Buddy Guy and climate change

Earlier this year, when the Ravinia concert schedule was released, we bought tickets to see Buddy Guy.  The last time I had seen the venerable Guy was in 2010 when the new Buddy Guy's Legends blues bar had just opened at 700 S. Wabash in the city.

This concert at Ravinia probably was going to be my last opportunity to see him.  But, the heat that has been baking the United States this summer has settled onto Chicago so we didn't go.  In case you don't know Ravinia Festival is an outdoor venue spread over a large area of Highland Park, Illinois.  The fun of Ravinia is setting up a table and chairs on the lawn and eating and drinking with family and friends prior to and during the concert.  While there is amphitheater seating, most of the grounds offers no actual view of the stage and you hear the music over the extensive A/V system set up in the park grounds.  Ravinia is one of those things white people like.

The problem with Chicago heat index is often that the humidity is 100% because of the big body of water next door thus effectively eliminating your ability to sweat and cool yourself down.  Of course, the climate disaster has been front and center this year.

Unfortunately, in America we are also witnessing the fruits of Republican perfidy and fascism.  The Republican Party is fully invested in denying the reality of the burning house around them.  Does it matter if it's because of the short term financial gain they and their plutocratic owners reap?  Or if it's because of christian dominionism which wishes to usher in the "End Times" and the apocalypse?  But, when you have Republicans claiming This is Normal like a real-life version of the Dog in a Burning House Meme;

“This weather is normal,” Justine Wadsack, a hard-line Republican in the state Senate, tweeted recently. “If ya can’t stand the heat in Arizona, you’re welcome to leave.”

Well, then reality is about to bring it all down upon us.  Sadly, the truth we are not allowed to say is Republicans hate the United States of America.  Viscerally.  And have nothing to offer the American people. This was on full display last night in Wisconsin during the tedious Republican "debate" to see who won't be the nominee for President in 2024.  (It will be Trump.  Period.) 

Eventually, Nikki Haley gave the mealy-mouthed RINO answer that climate change is real but, CHINA!

“The right way is first of all, yes, is climate change real? Yes, it is. But if you want to go and really change the environment, we need to start telling China and India that they have to lower their emissions.”

Haley, of course, has no chance to be the nominee of the racist, women-hating Republican Party.  Climate Change Denialism is another article of faith and a pillar of the rightwing mindset which is unequivocally set upon destroying the United States and reshaping this country into a hells cape of inequality and oppression.

Cory Tomczyk and other Vicious Wisconsin Pricks

Bad Yelp review
Nicer than Cory Tomczyk though

“If you took Madison and Milwaukee out of the state election formula, we would have a clear majority,”

- Robin Vos

Wisconsin is a beautiful state, it's only drawback are Republicans.  This is the chief complaint for many states today.  This wasn't going to be a post about Wisconsin Republicans but instead about grass burs which often evade a cursory glance over a field, lawn, or pasture, but make themselves readily apparent when you feel the long spines stick you.  Yow! Ouch! Aye Yai Yai!

Longspine Sandbur Cenchrus longispinus (Hack.) Fern are some mean little bastards and once stuck on you, the only real way to deal it to gingerly pluck them from your socks/pants or worse dog paws :(

But, then Wisconsin Public Radio ran a story about Cory Tomczyk and his on-going efforts to destroy the Wausau Pilot & Review for accurately reporting what he said in 2021.

A Marathon County judge dismissed a lawsuit filed in 2021 by Mosinee businessman Cory Tomczyk, who's now a Republican state senator representing the 29th District, accused the Wausau Pilot & Review of defamation after it reported that he was overheard using an anti-gay slur against a teenager while in the audience at a Marathon County Executive Committee meeting. 

Despite the publication's victory in circuit court, Pilot & Review Publisher Shereen Siewert said it's racked up between $150,000 and $200,000 in legal bills. Those expenses were enough to put the small news outlet in danger of shutting down, Siewert said.  "But then we realized that even if we win, we lose."

Worse than a Pyrrhic victory, Siewert pointed out the legal bills from Tomczyk's baseless lawsuit are in danger of shutting down the Wausau Pilot & Review.  It's baseless because in deposition Tomczyk admitted to calling the 13 year old boy a "Faggot".  Tomczyk defended this action by claiming he has friends and a brother who are gay.

"I have a brother who is a gay guy, and I've certainly out of joking and out of spite called him a 'faggot' more than once," Tomczyk testified in a deposition resulting from his lawsuit. "I have a couple of friends who are also gay, and in that community, that term, I don't, I don't feel in that community that term has the same negative connotation (as) in a straight community. The guys that I know laugh it off."

I have a black friend defense who I also call a terrible slur too now adapted and repackaged for bigots to smear the LGBTQ community!  Tomczyk's efforts are plain to see, use his money to win despite being guilty of what was reported,

Robert Drechsel, a professor emeritus of journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "In many cases, plaintiffs aren't really suing to win, but they win by suing."

When you face the reality that Republicans have NOTHING to offer the American people it can be pretty bleak.  This seems to be why the Corporate Media writ large refuses to face it.  In fact, in Wisconsin Racist Robin Vos, Drunken Van Orden, Russian Ron Johnson, Slimy Scott Fitzgerald, Bigoted Becky Bradley, Vile Terf Cory Tomczyk and many other Fascists have enjoyed improper and illegally obtained political power due to voter suppression, gerrymandering, and political chicanery.  And have gotten away with their using the awesome power of Government at the local, state, and federal level to harm people and ensconce repressive and unpopular hatreds and bigotry into law.

The new liberal aligned Wisconsin Supreme Court is going to reverse a lot of the damage Fitzgerald and Scott Walker did during their tenures, expect more vitriol and threats from rightwingers.  And when Trump loses Wisconsin in 2024 conservatives will probably declare civil war and attack the United States again...

Tommy Tuberville is holding up military appointments so Trump can fill them in 2025

Trump as Tiberius
Flynn as Sejanus

Does Florida Man Tommy Tubberbrain believe he is the next Sejanus?

Like, most Gen Xers my first encounter with the historical figure Sejanus came from the I, Claudius BBC series based on the two Graves' novels, and starring Derek Jacobi with Patrick Stewart as Sejanus.

In reality, I've thought Mike Flynn was a more apt comp to Sejanus based on his military history, personal aspirations, and the paramilitary organization Flynn has built in Venice, Florida at "The Hollow".

Tommy Tuberville is more akin to one of the nameless Senators who blithely lived during the early stages of the Roman Empire and the first dynasty, The Julio-Claudian.

Long ago I wrote the Republican slide into anti-democratic intransigence was turning the United States Senate into a simulacrum of the Medieval Polish Sejm, in which one Senator could express his singular Objection (The Golden Freedom) and hold up all the workings of the Congress.  Well, here we are with Tuberville.

Alt Jill Stein, Krysten Sinema, has conceived of an idea that she only can sit the boys down, flash her cleavage and get them to agree to a deal;

“I know that Coach does not want to undermine the readiness of our United States military,” Sinema said, referring to the former college football coach by his preferred title. “And I know that the United States military and the administration does not want to undermine the authority and the right of any United States senator. What we need are for folks to step off a little bit from their positions and find that middle ground to solve the challenge that we’re facing.” 

“I’ve volunteered to help do that,” she added. “We’ll see if they take me up on the offer.”

There's that "Golden Freedom" again...  But, calling Tubberbrain "Coach" is the give away.  Sinema has long admitted she uses her "sex appeal" to get male Republicans to go along but, she's deluding herself or trying to delude us here.  But, she's clearly male-identified and loves being the cool girl amongst the boys.  Also, Tuberville has a preferred mode of address?  Perhaps, weeping Jordan Peterson can tell him true American conservatives don't call people by what they prefer but, what they actually are, and Tuberville is a bigoted asshole or ironically just another "Florida Man", since it turns out he doesn't even live in Alabama...

“Yes, I am not an everyday resident of Alabama.  I’m a carpetbagger of this country,” He acknowledged to a group of voters in a video.

But, Tommy PotatoTown is illustrating his sheer disdain for the Military and professional Officer Corps so necessary to a 21st century military.  I'm certain "Coach" sees his disregard for these men and women's professional lives no differently than he saw the NCAA football players who went through his football program.  Not as people but, cogs to be used in his offensive schemes. 

Nowadays, Republicans continually run into the problem is active duty service members and younger veterans are trending liberal and voting Democratic, especially in 2020.  The Reactionary Reagan-Era military has long since retired and moved to Florida.

So, while Tommy PotatoTown knows he needs to intone Support Out Troops and Thank A Veteran rhetoric, he also seems to be aware the military is not on the side of his Trumpublican Party.  Tuberville isn't holding up military promotions out of some great moral stance but, in an effort to hamstring the US Military for the next Rightwing Insurrection in January 2025.  Because last time the military did not... 

“I stand with our veterans and I’m going to donate every dime I make when I’m in Washington, D.C., to the veterans of the state of Alabama. Folks, they deserve it. They deserve it a lot more than most of us.”

The Fact Checker contacted nine veterans’ organizations represented on the Alabama State Board of Veterans Affairs. Three state affiliates — Vietnam Veterans of America, Disabled American Veterans and Veterans of Foreign Wars — responded and said they have received no donations from either Tuberville or the Tommy Tuberville Foundation.

Republicans piss on active duty service members, spit on Veterans, hate America, and have nothing to offer the American people.  Tuberville's one man filibuster of military promotions reflects the spittle flecked rage which inhabits the spongy brains of every rightwinger in America.

Donnie 4 Indictments threatens the Georgia Grand Jurors, especially the "RIGGERS"

Proudly displayed

I remember on election night Novmber 2020 as it became clear President Biden and VP Harris had won, the media began to drag it's feet and did not call the election even as Faux News called Arizona for Biden and returns in Georgia began to swing towards Joe and Kamala.  The delay in calling the election stretched on for several days in early November and Into that Void rushed Donald John Traitor Trump with his lies about the election being rigged.

His conference call (with other like minded criminal conspirators) to Brad Raffensberger was the nothing more than a tawdry Mafioso call and nothing less than a death knell for the Republic.

Reading through that transcript from January 2nd 2021, it's chock full of Trump's pathetic and pathological sociopathy; utter disdain for law, hatred of Stacey Abrams (a black woman) and contempt for Raffensberger for being "outplayed" by Abrams, fantasy beliefs about the US Military ("I won the military by a lot"), and the classic, fvcking classic, Mob boss I just need you to do one little thing pleading.

Donald John Traitor Trump engaged in multiple criminal conspiracies to subvert the United States Government and install himself as President following his decisive defeat in the 2020 Election.  That these conspiracies failed due to incompetence (Powell, Ellis, Ghouliani), refusal (Reffensberg), or cowardice (Pence) are irrelevant to his attempts.

After the call to Raffensberger failed, and after the Tuesday January 5th special elections in which Raphael Warnock and John Ossoff won, Trump knew the January 6th Fake Elector and then Violent autogolpe (The TrumPutsch) were his last shot.

Everyone knows who Trump is and who he always was.  It wasn't a big deal when he was just a scummy, weird Manhattanite phony but, this is now.  Trump has built up a cult of barely constrained lunatics who yearn to hurt millions of people in America.  The reality of who Trump is, a racist, rapist, thieving treasonous is, immaterial.

Traitor Trump is going to be the Republican nominee for President in 2024 (maybe with RFK Jr as VP, maybe Major Traitor Greene who knows) it doesn't matter how many times he's indicted, how many times he's found liable, culpable, or guilty.  Trump satisfies the visceral need for hatred that exists inside every right-winger in America.  Conservatives are not going to give that up, but 97% of Conservatives are rank cowards willing to go along with the violence, death camps, and fascism as long as others are doing the dirty work.

So, it should come as no surprise that after his Georgia indictment, rightwingers on-line sought out and disseminated the information on the Grand Jurors who indicted him.  Throw that information out into the frothing rage filled rightwing internet and wait for a "lone wolf" or pack of "lone wolves" to act.

The purported names and addresses of members of the grand jury that indicted Donald Trump and 18 of his co-defendants on state racketeering charges this week have been posted on a fringe website that often features violent rhetoric, NBC News has learned. 

NBC News is choosing not to name the website featuring the addresses to avoid further spreading the information. 

The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment. District Attorney Fani Willis faced racist threats ahead of the return of the indictment, and additional security measures were put in place, with some employees being allowed to work from home. 

Tuesday — after Trump posted on his social media website that authorities were going "after those that fought to find the RIGGERS!" — Advance Democracy said Trump supporters were "using the term ‘rigger’ in lieu of a racial slur" in posts. 

The grand jurors have come under attack in the days since Trump's indictment, the fourth criminal indictment brought against the twice-impeached former president. 

“These jurors have signed their death warrant by falsely indicting President Trump," a post on a pro-Trump forum read in response to a post including the names of jurors, which was viewed by NBC News. 

The Fulton County Sheriff's Office, which is handling the surrender of Trump and his co-defendants over the next 10 days, declined to comment.

Death threats and on-line terrorism are de riguer for conservatives, but thus far few have acted upon them.  That's going to change.  And rapidly, as the legal system finally gets to holding Trump accountable for his lifetime of criminality.  And Law enforcement is not ready for the reality.

Dick Uihlein and Frank LaRose: Outside Agitators Extraordinaire

Republican Maths

Frank LaRose apparently is as scummy, disingenuous, and vile as every other Ohio Republican.

"Look at the tech billionares from California and New York who funded the no campaign.  And they've got other bad plans.  Their radical abortion amendment.  They wanna bring up minimum wage increase, a massive minimum wage increase. They wanna do common sense gun reform.  So yeah we've lost one battle but the war continues..."

Look there are several things here which inadvertently show LaRose is deeply ensconced in the rightwing bubble.

Firstly, did LaRose and Ohio Republicans really believe, they could convince voters, even brain-washed conservatives, voting to remove their own voting power was a good was a move because it's hard to believe.  Of course, LaRose also misused his office in the Republican scheme to push through Issue 1.

And for LaRose to believe that Abortion, a higher Minimum Wage, and Gun Control are unpopular instead of enjoying immense popularity across the country just shows how far up his own ass LaRose is and how little he thinks of the American people.

Laughably, LaRose blames Outside Agitators, specifically mentioning California and New York to make sure the Rust Belt Yahoos get mad at them coastal elites, for spending money in Ohio.

I want Dead Women in My Boxes

And so I present Dick Uihlein...

Last month, a CBS News investigation found Uihlein had an outsized role in getting Issue 1 on the ballot. In April, he gave $1.1 million to a political committee pressuring Republican lawmakers to approve the August special election. Uihlein gave $4 million to the group, the bulk of the $4.85 million raised, to Protect our Constitution, the main group supporting Issue 1.

Uihlein is everything the Right claims George Soros is and worse.  Foruntately, Uihlein is also an idiot which mitigates some of his influence but he has so much money that even his doltish choices, like the pig fvcking Darren Bailey here in Illinois, don't really cost him, and he can afford to blow millions of dollars trying to restrict the rights and freedoms of Americans because the pay-out of shackling women and removing Americans freedoms far out-strip the cost to him.

Craig D. Robertson is hardly different than Marge Traitor Greene: Rightwing Domestic Terrorism is coddled and encouraged in America.

Under that mask could be any number of
Republican Congresspersons

The FBI executed a raid on the Utah residence of Craig Deleeuw Robertson resulting in the MAGA terrorist being killed by Law Enforcement.  

And you will be unsurprised to find out that far from demanding Robertson simply comply with lawful orders and not resist arrest.  Conservative are lionizing the wannabe Presidential assassin as a MAGA Martyr. 

It's not difficult to understand why.  Conservatives believe the Government exists to to specifically target, harass, arrest, and kill minorities, the poor, women, and liberals.  Namely everyone rightwingers hate.  The Government and Law Enforcement are expressly forbidden from punishing rightwingers for unethical actions, crimes, or terrorism.

Rightwing domestic terrorism is coddled and encouraged in America.  This is demonstrated time and time and time again by the number of Republicans who feel absolutely free to pose with guns, the amount of on-line death threats conservatives routinely make, and most vividly by the January 6th terrorists exited the Capitol building whooping and hollering, arms raised in triumph.  Since, then Republicans have decried the arrests and convictions of over 1000 of the criminals involved in the attack.

Jan6th, was of course, simply one avenue of attack Republicans took against the US Government.  Another was the Fake Electors scheme in various states like Wisconsin, Arizona and Michigan.

“If the government continues to weaponize these departments against conservatives and the citizens that are then the taxpayers, you know what's going to happen to this country,” Michigan State Representative Matt Maddock asks, according to the audio obtained by The Messenger. After attendees at the event shout possibilities, Maddock answers his own question: “Someone's going to get so pissed off, they're going to shoot someone. That's what's going to happen. Or we're going have a civil war or some sort of revolution. That's where this is, where this is going.”

Matt Maddock's wife is Meshawn Maddock, is one of the 16 fake electors from Michigan and was recently indicted herself.  And as we've seen "weaponizing the government" means conservatives facing the consequences of their actions.  

Taylor Taranto, 37, claimed he had been living in his van and participating with demonstrators supporting Jan. 6 defendants outside the D.C. jail. The protesters kicked him out late last month after they said he acted erratically and tried to play a video that showed the death of Ashli Babbitt in front of her mother.  The QAnon conspiracy theorist showed up near Obama’s home shortly after Donald Trump posted on his social media platform what he claimed was Obama’s address. Taranto was armed, dangerous and in the grip of delusional thinking, prosecutors said, and had successfully eluded law enforcement for nearly a day before his arrest June 29 in a wooded area near Washington’s exclusive Kalorama neighborhood.

We're at an inflection point in this Nation. It's the 6 year anniversary of Heather Heyer's murder in Charlottesville.  For whatever reason we've been saved some of the violence of the 1960's but, as Trump continues to attack Judges, Prosecutors, innocent election officials, more rightwing "lone wolves" will comprehend the clarion call for stochastic terrorism...

As Maui burns, understand Republicans love when Americans suffer and die.

We can live beside the ocean
Leave the fire behind
Swim out past the breakers
Watch the world die - Everclear, Santa Monica (1995)

The news from Maui and the Big Island of Hawaii is horrific, with residents fleeing into the Ocean, describing the scene as a war zone, and the death toll expected to rise into the hundreds as over a 1000 people are missing.

But, because Republicans are beholden to the Fossil Fuels Industry and made resistance to climate change mitigation and environmental protections an article of rightwing faith they won't do anything, except make it easier to pollute and these disasters more devastating.

Much like with healthcare, the Republican plan for these massive once-in-a-century disasters, which happen monthly or  more frequently, is if you have money you'll be okay but everyone else is left to suffer.  And don't expect a Republican Government to help you because Republicans hate the 21st century America and want millions of people to suffer and die, whether by neglect and active indifference or by the direct actions of Republican officials.

Maui and the Hawaiian Islands used to be considered a paradise which would remain untouched by climate change.  But, now we are witness to a terrifying convergence of factors leading a horrific conflagration resulting in deaths and suffering.  Is the world ready for this happening across the globe daily? Are Americans prepared to lose all they have and their lives too?  Nah! It's way cooler to attack Greta Thunberg and call her a retard.  , fat Al Gore sighed too much in 2000 but, those Oil Tycoons Bush and Cheney will bring honor back to the Whitehouse!

The Climate Catastrophe is here.

Imagine if James Comer and the Republicans investigated Clarence Thomas for Bribery

Ettin's are a Greedy species

“I know this is a controversial view, but I’m willing to say it. No provision in the Constitution gives them the authority to regulate the Supreme Court—period,” Supremacist Court InJustice Sammy Alito.

ProPublica did another dive into the blatant open bribery Clarence Thomas is receiving from numerous billionaires;

At least 38 destination vacations, including a previously unreported voyage on a yacht around the Bahamas; 26 private jet flights, plus an additional eight by helicopter; a dozen VIP passes to professional and college sporting events, typically perched in the skybox; two stays at luxury resorts in Florida and Jamaica; and one standing invitation to an uber-exclusive golf club overlooking the Atlantic coast.

This accounting of Thomas’ travel, revealed for the first time here from an array of previously unavailable information, is the fullest to date of the generosity that has regularly afforded Thomas a lifestyle far beyond what his income could provide. And it is almost certainly an undercount.

Unlike, Sammy di Puzzi Alito, Clarence is giddy and loves fucking over the American people as payback against everyone who engaged in the so-called "High Tech Lynching" in 1991.  That everything Anita Harris said about Clarence Thomas was true and that Clarence's tenure on the Supreme Court has borne out what a debased unethical monster he is, is incidental and immaterial. 

Just imagine if the Jim Comer and the House Republicans actually cared about Bribery and investigated the billionaires who shower Clarence Thomas with gifts in a wink-wink unspoken quid pro quo.  Just imagine if Faux News spent one-hundredth of the programming time covering the amount of gifts, bribes, trips, fine dining, wine, and money funneled to Clarence that they do to Hunter Biden's dick...

The details of the ProPublica piece are god awfully ridiculous and just demonstrate a level of unethical behavior reserved for comic book villains.  In 2019, David Sokol a Hedge Fund Vulture having flown Clarence and Ginni out to his 12,000+ acre ranch in Wyoming, also hosted rightwing criminal Mark Paoletta and his wife Tricia.  The Paoletta's wrote a tribute song about Clarence and sang it to him as they sat around the fire.

Just imagine if Faux News focused their anti-George Soros campaign on these Billionaires who have wined and dined the immoral Clarence Thomas for 30 years?  Just imagine if Republicans were honorable and not a fully fascist organization hell-bent on destroying the United States and then you would see them upholding the principles of America.  

But, that's not the country we live in... Instead we live in the Nation spiraling towards outright assassination attempts from rightwing domestic terrorists on President Biden and one were a Gang of Six emotionally stunted, angry, mentally unstable, unaccountable Fundamentalists are bribed by Billionaires to decide "Correctly" the rights of Americans.

ETA:  Additionally, House Republicans are salivating at the prospect of Democrats censuring or trying to hold Clarence Thomas accountable for his unethical and illegal gift taking because they can't wait to have Marge T. Greene get up with her slave holder accent and declare the Democrats are the Real Racists!

The Alabama Boat Brawl and the Ohio Special Election

“This is Trump country,” Senator Tommy Tuberbrain told the crowd in Montgomery, Alabama last weekend.

There is a simmering tension and barely constrained anger brewing in the Country.  This is not a good thing nor is it a harbinger for positive change.  For like a raisin in the sun sometimes it explodes...

For the past 8 years, Corporate Media has found every single aggrieved white conservative across the country to get their opinion on how great Donald Trump is and how angry they are that white people are the true victims and experiencing unbelievable levels of racism.  Of course, the Corporate Media has been framing news stories for the past 40+ years from the white rightwing perspective, that is when they aren't running hit jobs on Democratic Presidents.  But for the Trump Era everything needs to be under the rubric of what do Trump voters think?

So, it should comes as no surprise that after Donald John Traitor Trump gave a fundraiser in Montgomery Alabama a group of drunk white outside agitators decided to attack a black man for the temerity of telling them to move their unlawfully parked pontoon boat.

I won't try and encapsulate the overwhelming amount of incredibly funny, poignant, defiant, and righteous response across every social media platform and commentators but especially from black people who are quite rightly celebrating this fight and those black men and women who fought back against the drunken white pontoon boaters. 

And no don't give me any of that non-violence whitewashed Saint Martin content of their character crap.  Everyone knows Republicans have co-opted that phrase in order to get people to surrender to rightwing violence without a fight.  Violence sometimes is necessary and justified.  Of course, what conservatives have done in this country is work to distort those distinctions.  Just as rightwingers have confused people about who the true groomers and sexual predators in the country are, almost always white men in positions of authority, conservatives justify every act of violence against the poor, downtrodden, and those with the least power in the country.  Recall how every single Republican and right-winger vociferously defended Daniel Perry killing of Jordan Neely earlier this summer?  Or the continuing non-stop claims by Republicans that BLM and Antifa burned down Portland, Falsely claimed Police Officers were murdered, and did everything they could to blame "The Left" for destruction which was overwhelmingly caused by rightwing infiltrators?

Because make no mistake if these racial roles were reversed Megyn Kelly, Faux News, and every pissant on-line rightwing agitator would spend months revving up racial tension and enflaming the white rightwing society, while conservatives on-line would be threatening death, and gun violence against all black people.

Meanwhile, in Ohio, Republicans tried a bad faith special election to change the referendum process requiring direct referendum receive 60% of votes to be passed.  This was a direct assault on Abortion Rights which are up on the regular election ballot.  Well, the deceptive power grab was decisively defeated by a 2-to-1 margin.

"Today, Ohio voters rejected an effort by Republican lawmakers and special interests to change the state's constitutional amendment process," President Biden said in a statement Tuesday night. "This measure was a blatant attempt to weaken voters' voices and further erode the freedom of women to make their own health care decisions. Ohioans spoke loud and clear, and tonight democracy won."

Understand, that Republicans have passed the Authoritarian event horizon and a slowly yet inexorably being pulled into the naked singularity of outright fascism.  Republicans will do whatever they can, by whatever means available to undermine the United States in their quest to remake this Nation into a Neo-Confederate quasi-Christian Fundamentalist slave state.

But, while I'm not going to say people are fighting back because that is a trite observation, often by people in no danger of being harmed by Republican positions, this does demonstrate Americans continue to reject Trump and Republican "policies" over and over.  Demonstrating, yet again those who argued to elect Trump over HRC in order to "Heighten the Contradictions" are so misguided much like their horseshoe libertarian brethren who believe bad business will eventually go out of business ignoring the damage being wrought right now for a fantasy of a utopian tomorrow. 

This is why the 2024 election now holds the fate of the Nation on a razor-thin balance.  If Trump somehow pulls of an Electoral victory (he's going to lose the popular vote by 10,000,000) or if Republicans in the House can somehow pull off a bureaucratic Coup well then Fascism and all it's open evils will quickly engulf the Nation.  Even when President Biden wins re-election, Republican Traitors are going to call the election stolen and do their damnedest to make certain States, and regions into ungovernable tribal regions.

Meanwhile, be wary, be prepared, be brave if you can because the Republican Party is gone all that remains is the Fascist Trump Party and they are coming for you.

Wisconsin Minocqua Brewing attacked by Weaponized Government

Like Joe Biden this is Good

I tend to shy away from ascribing certain over-determined explanations for Republican perfidy.  Therefore, every creepy rightwing YouTuber screaming about trans peoples genitals and groomers isn't necessarily closeted or a sex pest, although Steven Crowder and Matt Walsh are definitely rapist perverts.  And every accusation of a Weaponized Government by Republicans isn't a necessarily a confession of Republican desires.

But, in Minocqua, Wisconsin it most assuredly is;

A Northwoods brewpub known for marketing beers named after Democratic politicians had its ability to operate revoked Wednesday after a yearslong battle over local zoning rules. 

Under the decision by an Oneida County zoning committee, Minocqua Brewing Company would be forced to close its doors. Owner Kirk Bangstad has vowed to appeal the decision and remain open as long as possible.  

The dispute involved parking regulations and a contested plan by Bangstad to open an outdoor beer garden. But in social media posts and statements to news media, Bangstad has repeatedly claimed that he is being targeted by a conservative board because of his liberal political views. 

Kirk Bangstad's accusation is, undoubtably true.  Especially, since rightwingers have openly attacked his business in the past. Thanks to President Jimmy Carter, we are currently in a Renaissance of Craft Beer; even if psycho beer makers continue to foist hop-laden undrinkable IPAs upon the consumer.  Additionally, the Wisconsin legislature recently voted to change the laws regarding brewing, selling, and consuming alcohol across the state, as they were a mish-mash of anti-monopoly and prohibition era ideas about restricting consumption and keeping one company from controlling the entire means of production and distribution.  So, to cite Miocqua Brewing over this ticky-tack violation of zoning rules strikes directly to the heart of it being a vendetta against an openly liberal company and business owner.

If you've never been to the Minocqua region of Upper Wisconsin, it's a marshy land, festooned with numerous small lake waters.  It's heavily a tourist and summer rental area.  So it's not as if this is the insular land of Rightwing cousin-fvckers.  There's a market for Minocqua's beers.

“I am open for business until somebody puts a padlock on my business. They had planned this ahead of time to revoke my permit to do business. This was a charade. This whole meeting was a charade,” said Bangstad.

Oh, no this can't be right.  Republicans would never cancel a businessman!  Republicans would never use weaponized government against a company!  Corporations should never be constrained by government!  It must be pointed out over and over and over and over to get the Normies out there to understand.  Republicans and Rightwingers do not believe anything except power and do not adhere to the any of the principles they ostensibly believe in.

Republicans are immoral, unethical, unprincipled criminals who yearn to use the awesome power of government (at any level they control) to hurt and harm anyone who challenges them or who veers away from the rightwing agenda of hatred, intolerance, oppression, bigotry, and adulation of the rich.

Broken Windows is Not Policing

...it's harassment.

Broken Windows policing is the concept that by citing, arresting, and taking enforcement action on small crimes, Police Officer presence deters bigger crimes.

The term itself comes from the idea that when you see one broken window in a, usually dilapidated, building "criminals" feel empowered to break them all.

Charles Murray emerged from his crypt to opine in the Washington Post that Crime is Up because Broken Windows as a policing strategy was stopped, abandoned, and discredited.

Charles Murray gained his reputation by authoring the infamous Bell Curve, in 1994, which postulated the groundbreaking theory that Blacks are genetically inferior to superior smart Whites (and Asians but don't tell them because Asians are the model minority).

We get the general idea of where Murray is going with his attached headline picture accompanying the story, a homeless encampment in LA with some red flag which advertises the "Devil's Lettuce".  

How grotesque.  How so very on brand for this Reaganite Bigot. (Incidentally I see Reagan Era Bigots are getting a last hurrah, as William B. Allen co-authored the Florida Slavery is Great curriculum).

Murray then references the utter falsehood about Defund the Police in the wake of George Floyd's extrajudicial killing.  Murray has to amend his invocation of Floyd, BLM, and the Republicans lies about Defund by stating crime had supposedly already been going up for a decade before, thus invalidating bringing it up until you realize the reason Charles Murray brings up Floyd, BLM, and Defund the Police is to reiterate Republican agitprop and repetition, repetition, repetition. 

What this leads to is the policy of Police misconduct and harassment in Ferguson, Missouri;

Our investigation has shown that distrust of the Ferguson Police Department is longstanding and largely attributable to Ferguson’s approach to law enforcement. This approach results in patterns of unnecessarily aggressive and at times unlawful policing; reinforces the harm of discriminatory stereotypes; discourages a culture of accountability; and neglects community engagement. In recent years, FPD has moved away from the modest community policing efforts it previously had implemented, reducing opportunities for positive police-community interactions, and losing the little familiarity it had with some African- American neighborhoods. City officials have frequently asserted that the harsh and disparate results of Ferguson’s law enforcement system do not indicate problems with police or court practices, but instead reflect a pervasive lack of “personal responsibility” among “certain segments” of the community.

But this the outcome that Charles Murray wants and sees as a positive good.  Like all bigots, Murray is only interested in this being applied to Big Cities, which are overwhelmingly represented by minorities.  What Murray and his ilk want are Police Forces to be an occupying army, in which white Police Officers who live in the suburbs or certain urban conclaves ride into the Urban Jungle and enact Justice.

What this doesn't do is stop Domestic Violence.  What this doesn't do is stop Drunk Driving or distracted drivers who will Instagramming LOL run over and kill world-class bicyclists in their urban assault SUVs. What this doesn't do is stop kingpins who hire juvenile offenders to steal catalytic convertors in areas where no Broken Windows exist.  What this doesn't do is stop areas with high crime rates per capita like say when the Democratic candidate for Governor in Oklahoma, correctly points out their violent crime rate was higher than New York City.

But, none of this matters to Charles Murray, whose job as a rightwing propagandist is to craft a narrative to sell to Americans.  And for 50 years Murray has made sure to tell white people "Crime", like gun violence, is a thing that only happens in DemocRAT run cities.

Sinéad O'Conner and Matt Walsh

Everyone can see what's going on
They laugh 'cause they know they're untouchable
Not because what I said was wrong - The Emperor's New Clothes, Sinéad O'Conner (1990)

America destroys those who tell the truth and elevates despicable lying con-artists to positions of power and respect.

I had not thought of Sinéad O'Conner for many years until one day while on Patrol a Missing/Endangered alert came out for her.  Her passing this month marks the end of a chapter in American life prior to the non-stop deluge of "outrages" rightwingers invent and propagate via social media.

Sinéad is mostly remembered for tearing up a picture of Pope John Paul II on SNL in 1992 to the stunned silence of the crowd.  This ended her popular career from 1990-1992, with the release of her album I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, which had skyrocketed to #1 throughout the world and sold 7,000,000 copies, although thankfully she got to continue making music and receiving support from good people like Kris Kristofferson.

Nothing Compares 2 U received such outside overplay on MTV ( I think coupled with the gross white male gaze which reduced her to an exotic Irish lust object) blunted her musical thrust which was aggressive girl punk which in a few years would usher in the Lilith Fair Era of female music artists of the 1990s.

Sinéad O'Conner suffered from that particular sin in America; being Right.  This sin is still used to punish people up to this day; most often women.  For example the (Dixie) Chicks in 2003, Hillary Clinton from 1992-2016, and the visceral harassment of Anita Sarkeesian, during the toxic misogynist GamerGate nonsense in 2014.

Loud obnoxious American conservatives do not want the Truth and never have.  What they want are lies which make them feel good, strong, proud, tough, and big-dicked.  MAGA... for short hand.

Many rightwing grifters have seized upon this and that whole cadre of on-line propagandists who talk about all manner of subjects of which they have no experience or understanding.  But, they know how to get that loud vocal wannabe domestic terrorist audience's ardor up.  And it's by telling the Lies; about Migrants, about LGBTQ persons, about crime, about the movie Barbie...

And that brings up wannabe religious Mullah Matt Walsh.  This is the grossest big name right-winger to get a lot of money and press coverage lately.  If you watch his old videos, before he had the full beard, his unshaven fedora wearing, latte drinking, diatribes in his car outside schools are creepier than fuck, especially as he talks about age of consent.  But, then he hit upon his What is a Woman? socratic dialogue and accusations that every LGBTQ person is a "groomer".  And Youtube algorithms fucking love to add his ad to my feed no matter how many times I tell them the ad is inappropriate. Walsh has a bevy of White Knights who descend on any social media platform and attack GamerGate style anyone who disagrees with Walsh and his tactic and then proceed to proclaim Matt Walsh destroys this lib or that lib in order to boost the clicks and increase the chances the algorithm continues to pump out Matt Walsh's bilge.

But, Walsh is a very sick individual.  He's taking to selling Matt Walsh plush dolls in a diaper on his site and I can't help but wonder if all those Accusations of perversion aren't in fact confessions of his own predilections. 

But, Matt Walsh isn't the cause he's a symptom of the bigger problem, which is Fascism is here and it's fully captured a large segment of the America Right.  And worse yet as rightwingers get more and more comfortable with threatening violence they won't stop with LGBTQ "groomers" but, will simply expand the definition of groomer they way they did with "Terrorists" to incorporate everyone they hate.  And given enough political backing and cover the rightwing paramilitary violence and Republican state-sanctioned death camps will closely follow.

So be a Sinéad O'Conner but, understand the American conservative movement is coming closer to outright violence and they will not spare you for being Right.

Drunken Van Orden, Wisconsin drinking culture and wedding barns

Disreputable, Despicable, Dishonorable, Derrick

During my Marine Corps days there was nothing like being on base and seeing the line out the px and 7 day store on Friday afternoon.  Young Marines waiting to buy multiple cases of beer.

Since then, working the job, you meet any number of drunks and the mean ones are apparent right away.

Derrick Van Orden is most definitely a mean drunk.  And I have no doubt when weekend liberty came and he and his fellow SEALs went out to party and booze it up, Van Orden was the type who got piss drunk and then engaged in play-fighting which he quickly escalated into an actual fight/wrestling match. 

Drunk Van Orden is the type of abusive alcoholic asshole whom the Department of Defense no longer wants portrayed in movies and tv series but, which are ubiquitous throughout the services.

But, once a mean drunk always a mean drunk.  Drunk Van Orden's childish tantrum and despicable booze-filled outburst at teenage Senate pages shows great disrespect on Naval tradition.  But, one first thing rage filled assholes like Drunk Van Orden (just like other mean drunks) do is justify their actions.  Which we saw Drunk Van Orden do by aping the 'Tell Me you've never been" meme to act as though getting piss-drunk in his Congressional Office and then accosting children is normal behavior in Wisconsin.  NPR predictably ran cover for Drunk Van Orden by euphemistically referring to his "short fuse", because the media exist to justify, mollify, and soften Republican perfidy.

Unfortunately, binge-drinking is a problem in Wisconsin.  Although if you read the chart for worst states you'll notice they are all Northern clime states which have the problem of those long winter nights.  Interestingly, Norway dealt with this problem of heavy drinking/long winter nights by creating the State Monopoly on alcoholic beverages over 5% ABV and to remove the profit motive with making and selling more and more booze.  Wisconsin drinking culture has been written about for decades although various fixes have been promoted throughout the years.

Of course, Squeaker of the House Qevin McCarthy defended Drunk Van Orden because he needs his vote and Republicans don't give a shit how much of an asshole, criminal, drunk, conman, or pervert you are as long as you pull that lever for the Republican agenda of hatred, intolerance, and adulation of the Rich.

The laws governing the manufactures, distribution, sale, and consumption of alcoholic beverages are a mish-mash of Anti-Monopoly and Temperance movement and have needed to be cleaned up and streamlined for the 21st century reality.  Earlier this Summer, the Wisconsin legislature did pass a comprehensive reworking of the State's alcohol laws.  Sadly, this matters very little to drunks like Van Orden who revel in slamming a handful of sour Brandy old-fashioned and then engage in favorite well-worn tradition of all abusive alcoholics, berating children. 

It's a Scorcher! Public Pools could help mitigate the heat but.. white people don't want black people in the pools

There was a time when Public Pools served communities across America.  Then starting in the post-World War 2 era of desegregation, white America decided that if they had to have equality, then no one got a public pool.  For instance here is an excerpt from Heather McGhee's book, “The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together,”

Built in 1919, the Fairground Park pool in St. Louis, Missouri, was the largest in the country and probably the world, with a sandy beach, an elaborate diving board, and a reported capacity of ten thousand swimmers. When a new city administration changed the parks policy in 1949 to allow Black swimmers, the first integrated swim ended in bloodshed. On June 21, two hundred white residents surrounded the pool with “bats, clubs, bricks and knives” to menace the first thirty or so Black swimmers. Over the course of the day, a white mob that grew to five thousand attacked every Black person in sight around the Fairground Park. After the Fairground Park Riot, as it was known, the city returned to a segregation policy using public safety as a justification, but a successful NAACP lawsuit reopened the pool to all St. Louisans the following summer. On the first day of integrated swimming, July 19, 1950, only seven white swimmers at­tended, joining three brave Black swimmers under the shouts of two hundred white protesters. That first integrated summer, Fairground logged just 10,000 swims—down from 313,000 the previous summer. The city closed the pool for good six years later. Racial hatred led to St. Louis draining one of the most prized public pools in the world.

Draining public swimming pools to avoid integration received the official blessing of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1971. The city council in Jackson, Mississippi, had responded to desegregation de­mands by closing four public pools and leasing the fifth to the YMCA, which operated it for whites only. Black citizens sued, but the Su­preme Court, in Palmer v. Thompson, held that a city could choose not to provide a public facility rather than maintain an integrated one, because by robbing the entire public, the white leaders were spreading equal harm. “There was no evidence of state action affect­ing Negroes differently from white,” wrote Justice Hugo Black. 

As a result, White People were able to have their own private pools in public by just adding privacy "requirements".  For instance, HOA rules.

A video shows police arresting a teenager at a pool at Cambridge Commons in east Charlotte. A woman, who didn’t want to be identified, said a group of underaged kids got into the pool.  A family member of the HOA president said that because there is no lifeguard, the rules are that anybody under 18 must be accompanied by someone who is over 18.  The woman told Counts the kids were asked to leave and they allegedly refused and so someone called the cops.  Several adults told Channel 9 that the kid who was arrested lives in the neighborhood and would have had the right to use the pool if the chaperone policy was followed.

I don't give a fuck if your fucking "HOA rules" are a child needs to have supervision to use your fucking pool.  That's not criminal trespass.  Your fucking HOA rules are not laws.  But, when it comes to black people understand conservatives love to put them under the threat of police violence.

This is far from the first time, white people have called out-of-control white cops to come and remove the black people from the pool.  But, always remember conservatives absolutely support the use of force up to and including extrajudicial killing of black people for any offense real or imagined.

“On July 27, we received a call for a disturbance at Cambridge Commons Drive. During these types of calls, we seek collaboration from all parties involved. Our goal is always to achieve a peaceful resolution in every situation.”

As far as the police response, of course, the Public Relations contact and command staff is not going to correctly point out the dumb ass Officers who responded to the scene unduly escalated the situation and should have simply arrived noted there was no violation of law and left.  At the absolute most you treat this as a civil matter and tell all parties involved that notification of the HOA rules has been made.  But, instead this is what I've come to expect from Law Enforcement during these types of encounters who find it necessary to escalate the situation until an enforcement action, i.e. throwing a black child to the ground and handcuffing them, is required. 

Drunken Derrick Van Orden attacks children in an alcoholic rage in the Halls of Congress

Mean drunk suggests being a 
Mean drunk is the epitome of
Wisconsin

Wisconsin Congressman Derrick Van Orden is not a politician his website for Congress in 2022 will have you know.  But, Van Orden also isn't a stable human being either.

In a booze filled rage, Derrick Van Orden attacked and yelled at Senate congressional pages,

“Wake the fuck up you little shits … What the fuck are you all doing? Get the fuck out of here. You are defiling the space you pieces of shit,” Van Orden said, according to an account of the incident provided to The Hill by a page. 

“Who the fuck are you?” Van Orden asked, to which one person said they were Senate pages. “I don’t give a fuck who you are, get out.” 

“You jackasses, get out,” he added.

I guess this is better behavior than we can normally expect from Republicans towards pages as elected Republicans normally try and have sex with those little boys.  Besides being a drunken rage filled asshole, Van Orden is a treasonous fuck who was part of the January 6th rightwing attack on the United States.

Van Orden's Congressional office is apparently festooned with empty bottles of booze and reports are Van Orden was clearly intoxicated as he accosted these children.  But, Van Orden is a rough and tough Navy SEAL, who now has quite a history of "punching down".  In June 2021, flush off of his invasion of the US Capitol building, Van Orden yelled at a bunch of employees at a Prairie du Chien library over the LGBTQ+ books and display.  Yelling at workers to make themselves feel tough and brave is a classic rightwing maneuver.

These Congressional Pages get these positions after applying with their state's US Senator and are probably 16-17 year olds.  But, Republicans don't actually give a shit about children.  And Van Orden is naught but a mean abusive alcoholic and a shows great disrespect to the US Naval traditions. 

(For further context,  recall how conservatives and Republicans slowed down videos of Nancy Pelosi to make it appear she was drunk? Republicans love lies and hate America. And when confronted with an elected Republican who actually is an abusive alcoholic asshole, they won't do anything...)