider. The entire nation should be unified in its outrage over the sight and sound of Trump fomenting the riot that damaged Capitol Hill, the Capitol Building, put our elected representatives in peril and threatened the very core of our democratic system of government.

Trump will be gone when the Senate gets down to brass tacks and starts hearing the evidence. It is there for all of us to see.

Second is my belief that the Trumpkin Corps should have called for “unity” when their man — Trump — kept telling the bald-faced lie about voter fraud in the 2020 election. Let’s be clear: The entire insurrection effort was built on a lie that came from Donald Trump’s mouth. For his frothing, fervent and fanatical followers to say now it is time for unity is to pretend that the Big Lie doesn’t exist.

I am saddened to realize that the Big Lie will live far beyond Trump’s time in the public spotlight. That’s how conspiracy theories exist in the first place. Those who adhere to the Big Lie will continue to gin up anger where they can find it. Their success in producing more violence, such as what we saw this past week, will depend on whether enough of us call them out for what they are: lying cowards. 

I will continue to believe that this anger will subside eventually, which of course could mean anything you want it to mean. It might tamp down soon, in the medium term or it might take years or — God forbid! — decades to vanish.

Donald Trump’s post-election behavior, culminating in the riot and the impeachment, has cemented his place in history. Whether he survives another Senate trial is moot. He will be forever scorned as a failed president who sought to destroy the very government he took an oath to protect.

That is some legacy. Don’t you think?

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Call him ‘Cool hand Joe’

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Americans are getting an advance look at the difference in style between Donald J. Trump and Joseph R. Biden.

Trump is leaving the presidency under an air of chaos, confusion, controversy. Biden is preparing to enter the presidency with a cool, calm, collected approach to governing.

Thus, I do believe we are going to be able to rest assured that President Biden will continue this approach as he takes the oath and gets to work on trying to grapple with the myriad problems that await him.

Trump never got his arms around the government. He never understood the compromise needed to legislate, or how to cajole those on the other side. He flew blindly the entire way. Trump used his now-defunct Twitter account to make key policy decisions, to fire Cabinet officials, to tell Americans directly what was on his mind in the moment.

Biden isn’t likely to use that social medium to the degree his immediate predecessor did. Which is fine by me!

What’s more, as Trump prepares to exit the White House, he does so as a two-time impeached president. Trump’s coterie of advisers is shrinking, frightened by his reportedly erratic and outrageous behavior.

Biden is preparing to grasp the reins of power like the cool customer he has taught himself to be. I mean, he has all those decades of government experience under his belt. President-elect Biden is a man of the U.S. Senate, where he worked for 36 years before becoming vice president during President Obama’s two successful terms in office.

Ahh, the difference is a joy to behold.

2016 election, national news

Hey, Sen. Graham, GOP is already destroyed

(AP Photo/Rainier Ehrhardt, John Locher, File)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Lindsey Graham, arguably Donald Trump’s most loyal U.S. Senate toadie, said impeaching Trump could “divide” the country even more and — I love this part! — could “destroy the Republican Party.”

I have news for the South Carolinian: The Republican Party already is badly damaged and well might be destroyed … thanks to the cult of personality planted and nurtured by Donald Trump.

Good ever-lovin’ almighty God in heaven! Graham himself has become suckered, snookered and snowed by Trump. Back when Graham was competing against Trump for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, he called Trump everything but the spawn of Satan. He was “unfit” for public office, Graham said, and he was right!

Then the carnival barker got elected president and Graham climbed aboard the Trump clown car parade.

The Republican Party would be “destroyed” by impeaching Trump? is this clown serious?

The Senate will put Trump on trial a second time in due course. He’ll be out of office and gone for good from the White House. The very structure of the Grand Old Party, I hasten to add, is just one of the many collateral casualties felled by this individual’s toxic tenure as president.

A party that once stood for fiscal prudence, taking a hard line against dictators and offering itself as a “big tent” organization has been plowed asunder by the self-serving designs of Donald Trump.

Get a grip, Sen. Graham. The party you once knew — what we all knew — appears headed for the trash heap unless it finds a way to rebuild itself into a responsible political organization.

Lindsey Graham can thank only Donald Trump and those — such as Graham himself — who bought into this con man’s lie for the damage that has been done to the once-great political party.

national news, political news

This experiment failed … bigly

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It can be proclaimed forever and ever that the Great American Experiment in Unconventional Politicians has turned out to be a monumental failure.

Yep! I feel quite comfortable making that declaration.

Donald John Trump won election in 2016 in what I consider to be the Mother of All Flukes. He swore an oath to protect the Constitution, our government and us. He failed.

What has been the price of that failure? For him? Well, he is the first president in history to be impeached twice. He got past the first impeachment because only one Republican senator — Mitt Romney of Utah — had the courage to convict him of abusing the power of his office. The rest of the GOP caucus cowered in fear of Trump.

As egregious as the first impeachment allegations were — soliciting political favors from a foreign government — they pale in comparison to what transpired on Jan. 6.

Trump fomented a violent insurrection on the Capitol Building which at that moment contained members of Congress and the vice president who were doing their duty to ratify an election that Trump lost. He didn’t buy into that reality. Hence, he exhorted the terrorists/rioters to march on Capitol Hill.

So now he is impeached again. President-elect Biden becomes president of the United States in six days. The Senate will put Trump on trial once more. There stands a still-slim — but possibly growing — chance that he’ll be convicted, even though he will be out of office. The impeachment article contains a provision that bans Trump from ever seeking public office again. Hmm. That might be sufficient incentive for enough GOP senators to join their Democratic colleagues in banning this clown from the White House forever.

A man with zero public service experience on his record flim-flammed his way into the presidency by promising that “I, alone” can fix the nation’s problems. We knew he was a phony and a fraud. We knew about the refusal to release his tax returns. We knew about the groping of women. We knew that he disrespected our military veterans and our valiant prisoners of war. We knew about his penchant for cozying up to dictators. We knew of his mocking of disabled people.

We knew all of that. Yet he got elected anyway.

His quest to “make America great again” failed as well, chiefly because America has already is great.

The country has demonstrated its greatness by turning away from the failed experiment of electing a novice politician to the nation’s highest office.

The experiment was doomed from the beginning … as many of us knew would be the case.

DC riot, national news

Cheney feeling heat for voting her conscience

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Liz Cheney listened to her conscience today when she cast a vote to impeach Donald J. Trump.

The Wyoming Republican joined nine other GOP House members to align with House Democrats in impeaching Trump for inciting an insurrection. He exhorted the riotous mob into storming the Capitol Building a week ago, putting every member of Congress — as well as Vice President Mike Pence — in dire jeopardy.

Yep, it’s an impeachable offense.

But now her fellow Republican, Jim Jordan, wants to strip her of her leadership role in the GOP congressional caucus. Jordan is a fervent Trumpkin, figuring that fealty for the man is more valuable than adhering to the oath they all take to defend the Constitution.

Jordan, one of the House’s more nauseating blowhards, has misplaced his priorities. He should be ashamed of himself rather than seeking to shame a colleague who saw fit to punish a lame-duck president for an egregious breach of the sacred oath he took.

How in the world can that be a bad thing? Well, in Jordan’s perverted view, Rep. Cheney should have remained loyal to the president, to the bulk of the GOP caucus and said to hell with the Constitution and the rule of law.

I happen to believe Rep. Liz Cheney and the other Republicans who joined her deserve to be saluted, not scorned.

As for Jim Jordan … he is a bum.