Welcome To West Mississippi

People think Arizona is a western state.

And geographically it is.

But in its soul, Arizona is in the deep, deep South.

Whatever small spots of hipness, coolness, or progressiveness it may contain are constantly buried under an avalanche of Trumpist MAGA cunts.

It is essentially West Mississippi, and we kid ourselves to believe otherwise.

The Legislature is controlled by brain dead troglodytes, who do everything they can to kill public education for all by pumping millions of dollars into charter schools for the few. Their phony 2020 election "audit" and subsequent deluge of legislation designed to keep anyone but their festering base from voting should tell you everything you need to know about how they feel about democracy. As far as social issues, well, might as well put sheets on them and light a cross on fire.

The Governor, Mr. Cup or Waffle Cone?, is a corporate whore, in bed with ALEC and whatever right wing billionaires willing to contribute to his campaigns. (He thinks he can run for President someday.  And given the current degenerate state of the Republican Party, he probably can.)

The main newspaper in the main city exists primarily to sell advertising, first, last, and always. Whenever their in-house "liberals" (and in any truly progressive state they would be considered "moderates") write anything remotely critical of the state's power structure, the resultant angry letters to the editor serve to highlight the low IQ's of the general populace.

The state has been in a drought for more than a decade, but that hasn't stopped countless new exurban subdivisions from being built, all with promises of 100 years of water. Because, you know, "free enterprise" always trumps common sense.

For years the state's mantra has been "we don't want to be another California!" No danger of that--except for the traffic. After all, California has countless world class Colleges and Universities. And major industries, including aerospace, defense, Silicon Valley, agriculture, shipping, entertainment--rather than relying on back office call centers, service industry jobs, and cheap houses, built further and further from the city core.

Another California? No, we're giving Mississippi, Alabama, and all the rest of good 'ol Dixie a run for their money!

 

 

What Fresh Hell Is This?

A sometime contributor to The Arizona Republic, Jon Gabriel, who publishes something called Ricochet, which from all appearances is just chock full of Conservative/Libertarian nonsense, recently wrote an opinion piece for the paper stating that he thinks Kamala Harris isn't cut out to be Vice President. With that sentiment in mind, perhaps we should recall some of her predecessors:

Richard Nixon was Eisenhower's veep. Enough said.

Spiro Agnew was Nixon's veep. And, quelle surprise, a convicted crook. Birds of a feather, I guess. 

 

Gerald Ford replaced Agnew and all he did was pardon Mr. I Am Not A Crook for his various crimes.

 

George H.W. Bush was neck deep in Iran-Contra while the Great Communicator and Mommy consulted their astrologist. 

 

Dan Quayle was out spelled by a child. 

 

Dick "The Dark Lord" Cheney gleefully led George "Simple W." Bush deeper into the Middle East abyss that we still haven't emerged from.

 

And Mike Pence was last seen cuddling up to the man whose followers desperately wanted to hang him not so long ago. Grovel much?

 

Quite a list, huh? All they have in common was their white maleness, their sterling Conservative Credentials, and that "R" beside their names. Coincidence? I don't think so.

Not cut out for? Don't make me laugh.

 

Just How Stupid Are They?

This is the question we must ask of Trump supporters.

Based on my observations, I'd say that they are very, very, very stupid.

For instance, the Arizona Republic publishes letters on an almost daily basis that praise Traitor Don for something or other. On closer examination, these letters are usually just regurgitated Fox News talking points.

And anyone who quotes Fox News with a straight face is a fucking idiot.

Not everyone who writes a pro-Trump letter to the editor is a Fox spouting moron.

Some go way beyond that. There was a letter just the other day from some old guy in Sun City, which is a reliably ignorant retirement community west of Phoenix. Consistently Red as a baboon's ass.

This gentleman, who is obviously in desperate need of help, claimed that Trump performed "miracles" every day.

You know, like Jesus. Uh huh.

Of course, stupid people do not like to be told that they are stupid.

I suppose because it makes them feel even stupider.

But the facts remain.

However, since facts mean nothing to MAGAts, who are bigly proud of being "low information" voters, there is no point at all in trying to reason with these people.

Indeed, attempting to engage them in any kind of meaningful conversation is a complete waste of your time.

And Now, A Few Words About Reparations

Recently, the Arizona Republic published an editorial cartoon that showed Adam and Eve asking for Reparations for being forced from the Garden of Eden. I suppose a certain segment of the Republic's readers found this to be clever.

Except...Adam and Eve and their Garden are a fairy tale and slavery actually happened. Human beings sold like cattle. Women raped and impregnated by their "owners". Men and women brutalized and murdered, or worked until death. Children taken from their parents and sold to the highest bidder. You know, the part of American history that certain people tend to gloss over, or ignore completely.

 

Since I'm a reasonable person, if someone can convince me that all the atrocities against African Americans stopped with the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th, 14th, 15th and 24th Amendments, and that we live now in a "color blind", just society, with equal opportunity for all, good schools and fair housing for everyone, then I'll agree that the idea of reparations is absurd. 

 

Until then, do us all a favor and keep the fairy tales for Sunday school.

And Now, A Few Words About Taxes

Living in Phoenix, as I do, my daily newspaper is the, sigh, Arizona Republic, which, honestly, we subscribe to mostly for the obituaries. Morbid, I know.

I also, being somewhat masochistic, I guess, read the letters to the editor.

Mostly these are word for word rehashes of whatever garbage the writer heard most recently on Fox News. You can almost hear the spittle flying. It is sad. But it is true.

The other day, though, the Republic printed one from a fellow from Sun City, one of the myriad of bland, beige, boring, retirement camps--uh--I mean adult communities--which ring Phoenix like some breed of suffocating albino snake.

This guy was upset that the crazy socialists would tax away all the rich people. They would be forced to flee America if we tried to raise their taxes. And then where would we be without our rich people? He really meant it, too! He wasn't specific about where all those rich people would go. Couldn't be western Europe. Their taxes are higher than ours. Hmmm. Somalia? Venezuela? Russia?

Being a Sun City-ite, this guy must be of a certain age. Surely he remembers, fondly I'd guess, the 1950's. You know, that Trumpian paradise where blacks, browns, gays, women and students kept their mouths shut. Yeah. That place. The place that conservatives hunger to go back to with a passion that makes one blush. Blush, and then vomit.

Anyway, the top marginal tax rate, the rate the richest Americans theoretically pay,  in the 1950's, the Eisenhower years, was 91 or 92%. That's right.

How about the Kennedy years? Same rate.

LBJ? Took a deep plunge to 75%.

Under I Am Not A Crook it was still at 70%. Yeah, that raving socialist Richard M. Nixon was president of a country with a 70% top marginal rate!

The top marginal rate for 2019 is 37%. You could double it, and still be below LBJ's rate, let alone JFK and Eisenhower's.

If things were so much better back then...maybe we should go back to those rates, just for nostalgia's sake. Just to make some people happy again...

Dumb, And Working Very Hard To Get Dumber

It will no doubt shock you to learn that 3 of the 4 Republicans running for Superintendent of Public Instruction in Arizona think creationism and intelligent design should be taught in the public schools.

From the Republican perspective it is obviously very important to keep as many people as possible as stupid as possible.

Otherwise, where will the next generation of Republicans come from? You know, those "low information voters" beloved by our Traitor in Chief.

We keep hearing about how important STEM classes are...and then the good folks at GOP Inc want to add a fairy tale section to science class.

I thought that was what Sunday School was for...

As anyone who reads the letters to the editor of the Arizona Republic knows, there is no bottom to the stupid in this state.

It's like a fucking black hole, sucking in all who approach.

And spitting out good, brain dead, free market, law and order, build the Wall, not-a-clue, Republicans.

Regarding The Continuing Support For Sheriff Joe Arpaio

Look at it this way: I'm sure that in Berlin in the Spring of 1945, April say, you could find some folks who thought the boss was doing a good job, and that things were going to turn around any day now...

After all, this is Arizona. There are plenty of people still proudly sporting Bush-Cheney, McCain-Palin, and Romney-Ryan bumperstickers.

Common sense and reason don't really enter into it much.

Speaking Of Lowlife Scum

The Arizona Republic did a nice little piece about the Hensley Beverage Company the other day. You know, Hensley as in Senator John McCain's wife Cindy Hensley McCain? They distribute beer and other alcoholic beverages.

And somehow, and I'm sure it was just an oversight, not enough room, tight deadline etc. the piece  managed to not mention how Cindy's dad, Jim Hensley, was buddy pals with old Kemper Marley.

How their "friendship" perhaps resulted in Jimmy getting his Budweiser distributorship. As reward, some say, for taking the rap for Marley in an earlier legal dustup.

Or perhaps it was just part of Budweiser's short lived "Felon to Entrepreneur" rehabilitation program?

Of course, if they mentioned Kemper Marley, they might have to mention Don Bolles, who as you may or may not recall, was a reporter for the Republic, and who was looking into Marley's "business" dealings when he somehow managed to get himself blown to bits back in the mid-70's.

And, since The Arizona Republic exists mainly to deliver advertising, it's probably best to not rock the boat.  In fact, I think that's on their masthead.

So move along, nothing to see here...just old news...

Shocked! Shocked! Yet Again

A big headline on the front page of The Arizona Republic announces a teacher shortage in Arizona!!!!

No shit?

Gee, you think the fact that the state doesn't value education or teachers at all has anything to do with that?

This state had to be sued in order to force it to adequately fund public schools. Sued! Naturally, the state lost, but, of course, they're still refusing to pay up. Because we value education only as long as it take us to say "we value education."

And when I say "we" I mean the Republicans who have been running Arizona for a long, long time. And when I say "running" I mean "into the ground."

As a man on the radio in my long ago youth was fond of saying, "this is a state that glorifies bankers and vilifies teachers."

That's not entirely fair. Only public school teachers are vilified. They are, after all, members of a union (gasp!), and therefore the root of our problems.

If, on the other hand, you start a charter school, whatever your "qualifications", you will be exalted. State money will be showered upon you. You can even pick and choose what kind of students you want--or don't want. And no questions will be asked. No standards will be enforced. Because...uh...free market solution?

This assault from the right on public education can probably be traced back to the Supreme Court decision in Brown vs The Board of Education, back in the 1950's.

See, and this is going to surprise the hell out of you, living as you do in post racial America, but some white people are racist to their very core. I know, I was shocked to find it out myself. Shocked!

So, in the places they control, and that includes Arizona, everything becomes a game of keeping "them" away from "us". Depending on where you live, "them" can be African-Americans, Latinos, poor whites, or a combination thereof.

Since public schools are often full of "them", we must keep public schools in a constant state of disrepair and disarray. Because a permanent undereducated underclass sure comes in handy come hiring time...

And, as an extra benefit, we can blame the teachers (and their union, of course) for not being able to do the impossible job we've given them.

Talk about a win-win!

True Or False: Doug MacEachern Is A Libertarian Hack

Last Sunday, Doug MacEachern, who is one of the crack team of editorial columnists at The Arizona Republic, (to my knowledge the only daily paper in a major metropolitan area to NEVER win a Pulitzer Prize for anything other than cartoons), took up his quill pen, and ever ready righteous indignation, to warn us--yet again--of the dangers of creeping unionism in Phoenix. Oh, those pesky labor unions with their demands for a living wage, safe workplaces, and, horrors, benefits. They must be stopped! And MacEachern, the Paul Revere of the Arizona branch of the Free Market/To Hell With The Workers Club, is just the guy to do it.

For those of you fortunate enough to never have read any of his work, MacEachern has been writing essentially the same column for at least 20 years. Always some variation of "the unions are bad, regulations are bad, multiculturalism is bad, liberals are very bad, the free market is the only thing that will save us" crap that the right, and libertarians in particular, spew out on a regular basis.

The cornerstones of their "ideal" Arizona are low taxes and low wages and the "freedom" to fuck over your workers. Because, uh, I don't know, Ayn Rand? The fact that this method has never delivered the results they swore it would, and has in fact resulted in Arizona being the southwestern version of Mississippi, does not deter them from constantly repeating them. That's the thing about True Believers: They have faith and that's what really matters. Not facts--faith. "If only we could drive wages down even lower and remove all taxes...then you'll see how right we are!" Uh huh.

So, of course, unions are the root cause of all the bad in our would be capitalist paradise--at least in the bullshit fantasy libertarian world that Dougie Mac flits around in.

The Paper Of Record

The world is a constant source of amazement and, let's face it, amusement.

Just the other day, the paper of record in my town, The Arizona Republic, had the following headline on its front page: Tax-credit program helping rich Ariz. schools get richer.

Set aside for a moment the somewhat odd abbreviation for Arizona (there are no apparent style guidelines at the Republic, God love 'em), and let's concentrate on the story itself:

The parents of students at the wealthier schools make more tax-credit donations than the parents of students at poorer schools. Probably because they have more money, huh?

So the students of the wealthier schools end up with more and better everything.

You are, no doubt, shocked, shocked to find this out.

As usual, the Republic has a grasp on the obvious that is breathtaking.

Solutions? No, not really. Outrage? Not much, wouldn't want to offend the well off.

So...nothing to be done. Carry on.

Happy Holidays!

Fire

Arizona has been in a drought for more than a decade. There is also a plague of bark beetles attacking whatever living trees they can find.

This leads to a lot of very dry wood.

Because both the state and the Feds can't seem to agree on (or pay for) the requisite forest clearing there's lots and lots of undergrowth to help stoke any fire that happens to start for whatever reason.

And because in Arizona we don't want no dang gubmint meddling in our lives, we allow people to build houses or park their trailers right in the middle of a tinderbox.

Inevitably someone throws a cigarette out of a car, or fails to put out a campfire, or maybe it's simply just a lightning strike. An "Act of God", the insurance companies call it.

It starts as just a spark.

Then the winds shift and lots of brave men die.

And The Arizona Republic gets to take a shot at finally winning a Pulitzer for reporting by running the same tragic stories over and over for weeks. I guess that's what they think "in depth" means.

Arizona's Governor, Jan "Chuck, Tell Me What To Do" Brewer, has asked the hated Feds for aid to help the victims of the fires. Arizona is already a net taker state, so what's a little more? I mean, come on, we're all in this together. Right?

Mrs. Brewer belongs to the Republican Party. You know, the party that demonizes unions just like the ones that fire fighters, policemen, and teachers belong to. Her party also loves to cut taxes and the necessary programs that taxes are used for. If there's a way to underfund something, by God we'll find it!

Welcome to Arizona. We may not want to pay to make your dangerous job a little easier or safer.

But we'll sure throw you a grand funeral.

Arizona's Big Advantage

Recently, the Arizona Republic featured the latest in a series of articles that pop up every few years highlighting Arizona's economic "advantages" over California.

Ha Ha Ha.

The articles always boil down to two things: lower taxes and lower wages. As in "please move your business to Arizona, where you'll pay less taxes and you won't have to pay your employees a decent wage!"

So please overlook the fact that our public schools are battling it out with Alabama and Mississippi in a close race to the bottom. Please forget that our legislature is controlled by gun nuts, birthers, and the "build the dang fence" Tea Party crowd. Please forget that our health care system is broken and our arts organizations are always on life support.

Because those things don't really enter into "quality of life" now do they?

No, the important thing is that if you come here, you'll pay less in taxes and less in wages and imagine what that will do for your bottom line!!

Gee, I wonder what kind of employers that sort of thinking attracts?

And I wonder what that does to what's left of the middle class? 

And the roads and schools and all the other services that taxes pay for?

But, as my late mother used to say, "beggars can't be choosers", so what the hell, Welcome to Arizona!!!"

Flea Wags Dog

I know it's early, but I have a strong candidate for my Arizona Republic headline of the year:

"Biden, NRA find little consensus...neither yields in White House meeting."

See, because Americans are so damn good at shooting each other, much better than all of those second rate, socialist countries that we despise, we have to have meetings at the highest levels of the government and with all concerned parties to try and figure out a way to maybe slow down the slaughter of the innocents a little bit. Or at the very least make it somewhat more difficult. More "sporting" if you will..

And the NRA, as one of the chief funding mechanisms of the Republican Party, is obviously a concerned party, with all the attendant thoughts and proposals that concerned parties have.

Now, because I don't have to be as polite as, say, Vice President Biden, my first response was "who gives a fuck what the NRA thinks?"

Because, hey, I already know what the NRA thinks: "Guns don't kill people, people kill people." And "lots of guns good--more guns better!" "From my cold dead hands", etc etc.

The NRA, after all, is a lobbying organization whose chief goal is to enrich the gun manufacturers of the world. If they could figure out a way to get .50 caliber machine guns into the hands of each freedom loving, Second Amendment defending American, they would gladly do it. Imagine the profit margin on a machine gun!  Just the thought of it, and the nice rewards he would get from its manufacturers must make Wayne "A Gun Is A Tool--And So Am I" LaPierre all gooey inside.

What I didn't realize, though, is that apparently the NRA is also an equal branch of the government.

They not only get a seat at the table, they get to dictate policy! At least for their Republican underlings. And the handful of Democrats that act like they were Republicans, of course. You know who you are.

See, according to the NRA, when Madison, Jefferson, Mason, Hamilton and the rest were drawing things up, they wanted the guys who represented the flintlock manufacturers to have a say in how many and what kind of flintlocks each free white male could own.

Everybody knows that. My God, the right to bear arms is the sole basis of our freedom. And blah, blah, blah...

Here's the deal: assault rifles and 30 clip pistols are not for hunting or self defense. They are for killing lots of people as quickly as possible. The folks who feel they need them for protection, especially from the Feds, are mentally defective in some fundamental way. Paranoid, delusional, psychopathic--pick one. They have a deep seated fear of "the other" of "them."

If you want to blame it on video games, fine. But make sure you blame the Bible, too. It's full of violence, especially the Old Testament. And let's not forget Shakespeare. Somebody is getting murdered every time you turn the page. When you get right down to it we are a barbarous species. And we should never make it easier for us to indulge our killing instinct.

Hey, here's an idea for a TV reality show: let all the assault rifle lovin', Black Helicopter fearing, Federal 'gubmint' hating, minority despising homophobes buy all the AR-15's and ammo that they want, send them up to Idaho and let's see how long they last against a couple of platoons of Marines with air support. If the Marines are busy elsewhere, just send a couple of drones.

Good clean fun for the whole family. Make that Hillbilly Hand Fishin' show look like a bunch of inbred, genetic mutants. Oh, wait...

It's All Greek To Me

One of the cherished talking points of the Right is how we are turning into Greece.

It has become so endemic that it has filtered down to the letters to the editor of The Arizona Republic, surely one of the lowest rings of the living Hell that is Right Wing Looneydom.

The hysterical rant goes something like this:

Soon we will be bankrupt--just like Greece!

And it will be because of the evil unions--just like Greece!

And all the entitlements of our welfare state--just like Greece!

And the lazy workers--just like Greece!

And the overall corruption of "socialism"--just like Greece!

I'm sure if there were some way to claim that Greece had a "black, anti-colonial Kenyan, Muslim" President, they'd do that too.

And I suppose if the Greeks had the world's largest economy, largest military, the world's safest currency, and their own central bank with the ability to print their own money, and set their own interest rates--we would be "just like Greece".

But they don't.

So anyone who tells you that we're in danger of becoming "just like Greece" is a fucking idiot. And you can quote me on that.

Of course, there is one way that we are exactly like Greece:

Many of the wealthiest Greeks have done everything they possibly can--legally and otherwise--to avoid paying taxes.

Remind you of anyone?

Religious Notes From All Over

According to a story in the August 19th edition of The Arizona Republic, the Diocese of Phoenix missed its self-imposed deadline of June 14th to publish a list of how many of its priests were involved in sexual misconduct and how much this "misconduct" cost the Diocese. You know, in legal fees, hush money, etc.

We will set aside for the moment the fact that it apparently took the keen journalistic minds of the Republic two months to realize that the deadline had passed. The Republic exists to sell advertising and keeping too close a watch on actual news interferes with that.

No, let us instead ask if the Diocese's delay was caused by the breathtaking number of molesting priests and/or the astronomical amount of money spent on damage control. Perhaps they are simply ashamed? Or perhaps they are simply still counting....

The latest figure I could find for the amount of money spent nationally by The One True Church to make amends for the, let us say, sins committed by "the Shepherds of the Flock" is $3.3 Billion.

That's $3,300,000,000.

And that's a lot of dough.

You might say "gee, if the Bishops had just kept a closer watch on their priests most of that money could have been spent to help the poor and hungry, the ill and homeless."

Obviously you don't understand how the wealthy international holding company that calls itself The Catholic Church works.

Oh God Bless you naive and trusting souls! Have I got a religion for you!

Socialism At Work Again

Big news in these parts!

Luke Air Force Base, pride of the west Valley, has been chosen to host the F-35 fighter program!

According to The Arizona Republic this will result in a thousand new jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars pumped into the local economy!

Only one problem: It can't be true.

Because, as any good Republican will tell you, government has never created a single job.

The Romney Way To Economic Recovery

If you're ever feeling unreasonably optimistic about the future, just read the letters to the editor in The Arizona Republic and it'll bring you right back to reality.

The other day, for instance, they published a letter from a man who sang the praises of Willard Mitt Romney's offshore accounts. This guy is convinced that the ability to hide money from the IRS in the Cayman's, Bahamas, and Switzerland proves Willard's economic bona fides. In his mind Romney is an economic genius and the country--our country--would greatly benefit from just that kind of financial acumen.

Wow. Normally I'd dismiss this guy, in the vernacular of my Irish forebears, as just "another fookin' ijit." But apparently many people share his belief in the Mastery of Mitt. So let's take a closer look:

Since Romney made a lot of his money by hollowing out companies, off-shoring the jobs, firing American workers, looting pension funds, and ultimately burdening the remaining shell company with millions of dollars in debt, all while raking in huge management fees for him and his Bain Capital buddies, I'm wondering what a United States run under those principles would look like...

First of all, any job that can be sent overseas will be. The Federal government will be run out of a call center in Bangalore. And if those Indians get uppity, bang, we move it to Indonesia, just like that.

The only remaining American industries will be Defense contractors. Naturally, we'll need more wars to use all that cool, expensive stuff. Iran anyone? How about Russia and China, too?

Now, you unemployed folks needn't worry about the solvency of Social Security, or Medicare anymore. Most of you won't live long enough to benefit from them anyway. See, Mitt will do away with what's left of the safety net, welfare, food stamps, OSHA, the EPA, the FDA--all of those burdensome regulatory agencies that bother his billionaire backers. We'll have bad air, bad water, unclean food, unsafe roads and bridges, and low wages. Some of those diseases we thought we had eradicated will make a curtain call, too. Cholera, polio, tuberculosis--maybe even smallpox! But at least you won't have the Feds buggin' you man! It'll be a real "free market" paradise. You'll see.

Of course, it's not all bad. On the plus side for progressives, you can say goodbye to most, if not all, of the Red States. They take more from the Federal government than they give, which means they under perform. And Mitt knows what to do with under performing assets.

So sayonara y'all! 147 years after the Civil War, Dixie will finally get its wish!

Today's Chuckle

John McCain, R-Bitter Old Man, has announced plans for a "think tank" bearing his name at Arizona State University. I will now pause briefly for laughter....

"Think tank"? To quote Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride, "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." 

"I think I want to be a Senator" and "I think I want to be President" don't really qualify. Nor does "Hey, I was a P.O.W.! You people owe me!"

Every time McCain runs for re-election I send a letter to the editor of The Arizona Republic asking them to publish a list of his accomplishments. Because Arizona is such a transient state, it would be helpful for all of our newcomers to see in black and white just what "The Maverick" has done for the state. Never once have they replied to my request. Could it be because there's nothing to list?

In the article announcing his "think tank", McCain makes the following declaration, apparently referring to the difficulties of being in the Senate with those wicked Democrats: "I'm surrounded by such incompetency that it's very dispiriting sometimes."

Hey John, you want "dispiriting" try living in a state that's represented by you, Kyl, Flake, Franks, Quayle, Schweikert and Gosar. That's dispiriting.

And Senator, if you want to see real "incompetency" take a good long look in the mirror.

Hell Freezes Over

This headline actually appeared in The Arizona Republic a couple of days ago:

"Federal funds help city"

I tell you, I almost choked on my cruller. Here in the heart of our delusional "self-made man, we don't need no damn gubmint, free-market libertarian utopia", some poor, misguided soul had the nerve to tell the truth!

Sure, he or she has probably been fired by now. Or at the very least been severely reprimanded and lectured about the dangers of creeping socialism by the Republic's overseers. But in any war there are casualties. And if one reader of that mostly worthless rag had their eyes opened a little, even by accident, I say it's worth it.

Of course, it is early. Plenty of time for the paper to publish a retraction. Or for those flatulent gasbags at the Goldwater Institute to deluge the op-ed page with more of their garbage. I'm sure that the counterattacks will be relentless. To quote Poppy Bush, "this will not stand!"

But for one brief shining moment, etc etc...