The Cincy brawl outrage ain't genuine

"Holly the working mother," turned out to be a Russian national who fled the country before being "in contact" with Ohio's leading Republican gubernatorial candidate.

If I got drunk tonight, walked into some biker bar in rural Ohio, called them all pussies and then slapped one of their beloved regulars, somehow I don’t think Ohio Republicans would rally to my defense if they kicked the hell out of me.

They would say things like, “That’s what I deserve for trying that in a small town!”

But that’s not what happened in Cincinnati last week, when a drunken white guy slapped a Black man and sparked a “brawl” in which three people have been charged.

Republicans from notorious conman Vivek Ramaswamy, Senator Bernie Moreno and Attorney General Dave Yost were all quick to share edited footage to make it seem that a group of white citizens were savagely beaten in the streets for no good reason.

And, to be fair, the man who knocked the woman unconscious deserves the sentence coming to him.

But nobody finds it at least a little odd that the woman, identified as “Holly” in Twitter posts from Ramaswamy and Moreno, turned out to be a Russian national who fled the country before “being in contact” with Ramaswamy and leaking photos to Moreno?

Vivek Ramaswamy and Senator Bernie Moreno both identified one victim as “Holly,” but forgot to mention that she was a Russian national who immediately fled the country, as reported by the right-wing The New York Post.

I’m sorry that happened to the woman. It was a disgraceful act of cowardice that should be prosecuted. But at the same time, there is almost a zero percent chance this Russian broad is named “Holly,” as told to us by a Republican gubernatorial nominee and a United States Senator.

And, in my opinion, it’s pretty telling that she leaked these photographs to a Republican Senator rather than a legitimate media outlet. How did these guys get a hold of her?

We don’t even know if it’s the same woman!

As for the rest of the video?

Stupid people playing stupid games and winning stupid prizes.

Nobody died. Two victims went to the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries, while the third absconded to Russia.

Whatever. I don’t care.

Ohio has the 11th-highest gun homicide rate and 8th-highest gun suicide rate in America. And given that carnage, it’s gross if not predictable to see guys like Moreno threatening Cincinnati’s federal funding if Mayor Aftab Pureval doesn’t meet made-up criteria to restore “law and order.”

Cincinnati spent $180 million on its police department this fiscal year, yet that aspect won’t be mentioned when Ramaswamy holds a “town hall” at a bar on the outskirts of the city on Monday.

Councilwoman Victoria Parks doubled down on a social media post claiming the “victims,” who started the confrontation, were “begging for that beat down.”

I honestly wasn’t familiar with her game. And for that I apologize. It’s refreshing to see a Democrat not cave to the fake conservative outrage mob and the coordinated attacks of right-wing media echo chambers.

The rest of her Democratic colleagues who “condemned” the statement? Total losers who failed to grasp the No. 1 rule in these situations: You never apologize to these people. It will never be good enough for them.

Their outrage isn’t genuine. They want to drive the racist narrative that our cities are lawless hellscapes and continue the double standard where they can trash the other side because God forbid we say something about rural areas where, statistically speaking, nobody wants to live.

And that’s fine. They can play that racist tune all they want. But that doesn’t mean the rest of us have to dance.

The notorious conman takes his private plane addiction onto the campaign trail

Vivek Ramaswamy and the make and model of his private plane.

Vivek Ramaswamy is a slick-talking charlatan who Republicans will tell you has everyday Ohioans’ interests at heart.