The Damage and Destruction Are Trump's Monument

Trump's wall along the US-Mexico border was a linchpin of his 2016 presidential campaign.  It was to supposed to be a signature achievement of his presidency.  There were however some significant issues with his wall.  First, everyone who studies the issue of people illegally entering the US realize that most enter the US through ports of entry not via cross country treks.  Second, building the wall would require substantial eminent domain actions by the US government against US citizens to take their border adjacent land to build the wall.  And, finally, despite Trump's exclamations to the contrary, Mexico would not pay for the building of the wall.  

What all of this meant was that the only quick and dirty wall building Trump could use as evidence of his promised "great wall" was in the refurbishment of existing border barriers and that new wall construction was mostly relegated to public lands along the border.  Public lands that included areas of substantial conservation and cultural value.  None of this mattered to Trump and his wall obsessed MAGAs.

“(The administration) really started to push out into remote, rugged terrain on public lands all across the borderline in Arizona, where the ecological value of those places is so much higher that the damage done by this construction is much more egregious,” said Randy Serraglio, Southwest conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity.

For months now, construction crews have been dynamiting, drilling, pumping, excavating and clear-cutting public land. In places like Guadalupe Canyon in far eastern Arizona, simply building roads to bring in construction equipment involved blasting mountainsides and sending the rubble down to clog drainages. Previously wide-open landscapes where wildlife and water could move freely have been severed by the huge steel barrier. The Sonoran Desert’s iconic saguaros, protected by law, have been found lying in heaps next to construction sites.

“This is damage that will not ever be remediated or mitigated,” Serraglio said. “This is permanent.”

Bill Gates' Microchip

So.... Bill Gates is planning to use Covid-19 vaccinations to implant a tracking microchip into the American public.  Not surprisingly almost half of self-identified Republicans believe this to be true.  Apparently, it is important for Bill Gates to know where everyone is at any given point of time.  

Why has no one ever thought of this idea before.  Being able to track people's movements electronically.  It's a diabolic form of population control for which Republican will no stand.  For example, if such a tool were available, it would be possible to see if the mob that attacked the United States Capitol were somehow incited or inspired by Trump's rally a few blocks away for the Capitol.  Wait, such a tool exists and it pretty clearly shows the movement of MAGA from rally to riot.

Using a trove of leaked smartphone location data, @cwarzel and @stuartathompson identified some of the Capitol rioters.

In this time-lapse animation, smartphones moved from Trump’s rally to the Capitol. https://t.co/MV4foh0Olo pic.twitter.com/iSfdicvXWY

— New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) February 6, 2021

A Slice of Hope

 The times, they are a changin'...

Trump Owns Them

Maybe her dad will shoot them in the face. Liz Cheney is a hard right conservative who was a reliable vote for every one of Trump's policies. Her father is part of what used to be the leadership of the Republican Party. Well, now the Republicans are the party of Trump and Taylor Greene. They are the QAnon/Fascist party and in Wyoming they want Liz to get out of their party.

Liz Cheney, the third-highest-ranking Republican leader in the House, was censured by the Wyoming Republican Party on Saturday for voting to impeach Donald Trump for his role in the January 6 riot at the US Capitol.

The overwhelming censure vote was the latest blowback for Cheney for joining nine Republican representatives and all Democrats in the US House in the January 13 impeachment vote.

On Saturday, only eight of the 74-member state GOP’s central committee stood to oppose censure in a vote that didn’t proceed to a formal count. The censure document accused Cheney of voting to impeach even though the US House didn’t offer Trump “formal hearing or due process.”

Going Over Jordan

While billeted in the Library of Congress while in Washington to protect our capitol some National Guard members showed off impressive musical skills and took advantage of near perfect acoustics.

I am a poor wayfaring stranger

I’m travellin’ through this world of woe

Yet there’s no sickness, toil, nor danger

In that bright land to which I go

I’m going there to see my Father

I’m going there, no more to roam

I’m only going over Jordan

I’m only going over home

I know dark clouds will gather ’round me

I know my way is rough and steep

But golden fields lie just before me

Where God’s redeemed shall ever sleep

I’m going home to see my mother

And all my loved ones who’ve gone on

I’m only going over Jordan

I’m only going over home

I am a poor wayfarin’ stranger

I’m travellin’ through this world of woe

Yet there’s no sickness, toil, nor danger

In that bright land to which I go

Christo-fascism - It's Here!

The "Christian" right wraps itself in the US flag.  They proclaim that the United States is a Christian nation and that as a Christian nation God needs to be in charge.  And, they will kill anyone who gets in the way.  Democracy is the enemy, freedom is an illusion and only the Godly are qualified to make decisions for the masses.  

They very much pushed the idea of a shadowy "one world government", and said that democracy is doomed to fail, has always failed.

And, no Sinclair Lewis did not say "When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."  But, it doesn't matter who said it, it's the truth.

 

Republicans - Phonies, Tax Cheats and Grifters

Gun packing, Trump loving and newly elected Member of Congress Lauren Boebert appears to be just as much of a phony business person as Trump himself.  She apparently doesn't believe in paying her fair share of taxes.

Between August 2016 and February 2020, Shooters Grill, the gun-themed Rifle restaurant owned by Boebert, accumulated eight liens for nonpayment of unemployment insurance premiums, according to records from the Garfield County Clerk and Recorder’s office.

The liens, filed by the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, indicate that Shooters Grill was delinquent on UI premiums dating back to its opening in 2013. By early 2020, Boebert’s restaurant owed the state a total of $19,552.86, including interest and penalties.

In a surprising twist Boebert payed off all of those liens just two weeks before the November election.  Subsequent financial disclosures from her campaign showed that she paid herself over twenty two thousand dollars as reimbursement for mileage travelled during her campaign.  Interesting...

Boebert appears to be as much of a failure at running a business as Trump himself.  

On a congressional financial disclosure statement that Boebert filed as a candidate in January 2020, she reported that Shooters Grill had posted a net operating loss of $242,347 in 2018. Boebert also disclosed liabilities that included a “business loan” valued at between $15,000 and $50,000.

And, of course, like Trump she doesn't believe in following the rules to keep the public safe during a global pandemic.

In May, public health officials in Garfield County revoked Shooters Grill’s license after Boebert repeatedly opened the restaurant for in-person dining in defiance of state and local coronavirus restrictions. The license was reinstated two weeks later, and Shooters Grill was allowed to reopen under the condition that it followed certain restrictions, including operating at 50% capacity.

Republicans have decided to unleash phonies like Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene on the United States.  As a political party Republicans gave up on truth and honest government back in the Reagan days and gave up on integrity and public service in the 1990s.  Now, it appears that they have given up on the very concept of reality.