Revenge of the Thin Blue Line 45: Chicago FOP teaches you: How to make sure your bitch of a wife doesn't get an Order of Protection

    On social media it is often bandied about that 40% of Police Officers wives (spouses) are victims of domestic violence. This is often meet with the cynical rejoinder 40% of wives report domestic violence sometimes using the Homer and Bart Worst Day So Far meme generator.

Well, guess who's back, post election ecstatic John Catanzara Jr, one of the dirtiest Chicago Cops still working.  Now, to be clear Catanzara who praised January 6th and urged FOP members to file exemptions from COVID Vaccinations, is no longer an Officer having been stripped off all police powers but he's still the President of the odious Chicago FOP Lodge #7 having been re-elected in 2023.

As such President Catanzara oversees the release of the monthly FOP Lodge #7 newsletter which is just a morass of Reactionary lies and zealous desires to be unleashed to Travis Bickle or Punisher the streets of Chicago.  In the December issue, Catanzara hosted an article by Tim Grace, an attorney for Grace & Thompson a firm which specializing in getting Chicago Police Officers off from civil and complaints.

The article in the FOP Newsletter is a horrendous piece minimizing domestic violence and casting the Police Officer as the victim!  It's a grotesque inversion of the process which infantilizes the Officer reading it and pretends the major worry about OOPs is the Officer losing the financial safety of being a Chicago Cop.

Here's some of the words/phrases used by Tim Grace in describing domestic violence and Orders of Protection;

• the most devasting part is the no-pay status an officer
• No different than jumping offsides in a foot- ball game.
• The most devastating consequence an order of protection has on Chicago police officers is that once an emergency or plenary order of protection is granted, the respondent officer will be immediately ordered to surrender all his or her firearms and FOID card to the state police.
• If they sneak into court, it is often too late to stop that train. Many times, the spouse doesn’t even understand the repercussions of filing for an order of protection. How is the mortgage going to be paid, how is the tuition going to be paid and all of the other bills? Our partners feelings get hurt and sometimes it is our own fault, but you must approach this head-on.

Domestic Violence has for years been a near silent epidemic. Fortunately, since the 1980's State legislatures and other organizations have focused efforts on curbing and stigmatizing domestic violence.  But, as we've seen in the on-line Man-O-sphere, with the rise of Toxic Masculinity and all the Men going there own way types, the cults surrounding Andrew Tate, Jordan Peterson, Joe Rogan, Nick Fuentes, Matt Walsh, and so many other disgusting pukes there is a concerted and powerful push-back not only against the legal framework outlawing domestic violence but, also against the concept of women being equal at all.

There's a reason an overwhelmingly percentage of Police Officers love and gravitate to DonOld Trump and what his election promises them.  John Catanzara clearly saw this;  One of Us.  One of Us.  One of Us. 

Merry Christmas America; Republicans hate you and want you to die

    Republicans scuttled the Government funding bill yesterday night,

By a vote of 174-235, the House of Representatives rejected the Trump-backed package, hastily assembled by Republican leaders after the president-elect and his billionaire ally and increasingly close political partner Elon Musk scuttled a prior bipartisan deal.

Part of this Republican failure included Mike Johnson cutting out federal funding for a pediatric cancer research program because Republicans hate America and don't care if children die, and really enjoy when children do die.  If you're not a millionaire you have no influence in a Republican government and if you're not a billionaire you have no control of a Republican government. 

For his part, Trump wants the Debt Ceiling (a mechanism Republicans have used since President Obama to water-down and diminish Democratic policies completely abolished) because he and the thieves he's surrounded himself with want to loot the treasury and the Federal Reserve; at a cartoonish level which would make any James Bond villain blush.

You = Net Worth north of $1,000,000,000

Remember one of the really successful campaign tricks Trump/Vance et al pulled was telling (mainly white men and women) the Republicans are the party for You; while Kamala Harris is for They/Them.  In reality, Republicans are a party of rich assholes who have used Fear & Hatred to get people to vote against their "economic interests".  Decades of rightwing propaganda and lies about the Government being "the problem" have set us up for this moment when Republicans who are experts at undermining a functional government can not do anything when in power other than step on their own dicks.

I kind of take that back;  Republicans in power of the Federal Government aren't incompetent they are malicious.  For instance; restricting and controlling women's access to medical care, or raising taxes on working class Americans to give massive taxes breaks to their billionaire owners.  Republicans have been running on the platform of Government is against people (especially white people) and government fails, recall how Trump and Vance and El Presidente Elon Musk told wild and vicious lies, smears, and slanders about Hurricane response in North Carolina, with vile claims of those poor white peoples' aid going to illegal immigrants and trans persons.

Now, understand when Government fails or seemingly fails, Republicans win.  When Republicans run on a platform of Government is a failure and then when they win office those elected Republicans sabotage and undermine their committee or department it's a win-win.

So, it should be no surprise Republicans have shut down the Government.  Now, Elon Musk and Just Despicable Vance aren't going to take credit for their dirty handiwork and they know they have a sympathetic ear in Corporate Media along with Musk's firehose of lies and shit on X, so they've blamed the Democrats.

Thankfully, the Democrats haven't swooped in to save the Republicans from their own actions, unfortunately a lot of Americans are going to be hurt.  But... well Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, and every other Democratic official warned you that Republicans were going to do damage and hurt a lot of people and white people said, 'FUCK YEAH!  LET'S GO!'

I hope Hakeem Jeffries and the rest of the Democratic leadership can stop themselves from helping Republicans because 1) We never get credit, 2) Corporate Media then can point to the vile Republican agenda as being "bipartisan", and 3) most importantly everything MAGA has planned is evil and will harm millions of people.

Republicans hate you, they hate America, they hate anyone who isn't rich or an ideological terrorist helping to advance the Conservatives agenda of subjugation, oppression, adulation of the rich, and white supremacy. 

The President Musk Shutdown: Decommissioning the United States Government

    Yesterday, we saw the raw exercise of power by President-Elect Elon Musk, who spent the day Tweeting out threats to every Republican in the House to not pass a Continuing Resolution to fund the Federal Government.  

“This is a shit sandwich,” said Rep. Anna Paulina Lunatic, Fascist- Florida, said Wednesday. “I don’t know how else to say that. We’re being forced into this position.”

The Continuing Resolution funding bills were a historical nothing, a minor artifact until Republicans in the House under President Obama weaponized it to undermine his agenda and gain concessions.  Now, it's been fully actualized to scuttle the Government.  Trump being caught flat-footed, as his brain continues to turn into syphilitic jelly, jumped on board with the Musk Republican efforts to shut down the government before Christmas.

A Trump transition team official said the president-elect's opposition to the CR was part of "practicing what he preaches."

“There is no way, I mean none, that he would support DOGE and also a 1500-page CR," the official said, referring to the Department of Government Efficiency Trump has asked billionaire Elon Musk and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to run.

Who's supporting whom here?  Who's in charge here?The Democratic response, especially by Hakeem Jeffries and still President Biden should be fine and not do anything to help Squeaker Mike Johnson out of this Republican morass.  Always remember shutting down the government has zero effect on elected Republicans, they are going to get paid, they continue to accuse all time and benefits "owed" to them.  Their flights and travel plans won't be affected.  Shutting down the Government is always a win for Republicans because they have positioned themselves as the Party of the Government doesn't work and the Government isn't looking out for you, so when Republicans sabotage the Government they can crow about being right about Government failures.

Republicans have hated the power and scope of the Federal Government for years, now they are poised to return it to the two functions they deem Constitutional; having a large standing army to forcibly open foreign markets up to American Trade and fielding a massive security and surveillance state here at home to quell domestic dissent.  Quelling domestic dissent can be everything from violently rounding up homeless people, ensuring woman have no authority over their own bodies, crushing labor unions, to beating and killing minorities and malcontents.

Everything else is prima facia Unconstitutional to them which is why all over X you can read massive support for the idea of shutting down the Government for the next month until Trump Vance and Musk stroll into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave to bust out the Nation.  And that is the real goal of Elon Musk, he wants to undermine large swaths of the Federal Government so he can buy them up at close-out rates.  By destroying the concept of a functioning Federal Government, there are going to be large power vacuums created under the DOGE/MAGA Regime and into those vacuums will rush large powerful Corporations;

Look at some of the big opportunities awaiting Elon Musk and the Billionaires across the Globe to buy up the United States on pennies on the dollar (or more actually bits on the Bitcoin); 

• Privatize the United States Postal Service, this is of course in the face of actual text of the Article 1, Section 8 in the Constitution which empowers Congress to establish a Post Office and post roads.  Of course, the Sinister Supremacist Six under John Roberts can merely interpret it to mean privatize the USPS when the time comes.
• Establish the Bitcoin and Crypto Reserve is nothing less than a nefarious plot to set up the conditions to bust out and bankrupt the entire Federal Reserve and Department of Treasury when the crypto bubble bursts.
• Turn over the Department of Defense to a drunken rapist thief who could never rise above the rank of O-3 because of gross incompetence and being a dishonorable cur whose loyalty to the Constitution isn't even skin deep as evidenced by his array of White Power tattoos.  While also turning over the entire US Intelligence apparatus to a woman who is a known and adjudicated Russian asset.

There are going to be more and more areas of the Nation up for sale, as Trump has promised any foreign scalawag or spy a chance to own a piece of America for the starting price of a cool billion!

Musk and the assorted cadre of thieves and co-conspirators Trump has assembled are Accelerationists who see the United States as an old Naval Vessel, by sowing discord and creating chaos they are going to be able to buy it up cheap.  The United States and her Government is going to be decommissioned and sold off for scrap and any pieces which resist being bought are going to be used as target practice by the Musk Fan Bois and bots infesting his wretched X.

60 years ago Ronnie Raygun cut a record to help Barry Goldwater's Presidential candidacy, in it he warned of having a social safety net and a Medicare for All plan was Communism.  In it he also warned that one day Americans would wake up having given up their "birthright" and find themselves to no longer be free...

Well...  that day is now a month away...

The CryptCon: High Hopes for Hawk Tuah! Oops there goes another MemeCoin Scam!

All problems just a toy balloon
They'll be bursted soon
They're just bound to go pop

Oops, there goes another problem, kerplop
Oops, there goes another problem, kerplop

Oops, there goes another problem, kerplop   

 I've figured out what Crypto trading reminds me of: the debauched gambling halls of lay-about European nobility in the 16-18 centuries.  Nothing of value was gained in these gambling halls (although the invention of the Sandwich might be a minor quibble).  With a massive influx of wealth flooding Europe as it began to exert dominance over the Globe, there was a large amount of money with nothing to do so the rampant gambling also turned into rampant bubbles and schemes; the most infamous being the South Sea Bubble, the Mississippi Bubble, and the well-known Tulip Mania.

As Charles Mackay wrote in the Extraordinary Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1841), 

During the progress of this famous bubble, England presented a singular spectacle.  The public mind was in a state of unwholesome fermentation.  Men were no longer satisfied with the slow but sure profits of cautious industry.  The hope of boundless wealth for the morrow made them heels and extravagant for to-day.

Nobody blamed the credulity and avarice of the people - the degrading lust of gain, which had swallowed up every nobler quality in the national character, or the infatuation which had made the multitude run their heads with such frantic eagerness into the net held out for them by scheming projectors. (Ibid. 75) 

So, as the Crypto market explodes with the addition of thousands of "coins" everyday.  Even ardent Crypto enthusiasts recognize 99% of these "coins" are utter crap and designed to steal your worthless fiat currency.  Yet, if someone falls for a crapcoin the crypto bros usually respond with, 'Tough luck.  It happened to me when I got into the crypto market.  You should do better research.'  

And remember if you question the validity of Crypto be ready to be set upon with attacks, 'HA HA HA!  Your money is rocks!  My money is the unhackable BLOCKCHAIN!'

Now, certainly many people have made money buying and selling these coins without overt fraud.  Just doing micro-transactions buying and selling over and over and over and over.  But, again this sort of trading was tightly regulated and subject to a fee for decades after Republicans crashed the Economy in 1929.  But, the Crypto Market and those who trade in it aren't looking to buy some legacy stock and hold onto it for decades realizing slow but steady gains but, looking to cash in on a get rich scheme whilst calling these worthless tokens "God's Candle"...

So, the 15 minutes of fame Hawk Tuah girl, launched a crypto coin "$HAWK" and within hours it lost 95% of it's "value",

Haliey Welch, who is the woman known as the "Hawk tuah girl," launched her own memecoin on Solana, with the cryptocurrency reportedly crashing soon into its unveiling. 

The post included a 3-second video of Welch excitedly yelling about the launch.  "Hawk is live!!!" Welch, a 22-year-old social media influencer, wrote on X Wednesday evening.

 According to Solana, Welch's token then skyrocketed to $500 million -- before it plummeted to less than $60 million in just 20 minutes.  Shortly after the launch, Welch took to social media again, saying her team "tried to stop snipers as best we could through high fee's [sic] in the start of launch." She added that her team hadn't sold one token.

Ahead of the launch, Welch told Fortune the memecoin was "not just a cash grab," adding that while she previously thought cryptocurrency was “just a scam” and an “easy way for you to lose money," she has since changed her opinion.

Critics went on to accuse her of planning a cryptocurrency fraud. 

The cries and recriminations of Fraud and various allegations of a Pump & Dump or "Rug Pull" by Welch and a small cadre of accounts who apparently drained all the value and bankrupted "investors" have resounded across Social Media these past few days.  

But, it's staggeringly amazing to me the Crypto Community has immediately called for investigations and "legal action" by Government and Regulatory Bodies on their purposefully Unregulated, Untied to Government Scam Coins.  The whole purpose of every crypto was to uncouple it from Government to have a truly free monetary system unburdened by inflationary fiat currency and the over-bearing hand of government.

Although, this is no different than Libertarians demanding a Government Military exist to keep their Slaves in Line but, not put the odious boot of Law & Order on their neck as the scheme and swindle and attempt to create the Randian Utopian.

Crypto is an entirely determinental creation; it isn't a good store of value, it's wild fluctuations make it wholly unusable for any kind of financial planning except for speculation and gambling, (Bitcoin surged to US$103,900, fell to US$90,400 overnight, and then recovered to US$97,898) it's cost too manufacture is massive even if it's defenders deny this, and despite what it's rabid defenders proclaim Bitcoin's price is unnaturally inflated by it's use of scammers to swindle old people out of their life savings as this keeps it in an artificial state of high trading, so when this latest bubble bursts it's going to wipe out the wealth of millions of people.

Hunter* should not have been Pardoned

There is no such thing as degrees of difference
Everything is the same but,
It's only wrong when a Democrat does it...

    That's Duncan Hunter the disgrace to the United States Marine Corps and Congressman convicted or numerous felonies during his tenure in the House of Representatives.  Oh?  What's that?  You don't remember Duncan Hunter or what he was convicted of and then pardoned by Donald Trump?  You didn't hear non-stop coverage of how Duncan Hunter who after serving the Marine Corps as an Officer with his commission purchased by his corrupt Congressman father, then got to slide into his father's Congressional seat and since his Presidential Pardon has been getting paid off by companies with long-standing influence with him and his father?  Well, I guess it's not News nor is it interesting when a Republican breaks the law and disgraces the United States Naval Service.

Oh but perhaps we can talk about Trump's pardons of Charles Kushner?  Dinesh Dsouza?  Paul Manafort?  Roger Stone?  Steve Bannon?  Matt Gaetz and Major Traitor Green asking for blanket pardons in the wake of the January 6th Insurrection?  Pardoning the Blackwater War Criminals?  Hardly a peep by the Corporate Media and none of the outrage that's happening because of Hunter Biden.  No, it's always an uneven amount of coverage, brazen false equivalence, and besides which what is more important to the Corporate Media is to justify their pre-compliance to Fascism and their plans to minimize Trump's upcoming Crimes Against Humanity by BothSidesing everything.

Funny.  Or actually it's tragic how the Fascist Compliant Corporate Media simply decided it will ignore Trump's misdeeds and work tirelessly to validate his Upcoming Terror Regime.

We are living in a time of Rage and Hatred, especially White Rage.  The Corporate Media has decided to play into that Rage.  They are not going to stop Trump or MAGA, they've shown themselves to be willing accomplices.  

The now two day Corporate Media attack on President Biden continues to demonstrate how unequal their sense of outrage is, how bad their sane-washing of Trump and MAGA goons has been, and presages just how bad they are going to be when Trump simply ignores all constraints.

As to Hunter Biden, I am very glad the Republican Witch Hunt did not cause him to relapse and overdose, which I pointed out long ago was the whole fucking point of his Persecution at the hands of Republican criminals in this blatant miscarriage of justice.  But, their non-stop vile bad faith efforts did succeed in hurting President Joe Biden and likely were a contributing factor to his physical decline and his decision to drop out of the race in July.

I'm not going to fear monger about what Trump and the collection of grotesqueries are going to do with the FBI and Department of Justice when they take over in 50 days.  We warned you, President Biden warned you, and Vice President Harris warned you and the American people said Fuck Yeah, bring on the Pogroms!  

I'm glad Hunter Biden was pardoned.  I hope Joe Biden has more Executive Actions in his pocket for the next 7 weeks.