Republicans hate America 24: Traitor Trump's brain is melting but, he's still savvy enough to steal your Social Security and use your dead relative's body for a photo op

"We heard the Saudi Arabia and Russia will rebe beerb ba baaaah..."

 It is now obvious Trump has either full blown dementia of full blow Fascism;  whether it comes from the spirochetes in his brain, from advancing sundowners syndrome, substance abuse, plaque induced psychosis, or his love of Hitler matters little.  He's no longer the off-the-cuff, rambling racist he used to be but, a confused wannabe Dictator who can barely present a coherent sentence during his long bigoted tirades, crude and ugly insults, and open appeals to Authoritarianism

But, no matter how deep into dementia and glitchy aphasia he sinks into Trump knows when he's not getting his taste.  As with NATO funding, Trump sees Social Security as a big pile of Cash of which he is not getting a cut.  And cut Social Security is exactly what he will do,

“First of all, there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting, and in terms of, also, the theft and bad management of entitlements,” Trump responded “Tremendous bad management of entitlements. There’s tremendous amounts of things and numbers of things you can do.”

First of all, this is tremendous gibberish.  Tremendous.  Secondly, this fat fascist fuck absolutely will sign any piece of crap legislation put in front of him.  He'll cut Socials Security, Medicare, anything which he feels he entitled to a cut of.  He's a giant gelatinous blob who repeats whatever he thinks will get him an applause line.  When he can actually coherently produce a sentence that is...

All he can do is regurgitate the Ackshullaly Biden rightwing talking points the rest of his speech is mangled, garbled gibberish, insulting diarrhea, substituting the wrong word, flowing into a confused miasma of disconnected thoughts, disgusting innuendos and frightening declarations of fascism and authoritarian desires.

Trump openly praises Dictators who then reveal that Trump tells them exactly what he will do when he's returned to office.  Viktor Orban flatly stated Trump told him he'll immediately cut off aid to Ukraine which coupled with Trump telling "POTEN" he can do whatever the hell he wants demonstrates Trump and Republicans know there natural allies are Russian Fascists.

Back in October, I can not imagine the fucking ballistic fallout if a Democratic President denounced Prime Minister Netanyahu and praised Hezbollah in the wake of the Hamas militant butchery the way Traitor Trump did.  since then Trump hasn't said anything about the Gaza Crisis because he has no ideas other than his fantasy counterfactual that Israel wouldn't be attacked.

I told you years ago, that when Republicans were back in power they would move to turn Jan6th into the Second Independence Day and engage in their tradition of revisionist history turning Criminals, Traitors, and Insurrectionists into Heroes, Patriots, and Martyrs.  Trump's bluntly declaring he'll pardon all the convicted criminals who engaged in the Insurrection and probably all the unindicted co-conspirators and planners like Ginni Thomas .

And yet, the Corporate Media still will not come out and declare what is obvious before the entire Country's and World's eyes;  Trump is a rapidly degenerating mess who yearns to use the Federal Government to harm his enemies.  And what's worse, the school of parasites and remoras circling his bulbous ass yearn to use the Awesome Power of the Government to murder millions of people.

Millions.

 

Lakan? TRUMP! Now Smile!

"During my four years, nothing happened,” Trump told a gathering of NRA members in January in Pennsylvania. “And there was great pressure on me having to do with guns. We did nothing.”

But, we are led to believe that this smiling Ghoul, desecrating the United States Flag for a photo op of the "grieving" family of Laken Riley all mugging for the camera, spelled her fucking name wrong after autographing it is fit to be President and cares to protect anyone.  And I'm supposed to believe Republicans GIVE A FUCK about Americans or anything?

Yet… Day after day legacy media journalists attack President Biden for using notes while Trump calls his wife the wrong name, most likely, because he hasn't seen her in years.

Oh no... the Corporate Media is letting us down again, if you are naive enough to still believe the Media isn't completely in the Tank for Trump and Republicans.  If instead you understand that while this or that individual journalist might be Liberal, the Corporate Media is owned by the Plutocracy and they want Trump in Power because Republican control of the Government means no taxes and less and less regulations.  The people hurt by Republicans don't matter to the 1%.  

Trump and the Republicans plan to cut Social Security and Medicare and retired white Boomers are champing at the bit to vote for this degenerate Rapist a 3rd time.

White Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf wants a $1.2 Billion dollar handout from Illinois (Don't forget about Da Bears!)

"Socialism, communism, whatever you want to call it, is never the answer." Hank Steinbrenner in 2011, just 2 years after Steinbrenner and the New York Yankees received $2 Billion in public funds subsidized by the New York City and State taxpayers to build Yankee Stadium III.

One of the biggest and most successful scams the Ultra-Rich 1% pulled on America was the Trickle-Down Economics scheme.  Give Us large amount of public money for free and the economic benefit of us using it for ourselves will flow downward onto everyone else.  There is stuff flowing down from the 1% onto us but, it sure ain't economic benefits...  And while they were aided and abetted by Republicans and other conservative politicians the goal has always been the same to gain access to public monies in order to Privatize the Profits, and Socialize the Losses.

The White Sox are looking to move from the old 35th and Shields in the Bridgeport neighborhood to the 78, but in order to accomplish this move, poor, poor Jerry Reinsdorf needs to bum a couple o' bucks from the people of Illinois.

Jerry Reinsdorf has engaged in several tactics reserved for rich plutocratic assholes.  First, Reinsdorf dusted of his 1990s playbook and threatened to move the Chicago White Sox, this time to Nashville, Tennessee.  In the 1990s, Reinsdorf successfully bilked Illinois Governor Big Jim Thompson and the people of Illinois out of hundreds of millions of dollars to repair Comiskey Park by threatening to move the club to St. Petersburg, Florida.

So, last month just before Governor J.B. Pritzker's budget address, Reinsdorf went to Springfield to press the Governor and Legislature for $1,200,000,000 in public assistance in the building of the new White Sox stadium.  Reinsdorf and his investors would come up with the additional funding for the extended stadium grounds.

Rich people stay Rich because they don't pay for things with their money.  Governor J.B. Pritzker is rich he's a real Billionaire unlike the Orange Hitler so he knows this.  Pritzker has been adamant that no public money is going to build sports stadiums,

“I think I’ve been fairly clear about the fact that the taxpayers’ dollars are precious,” Pritzker said in response to a reporter’s question at an unrelated event. “And the idea of taking taxpayer dollars and subsidizing the building of a stadium as opposed to, for example, subsidizing the building of a birthing center, just to give the example, does not seem like the stadium ought to have higher priority.”

Unfortunately, there is a quirk which might allow not only the White Sox but Chicago Bears access to a government handout;  Mayor Brandon Johnson has been stepping all over his own dick and needs win, or to be clearer he needs not to be the Mayor who 'lost" the Chicago Bears to Arlington Heights.

“As far as public dollars, we haven’t gotten into any of those specifics just yet,” the mayor said of discussions with Sox officials.  "But I will say that we’re gonna explore all options. But we have to make sure that we’re doing right by the people of Chicago. … Everything is on the table here."

Why is everything on the table?  Jerry Reinsdorf is so rich he has quietly for the past 2 years been buying up the vacant parking lots in and around the United Center, Home of YOUR HIS Chicago BULLS!

Meanwhile, the Chicago Bears are floating the idea of tearing down Solider's Field and putting up a state-of-the-art doomed Stadium on the Lakefront.  They've even proposed using $2,000,000,000 of their own money.  As a comparison, Stan Kroenke of the LA (not St. Louis) Rams spent $5,000,000,000 on the SoFi Stadium, without public assistance, although the NFL did some money as well.

But, this is all posturing as the Chicago Lake front is protected by statute from building on it, as George Lucas learned when he proposed his gaudy Star Wars museum.  The Bears have already knocked down the old Arlington Racetrack, accompanying side buildings and that vast open area is going to house their Stadium, a Bears Museum, hotels, restaurants, probably apartments for players and coaches to live in, and all that revenue will go right into the extended Halas Family pockets.  It's a no-brainer.  But, at this point the Bears seem to be trying to reduce their financial commitment to the Arlington Heights community and surrounding school districts because they can rely on the non-stop messaging of "Trickle-Down" effect being good enough for the peoples who should feel privileged we wish to build a stadium in their community and probably should provide us incentives to do so!

Hand-outs to the MegaRich are called stimulus and the Rich love getting other peoples' money.

Republicans hate America 23: If you love Migrants so much why don't you house them?

"We can fight about fixing the border or we can fix it..." - President Biden, State of the Union March 7, 2024.

If you love the immigrants so much why don't you put them in your house?  In Chicago, at least, one man is doing his best to answer this disingenuous rhetorical retort with "Alright..."

Joselin Mendoza sleeps on the floor of a cold stone basement with her two kids at a house in Roseland.

The property’s owner Chris Amatore came by in a truck one day in January and offered her the chance to leave a city-run shelter before she and her family were kicked out.

He has now resettled close to 500 migrants in 15 buildings around the city, spending $150,000 of his own money, he said.

Amatore’s solution isn’t a long-term fix — for himself or the migrants, who are grateful for the vacant buildings they now call home. He is facing strong backlash from community members and city officials, as housing experts raise alarms about what is going to happen to thousands of people without assistance. 

This man's humanity, compassion and dedication to his fellow man are beyond reproach.  He's a General Contractor who founded, a company Manage Chicago, most likely buying and flipping homes and buildings.  Now... Flippers and General Contractors can be ruthless predators but, Chris Amatore apparently put his money where his mouth is this winter.

However, 'this why don't you do it' is the Gotcha Lib! rhetoric question rightwingers use to put you on the defensive and "prove" you're a hypocrite when it comes to the so-called Migrants crisis.  Now, understand the Republicans don't frame this as a human crisis but use the phrase Border Crisis.  This is deliberate.

The reason I (or even a business like Manage Chicago) don't simply house all the immigrants is the same reason I don't simply solve the Israel/Palestine problem... Such problems are too big for any one person to solve or handle alone.  Of course, this is precisely the reason Man (Homo Politicus) came together to form Government in the first place; to deal with problems which are too big for anyone to address.  Of course, the Republican solution for immigrants is the same for the Palestinians; Total Eradication.

Now, this Gotcha Lib! bad faith device has been used by rightwingers before as they've said this for decades about homeless (or unhoused people) i.e. if you really want to hep the homeless you'd let them stay in your house.

And now a variation is being used to undermine the military aid to Ukraine as Republicans have apparently discovered many Veterans Republicans have been fucking over for years are homeless.

Of course, Republicans are full of shit because just like everything they say they have no intention of every following through.  But, they've played the Corporate Media to reporting Republican words are as good as action.  Being a conservatives means having No Memory and shamelessly using their past panics and phony crisis to undercut the current dilemma. 

 Republicans have claimed over and over again in committee meetings and interviews that Joe Biden is so senile he can't speak.  Biden just talked rhetorical circles around every Republican in the chamber.

One of the avenues of attack, Republicans have taken on President Biden is to invent "The Border Crisis".

In Katie Breathy Britt's, vile lie filled speech she referenced the border 9 times without mentioning the people.  Well, except to tell a Massive Lie (using the Excluded Middle Fallacy) about a trafficked young woman allowing rightwing drones to believe it was happening under President Biden when, in fact, the situation occurred in Mexico, in 2004, when George Worst Ever was President.

But, have you noticed that in order to demonize President Biden, it is necessary for Republicans to remove humanity from "The Crisis".  Dehumanization is the first step towards death trains and concentration camps.

But, Republicans are planning far, far worse.  Rightwingers across the country claim the Border is the biggest issue facing America.  They've dutifully been conditioned and if Trump gets back in, they will dutifully support the next step for the "illegals";  Rounding-up and elimination.

Mike Davis, one of the men under consideration by Trump and the Project 2025 for Attorney General, proudly told rightwingers in September 2023 he would “unleash hell on Washington, D.C." , would "indict President Joe Biden and every other scumball, sleazeball Biden,” and helping pardon those found guilty of crimes associated with the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. 

“We’re gonna deport a lot of people, 10 million people and growing—anchor babies, their parents, their grandparents,” Davis said. “We’re gonna put kids in cages. It’s gonna be glorious. We’re gonna detain a lot of people in the D.C. gulag and Gitmo.”

Steve Bannon, says the 2024 Election is a referendum on "deportation" of 10,000,000 people.

But, remember there always is that unspoken middle between what Republicans openly talk about now and the physical deportation of 10 MILLION people.  How do you find them?  How do you arrest and process them?  Where do they go when awaiting deportation?  

Stephen Miller went further, 

“You grab illegal immigrants, and then you move them to the staging grounds, and that’s where the planes are waiting”

"The Staging Grounds" are that unspoken middle, Millions of people in concentration camps and you absolutely know that will result in huge number of deaths, rapes, and other crimes as once Republicans have successfully demonized "illegals" and have millions of people in custody far from peoples eyes it will be easy for Conservatives to simply accept the liquidation of these people.

In 2025, if they've managed to secure power Republicans will destroy the United States of America.  Democrats build, Republicans destroy.  The choice for President is clear and simple;  Either you support Joe Biden and the United States or you fundamentally wish to end the Democratic Republic and replace it with a Christian Fascist Nation.

Additional:

I don't think it can be stated strongly enough just how much Republicans hate America and loathe the American people.  Republican Senator James Lankford was censured by the Oklahoma GOP for being seen during the SOTU saying "It's True." as President Biden laid out exactly how Donald John Traitor Trump scuttled the Bi-Partisan Border Security Bill.  There is no greater sin than correctly reporting Republican actions.  Republicans absolutely have no interest in governing or solving problems; they are laser-focused on destroying the United States.  Republican-led domestic terrorism is coming when Trump loses in 2024, be prepared...

Republicans hate America 22 : Tradwife Katie Britt breathy lies

 You can tell how much Republicans hate you by how easily they lie to you.  It's despicable and shameless and designed with one goal in mind place their rightwing drones into a constant state of Fear & Anger.

Katie Britt started off her State of the Union response by claiming Senator isn't here job,

My name is Katie Britt, and I have the honor of serving the people of the great state of Alabama in the United States Senate.  However, that’s not the job that matters most.  I’m a proud wife and mom of two school-aged kids.

Love that Joker!

So... one of the most powerful people in the United States Government and therefore the world claims not to be a politician.  I've mentioned before that every Republican runs as an "Outsider" like Wisconsin Drunk Van Orden claims on his campaign website. It's so fucking trite and insulting and the Corporate Media lets them get away with it constantly. Trump claimed to love the title of "Outsider" in a Feb 2024 interview with Maria Bartolomo on Faux News. 

But, Britt's horrific creepy lie-fest was punctuated with one of the most brazen lies of omission yet tried by a Republican. First though, Britt's weird breathy voice is a "virtue signal" to the Fascist Fundamentalists that she's a docile Tradwife, as this "Fundie Baby Voice" has been adopted by evangelical and female TikTok influencers and is immediately recognized by the faithful.

And much has been made of Britt's attempts to go from happy warrior, to tearful mother, to assertive but not angry woman, all while Republicans told her to smile more during her empty Kitchen response.  Britt’s Kitchen was as empty and bereft as she is of morals, ethics, and principles.

But, Britt told a tale of woman subjected to horrific sexual violence from the time she was child. 

I traveled to the Del Rio sector of Texas, where I spoke to a woman who shared her story with me. She had been sex trafficked by the cartels starting at age 12. She told me not just that she was raped every day, but how many times a day she was raped.

We wouldn’t be OK with this happening in a third-world country. This is the United States of America, and it’s past time we start acting like it.

President Biden’s border crisis is a disgrace. It’s despicable. And it’s almost entirely preventable.

Now, I am in no way discounting this women's tale of violence and trauma or saying the story is untrue but, Britt's Lie is in telling this story as though it's a direct result of President Biden's border policies. It isn't.

The woman in question, Karla Jacinto Romero, is an incredibly brave activist who has told her story of subjugation and sexual abuse for decades now. Former AP report Jonathan Katz uncovered this and I recommend watching his video essay detailing the fundamental dishonesty in Britt's recounting of the incident.  I suppose in an irony of ironies despicable liar Katie Britt didn't even "SAY HER NAME" during this shameless co-option of Karla's trauma.

This is a shocking level of insincerity and brazen dishonesty which and I want you be clear, NO LONGER FUCKING MATTERS anymore. Republicans have successfully groomed and cultivated a cult and have no need to worry about lies, slander, misconduct, or even criminal conspiracies harming their electoral chances.

This was merely Britt's biggest lie as her awkward code switching and her stern breathy voice bore FALSE WITNESS against the President.  But, while on line Republican operatives were angry at Britt’s terrible presentation the right wing doesnt care about Britt's shameless.  Retreating to the well-worn canard, 'Oh they all lie. Especially Biden! He's the biggest liar' and therefore having condemned all politicians as exactly the same they absolve themselves of any moral conundrum in voting for Republicans, which is the whole fucking point of Corporate Media BothSides rhetoric, false equivocation, and constant push to excuse Republican perfidy.

We are in for a fight everyone.  Republicans hate You.  Do what you can to defeat these Republican monsters in the November Election because they see Trump's election, the Six Supreme Court Injustices, the compliant Corporate Media, and Authoritarianism Rising with in Europe, in South America, and the Fanatical Genocidal Wars in Ukraine and Gaza as the perfect opportunity to finally destroy the United States of America and replace it with a MAGA Empire held aloft by the pillars of White Supremacy, Corporate Hegemony, and Fascist Fundamentalism.

As always Be Brave if you can but, be ready to fight for your very lives because Republicans are coming for them.

Republicans hate America 21: Drunken Van Orden strikes again at the SOTU

Republicans have a substance abuse problem.  In the wake of President Biden’s rousing State of the Union speech, conservatives decided to claim Biden was on drugs.

Now, understand whenever Republicans make an accusation it’ always a confession of their own behavior.  During Trump's maladministration it's been revealed that the White House was awash in speed, Xanax, and other drugs and former Admiral Ronny Jackson, was a pill-mill Doctor handing out prescription drugs like candy.  Of course"Admiral" Jackson is now Texas Congressman Ronny Jackson in case you didn't know, and is no longer an Admiral having been quietly demoted in July 2022 due to a scathing Inspector General's report, which was buttressed by Jackson drunken and amphetamine filed attack on Texas deputies in August of 2023.

Like Ronny Jackson, Wisconsin Republican Derrick Van Orden is a mean drunk.  Now, there's a difference between an alcoholic and a drunk.  Mother Jones claims Derrick Van Orden has an anger management problem but, by Van Orden's own admission he's embraced being an obnoxious, booze filled raging asshole drunk throughout his life.

So, this year it was Drunken Van Orden's turn to be a disrespectful, obnoxious heckler during President Biden's State of the Union shouting "Lies" and claiming the speech could have been given by “could have been delivered by Joseph Stalin or Mao Zedong or President Xi.”

Unable to criticize the substance of President Biden's speech they focus on style.  Of course, besides being boorish, Republicans have nothing to offer the American people so they have to heckle, they can’t offer up concrete policy ideas because the only thing Republicans are offering up is hatred and bigotry.

Derrick Van Orden was a Navy Seal.  I wonder how his XO would have handled Van Orden drunkenly acting out in unit formation or during training ops.  Of course, Drunken Van Orden has an extremely high opinion of his leadership and moral grounding having written Book of Man: A Navy Seal’s Guide to the Lost Art of Manhood. According to the book’s description on Amazon, “Stories of fist fighting, fishing, and driving fast cars are all interwoven with the principles of what used to be known as basic manhood, but has now become a lost art.”

What mean Drunk Van Orden calls manhood has been recognized as vicious and vile bullying since The Great Santini, and while Republicans may confuse being an abusive asshole with "manhood" Americans recognize this type of behavior is unacceptable.  Hopefully, Wisconsin voters will recognize the same this November.

Fighting Joe Biden not so Sleepy State of the Union Rope-a-Dopes Republicans again

The choice between Battlin' Joe Biden and the Toxic Treasonous Predecessor remains absolutely clear and easy.

I'll be darned but President Joe Biden remains a force during these speeches and Major Traitor Greene and every Republican remains a classless piece of shit.

Fighting Joe delivered an absolute knock out State of the Union address.  A feisty engaged speech filled with concrete ideas and promises to fight the Republican forces of Fascism.

Again, Republicans have nothing to offer the American people.  Republicans have no policies, no political platform, no aspirations, no ideas.  Republicans stand for nothing.  Don't ever forget Republicans routinely take credit for Bills they vote against and deny culpability for the bigoted and hateful laws (IVF) they do pass. Mighty Joe Biden called them out on it again!

The Entire Republican Congress are naught but, trolls and hecklers.  They have no self-control and no decency.  It's the natural endpoint of 40 years of incestuous rightwing propaganda; Republicans have been sitting in their rightwing bubbles endlessly farting and then inhaling in each other’s farts. In fact, Republicans have been huffing their own farts for so long they believe their own agitprop about Biden’s age, as the GOP continues to engage in incestuous amplification.

Yet, Joe Biden is perfect at responding to this type of heckling and continues to get the better of them, even though he’s older and slower he still beats them. 

Contrast Joe's witty retorts and extemporaneous ad-libs as he's heckled with Trump's responses to interruptions during his fascist rallies.  When Trump is interrupted his brain ceases functioning, he stops, gets visibly angry, continues to sweat profusely, breathes hard, and yells to get them out of here like your angry Faux News watching Uncle gets when you interrupt their racist harangues. 

It's impressive.  Fighting Joe, the Delaware Dandy, the Son of Scranton, is a canny old fighter just out-boxing them over and over again.  Watching President Biden set-up obvious rhetorical traps and watching Republican howler monkeys simply start shouting and flinging shit at him and "I'll be darned..." if Fighting Joe didn't come out on top again.  And make no mistake, Republicans absolutely want to steal your Social Security, because Republicans hate you, they hate American, and the hate the American Dream of being able to retire and enjoy your golden years.

I wish President Biden could look over his long career and decide to hang'em up but, I know he sees what an existential threat to American Democracy MAGA is, and he can't sit on the sidelines and watch the Toxic Treasonous Predecessor destroy the United States.

Again, the choice is clear, simple, and easy;  either hand the Federal Government over to a gaggle of Nazis or bring Joe back for 4 more years of easily the best President of Joe Biden's long lifetime.

The Choice between President Biden and criminally insane, pudding-brain, Traitor Trump is clear

Trump's Brain and Supporters

 The Republicans talking points seem to be too simply lie about Trump's time as President.

Elise Stefanik continued to debase herself at the altar of Donald Trump in her dishonorable quest to be the Vice President,

Reading from prepared remarks, Stefanik asked, "As Ronald Reagan famously asked us, are you better off today than you were four years ago?"  And then she answered, "The answer for hardworking Americans across the country is a resounding no."

On Morning Edition yesterday, NPR had a story about low-income health clinics in Nevada, 

LARRY LEVITT: President Biden made a centerpiece of his campaign in 2020 to reinvigorate the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, and he has done that. We have record enrollment. We have the lowest share of the population uninsured in history. That makes a difference.

ABBIE MARTÍNEZ: And it stands in contrast to the Republican front-runner.

LARRY LEVITT: Former President Trump, when he was in office, tried unsuccessfully to repeal the Affordable Care Act and cap funding for Medicaid, the health care program that serves low-income people. And he's recently been vowing once again to try that if elected.

ABBIE MARTÍNEZ: Levitt believes that means voters have a clear choice between the candidates when it comes to health care. Talking to Dr. Walker at CHA, he's careful not to comment on politics but admits that when he goes to vote this November, it's going to be difficult not to be influenced by the clinic's mission.

At the end of the segment the Doctor couldn't say he's not voting for Trump, and I completely understand why, because after hearing that right-wingers would call in bomb threats to the clinic and death threats to workers.

The next segment though NPR had notorious rightwing liar Hugh Hewitt was brought on to provide the bias NPR believes makes them neutral.  Followed closely by North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum to explain that Americans can easily see things were better under Trump.

And this, claiming things were better under Trump, seems to be the tactic, Republicans are going to take.  Since, most Americans can't see past the last 24 hours it's not a bad political strategy.  However, this is too glib an explanation.  It's not that most Americans are dumb or uninterested in politics it's that Republicans for decades have consistently undermined America.  And when they aren't in power or have only partial control of the The Federal Government they throw non-stop tantrums and concoct all manner of lies and propaganda to make Americans throw up their hands and give the Republicans their way. 

For over 40 years Republicans at all levels of Government have sabotaged working Americans and moved to undo protections and the social safety net which allows Americans to engage in long-term thinking because Republicans know that because of Republican policies and agenda most Americans are worried about today, tomorrow's dinner, and being one paycheck away from financial ruin.  Focusing on the here and now keeps people from asking why Republicans hate them.

Under their anti-American leadership Republicans have moved the Nation closer and closer to the NeoFeudalist slave nation they wish it to be. 

So, when elections come up Republicans bank on Americans not thinking back to the perfidious policies of the Republican Party or pay attention to the Republican future schemes to Make Everything Worse Again and since shameless self-promoters and vicious villains in the Republican Party have adopted Trump's strategy of bullshit and factless bluster, they expect people will question themselves and maybe start believing that things when better or even good under Trump.

Except we can see what the United States was like under a Trump Regime.  It sucked.  First and fucking foremost, when that mythical 3 a.m. emergency phone call came in Trump failed.  He failed because Trump is a failure.  A colossal failure in ever conceivable way.  Trump had no interest in dealing with Covid 4 years ago.  Trump didn't care to listen to anyone.  Trump had no plan to get the Nation through the disaster.  Like his entire privileged life Trump does stuff, moves from scheme to scheme, and expects the little people to clean up the mess and take it on the chin.  Except this time, it wasn't merely Trump stiffing people out of money but, turning a million Americans into stiffs.

But, reality, history, and facts have nothing to do with modern Corporate reporting.  Modern media is invested in false neutrality and in providing cover for every vile Republican perfidy imaginable.

The Corporate Media has given Trump extensive and non-stop free coverage but, they've never accurately reported on him.  It would be nice if the Corporate Media reported Trump's increasingly bizarre brain dysfunctions, halting grammatical errors, and constantly calling President Biden President Obama by simply transcribing his actual words instead of cleaning up his speeches and providing explanations to make it seem as though trump is competent.

But, they won't. 

Traitor Trump routinely garbles his way towards claiming his economy was the best of all time, he's the best of all time, he's more handsome than Elvis, China loves him and loves him not, and Putin and Hamas wouldn't have dared make war if he was in office and OBAMA!

Traitor Trump's brain is melting before our eyes.  The mental deterioration, which was noticeable a few years ago, is now so blatant and obvious, Trump might be drooling and unable to speak coherently by Election Day.  Not that his pudding brain will deter voters from trying to put him back in the White House because the vicious school of Trump sycophants who circle him are eager to get their hands on the Awesome Power of Government, because despite rightwing lies about not trusting the Government conservatives yearn to use the Government to round-up and exterminate millions of Us.

The Democratic Party in Illinois moves to protect Waterways & Wetlands

 Last year, the scummy SCOTUS ruled that the US Constitution and Clean Water Act aren't valid because the Supreme Six Injustices deem it to be so.

The fact the Clean Water Act was 50 years old or the that the first legal cases decided by the old SCOTUS dates back 200 years ago, or that the right of the Federal Government to regulate waterways is written into the very Constitution is irrelevant;   The Scummy Supreme Six Injustices are aligned with the rapacious Rich and those who despoil the Nation.

The Clean Water Act of 1972 survived decades of litigation from opponents seeking to limit the authority of federal agencies like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to regulate the Waters of the United States, typically referred to as WOTUS. Before the wetlands decision, the Supreme Court upheld the definition of WOTUS to not only include navigable bodies of waters but also adjacent wetlands with meaningful hydrological connections. 

For over a decade, Michael and Chantell Sackett, an Idaho couple, challenged this definition before the Supreme Court twice. In 2004, they bought a lakeside property with the plans to build a home on the site. The couple began excavation without applying for the appropriate permitting to develop on top of a wetland and the EPA stopped the project. 

Last May, in a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Sacketts.

You might have missed this ruling seeing as the Reactionary Court has been pushing through all manner of regressive bills designed to return the United States to its' Roots as a Slave Owning Kleptocracy built upon white supremacy and fundamentalist hyporcisy but, the Injustices financial backers and benefactors also have a eye on undermining any regulation which stymies their ability to despoil the land, strip it of it's natural beauty and reap the financial rewards.

All the meanwhile, leaving behind a shattered wasteland to be inherited by the meek.

Fortunately, here in Illinois we have a Democratic Legislature which will not simply turn the rivers, lakes, streams, and wetlands over to rapacious billionaires to do with as they wish.

In response to another unjust overreach by this Court, Illinois State Senator Laura Ellman introduced a New Act 30 ILCS 105/5.1015, the Wetlands and Small Streams Protection Act:

to restore protections for wetlands and small streams that were formerly protected from pollution and destruction by the Clean Water Act. Provides provisions concerning: exemptions; wetlands delineation, classification, notification, permits and veto; general permits; appeal of final decisions made by the Department of Natural Resources and judicial review; investigation and enforcement; and county authority. Creates the Wetlands and Small Streams Advisory Committee and establishes duties and rules for the Committee. Creates the Wetlands and Small Streams Protection Fund. Provides for permit review fees. Defines terms. Makes conforming changes in the State Finance Act and the Illinois Environmental Protection Act. Effective immediately.

Marshes, bogs, ponds, streams, and other waterways are not things to be drained, damned, or reclaimed but integral pieces of a functioning landscape, a refugee for wildlife, and repository of natural beauty.

But, the 1% won't be satisfied with the massive gains they've made over the rest of America; the Rich want it all, which is why they know if they put Trump back into power they'll be able to finally eliminate the Middle Class, end the American dream, and shackle the American people into perpetual wage slavery and bondage. 

"I know plenty of you, and you're rich as hell...  And we're going to give you tax cuts."

Revenge of the Thin Blue Line 42: Carol Stream Police invade an apartment and shoot a black person

Just last week I wrote about a work friend wanting to disccuss Harvard Professor Roland Fryer's, interview with Bari Weiss concerning his 2016 study which PROVED!  BEYOND QUESTION!  there is no Racial Bias in Police Shootings... and then dumb old reality just had to butt in and disprove his theory.

If I were a more jaded person, I might overlay Fryer’s faulty and ridiculous claims over the body cam footage from Carol Stream.  But, I am not a ghoul. 

The Carol Stream Police Department had an Officer-involved shooting.  As always, I want you to understand that Police advocates have fought for years for this semi-blameless language to be used in official proceedings and in news reports because language is the first line of defense and weapon to be used to exonerate the Officers involved.

The case in Carol Stream involves a misdemeanor domestic battery.  The victim was out of the apartment.  Her injuries, while not reported in detail, did not necessitate hospitalization.  Inside the apartment was the suspected offender Isaac Goodlow.

When making a warrantless entry there are 3 exceptions; Consent, Hot Pursuit, Exigent Circumstances.

“Hot Pursuit” is obvious you’re chasing someone whose committed a crime and they attempt to defeat arrest by hiding in a house

“Exigent Circumstances”  is the immediate need to protect someone’s life (e.g. someone screaming for help or seeing a house on fire.)

She provided “Consent” for the Officers to go into the apartment where the suspect Isaac Goodlow was but, she did not have the right to make authorization as she did not live there and therefore the entry does not fall under the Search Warrant exceptions.

Officers may in good faith believe she has authority but, simply taking her word for it is not enough fact-checking.  Especially, when the victim of the crime is not in harm’s way and there is no on-going emergency which would lead the Officers to believe they had to apprehend the offender immediately.

Carol Stream Police Chief Donald Cummings gave a statement about the Officers attempts to get Goodlow to come out of the apartment before getting the maintenance man to open the door to the open gaining the Officers entry.  At this point, someone in the CSPD needed to say stop why don't we get a warrant to enter; this would have a two-fold effect of lowering the Officer's emotions and further provide Goodlow the opportunity to surrender.  But, instead the Officers went in.

6 officers went inside the residence.  From the "stack", it certainly looks like they wanted to do a SWAT style building entry, a maneuver which is en vogue, with training and tactics these days.  One Officer has a ballistic shield, another Officer has a Taser ready, and at least two had guns drawn.  

I think I know what happened with the first shot.  Everyone in that group is jazzed.  And I think the Officer had his finger on the trigger.  And as they entered the room with auditory exclusion, tunnel vision, jittery hands, and adrenaline pumping up his heart rate, he got startled, and the sympathetic nervous system gave the “Startle Response” and he squeezed the trigger.  The next shot and Taser deployment where in response to the first shot.

And like that Goodlow was shot and killed.

The Police Chief which listed off all the steps that will and must be taken to investigate this shooting and give full due process to the Officers involved.  Now, juxtapose this with the scant due process given to the dead man Isaac Goodlow.

"The totality of the video, including the events that occurred before and after the shooting, will be released at a later date pursuant to the completion of the DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office review. Once the investigation is completed by the Public Integrity Team, the State’s Attorney’s Office will conduct a comprehensive evaluation of all forensic evidence, witness accounts, and officer statements to make a determination regarding the actions of those involved."

Due Process, you see is only available, to inherently good people who find themselves in an unfortunate situation.

For instance, right now, a cult of martyrdom is growing around Derek Chauvin to turn him into the American Nelson Mandela.  And while this is part of the broader rightwing attempt to undermine Law&Order and replace it with their Fascist White Power Fundamentalism understand the Chauvin Cultists and people who support each and every police shooting of black people can never be swayed with reality, facts, medical documentation, or even due process and court proceedings.

But, and this is the point with each and everyone of these incidents, a depressingly large swathe of White society does not question the extrajudicial killing of black people.  And a vile segment encourage and reveal in these killings and then, with malicious glee, use the deaths as on-line content fodder and incitement amongst their rightwing drones against the dead black person, black society in general, and of course, DemocRAT controlled cities. 

The basic paradigm which is understood and still taught is black people are inherently criminal and a priori guilty and therefore any time they have an interaction with Police its’ understood their deaths at the hands of Police are entirely their fault.  Whereas, white people (as long as the adhere to the tenets of rightwing white supremacy) are inherently good and must somehow have been caught up in a bad situation and therefore their interaction with Police they must be afforded due process above and beyond what is called for under the color of law.

I could go through the entire litany of cop jargon and lawfare that Police use to cover up such incidents, but the plain facts and what the American society has just seen is another unarmed black man shot to death inside his residence.

The Flour Massacre, IDF War Crimes against desperate and starving Palestinians, and the escalating Humanitarian crisis in Gaza

It's 1938 all over again...

The children of Gaza (and the West Bank) are going to need a Sir Nicholas Winton because the IDF, Likud Government, and illegal West Bank Settlers are planning on exterminating every Palestinian they can.

Besides the bombardment and slaughter of children, The IDF and War Criminal Netanyahu are creating multiple human catastrophes in Gaza.  For instance, reduce many in the population to the brink of starvation and then machine-gun down the starving people when they rush to get some of the meager food supplies the Israelis are letting through.

According to the Gaza health ministry, Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) killed at least 104 people and injured at least 750 others as they were congregating in Nabulsi Square near Gaza City, hoping to access flour that was expected to come through in aid trucks. Troops shot at the crowd with tanks and drones, and ran tanks over injured and dead people as they fired, according to Al Jazeera.

Indiscriminate firing into a crowd of starving people and running over the wounded with tanks are crimes so monstrous, even the United States didn't do it during the long Iraqi Occupation.  It's what the villainous Fascist Future Government in The Running Man did at the beginning of the film.  However, the Israeli war criminals know that after each and every one of their war crimes they merely have to say wasn't our fault, our soldiers always avoid civilian casualties, and anyway those killed were Hamas Rapists & Terrorists.

I don't recommend or watch War Porn videos, I've seen enough real shit.  But, even The New York Times stated, The Israeli Military released a heavily edited video to deflect blame...

Commit War Crime - Repeat IDF excuses - Accuse others of Anti-Semitism and supporting Hamas...

Commit War Crime - Repeat IDF excuses - Accuse others of Anti-Semitism and supporting Hamas...

Commit War Crime - Repeat IDF excuses - Accuse others of Anti-Semitism and supporting Hamas...

Commit War Crime - Repeat IDF excuses - Accuse others of Anti-Semitism and supporting Hamas...

Commit War Crime - Repeat IDF excuses - Accuse others of Anti-Semitism and supporting Hamas...

Commit War Crime - Repeat IDF excuses - Accuse others of Anti-Semitism and supporting Hamas...

Commit War Crime - Repeat IDF excuses - Accuse others of Anti-Semitism and supporting Hamas...

The death toll in Gaza is reportedly 30,000 but, the IDF counters its' killed 10,000 Hamas fighters and blames any other deaths on Hamas using Palestinians as "human-shields".  In their latest indefensible war crime the IDF blamed Hamas for rushing to steal the food, and claimed their soldiers only shot people who posed a threat, and most of the deaths were the result of looters who drove the trucks through the crowds.

Netanyahu and the IDF are going to kill as many people as possible and there's not much anyone is willing to do or can do to stop this.  Whenever this ends, Israel has destroyed their moral credibility for the next 50 years but, it matters little to the leadership of Likud or Hamas.  They see this war as beneficial and absolutely in line with their goals.  I fear the Israelis and Palestinians are doomed.

The Revenge of the Thin Blue Line 41: Harvard Economist Roland Fryer Study Destroys Racial Bias in Police Shootings or does it?

So, at work a friend asked me if I had heard the Harvard study showing there is no racial discrimination in shootings.  I said I hadn't and he began to play a video with his phone facing away from me.

So, right away I could tell the speaker was an African-American man.  I will leave it up to you to determine why rightwingers absolutely love hearing conservative black writers and thinkers like Thomas Sowell, Clarence Thomas, Colon Noir, Candace Owens or whomever regurgitate reactionary agitprop and direct snide inflammatory insults at Democrats, progressives, LGBTQ persons and other minorities.

Bari Weiss lies about Crime

Anyway as I listened to about 30-60 seconds of the speaker who it turns out is Harvard Economist Professor Roland Fryer, who stated he had published a study showing there was no bias in police shootings.  Reading up on it, the study was conducted in 2016 and published in July 2017, so it's post Ferguson but, pre-George Floyd and BLM burning down every city in America 4 times over during the 2020 "Riots".

Now, this video was a snippet from a 75 minute interview with Bari Weiss, so already I know it's going to have a hard right slant while it masquerades as a Neutral follow the facts not feelings or even adopts a pseudo-left patina.  It's also under the umbrella of the "University of Austin", which if you don't know is a Billionaire funded reactionary laboratory designed to undercut education by claiming it's all about stopping Cancel Culture and Wokeness. 

My first question was where did the data come from before we got off topic.  We got off topic because my friend wanted to defend the Jan6th Coup Attempt ("It wasn't an insurrection") and decry the southern border migrant influx.  His defense of the Jan6th criminal conspiracy boiled down to 'They [i.e. the Police] let them in' therefore it can't have been a Coup Attempt.  Shades of a Nixonian belief, If police officer let's you do it, that means it is not illegal.

But, getting back to Professor Fryer, in the snippet he claimed other academics went to him and pressured him to not publish it.  And if that was remotely true he'd name names.  No names?  Didn't happen.  Fryer, also leans in and in semi-stunned tones claims after getting his results of not finding any racial bias in police shooting from his 8 RAs, he hired 8 "fresh ones" and redid the study and got the same result!  Shocking!!!  Of course, you could hire a million RA's and if you feed them the same data every time you're probably going to get the same result.  The old stand by of Garbage In, Garbage Out, still applies I see.

Or if anyone did go to Fryer and ask him not to publish it was because they knew as soon as his study was released shameless bad faith actors would seize upon it and tout it for decades proving there was no racial bias in policing.  Because... No One... NO ONE... reads a study like this in it's entirety.  And yes before you go, Well I found 3 people who read this from cover to cover, functionally no one reads everything.  Instead what they do is read the Title, perhaps find a tidbit or two in the study that conforms to their narrative, and cite it over and over and over by repetition.

 

And that's the biggest disservice of this paper because, grotesque Reactionaries like my friend or Megyn Kelly are going to reference it to prove there isn't any bias in Police work.  Even though, and this is classic, Professor Fryer states, "that yes we saw some bias in the low level uses of force, everyday pushing up against cars and things like that..."

Just as an aside, sure there's Police brutality in everyday interactions with black an hispanic people and police like throwing people up against cars blah blah blah... but let me minimize it so I can provide Faux News and rightwing grifters like Bari Weiss the ammo they need to claim 'Ackshullay there really isn't Police brutality'...

And of course, the whole fucking point isn't that White Cops are all Klansman running around gunning down black people on a daily N-word hunt, but that Police brutality and systematic racism stem from the day-to-day interactions and injustices meted out in disproportionate number of traffic stops, unequal application of laws, over-policing of certain neighborhoods based on demographics, targeted harsh sentencing of black and brown peoples while certain whites get special treatment, plus a whole host of other micro-aggressions which minorities face from the Justice System on a daily basis.

Judge Adrian acknowledged he was supposed to
impose a mandatory 4-year sentence against Clinton,
 but he would not send him to prison.
“That is not just... I will not do that.”

But, Crypto-Fascists like Fryer say and take certain actions specifically to upset others.  Don't make the mistake of thinking Fryer or any other fascist believes the bullshit they say, they say it precisely to upset you, to trigger you (as the MAGA Chuds proudly declared in 2020), to get you flustered, to waste your time refuting their nonsense, and ultimately to make you despair and give up.  Fascists win when regular people no longer fight back and cede the ground to the Fascists. 

That's what Fryer is all about.

So I won't tell you I read this whole study, but right away even Fryer and his team have to acknowledge

Interestingly, as the intensity of force increases (e.g. handcuffing civilians without arrest, drawing or pointing a weapon, or using pepper spray or a baton), the probability that any civilian is subjected to such treatment is small, but the racial difference remains surprisingly constant.  These are rare events. Yet, the results indicate that they are significantly more rare for whites than blacks. With all controls, blacks are 21 percent more likely than whites to be involved in an interaction with police in which at least a weapon is drawn and the difference is statistically significant. [3]

So, getting back to where the data is from you will be unsurpirised to learn it comes from Police Departments themselves, and Fryer admits it's difficult to get any data around Police shootings other than it happened and almost impossible to get data from the day-to-day indignities black and brown persons suffer at the hands of bigoted Police Officers. 

And why choose the data he chooses?  Certainly, Professor Fryer would state he didn't want his paper to be about any one high profile police shooting of a black person, like Laquan McDonald in Chicago, or Walter Scott in South Carolina, but his decision to narrowly say their is not racism in Police shootings also afforded him the opportunity to ignore Eric Garner being choked to death in Long Island.  So, the data mainly comes from Police department records themselves Houston Police Department (2005-2015), New York Stop & Frisk (2003-2013), and from cities Boston, Camden, Austin, Dallas, Los Angeles, six Florida counties.

Notice this data completely excludes entire regions of the country and every State in the Deep South, the regions of the country where most Americans would say Institutional Racism is a way of life and abuse of force and authority goes back centuries.

But, anyway my time is more and more precious to me so there's not much more to be gained from an 8 year old study or anything to be gained from watching his interview with the odious rightwing troll Bari Weiss.  But, understand two things about this study as with John Lott's totally bogus NRA-funded study that Americans use guns in self-defense 3,000,000 times a year or Andrew Wakefield's fraudulent study that vaccines cause Autism this study will forever be cited as absolute proof that there is no anti-black bias in Police Work, Police Officers merely go to where the crime is, and crime is an inherent part of black and brown society. 

Remember language is a weapon and the language that Fryer employs is designed to give cover to the growing demands of right-wingers that the handcuffs be taken off their Police, because we know Police never lie in reports, Police never arrest innocent men, and every euphemistically named Officer-involved shooting (OIS) is a good shoot.  After all who you gonna believe New York's Finest or your lying eyes?

Prosecutors released new footage of a viral attack on two police officers that appears to conflict with police accounts of their initial interaction with a group of migrants that quickly escalated into a melee that triggered nationwide outrage.

Professor Fryer then concludes with a Bill Cosby, a beloved black authority figure especially to Whites, style condemnation of black people,

The importance of our results for racial inequality in America is unclear. It is plausible that racial differences in lower level uses of force are simply a distraction and movements such as Black Lives Matter should seek solutions within their own communities (emphasis added) rather than changing the behaviors of police and other external forces. 

Conclusion: 

So, while reading this I did find multiple refutations of Professor Fryer's work.  (I won't go into his personal failings or foibles but leave that to you to decide if it undercuts his research and work.)

2020 update: The specific flaws of Roland Fryer's paper have now been characterized in two studies (by other scholars, not myself). Knox, Lowe, and Mummolo (2019) reanalyze Fryer's data to find it understates racial biases. Ross, Winterhalder, and McElreath (2018) do something similar through a statistical simulation.

Fryer’s analysis is highly flawed, however. It suffers from major theoretical and methodological errors, and he has communicated the results to news media in a way that is misleading. While there have long been problems with the quality of police shootings data, there is still plenty of evidence to support a pattern of systematic, racially discriminatory use of force against black people in the United States.

There should be no argument that black and Latino people in Houston are much more likely to be shot by police compared to whites. I looked at the same Houston police shooting dataset as Fryer for the years 2005-2015, which I supplemented with census data, and found that black people were over 5 times as likely to be shot relative to whites. Latinos were roughly twice as likely to be shot versus whites.