Fox News and the entire Republican Party treat Veterans like Toilet Paper

I became aware of this lie while watching the channel of Brian Tyler Cohen and he sums up the Republican perfidy succinctly.

Who cares if it's not true!
It's what conservatives want to hear!

I don't think I've ever seen a more casually despicable and off-handedly shameless piece of agitprop in a long time.  This isn't just a lie, it was an outright fraud, an outright conspiracy in which Republican agent provocateurs appear to have picked homeless men off the street and instructed them to pretend to be Veterans and then concocted a tale of them being kicked out of hotel to make room for Joe Biden's Illegal Immigrants.

I think I'm not being clear enough.  Republicans in New York pulled a George Santos knowing this MASSIVE FRAUD would be picked up Nationally, rebroadcast and generate a lot of Rightwing Outrage and engagement.

MediaMatters as usual has an extensive summation of the hundreds of lies Republicans and Faux News perpetrated because they know, THEY ABSOLUTELY KNOW, conservatives will believe this story no matter how many times in is debunked.  Homeless Veterans kicked out for Illegal Immigrants stimulates the Fear&Anger response conservatives crave.

Republicans breathlessly rushed to get in their condemnations of this, they dusted off their oratory skills to pretend to be Mark Anthony in Shakespeare's Julius Caeser to denounce this shocking mistreatment of America's Heroes while giving those people, those Non-Citizens, those criminals, those Illegals preferential treatment.  Of course, of fucking course, Faux News ran despicable segment after segment after segment of how America's Heroes, Our Best & Brightest, Those to Whom We Owe so so much, were mistreated by Joe while also lighting up the pleasure centers of the rightwing brain by pumping the Border Crisis lie and Racism against anyone from Mexico, Central America, and South America.

This made up story is the Pure Dope to the rightwing Wurlitzer of lies and propaganda.  This is beyond low.  This is beyond deplorable.  I am beyond incensed.  

We've always known that Republicans treat Veterans and Service members like dog shit and little Risk tokens, flinging us about and using us to advance the mean rightwing agenda of oppression and intolerance.

Republicans don't give a shit about the unhoused community.  Republicans don't give a rat's hind tit about homeless people.  Republicans especially don't fucking care about Homeless Veterans.  Republicans use people and Republicans shit all over the Nation, the Flag, the American people.

ThankYouForYourService

Rightwingers have lived for decades on the lie that they are the Party of Veterans, that they are the Party of Law & Order.  And it's absolute bullshit.  Republicans haven't been the Party of the Military for 40 fucking years.  Most of the enlisted who served during the Phony GWoT, that Republican warmongering adventure, pushed by Faux News and the entire Republican media apparatus are liberal or left in viewpoint.  This was demonstrated conclusively by the 2020 election in which the Military (writ large) voted for Joe Biden conclusively over Traitor Trump.

Coked Out Chickenhawk Coward
speaks for all Veterans  

The undeniable fact that Veterans and Service Members voted for Joe Biden really makes MAGA mad.  This is why MAGA crafted the large overarching narrative of a rigged and stolen election, they still believe (or affect to believe) that they are the large silent majority and represent the American people and values of the United States.  And they don't.  They... Don't... and this dissonance is leading us to were we are currently and were we are going in the next couple of years.

Fascism is here and the violent death throes of recalcitrant rightwing villains will follow.

Addendum: 

As always HRC was far too kind when she called half of Republicans a basket of deplorable, because every Republican is straight trash.  Unredeemable garbage people.  And that a Party of chickenhawk cowards and warmongering draft dodgers feels absolutely free to bandy about Veterans as though We belong to them is just the cherry on top of the galling shit sundae. 

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!

Bitcoin, Magic Beans, and Ponzi schemes

Bitcoin is a terrible commodity and borderline outright fraud.  Crypto, in toto, is a classic Ponzi Scheme.  Since I took that screenshot of the plummeting Bitcoin price it's gone down another $2000 while also fluctuating wildly.  In addition, there have been several other Crypto implosions and frauds exposing the volatile nature of Crypto, "Oops, Poor Again!" Changpeng Zhao.

I know some people who made "money" via Bitcoin a few years ago.  I always point out that when they speak about the Value of Bitcoin it's described in USD and not of the Crypto itself.  But, they also laud and describe Bitcoin as the harbinger of Utopia, as the panacea which will remove all the evils of globalist bankers and fiat currency and crime associated with money.  I've tried to point out the history for such loaded terms but, when you're a true believer and have made a "profit" from crypto it's trying to reason with an addict.  

As I said, I pointed out that the "profits" my coworkers have made aren't an intrinsic value associated with Bitcoin or Tezos or whichever magic beans they're hawking but, because they've "acquired" other peoples' money.  But, trying to point out that the money they made was other investors losing money doesn't register because The Blockchain can never fail, it can only be failed, as it were....  Of course, so many people have bought into the Rightwing framing that there is no such thing as society (weepy bigot Jordan B. Peterson told them so) so they have no duty to anyone else and besides people are dumb investors anyway (Buy High/Sell Low) so why shouldn't they profit from other peoples' mistakes.

So, trying to get my coworkers to understand that our job as police should be too safeguard society and a government's primary duty is to protect people from rapacious thieves stealing from the untrained, or unsophisticated investors, or the gullible instead falls on deaf ears.  

I seemingly can't get them to understand a group of unscrupulous Tech Bros have concocted a scheme to get people to invest real money while providing them digital chaff.  In my experience, Cops tend to be incredibly credulous about things while lauding themselves as having a fine tuned baloney detection kit.    Of course, we know the Crypto creators quickly transfer real money into their bank accounts.  It's the epitome of a Get Rich Quick Scheme;  Here's how to make money from nothing; gussied up with futuristic (and poorly understood) technobabble, don't worry you're definitely not the mark!

This is part & parcel of the pseudo-libertarian Ayn Randian belief in which everyone else is a mooch and a taker, while I am a great and noble and brilliant singular genius who would never be tossed into the charnel house when Government is done away with by the Powerful.

I don't look forward to these crypto rollercoaster rides because when it does go bust a lot of poor people and pensions are going to be swindled just like when the Bankers Housing Scam burst in 2007.  Of course, enough people have convinced themselves that they will be the last to get out and the other guy is going to be left holding the bag...

Apparently, Gotham's Finest Detective Ben McKenzie has quite an informed understanding of of the CryptoCon.

A Landslide Victory for President Barack Obama. This is a Center-Left Nation.

332 Electoral Votes. 3 Million more Popular Votes and rising. Ohio, Virginia, Florida and all the other true battleground states. Five of the last Six Presidential Elections have been won by Democrats.

This is a Liberal Country. A Center-Left Nation.

We need to hammer that home to every day to combat the lies of Faux News and Toxic Conservative Radio, which will work to undo the clear liberal mandate handed to President Obama.

But, President Obama faces big challenges now.

First up is Sequestration and the "Fiscal Cliff". Centrists and Republicans will demand Austerity and point to the big divide in the American populace as necessitating The Grand Bargain.

The American People just overwhelmingly rejected The Ryan Buget and the politics of Austerity. We are tired of 30 years of the Republican Economic model of Pissing Down Our Back and Telling Us it's Raining Prosperity. This is a clear mandate to eliminate the Bush Tax Cuts and Reaganomics.

We said No to the Right-Wing model and President Obama needs to say No. The President doesn't need to move halfway to meet the Republicans.

The Grand Bargain is giant screw-job for the Poor and Middle Class. We need to resist, resist, resist. No  cuts to Medicare, No reductions to Medicaid, No stealing Social Security for degenerate Wall Street gamblers to flinch.

We need tighter and further regulations on Wall Street. We need to re-empower the SEC. We need to readopt a Financial Transaction Tax to curb the rampant speculation and Hedge Fund gambling associated with Wall Street. President Obama needs to stand next to Senator Elizabeth Warren as she battles for the American People against the Vultures.

The American people did not vote for cuts they voted for much higher Taxes on Millionaires and Billionaires, the elimination of tax subsidies to Oil Conglomerates, effective collection of taxes on Giant Corporate tax cheats, and fair taxes on Capital Gains and Income made by investments.

We need to impose tariffs on foreign made crap, let's make IPhones here in the United States,  and punish the Wal Marts and Bain Capital which make money drowning the American manufacturing base and off-shoring jobs.

The Housing Market is still a shambles. Getting out from under the rubble of the Bush Housing Bubble and Republican Recession is going to take time. Austan Goolsebee stated, we have 5 million vacant houses and $700 Billion in negative housing equity. Housing is huge problem.

Next is getting us out of Afghanistan and actually Reducing our Foreign Empire and bloated Warmonger Budget. We need to close bases around the world, we need to scrap wasteful spending on a blue water Navy, we need push to reduce the Drone Campaign. We need to cut the fraud, waste and abuse of the DoD by $500 Billion.

Our involvement in Libya needs to be questioned. And I don't mean Benghazi. Benghazi and Libya are part of a Covert CIA Operation. Republicans aren't going to delve too deeply into it because the more they expose in their baseless partisan witch hunt the more blowback they will create for US abroad and for Republicans within the Intelligence Community.

But, Congress does need to step up and take back control of Military involvement overseas. This is a huge problem as Presidents have expanded their control and played word games to get around the power to declare War invested in the Congress. But, this Congress and previous ones are also culpable because of the Trillions they've given to profligate warmongers and because they are afraid to stop paying to the DoD and Pentagon.

Right now is a time to take a few celebratory victory breathes. Unfortunately, there is a lot of work to get America going away from the policies which aid only the Wealthy and Powerful and make this a country reflect the Liberal Ideas that the American people hold.

Update:
This rejection of the Right-Wing went further than just President Obama's landslide. Republicans Richard Mourdock, Todd Akin, Tommy Thompson, Denny Rehnberg were all decisively defeated in the Senate. Elizabeth Warren trounced Tea Party darling Scott Brown. Two of the biggest incendarity Republican bomb throwers, Allen West and Joe Walsh, were kicked out of the House. While the straight talking Alan Grayson was voted back in by a 2-1 margain.

On Right-Wing Voter Fraud and "Real" Racism

"I don't trust Obama. I have read about him and he's an Arab..."

"No ma'am, no ma'am. He's a decent family man..." - John McCain, 2008 Campaign Trail. With that exhange John McCain lost the 2008 election. Senator McCain still possessed a sense of honor and wouldn't stoop to race-baiting attacks. Mitt Romney and the Republicans of 2012, however, have no problem and are firmly engaged in Dog Whistle Race based attacks on the President.

The Push for Voter ID has become the cause célèbre of right-wingers around the country. With all manner of know-nothing wingnut welfare writers turning out libraries of fainting couch material.

Only as Steve Benen of the Rachel Maddow Show notes it's a solution in search of a problem. In person voting fraud is non-existent. The analysis of 2,068 reported fraud cases by News21, a Carnegie-Knight investigative reporting project, found 10 cases of alleged in-person voter impersonation since 2000.

So it happens as often as NASA lands a rover on Mars.

But, it's not really about the faux outrage of conservatives over the phantom problem of Voter Fraud. Voter ID is fraud. But, the fraud is that it serves as a useful vehicle to accomplish the true goal of conservatives; To literally steal the vote away from millions of voters.

It's about disenfranchising millions of voters because the heavy perponderance of those whose legal voting rights are being stolen from them by Right-Wingers don't vote for Republicans.

"Voter ID, which is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done." - Pennsylvannia House Majority Leader Mike Turzai, Republican.

But, oddly when millions of legal voters having their rights stripped away is pointed out, the conservative reaction is, 'Oh the real bigots are leftists who think blacks are too dumb to know how to get an ID'.

While this is, of course, an insulting Straw Man Argument is does illustrate several things about the right-wing lizard brain. 1) everything must come back to race and 2) they hate that black people will not vote for Republicans.

Never would conservatives argue that "Mormons" are biased unless they vote 50/50 for Romney and President Obama but because blargh people vote for Obama it's wrong.

The constant conservative refrain, 'liberals are the true racists and blacks just don't realize it because of the creation of the dependence welfare state has ensnared them and if they only listen to conservative ideas they'll self-actualize freedom' is really only to convince the lizard-brains of righties that they aren't racist. But, what it actually is, is a more insidious level of bigotry.

However, Phony Voter Fraud isn't just about minorities having their votes stolen from them; although the genesis of this push does stem from histroical efforts to disenfranchise freed Slaves.

As Vice President Joe Biden pointed out, the Republican Party wants to put "Y'all back in Chains..." It's just that "Y'all" the Republicans want to enslave includes more than just black people but every poor and middle class person in America who doesn't kow-tow and genuflect to them and their Moneyed Masters. You won't bow down to the Plutocracy? Fine, Republicans declare, we will simply remove your vote from you.

"I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of the people. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down." - Paul Weyrich

The Evil Crimes of Mitt Romney, Bain of America, are they hidden in his Tax Returns?

“The Romney types, of course, are the ones who sign the front of the paycheck, and the Obama types are the ones who have spent their entire lives signing the back of them.” - the odious Michelle Malkin correctly points out that Barack Obama seeks to represent 99% of America while Romney has no such illusions.

Bain Capital was an aptly chosen name for Mitt Romney's Vulture Capitalist Firm of miscreants and job destroying anti-American scum bags.



Mitt Romney doesn't want to talk about his past crimes. Romney won't release his previous years tax records because they will indicate all manner of crimes.

And despite the claims Mitt Romney "retroactively retired" from Bain during it's worst years of Offshoring and Outsourcing, Mitt was in charge and was the architect of the worst of the Bane Capital Business model of making money by squeezing blood from Americans.

Romney has said he left Bain in 1999 to lead the winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, ending his role in the company. But public Securities and Exchange Commission documents filed later by Bain Capital state he remained the firm’s “sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president.”

Also, a Massachusetts financial disclosure form Romney filed in 2003 states that he still owned 100 percent of Bain Capital in 2002. And Romney’s state financial disclosure forms indicate he earned at least $100,000 as a Bain “executive” in 2001 and 2002, separate from investment earnings.

During the Republican Recession, Mitt Romney profited off of the misery conservative policies caused the American people. With his huge proliferation of off-shore Bank Accounts in the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg and Switzerland I wonder if Romney was one of the 52,000 Americans the Bush/Cheney Administration helped move Billions of American Tax Payer Dollars into secret UBS bank accounts.

So besides showing Romney, most likely, funnelled millions of dollars to his multiple foreign bank accounts his tax returns will also highlight that Romney made his money by destroying American companies and firing American workers.

Proving once again that under President Bush we had years of wage stagnation and wealth accumulation amongst the richest Americans just the way the Koch Brothers and the 1% want.

But, additionally Romney's hidden tax returns, while showing a callous disregard for America will also show a rank contempt for the Law.

His returns will probably show Romney committed Voter Fraud by continuing to vote in Massachusetts while claiming residency in another state. In 2010, Mitt Romney was supposedly living in his son’s unfinished basement in Belmont, Massachusetts.

At the time Mitt owned a $12.5 million home in La Jolla, Calif. and a $10 million home in New Hampshire’s Lake Winnipesaukee – but no home in the state he was once governor.

So, why was Mitt living in Tagg Romney's basement? Could it be Tagg's marriage is a sham and the woman living there was the (2nd? 3rd?) young wife of Mitt Romney? Ewww, that's just too gross and sleazy to consider...

I'm not a conservative smear merchant there's no need to concoct libels about Mitt Romney when his disgusting past of bullying, warmongering, chicken hawk, vulture capitalism should be enough to dissuade anyone for voting for him.

The sad fact is Mitt is the child of unearned wealth and white privilege. Mitt's father, George Romney, started the trend of releasing tax returns, which his chicken shit son refuses to do, and in almost every way was a far superior man than his spoiled, cowardly, bully of a son, who has only prospered because of the vast wealth and undeserved affirmative action for rich white people which he inherited. And in contrast President Obama has surpassed his father and risen and succeeded on the merits of his ability and determination.

Updated:
Mitt Romney cowardly attacked Teresa Heinz-Kerry pouting that she didn't release her tax returns to Fox and Friends this morning. As is their wont Republicans always attack women. But, wow, Mitt is a sniveling little cry-baby.

But, the continued discussion about Mitt's secret financial past shows Conservatives are freaking out. There is obviously something incredibly damning in these returns that Romney is adamant he won't release them.

“The cost of not releasing the returns are clear,” said conservative columnist George Will, on ABC’s “This Week.” “Therefore, he must have calculated that there are higher costs in releasing them.”

On the ABC roundtable, Republican strategist Matthew Dowd had a similar take.

“There’s obviously something there, because if there was nothing there, he would say, ‘Have at it,’” Dowd said. “So there’s obviously something there that compromises what he said in the past about something.”

Related:
U and Us? UBS or Just BS?
Where in the World are Mitt Romney's Millions?

Crooked and Lax Republican economic policies help JP Morgan blow $2,000,000,000 gambling

"And that trading book was the first of it's kind, certainly, anywhere on - with any of the banks." - JP Morgan Chase Derivatives trader Terri Duhon 1994-2002.

"You're either in possession of a very new human ability -- or a very old one." Terri seems to think she and her conscienceless banker buddies invented gambling.

JPMorgan Chase announced a surprise $2 billion loss by one of its trading groups. James Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co., told reporters “There were many errors, sloppiness and bad judgment.” See no need to worry. It's just the result of honest mistakes and poor management of a well-intentioned strategy, not at all the result of an inherently evil, flawed, rigged system designed to swindle hundreds of millions of people out of Billions of dollars.

Meanwhile, Faux News jumps in and blames... President Obama.

"If He's The President, He's The President Of The Banks, Too." - Steve Doocy.

Everything bad is Obama's Fault! It's unbelievable the amount of cognitive dissonance the Right-Wingers allow themselves. But, Steve Doocy is just performing his role as obsequious yipping lap dog for the Rich.

Mitt Romney and the Republican economic policies of the last 30 years, of deregulation, privatization, the Repeal of Glass-Stegall empowered Wall Street and the Banking Industry to engage in profligate gambling and directly resulted in these situations where Billions of dollars vanish. Of course, Romney himself profited mightily from these gambling schemes and betting, when he "worked" at Bain Capital, which provided no jobs, products or services to people but were nothing more than legerdemain.

Because Republicans serve as dutiful Guard Dogs for their Plutocratic Masters, they receive kickback scraps from the Rich.

Meanwhile, the Piss Down your Back and Tell You It's Raining Economic Model and The Beast created by servile Republican Dogs has allowed Wall Street and hundreds of Corporations to become the biggest moochers in history.

From 2008-2010, 78 corporations had at least one year where they paid no federal income tax at all, while 30 corporations paid ZERO over the entire three years. Even though those 30 Corporations made $160 billion in profits over that period.

Halliburton and their subsidiaries received Billions in No Bid Contracts from their Moocher buddies under the Bush Administration.

Boeing ($644 Million), Northrop Grumann ($410 Million), and Lockheed Martin ($61 Million) admitted to stealing $1.1 Trillion via fraudulent contracts through the DoD.

Multi-National Oil Corporations, Chevron, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil receive Billions in Tax Payer dollars from the US Government via subsidies some of which were crafted as early as 1916.

The Rich have succeeded brilliantly in returning the US Government into their private plaything. A massive Beast which protects and succors them while transferring debt and risk onto 99% of the American People, while it transfers Trillions of Dollars into the coffers of the falsely entitled and privileged Plutocratic Bastards.

And just so there is no confusion, the disgusting Mitt Romney, Dauphin of the Chicken Hawks, Scion of the 1%, wants to further relax regulations on Wall Street Thieves and Banking Casinos, “The extent of regulation in the banking industry has become extraordinarily burdensome following Dodd-Frank. I’d like to repeal Dodd Frank.” - Mitt Romney in 2011.

Voter Fraud is committed by Conservatives (Updated)

Update:
The over-arching issue is that conservatives believe Voting itself to be Fraud. Conservatives do not ascribe to universal franchise. Only those who can be trusted to vote the proper way should be eligible to vote. I've added two high-profile Right-Wingers after the rest of the original post.

Let's say your outraged because you believe there are too many bicycle thefts going on in your community.

Now, it doesn't matter if you are correct about the scope of the bike thefts if your perception is there are too many then your perception is reality.

Unfortunately, besides a few ardent friends of yours, no one else is taking your concerns seriously. So you embark on a scheme to steal a bunch of bicycles to get the Authorities to pay attention.

And therein lies the problem. Because in committing the thefts you are the problem. When you are charged with Thefts you can't rationally claim to have been breaking the law in order to save it.

James O'Keefe and his Bungling Buddies of Project Veritas have concocted another sting Operation. It's the same tactic used in New Hampshire Primaries.

The new sting led the Drudge Report and Breitbart (may he rest in feces) and it's sweeping the conservative blogs, which incestuously repost whatever the big conservative mouthpieces exude. For instance here and here. But, like everything O'Keefe touches it's perverted. A white O'Keefe colleague went into the D.C. voting place and asked "Do you have an Eric Holder?" When asked to sign for the ballot, the Fraudster demurs and retreats saying, "I'll be back Faster than you can say Furious!"

So, besides only showing another dishonest Right-Winger about to commit a Felony what does this piece of performance art prove? As one Justice Department official said, “It’s no coincidence that these so-called examples of rampant voter fraud consistently turn out to be manufactured ones."

But, for conservatives the Play's the Thing! When they don't have the facts they, quite literally in this case, make them up.

Update continued:
John Derbyshire recently came to people's attention for his racist screed in National Review Online. But, in 2009 Derby repeatedly asserted that women shouldn't vote. As he specifically told Thom Hartmann, "women voting is bad for conservatism, and as a conservative, of course, I think that’s bad for society.”

Rick Warren, mega-church, mega-rich, mega-slob, Dominionist Pastor tweeted, in 2011, “HALF of America pays NO taxes. Zero. So they’re happy for tax rates to be raised on the other half that DOES pay taxes." This bearing of false witness is still repeated by conservative blogs and Faux News.

But, what this all gets around, is that Conservatives don't believe everyone should have the right to vote because Right-Wingers don't believe in Democracy, they believe in Oligarchy and Oppression.

My Illinois Voting "Fraud"

I voted in the Illinois Primary, yesterday. As it is an open Primary, I choose a Republican ballot and cast my vote for Sick Rantorum.

When Rush Limpballs invented Operation: Chaos in 2008, unlike most liberals I didn't have any problems with his idea, it's simply good politics. Now, Limpballs hypothesis was flawed and his plan failed as Obama emerged stronger from the Democratic Primary and desicively crushed the McCain/Palin ticket.

However, Santorum's continued involvement in the 2012 Republican Primary is highlighting the massive flaws around Out-of-Touch Vulture Capitalist Mitt Romney. Romney doesn't know what to do. I'm certain Romney was assured that when he stepped aside in 2008 he'd be the nominee the next go around. Romney has been handed everything in his sheltered life it must be infuriating to Mitt that he hasn't been handed the nomination as is his birthright.

As for Sick Rantorum personally, if he was on fire, I would not piss on him, no matter how much he begged for it, to put him out. However, I would repeatedly hit him with a wet 2x4 to put out the fire. Remember I would do it to save Santorum.

But, getting back to my voting fraud. I moved recently to a different Chicago-area County however, I still "own" my home in a previous near-by county, as I still pay the mortgage, water, gas, trash and electric bill for my house. However, I get my mail at a different address and usually sleep at my new address.

When I went to the voting place, near my house I was listed as an inactive voter. Fortunately, I still have my bills which I showed to the election judges.

So... Did I commit voter fraud?

Of course, not. First, I'm not registered anywhere else, did not vote anywhere else and satisified the request for documentation. Second, I am a white male homeowner. Republicans count on winning the votes of myself and rich, white, male business owners. Poor people, minorities, students and women are known to vote overwhelmingly against Republicans. Hence, the Republican party has been involved in a decades long drive of Voter Suppression and Disenfranchisement.

Republicans and most Right-Wingers don't believe in Democracy. Matthew Vadum at The American Thinker clearly summed up the Conservative View of Democracy, in his article, Registering the Poor to Vote is Un-American.

Registering them [the Poor] to vote is like handing out burglary tools to criminals. It is profoundly antisocial and un-American...

What they want is an Oligarchical system with a Strong Leader, basically Corporate Neo-Feudalism, in which the 500 or so elected DC bureaucrats use the coercive power of Government to crush Domestic Dissent, keep down the economic and political power of the Working and Middle Class, while opening up Foreign Lands for Exploitation.

Anything else the Government gets involved with the Plutocratic Right-Wing elite constantly claim is Unconstitutional.

But, how to convince the white working class and middle class peoples that Voting needs to be strictly curtailed and suppressed is a problem. So conservatives have hit upon the brilliant strategy of proclaiming an epidemic of Voter Fraud in the Nation.

This is, of course, a shameless out-right lie, but Conservatives have never let the truth or the lack of evidence get in the way of their Agenda. For instance, from Mike Tipping at Downeast.com, a Blog on Maine, we have the lies of Maine GOP Chairman Charlie Webster, who has been spinning tales of massive voter fraud since the 2010 elections.

Defending the passage of Voter Suppression Law LD1376, Webster declared "Buses. They bring them in in buses," said Webster. "Job Corps people -- they move 'em around to wherever they have a tough seat and they want to win an election." Webster's next move was to call a press conference and send out a release in which he announced (in all-caps) "TODAY I WILL BE HAND DELIVERING THE NAMES OF 206 INDIVIDUALS THAT MAY HAVE COMMITTED VOTER FRAUD HERE IN MAINE."

Instead what he presented were the names of 206 students in the University of Maine System that were paying out-of-state tuition and had registered to vote in Maine, something that's 100% legal.

This is all part of the Right-Wing game. Republicans can no longer win elections fairly in the US, they have to resort to Voter Suppression.

As Tipping summed up,

People like Webster engage in this kind of fear-based, fact-less sensationalism because it works and will continue to do so as long as it continues to work. The media should be our bulwark against this practice, not its enabler.

N17 OccupyChi Mass Action, Rahm Emmanuel's Budget and the 1%

"You really started something here. Hope on the streets..." - Batman Begins

The N17 #Occupy Mass Action was powerful. The March in Chicago followed by the General Assembly (GA) at the Thompson Center is an indication the bitter Chicago Winter will not be enough to dissapate the Occupiers.

Attending OccupyChi GA's is informative and inspiring. It's a functioning example of Direct Democracy what the 1% now appears desperate to stop. However, unlike, the other #OccupyMovements, Chicago has not had a large long lasting entrenched Protest site. For that reason, Chicago has also not seen the massive over-the-top paramilitary sweep and clear bulldozer operations Oakland and New York and now several other cities have experienced.

46 arrests were made, but The Full-Lockdown 1% Solution has yet to be applied to OccupyChi.org. Although the previous arrests of almost 50 little old ladies, members of the Jane Addams Senior Caucus, was bad enough.

At the N17 OccupyChi GA, the big item on the agenda was Rahm Emmanuel's 2012 Budget. It was correctly pointed out this budget, like all Austerity Plans, is solely for the benefit of the 1% and at the expense of the 99%.

The Stack, which included a CTA member, a CPS teacher, a long time striker against the Congress Hotel, an OccupySouthSide leader, an off-topic Ron Paulian, and several others focused on specifically condemning Rahm Emmanuel and his budget, and the decision to close of 6 of 12 Mental Health Facilities in Chicago while the others will be privatized. Of all the 99%, those suffering from mental illness or disability are the least able to defend themselves.

Several Beautiful Protesters from the November 15th Mental Health Care Action held at City Hall also spoke. Those protesters spent over 10 hours outside Rahm's office denouncing his budgetary decision to close the clinics.

But, here's the problem. While I fully support condemning Rahm's 2012 Budget, Emmanuel is a tool. Rahm is merely the pruning shears for the 1%. The key is to identify his holders. Who are the Companies which will control these privatized mental health hospitals? Who's on the boards of the Companies? How much will they reap from rationing care to the disabled? What kind of exclusive contracts have they signed to provide mandatory care? What expenses will these private companies be able to illegally slough off onto the people, as Illinois Blue Cross Blue Shield did*, while the profits are funneled to their off-shore accounts?

Rahm's budget is akin to Paul Ryan's Coupon for HealthCare or Scott Walker's Union Busting. The 1% will always be able to find a willing political tool to carry out their orders and steal the wealth of this nation. The key is not to break the tools but to "break" the hands of the 1% thus loosening their stranglehold on the Nation and We, the People forever.

*- Illinois Blue Cross Blue Shield, the states' largest health insurance company, paid $25 million to settle allegations that it denied coverage to sick children in need of nursing care by "fraudulently" shifting their claims to the state's Medicaid program.

Boeing the Biggest Thief in the United States

"Ignore him. He's a common thief."
"Ha! As common as they come! But, I ain't nothing compared to you gentlemen. You steal peoples lives..." ~ from The Mask of Zorro

Chicago based Boeing has paid over $644 Million Dollars to the Pentagon and the Government Accountability Office to settle fraud complaints, since 2000. Yet, Boeing is still be awarded enormous Welfare Handouts errr, DoD contracts. It's difficult to get an exact total but I've seen credible figures that show Boeing, alone, has been awarded over $90 Billion in DoD contracts since 2006.

Yet, the Chicago Tribune has spent a better part of this year highlighting individual cases of pension fraud. Because theft is wrong and Unionized pension theft is really wrong since it's stealing tax payer money, just like Boeing but on such microscopic scale in comparison. However, the last article on Boeing from the Chicago Tribune is from October 26 and it highlights the $17.7 Billion in revenue and $1.1 Billion in profits boeing made in the 3rd Quarter of 2011.

It would be easy for any company to post Quarterly profits in the Billions when they are committing case after case and Hundreds of Millions in fraud (a nice white collar word for Theft). So, why is it when a Corporation like Boeing commits theft on a massive and Nation ruining scale, the presses are silent?

When a Corporate Criminal Enterprise known as Boeing attempts to bust their Union;

Boeing officials said in a video-taped press statement that, "the overriding factor (in transferring the line) was not the business climate. And it was not the wages we’re paying today. It was that we cannot afford to have a work stoppage, you know, every three years."

why is the press not running a news story everyday as with the individual cases of thousands of dollars in pension theft?

Why when Boeing attempts to harm American workers and turns to the Republican Party for aid in eliminating workers jobs and slashing workers rights is there so little coverage by the major newspaper in the city, in which, that company is Headquartered?

Why does the Tribune not ask Republican Congressman Darrel Issa, the richest member of Congress, to recuse himself from the Boeing and National Labor Relations Board case? Why?

Because, when Workers get all uppity and shit it's time to bring in the Republican One Percenters like Darrel Issa to aid a Criminal Corporate Enterprises in undercutting government regulations and workers rights, safety and... Jobs. The role of the Republican Party is to keep the 99% down.

Corruption from the Military-Industrial-Complex! Boeing, Northrup-Grumman, Lockheed Martin among 37 Corporations Defrauding the DoD!

The U.S. Deficit was born and was raised in the Middle East. While much of the Republican Talk the last 2 years had been focused on curbing spending that goes to the poor, the sick, the downtrodden and the casualties of Capitalism, Mega-Multinaltional Corporations have received Trillions of dollars.

Besides the 10 Trillion Dollars allocated, over the last 10 years, to the Department of Defense for the Phony GWoT, guess what else the Corporations tied into the MIC have been doing? Rampantly defrauding the US Taxpayer. Fraud is a nice high-falutin' word for Theft.

Hundreds of defense contractors that defrauded the U.S. military received more than $1.1 trillion in Pentagon contracts during the past decade, according to a Department of Defense report prepared for Sen. Bernie Sanders. He called the report "shocking."

He said aggressive steps must be taken to ensure taxpayer dollars aren't wasted. "The ugly truth is that virtually all of the major defense contractors in this country for years have been engaged in systemic fraudulent behavior, while receiving hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money," said Sanders. "With the country running a nearly $15 trillion national debt, my goal is to provide as much transparency as possible about what is happening with taxpayer money."

37 Corporations received $1.1 Trillion Dollars in Corporate Welfare, aka Defense Contracts. But, that's not enough for these cheats and swindlers as these companies have all committed Theft on a scale usually reserved for Wall Street Bankers.

Since 2000, Boeing has paid at least $644 Million Dollars to settle Fraud complaints. Remember how Republican scum buckets Nikki Haley and Jim DeMint cried about poor poor Boeing being targeted by mean old Obama! Did you ever wonder why Boeing ran to the Republican Party to defend them when Boeing tried to undercut American workers? It's because these Corporations are the biggest thieves in History and they couldn't get away with it without the Guards of the System looking out for them.

It's long past the time, when Liberals and #OWS, recognize that our current Economic System has long been rigged to Transfer Wealth to a small Elite whilst simultaneously driving millions into Wage Slavery.

The 99% know that Capitalism is a sham and isn't working for them. But, despite the rhetoric about sunlight being best to defeat corruption, merely exposing the truth is not enough, the 1% and their rabid dog Republican defenders will NEVER surrender the enormous power and vast ill-gotten wealth their have seized.

We must be prepared to #Occupy for the long haul, we must be prepared to suffer preposterous lies, smears, arrests, and eventually Conservative Terrorist Attacks because while the Elite and their Right Wing Guards are prepared to do their worst, We the 99% must be prepared to do our best!

Mark Kirk, "Jigger" those African American votes

Let's be clear! The Republican Party and their Dick Armey Testicle Swallowers do not hate black people no matter how many times Republicans try and eliminate their vote.

Congressman Mark Kirk a Stolen Valor Icon, that is, a man who claims unearned War Hero Status, plans to send teams of lawyers, "Voter Integrity" squads, into Predominately Black Chicago and Illinois neighborhoods to disenfranchise and discount their votes.

Kirk told Illinois Republicans, (H/T Arch Pundit), "These are lawyers and other people that will be deployed in key, vulnerable precincts, for example, South and West sides of Chicago, Rockford, Metro East, where the other side might be tempted to jigger the numbers somewhat".

Racism just has a way of oozing forth from Republicans...

I don't know Congressman Kirk's mind but it's intersting the word "jigger" would pop into his head when he is speaking about black neighborhoods and African-American voters. Almost like his mind naturally goes to a word which is close to the j based slur when he thinks about African-Americans.

Additionally, and more telling, is Kirk's lock-step Republican Bigotry in raising the spectre of Black Voter fraud yet again.

Related:
Mark Kirk embodies the best Republican Trait [Disaffected and it Feels So Good]