Tag Archives: Donald Trump

national news

Now … for my favorite

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Those who read this blog regularly know that I have spent countless hours blasting politicians and assorted other public figures for reasons that run far and wide across the field of thought.

At this moment, I intend to take a look at another type of pol and public figure: the individuals who do good for us and those who fit the mold that comports with my own bias.

The most loathsome politician walking among us — hands down! — continues to be Donald J. Trump. I won’t waste my time — or your time, for that matter — rehashing what I already have put on the record about The Donald.

Who’s my favorite politician? I need to give that some serious thought.

What do I want in a politician? I want that person who is able to work with pols of both major parties. I want him or her to be able to compromise without surrendering his or her principles. I want my favorite pol to be aware of his or her place in history at all times. I want that politician to be able to make brave decisions in tough times.

I guess you could surmise I am talking about President Biden. Hmm. I might be.

I consider myself to be a “good government progressive.” I am not wedded to strict ideology. Being a 70-plus-year-old red-blooded American patriot, my strict ideology days are long behind me. I used to admire ideologues when I was in my 20s and 30s. Then I learned about all those shades of gray that color our arguments.

Let me ponder something for just a moment. My favorite politician or public figure?

I’ll take the plunge and declare it to be Joseph R. Biden Jr.

I want him to succeed. Given the goals he has declared for the nation, we all will benefit from his success.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Lock him up?

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Donald J. Trump used to relish hearing crowds chant “Lock her up!” when the issue turned to how Hillary Clinton handled her email operation during her time as secretary of state.

You’ve seen the video of the Republican presidential candidate just letting the cultists go on and on. Right? Sure you have!

Well, what do we have now? We have reports that as a lame-duck POTUS, the White House hauled 15 boxes of classified information out of the presidential residence and sent them to Mar-a-Lago, Fla.

The Justice Department is now in the midst of an investigation into whether someone broke the law when The Donald exited Washington for his glitzy resort. Hmm, do ya think?

Donald Trump was the most ignorant imbecile ever elected to the nation’s highest office. He had no respect for the law or the secrets he took a solemn and sacred oath to protect.

I am left to simply shake my head and to wonder whether I should lead a chant of my own to “Lock him up!”

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Esper steps up … but why did he wait?

I would be willing to give former Defense Secretary Mark Esper unvarnished praise for calling out Donald J. Trump for the weirdness he fomented during his single term in office as POTUS.

Except that he is a bit late with the revelations he has laid out there for us.

He is trying to hype a memoir he has written. I get that and I have no problem with a fellow trying to make a buck; hey, it’s the American Way.

Esper now says he cannot back Trump if the former Imbecile in Chief decides to run for POTUS again. That’s fine, too.

He could have saved some lives, though, had he blown the whistle, forced Trump to fire him and then sounded the alarm as the nation approached 1/6 and the hideous aftermath of the 2020 presidential election.

Oh well. I suspect we are far from hearing the last of former Trumpkins who have tales to tell.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news, political news

How does he justify a return?

Donald Trump continues to rattle around out there, making speeches and issuing pronouncements and condemnations. He keeps yammering about the Big Lie and just cannot get past the fact that he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.

Now we see an astonishing number of senior Trump aides turning on him.

The former attorney general, two former defense secretaries, a press secretary, aides to the ex-first lady, all have turned on The Donald.

He might be indicted for crimes committed during his term in office.

We keep hearing reports of totally bizarre notions coming from his mouth. How he considered bombing Mexico to stop drug traffickers. How he keeps talking about the size of his crowds and how all those cheering fanatics give his pronouncements credibility they do not deserve.

Oh, and how about the Mother’s Day message he sent out that was filled with epithets he hurled at left-leaning judges and anyone who opposes him?

This guy says he is thinking about running again for president. For the third time?

We’ve had one president serve two non-consecutive terms. Grover Cleveland was elected in 1884, lost re-election to Benjamin Harrison in 1888, then defeated President Harrison in 1892. Cleveland lost in 1888 because Harrison got enough Electoral College votes while Cleveland garnered more ballots. Hmm. Did the defeated Cleveland claim electoral theft? Nope.

I cannot yet come to grips with the notion that the former Moron in Chief is actually being considered a frontrunner for the Republican nomination in 2024. Oh, but wait! Now we hear from actual GOP politicians who are finally speaking out against the idiot.

All of this leaves me shaking my noggin in disbelief.

I am going to stick with my previously stated view that all of this is a sham. The Donald ain’t gonna run. I just wish he would fade away.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

military news, national news

Esper tells surprising truth

Mark Esper, the latest member of the Donald Trump Cabinet to spill the beans on the chaos within the White House during Trump’s term, has given a surprisingly candid answer to a direct question.

He told “60 Minutes” about the thought Trump expressed about launching missiles in Mexico to stop drug traffickers. He said he pushed back on the notion that the POTUS was suggesting.

Why didn’t he reveal then, in real time what Trump was pondering, came the question from correspondent Norah O’Donnell.

“I was afraid I would get fired,” Esper said, adding that there was “no guarantee” that Trump would bring in a blind loyalist to succeed him, adding that then the nation would be in an even worse mess.

Hmm. Wow! Well stated, Mr. Defense Secretary.

Trump eventually did fire Esper because of the defense boss’s disagreement over invoking the Insurrection Act in response to D.C. protests over the George Floyd killing in Minneapolis. Esper said White House chief of staff Mark Meadows him Trump was unhappy with him because he was insufficiently loyal to Trump.

Esper said he responded, “I take my oath to the Constitution, not to a man.”

And yet … there remain voters out here who think it’s OK for a POTUS to demand personal loyalty over the oath all of them — even the president himself — take when they serve the public.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Esper joins the Trump tell-all brigade

You and I now may add former Defense Secretary Mark Esper to the list of chumps who have come clean on what it was like serving under the guidance of the most imbecilic individual ever elected to the nation’s highest office.

Esper writes in a forthcoming book that Donald J. Trump actually talked out loud and in the presence of others about whether he could fire missiles into Mexico to stop the drug traffickers … and then find a way to deny that he did it!

Trump ended up firing Esper as defense boss near the end of Trump’s term in the White House. I guess he might’ve gotten tired of Esper resisting such nutty notions coming from the man masquerading as our commander in chief.

My goodness, how many more of these revelations is it going to take to sink into the thick, gullible, vacuous skulls of the Trumpkins who continue to give this idiot a pass?

Former Attorney General William Barr has written that Trump refused to accept the fact that he lost the 2020 election. There have been countless other tales told about Trump’s obsession with voter fraud that did not exist, of his utter lack of attention to anything resembling the details of public policy.

The hits just keep coming. Ain’t it fun?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

political news

Way to go, Ohio GOP!

Donald J. Trump endorsed a guy who once pounded him for this and that. The endorsee, J.D. Vance, on Tuesday won the Ohio Republican Party primary vote for U.S. Senate.

Get this, though. Trump attended a rally on primary election eve and forgot the guy’s name. He stood there in front of the cheering mob and fluffed Vance’s name on at least two occasions.

Still, Vance won the GOP nomination.

I don’t know what that means, other than Ohio Republican voters must be, um, as lame-brained as their hero. Eek!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

media news

WH reporters’ dinner is back

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This much came through as I watched President Biden do a brief comic riff from the podium at the newly reinstated White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

It is that he ain’t no Barack Obama, one of his predecessors whose comic timing is good enough for the former POTUS to take on the road.

Still, it was good to see Joe Biden laughing at himself along with the insults hurled at others in the room and around the country.

The coronavirus pandemic nixed the previous two WH reporters’ dinners. Biden’s immediate predecessor in the White House labeled the media the “enemy of the people,” so there would be no way on God’s good Earth he would — or could — appear before those he despised. That means Biden was the first president to appear at this event in six years.

The event that began during the Calvin Coolidge administration has been set aside for Washington to take a light-hearted look at itself and to salute and honor the journalists who report the news to the world. Particularly poignant Saturday night was the tribute to journalists who have died covering the news, reminding us that even the messengers of world events can become victims of those events.

Some, moreover, have been held captive for years. Why? Because they reported the truth.

OK, I started this blog by saying that Joe Biden isn’t as clever with the quip as Barack Obama. I am going to assign him an “A” grade nonetheless for being a thick-skinned good sport during a troubled time. There is nothing wrong with that.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Can there be a more frightening outcome?

Believe me, please, when I say that I do not scare easily. It takes a lot to rattle this old man, a guy who’s been shelled by enemy troops, flown over an erupting volcano and been catapulted off the deck of a nuclear-powered U.S. Navy aircraft carrier.

Thus, when I say something gives me the willies, know that it’s for real. I can think of nothing more frightening to our cherished American system of representative democracy than to see Donald J. Trump return to within spitting distance of the White House.

I want to add an important caveat to this notion, which is that I remain highly dubious that the former POTUS is going to run for the office in 2024. I will not swallow the swill being offered by pundits who contend that at this moment he is frontrunner for the Republican Party presidential nomination.

I also want to point out that Trump’s fundamental message is the same as it was when Joe Biden thumped his ass in the 2020 election: the election was stolen. Dammit to hell! It wasn’t! President Biden was elected fairly, squarely and legally. The boring message that Trump keeps delivering is beginning to fall on an increasing number of GOP deaf ears.

For the United States to return to the days of pathological lying, of incompetence at every level of the executive branch of government, of a president who is scorned and ridiculed by our nation’s allies and seeks to cozy up to a bully who has been committing crimes against humanity in his illegal Ukraine War signals a collective depravity I didn’t think could exist in this great nation.

We’re going to have our midterm election soon. Then we’ll start digesting news about the GOP field that will take shape for the next presidential contest. As the Almighty is my witness, I cannot fathom how our great nation could allow itself to be sucked into the abyss that awaits were it to bring back the Trump Era.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

Is there an indictment in Trump’s future?

If we are to believe the New York Times reporting on this matter — and I do, generally — then it appears that Donald J. Trump will dodge the indictment bullet in the Manhattan district attorney’s office.

The newly installed DA, Aaron Bragg, appears to be closing up shop in his investigation into the Trump Organization’s business dealings. Many of his chief assistant prosecutors have quit the office. Bragg isn’t inclined to pursue the former POTUS any further.

Now, does that forestall a probe being conducted by New York Attorney General Letitia James? Hah! Hardly.

However, it could be argued that without the NYC prosecutor’s office going full tilt on its investigation, the AG’s office might be caught with fewer evidence-gathering tools at its disposal.

Nor does this mean that the 1/6 investigation ongoing in the U.S. House of Representatives is going to flicker out and die. House intel committee chairman Bennie Thompson plans to commence public hearings in June on his panel’s probe into the insurrection. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland is standing by with possible plans to take legal action against all sorts of players from the Trump administration. Hmm, maybe even against The Donald himself?

Oh, one more thing. We have that probe going on down yonder in Fulton County, Ga., where legal eagles are investigating whether Trump broke state law by demanding election officials to “find” enough votes to turn that state’s 2020 presidential electoral result from Joe Biden to Trump.

The plot is still pretty damn thick, even if the Manhattan DA is bowing out.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com