It's Time to Cancel Christmas

The bomb cyclone and deep arctic freeze which settled over the midwest snarled and cancelled the Christmas plans of many people.  My flight was cancelled as Chicago endured -35 wind chill, although the snow totals were far lower than at first predicted as the low pressure system settled in Quebec instead of southern Illinois,

"We've been getting questions about 'what happened to all that snow?'" the National Weather Service out of Milwaukee/Sullivan tweeted early Friday. "The main reason is due to where the low pressure system tracked and deepened. Earlier this week, it looked like the low would be deepening just to our south. Now, it's doing that in Quebec. We had a number of days in a row earlier this week and over last weekend which was showing us the more favorable track. Over the past few days, that started to trend further east which then led to less of a chance of high snow amounts."

But, what this indicates is trying to move 100,000,000 people during the beginning of Winter is sub-optimal plan especially as the effects of Climate Change continue to exert themselves with these "Once-in-a-Generation" Storms which happen every year, so we should simply move the Christmas Holiday to late June.  I've thought mid-June was a perfect spot for a Federal Holiday but, last year the US Government under Joe Biden and a Democratic Congress approved Juneteenth as a Federal Holiday.  So perhaps we could set New Xmas between Juneteenth and the 4th of July or set it for late July, that would be a great time to have people get together.

Christmas being in December is a christian plot anyway.  The young Hebrew rabbi known as Yeshua ben Nazareth who claimed to be the physical son of God never existed.  Many of the stories, miracles, and anecdotes of "Jesus" were cribbed from previous Pagan deities.  This was specifically decided by early church leaders to make Jesus similar to Pagan myths and ease the transition from Pagan to christian in the Ancient Roman world.  And the choice of late December was directly copied from the Winter Solstice and Io Saturnalia.  Now, of course I don't expect any change of Christmas to every occur.  Eventhough I'm an atheist I'm not "Militant" as the christians throw that modifier on to anyone who points out the correct historical understanding of the early church.

In many ways, the religious fanatics in America are similar to their counterparts in Iran or the Taliban of Afghanistan.  Here in the United States, they are constrained and unable to enforce the religious dictates backed by State violence as opposed to those Muslim fanatics.  But, fear not the Religious Zealots on America are working on that!  And they will do so via the Courts.

"My Sincere Religious Beliefs" is the vehicle by which christians will destroy the United State of America.

They tried to use "Religious Liberty" as a mechanism to shut down Civil Rights in the 1950's and 60's but didn't have the established legal precedents to call upon.  But, since the 1971 Justice Lewis Powell Memo rightwing organizations especially the Reagan Era Federalist Society have slowly ensconced religious wackos on the Bench and built up a body of Case Law enshrining religious beliefs into various levels of government. 

Now I know there's a lot of #NotAllChristian apologia whenever it's revealed that high level religious zealots have the ear of Sammy di Puzzi Alito and other members of The Supremacist Court or when podunk State legislators make secular laws based on biblical teachings or when secret recordings of fundamentalist fanatics outlining their completely disingenuous arguments to abolish all Abortion are released, it all comes back to what christians in America want; total control of peoples' lives and State backed power to force you to live by their religious precepts.  And they are going to call this realm of death, oppression, and persecution the Land of Liberty defending the Freedom of Religion.

Meet George Santos!

America & Brazil's True Leftist sure can Pick'em

Okay, this George Santos saga is beyond misstatements and beyond farce. The revelations are multiplying and they are moving beyond simply lying about his background and into a host of crimes past and present.

Santos isn't a Ukrainian Jew Holocaust descendant or or a Wall Street financial broker or apparently even gay.  I don't even know if his name is "George Santos".  Now... I'm not going to lament the fact the Republican Party will never, ever vote to censor a fellow Traveller.  Santos is part of the slender Republican majority in the House.  So, the "concurrence of two thirds" required to expel Santos will never be reached nor do I believe it should sans violent crimes like Insurrection or Civil War.

Also, in American Democracy the people deserve to be represented by those whom they vote for, even if it's a crypto FSB asset like Mad Nazi Cawthorn or drunken gun moll like Lauren Dick Flasher Boebert.  So if New York Third District wants an obvious fraud like "George Santos", that's what they should get.  Of course, if the residents of the district wish to sue and have "Santos" removed they should try whatever possible avenues exist.  Of course, I don't expect the Corporate Media to have delved into Santos shady background, the Media's job is to make Republicans palatable to voters and normalize the most egregious behavior.  

But, local reporting had uncovered a great deal of the false background.  His entire history is a fraud and involves Ponzi schemes, super shady personal finances, and lies about his education, his personal life, his ancestry, even despicably lying about having friends killed in the Pulse Nightclub Massacre and who knows what else.  Remember Rightwingers always claim "The Left" and Democratic officials use their background or identity politics to make themselves immune to criticism.  I'm betting that Republican strategists decided they needed an "openly Gay Republican" with a whole host of ethnic shields so they could use him to attack LGBTQ people (Santos said in April as a Gay Man he stood behind DeSantis and gave his full blown support to the Florida Republican Gay Bashing Laws) and be the face of Republican efforts to ensconce oppression and intolerance into the national dialogue and eventually into law, either through the Congress or Supreme Court.  "George Santos" was then invented and staked financially to be that Face.   

Santos has responded to these revelations by saying he needs a week to respond.  And I'm surprised he did.  But, I expect the response to be all these revelations are lies and the Democrats do it too and Suck it Libs!

The Woke Mind Virus

"The only thing that matters, is the individual, clearly..."  Tucker Carlson.  E Pluribus Unum, indeed...

It's always important to understand what a Republican actually means when they say something; when Republicans or rightwingers denounce "Woke", understand they are attacking basic human compassion.  The simple dignity of calling someone what they'd like to be known as becomes the biggest affront to conservatives.  "Woke" is simply the latest rightwing talking point disseminated to every conservative automaton who dutifully absorbs and retransmits en masse the totally original idea of anti-Wokeness.  You see this expressed all over social media where uniformly and ironically every conservative calls liberals "NPCs" or "Sheeple" as they celebrate their individuality by all telling the same damn unfunny joke; My Pronouns are...

"This is what happens when you swim in warm baths of wokeness..."  Ben SShaprio complaining about Twitter.

The real end goal of being "anti-Woke" is the coarsening of American society and weakening the bonds of shared humanity between Americans.  This is not a new effort, we saw it clearly post-911 with the Republican mistreatment of Muslims and we have seen the brutal rightwing Government violence directed at immigrants coming to the Nation.  Previously, gay people were targeted for violence from conservatives and concerted violence from Police across the Nation.  Remember the incident which led to the SCOTUS Lawerence v. Texas (2003) happened 25 years ago.  Rightwingers are hoping to get the chance to dust off criminal charges for "deviance".

Never forget Rightwingers always lie about what they supposedly believe in.  Conservatives don't believe in freedom or liberty or individuality those are just phrases right-wingers intone as shibboleths as Republicans have shown time and time again they are more than willing to use the awesome power of government to harass, harm, and kill individuals whom they have deemed as engaging in unAmerican activities.  One need look no further than the coordinated and murderous effort to eliminate the LGBTQ community.  Chaya Raichik and her Libs of TikTok site produces daily false outrage to goad conservatives into acts of stochastic terrorism and elected Republicans like Attorney General Ken Paxton have used their office to prepare lists of Transpersons.  Why would Ken Paxton want to create a database?  Well... Republican rhetoric towards LGBTQ persons has been eliminationist for a long time, in response the Proud Boys have attacked queer businesses, Matt Walsh fans threaten to blow up Boston-area Hospitals, and a Lauren Boebert inspired gunmen committed mass murder at Club Q in Colorado.

Republicans & Rightwingers have undermined the concept of American society through a steady barrage of propaganda designed to divorce people from unity and community.  Now, several generations shell-shocked by Republican efforts to slash the Social Safety Net and consistently fed agitprop of Makers&Takers 24/7 have turned their backs on The American Melting Pot and adopted the phony Rugged Individualism Republicans were offering. 

Much of this goes back to money and destroying the middle class (a goal of Republicans since the 1960's) It was a brilliant maneuver to slash taxes on the Ultra-Wealthy and Big Businesses thus shifting the bureaucratic burden of the US Government onto the backs of the White Working Class and then following up that legislative coup by incessantly telling White people that they are poor and broke because of lazy you-know-whos, illegal immigrants, drug users, and liberal activism instead of the true causes, namely Republican economic policies.

The overarching arc of Republican propaganda of phony Rugged Individualism is one in which, You, the Real American can only rely on yourself, you should only care about yourself and maybe your immediate family, anything which helps someone else hurts you, there is a limited pie of wealth and benefits and anyone who gets something (say Obamacare) means you don't get it.

The current anti-Woke Mind screeds by Tucker Carlson, Jordan Peterson, Dennis Praeger, Shapiro, Elon Musk, Tim Pool, or whatever rightwing propagandist you can cite are designed to create the Pavlovian Fear & Anger response in their rightwing drones. Eventually, the goal is to afford the conservative the shorthand of saying "Woke" derisively the same way they say "Socialism".  Then the term can be applied to everything and anything Republicans wish to scuttle or complain about, no matter how inappropriate or paradoxical the claim is.

Of course, the coarsening of American society doesn't just harm the enemies of MAGA.  The targets of the propaganda campaign the White Working Class have absorbed these messages of Fear & Anger and turned it upon themselves as well.  In 2019, Jonathan Metzl called this Dying of Whiteness.  And since these segments of society can not have compassion for others they in turn end up not being able to have compassion for themselves and engage in self-abnegation, self-medication, and suicide.

How AntiWar.com learned to stop worrying and love Russia's Invasion of Ukraine

Such claims are dismissed by the
Pro-Putin "Antiwar" crowd.

I used to read Antiwar.com which was highly critical of the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and provided a counter-balance for the incessant drumbeat of War! War! War! by the Corporate Media and the War Boner reporting of embedded journalists.

I meandered back to their website recently and was aghast but unsurprised that most of the articles they are linking to are by conservatives and Antiwar's take on Ukraine and Russia is evil NATO made Russia invade, and it's only a matter of time until Russia wins so Ukraine should surrender now, and *ackshullay* Biden is the Warmonger and NATO is the one escalating the violence, and watch out Russia might Nuke everyone because we made them do it.

It's despicably shocking to see Antiwar embrace Putin and Russia's invasion of Ukraine and adopt the abusers framing of Look what you made me do while catapulting rightwing narratives of Ukraine the fascist backstabber, and embracing Republican threats of cutting off funding for Ukraine.  It's beyond "Tankie" and beyond Only America is Imperialist, it's fundamentally a pro-Russian invasion of Ukraine position.

"Peace Champions" adhere to C3PO's advice,
'Let the Putin Win'

Every article front paged, linked to, and commented upon simply ignores what Putin said were the intentions and goals of his unlawful war and invasion; the so-called "denazification" of Ukraine and the elimination of Ukraine as a sovereign state for the right and proper re-absorption back into Mother Russia.  Instead articles and their comment section are full of people denouncing the rapacious Biden White House, inventing all manner of conspiratorial events which supposedly triggered Russia's invasion, and preposterously pretends that, by pushing and agitating for Ukraine's defeat, they are the true peacekeepers and the defenders of international Law&Order. 

Why is "Antiwar" trumpeting Russian talking points and linking to rightwing writers who've written the same It's Time for Ukraine to Surrender article for all of 2022 while supporting Russian's invasion of Ukraine?  I don't know.  

The continuing calamitous crypto currencies crash of 2022

Your crypto purchase bought me another
bottle of champagne for my asshole!

Just think!  Every Bitcoin you bought at the end of 2021 lost you $50,000 USD.

Hey you!  Yeah, you!  Join the 21st century!  Get out of the Stone Age!  Money isn't rocks!  Crypto comes from computers!  Real Money is 1s & 0s.  Give us that worthless fiat currency and we'll give you these digital tokens!  Trust Us!  Crypto isn't some Scam!

Of course, when you realize that Crypto Currency is a massive scam and that the creators of the scam made the money then you realize the goal isn't to create the Block Chain or create Non-Fiat Currency or Democratize Banking or The Digital Currency Utopia but to swindle hard-working but, financially immature or novice investors of their Real Money then you understand that a BitCON Artist actually made that $50,000 USD.

Every cryptocurrency is a scam to transfer money to thieves from hardworking people.  Yes, some individuals may have successfully rolled the dice in the crypto market over the past 5 years and made a small fortune for themselves (doubtfully over $1,000,000) but, in the aggregate a lot of innocent, inexperienced, or foolish people invested money they could not afford to lose... and... lost it.

The FTX Sam Bankman-Fried scandal is merely the latest biggest of the crypto scams not the only one.  Bankman-Fried took the real money he was swindling from people and used it to buy real assets, cases of $10,000-a-bottle champagne, multi-million dollar ocean-front Bahama properties, politicians...  And then everyone involved in FTX was getting high and fucking each other as they swindled and screwed people out of their life-savings.  And then $30,000,000,000 was gone.  Straight up embezzlement.

In July, 2022 Three Arrows Capital collapsed in a spectacular flame out of, at the time, the biggest crypt scam as the two founders Su Zhu and Kyle Davies vanished leaving the $150,000,000 superyacht Much Wow, in dry dock in the Italian port of La Speiza.  The fallout from Three Arrows Capital Ponzi scheme affected numerous other companies,

Crypto companies from New York to Singapore were the direct victims of Three Arrows. Voyager Digital, a publicly traded crypto exchange based in New York that once had a multibillion-dollar valuation, filed for Chapter 11 in July, reporting that Three Arrows owed it more than $650 million. Genesis Global Trading, headquartered on Park Avenue, had lent Three Arrows $2.3 billion. Blockchain.com, an early crypto company that provided digital wallets and evolved into a major exchange, faces $270 million in unpaid loans from 3AC and has laid off a quarter of its staff. 

Among crypto’s smartest observers, there is a widely held view that Three Arrows is meaningfully responsible for the larger crypto crash of 2022, as market chaos and forced selling sent bitcoin and other digital assets plunging 70 percent or more, erasing more than a trillion dollars in value.

Fortunately, the owner of a Crypto Currency Company 100% on the Up-and-Up determined that Three Arrows was almost uniquely responsible for Crypto's Woes in July 2022, 

Sam Bankman-Fried, who as CEO of FTX, a major crypto exchange that has bailed out some of the bankrupt lenders, has perhaps more visibility on the problems than anyone.

“I suspect they might be 80 percent of the total original contagion. They weren’t the only people who blew out, but they did it way bigger than anyone else did. And they had way more trust from the ecosystem prior to that.”  

 I wonder what ever happened to that guy Sam who said the above quote? 

The long NYMag Intelligencer talks about how for a decade the Two Thieves at Three Arrows tried to break into the world of High Finance but were unable to and remained small time, until Crypto came along and they convinced almost everyone their schemes were genius.  And then billions of dollars were gone and so were the two thieves of Three Arrows.

In June 2021, Kim Kardashian took her giant oiled ass to Instagram and told her millions of followers to invest in Ethereummax and the EMAX cryptocurrency.  Kardashian and several other celebrities were paid icky fiat currency to hype Ethereummax.  6 months later EMAX had lost 97% of its' "value" and, once again real people lost real money they couldn't afford to lose.  But, the Kardashian Klan monetized themselves again for icky fiat currency and after paying a small fine to the SEC for failing to disclose Kim was paid to tout the crypto went back to making more icky fiat currency.  And now Kim can luxuriate on her ass implants a little easier because a Class Action lawsuit against her was thrown out,

In his ruling, Judge Michael Fitzgerald of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California agreed that the lawsuit’s claims raised legitimate concerns about “celebrities’ ability to readily persuade millions of undiscerning followers to buy snake oil with unprecedented ease and reach.” However, he explained: While the law certainly places limits on those advertisers, it also expects investors to act reasonably before basing their bets on the zeitgeist of the moment.

Buyer beware indeed!  The "Zeitgeist of the Moment" is a nice turn of phrase to describe the latest get-rich-quick and Ponzi schemes thieves have invented to separate regular people from their hard-earned real money.

Laws and Governments are really behind and really underserving their citizens.  There are hundreds of laws on the books and thousands of police to catch the pickpocket but, woefully few resources and scant understanding available to police the lawlessness of the digital frontier.  And so every so often a 20 something year old "Genius" over-leverages his phony position and uses social media to hype the latest don't-miss-out-on-this-can't-miss Crypto! well... a bunch of people suffer but, that "genius" got to live it up on Other People's Money! And that, living the life on Other People's Money, has always been the dream and goal of all Ayn Randian / Qelon Musk Capitalists in America!

"I believe they and the estimated 40 million other Americans who have invested in cryptocurrency have been sold a bill of goods.  They have been lied to, in ways both big and small, by a once-seemingly mighty crypto industry whose entire existence in fact depends on misinformation, hype, and yes, fraud." - Ben McKenzie.

Qelon Musk and Dave NIMBY Chapelle walk into a club

Let's sprinkle some crack on him and 
get out of here.

On Sunday night, Dave Chapelle invited Qelon Musk onto the comedy stage at the Chase Center in San Francisco.  Musk however has all the comedy skills and instincts of a rightwing asshole, i.e. none.

“Ladies and gentlemen, make some noise for the richest man in the world,” Chapelle declared and the crowd booed.  Musk flopped around stage and the booing and jeering increased.

Chapelle tried to come to Musk's rescue but, when that didn't abate the booing Chapelle engaged in pissing on his fans for being poor,
“All these people that are booing, I’m just pointing out the obvious — they have terrible seats in the stadium.”

That's right fuck the poor.  Dave Chapelle is little more than a Rich guy who identifies with other Rich people and doesn't care to hear complaints from lessers.  Young Dave from Killin' Them Softly would satirize rich gravely voice buff Dave.  And there have been numerous telling signs about Chapelle's descent into direct opposition of his younger self.  From extremely vile and repeated anti-Trans rhetoric to his best MAGA impression by threatening the Village Council of Yellow Springs with economic retaliation if they dared to approve a proposed residential development which would have included affordable housing.

Major Traitor Greene calls for redo of January 6th

A Major Traitor &
A Minor one

It's seemingly impossible to not have these garbage Republicans constantly in the News cycle.  That's half of the point of their outrageous statements.  The other half is that like rage junkies, rightwingers develop a tolerance for the vitriol and spittle flecked bile Republicans spew forth so, Republicans have to constantly increase the dosage as Traitor Tump and his hand picked Troll Major Traitor Greene are doing.

Trump declares the Constitution needs to be terminated because of the fantasy narrative of a stolen election he's adopted and steadily repeated to everyone and anyone.

Now, Queen MAGA Troll Greene declared if she had led the Jan6th Insurrection she would have succeeded,

“I want to tell you something, if Steve Bannon and I had organized that, we would have won. Not to mention, we would’ve been armed,” Greene said Saturday at a dinner hosted by the New York Young Republican Club. 

First, off never forget many of the MAGA criminals were armed and this was clearly seen and reported by US Secret Service Agents and additional Law Enforcement personnel in DC on the 6th, but Trump didn't care because  I am still unconvinced Greene's role in the Insurrection has been thoroughly revealed.  In December 2020 and early January, just before the MAGA Coup d'etat Greene hinted at big happenings were a day away, "We have to get ready for the 6th".  Greene claimed this meant the procedural delays and objections to the Presidential certification and the House vote but, then just 11 days after the election and 3 days before President Joe Biden's inauguration Greene was frantically texting Mark Meadows telling Trump to declare "Marshall Law".

When confronted with this under Oath, Greene relied on the repeated "I don't recall.  I don't recall." defense but, understand calls for violence and stoking rage, anger, and fear are what Republicans do now as a matter of course.  Stochastic Terrorism is a winning technique for Republicans, then when a white MAGA rightwing terrorists guns down elderly Asian masseuses in Atlanta or LGBTQ persons in Colorado, or a white nut listens to Laura Ingraham or Tucker Carlson and tries to kill Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Greene and all the rightwing provocateurs who've feed America this 24/7 diet of lies, propaganda, and hatred can claim, 

"The White House needs to learn how sarcasm works,” Greene said in a statement. “My comments were making fun of Joe Biden and the Democrats,"

It's coming folks.  Sporadic violence and targeted political assassinations of Democrats, of teachers, of LGBTQ persons, of anyone who is insufficiently MAGA is what rightwingers want and what Republicans are more than willing to incite and entice.

What does QElon Musk love the most: Nazis or Hunter Biden's cock?

Elon tweeted then Deleted this image for some
unknown reason

"Villains who twirl their mustaches are easy to spot... Those who clothe themselves in good deeds are well-camoflaugued."

Elon Musk's mask-off revelation via Twitter shows what's been bubbling underneath his doughy white exterior;  Elon, or more properly "QElon" because his twitter feed is no different than any other rightwing Qanon account, is a rapacious sociopath who grew up in pampered privilege, non-working wealth, and a racist Nation-State with clearly delineated class and racial lines. Qelon Musk's philosophical belief system is a cobbled-together hodge-podge of the Warhammer 40K, History channel specials on Nazi scientist super weapons, and an apparent adherence to Robert A. Henlein's sci-fi fascist TANSTAAFL nonsense which hardened into a belief his superior Musk Sang'Réal will spawn a strain of superior human who will colonize the Universe.

 

Elon Musk's acquisition and demolition of Twitter highlights a key deficit liberals and the erstwhile left need to address; i.e. recognizing who is and who is not your ally. Elon Musk is not, nor has he ever been an ally of freedom, liberty, technology, or humanity.  He's a fascist and has been for a long time. 

“So city of SF attacks companies providing beds for tired employees instead of making sure kids are safe from fentanyl. Where are your priorities,” Musk tweeted, tagging San Francisco Mayor London Breed. 

Musk put beds into the Twitter HQ on Market St in San Francisco and was reported for this building code violation. This is a classic rightwing attack, in which the criminal conservative complains the government is going after them instead of going after other criminals. Several of the January 6th insurrectionists made this claim to absolve themselves of the multiple crimes they committed.  Special people deserve special rules and QElon Musk believes he is the most special person in the world.

Since, Qelon bought Twitter and gained access to loads of confidential data, he's released hyped up nothing burgers purporting to prove every rightwing conspiracy true.  Qelon's ridiculous  'The Twitter Files' collaboration with odious Matt Taibbi was going to prove President Joe Biden and Ukraine were in cahoots, this is exactly what Donald Traitor Trump was pressuring Ukraine to claim in his "perfect phone" call leading to Impeachment #1.  In reality, the laptop which has no chain of custody and no real evidentiary value has yielded naught but pictures of Hunter Biden's cock and images of his substance abuse struggles.  (Follow the link for a long dissection of the bullshit laptop narrative.)

However, what should be noted is the rightwing obsession with Hunter Biden has one very clear and very sick goal:  to place terrible emotional and mental strain on Hunter Biden, to overwhelm him so, he suffers a relapse, turns back to illicit drug use, overdoses and dies.  Republicans want Hunter Biden to die so that Joe Biden suffers and is unable to run for President.  

Certainly, Republicans expect to benefit from the Corporate Media bending over backwards to pretend Republican political kabuki theater is valid and the Republicans have perfected their techniques since the Republicans focus on Bill Clinton's penis in the 1990's.  There's a whole different post about the rightwing obsession with left-leaning penises both famous and infamous. 

Is this the face of a right-winger who would 

spread lies?

'The Twitter Files 2' saw skeevy Bari Weiss breathlessly reveal that Charlie Kirk was not allowed to simply spew his rightwing falsehoods unchecked on Twitter.  It should be of little surprise that Kirk along with other rightwing provocateurs has tripped over their own dicks to heap praise upon Qelon Musk as he brings back Their Free Speech, 

"One of the most unexpected and courageous things I've seen is Elon Musk buying twitter," Charlie Kirk

The 21st century Republican notion of freedom of speech has been thoroughly dissected by educated and thoughtful political observers; but I believe the succinct definition of: We get to do whatever we want and You don't, fully encapsulates the rightwing response to everything. We get to bandy about pictures of Hunter Biden's penis. We get to call people whatever we want. We get to scream and shout and threaten whomever we want for any reason true or untrue. We Rule and You are Ruled.

It's simply authoritarianism repackaged for the social media age and gussied up with false definitions of freedom and blatant lies about the Right of Free Speech.  

Straight unadulterated fascism calls for criminal
trials for political enemies.  Get Ready...
Qelon Musk is just getting started...

But, as bad as the open Authoritarianism on display from rightwingers everywhere is the inability of leftists to spot their allies and know your enemy.  Years ago, many leftists believed Qelon was an ally of sorts as he pushed the TESLA, not realizing Musk made his fortune on the backs of workers and with the time-honored tradition of using other peoples' money;

Elon Musk has built a multibillion-dollar fortune running companies that make electric cars, sell solar panels and launch rockets into space. And he’s built those companies with the help of billions in government subsidies. Tesla Motors Inc., SolarCity Corp. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, together have benefited from an estimated $4.9 billion in government support, according to data compiled by The Times.

Musk isn't an ally of anything other than enriching Musk, To expect anything other than rank racism and pompous unearned self-congratulations and incorrect proclamations about "free speech" on society from him is a category error.  And as Qelon now is pushing a hand-in-glove collaboration with Ron DeathSantis in going after companies which create mRNA vaccines it's a fatal one.

But, Qelon has an on-line army of Musk-o-vites, who correctly see him helping advance the worldwide embrace of White Power, Fundamentalist Supremacy, and Fascism.  Which, understand is precisely what Faux News, every Republican in the federal government, legions of on-line trolls, and rightwing domestic terrorists desire.

Additional:

Sam Seder on The Majority Report points out that Bari Weiss inadvertently revealed  the domestic terrorist account Libs of TikTok was specifically shielded from banning under Twitter's old rules because of Chaya Raichik's reach and influence amongst rightwingers.  I have no doubt Dinesh D'Souza and other powerful rightwing terrorists received such preferential treatment.

Kyrsten Sinema: Party of One

All through the day I me mine, I me mine, I me mine

Shocking no one Krysten Sinema has left the Democratic Party and registered herself as an Independent. 

“I’ve registered as an Arizona independent. I know some people might be a little bit surprised by this, but actually, I think it makes a lot of sense,”

This move by Sinema, while disreputable and under-handed is politically brilliant and shrewd.  Sinema has been cagey about how she'll caucus and stated she expects to retain all her committee assignments.  Obviously, if Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer moves to sideline her Sinema is likely to threaten to caucus with the Republicans having cultivated a friendship with numerous Republican men.  Additionally, back in September, before the election Sinema told a throng of right-wingers she gleefully looked forward to Republican control of the Senate, 

“As you all know, control changes between the House and the Senate every couple of years. It’s likely to change again in just a few weeks".

But, with Reverend Raphael Warnock's victory in the special Georgia run-off election seemingly gave the Democratic Party a surprising 51-49 Senate advantage, clearing many of the hurdles of an evenly split Senate.  But, it also removed Sinema's power and her ability to undermine Democratic legislation if it suited her fancy.  And so a capricious Sinema is ready to jump ship over to her Republican daddy's, whom she has claimed to have charmed with copious displays of her cleavage.  Coupled with her readiness to sabotage Democratic legislation and policies to win Republican male approval, she also re-exerted her power over Democrats as well.

Sinema has also just launched the salvo at the Democratic Party Senate Races for 2024, because if Ruben Gallego, who was widely believed to be gearing up to primary Sinema for the Democratic nomination for Senate in 2024, now runs for Senate as a Democrat, Sinema will run as an Independent and siphon off just enough votes to ensure the AZ MAGA Republican pyscho wins the seat.

Sinema is a fraud and really sold Arizona Democrats a lie.  First off all, the Green Party is rightwing organization solely dedicated to helping Republicans get elected.  Alt Jill Stein here is a prime example.  Her tenure as a Green Party Arizona state legislator indicated she was progressive and as Arizona moved steadily towards the Democratic Party Sinema did as well "becoming" a Democrat in 2012 and then winning the 2018 US Senate election against crazy Martha McSally but, now her past actions really should be seen as a callous ploy or deceitful ruse to gain her enough cachet to win higher office.  Because since making the Senate she's turned her back on almost every issue she ostensibly supported and has taken pains to ally with and praise Senate Republicans while undercutting her "Own" Party, 

"Senator McConnell and I have forged a friendship, one that is rooted in our commonalities, including our pragmatic approach to legislating, our respect for the Senate as an institution.” 

Alt Jill Stein's ultimate goal remains a mystery.  Does Sinema really think she can inherit the Maverick McCain title?  Is she so high on her own renegade bonafides to make a run for President as a No Labels Third Way Indie?  Despite her effluent praise of Mitch McConnell, Sinema doesn't stand a chance in the Republican Party of Arizona which is untethered from reality but, not so untethered they would vote for a bisexual who twice voted to impeach Trump.

Brittney Griner shows how much Republicans hate black people and the LGBTQ community

“If I were, you know, being held in a — you know — these conditions looked horrible, by the way. I mean, she’s so big and tall… and she’s in literally — they look like they keep the prisoners in a cage. And so the conditions were obviously horrible, but if you told me, ‘We’re gonna release you for this guy,’ I would maybe say, ‘You know what, let me stay a bit, a little bit longer. Keep working on that negotiation. Let’s see if we can find something a little bit more level,'” - Republican Loser Kari Lake on the Louder Bigotry with Bigot Steven Crowder show, claims she would have turned down a chance at freedom.  We all know this is a venal lie as Lake makes this claim from the safety of her soft focus television studio but, it also highlights the despicable nature of Republican philosophy which is off-handedly cavalier with other peoples' lives.

So, Faux News abandoned the Railroad Union Busting Biden angle pretty quickly, 1) because Faux News loathes Unions and 2) they realize their reactive bigoted base really doesn't care about the contract issue.  But, Brittney Griner's release? Ho-Ho-Ho, that's the bloody racist red meat which the Republican Party feeds it's bigoted base of rabid rightwingers.

Thomas Hartmann read on air, the titles from every on-line rightwing rag which attacked Griner and President Biden.  Each article was worse than the last dripping with pure hatred and despicable vitriol.  One of the worst aspects of rightwing propaganda is how fervently they decide victories are actually defeats.  The response by Republicans and rightwingers to President Biden's successful diplomatic release of Brittney Griner is as bigoted as it is nonsensical.

First and foremost, this shows just how allied Republicans are to Russia and Vladimir Putin's monstrous regime.  Republicans see Russia as an ardent ally in the global contest to re-ensconce White Supremacy and fundamentalist bigotry into power.  If Traitor Trump was still in the White House, the 82nd Airborne would have landed in Kyiv and aided the FSB in capturing Zelenskiyy and conquering Ukraine.  But, fortunately, Joe Biden is President and he girded Europe into resisting Vladimir Putin's unlawful war of aggression into Ukraine.

But, more importantly, on the domestic front this whole incident shows the level of hatred Republicans have for black people, whom Republicans don't really consider to be Americans, and for the LGBTQ community, whom Republicans don't even consider to be human.

Republicans hate black people and LGBTQIA persons so much they would let any and all of them perish at the hands of a brutal dictator.  At home Republicans hate black people and LGBTQIA persons so much they are broadcasting calls for rightwing men to take guns and murder them daily.  Republicans are vile villains who have nothing to offer the American people but, hatred and fear.

So, remember Republicans are going to craft all manner of propaganda about the Brittney Griner issue because they see it as another avenue to glom aggrieved white working class men to them.  And it doesn't take much for Republicans to get their rightwing drones mad at Griner; she's black, gay, and far and away more athletic than they ever were and ever could possibly be.

But, don't be fooled 99.9% of rightwingers couldn't have told you who Viktor Bout was prior to the swap.  And I'm not worried about an International Arms Dealer going back to Russia and resuming his previous career.  It's a far different world from the one he left during his 12 year prison stay.  Bout can't simply reintegrate himself into his old networks and supply chains and Russia is engaged in an active large scale war not the phony peace of the 2000's.  So fearmongering Bout release will be nothing more than a repeat of the fear mongering for the 5 prisoners released from GITMO for Bowe Berghdal.

And of course rightwing liars are spamming every platform with Whatabout "ex-Marine" Paul Whelan? Fortunately, Whelan's family has been very honorable and rejoiced in Griner's release instead of feeding the rightwing narrative.