Tag Archives: DC riot

national news

Hawley = chicken hawk

Josh Hawley has crossed some sort of threshold from mere MAGA-induced right-winger to cartoon character.

He’s now considered what one could call a chicken hawk. He talks a good game but is a scaredy-cat when the feces hits the fan.

Hawley is a Republican U.S. senator from Missouri. He was photographed the morning of 1/6 offering a clenched-fist salute to the mob of traitors gathering on Capitol Hill. The mob was getting ready to attack the government in an insurrection aimed at stopping the certification of the 2020 presidential election results.

The mob got riled up. Then it attacked.

Ahh, but where was Sen. Clenched Fist? He hightailed it to an undisclosed, secure location somewhere in the bowels of the bastion of our democratic government.

Now the senator who contributed to the attack was nowhere to be seen or heard until the mob dissipated, the cops restored order and Congress was able to finish the job it is constitutionally mandated to perform.

Sen. Tough Guy now is the object of well-earned derision in many quarters. You may count me — no surprise! — as one American patriot who detests the young senator.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

 

crime news

Trump did not ‘do nothing’ on 1/6

If you’ll pardon the double negative in the headline, I want to make a brief statement on the major takeaway I gleaned from last night’s televised public hearing on the 1/6 insurrection.

It is that the narrative on what happened while the attack on the U.S. Capitol was underway has changed in a small, but significant, manner.

We had been told that Trump “did nothing” for more than three hours to stop the traitors from attacking the government. Now we have heard that Trump made a conscious decision to do nothing. Therein lies the change in narrative.

Now we have come to understand that Trump’s inaction was planned prior to the event, which means that the POTUS was engaged actively in ensuring that he wouldn’t call out the National Guard, that he wouldn’t tell the attackers to cease their assault on our government and that he wanted them to capture Vice President Mike Pence and, well, do serious bodily harm to him.

There’s even better news — from my standpoint, at least. House select committee chairman Bennie Thompson announced that the televised hearings will resume in September.

That is all right with me.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot

House panel sets table nicely

Members of the House select committee examining the 1/6 insurrection and assault on the Capitol Building have set the table nicely for the rest of the televised hearings we’re going to watch.

Oh, and make no mistake: I will watch them all … if I can.

Committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney — one of two Republicans serving on the panel — has set the stage for a possible recommendation of criminal indictments against Donald J. Trump. Chairman Bennie Thompson said as much, too, suggesting that the evidence the committee has seen to date present a planned, orchestrated plot conducted from within the Oval Office to overturn the 2020 presidential election results and keep Trump in power.

From my perch in the cheap seats, that is an illegal act. Trump broke the law. Attorney General Merrick Garland well might find he has no choice but to send this matter to a grand jury, which then could indict the 45th president of the United States on federal felony charges.

I guess a quick word of thanks is in order to Chairman Thompson for letting us see this investigation play out in our living rooms.

Not that I need convincing. I am learning a bit more about the Constitution and the protection it provides against the kind of lawlessness we witnessed unfolding in that attack on our democratic process.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot

Waiting now to see what AG will do

We are all going to know in due course — but it won’t occur within the next few days — what lurks inside the head and the heart of the U.S. attorney general, Merrick Garland.

The House select committee examining the insurrection that occurred on 1/6 is going to make a decision after it concludes its testimony-taking from witnesses who saw what happened in the White House on that hideous day.

Committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney more or less let it be known what the panel is thinking, which is that Donald J. Trump was criminally liable for what he did to provoke the traitorous mob into attacking the Capitol Building. What Trump did that day, Cheney said, was “illegal” and “immoral.” The illegal part lies at the crux of what Garland is facing.

If the committee determines that the 45th POTUS committed an illegal act, then it falls onto Garland to decide whether the Justice Department should charge him with committing a felony.

It’s never been done before. Thus, AG Garland is facing an unprecedented quandary. Garland has declared he will follow the facts wherever they lead. If they lead his legal team into the Oval Office that day, well, that means an indictment is a cinch.

Garland strikes many of as a careful, thoughtful man, one who is not prone to embark on half-baked fishing expeditions just to make a political point.

You know what I want to see happen. In truth, though, the desires of the public should mean nothing to Garland as he ponders what he should do.

I just want to remind everyone about a fundamental truth that has been repeated publicly to the point of it becoming almost cliche. It is that “no one — not even the president of the United States — is above the law.”

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot

How will GOP defend this?

Americans are likely to witness one of the most artful dodges in the nation’s political history.

My only hope is that most Americans will see it for what it is: an effort to cover the backside of a corrupt, immoral and ignorant president who endorsed an insurrection and didn’t lift a finger to stop it when it occurred.

We’ve just seen Day One of the televised hearings of the House of Representatives select committee examining the 1/6 insurrection.

Donald Trump was responsible for inciting the assault on our nation’s capital and our democratic process. I reached that conclusion long ago.

We are going to hear recordings of Republican congressional leaders condemn the president’s non-response to the insurrection. They will tell us once again that Trump provoked the attack. That he is singularly responsible for the effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Now, though, they stand with the criminal who masqueraded as our commander in chief. How are they going to defend what clearly is the indefensible conduct of a man possessed with the burning desire to cling to power.

The former POTUS’s daughter has said she endorses the view of then-Attorney General William Barr, who said Trump’s claim of “widespread voter fraud” in the 2020 election is nothing but “bullsh**.”

Now we have learned that The Donald actually endorsed the chant of “Hang Mike Pence!” that came from the traitorous mob, telling aides that the former vice president of the United States deserved to be hanged. Incredible!

So, again comes the question: How in the name of democracy do the Trump toadies in government and across the land defend this individual? 

Well, there will be an effort made to deflect what we have heard and seen with our ears and our eyes. Americans of conscience must not let this deflection succeed.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot

Disqualification … maybe?

A good friend brought something to my attention while responding to an earlier blog post wondering about how to keep Donald Trump from ever holding public office for as long as he lives.

He cited Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which states the following: No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

The U.S. House select 1/6 committee is examining whether Donald J. Trump committed an act of insurrection against the government on 1/6 by inciting the assault on Capitol Hill by the mob of traitors who sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election … the one that Trump lost to Joe Biden.

What does any of this mean? Consider what could occur.

The Justice Department, after hearing all the evidence — which to my mind is pretty damning already — could indict Trump for citing an insurrection. Trump could go to trial. A jury could convict the former POTUS of deliberately seeking to overturn the election results.

Then Congress — with a conviction in hand — could vote, under the Constitution’s rules, bar Trump from ever seeking public office.

Few things in life would make me happier than to see that occur.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Rage mounts hourly

I have said all along that the 1/6 insurrection is difficult to watch and it gets more difficult as time marches on, reminding me a bit of the 9/11 attack’s effect on my emotions.

Still, the House select committee’s hearing that came to prime time this evening has been riveting, even as it fills me with rage over what happened that day during the siege on Capitol Hill.

There will be more to learn and more to discern from the hearings that will continue over the course of several weeks.

I am left to wonder how in the name of governmental integrity those who dismiss what occurred on 1/6 can continue to deny what the rest of us witnessed yet again tonight.

It was not a “routine Capitol tour.” It was not a part of “normal political discourse.” It was not a “peaceful demonstration.”

Good grief, man! It was an insurrection against our democratic process! We have been told in the clearest terms possible that Donald Trump orchestrated it. He did nothing to stop in real time. Trump sought to cling to power and do something that no previous president ever had attempted, which was to commit an act of sedition against the government he took an oath to protect.

I am even angrier than ever at the man who masqueraded as the nation’s chief executive. I thought I had maxed out by anger.

Silly me. I need to get ready to get even angrier.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot

Waiting for bomb blast

I am awaiting the start of televised testimony tonight into the insurrection that sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

I’ll admit to having made up my mind long ago about what happened, who is responsible and what should occur. Still, I await the testimony tonight and in subsequent 1/6 House select committee hearings with a bit of eager anticipation.

I know that Donald Trump incited the riot. I also know that he did nothing to stop it. I know he hasn’t expressed the slightest shred of public regret or sadness at the loss of life and the injuries suffered that day. I also believe the Justice Department should indict the ex-POTUS on charges of conspiring to commit sedition.

My mind will not change as a result of these hearings. Indeed, it might harden. I well might feel more inclined the believe the very worst about a man I have despised long before he became a politician.

But … I intend to watch. You’ll be hearing from me in the days to come. Honest.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Bring on the fireworks

I keep getting teased by reports of “explosive” testimony at the 1/6 hearings that will be televised beginning Thursday night.

One of the explosions reportedly will come from recorded testimony offered by Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner, who have told the House select 1/6 committee about what they saw during the insurrection, how they implored Daddy Donald Trump to “do something” to stop the riot and how Daddy Donald did, shall we say, not a damn thing.

Let’s remember something about the ex-POTUS: He has yet to express a single word of regret about what happened that day when he incited the riot that erupted on Capitol Hill; not a word of sadness over the death of the police officers, not a word of regret that rioters defecated on the floor of Congress; not a single expression of remorse that the crowd that gathered on The Ellipse that morning had spun out of control.

Now we well might be treated to “explosive” testimony from Ivanka and Jared that Donald Trump let the riot continue, allowed the traitors to threaten to “hand Mike Pence!” and conspired with others within the White House to launch a coup to prevent Joe Biden to assume the presidency he won in a fair, free and legal election.

Whatever occurs during the several days of televised testimony, you can count me as a surefire audience member who will be listening to every word. I’ll make sure I’m sitting far enough from the TV to avoid any blowback from the blast.

Johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot

Hope vs. fear

I am full of equal parts hope and fear as the U.S.  House 1/6 select committee prepares to air in public much of what it has heard in private about the insurrection that occurred on the Sixth of January, 2021.

I hope that the public will rally around what I am certain will be appalling evidence that the former president conspired to overturn the results of a fair and legal election.

My fear is that The Donald’s cultists will be energized to label it all as “fake news” and well could win the argument that will ensue.

Moreover, I hope that the public’s rage at what it learns will erode even more Trump’s hold on the Republican Party, that he will be seen as the clear and present danger to the democratic system of government he once took an oath to protect.

Then again, I fear that the Trumpkins’ grip will tighten and the GOP will continue to nominate certifiable nut jobs to high office.

We’re coming up on the 50th anniversary of the burglary at the Democratic National Commitee offices in the Watergate complex. On June 17, 1972, seven dipsh**s were caught rifling through files. The coverup that ensued found its way to the White House. President Nixon had to resign.

He quit because he was told by Republican senators he didn’t have the support within the body to survive an impeachment trial.

My hope is that enough Republicans will surface after the public revelations of the 1/6 insurrection that Trump will be forced into hiding, never to be seen or heard from again.

My fear is that the Republican Party today is populated by cowards.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com