Workforce: The Dignity of Work

The Republicans are back at the only thing they care about; the Optics of Owning the Libs. To that effect the Republicans have renamed the Education & Labor House Committee the "Education & Workforce" 

"Labor” is an antiquated term that excludes individuals who contribute to the American workforce but aren’t classified as conventional employees. “Labor” also carries a negative connotation that ignores the dignity of work; the term is something out of a Marxist textbook that fails to capture the accomplishments of the full spectrum of the American workforce.

The Left prefers the term labor because it creates a sense of enmity between employees and employers which union bosses and left-wing activists seek to stoke for political gain. This word also fails to capture how deeply intertwined workers and job creators are in their contributions to our economy.

Watch out! When Republicans begin waxing poetic about the dignity of work what they are fondly recalling is Slavery.  The Republican Party is fully invested in destroying Unions, workplace safety, weekends, paid-sick leave, and every other 20th century progressive gain for workers in America. 

That means the Pleasure of Working For Us for Free style Labor, I mean, "Workforce".  But, while Republicans are masters at pounding home their propaganda (or pummeling perhaps) they are also lazy af and simply rely on the agitprop terms they've spent years repeating.  A Marxist Textbook!  Union Thugs!  "Job Creators"!  We haven't heard Republicans lavish praise on the Job Creators since they tried to claim President Obama's You Didn't Build That was an unprecedented scandal and the biggest affront to Capitalists since the abolition of slavery.

Because that's what Republicans yearn to bring back to the United States.  The Dignity of Work is a time when people worked themselves from childhood to an early grave and don't have free time to agitate for woke social justice.  Make America Great Again as it were, by shackling the American worker into perpetual corporate bondage and eternal wage slavery.

It should always be remembered Education & Labor Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC), is a vile bigot and ghoul, who like all vicious old Republicans hates the LGBTQ community and is more than willing to gaslight and excuse the mistreatment and murder of minorities,

"I also would like to point out that there was a bill -- the hate crimes bill that's called the Matthew Shepard bill is named after a very unfortunate incident that happened where a young man was killed, but we know that that young man was killed in the commitment of a robbery. It wasn't because he was gay. This -- the bill was named for him, hate crimes bill was named for him, but it's really a hoax that that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these bills,"Virginia Foxx 2009.

Florida is the epicenter for Coup Attempts in the Untied States and Brazil

So, Jair Bolsonaro the leader who arguably killed more of his citizens than Ron DeathSantis moved to Orlando, Florida and strolled down the street like an exalted foreign potentate has now launched on Trump Style Insurrection Brazil.

Thousands of supporters of Brazil’s former rightwing president Jair Bolsonaro stormed the country’s Congress, supreme court and presidential palace on Sunday, creating a crisis for new leftist leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva just a week into his presidency. 

Social media footage showed crowds vandalising the interiors of the three institutions in Brasília in scenes reminiscent of the US Capitol invasion two years ago by supporters of ex-president Donald Trump. Clad in the yellow and green of the Brazilian flag, the protesters demanded Lula’s election victory be overturned, that the leftwinger be imprisoned and for a military coup d’état. Around 150 people were arrested, local media reported.

Jair Bolsonaro lost re-election in Brazil last year and every right-winger in the United States was imploring him to stay and deny the results of the Election and simply stay in power

“Well, wait a second,” Tucker Carlson said with a furrowed brow. “The election is still ongoing. The incumbent has not conceded. How do you know the claims are, quote, false? Well, of course, you don’t. You’re taking sides and using censorship to cement the results in place. This is propaganda. YouTube is interfering in a democratic election in a sovereign nation. How is that allowed?”

Steven Bannon and Stephen Miller ran with the lie that Lula stole the election aided by President Biden, the State Department and the CIA and suggested violence was the answer.  Steve Bannon appears to be key facilitator for setting both the Jan6th Insurrection and the Bolsonaro Brazilian Coup attempt in motion.

And it's incontrovertible that if Donald John Fucking Traitor Trump had been in office during the 2022 Brazil Election Bolsanaro would have denied the results, arrested Lula and his supporters, stayed in Office and instituted a Junta.  Recall Traitor Trump was silent when the paramilitary goons of Turkish Dictator Erdoğan, attacked a group of mostly American protesters outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence in Washington, D.C. 9 Americans were wounded by the Turkish guards.

Did Ron DeSantis have any pre-knowledge of the Coup Attempt?  Did Ron DeSantis provide aid to Bolsanaro?  Did DeSantis facilitate the strategy or provide Florida as a staging and planning with this?  Did Mike Flynn meet with Bolsonaro?  Did DeSantis have a plane standing by to jet Bolsonaro back to Brazil if his supporters started and the military toppled the Lula Government?

What's clear is Fascism spearheaded by Republicans, Faux News, and on-line rightwing propagandists are exporting the American version and supporting authoritarians worldwide and Florida is a Nexus.

Fat Matt Schlapp sexually assaulted some guy's lap while CPAC clapped

One of the obvious explanations for the Gay Panic exhibited by the likes of Fvcker Carlson and so many other rightwingers is they are closeted homosexuals, who hate themselves.  While this might be the case for the occasional conservative male it's too broad a brush stroke which excuses their inexcusable behavior while also humanizing their inhumanity towards the LGBTQ community.

While in the Toilet Matt Schlapp
likes to pummel guys crotches

It's more likely, these men are simply assholes.

In the case of Matt Schlapp it's incontrovertible the man is a ripe asshole and a sexual abuser.

There have apparently been rumors of homosexual liaisons involving Matt Schlapp at the CPAC conventions which he frequents in his position as the Chairman.

The sexual assault allegation which has emerged is that a Herschel Walker event in Georgia on October 19th last year a conservative Walker campaign staffer was assaulted by a drunken Schlapp first at bars and then while driving as drunken Schlapp grabbed and fondled the man's crotch repeatedly. 

The staffer, in his late thirties, recalled that while he drove Schlapp back to the hotel, Schlapp put his hand on his leg, then reached over and “fondled” his crotch at length while he was frozen in shock, calling it “scarring” and “humiliating.” When they arrived at the hotel, the staffer said Schlapp invited him to his room. The staffer said he declined and left “as quickly as I could.”

When the staffer got home that night, he received a call from Schlapp—shortly after midnight, according to call records the staffer shared with The Daily Beast—to confirm that the staffer would still chauffeur him to an event in Macon the next day. The staffer described the call as “short and perfunctory,” but after confirming he would drive him, the staffer “broke down.” He then recorded a series of tearful video accounts detailing the evening, which he shared with The Daily Beast as well as with two people close to him, including the staffer’s wife.

In a video after the incident and after he reported it to the Walker Senate Campaign, the man states,
“Matt Schlapp of the CPAC grabbed my junk and pummeled it at length, and I’m sitting there thinking what the hell is going on, that this person is literally doing this to me.”

"Pummeled" is a hell of a descriptor.  I have no doubt this happened to the man.  Because if there is one truism which applies to rightwingers everywhere it is they accuse others of actions they themselves engage in (EAIAC = Every Accusation Is A Confession).  Schlapp denied Rapist Justice Boomer O'Kavanugh's allegations while hyping the bullshit bizarro Tara Reade lies (Reade is now just a standard rightwing propagandist hyping The Twitter Files and Defending Russian's Invasion of Ukraine).

But, like all accusations made against high profile Republicans, rightwingers will never believe it because denying the accusation gives them power and keeping the rapist in their position gives them even more power.  

Electing Republicans has Consequences

“When you vote, you are exercising political authority, you're using force. And force, my friends, is violence. The supreme authority from which all other authorities are derived.” ― Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers

Kat Cammack running to steal 
the Democrats popcorn and booze

As we sit watching the Republican controlled US House of Representatives flail about over the Speaker of the House vote, it's important to note that the Republican Party has no intention of legislating when they finally figure out the perfunctory first steps of Congress.

Understand the goal of the Republican Party is to "drown the US government in a bathtub".  They don't want to reform the US government they want to replace it.

Towards that goal of destroying the functioning administrative state is making it look like Democracy and the functionality of the institutions have failed.  We see this as today we entertain the 13th vote for Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy having failed to garner sufficient support in the previous 12 and having received less votes than Hakeem Jeffries in 11 of the 12 votes.  But, by grinding the gears of the administrative state to a halt, as they are right now, Republicans and Rightwingers can point and shout See Government Doesn't Work!

For decades the pliant Coprorate media has been content to go along with the two pillars of the Rightwing  Narrative about Government; 1) the Government et al is broken and doesn't function and can't help you, thus lumping in the Democratic Party which is trying to keep government working with the Republican saboteurs actively undermining the government and 2) the Republican Party is being held hostage by the extreme fringe and a few wacko members.  

In reality this framing, has allowed Republicans to gain outsized political power by depressing the vote and turning Generation X into too cool to vote cynics and allowed Republicans to vote en masse to enact their extremist ideology while having a few of the more outwardly outlandish members act as lightning rods absorbing the blame.  The truth is every Republican is a full-blown MAGA Fascist, the few who weren't;  like Adam Kinzinger, Liz Cheney, Peter Meijer weren't liberal they just were steady Republicans voting the exact same way as every other Republican.

At the same time the Corporate Media was giving cover to the Republican Party by repeating the rightwing claims of BothSides are too blame and Dysfunction in Congress is the fault of All those Bozos when it's been clear since Ronnie Raygun, Cheatin' Newt Gingrich, the Stolen 2000 Presidential election, the Tea Baggers of 2010 and ultimate expression of Republican values Donald John Traitor Trump that Republicans are saboteurs purposefully undermining the United States in order that the government powers will fall into their hands.

And what does this current crop of MAGAT Republicans plan to do with Congressional Power?  Why #OwntheLibs of course.  By blowing up pictures of Hunter Biden's penis, helping Russia conquer Ukraine, arresting Dr. Fauci for Covid (which is simultaneously nothing more than a Cold while also being BioTerrorism from China), and blaming President Biden for Afghanistan.  Additionally, the Republicans are going to attack the following;

The FBI is infested with soft on crime swamp creatures who ignore BLM and arrest peaceful conservatives.  The FBI is insufficiently MAGA it needs to be replaced with a Trumpstapho or Trumpstazi.

The Biden IRS is hiring 87,000 agents to arrest small business owners for cheating on their taxes (which everyone does).  Of course, Traitor Tump requesting the IRS be used his political enemies is immaterial 

The Military is too woke and gay and couldn't beat Russia, even though Republicans wanted the Gay Woke US Military to aid Russia in conquering Ukraine.

There will be nothing substantially accomplished from the US House in 2023 or 2024 except for allowing the debt ceiling to collapse and then running with the Biden destroyed the economy at which point the Republicans will expect their co-conspirators in the compliant Corporate Media to run with the rightwing propaganda of blaming a Democratic President for financial destruction caused by Republican policies.

Because then the Republicans can steal the 2024 Presidential Election and get to work replacing the  Democratic Republic with their NeoConfederate Fascist Nation built upon oppression and intolerance and the subjugation of women, minorities, non-christians, and the rounding up and elimination of anyone who opposes MAGA Fascism.

Everybody hates Kevin (McCarthy) and Republicans hate America

This is a little harsh I don't hate the man.  Certainly, he's a spineless shameless sponge whose only ambition is too be Speaker of the House and he's politician of low cunning who is only making this play by aping more competent Republican villains. 

Additionally, McCarthy has the problem of flatly stating Republican machinations and doesn't possess the slightest skill at wrangling other members of his Party of Ghouls.

Recall McCarthy revealed he knew (and other Republicans knew too) that Trump (and Dana Rohrbacher) were being paid by Russia.

McCarthy went on to tell the press the Republican plan was to flog Benghazi to politically harm Hillary Clinton.  Sadly, this worked as the Corporate Media did it's job of amplifying and repeating Republican propaganda.

And as the January 6th committee was being formed, McCarthy made the disastrous decision to exclude Republicans from being on it thus allowing Liz Cheney and the Democratic Congresspersons the ability to really dig into the vast rightwing conspiracy to overthrow the United States Government on 01/06/21.

And even now, it's been clear and reported Kevin was willing to grovel and debase himself to the House Fascist Caucus offering so many unbelievable concessions those GQP nut jobs demanded absolute control in House and over him.  McCarthy's political skills being so weak his only tactic to win Speaker is to hold vote after voter after vote.  He's lost 6 votes for Speaker in two days with no signs of the Fascist Caucus weakening. 

In normal times and in a functioning Democratic Republic this would be a giant scandal and cause the collapse of the Republican Party but MAGA Republicans don't care.  In fact, a strong segment of the GQP is fine if the US House doesn't function at all for the next two years.  The Republicans have no vision, no agenda, no plan to help the American people, no policies, no platform.  Republicans have nothing to offer the American people.  And right now, they have no leadership either.  John Boehner couldn't corral and control the earlier iteration of Nihilists in Congress, McCarthy has no chance. So we're stuck with the direction less Republican controlled House for the next two years.

But, understand while the Republican Party has nothing resembling what any Patriotic American would call an agenda they are like a zombie horde; they plague the living and represent a real danger.  The Republican Party is an unserious conglomerate of bigots, fascists, criminals, thieves and terrorists.  So, they are a serious threat to the Nation.

Because Republicans plan on destroying the US Government and America and replacing these great United States with an unequal Nation with clear divisions along racial, religious, financial, and gender lines, where White Rich Christian Supremacy rules and everyone else is subject to the whim of Republican and Rightwing violence.

The Revenge of the Thin Blue Line 30: Are you bailing on me???

All persons shall be bailable by sufficient sureties and No person shall be imprisoned for debt... Section 9 and Section 14 of  Illinois State Constitution

As Election Day is long past at least I don't have to see the political ads featuring Joe Rogan's fat fascist head talking about   OMG!No Bail in Illinois anymore!

The SAFE-T Act was an excellent step in Illinois not only to address Police abuses but, the well-known inequities in the application of criminal procedure, especially in the which defendants are allowed to bail themselves out awaiting trial.  You see rich people can always get themselves out of detention while awaiting their trial but, poor people are often kept in custody for long periods of time.

In response, white rightwingers in Illinois lost their minds and engaged in a bigoted fear campaign of unprecedented fury.  Powerful racist white bureaucrats took to the papers with false scenarios and filed a various lawsuits across the State.  Eventually a "class action lawsuit" by the Illinois States Attorney's from 57 Illinois Counties were consolidated into a hearing in Kankakee County on December 9th.  On December 28th, Judge Thomas Cunnington ruled the "No Cash Bail" provision to be unconstitutional.  Setting up an eventual Illinois Supreme Court ruling on the provision.  Which I guarantee is going to overturn Judge Cunnington's ruling because tying a defendant's ability to bail themselves out specifically to money is a clear-cut violation of the Illinois Constitution. 

The Public Defenders Office of Cook County released a statement as the Illinois Supreme Court issued a last minute stay just prior to the implementation of the Pre-Trial Fairness section of the SAFE-T Act,

Money bond is a deplorable practice, and it is high time that Illinois abolish a system that punishes people – most of them Black and Brown – for being poor. We decry the frivolous lawsuit that was brought against the Pretrial Fairness Act almost two years after it was signed into law. We continue to look forward to a day in the near future when Illinois will move forward as a beacon for our nation, reforming our inequitable pretrial legal system.

Remember it's important to always note that when rightwingers wail about CRIME! CRIME! CRIME! they mean BLACK! BLACK! BLACK!  "Crime" and "Chicago" is code for black people.  Conservatives believe black people are predisposed to be criminals.  So when they have a freak out about OMG! No Cash Bail! it's because conservatives believe all black people are a priori criminals and thus the SAFE-T Act lets hardened criminals out of jail.

Additionally in this fear mongering is the subtle or unsubtle claim by State's Attorney's and Police Chiefs that everyone arrested, regardless of race, is ipso facto guilty.  And this gets to the syllogistic conclusion, which the opponents of cash-less bail are actually proposing; i.e. that once someone is arrested they can never be released.  Ever.  And no this is not hyperbole.  Anyone arrested has ostensibly committed a crime once and therefore could commit some crime in the future, so based on this possibility shouldn't every person arrested be kept in custody until such time as their trial occurs?

Of course, the NFL planned to finish the Bills-Bengals game

I did not pay good money for your company. I paid it so that I might profit from your death. And just as your mother was there at your beginning, I shall be there at your end. And when you die - and die you shall - your transition will be to the sound of... [claps his hands] - Proximo, Gladiator (2000)

Of fucking course they did.  Don't be ridiculous or naive.  The NFL churns through hundreds of bodies every season and has ground-up thousands in it's history... what's one more body on the pyre?

In the Monday Night Football contest between the Bills and Bengals, Bills defensive back Damar Hamlin collapsed after a seemingly routine tackle.  After his collapse, CPR was administered on the field and he was driven away in an ambulance.

After a few short words from these commercial sponsors The NFL and Network prepared to resume play.  And why wouldn't they?  It's just another replaceable body carted off the field? 'Next Man Up...' as NFL coaches say...  You've got 5 minutes to get warmed up before play resumes.  But, apparently the players and the Bills and Bengals Head Coaches seeing CPR, which is most often unsuccessful in reviving a person, on the field decided they weren't going to play and the game was postponed.  The NFL billion dollar media relations was caught flat-footed and didn't prepare any official response or have the league commissioner give a statement or handle this at all.

No, instead NFL executives and fans are livid because this MNF game was almost unique for a regular season game because of money.  Tonight's match-up was the deciding game in the Championship Week of 95% of fantasy football seasons.  As well as the regular betting which now is a major component of each and every game.  And the old school ratings draw for a marquee match-up between two top teams.

Football is a brutal bloodspot and which has lead to a significant number of early deaths for it's players.  It's just that those deaths are often far removed and the result of an accumulation of years of wear and tear and physical abuse as opposed to one flash traumatic event.  But, there have been several "highlight reel" terrible impacts and injuries this season as well.

I think most fans, executives, and even players have allowed themselves to compartmentalize the terrible destruction this "sport" does to their bodies by imagining those effects will come years later or that they will be the lucky ones who live long and enjoy a great post-playing career as a coach or commentator.

I see that the "Died Suddenly" Anti-Vaccination ghouls have jumped onto Hamlin's event as further evidence of Vaccine Injury.  

It's Time to Cancel Christmas

The bomb cyclone and deep arctic freeze which settled over the midwest snarled and cancelled the Christmas plans of many people.  My flight was cancelled as Chicago endured -35 wind chill, although the snow totals were far lower than at first predicted as the low pressure system settled in Quebec instead of southern Illinois,

"We've been getting questions about 'what happened to all that snow?'" the National Weather Service out of Milwaukee/Sullivan tweeted early Friday. "The main reason is due to where the low pressure system tracked and deepened. Earlier this week, it looked like the low would be deepening just to our south. Now, it's doing that in Quebec. We had a number of days in a row earlier this week and over last weekend which was showing us the more favorable track. Over the past few days, that started to trend further east which then led to less of a chance of high snow amounts."

But, what this indicates is trying to move 100,000,000 people during the beginning of Winter is sub-optimal plan especially as the effects of Climate Change continue to exert themselves with these "Once-in-a-Generation" Storms which happen every year, so we should simply move the Christmas Holiday to late June.  I've thought mid-June was a perfect spot for a Federal Holiday but, last year the US Government under Joe Biden and a Democratic Congress approved Juneteenth as a Federal Holiday.  So perhaps we could set New Xmas between Juneteenth and the 4th of July or set it for late July, that would be a great time to have people get together.

Christmas being in December is a christian plot anyway.  The young Hebrew rabbi known as Yeshua ben Nazareth who claimed to be the physical son of God never existed.  Many of the stories, miracles, and anecdotes of "Jesus" were cribbed from previous Pagan deities.  This was specifically decided by early church leaders to make Jesus similar to Pagan myths and ease the transition from Pagan to christian in the Ancient Roman world.  And the choice of late December was directly copied from the Winter Solstice and Io Saturnalia.  Now, of course I don't expect any change of Christmas to every occur.  Eventhough I'm an atheist I'm not "Militant" as the christians throw that modifier on to anyone who points out the correct historical understanding of the early church.

In many ways, the religious fanatics in America are similar to their counterparts in Iran or the Taliban of Afghanistan.  Here in the United States, they are constrained and unable to enforce the religious dictates backed by State violence as opposed to those Muslim fanatics.  But, fear not the Religious Zealots on America are working on that!  And they will do so via the Courts.

"My Sincere Religious Beliefs" is the vehicle by which christians will destroy the United State of America.

They tried to use "Religious Liberty" as a mechanism to shut down Civil Rights in the 1950's and 60's but didn't have the established legal precedents to call upon.  But, since the 1971 Justice Lewis Powell Memo rightwing organizations especially the Reagan Era Federalist Society have slowly ensconced religious wackos on the Bench and built up a body of Case Law enshrining religious beliefs into various levels of government. 

Now I know there's a lot of #NotAllChristian apologia whenever it's revealed that high level religious zealots have the ear of Sammy di Puzzi Alito and other members of The Supremacist Court or when podunk State legislators make secular laws based on biblical teachings or when secret recordings of fundamentalist fanatics outlining their completely disingenuous arguments to abolish all Abortion are released, it all comes back to what christians in America want; total control of peoples' lives and State backed power to force you to live by their religious precepts.  And they are going to call this realm of death, oppression, and persecution the Land of Liberty defending the Freedom of Religion.

Meet George Santos!

America & Brazil's True Leftist sure can Pick'em

Okay, this George Santos saga is beyond misstatements and beyond farce. The revelations are multiplying and they are moving beyond simply lying about his background and into a host of crimes past and present.

Santos isn't a Ukrainian Jew Holocaust descendant or or a Wall Street financial broker or apparently even gay.  I don't even know if his name is "George Santos".  Now... I'm not going to lament the fact the Republican Party will never, ever vote to censor a fellow Traveller.  Santos is part of the slender Republican majority in the House.  So, the "concurrence of two thirds" required to expel Santos will never be reached nor do I believe it should sans violent crimes like Insurrection or Civil War.

Also, in American Democracy the people deserve to be represented by those whom they vote for, even if it's a crypto FSB asset like Mad Nazi Cawthorn or drunken gun moll like Lauren Dick Flasher Boebert.  So if New York Third District wants an obvious fraud like "George Santos", that's what they should get.  Of course, if the residents of the district wish to sue and have "Santos" removed they should try whatever possible avenues exist.  Of course, I don't expect the Corporate Media to have delved into Santos shady background, the Media's job is to make Republicans palatable to voters and normalize the most egregious behavior.  

But, local reporting had uncovered a great deal of the false background.  His entire history is a fraud and involves Ponzi schemes, super shady personal finances, and lies about his education, his personal life, his ancestry, even despicably lying about having friends killed in the Pulse Nightclub Massacre and who knows what else.  Remember Rightwingers always claim "The Left" and Democratic officials use their background or identity politics to make themselves immune to criticism.  I'm betting that Republican strategists decided they needed an "openly Gay Republican" with a whole host of ethnic shields so they could use him to attack LGBTQ people (Santos said in April as a Gay Man he stood behind DeSantis and gave his full blown support to the Florida Republican Gay Bashing Laws) and be the face of Republican efforts to ensconce oppression and intolerance into the national dialogue and eventually into law, either through the Congress or Supreme Court.  "George Santos" was then invented and staked financially to be that Face.   

Santos has responded to these revelations by saying he needs a week to respond.  And I'm surprised he did.  But, I expect the response to be all these revelations are lies and the Democrats do it too and Suck it Libs!

The Woke Mind Virus

"The only thing that matters, is the individual, clearly..."  Tucker Carlson.  E Pluribus Unum, indeed...

It's always important to understand what a Republican actually means when they say something; when Republicans or rightwingers denounce "Woke", understand they are attacking basic human compassion.  The simple dignity of calling someone what they'd like to be known as becomes the biggest affront to conservatives.  "Woke" is simply the latest rightwing talking point disseminated to every conservative automaton who dutifully absorbs and retransmits en masse the totally original idea of anti-Wokeness.  You see this expressed all over social media where uniformly and ironically every conservative calls liberals "NPCs" or "Sheeple" as they celebrate their individuality by all telling the same damn unfunny joke; My Pronouns are...

"This is what happens when you swim in warm baths of wokeness..."  Ben SShaprio complaining about Twitter.

The real end goal of being "anti-Woke" is the coarsening of American society and weakening the bonds of shared humanity between Americans.  This is not a new effort, we saw it clearly post-911 with the Republican mistreatment of Muslims and we have seen the brutal rightwing Government violence directed at immigrants coming to the Nation.  Previously, gay people were targeted for violence from conservatives and concerted violence from Police across the Nation.  Remember the incident which led to the SCOTUS Lawerence v. Texas (2003) happened 25 years ago.  Rightwingers are hoping to get the chance to dust off criminal charges for "deviance".

Never forget Rightwingers always lie about what they supposedly believe in.  Conservatives don't believe in freedom or liberty or individuality those are just phrases right-wingers intone as shibboleths as Republicans have shown time and time again they are more than willing to use the awesome power of government to harass, harm, and kill individuals whom they have deemed as engaging in unAmerican activities.  One need look no further than the coordinated and murderous effort to eliminate the LGBTQ community.  Chaya Raichik and her Libs of TikTok site produces daily false outrage to goad conservatives into acts of stochastic terrorism and elected Republicans like Attorney General Ken Paxton have used their office to prepare lists of Transpersons.  Why would Ken Paxton want to create a database?  Well... Republican rhetoric towards LGBTQ persons has been eliminationist for a long time, in response the Proud Boys have attacked queer businesses, Matt Walsh fans threaten to blow up Boston-area Hospitals, and a Lauren Boebert inspired gunmen committed mass murder at Club Q in Colorado.

Republicans & Rightwingers have undermined the concept of American society through a steady barrage of propaganda designed to divorce people from unity and community.  Now, several generations shell-shocked by Republican efforts to slash the Social Safety Net and consistently fed agitprop of Makers&Takers 24/7 have turned their backs on The American Melting Pot and adopted the phony Rugged Individualism Republicans were offering. 

Much of this goes back to money and destroying the middle class (a goal of Republicans since the 1960's) It was a brilliant maneuver to slash taxes on the Ultra-Wealthy and Big Businesses thus shifting the bureaucratic burden of the US Government onto the backs of the White Working Class and then following up that legislative coup by incessantly telling White people that they are poor and broke because of lazy you-know-whos, illegal immigrants, drug users, and liberal activism instead of the true causes, namely Republican economic policies.

The overarching arc of Republican propaganda of phony Rugged Individualism is one in which, You, the Real American can only rely on yourself, you should only care about yourself and maybe your immediate family, anything which helps someone else hurts you, there is a limited pie of wealth and benefits and anyone who gets something (say Obamacare) means you don't get it.

The current anti-Woke Mind screeds by Tucker Carlson, Jordan Peterson, Dennis Praeger, Shapiro, Elon Musk, Tim Pool, or whatever rightwing propagandist you can cite are designed to create the Pavlovian Fear & Anger response in their rightwing drones. Eventually, the goal is to afford the conservative the shorthand of saying "Woke" derisively the same way they say "Socialism".  Then the term can be applied to everything and anything Republicans wish to scuttle or complain about, no matter how inappropriate or paradoxical the claim is.

Of course, the coarsening of American society doesn't just harm the enemies of MAGA.  The targets of the propaganda campaign the White Working Class have absorbed these messages of Fear & Anger and turned it upon themselves as well.  In 2019, Jonathan Metzl called this Dying of Whiteness.  And since these segments of society can not have compassion for others they in turn end up not being able to have compassion for themselves and engage in self-abnegation, self-medication, and suicide.

How AntiWar.com learned to stop worrying and love Russia's Invasion of Ukraine

Such claims are dismissed by the
Pro-Putin "Antiwar" crowd.

I used to read Antiwar.com which was highly critical of the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and provided a counter-balance for the incessant drumbeat of War! War! War! by the Corporate Media and the War Boner reporting of embedded journalists.

I meandered back to their website recently and was aghast but unsurprised that most of the articles they are linking to are by conservatives and Antiwar's take on Ukraine and Russia is evil NATO made Russia invade, and it's only a matter of time until Russia wins so Ukraine should surrender now, and *ackshullay* Biden is the Warmonger and NATO is the one escalating the violence, and watch out Russia might Nuke everyone because we made them do it.

It's despicably shocking to see Antiwar embrace Putin and Russia's invasion of Ukraine and adopt the abusers framing of Look what you made me do while catapulting rightwing narratives of Ukraine the fascist backstabber, and embracing Republican threats of cutting off funding for Ukraine.  It's beyond "Tankie" and beyond Only America is Imperialist, it's fundamentally a pro-Russian invasion of Ukraine position.

"Peace Champions" adhere to C3PO's advice,
'Let the Putin Win'

Every article front paged, linked to, and commented upon simply ignores what Putin said were the intentions and goals of his unlawful war and invasion; the so-called "denazification" of Ukraine and the elimination of Ukraine as a sovereign state for the right and proper re-absorption back into Mother Russia.  Instead articles and their comment section are full of people denouncing the rapacious Biden White House, inventing all manner of conspiratorial events which supposedly triggered Russia's invasion, and preposterously pretends that, by pushing and agitating for Ukraine's defeat, they are the true peacekeepers and the defenders of international Law&Order. 

Why is "Antiwar" trumpeting Russian talking points and linking to rightwing writers who've written the same It's Time for Ukraine to Surrender article for all of 2022 while supporting Russian's invasion of Ukraine?  I don't know.  

The continuing calamitous crypto currencies crash of 2022

Your crypto purchase bought me another
bottle of champagne for my asshole!

Just think!  Every Bitcoin you bought at the end of 2021 lost you $50,000 USD.

Hey you!  Yeah, you!  Join the 21st century!  Get out of the Stone Age!  Money isn't rocks!  Crypto comes from computers!  Real Money is 1s & 0s.  Give us that worthless fiat currency and we'll give you these digital tokens!  Trust Us!  Crypto isn't some Scam!

Of course, when you realize that Crypto Currency is a massive scam and that the creators of the scam made the money then you realize the goal isn't to create the Block Chain or create Non-Fiat Currency or Democratize Banking or The Digital Currency Utopia but to swindle hard-working but, financially immature or novice investors of their Real Money then you understand that a BitCON Artist actually made that $50,000 USD.

Every cryptocurrency is a scam to transfer money to thieves from hardworking people.  Yes, some individuals may have successfully rolled the dice in the crypto market over the past 5 years and made a small fortune for themselves (doubtfully over $1,000,000) but, in the aggregate a lot of innocent, inexperienced, or foolish people invested money they could not afford to lose... and... lost it.

The FTX Sam Bankman-Fried scandal is merely the latest biggest of the crypto scams not the only one.  Bankman-Fried took the real money he was swindling from people and used it to buy real assets, cases of $10,000-a-bottle champagne, multi-million dollar ocean-front Bahama properties, politicians...  And then everyone involved in FTX was getting high and fucking each other as they swindled and screwed people out of their life-savings.  And then $30,000,000,000 was gone.  Straight up embezzlement.

In July, 2022 Three Arrows Capital collapsed in a spectacular flame out of, at the time, the biggest crypt scam as the two founders Su Zhu and Kyle Davies vanished leaving the $150,000,000 superyacht Much Wow, in dry dock in the Italian port of La Speiza.  The fallout from Three Arrows Capital Ponzi scheme affected numerous other companies,

Crypto companies from New York to Singapore were the direct victims of Three Arrows. Voyager Digital, a publicly traded crypto exchange based in New York that once had a multibillion-dollar valuation, filed for Chapter 11 in July, reporting that Three Arrows owed it more than $650 million. Genesis Global Trading, headquartered on Park Avenue, had lent Three Arrows $2.3 billion. Blockchain.com, an early crypto company that provided digital wallets and evolved into a major exchange, faces $270 million in unpaid loans from 3AC and has laid off a quarter of its staff. 

Among crypto’s smartest observers, there is a widely held view that Three Arrows is meaningfully responsible for the larger crypto crash of 2022, as market chaos and forced selling sent bitcoin and other digital assets plunging 70 percent or more, erasing more than a trillion dollars in value.

Fortunately, the owner of a Crypto Currency Company 100% on the Up-and-Up determined that Three Arrows was almost uniquely responsible for Crypto's Woes in July 2022, 

Sam Bankman-Fried, who as CEO of FTX, a major crypto exchange that has bailed out some of the bankrupt lenders, has perhaps more visibility on the problems than anyone.

“I suspect they might be 80 percent of the total original contagion. They weren’t the only people who blew out, but they did it way bigger than anyone else did. And they had way more trust from the ecosystem prior to that.”  

 I wonder what ever happened to that guy Sam who said the above quote? 

The long NYMag Intelligencer talks about how for a decade the Two Thieves at Three Arrows tried to break into the world of High Finance but were unable to and remained small time, until Crypto came along and they convinced almost everyone their schemes were genius.  And then billions of dollars were gone and so were the two thieves of Three Arrows.

In June 2021, Kim Kardashian took her giant oiled ass to Instagram and told her millions of followers to invest in Ethereummax and the EMAX cryptocurrency.  Kardashian and several other celebrities were paid icky fiat currency to hype Ethereummax.  6 months later EMAX had lost 97% of its' "value" and, once again real people lost real money they couldn't afford to lose.  But, the Kardashian Klan monetized themselves again for icky fiat currency and after paying a small fine to the SEC for failing to disclose Kim was paid to tout the crypto went back to making more icky fiat currency.  And now Kim can luxuriate on her ass implants a little easier because a Class Action lawsuit against her was thrown out,

In his ruling, Judge Michael Fitzgerald of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California agreed that the lawsuit’s claims raised legitimate concerns about “celebrities’ ability to readily persuade millions of undiscerning followers to buy snake oil with unprecedented ease and reach.” However, he explained: While the law certainly places limits on those advertisers, it also expects investors to act reasonably before basing their bets on the zeitgeist of the moment.

Buyer beware indeed!  The "Zeitgeist of the Moment" is a nice turn of phrase to describe the latest get-rich-quick and Ponzi schemes thieves have invented to separate regular people from their hard-earned real money.

Laws and Governments are really behind and really underserving their citizens.  There are hundreds of laws on the books and thousands of police to catch the pickpocket but, woefully few resources and scant understanding available to police the lawlessness of the digital frontier.  And so every so often a 20 something year old "Genius" over-leverages his phony position and uses social media to hype the latest don't-miss-out-on-this-can't-miss Crypto! well... a bunch of people suffer but, that "genius" got to live it up on Other People's Money! And that, living the life on Other People's Money, has always been the dream and goal of all Ayn Randian / Qelon Musk Capitalists in America!

"I believe they and the estimated 40 million other Americans who have invested in cryptocurrency have been sold a bill of goods.  They have been lied to, in ways both big and small, by a once-seemingly mighty crypto industry whose entire existence in fact depends on misinformation, hype, and yes, fraud." - Ben McKenzie.

Qelon Musk and Dave NIMBY Chapelle walk into a club

Let's sprinkle some crack on him and 
get out of here.

On Sunday night, Dave Chapelle invited Qelon Musk onto the comedy stage at the Chase Center in San Francisco.  Musk however has all the comedy skills and instincts of a rightwing asshole, i.e. none.

“Ladies and gentlemen, make some noise for the richest man in the world,” Chapelle declared and the crowd booed.  Musk flopped around stage and the booing and jeering increased.

Chapelle tried to come to Musk's rescue but, when that didn't abate the booing Chapelle engaged in pissing on his fans for being poor,
“All these people that are booing, I’m just pointing out the obvious — they have terrible seats in the stadium.”

That's right fuck the poor.  Dave Chapelle is little more than a Rich guy who identifies with other Rich people and doesn't care to hear complaints from lessers.  Young Dave from Killin' Them Softly would satirize rich gravely voice buff Dave.  And there have been numerous telling signs about Chapelle's descent into direct opposition of his younger self.  From extremely vile and repeated anti-Trans rhetoric to his best MAGA impression by threatening the Village Council of Yellow Springs with economic retaliation if they dared to approve a proposed residential development which would have included affordable housing.

Major Traitor Greene calls for redo of January 6th

A Major Traitor &
A Minor one

It's seemingly impossible to not have these garbage Republicans constantly in the News cycle.  That's half of the point of their outrageous statements.  The other half is that like rage junkies, rightwingers develop a tolerance for the vitriol and spittle flecked bile Republicans spew forth so, Republicans have to constantly increase the dosage as Traitor Tump and his hand picked Troll Major Traitor Greene are doing.

Trump declares the Constitution needs to be terminated because of the fantasy narrative of a stolen election he's adopted and steadily repeated to everyone and anyone.

Now, Queen MAGA Troll Greene declared if she had led the Jan6th Insurrection she would have succeeded,

“I want to tell you something, if Steve Bannon and I had organized that, we would have won. Not to mention, we would’ve been armed,” Greene said Saturday at a dinner hosted by the New York Young Republican Club. 

First, off never forget many of the MAGA criminals were armed and this was clearly seen and reported by US Secret Service Agents and additional Law Enforcement personnel in DC on the 6th, but Trump didn't care because  I am still unconvinced Greene's role in the Insurrection has been thoroughly revealed.  In December 2020 and early January, just before the MAGA Coup d'etat Greene hinted at big happenings were a day away, "We have to get ready for the 6th".  Greene claimed this meant the procedural delays and objections to the Presidential certification and the House vote but, then just 11 days after the election and 3 days before President Joe Biden's inauguration Greene was frantically texting Mark Meadows telling Trump to declare "Marshall Law".

When confronted with this under Oath, Greene relied on the repeated "I don't recall.  I don't recall." defense but, understand calls for violence and stoking rage, anger, and fear are what Republicans do now as a matter of course.  Stochastic Terrorism is a winning technique for Republicans, then when a white MAGA rightwing terrorists guns down elderly Asian masseuses in Atlanta or LGBTQ persons in Colorado, or a white nut listens to Laura Ingraham or Tucker Carlson and tries to kill Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Greene and all the rightwing provocateurs who've feed America this 24/7 diet of lies, propaganda, and hatred can claim, 

"The White House needs to learn how sarcasm works,” Greene said in a statement. “My comments were making fun of Joe Biden and the Democrats,"

It's coming folks.  Sporadic violence and targeted political assassinations of Democrats, of teachers, of LGBTQ persons, of anyone who is insufficiently MAGA is what rightwingers want and what Republicans are more than willing to incite and entice.

What does QElon Musk love the most: Nazis or Hunter Biden's cock?

Elon tweeted then Deleted this image for some
unknown reason

"Villains who twirl their mustaches are easy to spot... Those who clothe themselves in good deeds are well-camoflaugued."

Elon Musk's mask-off revelation via Twitter shows what's been bubbling underneath his doughy white exterior;  Elon, or more properly "QElon" because his twitter feed is no different than any other rightwing Qanon account, is a rapacious sociopath who grew up in pampered privilege, non-working wealth, and a racist Nation-State with clearly delineated class and racial lines. Qelon Musk's philosophical belief system is a cobbled-together hodge-podge of the Warhammer 40K, History channel specials on Nazi scientist super weapons, and an apparent adherence to Robert A. Henlein's sci-fi fascist TANSTAAFL nonsense which hardened into a belief his superior Musk Sang'Réal will spawn a strain of superior human who will colonize the Universe.

 

Elon Musk's acquisition and demolition of Twitter highlights a key deficit liberals and the erstwhile left need to address; i.e. recognizing who is and who is not your ally. Elon Musk is not, nor has he ever been an ally of freedom, liberty, technology, or humanity.  He's a fascist and has been for a long time. 

“So city of SF attacks companies providing beds for tired employees instead of making sure kids are safe from fentanyl. Where are your priorities,” Musk tweeted, tagging San Francisco Mayor London Breed. 

Musk put beds into the Twitter HQ on Market St in San Francisco and was reported for this building code violation. This is a classic rightwing attack, in which the criminal conservative complains the government is going after them instead of going after other criminals. Several of the January 6th insurrectionists made this claim to absolve themselves of the multiple crimes they committed.  Special people deserve special rules and QElon Musk believes he is the most special person in the world.

Since, Qelon bought Twitter and gained access to loads of confidential data, he's released hyped up nothing burgers purporting to prove every rightwing conspiracy true.  Qelon's ridiculous  'The Twitter Files' collaboration with odious Matt Taibbi was going to prove President Joe Biden and Ukraine were in cahoots, this is exactly what Donald Traitor Trump was pressuring Ukraine to claim in his "perfect phone" call leading to Impeachment #1.  In reality, the laptop which has no chain of custody and no real evidentiary value has yielded naught but pictures of Hunter Biden's cock and images of his substance abuse struggles.  (Follow the link for a long dissection of the bullshit laptop narrative.)

However, what should be noted is the rightwing obsession with Hunter Biden has one very clear and very sick goal:  to place terrible emotional and mental strain on Hunter Biden, to overwhelm him so, he suffers a relapse, turns back to illicit drug use, overdoses and dies.  Republicans want Hunter Biden to die so that Joe Biden suffers and is unable to run for President.  

Certainly, Republicans expect to benefit from the Corporate Media bending over backwards to pretend Republican political kabuki theater is valid and the Republicans have perfected their techniques since the Republicans focus on Bill Clinton's penis in the 1990's.  There's a whole different post about the rightwing obsession with left-leaning penises both famous and infamous. 

Is this the face of a right-winger who would 

spread lies?

'The Twitter Files 2' saw skeevy Bari Weiss breathlessly reveal that Charlie Kirk was not allowed to simply spew his rightwing falsehoods unchecked on Twitter.  It should be of little surprise that Kirk along with other rightwing provocateurs has tripped over their own dicks to heap praise upon Qelon Musk as he brings back Their Free Speech, 

"One of the most unexpected and courageous things I've seen is Elon Musk buying twitter," Charlie Kirk

The 21st century Republican notion of freedom of speech has been thoroughly dissected by educated and thoughtful political observers; but I believe the succinct definition of: We get to do whatever we want and You don't, fully encapsulates the rightwing response to everything. We get to bandy about pictures of Hunter Biden's penis. We get to call people whatever we want. We get to scream and shout and threaten whomever we want for any reason true or untrue. We Rule and You are Ruled.

It's simply authoritarianism repackaged for the social media age and gussied up with false definitions of freedom and blatant lies about the Right of Free Speech.  

Straight unadulterated fascism calls for criminal
trials for political enemies.  Get Ready...
Qelon Musk is just getting started...

But, as bad as the open Authoritarianism on display from rightwingers everywhere is the inability of leftists to spot their allies and know your enemy.  Years ago, many leftists believed Qelon was an ally of sorts as he pushed the TESLA, not realizing Musk made his fortune on the backs of workers and with the time-honored tradition of using other peoples' money;

Elon Musk has built a multibillion-dollar fortune running companies that make electric cars, sell solar panels and launch rockets into space. And he’s built those companies with the help of billions in government subsidies. Tesla Motors Inc., SolarCity Corp. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, together have benefited from an estimated $4.9 billion in government support, according to data compiled by The Times.

Musk isn't an ally of anything other than enriching Musk, To expect anything other than rank racism and pompous unearned self-congratulations and incorrect proclamations about "free speech" on society from him is a category error.  And as Qelon now is pushing a hand-in-glove collaboration with Ron DeathSantis in going after companies which create mRNA vaccines it's a fatal one.

But, Qelon has an on-line army of Musk-o-vites, who correctly see him helping advance the worldwide embrace of White Power, Fundamentalist Supremacy, and Fascism.  Which, understand is precisely what Faux News, every Republican in the federal government, legions of on-line trolls, and rightwing domestic terrorists desire.

Additional:

Sam Seder on The Majority Report points out that Bari Weiss inadvertently revealed  the domestic terrorist account Libs of TikTok was specifically shielded from banning under Twitter's old rules because of Chaya Raichik's reach and influence amongst rightwingers.  I have no doubt Dinesh D'Souza and other powerful rightwing terrorists received such preferential treatment.