Month: August 2021

What A Mess…

by MyBaconPress

Boy, the withdrawal from Afghanistan is sure messy. I wonder who planned it? Actually, I wonder if ANYONE “planned” it. It doesn’t seem to have been all that well thought out. I’m all for getting out of a war we should never have been in to begin with but one would think it would have been done better. The cons, of course, are blaming Biden, personally. I know, ‘the buck stops here’ and all that. Technically, true BUT…I’d bet a dollar that Joe Biden didn’t personally plan nor oversee the operation. CheetoJesus (ALSO not personally overseeing any of it) made his deal with the Taliban to leave Afghanistan over a year ago. The Pentagon has had ALL that time to make plans and arrangements. I wonder what they were doing instead?

War, of course, is a for-profit operation in the United States. If one does not know or accept that fact, then leaving behind materials and weapons looks like a vast failure. On the other hand, the equipment left behind will have to be replaced now and someone is going to get paid to replace it. The abandonment of supplies could easily be understood as squeezing a few more dollars out of this war before starting the next one. After all, there’s not much risk that a stone-age people are going to be able to fly and/or maintain a Black Hawk helicopter for any length of time…

Oh, lives lost? They’re simply not important to the people who profit from the wars. After all, none of their people are ever in harm’s way. “Collateral Damage,” they’re called…

I noticed most of the media reported that the G7 nations got together and bandied about the notion of extending the exit deadline beyond August 31 but decided, you know…among themselves, not to. There was very little mention of the reality that a request for just such an extension was made to the Taliban – who said, “no.” What does it mean when one side in a war gets to dictate terms to the other side at the end of that war?

No matter, profits were steady for the few, the shameful, the profiteers. Their only problem now will be to find the next third-world rock pile to waste (and replace) bombs in. Stay tuned. I’m sure it won’t be long…

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Have you seen the cons wearing the Nazi-era ‘Juden’ stars in protest of mask-wearing mandates? These are the folks who were talking during History class. The truth is, I know how easy it is for people to just string words together to make sentences. I know how easy it is to simply adopt and stand firm on some contrarian position. I know how easy it is to make some BIG, hyperbolic comments for dramatic effect.

But if any of those people really think – and I mean actually believe – that being asked – or even told – to wear a mask in an effort to protect themselves or the people with whom they come into contact is anything – ANYTHING – like being kidnapped from your home, abused, robbed, stripped naked, marched into gas chambers, and brutally murdered well, I’d say their grip on reality is…tenuous, at best.

Fortunately (for them), I’m willing to do them the favor of NOT believing that they might actually believe it. Let’s test the theory. Ask any one of them which they’d prefer, wearing a mask as they enter a store or not wearing a mask as they enter a gas chamber to die. Ten times out of ten, they’ll choose the mask because no matter what they say, they know it’s not the same. (Yes, I’m quite clear that because they’re NOT actually facing such a choice, many might pretend to choose the gas chambers anyway. They’re lying.)

It’s supposed to be dramatic but it’s SO over the top, it just comes off as deranged…

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SO far, the recall seems to be going Newsom’s way. (Don’t get lazy. Vote ‘no’ and return your ballot!) It’s early, yet, but so far Dems have returned about two-and-a-half times as many ballots as Repubs. That’s a good sign. Of course, the cons might be just waiting to go to the actual polls on election day.

The ads I’ve seen from the cons spend a lot of time describing various problems California has but I haven’t seen anything even approaching solutions. One guy DID promise to do “everything he could” to end homelessness. Those are weasel words. Hell, I’M doing “everything I can do” to end homelessness. It’s just that the occasional few dollars to a homeless person here and there isn’t having much of an impact.

I understand why the cons make such a great effort to win these bullshit little recall elections in California. It’s the only chance they’ll ever have to hold statewide office so long as they’re preaching insanity. After this mess, I hope the state legislature will take up the problem and fix the recall rules. The truth is, I’m okay with the relatively low bar required to get the question to a ballot but if a recall is successful, why not just move up the Lt. Governor? The Lt is a separate, independently elected representative NOT beholden to the sitting Governor. That person is THERE in case the Governor can’t govern for some reason. Getting removed from office is, clearly, a reason. So why not just promote the Lt?

If we don’t fix this mess, we’re going to be facing recall elections every time some rich rightie manages to buy enough signatures to start the process over again…

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Just a quick reminder: if you like reading what I’m writing, you can have it delivered directly to your email inbox! All you have to do is click here and click the little button in the bottom right corner that says, ‘Follow.’ It will ask you for an email address. (How else can they get it to your inbox?) You’re not really “joining” anything – just signing up for a newsletter…

Poor Choices…

by MyBaconPress

The United States military industrial complex learned a lesson from Vietnam. Sadly, the lesson they learned was that including information on the progress of their wars in the evening news worked badly for them. The solution? Suppress as much information as possible for as long as possible. Simple, see? Don’t TELL the American people what’s happening and mostly, they won’t know (or, sadly, care). Keeping the wars out of the corporate news allowed the war mongers to profit in Afghanistan for 20 years. Then Joe Biden decided to honor CheetoJesus’ deal to leave and started pulling troops out. NOW we hear about Afghanistan all day, every day.

The corporate media blitz seems intended to gin up resentment at Biden for leaving and raise concern that maybe, just maybe, the US should stay in Afghanistan for, well, forever, I guess. (It has been, after all, a major gravy train for “defense” contractors.) To me, all of this focus just highlights the reality that after sacrificing countless human lives and 2+ TRILLION dollars in Afghanistan…nothing changed. It took the Taliban 11 days to retake the entire country.

Oh well. I guess we can all breathe a sigh of relief that soon the US will be involved in some ongoing conflict again somewhere in the world for some “reason.” The US is only rarely NOT in armed conflict with someone. Apparently, it’s important to keep the military ordinance manufacturers well fed. The American people? Not so much…

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I think California has the dumbest recall law in all the states. We “elect” the Lt Governor. If the Governor gets recalled, why not just promote the Lt, like they plan to do in New York? Why do we, instead, use the lowest possible bar to replace the outgoing Governor? Now we once again run the risk of ‘electing’ some idiot who couldn’t get elected under normal circumstances. This is the second time the cons have used California’s recall system against California. I blame the Dems. Not for the Gray Davis recall, of course, but very definitely for this one. They should have seen the obvious vulnerability and corrected it. Does anyone have any confidence they’ll do so after this recall? I don’t.

In a recall update, I have been pushing for retired porn star Mary Carey as the replacement. It’s not that I’m a fan. I’ve never even seen her professional work. I’m pretty sure she’s no more qualified to be Governor than any of the conservative fools trying to sneak into the Governor’s office through the back door. Honestly, my attitude has been that if Republicans aren’t going to take politics seriously, neither am I. Ms. Carey ran in the Gray Davis recall and I had understood that she was running again in THIS recall. Sadly, when I received my sample ballot, her name was not to be found. Just vote ‘no’ on the recall and it won’t matter anyway…

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I think I’ve mentioned my complete lack of sympathy for those who are reaping the whirlwind after failing the vaccine IQ test. I’ll probably have some karmic debt to pay but I’m really enjoying every story about some asshat who refuses the vaccine with no medical reason and then gets Covid. Frankly, as much as I hate insurance companies, I think at this point, THEY have become victims. Not alone, of course, People who need medical treatments NOT related to Covid are being turned away from hospitals because the facilities are too full from the moron cons. Two recommendations, here. One, insurance companies should be relieved of the burden of covering the costs of unvaccinated-by-choice Covid patients and two, when hospitals run out of beds, the unvaccinated-by-choice Covid patients should be FIRST out – regardless of their health status. Pull out their breathing tubes and send ’em home.

I’m really just tired of responsible people suffering because of irresponsible people. Responsible people have done everything they could to get irresponsible people to do the responsible thing. We’ve tried everything from educating, to cajoling, to outright bribery. Nothing worked. Their “choice.” I HAVE noticed that they become BIG fans of science and medical expertise when THEY come down with Covid. Some of them are SO stubborn, they continue to insist they’re not dying from Covid even as they die from Covid. It’s almost as if the virus doesn’t give a fig about what anyone says. It’s just going to do what it does. But this is one area I’ve come to agree with the cons. They made their choice and now they should be allowed to live – and die – with it…

To The Victors…

by MyBaconPress

Well…it’s time. We (some of us) fought the good fight. We really tried. We did everything we could. But in the end, all of our efforts were for naught. We’ve lost and it’s time to acknowledge the fact, congratulate the winners, and move on to the next set of issues. So…congratulations climate change deniers! You’ve won. You were successful in blocking and stalling any climate action that might have arrested the effects of the changing climate er, I mean, interfered with profits for some oil companies and now…well, there’s nothing anybody can do to stop what’s coming. Nice.

That’s the sportsmanlike response. I have to admit, I’m a little bitter about your victory. It’s not that I’m a poor loser. But the “prize” for your “victory,” in this case, is a planet increasingly unable to support human life. I feel like you made a poor choice and I have to suffer the consequences – right along with you. That sucks. It’s made all the worse for the certain knowledge that you used deceitful and underhanded tactics to achieve your “victory.” I suppose that was your only choice. You didn’t have any legitimate science behind you and you didn’t have any legitimate evidence. All you had was lies and obfuscations – but you made the most of them. And, really, you didn’t have to “win” the debate. You had only to not lose. It didn’t matter how often or how completely your claims were debunked. As long as you could keep talking, the “debate” raged. And you just kept blathering. (Technically, baffling with bullshit…)


Have you ever heard of the Drake Equation? It’s a mathematical formula that attempts to define the number of alien races in our galaxy that developed to a point where they could send signals into space. That doesn’t mean intentionally send signals into space. For example, we reached that point when we started broadcasting radio and television signals. They sometimes slip out of our atmosphere and travel off to unknown places. Since EVERY aspect of the Drake Equation is a variable one just…supplies, the numbers can hardly be called “solid.” One can make the thing work and show one civilization or 500,000 – or whatever other number makes you happy. BUT…

If there are 500,000 civilizations out there capable of sending signals into space – on purpose or otherwise – why can’t we ever hear anything? We ARE listening. There’s an entire program out there, the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) that spends a great deal of time looking for signals. It’s been YEARS – decades, even. So far, ONE – exactly ONE “WOW” moment. It’s called the “Wow” moment because the scientist who discovered the pattern wrote “Wow” next to it. But the one moment never repeated and no one knows for SURE it was an organized signal. It could have been just space noise.

There was this physicist named Enrico Fermi who heard about Drake’s Equation and responded with, “Well, where is everybody?” It’s kind of a fun question. If 500,000 civilizations have developed that might have sent signals into space surely some of them developed long before humanity even crawled out of the sea. Even if they’re not coming this way for what we could only hope was a visit, they should STILL be sending signals – assuming they survived long enough to send signals on purpose. We do. We sent space probes with detailed information about finding Earth and what humans look like. We send signals into space to communicate with our space probes and stations. As I’ve already mentioned, episodes of ‘I Love Lucy’ and ‘The Honeymooners’ are well on their way to Alpha Centauri or where ever.

Do you know a common component of many of humanity’s wars? Something new. Maybe it’s a tactic. Maybe it’s technology but it’s commonly something new. The Mongol hoards used horseback speed to overwhelm their opponents. The Greeks perfected a formation called a phalanx. The Romans took over the world when they added their Gladius sword (it could thrust AND slice!) to the phalanx formation. The Nazis used the Blitzkrieg or “lightening war” – speed in the form of planes from the sky and soldiers and tanks racing across the countryside. The Europeans had rifles while the First Nations had only bow-and-arrows. Come to think of it, Africans had no technological equivalent to European weapons technology, either. There’s a physicist named Michio Kaku. He says we shouldn’t be sending signals into space because anybody who can receive them AND come to Earth would have the technological advantage and be free to do with us as they please. “To Serve Man,” anyone? I agree with him in principal but I think that ship actually sailed LONG before any of us had a chance to ponder the question. At this point, they’d just follow Lucy back to her point of origin…

Anyway, Fermi’s question, “Where is everyone?” is often answered with the supposition that civilizations DO develop to a certain point and then, basically, find some way to destroy themselves. It’s all theoretical, of course, except now we have some…immediate evidence. There’s no telling how many humans are going to die as a result of runaway climate change but the answer is a “non-zero number.” It’s already a “non-zero number.” Sure, the fires and the floods will kill but so will food shortages, forced migrations, violent clashes, and riots. Oh, and don’t forget the illnesses that will rear their ugly…um…spiky proteins as weather conditions become more favorable for them. There’s every possibility the Earth will just shake off humanity like a dog shakes off water.

Thanks to the efforts of the climate change deniers, it’s looking more and more like humanity is about to render itself nothing more than a cautionary tale to future developing civilizations. If you ask me, it was a stupid choice, destruction of the species in exchange for a dollar. Very stupid. But the question is settled now. We know what killed us; stupidity…

Fictions…

by MyBaconPress

Yowza! If you’re a fan of the “Profits Over People” model, you’re bound to be happy that PG&E seems headed for yet another rate increase! First, PG&E blew up a section of San Bruno. They were granted a rate increase to do the work they had previously been granted a rate increase to have done – but didn’t. Then, they burned most of the town of Paradise. They were granted a rate increase to do the work they previously should have done – but didn’t. On Wednesday evening of this week, they burned down all of Greenville, California, a town that traces it’s roots to the gold rush. Sure, there will be bad press and public discontent but that’s only from commoners and the outcry will pass. The rate increase will be forever. PG&E burning down California is quite profitable for them…

Someone tell me again about the virtues of private industry versus the government…

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Still Florida. Ron DeSantis, the Governor of Florida, is doing everything in his power to kill as many Floridians as possible. Yeah, I think that’s a weird role for a governor as well, but that’s his stance. He’s threatening to cut off funding for schools that require masks because “masks are for smart people and nobody in Florida wants to be mistaken for a smart person!” No, he didn’t say that but he might as well have. In fact, many people who live in Florida are very upset their oh-so-stupid governor is “fighting back” against science and logic. One guy said, “It seems to me that our governor is content to send our kids into a slaughterhouse to score political points with his base. There is no excuse for not following the science.” (See? There ARE smart people in Florida…) Kids need to get back into schools. Wearing masks adds to their safety and to the safety of the people around them.

Think about this; the people fighting against mask-wearing are largely the SAME group who say kids SHOULD wear armored backpacks in case someone starts spraying bullets but won’t ask their precious little shits to wear a mask in case someone starts spraying Covid-19. This IS natural selection in action but it’s sad when the children bear the burdens imposed upon them by their gullible conservative parents…or their own governor…

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Okay, speaking of obnoxious governors, Andrew Cuomo is surely at the top of that list. There is an ever-increasing chorus of women claiming Cuomo sexually harassed them. Civil lawsuits have been filed and an investigation by New York’s Attorney General has found the charges credible. Now there’s a criminal charge facing Cuomo on the same subject. He’s facing impeachment and criminal charges. But…he said he didn’t do it so, there you go. After all, who has EVER heard of a criminal insisting he didn’t do it if he was guilty?

After the AG report came out supporting the accusers, Cuomo’s lawyers insisted that all the women in question are telling the stories wrong. Apparently, if they’d just (and only) listen to the way Cuomo tells the stories, they’d understand he’s just a stud on the make and there can be no harm in that, right? Offering those women the opportunity to experience him isn’t sexual harassment. It’s more of a…compliment. After all, those women were hot enough to catch the eye of a guy like Cuomo and no one needs to tell a Cuomo how awesome it would be to be with a Cuomo. Every time I hear him talk on the subject it sounds a little like he’s saying, “Look, all I did was offer some bitch a chance to see my magnificent unit. What’s the problem?” (For the record, I believe that he doesn’t get it. It’s called arrogance…)

So far, Cuomo seems to be trying the trump tactic of ignoring reality and tossing out accusations, all while insisting on his own innocence – but that only works for trump because Satan, himself, watches over trump. Cuomo doesn’t have the same support. He should step down and deal with his legal hassles…

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Right now, if you look at the polls, Gavin Newsom is winning/losing/in a tight race about the fraudulent recall effort against him. Conservatives, of course, hate him and want him out. They’re blaming him for, well, for everything, really. I think the biggest thing he has working against him is Covid-19. At this point, ALL of the problems America is facing with Covid-19 can be traced directly to conservative obstruction. Gavin can only do so much but because so many cons refused the vaccine, Covid just won’t go away. We’re heading back into a masked reality and possibly another lock-down, none of which is Newsom’s fault but you just KNOW the cons will blame him anyway.

Working in Newsom’s favor? The state is mailing ballots to every registered voter. That means they don’t have to “get out the vote” in the traditional sense. All people have to do is fill out and return their ballot. People are notorious for not coming out for mid-term elections and it’s even worse for special elections. That problem won’t exist this time around. No one can say, for sure, how many of the ballots will be returned but we saw in 2020 making it easier to vote means more people vote. That will work to Gavin’s advantage.

I’m voting ‘no’ on the recall but then I STILL have to choose someone to take over should the recall succeed. The person with the most votes wins. They don’t need widespread approval. Just more than anyone else. I’m still on the Mary Carey bandwagon and I encourage you to do the same. Oh, sure, you might be hesitant once you find out she’s an actual, dyed in the wool porn star but your alternative is a Republican or worse, a Libertarian. Mary ran in the Gray Davis recall as well. If you go to her campaign website (don’t do it at work!) it appears she hasn’t updated anything. She still plans to make gay marriage legal in California, for example. That’s because her campaign is a bit tongue-in-cheek. The FIRST thing she asks is that you vote ‘no’ on the recall.

Whoever wins won’t have any time to actually DO anything, good or bad. The normal gubernatorial race is next year. The ‘pack’ is chock-full of unqualified people. If we’re going to get stuck with someone just because cons want to be jerks, let’s go with Mary. No, I don’t think she’ll be a better governor than many of the cons on the ballot – but she won’t be any worse, either. And, look, if we’re going to get screwed, at least let’s get screwed by someone who knows what they’re doing!

Trouble On The Horizon…

by MyBaconPress

Okay, two things are changing in the world of CheetoJesus. It looks like the dumbass is seeing in increase in his legal troubles. There’s a written record of him trying to push the DOJ to “just say the election was corrupt.” Apparently, the entire quote is, “Just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me.” He called the acting Attorney General at the time, Jeffrey Rosen, and the phone call was documented in hand-written notes by his acting Deputy, Richard Donoghue. His message was that Rosen should declare the election corrupt and that he and the Republican congress would take care of the rest. This was December 27, 2020. Ten days later? He’s orchestrating an assault on the Capital building in an effort to thwart Democracy. Orchestrating, not participating. He’s a coward…

The other thing that has changed is that the IRS has been ordered to turn his taxes over to Congress. Congress has had the legal authority to examine anyone’s taxes ever since the Teapot Dome scandal of 1921. The dumbass just didn’t want to, though, and his corrupt DOJ supported him. No, there was no legal basis. They did it anyway. Now the taxes are being turned over. Well, they will be. He still has some weasel maneuvers he can engage but eventually, he’ll lose. The legal system moves slowly but it moves inexorably…

Some will say the left just wants to prove he doesn’t pay taxes. That’s not right, though. Everybody knows the rich have corrupted the tax system so they don’t have to pay. Only workers pay. The thing I expect trump’s tax filings to prove is that even with all his advantages handed to him – he STILL cheats. The taxes will be compared to loan applications. When investigators find he inflated values for loans but deflated values for taxes, he’ll have some splainin’ to do…

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Today, August 1, begins the rental eviction waves across the US. It’s going to be ugly. Some states have extended the eviction “ban” but many have not. I hope the states that are offering assistance do a better job of explaining the programs than California did. I confess, I didn’t look too closely into the details but what came out in the “news” was the message that California will cover 100% of the back rent – just as soon as the tenant came up with 20% of the missing rent. What?!?

For a lot of reasons – but mostly the so-called “free market” – rents in California are, well, unbelievable. It often takes two adults working two jobs just to make ends meet. If it takes everything one has to meet even one month’s rent, how are they supposed to come up with 20% of a year’s worth of back rent?

My other question is, who are they putting in the space? I mean, let’s be honest, here. The evictions are going to hit the poorest the hardest – just like everything else in this brutal nation. Landlords don’t like renting to people who have been evicted. Are they now going to put one recently evicted renter into the space they just cleared by evicting their tenant? Do you know who is NOT competing with the poorest of the poor for the spaces occupied by the poorest of the poor? Anybody NOT in the “poorest of the poor” group. So, if you toss out the person living in your space, who do you put in there?

Industry groups like the National Association of Realtors lobbied hard against extending the ban. They point to “mom-and-pop” landlords. Rich people ALWAYS point to “mom-and-pop” operations and pretend that designation includes themselves but even THEY acknowledge that “mom-and-pop” rentals make up only about 40% of the market. That means that 60% are “pooled money” investors – people with a couple of coins to rub together who throw their coins into a pot with other people’s coins and buy up all the housing inventory as investments. They pay ridiculously high prices for the properties and charge ridiculously high rents.

Even without Covid-19, the homeless problem is growing exponentially because of this unbridled greed. Covid is going to exacerbate the problem. John Adams visited France just before the French Revolution. He wrote home to his wife that France was beautiful but he couldn’t believe the disparity between wealth and poverty in the country and he was particularly struck by the number of homeless people he saw. Nobody in modern America seems to see any correlation at all. Extremes of wealth and poverty as exemplified by people who couldn’t even obtain housing in an otherwise wealthy country leading to revolution? When has THAT ever happened?

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2024. I think that’s when we’ll see it in this once-great nation. See, the Republicans have made no secret that they’ve given up on democracy and all of the representative republic crap and they have made NO bones about their plans to rig “elections” in their favor. They’ve been passing “laws” aimed at eliminating voters they consider undesirable. Those are voters who don’t vote for them.

So which intelligent American is going to accept the outcome of an “election” if the Republican wins after such naked and brazen cheating? Worse, what if the Republican DOESN’T win, despite all of the electoral shenanigans? At least one state, Georgia, has addressed that possible problem by making a law that allows them to simply disregard the vote and appoint their preferred “winner.” Conservatives only pretended they won the 2020 race and that was enough to assault the Capital building and kill cops. But now the cons have taken the guesswork out of it by declaring outright their intent to cheat as aggressively as possible. I really don’t see how that ends well…

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Quick question: do you think the dumbass will be reinstated as “President” in the middle of this month? Or, do you suspect trump is STILL just a lying, cheating, manipulative, failed-human-being piece of crap?