Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

In Monday's Midnight Meme, I wrote about how accused Kenosha Killer Kyle Rittenhouse had been inspired by the words of overt white nationalists like President Trump and those at FOX "News" like Tucker Tiki Torch Carlson. I mentioned that, not only Mr. Tiki Torch but other Republicans were offering defense and even praise for the murders in the streets of Kenosha. Now, encouraged by the likes of Mr. Tiki Torch and others, that feverish idiocy has all too predictably grown. Anyone who can look into the Republican mind and see the racism that drives the Republican Party would have seen that it would.

Rather than call for justice for Jacob Blake or raise money for his children who watched a cop shoot their father in the back 7 times, a Christian GoFundMe-style funding site, GiveSendGo, had raised over $280,000 for the legal defense of Rittenhouse by Tuesday morning, calling him "unfairly accused of murder." By the time you read this, I expect that the amount of money raised will have passed $300,000, maybe much more. In turn, that will inspire and incentivize more of the Republican Party Taliban to pull the triggers of their own guns or maybe bring back lynchings.

It's not just FOX "News" and an ersatz "Christian" crowdfunding site, Trumpist republicans in social media are also trying to justify the murders as self-defense. They claim Rittenhouse was defending himself from a "relentless, vicious and potentially deadly mob attack." If so, it was an attack Rittenhouse eagerly drove to from out of state. Did he do so while armed to the teeth or did he borrow the AR-15 he carried once he arrived in Wisconsin? The answer to that question may matter to the court or courts in which Rittenhouse is tried as it relates to any gun charges but the murder charges? Not nearly as much. The Daily Show's Trevor Noah assumes the truth of reports that he left home with the gun, but the second and third sentences in his quote below probably have an equal pertinence when it comes to Rittenhouse's motivations.

No one drives to a city with guns because they love someone else's business so much. They do it because they are hoping to shoot someone. That's the only reason people like him join these gangs in the first place.

But the rightwing crowd is pushing the self-defense angle big time. It's Tiki Torch Tucker's #1 theme, now. Self-defense? Really? How is traveling across a state line from Antioch Illinois to Kenosha Wisconsin and killing not one but two people with an AR-15 self-defense? GiveSendGo lies and tells us Rittenhouse had just "bravely tried to defend his community" but the truth is that Rittenhouse's town, aka his community, is 22 miles from Kenosha. Whether he left home with the gun or picked one up in Wisconsin, that sounds a lot more like taking a hunting trip to me. If he picked up the gun when he arrived, he must have known who would lend it to him and someone should investigate them. Regardless of the questions, Rittenhouse appears to be just another Trump Trooper like Florida pipe bomber Cesar Sayoc whose sticker-encrusted van was what amounted to a mobile ad for FOX "News" and other Republican goonery.

Facebook is now awash with Trump supporters who are, like former San Francisco Giant baseball player Aubrey Huff, describing Rittenhouse as a "national treasure" and an American hero. An American hero for what, taking the law into his own hands?

They also point to the legal troubles of the victims as though they actually deserved to be executed in the street by vigilantes. FOX "News," the fellow Rupert Murdoch family-owned New York Post, and other NAZI-friendly propaganda outfits have been touting Rittenhouse's alleged good deeds, even with pictures of him doing things like cleaning graffiti from the walls of schools, as if that would excuse what he is accused of. Charlie Manson used to sing in churches. Should I suppose that makes him a hero, too, especially since his gang killed some "liberal Hollywood types?"

Today's Republicans exist in a self-promulgated vicious circle of brainwashed mass hysteria which no amount of intervention will ever cure. Clearly, the murders of Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and the wounding of Gaige Grosskreutz in Kenosha mean nothing to the psychopathic very fine people that make up the membership of the Republican Party. An attorney for Rittenhouse named John Pierce calls Rittenhouse "a shining example of the American fighting spirit" and, apparently pushing for more murder and mayhem, also says "More American men should fulfill their duty." Pierce's framing of the story gives us a clear indication of how republicans see this horrid incident and how they want all of us to see it. An alternate reality defense of Rittenhouse, where what he is accused of is righteous, normal, permissible and encouraged is being constructed just like Trump himself constructs alternate realities about COVID-19. In short, the right wing is using the Rittenhouse case as a call to arms for a race war, thus fulfilling the dream Charlie Manson had when he sent his brainwashed goons out to kill Sharon Tate and others over 50 years ago. Creating such an alternative reality is all about creating a reality that grants permission to create more death, destruction and mayhem. Even the phrase "Law and Order" is now a code for permissiveness, incitement, and invitation, at least as it comes from the lips of Republicans.

My additional questions at this moment are:

1) How long before Trump begins maniacally insisting that Wisconsin's Democratic governor should preemptively pardon Rittenhouse? Trump pardoning Rittenhouse himself would require that Rittenhouse be found guilty of a federal crime or facing federal charges. What Rittenhouse is accused of does not appear at this time to violate any federal statutes but that's why we have lawyers and courts (such as they are). Trump is already openly supportive of the accused, thus sanctioning more of the same behavior. And of course he has loudly condemned the shooting of a far right counter protester in Portland, Oregon. With Republicans like Trump, it all depends on which side of the issue you are. Shoot a NAZI = bad. Shoot a BLM protester = good. Expect Trump to become more and more of a cheerleader for such mayhem as the countdown to election day progresses.

2) How many more of the Republican Taliban army will kill how many more protesters? How many will satisfy the Republican Party's bloodlust? Someone please ask Moscow Mitch, Kayleigh McEnany, Steve Scalise and the rest of Washington's good little NAZIS. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the corporate media to do so, though.

3) How long before this devolves even further to the point where we start to see shootings like the aforementioned one in Portland? That is what any psychopath like those we saw at the Republican Con-Vention would welcome, Americans shooting Americans in a Civil War without borders of any kind. The more corpses, the merrier. Divide and conquer so you can be the biggest looters of all! All hail the billionaires in their gated mansions! Where this is going, they'll need moats, just like the good ol' days. Ask yourself, can you see the likes of Don Jr, Rudy, Jamie Dimon, Pence, the McCloskeys, or Kimberly Guilfoyle wanting it any other way?

4) Can we expect an escalation of gunfire from Trump's Troopers if he loses the election? That one is the most rhetorical of all the questions in this list. It is the Republican Party's mad goal; rubber stamped by the $enate vote not to remove Trump from office. If you want to see step one of the Republican Party platform, look no further. What we are already seeing is prelude. 5) Will there be talk of a Medal of Freedom for Kyle Rittenhouse ala career inciter Rush Limbaugh? Among the Republican Taliban twitter crowd, there already is. I've seen the memes and I've seen the tweets. You can google them for yourselves.

This strife and the coming escalation of it all stems from the attitude of President Trump and those he addressed from the White House lawn last Thursday night, He has incited them, encouraged them and emboldened them from the moment he took that tacky ride down the escalator in Trump Tower to announce his candidacy. His madness has been the proverbial snowball down hill since then. It's not like he didn't tell the world who and what he is and, as I said, when the opportunity presented itself to remove him from office, his party said they like what he is just fine and his $enators voted for more of the same and worse to come; exponentially worse the longer he remains in office, and at this point, long after that. Category 5 storms don't just disappear as soon as they hit resistance. They slowly cut through whatever they can, leaving their path of destruction in their wake. This is the current state of governance, folks.

There is nothing technically in the way of removing President Donald J. Narcissyphilis by the end of this week. Impeachment 2, conviction and removal only the desire and the will of all those who sit in the Capitol Building; the very fine people of both parties. Any and all present and future deaths from shootings of protesters and anti-protesters alike, in the streets are more on Trump and his 53 protective wiseguy $enators than anyone else, just like all of the other Trump-caused chaos of the last 4 years. Trump ordered the arson and Moscow Mitch poured the gas. But those of us who put up with Congress being complicit and say nothing to those in government share some blame as well. Our so-called representatives, the representatives that we the people voted for continue to ignore their oath to the Constitution and abdicate their responsibilities. It's no longer just about the COVID-19. It's about the virus of fascist, racist Republicanism. No one nipped it in the bud so now it's killing this country while the donor class laughs.