The GOP Plan for America: Death & Taxes

Republicans will Rule or they will Ruin America. 

I *am* taking notes on a fucking criminal conspiracy - signed Rick Perry 2020-2021

The only thing Republicans have to offer the American people is Death & Taxes.

The Paleoconservative wing of the Republican Party, once typified by racist Hitler-loving zealot Pat Buchanan is mainly passé.  However, one canard which remains active in the rightwing propaganda network is some people don't pay enough taxes and the rich pay too much in taxes.

Rick Scott, a colossal thief who bilked old people and the US Government out of Billions of dollars but got off Scott free with a $300,000,000 severance package (Brett Favre's mistake was going for too low an amount so while Favre's a HOF football player he's a Rookie grifter) has concocted an 11-Point Plan to further fuck over the American People.  It's an unholy mess which is designed to destroy the US Government.  No, that's not hyperbole.  One of the key points is sunsetting every piece of legislation in 5 years.  This alone would end the US Federal Government.  But, besides drowning the US Government in the climate-change rising tides of Florida, instead of a bathtub, Scott wants to ensure the mistake of the Post World War 2 America is repealed as well, raising taxes on the ever shrinking middle class, until all of Us are reduced to Wage Slaves.  

It's no different from every revelation that Donald Trump was an epic tax cheat and financial conman.  MAGA treated each piece of evidence with orgazmic approval and joyous expressions of admiration, 'That just proves he's smart!'  They yearn to be like him; an outright bigot, a contemptuous scofflaw, a tax cheat, an unctuous criminal with Fuck You Money who get to ignore laws, rules, regulations, and constraints whenever they feel like it.

While much of the Republican Party thought they could use Trump's rise to rubberstamp tax cuts and appoint ignorant petulant children to Federal Judges they also got an Insurrection and appeals to Fascism and Violence which initially frightened them but, they learned to stop worrying and love the Mob.

Everyday comes new revelations of what was obvious; elected Republicans conspired with Donald Trump and his criminal cabal comprised of his executive branch and family to overthrow the US Government.  The mob which attacked the Capitol was damn certain they had not only Trump's blessing but, were in communication with Republicans inside the Government.  147 GQP Senators and Representatives voted to   continue the Coup by Bureaucratic means after the violent January 6th Insurrection failed.

As a microcosm, in Nevada, Democratic Governor Steve Sisolak was accosted and threatened with hanging and bodily harm by two conservatives.

 

Nevada State Republicans, especially the loathsome Michelle Fiore, rushed to defend this and said the Governor brought it upon himself and deserved it.

It's an incident which shows the accelerating nature of rightwing discourse.  Threats of Violence are de rigeur for conservatives.  That's why January 6th was "legitimate political discourse".   

So, that's why two conservative psychos in Nevada felt not only within their rights but, righteous in threatening to murder the Governor of Nevada.  That's why a Republican running for Attorney General in Michigan feels not only comfortable but, confident her call to arrest and execute Doctors will help her win the election.

If the Republicans retake the House and Senate in 2023, everything you thought was won during the 20th century and all the way back to the Civil War is up for grabs.  Republicans in numerous states will roll back every labor protection, civil rights, education, worker's rights, EVERYTHING, because they know the Republican Congress will be busy throwing fuel onto everything and investigating Hunter Biden's TRUE CROSS Laptop while impeaching President Biden daily.  Republican State run legislatures and Governors will expand their "laws" to encroach and infringe upon other States knowing that any challenge that goes to the Supreme Court will go their way.

And then the Paramilitary Rightwing Domestic Terrorists will tag-in and relieve Police Forces of the onerous job of executing minorities and gathering up dissidents for relocation and reeducation. 

Death & Taxes are coming your way America... 

The Revenge of the Thin Blue Line 14: Do you carry a gun? Carry a badge!

Tennessee Republicans in the General Assembly have proposed not one but, two bills to grant the 700,000 "enhanced gun permit holders" law enforcement powers.  In a perverse inversion of a classic scene in The Untouchables, where Sean Connery asks the nebbish FBI accountant if he carries a badge, then shoves a shotgun at him as he admonishes him to carry a gun, the Tennessee Republicans have decided carrying a gun means you can carry a badge.  Obviously, this is insane which means the entire Tennessee Republican Party will support it vociferously and in lock step.

This is consistent with the the unspoken beliefs proffered by the NRA and Republican Party that every man is constitutionally empowered to act as *his* own Judge, jury and executioner when holding a gun.  And should not nay cannot be questioned, tried, or held in anyway liable for the bodies he leaves behind.  *- offer not available to black people

The rapid spread of CCL and Stand Your Ground has emboldened gun nuts to see an "offense" reach for their Firearm and pass sentence of death.  Shoot first, claim self-defense, and walk free.  What Tennessee is proposing is just a legal cover for a long standing 

Now, you might counter that many gun owners are good shots and Police Officers are terrible shots.  And you're not wrong.  Many Officers are terrible at shooting but, Police Work is one long non-stop Gunfight at the OK Corral.  It requires a keen analytic mind, some compassion, ability to empathize with victims, have a working knowledge of the legal codes of local, state and federal government, and be able to enforce the law with dispassion and equanimity.  Now, you might counter that Police are terrible at all those things, too.  And... yeah, sure that's true.  But, only because all humans in the aggregate are kinda bad at those things, as well.

Granting, further law enforcement power to citizens is just another step to empowering paramilitary groups to dispense "justice" when the GOP does away with free and fair elections and institutes their Fascist Evangelical Ethno-State.  With each passing day and in multiple Republican controlled states we see how easily and readily the GOP is to creating an Authoritarian Government with a patina of democracy,

When the men with guns who have always claimed to be against the system start wearing uniforms and marching with torches and pictures of a leader, the end is nigh.  When the pro-leader paramilitary and the official police and military intermingle, the end has come. - On Tyranny, Timothy Snyder.

And just like that I'm no different than Darren Wilson or any of the other Out of Control Criminal Cops

Take a look at the Lawman
Beating up the Wrong Guy - David Bowie, Life on Mars?

The Park District in my town serves a large and diverse group of people in Cook County and we have a fancy, very desirable pool complex. Therefore, every summer when kids leave their unlocked bikes outside the pool entrance, they find them stolen.

So, this weekend I have the misfortune to receive a few of these stolen bike reports, which stupidly, I decided to solve through basic investigation and some footwork, instead of merely writing up a report and moving on.

Now, I have to be purposefully vague here. After investigating, locating and returning several bikes, which had seemingly been stashed nearby, I also located a couple juvenile offenders.

And that's when things went haywire. I found myself being circled by women demanding my name and badge number. At least one had her cell phone camera out. Conversations about how This Isn't Right were spoken loudly nearby so that I might hear them. I think those mothers believed I was going to harm those juveniles...

A couple of pool lifeguards (envision privileged never been out of the suburbs white college kids), probably altered by the above mentioned mothers thought it was their duty to surreptitiously record the interaction with their cell phone cameras, eventhough I clearly positioned myself in front of the Pool's front entrance camera. Their feigned nonchalance was ludicrous.

I realized these people whom I never met were judging me by what I was wearing. That they had formed conclusions about me without any real knowledge of who I am. I was just another potentially out-of-control white cop who might snap at a moment's notice.

It would be the height of obtuse tone-deafness for me to say now I know what it feels like to be an African-American driving and be pulled over. Because, I can still easily badge my way out of any traffic stop and as a cop in a Cook County suburb I'm well off financially.

But, the take away from most police officers and the ones on my force whom I talked with about this incident, is far different than my own. The blame with the current environment between Law Enforcement and the American Public lies completely with the criminal cops who have no idea how to police. Who have been trained to be suspect all People of Color, subject their communities to the Broken Windows policy, hand out citations/tickets in order to plug budget gaps, see themselves wholly apart from the communities they've been ostensibly sworn to Protect & Serve, while they more and more see themselves as some sort of Paramilitary Occupying Power.