Migrant Buses and the Governments inability to respond to a crisis - Part 2: Ice is just water in another form to drown Migrants for Greg Abbott

So, Chicago is gripped in an epic freeze with temperatures reaching negative 15 for several days in a row.  Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker implored Greg Abbott to not send bus and plane loads of migrants to Rockford and Chicago.

Governor Abbott,

The ongoing international migration crisis that our nation faces demands a strong, compassionate, and humane response. We agree that our nation needs immigration reform, but instead of advocating for that, you have chosen to sow chaos in an attempt to score political points. You are now sending asylum seekers from Texas to the Upper Midwest in the middle of winter — many without coats, without shoes to protect them from the snow — to a city whose shelters are already overfilled with migrants you sent here. Chicago’s temperatures this weekend are forecast to drop below zero. Your callousness, sending buses and planes full of migrants in this weather, is now life-threatening to every one of the arrivals. Hundreds of children’s and families’ health and survival are at risk due to your actions.

We refuse to play your political game of exploiting the most vulnerable for the sake of culture wars.

But, to the cold-blooded Abbott this signals weakness and that his strategy is winning.  And I must admit, frightening white people about immigration and demonizing migrants is a winning strategy for Republicans.  In the just completed Iowa Caucuses,

About 4 in 10 GOP caucusgoers chose immigration as the most important issue facing the country, according to AP VoteCast. About one-third said it was the economy. Fewer people named other priorities, including foreign policy, health care, abortion or energy.

The vast majority, about three-quarters, say immigrants are a negative for the country, an indication that caucusgoers are not only seeking more order on the U.S. southern border but major cuts on how many foreigners can come into the country.

"The vast majority say immigrants are a negative for the country..."  For many years Republicans have slowly warped rightwingers minds about immigration and laws.  Rightwingers angrily declare 'Those people are breaking the law' and when white people believe a Person of Color (PoC) is breaking the law whites demand government agencies and law enforcement exact maximum punishment including extrajudicial execution on the spot.

To Greg Abbott that's a Siren's Call to action.  Abbott has been accused by multiple local, state, and federal agents of ordering migrants crossing to be pushed back into the river.  Well, Abbott can claim 3 bodies.

Three migrants, a woman and two children, drowned in the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas – very recently the epicenter of the migrant crisis – just days after state authorities blocked the US Border Patrol from accessing miles of the US-Mexico border in that area, officials said.

Yet... Greg Abbott and Republicans in Texas will proudly call themselves the Party of Life and defender of children.  Of course, Abbott is blaming Biden for this just like his Lt. Governor Dan Patrick claimed Biden is the Real Insurrection!

“The only thing that we're not doing is we're not shooting people who come across the border, because of course, the Biden administration would charge us with murder,” Abbott said during the Jan. 5 radio interview with Dana Loesch, a former editor at Breitbart News and spokesperson for the National Rifle Association.

Now, Dana Loesch used to be the "Hawt" Republican babe who through clenched jaw and cracked teeth spit out rightwing invective and propaganda.  Loesch has been strangely silent on the ouster of Wayne LaPierre from her employer the NRA (Nasty Russian A$$holes) gun club after 47 years in Washington DC.  But, she apparently has a radio show to continue pumping out her love of gun violence.

Rightwingers like to claim they are simply dispassionately applying the law, objectively and without any bias this is captured in the missive by Ben SShaprio that "Facts don't care about your feelings".   In reality, rightwingers are ill-mannered emotional terrorists, easily triggered, and readily offended when the law is applied to them.  Because they demand the most lenient application for themselves and the most rigid ruthless interpretation for others.  This is aptly demonstrated by the Republican insistence that January 6th criminals and seditious insurrectionists are, in fact, "Hostages" of the weaponized Biden DoJ.

So, Abbott is going to keep up his human trafficking campaign sending ill-equipped people north into deep sub zero temperatures and applaud himself for all the people who will become just another hidden death from the cold in Cook County.

Migrant Buses and the Government's inability to handle any Crisis - Part 1: Background

Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt. - Exodus 22:21

"One-to-one problem, yes.  FIVE-to-one problem too much ask anyone," - The Karate Kid (1984)

As a massive blizzard descends upon Chicago and the stories coming out about the struggles migrant people are facing having been shipped to Northern Illinois by vile Republican human traffickers it's useful to understand a little of how we got here.

As Republicans continue to demonstrate on Capitol Hill, they have zero ability to respond to any real crisis.  Now, Republicans certainly have the ability to create crises such as when Tommy Tubberbrain decided he was going to use his Liberum Veto to personally hold up the promotions of senior military officers.  Or with the Republican led House continued inability to fund the government.  Or with the Republican circuses surrounding Hunter Biden, which demonstrates Republicans have no interest in governing but in merely grandstanding and using the awesome power government to go after anyone who threatens their power.

Republican governance consists solely of the hollowing out of the functions of Government and the creation of a Nation which has zero-margin for error when dealing with any crisis.  Now, this is partially because Republicans have said for decades that government doesn't work so it's imperative for them to prove that axiom true by undermining the government all the time.  Doing so under the a of a Democratic President is an added bonus of them being able to blame Barack or Biden for Republican perfidy.

Immigration is not a crisis it's not even a problem but, because of 40+ years of Republicans slashing the social safety net, of Republicans undermining the Nation's industry and foundation, of Republicans using social issues to undercut government programs and funnel taxpayer money into the hands of private business, the Government at local, State, and the Federal level seems unable to address it.

Republicans have hollowed out the concept of community.  Much like the dumb car culture in America, the creation of suburbs and exurbs has led to the atomization of thinking Americans have been brain-washed into thinking each of them and all of us are individual islands instead of a shared continent.  When you couple, Republicans mean-spirited social programs with ruinous Republicans economic theories and policies the majority of the American people are too focused on their own day-to-day struggles to try and help their fellow man.

Of course, Government was supposed to be the creation of people to collectively handle issues too big for any one man to handle themselves.  This is also the mytho-historical truth of the creation of the United States of America; from the Founding Fathers "Join, or Die" to Abraham Lincoln "In Union there is Strength" and is absolutely why Republicans do not want Civics or history taught to children anymore. 

The United States has been limping along on the bones of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal and Works Progress Administration for decades now.  That evil slime Ronnie Raygun was hired by the Republican apparatchiks to slay the New Deal and make the idea of government toxic, which he successfully did.

One of his prime targets was the idea of government social services.   Raygun famously declared Social security was going bankrupt over 40 years ago a cry which Republicans echo til this day without anyone in the Corporate Media calling them out for their bullshit.

"As you know, the Social Security System is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy," Ronnie Raygun letter to Congress May 21st 1981.

Raygun also famously got his start by cutting a record for Chesterfield cigarettes calling Medicare and Medicaid "Socialism",

"One of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it once was like in America... when men were free."

That scumbag Reagan damaged the country in so many ways but...  But!  He also granted amnesty to 11 million immigrants in a move no Republican today would tolerate and rightwing propagandists would call for the impeachment and the execution of any President DemocRAT who did.  (OH LOOK, Republicans are trying to bootstrap the term "Insurrection" because of the "8 Million" onto Joe Biden even if Missouri Attorney General Jay NEPO BABY Ashcroft couldn't tell his ass from a hole in the ground during an interview with CNN.

The basic facts are the Republican Party is completely uninterested in helping anyone; immigrants or American citizens.  The Republican Party does not believe the federal government should aid or help anyone; you are on your own.  The 40+ years of "compassionate conservatism" has been a cover the Party and the Media allies use to cover the awful truth of the Republican Party; a wholly Fascist Organization wedded to destroying the American dream and shackling the vast majority of the American People into perpetual corporate bondage and under the tyrannical thumb of christian fundamentalism. 

Car Culture was a Mistake 7: Road Rage The End of Beef

Where's the Beef?

No this isn't another post about that stolen valor Republican liar Jason Nelson of Texass.

Or a missive on a forgotten Republican lie of 2021 when  Iowa Governor Starve the poor children Kim Reynolds and many others claimed the Biden led climate plan would mean Real Americans would not be able to eat hamburgers anymore.

But, the Netflix TV series centered around a Road Rage incident, which just garnered several Golden Globes for the actors involved...

Beef was a story which garnered a lot of praise for the fact that while the majority of characters were Asian, the story itself was not an "Asian" story.  But, instead just had Asian people in what Simu Liu and Issa Rae at the Golden Globes called "White people roles".  

Beef ended this summer so the post release coverage  of actor David Cho's confession of a "rapey" sexual encounter with his massage therapist, wasn't front and center during the Golden Globes.

The penultimate episode was quite bloody as Maria Bello's bored Billionaire character who get's chopped in two and the two main characters, Steven Yeun's "Danny" and Ali Wong's "Amy", feud leads them to a car crash off a cliff in the remote hardscrabble hills.  As the two struggled with injuries their mutual hatred and inability to work together to survive in the wild (although not actually far from civilization) I thought this series would end with these two's animosity being their mutual demise.  And I wonder if that bleak ending was planned and abandoned during production or if those scenes were shot and then changed after being screened or reviewed.

Which leads me to the so-called Chinese proverb He who sets out on revenge best dig two graves or whatever version you've heard of that saying involving Revenge and Two Graves, and how it's emblematic of our age's industry of false quotes from ancient thinkers.

Now, for a long time here in the States, Republicans and rightwingers have had a cottage industry in crafting fake quotes and attributing them to the Founding Fathers, usually around guns i.e. George Washington's "Dragon's Teeth" or Thomas Jefferson's "when governments fear the people there is liberty".  Organizations which safeguard Washington or Jefferson legacy usually have entire articles devoted to debunking these spurious quotes but, the reason rightwingers put their lies into the mouth's of the founding fathers is to use the stature and weight of the past to prop up their modern policy preferences.

It's the founding principle of "Constitutional Originalism" which is nothing more than Republicans using their interpretation of the Constitution (The Highest Law of the Land) as the final argument for why whatever it is Republicans want today is backed by the entire edifice of the History of America.

Anyway back to Beef, the series creator Lee Sung Jin said a real life road-rage incident was the inspiration of story;

The idea was loosely based on a road rage incident that actually happened to me," he said. 

"Someone went off on me and for some reason that day, I did not use sound judgment and impulsively decided to follow this person.  I didn't really have a set plan, I just wanted him to feel fear and let him know that it's not OK to do that to people." 

He continued: "But things went awry - certainly not like they do in the show - and what happened that afternoon ended up inspiring Beef.

Road Rage is such a prevalent phenomenon and such a dangerous one that the Illinois State Police have a whole webpage devoted to knowing the warning signs, things to avoid and how to react when involved in a situation.  It's another part of car culture which for years was known about, but was treated like just another price of freedom.

I hope Jordan Love doesn’t turn into Brett Favre or Aaron Rodgers

Scum                             Not Scum                  Scum

Well, the Chicago Bears season came to an end as it so often has with a defeat at the hands of the Green Bay Packers.  During the game Tony Romo said he saw some of Brett Favre's gunslinger attributes in Jordan Love's arm angles and throwing motion.

Since 1992, the Packers have enjoyed an unprecedented run at Quarterback;  Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers.  Fortunately, these two all-time "greats" only managed to bring two Super Bowl Titles (and one loss) to Title Town.

And now Jordan Love appears to be continuing the tradition.  While the rules absolutely favor passing Love put together a strong season and got the Packers back into the Playoffs.  Now perhaps Love will sabotage his career by making a pass at his teammate Jonathan Owens wife, someone named Simone Biles, but I highly doubt it as Love seems like a good dude.  Damnit...

But, the past two Green Bay QBs have either turned into unredeemable scumbags or always were.  It's amazing the inferiority complex Aaron Rodgers has that he is still trying to outdo Favre in scumbag behavior.  But, barring some Hail Mary it's not likely as Favre's run of behavior has veered into theft and criminality. 

As the Mississippi scandal of Republicans stealing TANF money and funneling it to their wealthy friends and allies broke and Favre's deep involvement came to light, Shannon Sharpe took to his ESPN Show Undisputed to correctly call Favre "a sorry mojo who stole money from the lowest of the low" "people who really needed that money",  Trump loving Bret Favre decided to sue him and two others (Pat McAfee and Mississippi State Auditor Shad White) for defamation.

Of course, the facts of the situation are Republicans in Mississippi did steal $77,000,000 in federal money set aside for TANF and, however Favre found out about the scam, he specifically asked to have several million dollars of that money set aside for him to build a volleyball stadium at his daughter's school while Favre would claim he donated that money through his charity.  Favre has paid back over a million dollars to the state.  As Republicans often say "facts are stupid things".  Fortunately, the Judge in his case threw out Favre defamation suit but, it shows how rightwingers have really taken to using courts to win when the facts are against them.  Too bad for Favre he couldn't go Judge Shopping for a Packers Fan who would have declared him the Winner.

Fascinatingly, the Reason article on this garnered so little commentary from the lying rightwingers who infest that platform (only 7 comments and half of them are off topic).

Pat McAfee is now entangled in another Packers QB scandal.  McAfee often has Rodgers on his show to talk to him and former Green Bay Packers LB A.J. Hawk.  Last week, as the trio inexplicably talked about the Epstein List release Rodgers, with his extensive wine room in the background stated, “A lot of people, including Jimmy Kimmel, are really hoping that doesn’t come out.” Rodgers also said he would be “popping some sort of bottle,” if Kimmel was on the list.

Rodgers has been angry at Kimmel for several years because during Covid Rodgers repeatedly lied, especially by omission and inference, when asked about his vaccination status by saying he was "immunized".  Rodgers is a "tin-foil hat nutter" who like all Republicans has no compunctions about putting other people at risk because he is a special little snowflake who doesn't care about others.

Kimmel pointed out that Rodgers' slander put his family and children at risk as MAGA Chuds sent death threats as if that matters to conservatives who have fallen in love with threatening to murder their political enemies and emulate Traitor Trump's manner of hateful, vile, treasonous, fascist speech, that is when Trump isn't making fun of disabled people or stumbling through a speech not knowing what he's saying.

But, Kimmel the comedian really skewered Rodgers by making fun of the end of his career.  Aaron hamstrung the Jets this season and probably for a decade to come by forcing them to cater to his delusional trade, contract, and player signing demands.  But, yesterday with big Don't Report that I Got Mad energy on McAfee's show, Rodgers claimed, he "doesn't give a shit what Kimmel says about me" and he "isn't stupid enough to accuse [Kimmel] with absolutely zero concrete evidence."

That's some big ass covering for Rodgers, McAfee, and ESPN.  But, Rodgers still feels free to air his lunatic conspiracy theories about Fauci, vaccines, and #QAnon nonsense.

So, while Rodgers career included unprecedented success of "still owning the Bears", he and Favre are being forced to own up to being their scummy selves.

The MAGA Agenda: Noted Terrorist Donald Trump demands January 6th Terrorists be released

I hope you are paying attention because Donald Trump is grooming his cult to engage in domestic terrorism.

Republicans have always ham-handedly tried to glom their whiny grievances onto whatever incident is dominating the news cycle.  Traitor Tump may be a blubbering senile syphilitic lunatic but he does have that low animal cunning so prevalent amongst criminals of his ilk.  Hence, rightwingers who know nothing and forget nothing, have been hearing about "Hostages" and know that evil Mooslims are too blame for the "Hostages" Trump has modified his speech about the Jan 6th criminals and terrorists from "political prisoners" to "Hostages";

“You know what they ought to do? They ought to release the J6 hostages. They’ve suffered enough. I call them hostages. Some people call them prisoners. I call them hostages. Release the J6 hostages, Joe. Release them, Joe. You can do it real easy, Joe.”

Trump is a vile traitor, criminal, conman, thief, fascist, terrorist, and wannabe dictator.  And Republicans know it and Republicans don't care. 

You've got over 1000 criminals from that day, arrested, tried, and convicted; including multiple conspirators serving decades long sentences for literal sedition and insurrection.  You've got three Jan6th fugitives being arrested on the 3rd anniversary of their crime right outside Trump's doorstep in Florida.  And you know what you don't have anyone associated with "Antifa" or a member of a so-called Fedsurrection.

It's not just Trump it's every Republican
"I have concerns about the treatment
of January 6th hostages" Elise Stefanik

And yet Republicans en masse continue to support Trump's bogus claims and continue to aid his lies about the attempt to overthrow the United States government.  Including Republican asshole Troy Nehls of Texass who was recorded on 01/06/21 pleading with conservatives to stop their violent rampage yet Nehls has continued to spread the Fedsurrection lie knowing it was false.  And Republicans continue to support the lie that the 2020 election was stolen and preemptively state they will not recognize the 2024 victory by President Biden.

Rightwingers are ill-informed on purpose by Faux News, the Corporate Media, and Republican propagandists so they don't know anything but what's been drilled into their head by liars.  So, that's why an overwhelming majority of Republicans know that Jan6th was an Inside Job of FBI agents and Undercover Antifa members to make Donald Tump look bad.

And Trump well he continues to goad and incite his cult members to consider violence.  His language of "Hostages" is absolutely intended to convince some right-winger to make an assassination attempt on President Biden, who absolutely has Trump pegged as a "Sick Fvck" who loves political violence.

So, I hope you're preparing because Republicans will not accept any election which does not place them into power and their legions of drones are being groomed and goaded into making the violence of Jan6th seem insignificant.  Get ready to fight for you're very lives because Republicans are coming for them.

ETA:

Oh and I'm god damn tired of Fatfvck Trump claiming he could negotiate this crisis or that crisis and no reporter asking the simple follow on question of how exactly.  That Traitor Trump would claim he's greater than Lincoln and he could have negotiated US out of the Civil War isn't just sheer nonsense, it's insulting Lost Cause revisionist history too.

“The Civil War was so fascinating, so horrible.  So many mistakes were made. See, there was something I think could have been negotiated, to be honest with you. I think you could have negotiated that. All the people died, so many people died. You know, that was the disaster.”

GTFO here with this juvenile answer "The Civil war was so fascinating and so horrible" which reads exactly like a 12 year olds bullshit when they didn't do the homework about the Civil War.

The MAGA Agenda: Keep (Republican) Politics out of Rock Music

Every so often a musical act makes an overt political statement and it triggers snowflake Republicans who bellow like babies and throw unhinged temper tantrums.  I don't know where we got the idea that Republicans are tough because they are softer than marshmallow, as sturdy tissue paper, incurious and uncultured. 

“I’m not a part of the MAGA agenda,” Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong belted out on New Year's Eve.

Republicans once hated Kanye and loved Taylor

Well... it works... since MAGA Republicans are American Idiots...  And just to be clear, The MAGA Agenda is the rounding-up and killing of millions of people.  State-directed and sanctioned violence against the poor, immigrants, women, minorities and anyone else who stands in the way of turning the US into a Fascist Fundamentalist Theocracy.

Look at their butt hurt whining surrounding Taylor Swift; not only juvenile and pathological but, in keeping with all the Incel hatred and rage towards women which leads to conservative boys killing women. 

We can look back year after year of Republicans trying to usurp a musicians song.  Republicans routinely misappropriate music, often times in direct opposition to the artists's express objection, for their use.  It's like fetish or more probably shows the utter disdain Republicans have for laws and others' emotions.

• Racist Limpballs used The Pretenders My City Was Gone for the opening of his vile radio show.  Chrissie Hynde later sued Limbaugh (who is dead :) ) and donated his money to PETA.
• Ronnie Raygun was so senile by 1984 he couldn't understand the lyrics to Born in the USA
• Before Michele "Crazy Eyes" Bachmann called for the ethnic cleansing of 2 million Gaza's, Tom Petty sued her to stop using American Girl.
• Paul Ryan claimed his favorite band was Rage Against the Machine.  When RAtM slammed the Supremacist Court for overturning Roe, conservatives decried their "Wokeness" and an army of 800,000 rightwing bots descended on Twitter to all make the same, 'It's Rage for the Machine, now nyuk nyuk nyuk' joke.
• Donald Trump is such a thief there's a Wikipedia page devoted to the army of musicians and their estates suing and filing lawsuits to stop him stealing their music.

When it comes to appropriating an
artist's song without their permission
Republicans definitely "Take It"

It's so pathetic it would be something to laugh at, as Republicans are such entitled little shits they give no thought whatsoever to using things which are not theirs to use, while proudly proclaiming themselves to be for Law&Order.  But, we've seen and I've documented so many thousands of examples of Republicans saying one thing while doing its' exact opposite.

Republicans want so desperately to be Punk and against the man, while enjoying the benefits of being the establishment especially the access to and use of the Awesome Power of State Violence.  

Pathetic pyscho Elon Musk made that same fucking tired joke, against Green Day.  Musk who gets billions in government subsidies wants to be anything but not the establishment.

And that's the shtick;  Republicans want to put on a grunge flannel, leather jacket, and break things and then call the cops to beat up the oppressed group when they fight back.

But, the only rightwing musician conservatives have is Kid Rock and calling Robert James Ritchie a musician is a stretch.  Of course, there's still Ted Caveman Nugent but, then Republicans would have to acknowledge they love a child raping, draft dodging, coward.  

Conservatives are desperate for a musical act to rally 'round.  Look how they latched onto the "Let's Go Brandon" iTunes single.  Lauren Boebert grabbed onto it faster than her man's dick.  Look at how fast conservatives jumped onto Oliver Anthony and his "Rich Men North of Richmond", Ben SShaprio declared it a SUPER VIRAL rightwing sensation and hinted at it containing the seeds of liberal music culture demise.  Other lesser rightwing on-line provaceutuers jumped on board until... Anthony told them to go pound sand as he lumps Republicans in with Democrats.   

The reason is simple; musicians are not conservative.  Yes, yes, so-and-so you will counter is a staunch Republican and there is a strong streak of The Fash in punk sub-culture.  But, the vast majority of people involved in arts and culture do not adhere to Republicans values of hatred, intolerance, and oppression.

Will White Women lay back and do their duty for Trump (again) despite his horrendous B.O. #TrumpSmells

White women's “O” face when confronted
with Stinky Fat Donald's horrendous BO

Of course, #TrumpSmells.  Diaper Don eats greasy fast food, guzzles gallons of Diet Coke, routinely shits himself, and can't properly wash his bulbous body due to his limited mobility, syphilitic senility, muscular deficiency, giant rolls of blubber and tiny hands.

“It’s not good. The best way to describe it... take armpits, ketchup, a butt and makeup and put that all in a blender and bottle that as a cologne,” Former Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger said.

I trust Kinzinger's assessment of Trump's foul odor.  Anyone who's served time in the military becomes acutely aware of those around him who have shit hygiene.  Kinzinger it should be understood was a rabid anti-Obama 2010 Tea Party Republican stalwart but, his rightwing credentials and personal bonafides (disarming a knife wielding attacker and saving a person from a murder in Milwaukee, military service from 2003 onwards) count for naught when you go against Der Trumpenfurher.

Will Trump's horrendous body odor deter white women from voting for him?  History would indicate probably not.  Since 1952 white women have voted overwhelmingly Republican for President.  Sexy Slick Willie turned their heads in 1992.  But, they apparently couldn't resist Trump's immense sexual gravity. 

Among White women, according to NBC News, 43 percent supported Biden and 55 percent supported Trump.  On the plus side the 2024 election will be the last election whites women need to worry their pretty little heads over because once Republicans get back into power, the vote will simply be stripped away from women.

Jason Whitlock, laid out exactly what Republicans want to do as they steadily curtail rights, freedoms, and liberty for women;

You only needed one vote per household because that vote was about the entire family as they have destroyed our family structure and made this all an individual pursuit. Not everybody has to have a vote and everybody has to have an agenda that a lot of times has nothing to do with family.

Now just before Whitlock declared only one vote per household, he laid out how that household should be ordained via the "natural order",

Because a vote used to represent the family. When we were a culture that really valued family and really understood the natural order that God intended, man serving God, woman following man who serves God, man and woman developing and nurturing children.

Taking the franchise from white women will be an easy slam dunk for this Supremacist Court as Rightwingers can easily argue women voting is not "deeply rooted in this Nation's history and tradition" (Sammy Di Puzzi Alito Dobbs 2022). 

Now, of course, white men are a disaster and a lost cause.  While a lot of white men did vote for Barack Obama (the first time) but this is part of the infatuation and subconscious sexual desire white people (Wypipo) have towards black bodies.  White men see Trump as a venue back into power and prominence. They don't draw him as a super hero muscle man because that's how they see him, but because that's how they see themselves.

But, while men have steadily been trending Reactionary since Ronnie Raygun's first election in 1980, white women are afforded a lot of undue credit for being progressive while consistently voting for Republicans 

Jane Junn, a political-science and gender-studies professor at the University of Southern California interviewed by Angelina Chapin at The Cut, summed it up succinctly;

Why do white women so reliably support Republicans?

The Republican Party is the party of keeping the white heteropatriarchy intact. And that’s appealing to many white women voters. One reason is because of how they were politically socialized growing up — stuff they’ve heard at the dining-room or kitchen table for many years that makes them feel heroic and patriotic in casting their ballots for Trump. But part of it is wanting to stay on top of the racial hierarchy. These women have agreed to accept second-class status with their gender, as long as the Republican Party puts them first with race and keeps them safe.

Prior to the 6 Supremacist Injustices vile Dobbs decision, white women believed they occupied a special niche in the White Supremacist Nation Republicans are trying to create.  A carve out based on their supplication to misogynistic racist Patriarchy.  White women believed, that if they needed to medical procedure, well they would get special dispensation.  They've seen that's not the case.  And Democratic candidates have to hammer home that no white women's adherence to the bigoted Republican agenda will not give them special rights in the dystopian fascist fundamentalist hellhole Republicans hope to turn the United States into. 

So, the question is:  Will the Republican successful effort to take Abortion rights away from women cost them the white women vote in 2024?  If it doesn't... if white women vote for Trump (for a third time)... well that really would stink.

Trump broke The Law in a fundamental way

This Traitor has a 50/50 shot to be President

House Republicans have spent the last two years trying to claim President Biden received money from Foreign Governments and in reality Republicans learned and covered up the fact Donald J. Trump and his Crime Family Got Millions From Foreign Governments While He Was President.

While in the White House, Donald Trump’s businesses collected millions from at least 20 foreign governments, including a vast majority spent by China, according to a new report by House Democrats based on hundreds of pages of financial documents obtained from Trump’s longtime accounting firm.

I don't know if the One Weird Trick method of keeping Trump off of ballots for the 2024 Election is going to work but, I see no downside to using ever legal means to battle him.  A group in Illinois just filed a challenge to keep Trump off of the Primary ballot and Massachusetts is going to do the same.

These legal moves have angered Republicans who have decided over the last 3 years since the Trump's violent attempt to overthrow the United States Government and successful bid to delay the peaceful transition of power that Jan6th wasn't that bad, and Antifa was responsible anyway, and Trump tried to stop it, but the insurrection was completely justified because Biden stole the Presidency anyway.

Unfortunately, The Law isn’t magic … What Trump did in his first go around was show how hollow and fragile our institutions are.  It’s been taken as a metaphysical certainty that the law along with norms, rules, morals, codes, and principles would restrain any one man and certainly an entire political party from embracing authoritarianism in the United States.  But well before Trump was in the White house the GOP threw those conventions out the window.

Now Trump knew The Law could be flouted from his decades long crime spree starting in the 1970s, "When you're a star they let you do it..."  But, during his first reign he understood that even the mighty Federal Government worked on the acquiescence of the governed.  And Traitor Trump doesn't care to acquiesce.  The United States Constitution is, as they say, the Highest Law of the Land...  until someone comes along at just the right time and says "Nope".

That's The Law that Trump broke...

The large unconcerned non-politically motivated have been taught The Magic Words which comprise the semi-mystical human endeavor known as "The Law" constrains man and keeps the peace.

This is the fault of everyone from the Law&Order writers to the legions of lawyers and obsequious political press which treated "The Law" as magical a kind of Platonic Ideal which could be attained by just the right sequence of incantations or just the proper alchemical mixture or just the right quest for the sacred building blocks instead of being nothing more than an agreed upon set of loose constraints.

Trump busted those constraints and dared anyone to do anything about it.  Sadly, I don't believe the loose constraints will hold back Trump or the MAGA Republicans if they should again reach the White House.  And more worrying is Trump's mushy brain isn't the most frightening aspect of Republican control of government it's the slimy vile underlings yearning to gain access to the DOJ and civilian control of the military.

Whenever MAGA regains power (whether that's 2025 or later) expect them to govern with no regard toto the Rule of Law, they've shown their hand by flouting everything as Republicans control the House of Representatives, but with the expectations the populace will meekly obey or passively support and abide by their rule.  And yes this includes up to the villainous plans of Mike Flynn, Stephen Miller, Steve Bannon, to get trains running millions of people into Death Camps.

But, at that point the question is; 

• Will rank and file bureaucrats in the Department of Justice or Transportation or Housing and Urban Development go along with the evil plans of these odious fascists?  
• Will FBI agents shrug and execute the raids and round-up the Usual Suspects (i.e. immigrants, unchaste women, LGBTQ, un-American teachers)?  
• Will ICE just follow orders and push migrant children into the river? 
• Will Police Officers in Democratically controlled states dutifully execute Nationwide arrest warrants issued by psychotic Texas or Mississippi Judges against Abortionists? 
• Will Republican controlled State Police and Bureau of Investigation simply throw aside the rule of law and act like Israeli Forces in the West Bank (i.e. aiding the violent Settlers in killing and stealing from the occupied peoples)? 

Any individuals who choose to not follow Trump's unlawful orders and disobey at the beginning will be subject to pressure, then discipline, and then violence.  It takes a lot of bravery to stand out when the rapacious Republicans are looking for singular victims to keep the rest in line.

The largest fear isn't that the military will just follow orders.  In any successful Coup attempts, 99% of the military, state security apparatuses, and domestic law enforcement remain sidelined.  It's a fracture of the military and individual units and commands at various levels choosing to side with the Fascist Republican 2025 Plan.

But, before we get to the 2025 Plan, we have a chance to defeat Trump a 3rd time and keep him from getting his fat fascist fingers onto the levers of power.  It's not going to be easy, Reactionary agencies like Police Unions, the Corporate Media, Foreign Powers (Israel and Russia), the Billionaire Class, the malcontent anti-anti-Trump cohorts, the ratfvcker Third Way RFK Jr, Cornel West, Marianne Williamson, and others yearn to have a little Fascism and will try and sow as much confusion as possible in the election so Republicans can successfully steal it this time.

But, either way 2025 is going to be a Year in Terrorism.  Republicans have no intention of ever following “The Law” ever again and Rightwing violence is here and it's not "going away".  The question is will it be lone wolves continuing the low-level domestic terrorist attacks they've been doing for a while or will it be a 21st century style State-Sponsored Reign of Terror with Republicans getting concentration camps and death squads liquidating millions across the Nation?

ETA:

I see the Supremacist Court will hear the Colorado Ballot case at Trump's request, because State's Rights to run elections only counts when Wisconsin Republicans gerrymander and rig their districts for them to win even when they lose the election or when Mississippi carves up the black population so white rightwingers can win every district.  Republicans have no intention of following "The Law",  it's going to be whatever they say it is subject to change to ensure they wield political power forever. 

The Trump-Epstein-Clinton Triumvirate

IF YOU COME AFTER ME,
I'M COMING AFTER YOU!

Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein were bosom buddies for decades.  As the truth about the terrible crimes Epstein committed came to light, MAGA cultists concocted a whole fantasy of Trump actually trying to bring Epstein to justice as opposed to the truth;  that Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein probably raped the same little girls.

But Bill Clinton, every Republican and Rightwinger shouts in unison, in a coordinated effort to distract from how despicably evil and now senile Donald J. Trump is and always has been...

What was born of this cognitive dissonance was the entire QANON movement andiron-stop various other attempts to claim Republicans fight for children instead of the stark awful truth which is Republicans fuck children, literally and figuratively.

New Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen, followed Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds in turning down federal food assistance for over 150,000 poor children.  Nebraska got rid of Pete Ricketts but, Pillen wants to make sure Nebraska children still get rickets... because fuck them kids...  It's sadly ironic Nebraska was settled by radical Czech immigrants fleeing reactionary oppression by the Austro-Hungarian Empire only to have their descendants turn into very same anti-democratic villains their forefathers once fled.

Last year, The Sound of Freedom movie was a conservative phenomenon!  A Summer Blockbuster like no other!  Or more correctly, exactly like every other conservative book or musical phenomenon in which rightwing organizations buy hundreds of thousands of copies to inflate the "box office" and promote the total fiction that conservative beliefs are the majority.  But, like all things rightwingers profess to believe in it is utter bullshit and a total fabrication.

First off, Tim Ballard is something of a modern day Ashida Kim or Frank Dux;

While promoting the film in an interview with Jordan Peterson in July 2023, Ballard claimed to have recently raided a West African "baby factory" where children are sold for organ harvesting and "Satanic ritual abuse", echoing another QAnon myth. In July 2020, in a video post, he lent credence to a QAnon conspiracy theory that falsely accused furniture company Wayfair of laundering money gained from child sex trafficking.

It makes sense that conservatives would flock to a film which makes them feel like the child saviors and not the child abusers they in fact actually are.  And Conservatives love to feel virtuous because that feeling allows them to support Republicans who specifically adopt all manner of policies and laws to harm women and children.

So, the Epstein "documents" are going to be used by duplicitous conservative propagandists because they know their rightwing drones won't bother to read anything.  Already we've seen QB fraud A-A-Ron Rodgers claim Jimmy Kimmel would be on the list to which Kimmel responded with the threat of lawsuit, I sure hope he does and takes all the wines Rodgers posed in front of for his appearance on the Pat McAfee Show.  And predictably, Elon Musk's X Platform is overflowing with rightwing garbage of claims about liberals and Democrats on the list.

Trump's perverted relationship with his daughter, his finding of culpability in assaulting E. Jean Carroll and his continued defamation of her, and his criminal activities on Epstein's Island are well-known and well-documented. 

He bragged on multiple occasions of his sexual antics with little girls.  This has done nothing to diminish his appeal to the MAGATs and has heightened their love and fawning admiration of his strength.  Trump does and gets away (for the most part) with venal sins and criminal conspiracies that they wish they could.

They believe what they have to believe to justify what they would like to do.

Plagiarism and the Bad Faith rightwing attacks on American higher education

In PraegerU history this fictional Bodega
was actually burned down by BLM because,
"George Floyd, a black man who resisted 
arrest and was held under the knee of a
Police Officer, died while in custody."

I'm questioning my education

Is my education who I am now? 

- Pearl Jam (2003)

Heather Digby Parton has a better post about Christoper Rufo and the coordinated rightwing attack on Claudine Gay and the "liberal" media continued willingness and eagerness to adopt the rightwing framing of the issue of Plagiarism.

“It's time that Gaza Ends. The 2 million people who live there, they are clever assassins. They need to be removed from that land. That land needs to be turned into a national park." @MicheleBachmann Dean at @RegentU. 

Bachmann's call for the genocide and ethnic cleansing of Gaza did not earn her even the slightest rebuke from the Corporate Media let alone her former Republican colleagues in the House of Representatives.

The completely disingenuous House "investigation" led by Elise Stefanik continues to pay dividends to the Republican attacks on Education in general and any educator who does not bow down to the nascent Fascist agenda the GOP is rapidly advancing.

Harvard President Claudine Gay resigned.  She's the second of the three women brought up before the Republican Inquisitors on December 5th, former University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill resigned before Christmas but Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth has yet to bow down before the rightwing witch hunt.

Say whatever you want about the woeful answers these three gave to the House committee, a public relations nightmare from three people who should already have a baseline pro-level PR game.  But, I have to wonder if the law firm which prepped them wasn't actually paid to undermine their preparation and set them up to be slaughtered.

Former Harvard President Gay came from a. fairly well-to-do background but, that still doesn't mean to Republicans she's nothing more than her black skin and aggressively shaved head.  A scalp they yearned to take.  Gay, of course, received death threats and was called the N-word numerous times by conservatives before wealthy Harvard benefactors like billionaire racist Bill Ackman demanded her resignation, often in violent racist tirades.

The allegations of plagiarism are overwrought.  To the rabid rightwing drones plagiarism means copying and pasting entire sections of text which isn't what Gay did but, in America some people are afforded Zero-Margin for error.   It would be fascinating if Josh Hawley's Yale degree work or Ted Cruz's time at Harvard but, we all know that even if it was shown to be plagiarized, as with Neil Gorsuch unattributed copying, Republicans wouldn't care one whit.  In fact, Republicans get extra credit for undermining every institution they besmirch and for breaking rules others have to follow.

For a long time, Republicans have accused liberals, higher education, and the Dept of Ed of indoctrinating young people.  The truth is when people are educated and exposed to new ideas they more often than not turn away from Reactionary dogma and Republican propaganda.  This angers Republicans to no end.  

Republicans have hated the Department of Education ever since the Federal Government decided to make sure minorities had access to higher education.  What they want is to funnel taxpayer dollars to Fascist fundamentalist schools, but they also want to gain control of what is taught.  The still shot from the PraegerU "lesson" on George Floyd is one of a series of kids cartoons aimed at instilling racist, homophobic, bigoted hatred, and anti-class consciousness in young people.   

Republicans have a long list of enemies; teachers are some of the top targets.  It's a non-stop barrage of marching fascism now.  Giving in and appeasing Republicans is a short and long term losing strategy.  We are on a collision course with whether or not a Nation can remain half free and half MAGA.

Update:

Neri Oxman ❤️Jeffrey Epstein

Remember slimly hedge fund Billionaire Bill Ackman, who demanded Claudine Gay resign over Plagiarism?  Well his wife Neri Oxman is an Epstein client and <drum roll> a Plagiarist.

An analysis by Business Insider found a similar pattern of plagiarism by Ackman's wife Neri Oxman, who became a tenured professor at MIT in 2017.  Oxman plagiarized multiple paragraphs of her 2010 doctoral dissertation, Business Insider found, including at least one passage directly lifted from other writers without citation.

Any chance Bill Ackman demands his wife resign from MIT?