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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.

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.

national news

Debate is brisk, but unconvincing

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The House of Representatives is winding down its debate over whether to impeach Donald J. Trump.

It’s been brisk, impassioned, fast-moving, mostly mannerly to the great credit of politicians on both sides of the great divide.

It also has been wholly unconvincing to me. I also suspect it has changed a single mind among those who believe the impeachment is a non-starter.

To my mind and heart, Trump committed an impeachable act when he told the rioters to “walk down to the Capitol” and “take back the country.” He should be impeached. He is about to be impeached a second time and put on trial — eventually — in the Senate.

Trump will be gone from the office next week. My hope is that the Senate will convict him and deny him the chance to seek federal public office ever again.

national news

It’s a ‘go’ for impeachment

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The die is cast in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Vice President Mike Pence is not going to push for Donald Trump’s removal via the U.S. Constitution’s 25th Amendment. Trump isn’t likely to resign.

That leaves the House only with the impeachment option. It will follow that course today with one specific aim, it appears to me. It is to prevent Trump from ever seeking public office again … forever.

A House impeachment will land in the Senate likely after Trump leaves office, so removal from the presidency doesn’t appear to be an option. That leaves the House impeachment managers with the task of persuading two-thirds of the Senate to convict Trump of “incitement of insurrection,” which carries a lifetime punishment of keeping him from seeking office.

You know what? I am more than fine with that. Yes, I had argued earlier that the Senate could return immediately and commence an expedited trial.

That won’t happen.

You know the story. Trump incited the rioters to stampede up Capitol Hill, where they stormed into the Capitol Building itself where Congress was performing its constitutional duty to certify President Biden’s victory over Trump on Nov. 3. Trump argues to this moment the election was “stolen.” It wasn’t. Yet he sought to actually prevent Congress from doing what it was obligated to do in ratifying an Electoral College victory for Biden.

He sought to subvert the democratic process. Indeed, many of the rioters were seen with nooses, zip ties, they shouted “Hang Mike Pence!” and shouted out “Where’s Nancy (Pelosi, speaker of the House)?”

Can there be a conviction, given that it would require 17 GOP senators to cross over? Two days ago it looked impossible. Today, not so much. GOP Senate Leader Mitch McConnell is said to be supportive of the impeachment effort, signaling a willingness to convict Trump when the Senate receives the single impeachment article. That suggestion might open the door for other Senate Republicans to join him. I can think of at least three others who are in the “convict Trump” category.

Trump’s days as president are all but over. The rest of the story still needs to play out. I want him banished from seeking federal public office.

It’s not too much to ask our senators to show courage and fealty to something other than to Donald Trump … you know, such as the oath they took to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. 

national news

GOP firewall is collapsing

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Well now, the Republican firewall that held firm against attacks the president of the United States is finally starting to fall apart.

Donald J. Trump will be impeached by the House on Wednesday. What makes this impeachment so much more meaningful  than his first impeachment is the presence of GOP House members who are joining their Democratic colleagues.

The word is out. U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney will vote to impeach Trump; so will Rep Adam Kinzinger. Same with Rep. John Katko. They’re all Republicans. What’s more, Cheney comes from longstanding GOP stock, being the daughter of former Congressman/White House chief of staff/Defense Secretary/Vice President Dick Cheney.

Republicans begin turning on Trump – POLITICO

Oh, and there’s more. Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate’s GOP leader, is expressing what is being called “broad support” of the impeachment movement under way in the House and is indicating a desire to vote to convict Trump once the single article finds its way to the Senate.

The House will impeach Trump on a single count of “incitement of insurrection,” which Trump clearly did when he exhorted a crowd of mobsters to march to Capitol Hill while Congress was meeting to ratify Joe Biden’s election as president. The mob, as you know, ransacked the Capitol Building, resulting in the deaths of five people — including a Capitol Police officer.

As a former Trump ally said, “If this isn’t an impeachable offense, I don’t know what is.”

This is getting pretty dramatic … ain’t it?

national news

Yep, Trump is, um … consequential

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald J. Trump has redefined the term “consequential,” as in he has been a “consequential president” for most of the four years he held the office.

The greatest consequence of the Trump tenure as president is about to occur this week. The U.S. House of Representatives is a lead-pipe cinch to impeach for the second time. To be clear, it appears to be equally certain that this impeachment won’t result in Trump’s removal from office. He’s only got nine days to go before President Biden takes the oath of office.

However, the guy who always wanted to make a name for himself — whether it was in business, in entertainment and now in politics — is going to hit the big time, if you know what I mean.

President Andrew Johnson got impeached and came within a single vote in the Senate of being convicted. President Bill Clinton got impeached and the Senate never came close to convicting him on any of the three articles it considered. Then came Trump’s first impeachment. He, too, skated clear with little to worry. Why? Because the GOP caucus in the Senate — except for Mitt Romney of Utah — lacked the guts to do what needed to be done; Trump needed to be convicted for seeking dirt on Biden from a foreign government.

Now he’s done it! He incited the riot that damaged the Capitol Building. It killed five people, including a D.C. Metro police officer. Trump called for an insurrection against the government. It’s on the record. We all saw him do it. We heard the words. He wanted the mob to prevent Congress from ratifying Biden’s election as president in 2020.

Now the House is going to make history by impeaching Trump a second time. House members will make the case that Trump must be barred from holding any federal office in the future. I am not at all confident they will persuade enough Republican senators to show the courage they need to keep this presidential idiot out of public office for the rest of his life.

But … by golly, Donald Trump has shown himself to be a “consequential president.” 

national news

How can Trump avoid conviction for this act?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It’s worth asking, which I will do.

How in the world can Donald Trump walk away from a nearly certain impeachment by the House of Representatives? It’s a rhetorical question, but it’s worth pondering.

Trump stood before a crowd of rioters and urged them to walk to Capitol Hill and try to “take back” the government that someone allegedly stole it from them.

Where I come from, that is inciting a riot. It is against the law. If “no one is above the law,” which Trump has actually acknowledged, then how does the president of the United States avoid being convicted of “inciting an insurrection,” which the single impeachment article alleges against him?

The Democrat-controlled House is all but certain to impeach Trump for the second time in his term as president. The question of the day, of course, rests with the Senate. The House needs a simple majority to impeach, the Senate requires a two-thirds vote to convict. The new Senate will be split 50-50, which certainly makes Senate conviction problematic, given the gutlessness of most Republicans in that body.

By my count, at least three Republican senators are speaking as though they could convict Trump: Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Mitt Romney of Utah. The rest of ’em? It’s a crap shoot for some of the GOP caucus, not so much for too many of them.

What remains to be seen and heard, though, is their rationale for voting “no,” if it comes to that.

Trump has few political friends, especially now that he has incited the riot that sought to topple the very fabric of our government. Were the Republicans who serve in the Senate who plan to acquit Trump had any sense of the gravity of what he has done, they would pivot immediately and do right by the Constitution they all swore an oath to protect.

To my earlier point, I will await the discussion on why Trump should walk free of the serious crime he clearly has committed against the government he once ran.

national news

Ulterior motive surfaces

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

There appears to be an ulterior, but noble nonetheless, motive behind the House of Representatives’ effort to impeach Donald Trump a second time, just days before he leaves office.

The House will vote Tuesday or Wednesday to impeach Trump for inciting the riot that erupted on Capitol Hill this past Wednesday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi knows the Senate won’t take the measure up until no earlier than Jan. 19; Joe Biden will take office the next day.

The Senate won’t consider the impeachment article possibly for weeks, maybe months from now. The aim I have read is to give President Biden some time to get the executive branch of government formed, confirmed by the Senate and then getting them all to work on solving the myriad problems confronting us.

The ulterior motive? It is to ban Trump from ever seeking public office again. House members could insert language into the single impeachment article that says Trump must not be allowed to run for president, or for that matter for a school board or county commissioner seat ever again.

He incited the riot that killed five Americans. He sought to overturn the results of a free and fair election. He needs to be punished for it. If the Senate trial won’t convict him and, thus, toss his sorry a** out of office, it has the authority to rule that he must be barred from seeking any public office.

We now shall see whether our federal lawmakers can complement that authority with the will to do what is right.

DC riot, Donald Trump, Joe Biden

Put ’em on the record

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I suppose it’s time to face reality.

The U.S. House of Representatives is going to impeach Donald J. Trump for a second time, making him No. 1 in the annals of presidential infamy as the only POTUS ever to be impeached twice.

Trump certainly deserved to be impeached and then tossed out for soliciting dirt on Joe Biden from the head of a foreign government. That didn’t come to pass in 2019. The Senate acquitted him because only one Republican senator — Mitt Romney of Utah — had the courage to stand up against Trump and stand for the Constitution.

Now, though, comes the second impeachment on a charge of inciting an insurrection against the federal government. As Trump’s former friend/ally/confidant Chris Christie — the former New Jersey governor — said, if that isn’t an impeachable offense, “then I don’t know what is.”

The reality though is that the House impeachment won’t result in a Senate trial in time for Trump to be booted out of the White House. He’s only got 10 days to go before President Biden takes the oath along with Vice President Kamala Harris.

An impeachment, though, does have value. Once the Senate gets the articles of impeachment, House and Senate defenders of Trump will have been forced to explain why in the name of love of country they oppose impeaching and/or convicting him of the crime for which the House will contend he committed.

They all will cast their votes. Some of them might make public statements. Whatever the case, the public will know who these individuals are and will be able to hold them accountable for their statements and (in)action.

Trump’s inciting of the mob this past Wednesday is, as CNN commentator John Avlon noted, “history book stuff.” That single act will be written into our nation’s history, where it will stand forever as a testament to the ugliness of the time that we ushered with the election of Donald John Trump as president of the United States.

So, let’s have that debate, shall we? I am looking forward to laughing my a** off listening to those try to defend such despicable — and seditionist — behavior from the president of the United States.