Donald Trump

Hoping for glimmer of reason

Only a gibbering moron would presume that Donald J. Trump — given his political history — would apply sound reason to any decision that awaits him.

He has shown no propensity for that. However, I remain hopeful that something, someone or some circumstance might enter The Donald’s vacuous skull and tell him what should be as obvious to him as it is to anyone else.

Which is that the Republican candidates’ performance in the 2022 midterm election is traceable directly to their association with The Donald. Almost without exception, those closest to the ex-POTUS had their heads handed to them.

To be sure, there were successes. Ohio U.S. Sen.-elect J.D. Vance is one. Arizona governor candidate Kari Lake might be another. Then there’s Herschel Walker in Georgia. But a lot of ’em got creamed.

I say this because of reports that The Donald is considering another presidential run. He might announce such a thing next week. Or … he might wait. Or … he might decide to forgo it, given all the legal trouble that is sure to erupt all around him.

I am waiting anxiously for the day when I can write my final words about this detestable individual. Sadly, that I am writing more of them at this moment tells me I have to stay vigilant and watch his every move.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news, political news

Election was for the ages

 

Midterm Election Day 2022 is now in the books and I am still trying to wrap my arms around what in the name of political punditry occurred.

Republicans were supposed to capture complete control of Congress, flipping perhaps dozens of seats in the House and pilfering perhaps a six to eight Senate seats.

It didn’t happen. Democrats well might retain control of the Senate; indeed, if the Georgia runoff goes to my satisfaction and a Democratic incumbent wins re-election in Arizona, then Democrats might pick up on seat in their majority.

Oh, and the House? That remains an open question. The GOP is poised to take control, but with a fraction of the seats they expected to gain. Maybe by three or four? Several contests remain too close to call, so they could go either way.

I am left two days after Election Day to scratch my head and wonder: What the heck is going on?

I am trying to parse some of the reasons for this unexpected result. Donald Trump might have been poison to many of the MAGA adherents who fell short. President Biden’s message that “democracy is on the ballot” might have stuck more tightly than anyone imagined. Women might have turned out to protest the assault on their right to decide how to manage their own body.

Not every pundit saw a Red Wave swamping the political landscape. They were laughed or jeered out of every room where they offered a contrary view.

I guess they were smarter than many of us cared to admit.

Whatever. Midterm Election Day 2022 has provided yet another example of how topsy-turvy conventional wisdom has become. What you think will happen almost becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy for something else occurring.

In this case, I welcome the surprise.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Texas not yet blue

Texas Democrats are licking their wounds this week after learning that our state remains a good distance from becoming the Red vs. Blue battleground that many of them wish would occur.

I admit to being one of those Texans who wished for a different outcome from the 2022 midterm election.

Texas Republican officeholders — who occupy every statewide office in Texas — all scored significant victories over their Democratic challengers. They were elected or re-elected by double-digit percentage margins.

Beto O’Rourke raised and spent a lot of dough in his attempt to defeat Gov. Greg Abbott; the governor finished with 54% of the vote compared to O’Rourke’s 43%. Ouch, man.

Texas Democrats keep touting how they are “on the verge” of turning the state into a battleground. Hmm. Well, the election returns from Tuesday night say something else. We ain’t there.

Indeed, we might not get there in 2024, or perhaps even in 2026. I won’t venture any guesses beyond that.

The Texas Tribune reported: “Voters seem to be fine with the status quo,” said Drew Landry, assistant professor of government at South Plains College in Levelland, west of Lubbock.

Texas election results show the state is far from turning blue | The Texas Tribune

Yep. That “status quo” satisfaction will kill a political movement every time that comes from supposed dissatisfaction.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Election jumble boggles the noggin

The Donald Trump Era of contemporary politics has managed to upset conventional wisdom all over the place.

Consider that the former TV celebrity/real estate mogul/stable genius entered presidential politics … and no one gave him a chance of winning the presidency.

Then he did.

Four years later, he lost his re-election effort. He continues to mix it up. And those wacky polls are spreading conflicting messages. They told us Republicans would seize control of Congress. At this writing, that takeover remains an open question.

What the hell?

Conventional wisdom no longer exists.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Princeton enters ‘adulthood’

Finally, it happened. Princeton, Texas, took a big step Tuesday toward municipal adulthood when its voters approved enactment of a home-rule charter that gives the city a measure of independence that many residents sought.

The election turned out well for the city, with 56% of voters approving a home-rule charter. More than 4,000 residents cast their ballots, which was a significant improvement in turnout from the four previous electoral failures the city endured.

Texas law requires cities to have a population of 5,000 or more inhabitants to conduct home-rule charter elections; Princeton crossed that threshold long ago. It just couldn’t get enough voters to approve previous charter proposals.

Until this week.

The city’s population has exploded since the 2010 Census. Our city now comprises something north of 20,000 inhabitants. The number is growing damn near daily. We need a home rule charter. Thanks to the wisdom of most of the voters who cast their ballots on Tuesday, Princeton is going to be able to govern itself.

It will be able to set its own zoning rules. It will allow residents to recall city council members who mess up. Princeton now will be able to set its own rules and no longer will have to rely on legislators who live far away in this huge state.

Princeton is now taking a step into the realm of communities that are all grown up and are able to make decisions on their own without permission from Big Brother.

What in the name of sound government can be wrong with that?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Door slams on election deniers

Kari Lake is trailing in her bid to become Arizona’s next governor. Doug Mastriani lost his effort to be elected governor of Pennsylvania. Blake Masters is losing in his bid to become senator from Arizona.

Oh, let’s not forget that Lauren Boebert is losing her re-election bid to the U.S. House from Colorado.

What do these nimrods have in common? They are election deniers who contend that Donald Trump actually won the 2020 presidential election, despite tons of evidence that he, um, lost to Joe Biden.

They among other election deniers are meeting the same fate at voters’ hands. They are falling short in their grasping at power and their effort to overturn the results of a free, fair and legal election.

The three individuals I cite are Republicans (of course). They all are loyal to the Election Denier in Chief, Donald John Trump. None of them deserves to be elected to anything.

May their struggles continue.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump, national news

Red Wave becomes Red Ripple

Well, the Red Wave many of us thought — or feared — would occur didn’t swamp the field after all.

The 2022 midterm election has turned out to be a referendum, in my humble opinion — on none other than Donald John Trump, the individual who hogs the spotlight whenever and wherever he can.

His presence near the center of the political universe, though, just might have spelled doom for those closest to him. My question now? Will the one-time Moron in Chief take the hint and realize he is more poisonous than he ever imagined?

Democrats appear poised to retain their slim majority in the Senate. John Fetterman defeated the quacky Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania, allowing Dems to seize a formerly Republican Senate seat. The contest in Georgia between Sen. Raphael Warnock and GOP challenger Herschel Walker appears headed for a runoff.  Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes remains within shouting distance of GOP Sen. Ron Johnson. So … the Senate vote counting isn’t over.

The House? The GOP had planned a big celebration last night to commemorate its historic sweep of Democrats out of power. It didn’t happen.  Republicans are likely to win control of the House but by a margin of, oh, four or five seats, giving them less than a working majority with which they can ramrod legislation through the chamber.

This post-election news gives many Americans — including yours truly — hope that good-government policy is still preferable over The Big Lie and the anger perpetuated by the cultists who adhere to the nonsense pushed by Donald Trump.

All in all, Midterm Election 2022 provided reason to hope that our republic is going to survive this current form of idiocy.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump

Trump’s ‘big announcement’

Donald John Trump has declared that in one week he is going to make a “big announcement.”

He’ll do it in Florida. The chatterers out there are suggesting out loud that he’s going to announce a third run for the presidency in 2024.

Not … so … fast.

I remain skeptical of The Donald’s launching another bid for the White House. It well might be — but do not hold me to this, please — that his “big announcement” might be something quite different.

I’ll offer this as a totally uneducated guess: Trump well might decide that the Republican Party won’t nominate him, believing he cannot win an election against whoever the Democrats nominate.

Then we have the myriad legal issues standing in the way. The New York attorney general has sued him for a quarter-billion bucks; Fulton County, Ga., prosecutors might indict him for coercing election officials in the 2020 election; and then we have the U.S. Justice Department pondering whether to indict him for inciting the insurrection on 1/6.

Trump’s “big announcement” might include a vow to fight all those so-called “witch hunters” in an effort to clear his name … if that is at all possible.

I ain’t predictin’ any of this is going to happen. I merely remain skeptical that he wants to be deemed a “loser” yet again.

I will await his announcement, though, with bated breath.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, political news

Democratic process is alive and thriving

We cast our ballots this morning for all the contests facing us in this midterm election, but I want to offer a brief immediate takeaway from what we noticed when we drove to our polling place.

We approached the Princeton (Texas) Community Center and noticed (a) a parking lot full of vehicles, (b) lots of signs extolling the virtues of candidates and issues and (c) a line at the polling station that was stretching out the door.

My thought? The democratic process is alive and well in our Collin County community.

I don’t know how many of our city of more than 20,000 residents voted early. I just was struck by the active Election Day participation we noticed this morning.

It gives me hope that our process will survive the onslaught it is enduring at the moment from those who seek to undermine it.

I am acutely aware that a momentary glimpse of a polling station doesn’t precisely qualify as a mountain of empirical evidence of what I have concluded.

I will accept it, though, as sufficient reason to have hope that our electoral process is working.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Dreamers: collateral casualties

Let’s be clear about something: If Republicans take control of Congress after the midterm election, you can rest assured that their onslaught will inflict plenty of collateral casualties.

I want to look briefly at one category of casualty: Dreamers, those who were brought to this country as children when their parents entered the United States without proper immigrant documentation.

The Dreamers who live among us — and they no doubt are in more places than we realize — are going to singled out by Republicans who insist that they are here illegally and, therefore, must be deported.

Many of those Dreamers qualified under a program enacted by President Obama called the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals; Obama issued an order that protected DACA recipients from deportation, enabling them to seek citizenship or apply for permanent legal resident status.

Republicans detest DACA. They want it rescinded. The courts have dented the program along the way.

DACA recipients deserve to be protected against inhumane deportation, which would result in sending them back to the country of their birth. Why is that inhumane? Because they came of age in the United States of America. This is the only country the know. In many cases, they are U.S. residents who have contributed greatly to their country of residence.

Furthermore, I am saddened by the notion that some GOP pols want to punish these Dreamers for the sins of their parents. I get that the parents broke the law when they sneaked into the country when border security guards were looking the other way. It simply boggles my noggin that pols would want to punish the children — some of whom were infants and toddlers when they entered the United States — for something over which they had zero control!

Furthermore, many of those youngsters have grown into men and women who are contributing mightily to their nation of residence. They have excelled in the classroom; they have pursued professions and paid their taxes.

Punish them? Send them away? Someone will have to explain the logic behind that hideous form of revenge.

That is what might await many of these individuals if Republicans take control of our legislative branch of government. God help us all.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Commentary on politics, current events and life experience