The Twilight of the St. Louis Cardinals and the Missouri War on LGBTQ community

Two Birds, One Bat 
IFKWIMAITYD

As Your Chicago Cubs, just won 2 out of 3 from the Milwaukee Brewers to close the division leading gap to 3 games, before losing two 1-run games in the bottom of the 9th to those dastardly Cincinnati Reds (Choke Cubs Choke, Hey Chicago waddaya say, the Cubs are gonna Choke today) we can at least take solace the St. Louis Cardinals are currently in Last Place in the Central Division.

The last time the Cardinals finished last in the division was 1990, which was the twilight of those great 1980's teams, managed by Whitey Herzog and backed by light-hitting, slick-fielding, fast teams of Ozzie Smith, Willie McGee, Vince Coleman, Terry Pendleton, and variety of other greats of the cocaine era.  Those teams made 3 World Series in the 1980's winning one in 1982 and probably denied a second series championship in 1985 in the infamous I-70 Series against KC.  In Game 6 the Cardinals suffered the vicissitudes of human error as Umpire Don Denkinger, who passed this May, made a wrong call and there was no official instant replay back in ancient 80's.  It's too bad The Blown Call was his legacy as he was apparently a stand up guy.

Since 2000, the Cardinals have made 16 post seasons (yes I know they are expanded) and have played in 4 World Series.  So this is uncharted (unchartered?) territory for the Mighty Red Birds.  But, Missouri has other much worse problems than a bad Baseball team. 

If you look at the classic Cardinals uniform it shows two birds on the bat.  If you know anything about Ornithology you might recognize red Cardinals are the male of the species.  So, the official uniform of the Missouri baseball team has a same-sex couple on front.  Will the MO Legislature order the Cardinals to change their uniforms or is this okay because baseball is for boys so boy birds are the only ones who can be displayed thus saving boys sports for boys?

Missouri, is plagued like so many states with Republicans.  And Republicans infest government for one purpose and one purpose only to make Americans lives worse in every conceivable way.  As you might know, Republicans passed a raft of anti-LGBTQ laws in the Republican test case for dehumanization and extermination of Americans.

Accountability would be nice

In February, a lying, deluded, paid propagandist named Jamie Reed alleged all sorts of medical malpractice and abuse of minors at Washington University in St. Louis and by inference declared this was standard practice in a hundred institutions Nationwide.   Buttressed by this carefully curated phony whistleblower, The Show Me State, decided scurrilous lies and innuendo was far more than enough to bring the awesome power of the state down upon people just trying to live their lives.  That infamous coward Josh Hawley proclaimed 'Accountability is Coming'.  

Except, as with all of these rightwing lies about LGBTQ persons and Teachers, this was a complete and utter fabrication.  A deliberate falsehood designed to get people to grant Republicans power to incarcerate and eliminate their ideological enemies.  Based on Jamie Reed's lies, Missouri Republicans passed the euphemistically titled SAFE Act which just made it past judicial injunction and as of September 1st denies Trans children medical care and criminalizes the providing Trans youth medical care.

Rightwing domestic terrorist attacks against the LGBTQ community are on the rise and Republicans plan to use governmental power at whatever level they control to kill them.  Understand the Republican Party is fully invested in lying and propaganda to maintain political power, but as they lose more and more elections, Republicans will transition to outright Fascist Violence following the well-worn model which presupposes their victims will be too cowed or too incredulous in believing it can happen here.  It's going to happen here, it's already happening here.

Be brave if you can, but be prepared.  Because once Republicans no longer see any hope in gerrymandering or voter suppression or the other tricks and chicanery they've engaged in to maintain power; Violence and murder will be the political weapons they use.

Republican Acts of Terror 3: Bomb Throwing Ryan Walters Oklahoma Edition

Besides empowering "lone wolves" to conduct rightwing domestic terrorist acts throughout the Nation, multiple elected Republicans are state-sponsored terrorist regimes.

Removing One Letter at a Time

In Oklahoma, a 38 year old conservative chump named Ryan Walters has done everything in his power to destroy public education in the state.  That he is the elected Superintendent of Schools for the entire state is just the icing on the shit cake.  At a minimum, you would think a conservative would actually try and shelter the kids under his care from the cultural wars, but then you recall that Republicans don't actually believe their bluster about protecting the children, but in fact only shout groomer and regurgitate lies in order to "Bash the Left" and gain power.

Ryan Walters is the culmination of 50 years of non-stop Republican lying and conservative agitprop.  At this point, Republicans no longer see despicable propagandists as useful idiots in winning elections the idiots are the Republican Party.

Walters spouts Faux News talking points like a rightwing brain-washed grandpa while also repeating well-worn Republican anti-education tropes.  For instance, claiming the 1921 Tulsa race massacre wasn't racist.  But, as a new era Republican, Ryan Walters also believes in sharing disingenuous agitprop from the Terrorist Chaya Raichik (Libs of TikTok).

Bomb threats against public schools in Tulsa, Oklahoma, continued to pour in on Tuesday as right-wing indignation over a satirical TikTok video posted earlier this month by a local educator enters its second week. 

Large numbers of students have reportedly stayed home in the wake of the threats, which set the city of just over 400,000 on edge. 

At the same time, the state’s 38-year-old Superintendent of Public Instruction—who helped stoke outrage over the supposed intentions of a “woke” school librarian—now stands accused of ignoring ongoing child abuse allegedly taking place right under his nose. 

“While Ryan Walters is fighting culture war issues, creating division, and basically creating problems for himself to seemingly try to fix, there’s been actual abuse taking place in schools that he knew about for months [but] did nothing to address,” Oklahoma State Rep. Mickey Dollens, a Democrat, told The Daily Beast. 

Walters, a Republican, was sworn in as Oklahoma’s education superintendent in January 2023. Since taking office, he has likened teachers’ unions to terrorist organizations, claimed Tulsa public schools were being secretly infiltrated by the Chinese government, and cozied up to an entity labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, among other things However, while making a big show of his far-right bona fides, Walters has turned a blind eye to something far more damaging than any TikTok video, according to Dollens.

Ryan Walters absolutely wants teachers and LGBTQ people to be murdered.  But, he'll wash himself in the blood of righteousness by claiming to protect the children.  Which we all know is a lie.  Republicans routinely ignore child abuse because they are the ones doing it, to distract and deflect towards the LGBTQ community because LGBTQ people have very little political power.  Republicans yearn to round-up and summarily execute millions of Americans.  But, that violence is already here as we see Republican controlled States setting up inquisitions to arrest their enemies and the off-handed extrajudicial killings by white rightwing Police Officers against unarmed black people.  Be brave if you can but, definitely be ready because state-sponsored concentration camps and death trains will be the first agenda item of the 2025 Trump Presidency.

Ted Cruz is a Republican no one wants to have a Beer with, let alone 2 a day!

As a Canadian Boss Hog imitator
Ted Cruz should be drinking Hamm's

So... Beer...  contra Benjamin Franklin's wisdom beer is not proof god loves us and wants to be happy.  But, to quote Homer Simpson alcohol is the cause and solution to all the world's problems.

Back in January, Canadian health officials and the World Health Organization reported that the amount of alcohol that is safe to consume is almost none.  2 drinks a week maximum is the new recommendation.  Incidentally, every drunk I've ever pulled over has always claimed to have had just 2 beers before driving.

Never one to let a good ginned-up controversy go to waste the Republicans claimed Joe Brandon is trying to take your beers away from you!  Faux News nincompoop Petey Doocey asked in a White House Press Conference "Does President Biden want to limit Americans to two beers a week?" and Faux News headlines are Biden White House dodges the question.  I'm surprised Kid Rock wasn't brought on to shoot up some Budweiser Zeroes...  

Republicans really have no respect for their voting base.  Ted Cruz would have you believe he was drinking brewskis with his chums while at Haaaaaaaaavard and Princeton, "If they want us to drink two beers a week, they can kiss my ass…". Yeah, right.  Rafael is so thirsty for tough guy bonafides.  Although, I bet while Cruz was vacationing in Cancun he drank plenty of Pina Colada's while Texas residents suffered from his typical lack of leadership.

As usual, elitist Republicans make these ham-handed, play-acting efforts to be seen as regular Joes instead of the smooth-bodied wide-waisted Ivy Leaguers.  Just "Belive" John Kennedy polishing his little silver .38 is a tough guy.  

Anyway, alcohol is not good for you.  No red wine isn't healthy.  No two drinks a night isn't okay.  But, there is truth in wine and the truth is alcohol is a poison.

This has been known for a long time but, the alcohol lobby is very powerful.  Just think of the billionaire families who made their money just distributing beer;  the Wirtz family in Chicago own the Blackhawks and Cindy McCain (nee Hensley) bootlegger father was the second largest Anheuser-Busch distributor in the US; as he grudgingly bankrolled John McCain's Senate runs.

The recent booze fueled antics of Wisconsin Drunk Van Orden and pill-popping, vodka-chugging Texan Ronny Jackson both have shown what mean drunks Republicans are but, despicable Republicans will never let an opportunity to lie about President Biden go to waste.

President Abraham Lincoln knew what and whom we are dealing with today back in 1860.  Conservatives have decided that unless we the people yield unconditionally to them they will ruin America.  Republican Rule or Ruin...

Republican Acts of Terror 2: Alabama Fugitive Uterus Act

 Remember how the Supremacist Court's Dobbs decision was simply going to return the matter of Abortion to the States and that solved and ended the abortion debate forever.  Well, that was always a Stalking Horse for the Republican push to make abortion illegal Federally.

Already 19 Republican Attorney's General have issued a demand letter for access to privileged medical records across State Lines.  The Attorney General of Alabama Steve Marshall isn't going to be satisfied with flogging sluts for going out of his jurisdiction and getting medical treatment.  Oh no Marshall plans to charge, arrest, and punish everyone he can for the conspiracy of helping women not be brood mares and  Alabama sex slaves and filed a Motion in the US District Court of the Middle District of Alabama;

Alabama’s Republican attorney general said in a court filing that he has

the right to prosecute people who make travel arrangements for pregnant

women to have out-of-state abortions.

In a court filing Monday, attorneys for Attorney General Steve Marshall

wrote that providing transportation for women in Alabama to leave

the state to get an abortion could amount to a “criminal conspiracy.”

I think I understand how this will work;  The Alabama Attorney General will file charges based on the criminal conspiracy for solicitation to murder.  The AL legislature in 2019 passed the Human Life Protection Act which determined a fetus is an unborn child and provided for the sanctity of that life.  Thus the women having contacted or made arraignments to transport the "unborn child" across state lines are doing so for the express purpose of murdering them.  Thus having entered into a criminal conspiracy according to Alabama "Law" to commit an abortion the out-of-state person(s) are guilty of the act of conspiracy.

What will follow is simple; an Alabamie Judge deep in the backwoods will issue a Nationwide arrest warrant demanding the people involved in this "criminal conspiracy" be taken into custody and transported forthwith to Alabama to face charges.  Police Officers will always enforce a warrant and won't care about the underlying charges and certainly won't be dissuaded by pleas from women or doctors and will delight in forcibly taking into custody anyone who offers a scintilla of "resistance". 

I have zero faith that Hospitals and medical insurance providers will not immediately buckle and give into Republican AG demands and provide all records with or without subpoena.  And then the big test case will come when Alabama or some other rightwing slave state demands people be arrested by Democratic Governors and transported to them for Justice.  Republicans obviously believe this is a winning play and will force the issue up to the SCTOUS where Amy Coat-Hanger Barrett will of course rule that State's have no right to deny to arrest and transport wayward women and their criminal co-conspirators and will face Federal sanction and order the President to send the US Marshall's out because always understand the cries of Biden's Weaponized Department of Justice is a bullhorn admission of what Republican plans to do if they have control of Government.

Already Alabama is pushing the extreme State's Rights" Trump card by eliminating federal child labor laws and by ignoring the Supreme Court ruling about their racist gerrymandered congressional district map.  So, why wouldn't they simply declare Alabama gets to determine to arrest people across the Nation.  I'm sure this is a calculated step in pushing for Supremacist Court ruling outlawing Abortion federally which with the trifecta of Presidency and Congress would quickly be written into law.

Remember though that this need not even get to the SCOTUS, the effect of announcing plans to arrest anyone and everyone, anywhere in the US is designed to make people frightened and to have them self-enforce Alabama's ban by declining to aid women in receiving medical care.  The threat alone will have the chilling effect.

Abraham Lincoln had these people figured out in the 1850's.  It's Rule or Ruin.  It's a legal demand, backed by the threat of violence, that you agree with them.  And if you don't well, state-sponsored terrorism is what Law Enforcement is for.

Every August Republicans and Fox News lie about Afghanistan to smear Joe Biden, Republicans repeatedly piss on "The Troops"

In August 2021, after having overseen the end of the useless and futile Afghanistan Occupation, conservatives began an on-line campaign to blame Biden for everything.

While the narrative of Afghanistan withdrawal debacle was aided by War Boner Dick Engle and loony Lara Logan, and uncritically promoted by the Corporate Media an overnight rumor spread rapidly an rightwing Twitter that neither President Biden, nor Vice President Harris, nor anyone from the Biden Administration had gone to meet the last 13 returning service members slain during the withdrawal, during their dignified transfer.  This lie quickly caught fire amongst the right as pictures of C-5 Galaxy's landing at Dover AFB without President Biden and pictures of President Biden's "official" White House schedule  circulating without mention of attending Dover AFB.  This caught the eyes of several prominent Republican congresspukes, former Trump officials, and the eyes of Faux News Liars who ran with the story.

Because as Joe Rogan says about every piece of rightwing trash he regurgitates without pause, “It’s got to be a real thing … it seems too good to not be … damn it, it better not be fake." 

Even after their story feel apart rightwingers attempted to keep it somewhat alive by claiming their outrage had forced President Sleepy Joe Biden to scramble and rearrange his schedule to make the landing.  Because what's important is too push those emotional buttons in the rightwing reptile brain, to get them riled up, to keep conservatives in a constant state of frenzied anger.  By the time reality intercedes all rightwingers remember is that they were mad at Joe Biden and Joe Biden must have done something to make them mad.

So, it should come as no surprise that Faux News ran a story about the family of USMC Sgt Nicole Gee, having to pay $60,000 out of their own pocket to have her remains flown to Arlington National Cemetery for final burial.  Two Republican House Assholes Cory Mills and Kevin Kiley went public and told Fox News, this was an outrage!

Except, of course, it wasn't true.  As always Republican love lies and always, always, always remember that Republicans shit on Veterans and use the bodies of the dead to advance their political agenda.  The point was to get conservatives outraged, the truth hardly matters to Republicans.  And once the lie became to much to maintain, Fox News simply deleted the story.  Drats!  Well, I'm certain they think, their next lie to slander Biden will catch on and they can always run a Hunter Biden dic pic for clicks!  And after all some rightwingers will still believe the initial lie anyways.

The Kabul 13 they call them... what a slap in the face.  What a despicable use of the the dead.  Selective "waving of the bloody shirt."  As if no one else fucking died over there.  As if Joe Biden bears the responsibility of 20 years of pipe dreams of Nation building or Trump's 2020 Art of the Deal with the Taliban.  As if Republicans give a rat's hind tit about Veterans or service members when they demonstrably don't, like last August when Senate Republicans fist-bumped after blocking key components of Veterans healthcare coverage.

It's outrageous the rhetoric around Afghanistan.  President Biden extricates us from a 20 year hole and not only doesn't he get credit (from anyone) he gets the blame.  That Marines who died in the last battle of a failed war were infants when I was in the same land they would later die in, doesn't make me angry at President Biden, instead I thank him for having the courage to end it so some 18 year old yet unborn today won't die in 2041 in Afghanistan.  

Republicans hate America.  Hate Americans.  And hate everyone who doesn't aid them in their agenda of intolerance and oppression.  So, of course, of fucking course, they will shamelessly lie about the treatment of the dead bodies they use as propaganda.

Republican Acts of Terror: Jacksonville Edition

Allen Texas Head of the Tim Pool Fan Club 
“I think it's funny and I really just don't care …
 It means nothing to me. It's just funny.”
Tim Pool May 10 2023 

“Those who are conducting this travesty and creating this two-tier system of justice, I want to ask them what the heck, do you want us to be in civil war? Because that’s what’s going to happen.  We’re not going to keep putting up with this.” - Sarah Palin told Newsmax on Thursday night.

Look what we made another Republican inspired, rightwing media consuming domestic terrorist do in Jacksonville, Florida.

Aug 26 (Reuters) - A white man armed with a high-powered rifle and a handgun killed three Black people at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida, on Saturday, before shooting himself, in what local law enforcement described as a racially motivated crime.

"This shooting was racially motivated, and he hated Black people," Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters told a press conference.  The suspect, whom Waters described as a white male wearing a tactical vest, was not identified. Waters said all three victims - two men and a woman - were Black.

This murdering Nazi attempted to gain access to the historic black Edward Waters University before doning his tactical vest, ski mask, a swastika festooned firearms to murder random black people at a random Dollar General.  These Republican Acts of Terror will increase until 1 of 2 responses occurs;  1) Joe Brandon and his Weaponized DOJ sic Federal Jackboots down upon poor innocent conservative organizations like the Proud Boys at which point Marge Greene, Gym Jordan, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Sarah Palin demand the immediate Impeachment and violent overthrow of President Biden by any and all means, or 2) people, especially black people, fight back against Republican Terrorists, at which point Marge Greene, Gym Jordan, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Sarah Palin demand the immediate Impeachment and violent overthrow of President Biden by any and all means.

President Barack Obama's two election victories and Donald Trump's 2020 defeat and subsequent arrests broke these people.  White rightwing men and women are untethered from society, angry, bitter, seething and lashing out violently whenever and wherever possible.  This attack in Jacksonville is merely the most recent direct violent action, indirectly the Moms for Hitler group for instance, consistently stoke the flames of rightwing violence and work to effect violence on certain groups of American society; mainly black, brown, liberal, or the LGBTQ community.

Then, in response as has been predicted and directly observed, a lone wolf conservative stochastic terrorist conducts an attack.  Meanwhile all of this rightwing domestic terrorism is pushed, prodded, aided, and abetted along by rightwing media and The Republican Party.  Who in turn, lash out, lie, and threaten violence, when their direct connection to terrorism is highlighted. 

Don't worry though I'm certain Ron DeathSantis will telegram Thoughts & Prayers while he's on his whirlwind tour of America, on the Florida Taxpayer dime.  Of course, DeSantis might have to remove the Jacksonville Sheriff for invoking CRT as a motive in this crime.

Rightwing domestic terrorism is not the most pressing threat, that's the Climate Change Disaster, but it is the most immediate.  Righting domestic terrorism accounts for 90% of deaths in the United States since 9/11.   Fascism and violence from Republicans is here and it's only going to increase in frequency and activity.  2024 is the watershed year for America, if Trump manages to swindle his way back into the White House he'll never leave and with his criminal co-conspirators ensconced into the every corner of the Executive Branch and pliant criminals riddled throughout other branches of the Federal Government, the pogroms, concentration camps, and extermination of millions of Americans will begin.

The Revenge of the Thin Blue Line 39: Police Domestic Violence Ohio to California road trip

"Ha ha ha I can't believe you got'em!  You expert, rootin'-tootin', eagle-eyed, Goth-loving marksman! I love it! You managed to find a way to win... and everybody still loses!!!" Joker, Under the Red Hood (2010)

Domestic violence is the most prevalent and least controlled crime in America.  In 1987, the Illinois legislature finally mandated Police Officers, at a minimum, write a report when going to a domestic disturbance type situation.  Up until just before Covid I was working with Officers who started their careers back before this mandate.  I'm sure you remember how the response of Officers used to be next to nothing other than a vague warning that they'd do something if they came back a second time that night.

Tracy Chapman, who's enjoying a resurgence due to Luke Combs covering Fast Car, had another song on that ground-breaking album called Behind the Wall.  The lyrics encapsulate much of the perception, true or  not, of the police response to domestic violence.  It's also been known that domestic abuse amongst families of Police Officers is at least as common as the general public and most likely vastly underreported  due to a variety of factors.

So, it comes as little surprise former Officer John Snowling, drove from Ohio to California to attempt to gun down his ex-wife.  Snowling, was a retired Ventura Police Sergeant.  Marie Snowling filed for divorce in December 2022.  As we all know women who are battered, who eventually do leave their abusive husbands, are very much at risk to be murdered.  Snowling tracked her down at Cook’s Corner in Trabuco Canyon, about 50 miles south of downtown Los Angeles, and shot 9 people including her. Three people died and six others were injured before Snowling was killed by law enforcement. The fatal victims have been identified as John Leehey, 67, Tonya Clark, 49, and Glen Sprowl, 53.  After entering and shooting Marie and others, Snowling apparently ran out of ammo or had a weapon malfunction, exited the bar and went back to his vehicle to get more guns and/or ammo.  The Officers confronted him outside at his car. 

“He just had very normal career, nothing really else to report,” Ventura Police Cmdr. Sarah Heard told reporters.

In military parlance, this is known as NSTR (Nothing Significant to Report), which is laughable because I wonder (and in reality know) how Snowling treated domestic abuse victims when he was on the job.  Snowling worked from 1986 to 2014.  So his career encapsulates the generation which was supposed to respond and actually try and do something about domestic abuse.

Again we see, the poisonous fruits of the NRA and Republican push against Gun Control.  Marie Snowling was most likely a long term victim of spousal abuse.  That she finally managed to free herself, file for divorce, is an unforgivable sin to Republicans who are beginning to push back against easier divorce in the perpetual rightwing war on women.  Of course, Republicans and the Gun Industry are also trying to denude firearms restraining orders.  And Snowling was, of course, able to purchase multiple guns because there really is no controls on guns and when a shooting like this happens Republicans simply XIT out their Thoughts & Prayers and move on to the next NRA funded dinner to rake in more blood-soaked campaign donations.

So, anyway the Good Officers who responded to the Bad Officer, shot and killed him and as the Joker said...  Everybody Still Loses...

Buddy Guy and climate change

Earlier this year, when the Ravinia concert schedule was released, we bought tickets to see Buddy Guy.  The last time I had seen the venerable Guy was in 2010 when the new Buddy Guy's Legends blues bar had just opened at 700 S. Wabash in the city.

This concert at Ravinia probably was going to be my last opportunity to see him.  But, the heat that has been baking the United States this summer has settled onto Chicago so we didn't go.  In case you don't know Ravinia Festival is an outdoor venue spread over a large area of Highland Park, Illinois.  The fun of Ravinia is setting up a table and chairs on the lawn and eating and drinking with family and friends prior to and during the concert.  While there is amphitheater seating, most of the grounds offers no actual view of the stage and you hear the music over the extensive A/V system set up in the park grounds.  Ravinia is one of those things white people like.

The problem with Chicago heat index is often that the humidity is 100% because of the big body of water next door thus effectively eliminating your ability to sweat and cool yourself down.  Of course, the climate disaster has been front and center this year.

Unfortunately, in America we are also witnessing the fruits of Republican perfidy and fascism.  The Republican Party is fully invested in denying the reality of the burning house around them.  Does it matter if it's because of the short term financial gain they and their plutocratic owners reap?  Or if it's because of christian dominionism which wishes to usher in the "End Times" and the apocalypse?  But, when you have Republicans claiming This is Normal like a real-life version of the Dog in a Burning House Meme;

“This weather is normal,” Justine Wadsack, a hard-line Republican in the state Senate, tweeted recently. “If ya can’t stand the heat in Arizona, you’re welcome to leave.”

Well, then reality is about to bring it all down upon us.  Sadly, the truth we are not allowed to say is Republicans hate the United States of America.  Viscerally.  And have nothing to offer the American people. This was on full display last night in Wisconsin during the tedious Republican "debate" to see who won't be the nominee for President in 2024.  (It will be Trump.  Period.) 

Eventually, Nikki Haley gave the mealy-mouthed RINO answer that climate change is real but, CHINA!

“The right way is first of all, yes, is climate change real? Yes, it is. But if you want to go and really change the environment, we need to start telling China and India that they have to lower their emissions.”

Haley, of course, has no chance to be the nominee of the racist, women-hating Republican Party.  Climate Change Denialism is another article of faith and a pillar of the rightwing mindset which is unequivocally set upon destroying the United States and reshaping this country into a hells cape of inequality and oppression.

Cory Tomczyk and other Vicious Wisconsin Pricks

Bad Yelp review
Nicer than Cory Tomczyk though

“If you took Madison and Milwaukee out of the state election formula, we would have a clear majority,”

- Robin Vos

Wisconsin is a beautiful state, it's only drawback are Republicans.  This is the chief complaint for many states today.  This wasn't going to be a post about Wisconsin Republicans but instead about grass burs which often evade a cursory glance over a field, lawn, or pasture, but make themselves readily apparent when you feel the long spines stick you.  Yow! Ouch! Aye Yai Yai!

Longspine Sandbur Cenchrus longispinus (Hack.) Fern are some mean little bastards and once stuck on you, the only real way to deal it to gingerly pluck them from your socks/pants or worse dog paws :(

But, then Wisconsin Public Radio ran a story about Cory Tomczyk and his on-going efforts to destroy the Wausau Pilot & Review for accurately reporting what he said in 2021.

A Marathon County judge dismissed a lawsuit filed in 2021 by Mosinee businessman Cory Tomczyk, who's now a Republican state senator representing the 29th District, accused the Wausau Pilot & Review of defamation after it reported that he was overheard using an anti-gay slur against a teenager while in the audience at a Marathon County Executive Committee meeting. 

Despite the publication's victory in circuit court, Pilot & Review Publisher Shereen Siewert said it's racked up between $150,000 and $200,000 in legal bills. Those expenses were enough to put the small news outlet in danger of shutting down, Siewert said.  "But then we realized that even if we win, we lose."

Worse than a Pyrrhic victory, Siewert pointed out the legal bills from Tomczyk's baseless lawsuit are in danger of shutting down the Wausau Pilot & Review.  It's baseless because in deposition Tomczyk admitted to calling the 13 year old boy a "Faggot".  Tomczyk defended this action by claiming he has friends and a brother who are gay.

"I have a brother who is a gay guy, and I've certainly out of joking and out of spite called him a 'faggot' more than once," Tomczyk testified in a deposition resulting from his lawsuit. "I have a couple of friends who are also gay, and in that community, that term, I don't, I don't feel in that community that term has the same negative connotation (as) in a straight community. The guys that I know laugh it off."

I have a black friend defense who I also call a terrible slur too now adapted and repackaged for bigots to smear the LGBTQ community!  Tomczyk's efforts are plain to see, use his money to win despite being guilty of what was reported,

Robert Drechsel, a professor emeritus of journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "In many cases, plaintiffs aren't really suing to win, but they win by suing."

When you face the reality that Republicans have NOTHING to offer the American people it can be pretty bleak.  This seems to be why the Corporate Media writ large refuses to face it.  In fact, in Wisconsin Racist Robin Vos, Drunken Van Orden, Russian Ron Johnson, Slimy Scott Fitzgerald, Bigoted Becky Bradley, Vile Terf Cory Tomczyk and many other Fascists have enjoyed improper and illegally obtained political power due to voter suppression, gerrymandering, and political chicanery.  And have gotten away with their using the awesome power of Government at the local, state, and federal level to harm people and ensconce repressive and unpopular hatreds and bigotry into law.

The new liberal aligned Wisconsin Supreme Court is going to reverse a lot of the damage Fitzgerald and Scott Walker did during their tenures, expect more vitriol and threats from rightwingers.  And when Trump loses Wisconsin in 2024 conservatives will probably declare civil war and attack the United States again...

Tommy Tuberville is holding up military appointments so Trump can fill them in 2025

Trump as Tiberius
Flynn as Sejanus

Does Florida Man Tommy Tubberbrain believe he is the next Sejanus?

Like, most Gen Xers my first encounter with the historical figure Sejanus came from the I, Claudius BBC series based on the two Graves' novels, and starring Derek Jacobi with Patrick Stewart as Sejanus.

In reality, I've thought Mike Flynn was a more apt comp to Sejanus based on his military history, personal aspirations, and the paramilitary organization Flynn has built in Venice, Florida at "The Hollow".

Tommy Tuberville is more akin to one of the nameless Senators who blithely lived during the early stages of the Roman Empire and the first dynasty, The Julio-Claudian.

Long ago I wrote the Republican slide into anti-democratic intransigence was turning the United States Senate into a simulacrum of the Medieval Polish Sejm, in which one Senator could express his singular Objection (The Golden Freedom) and hold up all the workings of the Congress.  Well, here we are with Tuberville.

Alt Jill Stein, Krysten Sinema, has conceived of an idea that she only can sit the boys down, flash her cleavage and get them to agree to a deal;

“I know that Coach does not want to undermine the readiness of our United States military,” Sinema said, referring to the former college football coach by his preferred title. “And I know that the United States military and the administration does not want to undermine the authority and the right of any United States senator. What we need are for folks to step off a little bit from their positions and find that middle ground to solve the challenge that we’re facing.” 

“I’ve volunteered to help do that,” she added. “We’ll see if they take me up on the offer.”

There's that "Golden Freedom" again...  But, calling Tubberbrain "Coach" is the give away.  Sinema has long admitted she uses her "sex appeal" to get male Republicans to go along but, she's deluding herself or trying to delude us here.  But, she's clearly male-identified and loves being the cool girl amongst the boys.  Also, Tuberville has a preferred mode of address?  Perhaps, weeping Jordan Peterson can tell him true American conservatives don't call people by what they prefer but, what they actually are, and Tuberville is a bigoted asshole or ironically just another "Florida Man", since it turns out he doesn't even live in Alabama...

“Yes, I am not an everyday resident of Alabama.  I’m a carpetbagger of this country,” He acknowledged to a group of voters in a video.

But, Tommy PotatoTown is illustrating his sheer disdain for the Military and professional Officer Corps so necessary to a 21st century military.  I'm certain "Coach" sees his disregard for these men and women's professional lives no differently than he saw the NCAA football players who went through his football program.  Not as people but, cogs to be used in his offensive schemes. 

Nowadays, Republicans continually run into the problem is active duty service members and younger veterans are trending liberal and voting Democratic, especially in 2020.  The Reactionary Reagan-Era military has long since retired and moved to Florida.

So, while Tommy PotatoTown knows he needs to intone Support Out Troops and Thank A Veteran rhetoric, he also seems to be aware the military is not on the side of his Trumpublican Party.  Tuberville isn't holding up military promotions out of some great moral stance but, in an effort to hamstring the US Military for the next Rightwing Insurrection in January 2025.  Because last time the military did not... 

“I stand with our veterans and I’m going to donate every dime I make when I’m in Washington, D.C., to the veterans of the state of Alabama. Folks, they deserve it. They deserve it a lot more than most of us.”

The Fact Checker contacted nine veterans’ organizations represented on the Alabama State Board of Veterans Affairs. Three state affiliates — Vietnam Veterans of America, Disabled American Veterans and Veterans of Foreign Wars — responded and said they have received no donations from either Tuberville or the Tommy Tuberville Foundation.

Republicans piss on active duty service members, spit on Veterans, hate America, and have nothing to offer the American people.  Tuberville's one man filibuster of military promotions reflects the spittle flecked rage which inhabits the spongy brains of every rightwinger in America.

Donnie 4 Indictments threatens the Georgia Grand Jurors, especially the "RIGGERS"

Proudly displayed

I remember on election night Novmber 2020 as it became clear President Biden and VP Harris had won, the media began to drag it's feet and did not call the election even as Faux News called Arizona for Biden and returns in Georgia began to swing towards Joe and Kamala.  The delay in calling the election stretched on for several days in early November and Into that Void rushed Donald John Traitor Trump with his lies about the election being rigged.

His conference call (with other like minded criminal conspirators) to Brad Raffensberger was the nothing more than a tawdry Mafioso call and nothing less than a death knell for the Republic.

Reading through that transcript from January 2nd 2021, it's chock full of Trump's pathetic and pathological sociopathy; utter disdain for law, hatred of Stacey Abrams (a black woman) and contempt for Raffensberger for being "outplayed" by Abrams, fantasy beliefs about the US Military ("I won the military by a lot"), and the classic, fvcking classic, Mob boss I just need you to do one little thing pleading.

Donald John Traitor Trump engaged in multiple criminal conspiracies to subvert the United States Government and install himself as President following his decisive defeat in the 2020 Election.  That these conspiracies failed due to incompetence (Powell, Ellis, Ghouliani), refusal (Reffensberg), or cowardice (Pence) are irrelevant to his attempts.

After the call to Raffensberger failed, and after the Tuesday January 5th special elections in which Raphael Warnock and John Ossoff won, Trump knew the January 6th Fake Elector and then Violent autogolpe (The TrumPutsch) were his last shot.

Everyone knows who Trump is and who he always was.  It wasn't a big deal when he was just a scummy, weird Manhattanite phony but, this is now.  Trump has built up a cult of barely constrained lunatics who yearn to hurt millions of people in America.  The reality of who Trump is, a racist, rapist, thieving treasonous is, immaterial.

Traitor Trump is going to be the Republican nominee for President in 2024 (maybe with RFK Jr as VP, maybe Major Traitor Greene who knows) it doesn't matter how many times he's indicted, how many times he's found liable, culpable, or guilty.  Trump satisfies the visceral need for hatred that exists inside every right-winger in America.  Conservatives are not going to give that up, but 97% of Conservatives are rank cowards willing to go along with the violence, death camps, and fascism as long as others are doing the dirty work.

So, it should come as no surprise that after his Georgia indictment, rightwingers on-line sought out and disseminated the information on the Grand Jurors who indicted him.  Throw that information out into the frothing rage filled rightwing internet and wait for a "lone wolf" or pack of "lone wolves" to act.

The purported names and addresses of members of the grand jury that indicted Donald Trump and 18 of his co-defendants on state racketeering charges this week have been posted on a fringe website that often features violent rhetoric, NBC News has learned. 

NBC News is choosing not to name the website featuring the addresses to avoid further spreading the information. 

The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment. District Attorney Fani Willis faced racist threats ahead of the return of the indictment, and additional security measures were put in place, with some employees being allowed to work from home. 

Tuesday — after Trump posted on his social media website that authorities were going "after those that fought to find the RIGGERS!" — Advance Democracy said Trump supporters were "using the term ‘rigger’ in lieu of a racial slur" in posts. 

The grand jurors have come under attack in the days since Trump's indictment, the fourth criminal indictment brought against the twice-impeached former president. 

“These jurors have signed their death warrant by falsely indicting President Trump," a post on a pro-Trump forum read in response to a post including the names of jurors, which was viewed by NBC News. 

The Fulton County Sheriff's Office, which is handling the surrender of Trump and his co-defendants over the next 10 days, declined to comment.

Death threats and on-line terrorism are de riguer for conservatives, but thus far few have acted upon them.  That's going to change.  And rapidly, as the legal system finally gets to holding Trump accountable for his lifetime of criminality.  And Law enforcement is not ready for the reality.

Dick Uihlein and Frank LaRose: Outside Agitators Extraordinaire

Republican Maths

Frank LaRose apparently is as scummy, disingenuous, and vile as every other Ohio Republican.

"Look at the tech billionares from California and New York who funded the no campaign.  And they've got other bad plans.  Their radical abortion amendment.  They wanna bring up minimum wage increase, a massive minimum wage increase. They wanna do common sense gun reform.  So yeah we've lost one battle but the war continues..."

Look there are several things here which inadvertently show LaRose is deeply ensconced in the rightwing bubble.

Firstly, did LaRose and Ohio Republicans really believe, they could convince voters, even brain-washed conservatives, voting to remove their own voting power was a good was a move because it's hard to believe.  Of course, LaRose also misused his office in the Republican scheme to push through Issue 1.

And for LaRose to believe that Abortion, a higher Minimum Wage, and Gun Control are unpopular instead of enjoying immense popularity across the country just shows how far up his own ass LaRose is and how little he thinks of the American people.

Laughably, LaRose blames Outside Agitators, specifically mentioning California and New York to make sure the Rust Belt Yahoos get mad at them coastal elites, for spending money in Ohio.

I want Dead Women in My Boxes

And so I present Dick Uihlein...

Last month, a CBS News investigation found Uihlein had an outsized role in getting Issue 1 on the ballot. In April, he gave $1.1 million to a political committee pressuring Republican lawmakers to approve the August special election. Uihlein gave $4 million to the group, the bulk of the $4.85 million raised, to Protect our Constitution, the main group supporting Issue 1.

Uihlein is everything the Right claims George Soros is and worse.  Foruntately, Uihlein is also an idiot which mitigates some of his influence but he has so much money that even his doltish choices, like the pig fvcking Darren Bailey here in Illinois, don't really cost him, and he can afford to blow millions of dollars trying to restrict the rights and freedoms of Americans because the pay-out of shackling women and removing Americans freedoms far out-strip the cost to him.

Craig D. Robertson is hardly different than Marge Traitor Greene: Rightwing Domestic Terrorism is coddled and encouraged in America.

Under that mask could be any number of
Republican Congresspersons

The FBI executed a raid on the Utah residence of Craig Deleeuw Robertson resulting in the MAGA terrorist being killed by Law Enforcement.  

And you will be unsurprised to find out that far from demanding Robertson simply comply with lawful orders and not resist arrest.  Conservative are lionizing the wannabe Presidential assassin as a MAGA Martyr. 

It's not difficult to understand why.  Conservatives believe the Government exists to to specifically target, harass, arrest, and kill minorities, the poor, women, and liberals.  Namely everyone rightwingers hate.  The Government and Law Enforcement are expressly forbidden from punishing rightwingers for unethical actions, crimes, or terrorism.

Rightwing domestic terrorism is coddled and encouraged in America.  This is demonstrated time and time and time again by the number of Republicans who feel absolutely free to pose with guns, the amount of on-line death threats conservatives routinely make, and most vividly by the January 6th terrorists exited the Capitol building whooping and hollering, arms raised in triumph.  Since, then Republicans have decried the arrests and convictions of over 1000 of the criminals involved in the attack.

Jan6th, was of course, simply one avenue of attack Republicans took against the US Government.  Another was the Fake Electors scheme in various states like Wisconsin, Arizona and Michigan.

“If the government continues to weaponize these departments against conservatives and the citizens that are then the taxpayers, you know what's going to happen to this country,” Michigan State Representative Matt Maddock asks, according to the audio obtained by The Messenger. After attendees at the event shout possibilities, Maddock answers his own question: “Someone's going to get so pissed off, they're going to shoot someone. That's what's going to happen. Or we're going have a civil war or some sort of revolution. That's where this is, where this is going.”

Matt Maddock's wife is Meshawn Maddock, is one of the 16 fake electors from Michigan and was recently indicted herself.  And as we've seen "weaponizing the government" means conservatives facing the consequences of their actions.  

Taylor Taranto, 37, claimed he had been living in his van and participating with demonstrators supporting Jan. 6 defendants outside the D.C. jail. The protesters kicked him out late last month after they said he acted erratically and tried to play a video that showed the death of Ashli Babbitt in front of her mother.  The QAnon conspiracy theorist showed up near Obama’s home shortly after Donald Trump posted on his social media platform what he claimed was Obama’s address. Taranto was armed, dangerous and in the grip of delusional thinking, prosecutors said, and had successfully eluded law enforcement for nearly a day before his arrest June 29 in a wooded area near Washington’s exclusive Kalorama neighborhood.

We're at an inflection point in this Nation. It's the 6 year anniversary of Heather Heyer's murder in Charlottesville.  For whatever reason we've been saved some of the violence of the 1960's but, as Trump continues to attack Judges, Prosecutors, innocent election officials, more rightwing "lone wolves" will comprehend the clarion call for stochastic terrorism...

As Maui burns, understand Republicans love when Americans suffer and die.

We can live beside the ocean
Leave the fire behind
Swim out past the breakers
Watch the world die - Everclear, Santa Monica (1995)

The news from Maui and the Big Island of Hawaii is horrific, with residents fleeing into the Ocean, describing the scene as a war zone, and the death toll expected to rise into the hundreds as over a 1000 people are missing.

But, because Republicans are beholden to the Fossil Fuels Industry and made resistance to climate change mitigation and environmental protections an article of rightwing faith they won't do anything, except make it easier to pollute and these disasters more devastating.

Much like with healthcare, the Republican plan for these massive once-in-a-century disasters, which happen monthly or  more frequently, is if you have money you'll be okay but everyone else is left to suffer.  And don't expect a Republican Government to help you because Republicans hate the 21st century America and want millions of people to suffer and die, whether by neglect and active indifference or by the direct actions of Republican officials.

Maui and the Hawaiian Islands used to be considered a paradise which would remain untouched by climate change.  But, now we are witness to a terrifying convergence of factors leading a horrific conflagration resulting in deaths and suffering.  Is the world ready for this happening across the globe daily? Are Americans prepared to lose all they have and their lives too?  Nah! It's way cooler to attack Greta Thunberg and call her a retard.  , fat Al Gore sighed too much in 2000 but, those Oil Tycoons Bush and Cheney will bring honor back to the Whitehouse!

The Climate Catastrophe is here.

Imagine if James Comer and the Republicans investigated Clarence Thomas for Bribery

Ettin's are a Greedy species

“I know this is a controversial view, but I’m willing to say it. No provision in the Constitution gives them the authority to regulate the Supreme Court—period,” Supremacist Court InJustice Sammy Alito.

ProPublica did another dive into the blatant open bribery Clarence Thomas is receiving from numerous billionaires;

At least 38 destination vacations, including a previously unreported voyage on a yacht around the Bahamas; 26 private jet flights, plus an additional eight by helicopter; a dozen VIP passes to professional and college sporting events, typically perched in the skybox; two stays at luxury resorts in Florida and Jamaica; and one standing invitation to an uber-exclusive golf club overlooking the Atlantic coast.

This accounting of Thomas’ travel, revealed for the first time here from an array of previously unavailable information, is the fullest to date of the generosity that has regularly afforded Thomas a lifestyle far beyond what his income could provide. And it is almost certainly an undercount.

Unlike, Sammy di Puzzi Alito, Clarence is giddy and loves fucking over the American people as payback against everyone who engaged in the so-called "High Tech Lynching" in 1991.  That everything Anita Harris said about Clarence Thomas was true and that Clarence's tenure on the Supreme Court has borne out what a debased unethical monster he is, is incidental and immaterial. 

Just imagine if the Jim Comer and the House Republicans actually cared about Bribery and investigated the billionaires who shower Clarence Thomas with gifts in a wink-wink unspoken quid pro quo.  Just imagine if Faux News spent one-hundredth of the programming time covering the amount of gifts, bribes, trips, fine dining, wine, and money funneled to Clarence that they do to Hunter Biden's dick...

The details of the ProPublica piece are god awfully ridiculous and just demonstrate a level of unethical behavior reserved for comic book villains.  In 2019, David Sokol a Hedge Fund Vulture having flown Clarence and Ginni out to his 12,000+ acre ranch in Wyoming, also hosted rightwing criminal Mark Paoletta and his wife Tricia.  The Paoletta's wrote a tribute song about Clarence and sang it to him as they sat around the fire.

Just imagine if Faux News focused their anti-George Soros campaign on these Billionaires who have wined and dined the immoral Clarence Thomas for 30 years?  Just imagine if Republicans were honorable and not a fully fascist organization hell-bent on destroying the United States and then you would see them upholding the principles of America.  

But, that's not the country we live in... Instead we live in the Nation spiraling towards outright assassination attempts from rightwing domestic terrorists on President Biden and one were a Gang of Six emotionally stunted, angry, mentally unstable, unaccountable Fundamentalists are bribed by Billionaires to decide "Correctly" the rights of Americans.

ETA:  Additionally, House Republicans are salivating at the prospect of Democrats censuring or trying to hold Clarence Thomas accountable for his unethical and illegal gift taking because they can't wait to have Marge T. Greene get up with her slave holder accent and declare the Democrats are the Real Racists!