Month: January 2019

Disorganized Crime…

by MyBaconPress

I keep wanting to equate the Trump Crime Family with Tony Soprano as in; why does his base continue to think Trump is the ONLY honest guy in his mob organization?  The problem?  Tony’s crew was competent.  In all those years, ONE guy – Big Pussy – got busted and ended up sleeping with the fish.  (Full disclosure: I haven’t seen an episode in years.  I may have forgotten other busts…)

The Don Trump’s criminal enterprise is more like The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight.  They likely would have gone their entire lives without getting caught if the Don hadn’t surrendered to his ego and run for President…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Speaking of surrender, I don’t know for sure if I’m glad to see he finally caved on his wall funding.  His position was hurting Americans across the land so standing down was good.  But hurting Americans across the land would, sooner or later, have affected Republicans in Congress and I think we all know by now that the ONLY thing that’s going to get Republicans to challenge Trump is a direct threat to their own phony-baloney jobs…

No, I know.  I can’t really get behind actual harm to actual Americans in the name of a political stunt…

Mr. “Art of the Deal” never understood the position he put himself in.  Nancy COULD NOT back down once he started his assault on the government workers.  If SHE had caved, Trump would have been shutting down the government every time he wanted to do some NEW, dumbass thing.

It’s a parenting issue.  One cannot give in to a child’s tantrum unless one wants to experience tantrums from that point forward…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’m glad they got Roger Stone.  The noose is tightening around Donnie’s throat.  I saw Barney Frank on ‘Real Time’ recently.  He said he’d rather beat Trump at the polls than in a court of law.  I agree.  No matter how much fun it is to fantasize, Trump isn’t going to jail.  The US does NOT indict her ex-Presidents regardless of the crimes they commit.

All you need to do is consider international war criminal George W. Bush.  He can’t travel freely around the world because of his crimes but he CAN travel freely around America…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Despite my best efforts, the Dem Wars are heating up again.  I watched an episode of the Samantha Bee show.  Samantha is a die-hard, dyed-in-the-wool Democrat.  She did a bit about all the women jumping into the race with an, “Oh, and Tulsi Gabbord, too” slap.  Tulsi is an established Democrat.  Her “crime”?  When the DNC started manipulating the 2016 primaries, she quit her role as vice-chair – publicly.  Apparently, she thought the DNC should be just facilitating an honest primary.  You know, like their charter dictates.  Now she’s on the out’s with Dems.

It appears they aren’t interested in a candidate with integrity…

Security Insecurity…

by MyBaconPress

Alright, this is getting stupid.  Our National Shame is SO focused on his useless vanity wall he’s letting security go at nearly EVERY other level.  A certain segment of our population is screaming about the dangers of uncontrolled immigration and simultaneously reducing controls on who enters this country and how – all because they’re terrified of people coming to this country and requesting asylum legally.

TSA agents across the land aren’t getting paid but they still have to pay their bills so they’re calling in sick and doing “gig” work.  (“Gig” work is the new term in this vulture economy.  It’s a euphemism for “you’re on  your own.”)  Homeland Security isn’t funded.  Think about that.  Homeland Security isn’t funded because of a temper tantrum over…well, the security of the homeland.  This, despite the fact that the security of the homeland is pretty much as solid as it’s been since 9/11.

As it happens, people running for their lives and begging for help don’t really represent a threat and it doesn’t matter how many times a certain segment of our population says otherwise.

Truthfully, I’m conflicted.  I’m enjoying watching Pelosi hand Trump his ass over his vanity wall.  I even enjoy seeing his petty little responses.  They’re so…revealing.  As in, he revealed a Congressional trip to Afghanistan, a violation of security.  But then, MY income isn’t affected, yet.  I feel for the people who aren’t getting paid and I’m concerned about the inevitable ripple effect.

Trump insists he’s going to save this country if he has to destroy the country to do it…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I really love AOC.  No, not the Architect of the Capitol.  I mean Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.  Holy gods has she got everyone in a dither.  The right effing hates her because she’s the personification of progressive values.  The Democrats effing hate her because she’s the personification of progressive values.  Progressives love her.

She’s a young, minority woman.  Three straight strikes, if you’re an old white man.  People keep trying to smack her down but they keep missing the mark.  What?  She dances?  DANCES?!?  She knows about marginal tax brackets!  So, of course, the right insists she doesn’t understand marginal tax brackets.  She’s opposed to incremental baby steps, the current buzz-phrase Democrats are using meaning “do nothing to upset the status quo.”

Sure, it’s fun but it’s dangerous.  Sooner or later, one of those salvos from the left or the right is going to land…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So…IS Bernie personally responsible for claims of sexual harassment in his campaign?  No.  Unless HE did it, or one can prove he did nothing when he learned of it.  But that doesn’t stop the left – yes, the left – from attacking him aggressively over it.  Dems fear Bernie for the same reason they fear AOC.  It’s all that…progressiveness…when all they want to do is maintain the oligarchy as currently structured.  Sure, because it’s working so well for so many people.  I suspect it’s the left that’s keeping these charges alive in an effort to smear him…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dems are starting to come out of the woodwork running for President.  I think there’s a sense that just showing up might be enough to beat Putin’s Puppet.  Okay, hyperbole alert, there.  But the mood seems to be – unless one is a dedicated, dyed-in-the-wool Trump supporter – people want him OUT.  The right person with the right message has a real opportunity.

According to Rolling Stone, there are currently 27 candidates running or considering a run.  So far, no word from Hillary.

I think the ONLY chance Trump has of re-election is if the Dems and Progressives re-ignite the Dem wars of 2016.  So, of course, you can bet the opposition is going to fuel the divide.  Sadly, it’s not going to be too hard, either.  Dems are dug in: it’s NOT going to be a Progressive.  Progressives are dug in, too: we can no longer afford non-progressive politics.

Of course, it’s FAR too early to say who the best candidate might be.  I’d prefer someone younger to someone older – but Nancy Pelosi has certainly made a case that an… “experienced” politician has value in politics.  I’d prefer a Progressive, whether a Democrat or just someone running AS a Democrat.

Both the Republicans and Democrats can breath at least ONE sigh of relief: according to the Constitution, AOC is still too young to run for President…

The Truth of Automation…

by MyBaconPress

A few years ago, back when the $15/hour movement started, a photo started floating around the web.  It wasn’t necessarily THIS photo but it looked something like this:

mcdonaldsautomated-2005

That’s an automated McDonald’s ordering system.  The photo was intended as a threat: “Demand an honest wage,” the message went, “and we’ll just automate your job away entirely.”  As with all things rich vs. poor, it’s a lie.  Here’s why:

The $15/hour movement got started around 2015 (and even at that would have left countless people below the poverty line).  That photo is dated 2005.  This is the web; maybe it was a typo but the caption noted that it was a prototype, the wave of the future.

I don’t mean to put too fine a point on this but the concept of a for-profit business is, well, to make profit.  Consider that an axiom.  It means that a business should, by rights, do any and every legal thing it can do to create profit.  The wealth hoarders at the top usually view the workers who generate the revenues as leeches and ALWAYS view the ‘Employee Compensation’ line on the P&L as a “problem.”  (Curiously, not the ‘Executive Compensation’ part, just the ‘Worker’ part…)

That means that automation is coming whether or not the corporation pays an honest wage.  There are two – and only two – considerations on the topic: dependability and public acceptance.  The corporation is already chipping away at the ‘acceptance’ part by offering these kiosks as “conveniences.” (As we know, today’s “convenience” is tomorrow’s “Screw you, YOU do it!”)  The very moment the ‘dependability’ part catches up, you’ll see fully automated McDonald’s everywhere you look – without regard to the pay rate of the workers.

Paying the workers an honest wage – or not – never enters into the equation.  Sooner or later, those workers are going to be out of a job as a result of automation.  The ONLY thing that will result from the lack of honest pay is that the workers’ plight will be worsened when they’re finally cut loose.  If they were paid an honest living wage while the transition to automation occurred, they’d be better positioned to absorb the loss of that job while they find another one.

I’ll tell you this: I don’t know about you but I’m kind of tired of all of the fraudulent excuses and stories being peddled in an attempt to justify theft from the workers…

Dedication, Bad and Good…

by MyBaconPress

I’ve got to hand it to them, the Trump base.  Mexico has (stunningly) failed to write a check for his stupid border wall.  Hmm, who could have guessed?  Now, the Democrats won’t pay for it, either, based on nothing more than the fact that it won’t work.  So, some enterprising individual, a guy named Brian Kolfage, set up a GoFundMe account to raise the cash from the rubes who simply WILL NOT accept that ladders defeat walls.  The entire account was only trying to raise one-fifth of the Trump demand and they only raised a fraction of that amount – but still, it was a LOT.

Predictably, the account didn’t reach it’s goal.  Now, the goal has been shifted to an attempt to build the wall privately.  (The original campaign was to give the money to the Trump maladministration.)  But the people who donated to the original campaign have to actively opt-in or they get a refund.  It turns out, though, that Mr. Kolfage may not have cared one way or the other whether the wall campaign ever succeeded.  HE, apparently, just wanted a new, updated database of conservative email addresses he can use to raise funds for other conservative issues and even to sell.

So, essentially, conservatives have actually paid someone to sell their email addresses to other commercial interests so they can be buried in SPAM…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One of the many and varied lies Capitalists tell to justify their greed is that they get to keep all of the revenue somebody else generated because THEY (the rich person) “took the risk” when they set up the business.  Did they?  Well, yeah, sure, they did take a risk.  But was it a BIGGER risk than the employee who went to work for a business that might fail?  I don’t think so.  In my experience, it was a much smaller risk.  The people at the top of the economic pyramid usually have financial back-up plans.  They get golden parachutes.  If the company fails, the owners get cashed-out.  The workers just get out, often with little or nothing to show for their efforts…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I got a little worked this week watching law enforcement officials in Wisconsin talking about their heroic efforts to bring home a kidnapped 13 year-old girl.  Each department took turns congratulating themselves and other departments for their dedication and determination and how all of that dedication and determination brought the girl home.  But you know what?  They didn’t!

Look, for the most part, I respect cops and the work they do.  I have no doubt they were trying to find her…but they didn’t.  They didn’t know where she was.  They didn’t know who took her.  They didn’t know who killed her parents.  If SHE hadn’t escaped and sought help, they might never have found her OR the perpetrator (a white guy, btw).  Yet, there they were, “Oh, MAN, we did a great job!”

I think they should have cranked up the ‘Humble Pie’ knob a bit and given props to the young lady – who saved herself…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A young cop got murdered on the streets of California this last week.  Police followed a trail that led to the home of the perpetrator who, very graciously, killed himself, saving the state huge money in trials and incarceration.  We started hearing tons about the cop; how she was new, dedicated, and looking forward to following in her father’s footsteps.  From a media standpoint, it didn’t hurt that she was VERY telegenic.  But we heard nothing about the killer.

At some point, that became suspicious, to me.  They had his body.  They knew who he was.  Yet we heard nothing.  I began saying, out loud, “This guy is white or we’d already know everything there is to know about him.”  (I didn’t even need anyone else in the room.  I just said it, out loud…)

Guess what?  White.  Coincidentally, named Limbaugh. (Relationship unknown, though he DID live in Florida for a time…)

So, we’ll get a day, maybe two, telling us about how he was “troubled” and what a tragedy this is.  If he had been some darker shade of brown, though, we would have been treated to at least a week – possibly two – detailing how his inherent violence wrought havoc on “our” peaceful way of life.

Racism is one of the United States’ prime sources of dishonor.  We were born a racist nation and elements among us have worked tirelessly to ensure we never, ever outgrow it.

Thankfully, there are intelligent, empathetic people in America, too…

Inequality…

by MyBaconPress

I, of course, knew that I was going to write about income inequality this morning.  I’m tired of it and I’m tired of seeing (and living) the consequences of unbridled greed by the thieves at the top of the money pile.  I’m tired of pretending that the greatest fortunes of our society (or any society, for that matter) were created by the person who amassed them through pluck, determination, and hard work.  Those stories are fictions presented by the people who want you to believe.

One part is true, of course.  The “hard work” part.  Someone did the “hard work.”  My issue is, it’s almost NEVER the person who keeps the vast majority of the proceeds for themselves.  In short, those fortunes are – more often than not – the result of outright theft.

So I got up this morning and discovered that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC from here on in…) has discussed a top tax rate of 73%.  Awesome.  I see an opinion piece from leading economist Paul Krugman defending AOC’s suggestion.  I’m heartened.  There ARE people out there who understand that allowing the richest to keep all the wealth produced by other people’s labor benefits nobody but the richest, doing incredible harm to everyone else.

I ALSO saw a hit piece written by the insanely crazy CATO Institute suggesting – against every available piece of verifiable information – that FDR’s New Deal actually harmed most Americans.  (I  really couldn’t believe it.  The New Deal was the economic model that made America into the greatest economy the world had ever seen…)  Conservatives will believe it, though, because conservatives have been fed a steady stream of falsehood and lies for so long, the stories seem, to conservatives, like they must be true.  But the CATO position is NOT true.  It doesn’t even take much research to discover the fact but, being honest, here, conservatives aren’t exactly known for their willingness to do their own research.

The information in those preceeding two paragraphs gives me hope.  Americans are starting to wise up and dropping their fear of saying – out loud – Supply Side Economics is bullshit and we want a NEW New Deal.  The thieving ‘Have-mores’ must also be detecting the whiffs of inequality fatigue so they’re sending out marching orders to their think tanks to undermine…well…facts and rational thought.

I expect to be writing about income inequality quite a bit, now, with more detail and specific focus on specific issues.  For now, I think I just want to enjoy feeling hopeful for a change…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Presidumb Trump seems to really believe he can stop paying Federal workers for months and possibly years without consequence.  (Don’t lose sight of the fact that while the Federal workers will eventually be reimbursed, the privatized contract workers will not.  There WILL be economic consequences to his stubborn wrongheadedness…)  He says he thinks those workers are perfectly willing to lose everything they have in life in support of his stupid, misguided wall.  He might be right.  His base is not fact-based.  They’re faith-based and faith-based believers are often…unpredictable.

For me, I’ll be interested to see how long his base holds.  It’s one thing to support philosophical positions when they’re abstract.  It’s an entirely different ball of wax when it’s your own livelihood and well-being.  When they get evicted because they can’t pay the rent, they’re going to KNOW they’ve been evicted because they didn’t get paid.  Will they REALLY continue to support him in his quest to squander billions of dollars on a vanity project that won’t change anything with regards to immigration?  Sections of his barrier already exist.  People are already going over, under, and even through the fences.  Yeah, let’s throw more money at that…

I’ll tell you this: I suspect the Trump Shutdown is going to end with little or no wall money so the only real questions are: how much personal damage is the base going to accept and how much damage is the GOP going to allow Trump to do to the brand before they step up and reign him in?