The Baraboo Reflection

By Jeff Simpson

By now, you have probably heard that the children of Baraboo High school are public enemy #1, because of a picture they took at least Spring's prom.

Yes it appears, that most of the boys from the class of 2019 were giving the Nazi salute.  The photographer swears that he was telling the boys to say good bye to their parents, the camera, Scott Walker, their anonymity, or whatever the story is he is telling at the time.

One of the students who was there, and did not Heil to the camera, was Jordan Blue, whose memory is different from the photographers.

  "As soon as I heard the photographer say, 'Raise your hand,' I knew what was going to happen," senior Jordan Blue told CBS News correspondent Adriana Diaz. Blue, who is in the photo, refused to participate.
"Did he say anything to make it clear that it was raise your hand in this way as in this Nazi symbol?" Diaz asked.
"He did not say raise your hand in a Nazi symbol way. And I'm pretty sure my classmates just interpreted as raise your hand, let's do this as a joke," Blue said, adding that he thinks the others knew what the symbol represented.

The command to raise your hand, is almost automatically turned into a Nazi salute?  I wonder why that could possibly be,....

Maybe they watched the Republican National Convention, where one of the main speakers, Laura Ingraham spoke of nationalism....

Of course Ingraham has the highest rated show on Fox.  Ever since she came back from her suspension vacation after making fun of the parkland shooting survivors.     (Quick note - the Parkland Shooter - Nikolas Cruz - recently registered as a Republican.  I guess his long ties with the NRA makes this the logical next step. )

Maybe they attended a rally for the Donald in West Bend and one of their parents bought a Nazi flag as a Souvenir.

or ran across these guys there:

Or possibly worked for the Republican Paul Nehlen Campaign.  Yes, Nehlen did not come close to winning, but he was praised by The Donald for his "kind words". 

Or Maybe they caught Richard Spencer's speech:

What does the head of the Alt-Right movement Richard Spencer have to do with Wisconsin?  Well a student at UW-Madison wanted to start an alt-right movement on campus and was forced to go through many road blocks, which then led to Republicans Jesse Kremer and Robin Vos to pass a law that says if you disrupt a speaker at the University System you can be expelled. 

The student that Vos and Kremer were writing legislation for, was convicted of arson on black churches, which definitely led to his appeal with the WISGOP. 

What has the Alt-Right Movement really done, since they were also praised by the Donald as "having some really fine people " as part of their movement.    I mean we can overlook the Alt-Rights role in this, all they have done is hold a White Power rally in Charlottesville, NC and shoot up a synagogue in Pittsburgh.

FYI: the guy who keeps praising the Alt-Right movement, he won Wisconsin in the last Presidential vote.   Plus Wisconsin's Governor ,was the only elected official, to be a featured speaker at a White power rally in Florida and it barely made the Wisconsin Media blink.(Stormy Daniels was more exciting to cover).

Then there is far right hate radio that made fun of the whole topic:

Whew! It had been almost four days since the left had a good hand-wringing, virtue-signaling moral panic. Thank you, Baraboo High School kids, for bringing meaning to the lives of thousands of online social justice warriors!

— Dan O'Donnell (@DanODonnellShow) November 13, 2018

The list goes on and on.....

Did the photographer say raise your hand in a Nazi salute....I personally do not think so. 

Did the Photographer ask the kids to put their hand in the air and most of them used the Nazi salute for fun....I believe so.   

However, before we run to Baraboo with our Pitchforks in hand, maybe we should stop and look in the mirror first and realize all these kids are doing is modeling our behavior. 

Next time you look at that picture of the Baraboo Boys with the Nazi salute,  take a second look and you will see that it is just a reflection of our current society. 

When Did This Become Acceptable?

By Jeff Simpson

This was a shirt worn at a Trump rally.  This is what Reince, Paul Ryan, Scott Walker, and the rest of the Republican Party have made mainstream.  

How did we get to a point in 2016 that someone would print this up, much less wear it?  Imagine if you switched the word "Journalist" with teacher and wore it to school, or pilots and wore it on a plane, or republicans and wore it to a public venue, or Police, or firefighters, or women etc....

Yet this guy wore this loud and proud at a Donald Trump rally!  

I get the anti establishment feeling running through the country now, but this is not ok.  It should never be OK, there should be some consequences when bringing this message in public.

You can start today by voting AGAINST Donald Trump and anyone who endorses Donald Trump!  

The Trump Phenomona

By Jeff Simpson

Like most big organizations, sometimes someone can come in and take control and sink it before you can stop it.   We are watching that happen to the Republican party right now.   In this Presidential election cycle, we have seen numerous front runners, 17 people total and one of the all time "strangest" election phenomenons ever in Donald Trump.  

People, especially people in the party, thought that Trump running for President was just a way to feed his ego and he would get bored eventually and go back to his life and start working on his fourth wife.   Then something happened, Mr. Trump rose in the polls and started winning primaries handily.  
While Donald Trump has done many outrageous, misogynistic and racist things, the GOP is panicking because he is winning and he is NOT part of the establishment!!  

That scares everyone involved.  If Donald Trump were to actually win the election(forgetting the pure devastation to our Country), but in the Republican party the people who are used to running the show would not be invited to the table.   That is unacceptable for the Michael Grebe's, Sheldon Adelsons, Karl Roves, Koch Brother of the party.  They know that they give enough money to the pure ambition politicians like Scott Walker/Ted Cruz, that they will do whatever they are told.  Donald Trump wont take orders and then brag about openly defying party directives.   Reince and the boys are scared.

When they get scared or things get out of hand, they have a plan.   They use Frank Luntzs focus tested lines and hand them out to their minions and give their right wing media echo chamber marching orders.

The GOP plan to try and take Trump down, is blame everyone on the liberals(I know they do this with everything, I never claimed they were genius).   For example is Grebe's gopher, Christian Schneider.

But Republicans are likely getting a little push on their road to obsolescence. There's evidence Democrats may be showing up to vote for Trump, which would significantly loosen up the ballot box for Clinton in November. If you're a Democrat who likes both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, you can pick one, or, in states with open primaries, you can cross over and vote for a Republican who will guarantee the election of either Democrat. It's not that hard of a choice.
This is perhaps why turnout records are being broken in state after state that is holding Republican primaries — because non-Republicans are showing up to stuff the ballot box for Trump. On March 1, Alabama, Oklahoma, Vermont, Virginia, Massachusetts, Georgia and Tennessee saw an astonishing 52% increase in turnout over 2008. At the same time, voters in Democratic primaries in those states dropped by 20% in the same time. Where are all those Democrat voters going? I have a guess.

  The problem with his theory(beyond being ridiculous as usual) is events like this happen regularly at  Donald Trump rallies.

Nothing says a room Is full of liberals, like a bunch of white men shoving and spitting at a young black woman.   Fortunately, there ARE people in media who actually do some research and to whom facts actually matter.  

Shaun King was rightfully upset about this video and did some research on who was doing the shoving.

No surprise what he found out!  

On Tuesday, in Louisville, Ky., what happened to young black protesters at another Trump rally wasn’t just racist — it appears to be outright criminal.

While we have already widely reported that white supremacists are openly proclaiming that they are fully emboldened and energized by Trump, the natural progression of their romance with Trump is now on full display.

We now know that those Trump supporters are open bigots, Neo-Nazis, and white supremacists belonging to many different groups including the Traditionalist Worker Party — a well-documented hate group. Their social media profiles are full of Nazi photos, KKK and white supremacist references, and some of the most insulting, despicable hate speech you'll ever see.

"I was called a n----- and a c--t and got kicked out," said Shiya Nwanguma, a respected student at the University of Louisville to a local interviewerin a video posted on Facebook.

"They were pushing and shoving at me, cursing at me, yelling at me, called me every name in the book. They were disgusting and dangerous."

What a group of intelligent nice men.  Does anyone anywhere think these guys would be voting for Bernie???  

I guess anything they can do without taking actual responsibility for the Monster they have created.  

It is impossible to fix a problem when you can not recognize it!  

Since Christian Schneider is propagandist who is not real interested in research or facts, I feel the need to help the poor guy out!

Hey Christian lets compare and contrast a GOP/Democrat rally!

Here is the GOP:

Here is a Democratic rally:

I know they are not the brightest bulbs on the tree, but I always find it hilarious when "Tea Party Patriots" whine about people protesting.   The irony is too thick!  




PS: ICYMI, it is not just the Donald that thinks its cool to have his supporters beat up protesters!

America - We HAVE to do better!!!  

CPAC Problems

By Jeff Simpson

The right, that attempts to be somewhat moderate, has a problem that can be spelled out in three letters - CPAC("conservative" political action conference).  The problem is that the CPAC conference is representative of everything the republican party stands for.  From the embrace of angry Islamaphobes, to their disdain for gays to their cries of white oppression.  As Paul Ryan(R-Wall St.) says:

 "We don't hide behind our beliefs," Ryan added. "We argue for them, because a budget is more than just a list of numbers; it's an expression of our governing philosophy. And our budget draws a very sharp contrast with the left. It says to the people in unmistakable terms: 'They are the party of shared hardship, we are the part of equal opportunity.'"

While Paul Ryan(R- Wall St.), Jim Sensenbrenner(R-Lance Armstrong is a true hero) and Scott Walker (R - Blind Ambition)  were featured speakers at CPAC.   Also headlining CPAC was K.Carl Smith, who was sponsored by the "Tea Party Patriots"(remember that we recently learned what "patriot" groups stood for).  this breakout session was billed as a "way to reach out to black conservatives". Boy did they! 

Disruptions began when he started accusing Democrats of still being the party of the Confederacy — a common talking point on the right.
“I don’t care how much the KKK improved,” he said. “I’m not going to join the KKK. The Democratic Party founded the KKK.”
Lines like that drew shouts of praise from some attendees and murmurs of disapproval from one non-conservative black attendee, Kim Brown, a radio host and producer with Voice of Russia, a broadcasting service of the Russian government.
But then questions and answers began. And things went off the rails.

Yes after the attendees shouted down Ms. Brown , THEN it went off the rails.    The problem was the base was allowed to speak!  

30-year-old Scott Terry, asked whether Republicans could endorse races remaining separate but equal. After the presenter, K. Carl Smith of Frederick Douglass Republicans, answered by referencing a letter by Frederick Douglass forgiving his former master, the audience member said “For what? For feeding him and housing him?” Several people in the audience cheered and applauded Terry’s outburst.

After the exchange, Terry muttered under his breath, “why can’t we just have segregation?” noting the Constitution’s protections for freedom of association. Watch it:

After contacting the Walker, Ryan and Sensenbrenner camps we have their official denouncements HERE! 

You can not be at an organized event with such dripping racism and NOT denounce it unless of course you agree with it(or need it agree with it to survive politically).  

This all shows how Scott Walkers rejection of Federal health care money and Jerry Baders failed attempt to connect with the Scott Terry's of the world and raise his low profile, all fit together.  

When you want to continue to advance in today's republican party you need the base support!

The problem is, how do you explain this disgusting behavior when you then have to face the rest of the country?  

God Bless Us Everyone...

And death to all gays!

 I love the republican party!   

In Mississippi, GOP state Rep. Andy Gipson posted a message on his Facebook page which calls for putting gays and lesbians to death.
On May 10, Gipson made the following post:

“Been a lot of press on Obama’s opinion on “homosexual marriage.” The only opinion that counts is God’s: see Romans 1:26-28 and Leviticus 20:13. Anyway you slice it, it is sin. Not to mention horrific social policy.”

Later on in the thread, Gipson posts a comment about how homosexuality is “unnatural” and causes “disease.”

According to Leviticus 20:13, “If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.”

By referring to this Bible verse on his Facebook page, Gipson is in fact, calling for killing homosexuals. And he isn’t apologizing for it either.

When called on the carpet to apologize for his hate posts...He did what all good republicans do.  He doubled down!

After receiving an email petition from UnityMS calling for him to apologize, Gipson responded on Friday by posting the following message on Facebook:

“To be clear, I want the world to know that I do not, cannot, and will not apologize for the inspired truth of God’s Word. It is one thing that will never “change.” Anyone who knows me knows I also believe that all people are created in God’s image, and that all people are loved by God, so much so that He gave us the truth of His Word which convicts us of the reality and guilt of our sin, and He gave us His Son Jesus who paid the full penalty for all our sins, by His grace through our faith in Him as we repent of our sin. John 3:16. It is this message that I preach every Sunday. I sincerely pray God will reach someone through this message.”

As of Saturday, Gipson seems to have removed his offensive posts, but has not apologized. You can view his page here.

As we talked about yesterday, just what book are they reading?  

Seems to me like the current republican party has a lot in common with another group that we see often....