Republicans hate America 13: Amerithrax II: Fentanyl Boog-a-loo

In the Corporate Media rush to pretend George W(orst) Ever wasn't a complete fuck-up chickenhawk noob and instead you could tell by his Flight Suit crotch was actually made of Presidential Timber who Kept Us Safe was the memory-holing of the Amerithrax attacks;  which were quickly wrapped up as W(orst) was leaving office and conveniently blamed on a long-since dead biologist.

Well, rightwing domestic terrorrists are back to using the USPS as a vector for their terrorism again.  White Republican Domestic Terrorists are mailing Letters laced with Fentanyl to Election Offices Nationwide. 

The Threat to the United States from conservative extremists has grown and grown in the post World War 2 Era;  50 years of non-stop rightwing agitprop, 40 years of Ronnie Raygun blaming the government for all of white mens' woes, 25 years of Faux News Slander and Lies, 15 years of white hot rage at President Barack Obama, and 8 years of Dotard Traitor Trump fascist claptrap have brought us to now, an era when Republicans don't believe in the concept of the United States and consider voting by The Other to be a criminal act in and of itself; as a consequence Republicans have jettisoned the Democratic Republic and seek to replace it with an Authoritarian built upon the pillars of white power and Christian oppression.  

Letters containing fentanyl and other powders sent to election offices across the United States in early November temporarily disrupted ballot counting in several offices, highlighting the potential for threat actors to use this tactic to disrupt US election processes. This is consistent with previous attempts to send letters with suspicious substances to election-related offices and other government buildings during past elections with the intent to intimidate workers or disrupt procedures. Prior to the November incidents, the most recent case occurred during the August 2023 Washington state primary election, in which an election office received letters containing trace amounts of fentanyl.

 

Suspicious letters containing white powder were mailed in early November to election offices in California, Georgia, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington state. At least four of the letters tested positive for fentanyl in preliminary tests and at least one of the letters contained baking soda, according to open-source reporting and the US Postal Inspection Service. The sender or senders and their motives are unknown and investigations are ongoing.

The "sender and motives are unknown" Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuure.  Now, whom do we know that is obsessed with "Election Integrity" and absolutely convinced the 2020 Election he lost was "Rigged"?  Who, I ask you, made a "perfect phone call" to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger asking him that "all he wants is for him to find 11,780 votes" to win the state's electoral college votes.

Republicans absolutely know that Traitor Trump won Georgia, but it was stolen from him; along with Nevada and Oregon.  Remember going up to the election conservatives were predicting a Landslide Trump victory and even now in 2023 a vast majority conservatives still believe Trump won in 2020.

California is added in because as we saw in the recent Newsom/DeSantis "debate" conservatives claim California is a hellhole instead of the economic powerhouse and place everyone wants to live in. 

The Pierce County auditor’s office in Tacoma, Washington, released images of the letter it received, showing it had been postmarked in Portland, Oregon, and read in part, “End elections now.”

Now, with the Corporate Media running with daily Fentanyl scare stories, you'd think this would be a bigger story but when you understand the media in this country is owned by the obscenely rich who want and yearn to have Trump back in power to crush labor and conduct a little authoritarian "grass mowing" the lack of nightly coverage makes sense.

The only thing Republicans want to talk about with Fentanyl is how the Biden Administration is seizing too much of it and how it's "illegals" bringing it in when in reality the Fentanyl is being readily shipped her by the monstrous thinly regulated Pharmaceutical companies and hidden in plain sight drug smugglers;  

The head of a police union in the San Francisco Bay Area faces federal charges for allegedly smuggling thousands of synthetic opioids into the U.S. from multiple countries with the intent to distribute them. 

San Jose Police Officers Association Executive Director Joanne Marian Segovia, 64, has been charged with attempt to unlawfully import a controlled substance -- specifically valeryl fentanyl, a fentanyl analog -- according to a complaint filed in federal court earlier this week. 

Between 2015 and 2023, Segovia received 61 shipments that were labeled "Wedding Party Favors," "Shirts Tops," "Gift Makeup," "Chocolate and Sweets," "Food Supplement," "Health Product" and "Supplement," originating from countries including Hong Kong, Hungary, India and Singapore, according to the complaint. In reality, they were illicit drugs, prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California allege.

Of course, white people have always enjoyed the assumption of being innocent while Blacks and Hispanics have always been targeted as guilty of something and a priori criminals by nature.  So as people smuggle fentanyl through ports of entry the people working in the area know there is no shortage of regular people, perhaps struggling financially or with addiction themselves, who are willing to drive a car load through the border.

"They're looking for somebody we're not going to pay a lot of attention to," says Michael Humphries, the port director in Nogales, Arizona, "They target certain people and they offer money to drive through," says Humphries, who spent decades with U.S. Customs and Border Protection trying to catch smugglers at official ports of entry. "I've been at this for over 36 years, and it's been like that forever."

But, don't expect Faux News or the vile House Republicans to stop fear-mongering Fentanyl, rightwing media propagandists figured out 60 years ago screaming about Crime! Crime! Crime! was a winning strategy, facts don't matter.  And when Republicans speak about Crime what they mean is Black and Hispanics,

Again, I commend you for manning the thin blue line that holds back a jungle which threatens to reclaim this clearing we call civilization. - Chickenhawk Ronnie Raygun speaking to International Association of Chiefs of Police, NOLA., 09/28/1981

"Holds back a jungle"... It's not that modern Republicans are more racist than in the past it's that the Corporate Media has been more than willing to ignore the vile racist and outright fascist crap Republicans have been spewing for decades.  And they still do it now as Trump's Vermin speech and his call to round-up various groups of people is still getting less coverage than HRC correctly calling Trump Supporters "deplorable".  There are a large cohort of Americans who want Trump back in power, the Plutocrats want it for the elimination of regulations and taxes, but the truly violent Republicans want it for the elimination of millions of Americans.

Seems I was correct about the Racist Scumbag Joe Walsh all along

"Why was [Obama] elected? Again, it comes back to who he was. He was black, he was historic. And there’s nothing racist about this." Racist Scumbag Joe Walsh in 2011.

Driving along the Tri-State I am constantly assailed by billboards for Where does Chicago go for Answers? AM560 The Answer. Portraits of the on-air *cough* talent *cough* are displayed on the billboard. Besides the big lights in toxic conservative talk radio, Sean Hannity and Dennis Miller, a headshot of former Congressman Joe Walsh is also displayed.

Well, Joe Walsh has always been a charlatan as well as a racist scumbag jagoff.

Walsh has been pulled from the 560AM lineup indefinitely because he kept trying to say the racist insult of African-Americans on live air.

It's always aggrieved white conservatives who are just infuriated they can't scream that word out loud whenever and wherever they wish.

So, they invent ways around the societal ban on the word. One way conservatives circumvent the societal taboo on the word is the fabrication of quotes.

The classic Tea Party fabrications involve the Founding Fathers having agreed with the Right-Wingers on every issue. But, when it comes to racism Tea Party types slander President Lyndon Baines Johnson.

The fake quote every duplicitous evil lying conservative believes LBJ said and of which there is no evidence other than the incestuous right-wing internet fart bubble but which they repeat so the can scream the taboo word is, I'll have those [redacted] voting Democrat for 100 years.

This is a maliciously fake quote. It's easy to tell because of the use of term Democrat. But, man do Tea Baggers love to spew it forth. It confirms so much for them and swaddles them in the righteousness of their bigotry.

Ah, but Joe Walsh was such a special Congressman. His putrid record was on par with several of the worst Tea Party bozos.

During the Glorious Clinton Era, Joe Walsh ran for office twice as a 'Fiscally Conservative/Socially Liberal' Illinois Republican, Walsh even went so far as to use President Clinton's phraseology on abortion, declaring he wanted it safe, rare and legal. But, in 2010 he saw an opportunity with the rise of the Koch-funded Tea Party and attached himself to them the way a louse attaches itself to a horse's ass.

Joe Walsh was beloved by Tea Parties across the Nation, of course inside his district Illinois residents knew he stood for nothing, had no ideas and only ran for office in order to free-government supported healthcare coverage and to enrich himself at the taxpayers expense.

Here are some of the disgusting lowlights of despicable Joe's two years in office;

"[T]oo many American Jews aren’t as pro-Israel as they should be."

The October 2011 Chicago Magazine showed the average sale price for the suburban homes around Chicago. Municipalities, like Palatine, Vernon Hills, Mundelein, Lincolnshire, Lake Zurich, in Joe Walsh's former Congressional District all saw their 2011 housing value drop from 2010. Walsh did nothing while the savings of his erstwhile constituents plummeted. Well, he did blame Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the poor for the housing bubble.

However, here is the truth, Deregulation and Private Sector Banks not Fannie and Freddie caused the Housing Bubble:

During those same explosive three years [2004-2006], private investment banks — not Fannie and Freddie — dominated the mortgage loans that were packaged and sold into the secondary mortgage market. In 2005 and 2006, the private sector securitized almost two thirds of all U.S. mortgages, supplanting Fannie and Freddie, according to a number of specialty publications that track this data.

Barry Ritholtz has an excellent dissection of the Big Zombie Lie. But, the Republicans and Wall Street Thieves will never let go of the Big Zombie Lie and will never let the truth about the effects of their negligent deregulation schemes be spoken.

In March 2011 Joe Walsh and the other 235 Republicans in the US House voted unanimously to continue giving US Taxpayer dollars money to Multinational Oil Companies, while complaining about the budget and blaming President Obama

"You've spent money like a drunken sailor for 3 years," - Joe Walsh. Like most conservative Joe Walsh never spent a day in uniform. But, you know who did? R. V. Burgin, a famous Marine who fought at Peleliu and Okinawa, and who joined the US Post Office after the War in The Pacific.

One of the tasks Joe Walsh's rich masters assigned him was voting to destroy the USPS. "If the Postal Service can't compete in the marketplace," then Congressman Walsh shouted. "I am tired of propping it up!"

Of course, conservatives only support Veterans if that Vet recites the Ultra-Reactionary Conservative Agenda of Intolerance, Oppression and Adulation of the Rich. Any deviation and even cowards like Walsh feel safe insulting Veterans in front of their duped conservative drones, 

"I was marching in a parade in Schaumburg (IL), Sunday, two days before the Democratic convention, when Tammy Duckworth was on a stage down in Charlotte (NC) — if you can look at the picture — picking out a dress for her speech Tuesday night.”

But, Joe Walsh outdid himself by going on a screaming red-faced tirade at Melissa Rakestraw, an Illinois resident and Postal worker, who dared to ask him questions. In response, Walsh screamed, "DON'T blame the Banks! I am tired of hearing that crap!" The "crap" being the truth about how the Banks and Wall Street collapsed the US housing market and turned the US economy into a giant gambling ring.

After video of the ignorant puerile Walsh came to light, Rakestraw told interviewers, "[E]arlier I had told him if he supports Darrell Issa‘s bill to reform the Post Office that 200,000 jobs could be lost. 20% of those employees are veterans. Mr. Walsh came up to me and said, ‘I do not care about the loss of public sector jobs.’"

Veterans, the Post Office, and the Right-Wing's efforts to eliminate both

Veteran's Day.

R. V. Burgin, a famous Marine who fought at Peleliu and Okinawa, joined the US Post Office after the War in The Pacific.

My regular postman is a Veteran. My mother works for the Post Office. Many Veterans have worked and do work for the Post Office after their military careers.

In 2006, the Republican Party hatched a plan to cripple the US Postal Office. The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 mandated the agency “pre-pay” into a fund that covers 75 years of health care costs for future retired employees. Under the mandate, the USPS is required to make an annual $5.5 billion payment over ten years.

In 2011, former Congressman Joe Walsh took time out of his busy schedule not paying child support to scream at Melissa Rakestraw, a postal worker and constituent, when she met Joe at a Coffee house to voice her concerns that a 2011 Republican Bill would destroy the Post Office,

"If the Postal Service can't compete in the marketplace," then Congressman Walsh shouted. "I am tired of propping it up!"

Of course, that's not true, the taxpayers are not "propping it up". Since reforms to the Postal Service in 1971, 1982 and 1984 the Post Office is not funded by Taxpayer welfare in contrast to Darrell Issa's lavish pension under the FERS and the free health care Walsh received to "prop" himself up and $350,000 dollars that Joe Walsh earned for his two years of "work" in Congress.

After video of the ignorant puerile Walsh came to light, Rakestraw told interviewers, "[E]arlier I had told him if he supports Darrell Issa‘s bill to reform the Post Office that 200,000 jobs could be lost. 20% of those employees are veterans. Mr. Walsh came up to me and said, ‘I do not care about the loss of public sector jobs.’"

As it specifically relates to the USPS the Plutocracy wants is a Rump Post Office. Lucrative routes will be privitazed (i.e. Manhattan, Hawaii to CONUS) while cost ineffective routes, the South Dakota Bad Lands or the wide open plains of rural Wyoming, will be run by the Post Office.

Issa, Joe Walsh, Peter Roskam and the Republicans goal is the desire of the Plutocracy; to eliminate what the US Post Service offers and represents; a living wage, reliable benefits, and a defined pension, a stable retirement. A chance to create a solid future for oneself and their family. 

The Republican Party are adamantly opposed to the Americans Middle Class and have been working for 35 years to grind them into dust,

"Who does Barack talk about all the time? The middle class. Since when in America do we have classes? Since when in America are people stuck in areas, or defined places called a class? That’s Marxism talk. When Republicans get up and talk about middle class we’re buying into their rhetoric of dividing America. Stop it." Republican Rick Santorum, former Senator and Presidential Candidate.

Getting rid of the Post Office will go along way towards destroying the Middle Class and driving 99% of Americans into Penury and Corporate Bondage.

Hey it's Saturday where's my mail? The Republican Plan to eliminate the USPS

Thank You for all those Cards and Letters - Wun'erful, Wun'erful! The Lemon Sisters, Stan Freberg Comedy Show

The Republican Plan to eliminate the Post Office is proceeding very nicely. The US Postal Service declared they will be stopping mail delivery on Saturdays.

Now, Republicans do want to have a USPS but it would be a rump left to handle the unprofitable deliveries in Outer Wyoming and the Nevada Nuclear Waste Sites.

Incredibly lucrative mail routes, in Manhattan or along the Magnificent Mile in Downtown Chicago will be just handed over to UPS, FedEx, DHL and other private services. And as is their wont, those Corporations will slowly and surely turn the screws, raise prices and add delivery fees for letters which used to cost a stamp.

Gone will be the days when you could mail a post card from the Big Island to Chicago unless, you're willing to pay $20 USC for the privilege of having your mail carried by FedEx.

Privatize, Deregulate and Cede control to Corporations.

Of course, the Republicans plan is to destroy the Postal Workers Union because of the Unions strength and the solid Middle Class opportunities provided by a job with the USPS. 

Republicans loathe the Middle Class. A Middle Class is a hamper to their political power and proves to fickle for the Plutocracy to control. Republican political maneuvers are directed by their Plutocratic Masters to end the American Dream and bring about a Neo-Feudalist Dream State. As John Nichols of The Nation points out Postal cuts are Austerity on Steroids.

What the Plutocracy wants is a pliant work force with no disposable income. And they aren't disguising their actions, otherwise they wouldn't have run one of the scions, Le Dauphin of Bain Capital W. Mitt Romney for President in 2012.

It's a multi-pronged effort to steal away capital from the Middle and Working Classes. Every Republican tax scheme ends up increasing taxes on the Middle and Working Classes (while decreasing them on the Rich) and slashing government benefits for the American people.

And now by steadily eroding the Post Office (and it's Jobs) and sending that work to cutthroat Capitalists who'll pay less, disband Unions and raise prices the Republicans will cede more and more of your life to Corporate Hegemony.

It's all part of the plan to tie up your meager income so that at the end of the year, you've gained Nothing and are treading water, forever doomed to an endless life of labor, while the Upper 1% see their wealth spiral exponentially higher and higher.

Update:

A working mom could work overtime this month and use it as time off next month without having to worry about whether she’ll be able to take home enough money to pay the rent. 

- Republican Eric Cantor explains to the American Enterprise Institute on 02/05/13 how to get Working Class people to vote for their subjugation to the Republican Neo-Feudalist state. Additionally, there's a nice undercurrent of "the Nightmare" of the last couple of years that President Obama and his *cough* black *cough* Thugs have just ruined America!

Joe Walsh is a Screaming Ignorant Despicable Uncouth Scumbag (Updated)

Guess who Joe Walsh blames for the Housing Crash? Why he blames Fannie and Freddie and the poor for the housing bubble.

Joe Walsh took time out of his busy schedule of not doing anything for his constituents to yell at them. Walsh is not "passionate". Joe Walsh is an uncouth lout, a muling brat, who when faced with facts which tear down his beloved Blame the Poor rhetoric resorts to the Argument of the Red Face and Loud Voice.

In just one year Representative Joe Walsh has shown the ugly face of modern conservative thought. Joe Walsh has no facts to back up his position but if you yell loud enough and swear you win the argument. Thus we have Joe Walsh screaming about how the 99% know the Republican Big Zombie Lie is false:



However, here is the truth, Deregulation and Private Sector Banks not Fannie and Freddie caused the Housing Bubble:

During those same explosive three years [2004-2006], private investment banks — not Fannie and Freddie — dominated the mortgage loans that were packaged and sold into the secondary mortgage market. In 2005 and 2006, the private sector securitized almost two thirds of all U.S. mortgages, supplanting Fannie and Freddie, according to a number of specialty publications that track this data.

Barry Ritholtz has an excellent dissection of the Big Zombie Lie. But, the Republicans and Wall Street Thieves will never let go of the Big Zombie Lie and will never let the truth about the effects of their negligent deregulation schemes be spoken.

Conservative think tanks spend days crafting thousands of essays blaming Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Fannie and Freddie who forced Banks and Private Lending Firms to loan to those shiftless lazy Poor Deadbeats. Not Deadbeats like Joe Walsh mind you, but *cough* minorities *cough* deadbeats...

That's what the disgraceful Joe Walsh was screaming. Walsh is a disgrace to the office he represents, the male gender and humanity. But, the Rightwing slaves and bigots love him. Too bad the people of his district won't get a chance to vote him out, which they'd do in landslide numbers, but nonetheless in one more year Joe will be looking for work.

And that!!! is the reason Walsh is acting like this; Walsh is busy positioning himself for his lucrative career as a shill for the Corporate Hegemony which controls the US Government. But, regardless Walsh is also an uncouth lout unfit to even be a Congressman and contemptuous of the hardworking Illinois people he supposedly represents.

Update:
Postal Worker Melissa Rakestraw who handled the screaming Joe Walsh with aplomb and grace just handed the ignorant block-headed Walsh his ass on the Ed Show. Besides the truncated video everyone has seen from Walsh, in the extended version Joe showed his utter disregard for America and his complete devotion to conservative evil because he's also pushing the bullshit rightwing mantra that by destroying the Post Office via selling off the lucrative postal routes to Corporate control and eliminating thousands of jobs he'll help the Nation. Think Progress has more on the graceful Rakestraw and the ridiculous and disgraceful screaming Congressman Walsh.