Last week when I heard about a “Let’s Go Brandon” store in MA. I thought it was funny but no big deal. One such store in a deep blue state isn’t so odd. Trump got 32% of the vote which is more than a million so yeah one store might be a fun oddity.
Let’s Go Brandon retail outlets have popped up in seven locations just in time for the holiday season, offering T-shirts, hats, hoodies, mugs, magnets, stickers, flags and other merchandise inspired by the viral political euphemism.
The seven shops — six in Massachusetts, one in Rhode Island — are the brainchild of Keith Lambert, founder of New England for Trump, who said the stores are resonating with customers eager to tout their opposition to President Biden.
“Sales are very good. We’ve got a lot of support. There’s a lot of excitement,” Mr. Lambert told The Washington Times. “People absolutely love coming out. Being in the atmosphere of a store, it’s a lot of fun.”
Plus one in Rhode Island.
This is a problem for the left because a lot of their power comes from fear. One enough people in a state decide that they aren’t afraid of showing what they believe then sustaining the fictions that the left’s power is based on becomes untenable.
If these stores are still hoping after Christmas, then if I’m a MA dem I’d start worrying.
SHREVEPORT — They say all politics is local so let’s take a moment to consider the bond election held last week in Shreveport. I know you don’t live in Shreveport but consider this a model for what is likely happening in Democrat run cities all over the country, for the most part.
Our Democrat mayor, Adrian Perkins, is wallowing in the sub-basement of low approval ratings as our homicide rate has already tied the record for the most homicides in the city per year, as our police force diminishes to over 100 officers below expected levels, and as our fire department shuffles equipment from one station to another just to keep trucks and EMS operational. Our roads are literally crumbling, and the last major manufacturing business, Libbey Glass, shut the doors and pulled out. We are a dying city.
December 11 was election day for a bond proposal to address a few of these issues. Among the issues on the ballot, the only one to pass was Prop 1:
Proposition 1 was the sole passing proposal, being supported by 59 percent of the 15,581 voters. The proposition’s most costly projects are a $27.5 million renovation of the police department’s central headquarters, $13.5 million for new fire department trucks and vehicles, and more than $15 million for fire station renovations and relocations. Proposition 1 will cost the city $70 million.
Propositions 3 and 4 both lost in tight races. 54 percent of voters selected no on both. Proposition 4 would have been for fixing roads. Proposition 3 would have been for replacing the city’s 80-year-old lead pipe water system with a more modern plastic pipe system less likely to leech dangerous chemicals into the water supply and built to sustain extreme temperatures. Proposition 3 also would have addressed sewage and flooding issues.
Propositions 3 and 4 each would have cost more than $60 million.
Proposition 2 was for improving access to broadband internet in Shreveport and would have cost more than $20 million. 60 percent of voters said no to it. Proposition 5 was for improving parks and recreation centers and would have also cost more than $20 million. 61 percent of voters said no to it.
Voter turnout was a miserable 12.7%, and this was the second time (at least) that Perkins has put up this bond issue for vote.
The bottom line is this: nobody trusts this administration. I voted no down the line because my feeling is that if these city administrators think that approving a $10 million contract for curbside recycling to a woman with a Lexus, no staff, no training, and no where to take the material is a good idea….well, I don’t want to give them one bloody dime.
Even more, none of the proposed propositions addressed the abysmal police pay rate which is a huge problem and a large part of the reason we can’t keep officers.
Our priorities are wrong.
Our administration is wrong.
And I see this same pattern is a whole lot of cities run by Democrats.
If you give a press conference and the result looks like a Saturday Night Live sketch, a pre-woke version of the show that is, then you have a big problem.
So it was last week with Chicago’s inept leftist mayor, Lori Lightfoot, when she blamed retail crime victims for the rise of flash mob thieves plaguing Chicago’s Magnificent Mile shopping area.
“We still have retailers that won’t institute plans like having security officers in their stores, making sure that they’ve got cameras that are actually operational, locking up their merchandise at night, chaining high-end bags,” the first-term Democrat said. “These purses can be something that is attracting a lot of organized retail theft units.”
So it’s the victims’ fault.
Just like it was in this SNL skit from 1991, featuring Chicago native Joe Mantegna, where he blames New York City crime victims for their problems.
“Yeah, I was flying to Florida, and we had a stopover in New York,” a caller to a talk radio show told Mantegna. “Well, while we were sitting on the ground a group of ‘wilding’ teenagers boarded the plane and beat with me on the head with a pipe.”
“And which airport was this,” Mantegna asked,
“LaGuardia,” was the reply.
“Well, there you go,” Mantegna scolded the caller.
Chicago Police brass were said to have a plan in place to combat smash-and-grab thieves and avoid scenes such as what happened when a Burberry’s on North Michigan Avenue was emptied of purses–each handbag was worth more than a thousand dollars.
If there was a plan by the CPD, then it clearly didn’t work. Since Lightfoot’s delusional presser a North Face store on the Mag Mile was struck twice. But proving that the Burberry’s looting was just a tame opening act, yesterday a luxury car dealer just off of the Magnificent Mile was robbed of an estimated $2 million worth of high-end watches–which, are you paying attention Mayor Lightfoot?– were locked up inside a locked glass display case. Yep, $2 million.
The dealership is now seeing customers on an appointment basis only–its doors are locked during store hours. Welcome to the new Chicago.
On Friday night’s Flannery Fired Up show on Fox 32 Chicago, host Mike Flannery estimated that 20 percent of the storefronts on North Michigan Avenue are empty. Regular readers of my posts know that the Mag Mile was devastated by two rounds of looting–oops, I mean “mostly peaceful protests”–in 2020.
The luxury dealership, which sells Rolls-Royces, Bentleys, and Lamborghinis, is owned by Joe Perillo, who is rethinking operating in Chicago.
“It is wrong for someone to break into a place – if they get caught, they get let out!” Perillo explained to ABC 7. “If they get arrested, they get let go. So, how do you intend to ever solve that problem?” He added, “If they don’t do anything about this, they’re going to lose a lot of businesses. They lost Macy’s. They’re losing Neiman Marcus. They may lose this store.”
While Neiman Marcus still has a store on the North Michigan Avenue, the Gap and Disney have also left in the last year. And remember what Flannery said about Mag Mile vacancies.
It’s not just Lightfoot’s fault.
Kim Foxx is one of those woke so-called prosecutors whose campaign was funded by radical leftist George Soros. She’s received plenty of well-deserved scorn for her mishandling of the Jussie Smollett case. But the greater sin of the Cook County state’s attorney is her catch-and-release policy involving criminals accused of serious offenses. Even some alleged murderers are out of jail on electronic surveillance.
How ’bout if a non-woke SNL updated that skit with a Chicago twist?
“Hello, my store was emptied of merchandise by flash mob looters,” a caller to that SNL-radio show might say.
“What do you sell,” Lori Lightfoot would reply.
“Purses worth more than $1,000.”
Lightfoot’s retort would be, “Well, there you go.”
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