Revenge of the Thin Blue Line 43: Defund the Shop Lifting crime lords

Earlier this month, a couple of criminal "masterminds", Michelle and Kenneth Mack were arrested and indicted at their posh Spanish-style California mansion, charged with running a retail theft and resale operation.

According to the complaint, Mack is accused of paying airfare, hotel, and rental car costs for a network of women to travel nationwide, where they would go out and steal goods and then send them back to Michelle Mack’s home. She would then sell the stolen goods at a discount via Amazon Marketplace. 

Bonta said the group, known as the “California Girls,” operated in a dozen states nationwide and targeted stores including LensCrafters, Sephora, Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Prada, Bath & Body Works, Victoria’s Secret, Sunglass Hut, and over 231 Ulta Beauty stores, NBC San Diego reported. 

Inside Mack's 4,500 square-foot Spanish-style mansion, authorities discovered a "mini store" with beauty products, sunglasses, and designer bags. Also found were hundreds of postmarked envelopes containing stolen products ready to be shipped to unsuspecting customers at a fraction of their retail price. 

The crime ring operated in stores up and down the California coast and in states such as Washington, Oregon, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, Illinois, Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Ohio. Mack chose the stores to be targeted and directed what merchandise was to be taken. The women would clear out entire shelves of merchandise into Louis Vitton bags before making off with the merchandise, investigators allege. 

Mack made “millions” through her nationwide shoplifting scheme.

Americans, like most people, have a problem with scale.  It's been pointed out that humans have a hard time grasping the very, very large (the Cosmos) and the very, very small (sub-atomic), which is completely understandable because for millions of years humans and our ancestors dealt with things of our relative size and scope.

So, when it comes to "crime", rightwing propagandists know people grasp and are frightened of the immediate crime they hear about and witness.  So seeing some shop-lifters doing a smash-and-grab of high end products, Americans consider those people to be the criminals, they keep hearing about on rightwing news.  I've pointed this out before when it comes to the catalytic car thieves and how the anger and vitriol is only directed at the thieves cutting out the converters overnight and not the ringleader or end user who is paying the thieves and massively benefiting from the crimes.  Like the Mack couple in San Diego.

A few days ago, I had to deal with several Venezuelan migrants who absconded with two shopping carts full of food.  Now... unlike the organized theft rings masterminded by respectable criminals these migrants were quickly spotted and identified.  The groceries they stole were obviously for their consumption and not to be turned around like the beauty product theft ring.  Fortunately, the manager at the well-known grocery store just wanted them to pay for the perishable foodstuffs and send them on their way.  While walking in, a pair of white men, loudly muttered "Really??? Really???" while angrily shaking their heads.  

Now, these men appeared to be low-wage workers, please note I did not say "low class", and I'm sure their anger was because of how they've followed the rules, don't steal or commit other crimes (maybe) and see those people doing these crimes and "getting away with it".

One of the key weapons the right has used to make everything LOL NOTHING MATTERS HAR-HAR is to remove all distinctions and graduations in criminal incidents.  Either the incident is a crime or it is not to their binary thinking.  This crime is no different than that crime, therefore they can justify all manner of brutality to immigrants (committing the "crime" of entering the country illegally) and the summary extrajudicial killings of black people throughout the country (i.e. you should have just complied with orders).  Of course, there are special carve-outs.  Donald Traitor Trump's plan to defraud the entire Nation and American people is justified.  The rioting insurrectionists invading and shitting in the Capitol on Jan 6th were "invited" in by Police Officers, Kyle Rittenhouse had every right to walk around with an AR-15 picking fights and yearning to shoot people, etc...

But, this is reserved for a certain class of people.  Always remember to rightwingers, white people who adhere to the Reactionary Agenda are afforded all manner of Due Process and often additional special rights above and beyond that while, minorities or those who've transgressed against the principles of MAGA are a priori guilty and deserve whatever happens to them.

There is a Two-Tiered Justice system in the United States, and there always has been.  Trump broke "The Law" in a fundamental way and showed that it should not apply to him or his most ardent cult members.  And the unequal application of "The Law" is perhaps the first and foremost component of a Fascist Takeover.

Measles, Migrants, and MAGA infections

Every now and then Republicans and rightwingers inadvertently admit that they do not believe the bullshit they spout;  this is evident when it comes to vaccines and germ theory.

While the Faith Healer General Joseph Lapado was telling parents it's okay to send your kids to school with measles and it's okay to send your unvaccinated kids into a cloud of miasma because Measles is a Woke Plot other Republicans across the country while decrying unvaccinated migrants being allowed into the country.

Just 9 years ago stalwart Reactionary outlets like National Review decried the growing AntiVaxx community;

The anti-vaccine movement has led to an increase in preventable infectious diseases, such as measles. Now, an infected person at Disneyland apparently caused nine children to get sick–and eight had not been vaccinated.  This is reckless and irresponsible.

The ardent right-winger who wrote this would be pilloried these days because nowadays every good conservative believes vaccines are poison and a plot to alter your DNA.  

Back in 2000 the MMR vaccine was so effective that Measles was considered eradicated in the United States.  Then came Andrew Wakefield's absolute bullshit lies about MMR as the leading to the cause of Autism and white people decided there was enough Herd Immunity around that they wouldn't "poison the blood" of their precious white child.  After all they never heard of anyone suffering from measles!

And so being 3 generations removed from the trauma of losing an infant, toddler, or young child to a curable disease, Parents have set their children up to suffer from diseases long since thought eradicated or at least conquered.  I can't imagine what the grandparents of these people would think knowing their descendants are wantonly and willfully ignoring what seemed like medical miracles to people years ago.

So, Chicago is now at the beginning of a Measles outbreak and the most affected are very young children.  Of course, in Chicago many unvaccinated children come from poor households or homeless families without easy access to health care for children.

School registration should go hand in hand with facilitating access to immunizations, said Dr. Olusimbo Ige, Chicago Department of Public Health commissioner. “We want people to be enrolled in school and we want to give them the opportunity to settle in while also simultaneously assessing their vaccination needs and then connecting them to meet those needs,” Ige said as the agency fielded questions on social media Wednesday.

Now contrast that with Traitor Trump's ignorant declaration at his Richmond Virginia Bloodbath Rally,

Rightwing Zombie Terrorists Attack America

“I will not give one penny to any school that has a vaccine mandate or a mask mandate."

Bloodbath, indeed. As always do not expect Republicans to be of any help in addressing vaccination because Anti-Vaxx is now a solid plank in the edifice of Fascism that Republicans are erecting. Measles is a Million times more infectious than Covid and leads to long-term illnesses but, the MAGA infection has completely consumed the Right and turned them into rampaging zombies. ➡

Of course, the rightwing response to these Measles outbreaks in Florida, Chicago, and elsewhere will be to demonize Migrants (I won't dignify the despicable rightwing term "Illegal Immigrants") because rampant racism remains the first and foremost plank of Republican ideology.  Trump and his gaggle of ghouls have already promised to round-up and "deport" millions of Migrants by militarizing local police departments and building concentration camps.

I can not express strongly enough how destructive this outright NAZI program will be for everyone; communities, police raids, police officers humanity, the illness and deaths of those captured and held.  If implemented this would destroy the United States both metaphorically and fundamentally.  But, don't expect any intellectual honesty from conservatives who claimed everything President Obama or Biden has done is the real Fascism whilst they plan to steal the 2024 Presidential Election by whatever means possible and murder millions of people.

ISIS determined to attack in Moscow. Vlad Putin: Alright You’ve covered your ass

ЙФЩ DДЯԞ ЪЯДЍDФИ ШДҐҪҤ ҬҢЇS DЯЇVЭ ЇЍГФ ЦҚЯДЇИЭ

At least 133 people were killed and another 100+ were injured during the Moscow Terrorist Attack on the Crocus City Hall.  11 people have been apparently arrested thus far, Vladimir Putin ham-handedly tried to claim 4 of those captured were heading towards Ukraine.  But, ISIS-K has claimed responsibility. 

Well, in an incredible break from standard spy chicanery it appears that President Biden directed the State Department to warn Russia of the imminent terrorist attack.  Yet, again these Dictators like Putin or Benjamin Netanyahu or George W. Bush in 2001 choose to ignore warnings because they aren't serious people, they are play-actors whose churlish criminality and over-sized egos make them believe their own propaganda.  The problem is their disastrous hubris leads to many deaths.

Do you remember how online Leftists told Twitter Russia would never attack Ukraine and the anti-anti-Trump cohort chortled at old lying Imperialist Joe Biden was lying?  It was Horseshoe theory of politics and the re-emergence of the pampered Phony Leftists who spend all their time attacking Democratic politicians and Presidents, as the Real Imperialists while somehow never blaming Putin and earnestly assuring their followers while they don't personally support Trump... 

Putin has spent the last 2 years laser-focused on eradicating Ukrainian identity, except for his brief encouragement of the Hamas Terror attack on October 7th, that he's left Russians vulnerable to this, especially from groups who have suffered under decades of Soviet repression and then brutality from Putin and the early Russian Federation minor wars.

But, none of this will be presented to the American people tomorrow.  You won't hear about the Biden State Department breaking every instinct of the ingrained culture of secrecy to tell our ardent enemy watch out for a Terrorist Attack.  No instead tomorrow morning the political news shows will only have treasonous Republicans on to talk up their Russian fueled campaign of lies to Impeach President Biden and I guarantee they will blame President Biden for the ISIS-K terror attack on Russia.

Perhaps you remember how Trump claimed (repeatedly lied) he completely destroyed 100% of ISIS?  But, don't expect the FSB owned and operated Respublikanskaya Partiya to do anything other than declare Joe Biden's weakness invited this attack and repeat the same playbook they've used for decades now.  Traitor Trump, of course, will praise Putin's strength and fantasize about how much torture and pain will be inflicted on those captured terrorists and wish we could do that to Democrats and migrants here in the US.

And while the Republicans have the luxury of living in the fantasy world even as it thins their ranks in the House of Representatives,  in the real world I assume Putin will use this attack to expand his War on Ukraine.  Just last week Putin issued warnings to the U.S. and NATO that Russia is ready for Nuclear War and direct confrontation with the West.

Elon Musk and Stonetoss Two Nazis One Twitter (Hans Kristian Graebener)

The “It” in question is the N Word…

 So, it turns out well-known Nazi cartoonist Stonetoss is named Hans Kristian Graebener of Spring, Texas.

But, you can't write this on Twitter (X) or even reference Hans Kristian Graebener because Elon Musk defends his fellow Fascists with suspensions and permanent bans on "his" platform.  Here's a Blusky thread from "Alejandra Calaballo".

And this is a 4 year old Reddit thread which provides a list of evidence of Hans K. Graebener's Neo-Nazi ideology.

Anyone who claimed Musk was a champion of Free Speech or wanted to make Twitter into a bastion of the exchange of ideas was willfully deluding themselves or a paid bad actor like Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss.

Elon Musk is the child of apartheid and far from distancing himself from that evil ideology of his childhood he's self-radicalized and embraced the Naked Singularity of Pure Nazism.

For a while the Left (broadly) was relying on Corporations to take measures to tamp down rightwing calls for violence, murder, and terrorism.  This is always a fool's gambit.  Corporations are people, my friend, but people who have a distinct taste for Fascism.  And the progressive social democracy favored by a large number of Americans is unpalatable to Corporations who see regulations and restrictions on their ability to make profit as an uncrossable line. 

Musk's self-own in purchasing Twitter has paid off with him being able to weaponize it and make it a platform for White Supremacists.

So, just like epic dumbass Chaya Raichik (Libs of Tik Tok), Hans Kristian Graebener (Stone Toss) wanted on-line anonymity to produce wildly racist, anti-semitic, and violent fascist content.  So, the revelation of his real name Hans Kristian Graebener of Spring, Texas) has been met with the standard disingenuous rightwing outrage of Doxxing!!! 

The problem for on-line Nazis has always been as their voice and presence increased on any venue or platform, Normies, Liberals, and Antifa abandon those platforms.  Thus, Nazis only have themselves to talk too.  Or Bots.  By taking over Twitter Musk ensured Nazis would be able to plague Normies, Liberals, and Antifa without fear of reprisal and with the backing of the Platform's Owner. 

On the one hand, Nazis being afraid to show themselves for fear of reprisal is a good sign for a society but, Republicans have fully embraced the threat of political violence and it's actual usage as a tool to win political power.

Meanwhile, while in the midst of permabaning anyone on Twitter (X) who mentions Hans Kristian Graebener Musk has taken to being a Heckler gainsaying  random people about Trump's "Bloodbath" threats to the Nation.

I've said before but you've got to understand the X Elon Musk loves is a thinly veiled stand-in for the Nazi Swastika.  Musk hasn't become more fascist as he's grown richer he's just getting more and more brazen about expressing it.

I’ll note the Supreme Court is hearing a 1st Amendment case today testing whether people have the unfettered right to spread lies, misinformation and foreign propaganda across any and all social media platforms.  It’s unsurprising the people and states who brought the case are Reactionary fascists wishing to spread Covid & Vaccine lies, and traffic in Hunter Biden laptop bullshit.  Nazis always seek to use liberal Nations openness against them to bring down that Nation.  

Republicans hate America and see their opportunities to replace Us with a Fascist Theocracy built upon White Power and right wing hatred, intolerance, and oppression.

The Staging Grounds IV: It's going to be a Bloodbath

“Andrew Jackson as president was treated the absolute worst and I heard Abraham Lincoln was second but he was in this thing called the Civil War, so you can understand that.  But I said there’s no I don’t care Andrew Jackson or anybody else. Nobody is treat… when you think of the fake things. Nobody has been treated like Trump in terms of badly.” Delusional Paranoid Dementia Donald

    During his glitchy incoherent rants, demented fascist Trump has taken to making the most ludicrous declarations of his Presidency.  Everything was the greatest of all time.  Everything was the best it ever was.  Everything was perfect.  He did the most for whatever group he's speaking too.  And everything immediately went to hell because you stole the Presidency from him.  It's the final culmination of rightwing propaganda.  It's the Ultimate expression of the Gish Gallop.  But, it's not like the Corporate Media cares to fact check, correct, or call Trump what he actually is because the Legacy Media take their cues and stories from the rightwing media and frame everything through the lens of Republican bullshit.

The Corporate Media coverage of Trump has been shamelessly inadequate for years now and it won't get better anytime soon.

I can not imagine the media BREAKING NEWS shit storm if Vice President Kamala Harris declined to endorse the President the way Mike Pence declined to endorse Trump.

It would be a monumental story of unimaginable magnitude!  Not only would signal the end of Joe Biden's career but it would be no less than a harbinger of the end of the Democratic Party.  It would be lead News Story until such time as a new candidate for President managed to emerge, whom the Corporate Media would waste no time in declaring dead on arrival as they publish 'Oh well wait till next year' news stories and circulate DEMOCRATS IN DISARRAY, as the Media celebrates the coming Republican trifecta control of every single branch of the Federal Government. 

And yet... Trump and Pence is not even a two-day blurb.  

No one is coming to save us.  The media's job is to help Trump and that they will do it with every bit of chicanery, sagacious false concern, and amplification of Republican ratfucking necessary.

It was noted that in the week following the Hur Hatchet Report, the Washington Post and New York Times ran 70+ news stories on Joe Biden's Age, as every media outlet ran articles based on the one sentence Hur released.  So-called savvy pundits were plotting a brokered convention and a swapping out of candidates.

The pampered and petulant Uncommitted "protest" votes gains outsized attentional at every opportunity.

RFK Jr is still receiving coverage despite the fact his prime choice for running mate, Aaron Rodgers, is such a MAGA meatball he adheres to as many rightwing conspiracy theories as the number of times he's beaten the Chicago Bears. 

Trump is all in on the Fear & Anger stimulus response.  

"Now if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole — that’s gonna be the least of it," he added. "It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country."

So, after Trump invoked the words "bloodbath" 

the Corporate Media rushed to clean up Trump's fascist drivel as they always do.  And Trump's team rushed to make sure the story wasn't "the Bloodbath" but, instead was understood in the proper context, 

“Biden’s policies will create an economic bloodbath for the auto industry and auto workers.”

It's the old Karl Rove playbook of attacking your opponent's strength as a weakness.  But, remember this tactic only works if the compliant Corporate Media uncritically plays along.

“If you’re listening, President Xi — and you and I are friends — but he understands the way I deal." - as always Trump wants to have it both ways and the media lets him get away with it, he's great friends with President Xi even though he's super hard on Xi and kept China in their place with the Art of the Deal.

Trump then claimed he'll protect Social Security and Medicare (a scant week after he admitted he'll cut "entitlements") and if he loses the election you're not going to get another one.  IMAX doesn't have a screen big enough to capture the Projection.

You could claim "Bloodbath" is just a new variation of the American Carnage speech Trump has given before but, at this point there is no reason anyone should give Traitor Trump the benefit of the doubt about the intentions of the Republicans should they get back into the White House in 2025.  Trump absolutely means violence.

When people say this election is the most important in our lifetimes, cynical pundits like to roll their eyes and dismiss peoples' concerns.  But, those people know they won't be at risk or will even benefit from the Vile Republican 2025 Agenda.  Ben S Shapiro, one day after proclaiming Americans should never be able to retire and should be worked to death, declared he crawl over broken glass to vote for Trump. 

Trump told his crowd that immigrants aren't people,

“I don’t know if you call them people,” he said at a rally near Dayton, Ohio. “In some cases they’re not people, in my opinion. But I’m not allowed to say that because the radical left says that’s a terrible thing to say.”

It's quite clear what Trump and his gaggle of bloodthirsty lieutenants want if he steals back into the White House.  Most likely, they would come for migrants and Trans persons first.  It's questionable whether the American people would allow that but, the thing with Fascist Pogroms is once they are started they gain a momentum all their own.  

It's up to you to vote, to encourage others, to canvas, call or help out in every way conceivable.  The Republican Party sees a singular opportunity coalescing in 2024; a chance to forcibly install a Fascist Fundamentalist Theocracy, eliminate millions, and gut American Democracy for generations.

No one is coming to save Us.  No 14th Amendment trick will make Trump not the Republican candidate.  No Judge wants to convict Trump prior to the Election.  The Corporate Media will not accurately contextual the threat facing Us.  It's up to us to save ourselves and our very lives because if this iteration of the Republican Party gets into Power they will be coming for them.

Additional:

As if to make my point about Corporate Media obsequious deference and nefarious allegiance to Trump Queen Bigot and pampered rich white lady Kathleen Parker has a story out about how someone should drop out of this race for the sake of the Nation;  KAMALA HARRIS!

The Staging Grounds III: Rightwing violence emanating from Kansas and North Carolina and Tucker Carlson too

Remember the OUTRAGE at Kathy Griffin for her bloody “decapitated” Trump Mask?  The calls for her immediate arrest, the death threats towards her, the Secret Service investigation?  The Cancel Culture???

Republican outrage, you see, is a one-way street.

Republicans not only don't punish other Republicans for issuing death threats and engaging in political violence, Republicans  reward each other.

So, that leads to the case of Michele Morrow in North Carolina.  There is nothing more Republican than running for an Office you don't believe in.

Morrow home-schooled her children yet is running to be the Superintendent of the North Carolina school system.  This is the classic case of Republicans picking a Governmental institution they wish to dismantle and running to be in charge of it.  Once in charge Republicans undermine, sabotage, and work to make Government not work.  Then Republicans tell their brain-washed followers 'Government Doesn't Work' and run on that platform.  It's a cycle of shit regurgitation.  

But, Michele "One L" Morrow running to destroy public schools in North Carolina fits with the long Republican tradition of hatred for public schools and the Department of Education because having such institutions undermines their brain-washing efforts.

Now, besides repeatedly calling for the execution of various Democratic office-holders Morrow descended with other Insurrectionists on the Capitol on Jan6th.  Once again we see the on-going and concerted effort to turn traitors into heroes and the ardent desire Republicans have to make Jan6th Independence Day 2.

Over in Kansas, last Friday, Republicans threw a $300-a-seat Premier fundraiser that included the beating of a martial arts dummy with a Biden mask and Let's Go Brandon t-shirt.

No you are Republicans
You Are This

I am utterly unsurprised that Chickenhawk coward, child-raping, domestic terrorist Ted Nugent was one of the other attractions at this event.  His entire aging rock star milieu is threatening to murder Democratic candidates and President. 

Since, videos of the violent event circulated, Republicans have backtracked and acted like this isn't what their party represents.  Of course, political violence is exactly what the Republican Party represents and encourages.

From Sarah Palin encouraging people to take aim and shot Democratic Congressmembers, to the Malheur bird sanctuary insurrection, to Charlottesville, to Jan 6th itself;  the Republican Party is invested in using violence to wrest political power.

Morrow and each and every one of those traitors who invaded the Capitol, broke through and ran around looking for Nancy Pelosi, AOC, and Mike Pence should have been gunned down on the steps.  We should have seen 2000 body bags, but instead after Traitor Trump sent them to Congress to overthrow the Government they were allowed to exit the building unimpeded, arms raised in triumph.

Demented Fascist Trump has promised to pardon the over 1000 conservative criminals who've been tried and convicted.  Which leads us to the 2024 elections and the one fact you must keep in the back of your mind as you go about your regular business and life for the next 8 months... 

In 2025, Republicans are going to call for the violent overthrow of the United States Government... again.  

Because Trump is going to lose that election.  Even the massive voter suppression, disenfranchisement and other dirty tricks Republicans always pull won't be enough to get this election close enough for Republicans or the Supremacist Court to steal.  RFK Jr won't be able to pull a Ralph Nader 2000 Florida effect.  That's why that odious slime bucket Tucker Carlson is already calling the 2024 election fraudulent.  Fortunately or unfortunately for us, Carlson is too much of elitist chickenhawk coward, a tough-talking dilettante, to actually do anything other than sit on his ass talking.

As an aside, I am constantly insulted and bewildered why the vaunted white working class puts stock into these doughy, wide-waisted rightwing propagandists who don't do any real work but, just sit on the expansive behinds talking shit.  Is it an unconscious dream to emulate their success and wealth from not working?  Is it an unspoken desire to have someone tell them what to do?

But, more importantly does Tucker Carlson have enough pull to convince a rightwing terrorist or two to launch attacks on President Biden or Vice President Harris?  Maybe.  And that is the big question for Election Day and in the aftermath of Trump's next defeat.  Have Republicans trained up enough paramilitary domestic terrorists to cause real danger to America?  This time, at least, we won't have the erstwhile President encouraging terrorists to attack, placing co-conspirators in key military units, or stopping National Guard and Police from responding to the violence.

I do think there is going to be Election Day violence.  Will Michele Morrow declare herself a Freebooter Captain and stand-up a paramilitary group?  Will the Kansas Republicans declare themselves free to attack the Real President Biden instead of an effigy?  Will Derrick Van Orden convince enough of his fellow mean drunks to descend on Madison, Wisconsin to beat up election judges and college students voting in Wisconsin?

Will Arizona Republicans launch a sneak attack on the ballot polling places? 

I don't know but I do know that rightwing domestic terrorists have already begun killing Americans and have the backing of major elected Republicans as well as King Traitor Trump and see 2024 as a confluence of events, influence, and political backing from the Treasonous Republican Party to effect an overthrow of the United States.

I'm afraid they are going to take their shot. 

The Staging Grounds II: Fascist Kristi Noem and Leftist Jason Isbell have something in common

They both decided to get their teeth fixed.

For years, Isbell had crooked teeth. When one commenter said they liked his former teeth, Isbell explained why he had the work done.  “I had bone loss, severe infection and neuralgia, and without the repairs I wasn’t gonna be singing much longer,” he wrote. “Like I don’t know if I mentioned this in any songs or interviews or whatnot, but I’m a recovering alcoholic from Alabama. It should really make sense to everyone.”

Now, the overwhelming majority of adults with teeth problem stem from childhood poverty and the inability to afford braces and other fixes in their youth which would alleviate the need to fix them in adulthood.

But, for some reason because American medical care cleaved dental care away from healthcare coverage we are stuck with this byzantine multi-layered system.

In case you unaware of Jason Isbell, he's "a recovering alcoholic" whose music often touches, sometimes quite deeply and quite personally on addiction issues, as well as relationships and his natural far left Progressive beliefs.  Isbell is famous for zingers on Twitter.  For instance, skewering Oklahoma Faux Tough Guy MarkWayne Mullin.

While, Isbell's dental procedure was done for medical reasons Noem got her teeth done in a pathetic transparent attempt to appeal to Donald Trump.  She wants to be the Vice President, and while schtuping Corey Lewandowski I'm sure discussions on how best to appeal to leering Trumps rapey libido.  

But, even though Noem has always been considered "Hawt" by Republican male gaze standard she's done a lot of surgery to her face (cheeks, nose, lips, now teeth) and pulled several stunts to burnish her rightwing bonafides; like opening up the Sturgis

It's Evolution, Baby!

Motorcycle Rally during the early peaks of Covid prior to vaccinations.  And sending the South Dakota National Guard to the Texas Border (perhaps this is the training for Desensitization and Dehumanization Republicans know they have to inculcate in the Army National Guard to handle liquidating migrants in "The Staging Grounds")

PIERRE, S.D. – Today, Governor Kristi Noem announced that she will deploy South Dakota National Guard troops to the southern border later this spring. This will be the fifth time that the South Dakota National Guard has deployed to the southern border to assist in border security efforts during the Noem Administration. 

 

“The border is a warzone, so we’re sending soldiers,” said Governor Noem. “These soldiers’ primary mission will be construction of a wall to stem the flow of illegal immigrants, drug cartels, and human trafficking into the United States of America.” - February 20, 2024

It's a "war zone" Noem said but, not according to conservatives who've travelled to the border themselves instead of listening to lying press releases from Republican governors...

I would prefer they all hang together but, I will
accept if they all are hanged apart...

"It's not what I expected. But then again, I don't know what I expected. I can tell you it's not as bad as what I thought. So that's kind of eye-opening in itself, too."

Noem is also pretty sure she can get away with petty abuses of power which Trump himself is famous for, such as using her office to get her daughter preferential treatment as she progressed through a real estate appraiser licensing program administered by the state, or doing paid advertisements for her recent orthodontic operations and for a specialty foot store (ed: I just realized Noem is selling foot impressions to MAGA men.)

Of course, Noem won't face any consequences for her abuse of power,  Republicans are never held accountable, and rightwing media has been working to make her a star for many years now because Republicans know when you're a Star they let you do it...

The Staging Grounds

Budding War Criminal Stephen Miller is a mere
39 years old.  If he follows in the footsteps of his
idol Henry Kissinger, he'll be with us for 61 more

• Charlie Maguire: What did you do?
• Anna Von Hagen: We put them in cattle cars and shipped them east. Always east.
• Charlie Maguire: To the Ukraine, you mean? To the resettlement camps?
• Anna Von Hagen: Ja, we resettle them. We resettle them in the air...  (Fatherland 1994)

 

Stephen Miller may have coined the term for the next American Mass Murder campaign.

Like The Killing Fields, his casual dropping of the term "The Staging Grounds" when speaking of the Republican plan to round-up and "deport" 10 million people has a darker and sinister tone when one actually considers, in concrete terms, what the Republicans actually propose.

Stephen Miller: You establish large-scale staging grounds for removal flights where you grab illegal immigrants and move them to the staging ground and that's where planes are waiting to remove them to go home. You deputize the National Guard to carry out immigration enforcement

One of the things which gives me hope as the Republican Party slowly sinks the Black Hole of Fascism is that actually carrying out the Orders from Nazis like Stephen Miller, Mike Flynn, Steve Bannon or whomever is not something enough Americans are desensitized to do at this point.  National Guardsmen aren't ready, thank god, to be tasked with kicking in doors of trailer park homes and pulling people out to be moved to "The Staging Grounds"...

Certainly, rightwing propaganda has been warping and radicalizing (Red-pilling) a large number of, mostly white, young men.  One of the things which has been the biggest disservice to young men is the Youtube algorithm.  I'll watch Democracy Now!, TYT, Luke Beasley, David Pakman, the Majority Report, and the fucking algorithm will foist Joe Rogan, Jordan Peterson, Charlie Kirk, Ben Shapiro and any number of reactionary shitweasels into my feed.  No matter how many times I choose to block it.  But, Harvard educated Ivy-league elitist lawyer Ben Shaprio's videos "destroying" college kids keep getting in there.  So, these young men alone watching content get sucked down the rightwing rabbit hole of extremism.

But, how many triggered conservative domestic terrorists ready to do violence do we have in the country?  50,000?  100,000?

Certainly, there are some cosplaying guerrilla units out there practicing for "the Boogaloo", and they could do real damage and kill people.  Remember the Wolverine Watchmen and their plot to kidnap and murder Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer?  But, to form a coherent unit structure and perform complex tasks with 5-paragraph orders to infiltrate and extract targets?  And no actual military or law enforcement unit is going to take orders to round-up and shoot LGBTQ people from a Matt Walsh or Michael Knowles showing up in a Trump Commissar uniform.

The danger is that leadership of Police Departments and US Military units will order their subordinates, underlings, and units to perform these tasks.  Fo instance would deputies in upstate Lewis Co, New York simply follow the orders of skinhead Unconstitutional Sheriff Mike Carpinelli, who was just re-elected to another 4 year term and believes he's the most powerful government official in his county?  If, Kris Kobach ordered the Kansas State Police to stop every car to check for migrants and people with unlawful genders listed on their driver's license will the Troopers simply shrug and say, 'Well, we're checking for violations so the innocent have nothing to fear'?

Most likely, the CBP will be tasked as they are near the border and they've already been indoctrinated through reactionary propaganda and working conditions to treat Migrants poorly.  Additionally, this would allow Republicans in far away locales like Iowa and Missouri who claim, for easily deduced reasons, that The Border Crisis is the biggest problem EVAR, while not seeing the day-to-day mistreatment of other human beings, to sagely nod their head and agree with Greg Abbott that immigrant children should be chewed up with saw blades and used for fish farm food.

I suppose the natural evolution would be the so-called "Inkblot Strategy" of couinterinsurgency expanding out from Authoritarian and supportive regions, say Missouri or Texas, into the rest of America.  But, right now I'm not worried because while the Republicans absolutely want to impose a Fascist White Power State with concentration camps and death squads the infrastructure and willpower isn't there...  yet...

Republicans Hate America 25: Ben S. Shaprio says 'Work will set you Free'

 I can not stress enough how much Republicans HATE You.  Republicans hate Americans with a visceral passion.  And they get perverse pleasure at getting the people they hate to vote for them.

And no this isn't another leftist screed about how white people vote against their interests.  White people, especially poor and working class (the only workers the Corporate Media acknowledges) get exactly what they want from Republicans in office;  bad faith morality, racism, religious hypocrisy, and non-stop attacks on oppressed and powerless people.

If you think this post title is in bad taste Shapiro
defends rabid racist Jew-hater Elon Musk and 
argues for the extermination of the Palestinian people

However, every so often, a Republican will make it clear they intend to fuck over the working class by stealing social security and white people get indignant and upset... not at the Republicans mind you but, at Democrats, for instance when President Biden points out the Republicans absolutely intend to cut and swindle people out of the Social Security.

Back in 2010, Republican John Boehner, the soon to be Speaker of the House after leftists got mad Barack Obama didn't turn the United States into Plato's Utopian Republic, proposed eliminating Obamacare, raising the Retirement Age to 70 and making drastic cuts to the slender America social safety net.  Americans still voted in the Tea Party Extremists.

So, it's little surprise that Republicans continue their quest to impoverish Americans and ensure no one can every retire.  Here's Harvard educated elitist Ben SShapiro plainly stating American workers should not get to retire EVER but should work up until the day they die.

No one in the United States should be retiring at 65 years old. Frankly, I think retirement itself is a stupid idea unless you have some sort of health problem.  And let's be real about this - it's insane that we haven't raised the retirement age in the United States. It's totally crazy. Everybody that I know who is -- who is elderly, who has retired, is dead within five years. And if you talk to people who are elderly and they lose their purpose in life by losing their job and they stop working, things go to hell in a handbasket real quick.  It's totally insane that you believe that you should be able to work from the time that you are essentially 20 to the time that you are 65 -- which is a 45 year period -- pay in, and then you'll receive Social Security benefits sufficient to support you and your family, you and your wife or whatever, for, like, another 20 years. That's crazy talk. That is not fiscally sustainable.

Ben posits that workers should consider they must work from 20-85.  Life Expectancy for men in America is 73, for women is 79...  the reason Americans die within 5 years of retirement is because they’ve worked themselves into the grave.

 Perhaps Ben is considering how his leisurely life will play out and expects to make it to 85.  Must be because he's not doing anything anyone in the world would consider "work".  Remember Ben counts sitting on his ass talking about Barbie for 2 hours, or complaining about rap music, or demanding Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) send him pictures of her feet as "work".  This pampered dilettante has never done a day's labor in his life, has never had a real job, never served in the military, never helped his community, never put a shovel in the dirt, or hammered a nail into a board.  But, like all rightwingers he feels absolutely qualified to lecture others about things he has no experience and no knowledge about and he always has.

Ben Shapiro is a man of leisure who has taken his Elite Education and coddled upbringing and used it to advance murderous illiberal and authoritarian Republican governments for 20 years.  He argued anyone protesting the Iraq War should be tried for sedition and treason under the Espionage Act.

If you protest this War I have no intention of fighting you should be arrested! 

I'm certain my Reactionary police officer co-workers believe people shouldn't retire at 65 even though some can retire at 50 and even the Tier 2 pensioners can retire at 55.  I Got Mine, Fuck You remains an animating principle of rightwing politics. 

But, Shapiro is far from the first rightwing influencer to argue you don't get to retire peasant, you work until you drop.  Racist Rush Limpballs made this argument years ago,

No, you're not supposed to retire when you're 55. You sound to me like you are totally capable of still working. People are retiring now at 50 and 55 and so forth when they are still capable of working. According to the tables at 55, you've got 22 years left... ~ Racist Limbaugh, [Crooks and Liars]

Infamous Twitter Troll Catturd2, claims he came to his conservatism by listening to Limbaugh daily while working.  Catturd2 has turned in his work pants for rightwing trolling finding it much more lucrative to tweet and be paid by Elon Musk.

Republicans hate You.  They hate an America in which people can possibly find relaxation and enjoyment instead of dropping dead on the job.  Republicans don't believe in the American Dream.  They don't believe in the American people.  Republicans hate America.

President Joe Biden believes in America.  He believes in giving the American people freedom and a chance to live.  This is why Republicans hate Him.  The choice is simple;  Joe Biden and the American Dream or Traitor Trump and jack-booted Fascist Dictatorship.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Millions.

 

Lakan? TRUMP! Now Smile!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stephen Miller went further, 

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

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

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

Additional:

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