Is there a conspiracy theory these Republican right wingers won’t buy? Seriously you have to believe every border patrol officer, most who were over the last few years ripping babies from mother’s arms to sperate families, are liberals who support Biden enough to let drugs into the country specifically to be delivered to right wingers. Who is forcing these right wingers to take the drugs? Or do right wingers like the rest of the country have personal problems and need help with addiction?
The new right faux-populists blame immigration for opioid overdoses. It’s an old trick with a long, racist history.
On Friday, Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance pushed an anti-immigration conspiracy theory that alleged President Joe Biden was deliberately allowing drug smugglers to import fentanyl to the United States to kill Donald Trump voters. The theory has also been put forward by Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, whom the New York Times recently characterized as running “what may be the most racist show in the history of cable news.”
Vance made the allegations in a recent interview with Jim Hoft, founder of the far-right site Gateway Pundit. “If you wanted to kill a bunch of MAGA voters in the middle of the heartland, how better than to target them and their kids with this deadly fentanyl,” Vance told Hoft, later adding: “It does look intentional. It’s like Joe Biden wants to punish the people who didn’t vote for him. And opening up the floodgates to the border is one way to do it.”
This allegation sounds remarkably similar to a line of argument Carlson used on his February 8 show. After stoking fear about a Biden administration harm reduction policy for people who use crack, Carlson pivoted to the opioid overdose crisis. “I seem to remember reading somewhere that more than 100,000 Americans died last year from opioid ODs. What are we doing about that? Well, good question, and the answer is nothing,” Carlson said.
He then offered an explanation that hinged on a lie that Biden is pursuing an “equity agenda” that deliberately seeks to benefit people of color at the expense of white people, toward the ultimate goal of their political subjugation. “Those 100,000 Americans weren’t from officially marginalized groups. Their deaths have nothing to do with the equity agenda. In fact, their deaths may have helped the equity agenda by changing the demographics of the country in a way that benefits the Democratic Party,” Carlson said. “So as far as the Biden administration is concerned, it’s not a bad trend.”
Carlson concluded that although the United States had suffered high levels of overdose deaths, “these are exactly the kind of people the administration hates anyway, so with equity in mind, the White House plans to continue allowing as much fentanyl as possible to come into this country through Mexico.” In reality, border seizures of fentanyl in the final year of Trump’s term largely mirror the current rates under Biden. More broadly, the overdose epidemic in the United States is a complicated phenomenon, driven by drug manufacturers, a for-profit health care system, and economic precarity that’s resulted from deindustrialization and an overall decline in the power of organized labor. It is not caused by immigrants.
It’s not surprising that Vance might adopt this talking point from Carlson. His political life is dependent on the Trump-Carlson wing of the Republican Party, and his turnaround from flagging candidate to front-runner came in the wake of Trump’s endorsement. Vance’s main opponent in the Republican primary, Josh Mandel, has also modeled himself after Trump, but the increasingly acrimonious rivalry shows that simply adopting the former president’s bigoted rhetoric isn’t always enough to avoid the dreaded “establishment candidate” label, as Don Trump Jr. referred to Mandel on Twitter.
Beyond Trump and Carlson, Vance is a creation of GOP megadonor Peter Thiel, the far-right billionaire with ties to the faux-populist “New Right,” as well as to overt white nationalists. Last year, Thiel co-launched a new project called the Rockbridge Network that seeks to reshape the Republican Party in Thiel’s image. Vance, and his fellow Senate candidate Blake Masters, were recipients of Thiel donations totaling at least $10 million apiece.
This group often pays lip service to a narrow conception of the working class — basically white men in hard hats and their wives — but their pro-worker rhetoric is predicated on blaming immigrants for falling wages, and increased crime and drug use. Given the long history of associating immigrant communities with drug crime, stretching back to anti-Chinese racism around opium and anti-Mexican racism around marijuana, it’s not shocking that Carlson and Vance would recycle these tropes. But, as Vance might say, it does look intentional.
“It does look intentional. It’s like Joe Biden wants to punish the people who didn’t vote for him.” — JD Vance, arguing Biden is purposely flooding the country with fentanyl to get revenge on Trump voters pic.twitter.com/PGAFPH9BWQ
Huh … he should be asked where the fentanyl is coming in from … cuz’ cousin Wheels Abbott said his Rangers found …zero .. drugs on their “border inspections”
These insane republican campaign ads will make your head explode. With JD Vance, Josh Mandel and Dave White, all sounding incredibly racist while explaining how they are not racist. John Iadarola and Rayyvana break it down on The Damage Report.
“JD Vance, author and Republican Candidate for Senate in Ohio, has released a new campaign ad in which he asks “are you a racist?” and “do you hate Mexicans?” before blaming his mother’s addiction issues on immigrants. The Hillbilly Elegy author released the 30-second video on Tuesday. “The media calls us racist for wanting to build Trump’s wall. They censor us, but it doesn’t change the truth,” Mr Vance says in the video. “Joe Biden’s open border is killing Ohioans, with more illegal drugs and more Democrat voters pouring into this country,” he adds.”
Donald Trump endorsed candidate, Charles Herbster, speaks at the Save America rally to promote himself for governor of Nebraska and has others defend him after eight women have accused him of sexual misconduct. John Iadarola and Francesca Fiorentini break it down on The Damage Report.
“A second woman is publicly accusing Trump-endorsed Nebraska gubernatorial candidate Charles Herbster (R) of sexual misconduct after a Republican state senator alleged earlier this month that she had been touched inappropriately by Herbster. Elizabeth Todsen, in a statement provided through her attorney, alleged that she had been sexually groped by Herbster in 2019 and said her experience had been “thoroughly described” in previous reporting by the Nebraska Examiner. “For years I have struggled with an experience I had with Charles W. Herbster. At a political event in 2019, Herbster sexually groped me while greeting my table. This was the same night that Herbster aggressively grabbed Senator Julie Slama,” Todsen said.”
Former secretary of defense for Donald Trump, Mark Esper, reveals Trump’s calls for violence against Black Lives Matter protests in his new memoir. John Iadarola and Francesca Fiorentini break it down on The Damage Report.
“As Black Lives Matter protesters swarmed outside the White House in 2020, then-president Donald Trump reportedly proposed a solution: “Just shoot them.” That’s according to Mr Trump’s secretary of defense at the time, Mark Esper, in his upcoming memoir, A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times, which comes out on 10 May. In the spring of 2020, as protests over the brutal police murder of George Floyd convulsed the country, Mr Esper says the former president grew increasingly furious at the demonstrators flooding the streets of the capital. “Can’t you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?” Mr Trump allegedly asked, according to an excerpt obtained by Axios.”
A longshot candidate challenging Ohio’s incumbent governor in a Republican primary shared a photo of himself in front of a sign depicting an image of syringes arranged as a swastika — the chosen symbol of Nazi Germany as it waged a systematic slaughter of millions of Jews and others in Europe.
Joe Blystone, a cattle farmer often seen campaigning in a cowboy hat and bushy beard, posted a photo Friday on his campaign’s Twitter account. It shows him standing in front of a banner for a local of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers.
Behind him, a man holds a sign reading “NO JAB NO JOB” — presumably a statement in opposition to employers requiring vaccination as a term of employment. That sign shows the swastika-syringes image.
Blystone’s campaign did not respond to questions about why Blystone is distributing a photo of himself in front of Nazi imagery. The local and national offices of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers did not respond to inquiries.
“I’m not anti-vax. I’m not anti-mask. I’m pro-choice,” Blystone said in a March interview with the Cincinnati Enquirer. “If you want to wear a mask, wear a mask. If you want to get a vax, get a vax. It shouldn’t be our government pushing you one way or another.”
Both Blystone and challenger Jim Renacci are seeking to oust incumbent Gov. Mike DeWine in the Republican primary. Election Day is Tuesday, May 3. The Republican victor will take on one of two candidates running for the Democratic ticket.
The photo follows a pattern of Nazi imagery and rhetoric popping up in conservative political demonstrations against coronavirus restrictions and vaccine mandates.
A man carrying an anti-Semitic sign joined a protest outside the Bexley home of then-Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Amy Acton. Other protesters brought guns. Photo courtesy of Katie Forbes.
In April 2020, Ohio Senator Andrew Brenner pledged not to allow Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton to turn the state into Nazi Germany. Rep. Kris Jordan connected masks, vaccines, and vaccination records to the Holocaust. U.S. Senate candidate Josh Mandel made similar comments. Rep. Nino Vitale called Acton, who is Jewish, a “globalist health director.” The term “globalist” is used as an anti-Semitic slur. Earlier this year, U.S. Rep. Warren Davidson compared a requirement to show proof of vaccination for bars and restaurants in Washington D.C. to Nazi officials demanding identification from Jewish citizens.
“Medical procedures designed to save lives are not comparable to the Holocaust, in which six million Jews and millions of others were murdered,” said Sara Scheinbach, a senior associate regional director of the Cleveland region of the Anti-Defamation League, which advocates against anti-Semitism.
“All leaders, especially politicians, should call out these obscene comparisons, rather than celebrate them.”
Nazi officials implemented rules forcing Jewish people to wear identifying badges between 1939 and 1945, according to the U.S. Holocaust Museum. It was part of a campaign to stigmatize and dehumanize Jews and segregate and control them before deporting them to concentration camps.
The museum spoke out against a national leader of the anti-vaccination movement who said at a rally that things are worse today than they were for Anne Frank, a teenaged girl who died along with most her family during the Holocaust.
“Making reckless comparisons to the Holocaust, the murder of six million Jews, for a political agenda is outrageous and deeply offensive,” the museum said in a statement. “Those who carelessly invoke Anne Frank, the star badge, and the Nuremberg Trials exploit history and the consequences of hate.”
BlazeTV host Steve Deace complained Monday on Twitter that something he posted on TRUTH Social was immediately censored. Deace claimed to have posted a Truth — the platform’s term for users’ posts — only for it to be slapped with a “sensitive content” warning.
Mediaite viewed the Truth Deace had posted. It reads: “Transgenderism is a mental illness and/or a demonic deception, pass it on.” The apparent case of censorship on the platform is noteworthy, given that Trump was similarly censored on Twitter before he was banned in January of 2021.
Deace first appeared on JMG in 2011 when he denounced then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry for hiring a “practicing homosexual” as a presidential campaign strategist.
In 2015 we heard from him again when he attacked Sen. Lindsey Graham’s presidential bid, saying “voters aren’t ready for a transgendered candidate.”
Deace last appeared on JMG in 2018 when he stormed off the CNN set when another guest pointed out that “Christian sharia” is also a thing.
Man who wants teachers fired for mentioning transgenderism shrieks when he is “censored” for mentioning transgenderism someplace where a kid might see it.
“Transgenderism is a mental illness and/or a demonic deception, pass it on.”
Religion is not an excuse to practice medicine without a license. ‘Black magic’ is a fictional excuse that Christians used to murder pagan and/or non-pagan women at the Salem Witch Trials, a dark and ugly time in American Christianity’s history.
A judge on Monday selected nearly two-dozen Fulton County residents — neighbors, co-workers, fellow MARTA riders — who will help prosecutors determine whether former President Donald Trump and his allies unlawfully tried to meddle in Georgia’s 2020 elections.
A pool of 200 would-be jurors was whittled down to 23 people and three alternates over two hours Monday morning for a so-called special purpose grand jury. Fulton Superior Court Judge Robert C.I. McBurney administered an oath and asked whether would-be jurors had already made up their minds either way on the matter, which touches on one of the most polarizing and disruptive political figures in American history.
The group will meet intermittently with prosecutors in the months ahead as the Fulton County District Attorney’s office seeks subpoenas for documents, information and the testimony of at least 30 reticent witnesses. But unlike a regular grand jury, it cannot issue indictments.
The special grand jury’s seating represents a major move forward in the investigation, which Fulton DA Fani Willis launched 15 months ago.
The probe centers on the Jan. 2, 2021 phone call between Trump and Brad Raffensperger, in which the then-president urged Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” the nearly 12,000 votes Trump needed to reverse Joe Biden’s win here. It also includes other incidents, such as false claims made by Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani during a legislative hearing and the abrupt resignation of Georgia-based U.S. attorney BJay Pak, who testified that he faced pressure from Trump.
The phone call has been a litmus test for political affiliation: Many of those who support Trump heard nothing wrong, while many of his detractors view the recording as the smoking gun. But it isn’t so easy for open-minded jurors.
McBurney told the group that they must decide beyond whether or not they feel something happened: “And if so, in your opinion, was it unlawful such that you might recommend to the district attorney that she pursue criminal charges? You might recommend the contrary.”
These Georgians will help prosecutors decide whether to take an unprecedented step in U.S. history and charge a former president with a crime.
Surrounded by five of her aides, Willis sat Monday at a nearby table watching the proceedings but made only brief remarks before a livestream of proceedings ended.
Now that the special grand jury’s membership is set, the group will begin meeting in private with prosecutors to hear about the status of the investigation and any early requests for subpoenas. Neither defense attorneys for Trump nor the media will be allowed to view those proceedings.
Monday’s jury selection brought plenty of road blockades to downtown Atlanta, but no major protests, as some had feared.
Police officers blocked vehicle traffic at all four corners of the single square block that the courthouse fills. Law enforcement officers from several agencies, led by the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, secured the perimeter of the building — including deputies with assault rifles at the building’s main entrance.
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Credit: John Spink
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Credit: Miguel Martinez
Willis said she’s needed to ramp up security at home and the office due to the case, including acquiring bulletproof vests for her lead prosecutors.
In January she requested the help of the FBI to secure the Fulton courthouse. She said she feared a Jan. 6-style insurrection after Trump urged mass protests if “vicious,” “radical” and “racist” prosecutors acted in a way with which he didn’t agree.
Monday’s developments came days after a grand jury that had been tasked with hearing evidence in the Manhattan DA’s investigation of the Trump Organization’s business practices in New York wrapped up without filing any charges against the former president. DA Alvin Bragg is still able to impanel another jury, but many saw the move as a sign that Trump will not face major legal consequences in Manhattan after three years of investigating.
Many of Trump’s biggest critics have now set their sights on Fulton County as the most promising venue for Trump to be held legally accountable for actions during a norm-shattering presidency.
Upwards of 72% of Fulton County residents voted for Joe Biden in 2020. But that doesn’t mean that Trump is guaranteed a hostile jury pool. Portions of North Fulton are whiter and more conservative compared to the rest of the county.
“Fulton County has more people than some entire states. Selecting a jury from a pool of that many people will surely have some deeply conservative folks,” said Carrollton-based attorney Cade Parian, the chairman of the Republican Trial Lawyers Caucus. “What makes Fulton County a great place is its varying population. What makes Fulton County a hard place to pick a jury is, again, its varying population.”
Anthony Michael Kreis, a Georgia State University assistant law professor, said that special grand juries’ unique investigative function benefits from having members who are more skeptical. They can help point out weaknesses in a case, ensuring that any final recommendations are more trustworthy.
This is seemingly the most — and only — public moment of the special grand jury proceedings. Some witnesses may decide to speak about their testimony, but little else is expected to become public until the grand jury issues its final recommendations.
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