Tag Archives: Jan. 6

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How has my life changed?

Every now and then, I get a question from a High Plains Blogger reader that makes me struggle for an answer.

Such as this one, from a critic: How has my life been made worse by Donald Trump? He is likely to read this post and might respond to me, probably telling me I suffer from terminal Trump Derangement Syndrome. I’ll plead guilty to it.

Truth is, my life isn’t worse because of Trump. I’m on a fixed income and Trump has been unable to mess with it. I live comfortably in my North Texas home. I am making friends. I have two dogs who adore their daddy. I am enrolled in the Department of Veterans Affairs health care program, so my health insurance isn’t affected by Trump’s gutting of it.

None of this is about me. Trump’s ruination of our democratic republic has caused me some anxiety. He has made me jittery at times. My sleep deprivation is worsening and I suppose I could lay some of that at Trump’s feet.

I see polling data that tells me most Americans feel uneasy about the direction Trump is leading this nation. Americans dislike the tariffs, we’re angry that his promise to end inflation has flopped, his pledge to end the Russia-Ukraine war hasn’t borne fruit.

The most frightening act he’s committed was to pardon all the traitors who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, including those convicted of attacking police officers assigned to keep law and order. And then he accuses President Biden’s border policies of endangering Americans because he lets felons enter the country illegally. Good ever-lovin’ grief, man!

Has my life been altered by the moron in chief? Not in a tangible way. I suppose it’s fair to ask whether the MAGA crowd has seen its life enhanced by the policies enacted in Trump’s name. If you’re worth billions of dollars, I suppose you’re breathing a bit more easily these days.

Meanwhile, I shall keep my eyes focused forward … to Nov. 3, Election Day.

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Is a Jan. 6 replay possible?

You have no need to answer the question posed in the headline, because I know the answer. Damn right it’s possible … and Donald Trump has signaled it himself. Imagine that, eh?

Trump said the other day he might not accept the results of the midterm election if they don’t go his way. Meaning that if voters react the way every pundit from Pensacola to Portland is suggesting. That is, voters are likely to show the Republican-led Congress the door and hand the House — and maybe the Senate — gavel to the Democrats.

What does non-acceptance mean? We saw it play out in horrifying and graphic terms on Jan. 6, 2021 when Trump provoked the insurrection and sent the mob to Capitol Hill to storm the seat of our federal government while Congress was certifying the Electoral College victory of Joe Biden over Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

Spare me the crap that he called for a “peaceful demonstration.” The moron did nothing for hours while the mob gathered and then stormed into the Capitol building, smashing windows and assaulting police officers assigned to protect the place.

Some folks died in that assault. Many others were hurt. Capitol cops were beaten by the mob. The traitors threatened the life of Vice President Mike Pence. Some mobsters even defecated on the floor of the Capitol building.

But … what did the felon in chief do when he took office in January 2025? He pardoned all of them! Including the most violent among them!

So, when this imbecile says he might not accept the results of another free, fair and legal election, no one on this side of the grass should doubt what could transpire.

national news

Peaceful transition is part of democracy

When I hear former presidents of the United States discuss the value of turning over the keys to the White House to successors in a “peaceful transition of power,” It is absolutely impossible to avoid bringing to mind what happened on Jan. 6, 2021.

Barack Obama famously spoke of the temporary nature of his family’s residency in the White House. As did George W. Bush before him and Bill Clinton before Bush’s election in 2000. I listen to these men’s comments occasionally on social media platforms that continue to carry those remarks.

When I do, I am drawn immediately to Donald Trump’s refusal to acknowledge defeat in 2020 and the assault he allowed to occur on Jan. 6 on the Capitol as Congress met to ratify the result of the free, fair and legal election of Joe Biden as president.

Presidents must acknowledge as these recent occupants of the White House have done that they are there for a short time. Obama said that “we are renters here.”

All that happened on Jan. 6 only serves to remind me of what could occur post-2028 election if a candidate from the Democratic Party manages to defeat whoever the Republicans present as a candidate for the presidency.

It’s also why I am going to stake my country’s future on the ability of our Constitution to do the job our founders intended when they created this government. The Constitution is strong and it will endure.

national news

Trump legitimizes treason!

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How does one process the action on the first day of his return to high office … other than to recognize that Donald J. Trump delivered on a campaign promise.\

Just after taking the oath as POTUS, Trump pardoned roughly 1,500 of the traitorous goons who stormed the nation’s Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election that Trump lost to President Biden.

It was arguably the darkest day in the history of our republic. Thousands of people stormed the Capitol that day, waging hand-to-hand combat with police officers seeking to protect members of Congress and Vice President Mike Pence from the anger emanating from the assailants.

Americans never in our history had witnessed such a flagrant attack on the very system of government we say we cherish.

Well, Trump called the prisoners “hostages” and issued blanket pardons to them.

Utterly and completely disgusting and abhorrent to those of us who value the rule of law.

This American patriot — that would be me — am simply astonished at what transpired after the inauguration.

Donald Trump has just legitimized a clear and present act of treason against the government he swore to defend and protect.

I’ll have more to say on the other executive orders Trump issued, but first … I need to catch my breath.

national news

Jan. 6 to come … and go

Pop quiz time: How many Americans do you think knew that Jan. 6 was a politically significant date prior to the onslaught that occurred on that date four years ago?

My guess? Damn few of us knew.

I mention that because on Monday, Congress is going to gather in the Capitol Building to certify the Electoral College result from the 2024 presidential election … just as it did four years ago when the traitorous mob stormed the Capitol seeking to overturn the result of the 2020 election.

Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump four years ago. Trump rejected the result, calling the election “rigged” and “stolen.” He sent the mob to the Capitol, imploring the goons to “fight like hell.” They did. You know what happened.

Four years later, Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris. Will the VP summon a mob to attack our government? Nope. Won’t happen. She took her loss with grace, dignity and class.

Jan. 6 falls precisely two weeks before Inauguration Day. Every four years, Congress and the incumbent vice president gather to canvass the Electoral College votes and then certify the winner.

The irony, of course, will drip from the event that takes place next week. Harris was elected duly as vice president in 2020 and this year she will preside over Congress’s ritual certification of an election that produced her defeat by the individual who incited an insurrection four years ago. I have to wonder if she’s gritting her teeth at the idea.

But this post-election certification will go off without a hitch because the guy who lost the previous election — and denied President Biden the peaceful transition he deserved — will have won.

Many patriots, such as me, will accept the result … even if we dislike the outcome.

national news

Not the worst … by a long shot!

The Fox Propaganda Channel has posed a question online about the transition from Joe Biden’s presidency to Donald Trump.

It suggests the Biden-to-Trump transition is the “worst ever.” I beg to offer a strenuous disagreement with that suggestion.

The worst ever transition occurred four years earlier, when Trump refused to follow tradition and allow the winner of the 2020 election to move smoothly into the White House. You remember that time, right?

Trump refused to concede that he lost to Biden. He vowed to “fight like hell” to reverse what he claimed — without a shred of evidence — that the election was “stolen” from him.

Then came the assault on the federal government on Jan. 6. Remember that, too? Sure you do! Police were assaulted by an angry mob of traitors. They sought to stop the certification of the Electoral College results being conducted in the congressional chamber. It was arguably the darkest day in U.S. political history.

Trump never has said publicly that he lost the 2020 election. So, yes, that proves to me that the Trump-to-Biden transition was the worst ever.

As for Fox’s assertion that Biden’s transition to Trump can even compare to that hideous event four years ago, it only demonstrates that the so-called “news network” cannot be trusted to report the news with a semblance of truth.

crime news

Trump’s list of vows sends chills

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Donald Trump’s return to the White House sends more chilling signals than I can possibly count, but surely a few of them stand out.

The mass deportation and separation of illegally documented immigrants is one; the desire to let Ukraine fall to the Russian invaders is another.

The one Trump promise that well could keep awake at night is the one that pledges that grant blanket pardons for the traitors who stormed the Capitol Building on Jan. 6 intending to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

I don’t know about you, but seeking those hideous videos of the mob smashing windows, beating cops with poles, yelling “where’s Mike Pence” while brandishing gallows from which they threatened to hang the vice president continue to make my skin crawl.

And for Trump to declare that the assault was full of “love” simply goes too far beyond the pale to even elicit an intelligent response.

He vows to fight crime, and yet he’s a convicted felon. Go figure that one for me … if you dare try. Trump’s anti-immigrant screeds only will increase once he is sworn in as POTUS. Yet two of his three wives were immigrants. Have they “poisoned the blood” of the nation? Trump cannot tell the truth about anything, no matter how significant or trivial the issue.

These all are points to ponder as we prepare for the second Trump administration.

I will circle back, though, to this idea of pardoning the frothing criminals who followed this man’s instruction to “fight like hell” to “take back the government” on Jan. 6.

If we have learned anything about the ex- and future POTUS, when he vows to do the outrageous, we should believe him.

national news

Never have to vote? Seriously?

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Donald Trump’s penchant for verbal idiocy simply cannot be allowed to go unchallenged.

This next example is a hoot … and then some!

Trump told a group of Christian leaders that he intends to repair everything that is wrong with the country in four years (after being elected, of course) that there will be no need to have an election ever again! 

Not ever, he said. His audience, of course, applauded, which prompted Trump to say how he much he “loves” Christians and then inserted that “I am a Christian.” I won’t comment on his moronic need to tell the crowd that he’s one of them … except to say that he damn sure isn’t.

As for the “no more election” pledge, I am left to wonder: what in the name of democracy is this clown suggesting?

I believe it was at the 2016 Republican National nominating convention when Trump stood before the assembled delegates and pronounced that “I, alone” can repair what was wrong with the nation.

Well,, he couldn’t and he didn’t repair anything. He left office in January 2021 with the nation reeling from the COVID pandemic that killed nearly 1 million Americans, our worldwide alliances were in tatters and we were still trying to process the violent attack Trump provoked on Jan. 6 against the very government he took an oath to defend and protect.

Now this guy says he will repair the nation’s ills to a level that would make elections irrelevant, moot, unnecessary? What the hell … ?

How many more examples of this guy’s unfitness for public office will he throw at us before the MAGA cultists finally grasp what the rest of us know already?

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Pence ignores the obvious

Mike Pence says he won’t endorse the man in whose administration he served as vice president.

Oh, and why is that? Well, the former VP says he and the ex-POTUS have fundamental policy differences. Therefore, he won’t endorse the guy who also incited a mob to seek out the VP while carrying signs that said “Hang Mike Pence!”

Or that he said Pence was a coward for refusing to discount votes that elected Joe Biden president of the U.S. in 2020.

Or that he did nothing to call off the traitors who stormed the Capitol on the Sixth of January.

No, Pence said he cannot endorse the former Moron in Chief because of “policy differences.”

What … a … coward!

national news

No huggin’ and kissin’

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The U.S. House of Representatives select committee assigned to get to the truth behind the Sixth of January insurrection against our democratic process convened its hearing today.

The nation saw a good bit of video from the treasonous riot by terrorists who stormed Capitol Hill that day.

What the did not see was anything resembling what the 45th POTUS said occurred. We didn’t see “huggin’ and kissin'” by D.C. and Metropolitan Police officers with the crowd that stormed Capitol Hill.

Oh, no. We saw violence in the flesh! We saw men and women beating officers within an inch of their lives. We heard them scream “traitor!” at police officers seeking to defend the Capitol against the riotous mob.

Hugging and kissing? It, um, wasn’t there.

And yet … we are going to hear an interpretation of those hideous events by Republican defenders of the former Insurrectionist in Chief. They will seek to turn the tables on Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who appointed the select panel. They will wonder out loud about security concerns that Pelosi reportedly knew prior to the riot.

The former POTUS hasn’t yet taken an ounce of responsibility for inciting the riot. He hasn’t yet accepted that he lost the 2020 presidential election. The ex-Moron in Chief hasn’t yet done a single thing to demonstrate loyalty to the Constitution, to the government, to the sacred democratic process.

The select panel, which comprises seven Democrats and two Republicans, will seek to get to the truth behind what happened that day.

If I could ask one thing of the panel, I want them to look at this: I want them to probe deeply what the then-POTUS was doing inside the White House while the mob threatened to hang Vice President Mike Pence. 

What’s more, let us not be shy or coy about what we’re talking about here. The riot was an insurrection in its purest form. It was a day — to borrow a phrase — that will live in infamy.