Tag Archives: GOP

national news, political news

What is wrong with Rs?

Leave a comment

For as long as I can remember I have shied away from lambasting those who adhere to a political party’s ideology or follow its guidance over the cliff … just because party leaders tell ‘em to do it.

I can’t remain silent now as the Georgia runoff for the U.S. Senate approaches. My question is this: What in the world is wrong with Georgia Republicans who continue to stand behind the moron masquerading as a candidate for the Senate seat held by Democrat Raphael Warnock?

Herschel Walker is without question the most unfit, unqualified individual to run for the Senate in the past century. Hell, maybe ever!

And yet … we see political polls showing the race still in the neck-and-neck category.

My goodness! The list of disqualifiers for Walker is approaching the list that accompanies Donald J. Trump.

He preaches a strong anti-abortion stance, but has been accused by at least two women of forcing them to abort babies conceived by Walker himself. He stands as a “family guy,” but has nothing to do with many of the children he brought into this world. Walker claimed a tax exemption in Texas that goes to “primary residents” of this state … but he’s running for political office in Georgia. Walker recently spent several minutes on the stump mumbling nonsense about whether it’s better to be a vampire or a werewolf. Finally, Walker cannot speak with any semblance of intelligence about any serious policy matter.

Yet he continues to run close to Sen. Warnock.

This phenomenon makes me wonder out loud what I have kept to myself for virtually my entire adult life: Are grassroots Republican voters really that stupid?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

McCarthy is no Pelosi

Leave a comment

Having declared my faint hope that the cowardly U.S. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy will find the courage to stand up to the MAGA cabal within his congressional caucus, I want to offer a brief comparison to the woman he hopes to succeed as speaker of the House.

McCarthy will march to the MAGA cadence, I am quite sure. The current speaker, McCarthy’s fellow Californian Nancy Pelosi, also felt pressure from her progressive House members. They wanted her to impeach Donald Trump far sooner than she eventually did.

Pelosi stood firm against the likes of The Squad and other ultra-progressives. She, in effect, told them to pipe down and let her lead the House as she saw fit.

Pelosi eventually announced the impeachment inquiry after the then-president sought a political favor from the Ukraine president, seeking him to dig up dirt on Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. The speaker was not going to be pushed into acting prematurely.

Will the man who wants to be speaker show the same courage?

I am trying to stop snickering at the notion.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Will the coward find courage?

I have gone on record calling Kevin McCarthy, the man who wants to become speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, an unmitigated coward.

The House Republican leader is trying to muster enough House votes to be elected to the post he wants to inherit from Democrat Nancy Pelosi. He doesn’t have 218 votes yet, as some of the 222 GOP House members have said they want someone else to lead the body.

How can the coward demonstrate some needed courage in the event he takes the gavel from Speaker Pelosi? He can stand up against the MAGA wing of his GOP caucus, telling them to settle down and learn to work with Democrats if they hope to get anything constructive done in the118th Congress.

Some of the MAGA-ites have declared they do not want to work with Democrats. They say working with the other party is similar to surrendering to their philosophy.

The MAGA Republicans are feeling their oats these days, despite so many like-minded candidates losing in the midterm election to Democrats. They hold plenty of power as itis, but they want more.

Whoever ascends to the speakership — and it well could be McCarthy — can show significant courage by telling the MAGA cabal to, um … stuff it.

Will it happen? I am not holding my breath!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, national security

Is Walker a Georgian … or not?

1 Comment

Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensberger, has been in the news around the nation for the past two years.

His notoriety isn’t about to expire, given what has been revealed –allegedly — about the GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate in Georgia.

Herschel Walker keeps a “primary residence” in Tarrant County, Texas. Walker is running for the Senate from Georgia. What’s wrong with this picture? Well, it might be that Walker doesn’t live in the state he wants to represent in the Senate.

Oh … my. What does that mean for Raffensberger, the chief election official in Georgia? It means he might be forced, just a week before runoff Election Day, to disqualify Walker. Does he act now, sending a message to Georgians who are set to vote either for Walker or the Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock?

Raffensberger, newly re-elected as secretary of state, is no stranger to controversy. Donald Trump pressured Raffensberger to “find” 11,780 votes for Trump to swing the state that had voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 president election. Raffensberger declined, saying he could do no such thing under the law.

A part of me cannot escape the poetic justice that would be delivered if it is determined that Herschel Walker — a one-time University of Georgia football star — no longer calls Georgia home. That he actually is hanging his hat these days in Texas.

Why should anyone care? Because Democrats have a chance to win a 51st Senate seat, given them an actual majority in the upper legislative chamber.

It also goes to demonstrate in graphic terms the miserable quality of Herschel Walker as a candidate for the U.S. Senate.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, national news

Not all Rs are evil … honest!

Contrary to what some readers of this blog might presume, your blogger doesn’t hate all Republican politicians. Far from it.

The detestable Republicans out there are the subscribers to the MAGA cult doctrine espoused by believers in The Big Lie.

These are the pols among the cabal of cultists who refused to impeach or convict a president who incited the assault on our government, who sought to overturn the results of a free, fair and legal presidential election. Beyond that, there exists to this very minute Republicans who are willing to put country ahead of party.

These also are Republicans whose future concerns me as we move past the midterm election and look ahead to the 2024 election. About one-third of the Senate will be on the ballot and among those up for re-election are the likes of Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, the lone Republican who voted to convict Donald Trump in his first impeachment trial.

We witnessed already the damage that election deniers and MAGA worshipers can do to Republican officeholders. I am concerned, thus, for the future of the likes of Sen. Romney, who values his oath to the nation more than loyalty to an individual.

My congressional district in North Texas is going to be represented by a MAGA follower. I look for Republican Rep.-elect Keith Self to be front and center on the calls to look high and low for dirt on Hunter Biden, Anthony Fauci and would vote to impeach President Biden for make-believe transgressions.

We need more thoughtful pols — Democrats and Republicans — who understand that compromise is the most critical ingredient in creating good government.

I know they’re out there.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

economic news

Herschel shows chutzpah

Herschel Walker, the Republican candidate for U.S. senator from Georgia, likely doesn’t know what the word “chutzpah” means.

But he’s showing a whole lot of it.

Consider that Walker is receiving a tax break for a “primary residence” in — hold on! — Texas, where he apparently still lives.

So, you may wonder: How does this former football star pull this off? He might not. The Texas Tribune reports that he might violating Texas tax law with this dubious homestead exemption based on his “primary residence.”

The dictionary, by the way, describes “chutzpah” as a Hebrew word meaning “utter gall.”

Herschel Walker still gets tax break on $3 million Texas home | The Texas Tribune

Here’s a thought that’s been kicking around the past day or so: Herschel Walker — who is in a runoff against Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock — might be declared ineligible to run for public office in Georgia if he’s going to declare his residence to be in Texas.

I have referred to Walker as the nation’s premier dumbass. If what is being alleged is true, he is giving dumbasses everywhere a bad name.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Liz Cheney: GOP hero

1 Comment

Now that I am in the mood to hand out kudos to public officials who are leaving the stage, I want to say a word or two in praise of a congresswoman I never imagined praising for her work on my behalf.

Stand tall, Liz Cheney.

Cheney is a Republican from Wyoming who this summer got drummed out of office in the GOP primary by a candidate who was promoted by the former POTUS. Why? Because Cheney chose to stand for the Constitution, chose to honor her oath to protect and defend the Constitution and because both of those matters went counter to the wishes of the POTUS who refused to do either.

She became a target of the MAGA cultists who profess fealty to Donald Trump.

Cheney hasn’t wavered in her commitment to the Constitution. She continues to serve on the House select committee formed to examine the 1/6 insurrection/attack on the Capitol. She blames Trump for inciting the attack. She has vowed to do all she can to prevent Trump from ever entering the Oval Office again. She is one of two Republicans — the other being Adam Kinzinger of Illinois — to serve on this committee; I will have more to say about Kinzinger later.

Liz Cheney makes no apologies for her staunch conservative views. She voted with Trump more than 90% of the time during Trump’s term in office. I truly understand her philosophy. She remains adamantly pro-gun, pro-life, anti-tax, and pro-small government. She is a conservative’s conservative.

Cheney also is equally adamant that she must follow her oath. She has done so gloriously in rising up against the ex-president who incited the assault on our government in an effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

I salute this public official. I wish her all the very best.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Joe Biden

Run, Joe, run!

As a general rule, I am not inclined to presume what incumbent officeholders should do, whether to run for re-election or call it quits.

I’ll make an exception right now: President Joe Biden should run for re-election in 2024. 

OK, so why the change? It’s because I believe he is doing a good job as president and that he is prepared to take on another four years as our head of state and commander in chief.

I do not buy into the rumors about alleged cognitive decline. I know about the verbal gaffes. He’s been making rhetorical mistakes for decades. It’s nothing new; it’s likely an after-effect from the stuttering condition he suffered as a child.

I have no earthly idea who the Republicans will nominate in 2024. Given the GOP’s obstructionist nature since they lost the presidency in 2020, it likely won’t matter who carries the party banner into the political battle against the Democrats.

To that end, I hope it’s the president who carries his party’s flag onto the field.

Joe Biden has managed to get Congress to approve gun violence legislation, to back his infrastructure revamping plan, to help reduce the cost of prescription drugs. On his watch, more jobs have been created in a single presidential term than any time in history. The jobless rate is now at pre-COVID pandemic levels. President Biden has persuaded our allies to back the U.S. economic sanction effort to fight the Russians’ illegal invasion of Ukraine. NATO is more united than ever.

Yes, Joe Biden has worked to do to combat the illegal immigration problem. My belief is that he is working daily to fix it. Yes, despite the threats of impeachment and further obstruction, I am going to retain my faith in Joe Biden’s ability to work the complexities of government in search of a solution.

He’s been at it for decades. Joe Biden isn’t ready to stop.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Deniers make no sense

The election deniers who continue to yammer about “theft” of elections and the rigging of outcomes that deliver losses to Republican candidates simply baffle me.

I do not understand how this alleged “rigging” is supposed to work. In Arizona, the election denying GOP candidate for governor, Kari Lake, refuses to concede that she lost to Democrat Katie Hobbs. Republican county officials in Cochise and Mojave counties refuse to certify the results because, they allege, of irregularities in the balloting.

This is nonsense. It is foolishness. It is dangerous.

These believers in The Big Lie have declared war on our democratic process. They cannot be allowed to spread their lies and do potentially irreparable harm to our cherished republic.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, legal news

Why target FBI?

Republicans are preparing to wage war on several fronts against the government they proclaim they want to protect

They have several targets in their sights but for the moment I want to focus on just one of them: the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The FBI used to be considered a sacred cow in GOP political circles. They dared not criticize the elite federal law enforcement agency for fear of being labeled “soft on crime,” or being a squishy liberal.

No more, man.

The FBI is now Public Enemy No. 1 among many Republicans for doing its job legally and by the book. What did the FBI do to incur the GOP wrath?

It acted on orders from the Department of Justice, the attorney general and entered the home of a former president to look for evidence of a possible (or probable) crime. The ex-POTUS took several boxes full of classified documents with him from the White House to his glitzy estate in Florida. AG Merrick Garland sought a federal judge’s permission — also by the book — to search the ex-POTUS’s estate for evidence. The judge granted it and so he sent the agents to the house to conduct the search.

That’s a no-no, according to the GOP stalwarts who defend the ex-POTUS to the hilt. How dare the feds do their job?

They are gunning for the attorney general and — get a load of this! — for the FBI director, Christopher Wray, who was appointed to his post by Donald Trump, the aforementioned ex-POTUS.

Let’s understand a couple of key points.

One is that the attorney general did nothing out of the ordinary. He ran all the necessary traps before authorizing the search at Trump’s estate. He acted within the law. Accordingly, AG Garland has declared that “no one is above the law,” and by “no one,” he means not a single American citizen … and that includes former presidents of the United States.

The FBI has not been “weaponized.” The AG has utilized the law enforcement agency totally within its scope of authority and for Republicans to declare their intention to “defund the FBI” makes a mockery of their criticism of progressives who said the same thing about local police agencies.

The world has been turned upside-down. We need to regain our balance.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com