Month: December 2023

LIAR!

by MyBaconPress

Did you know that on the floor of Congress, a congress critter can say anything they want? With impunity. That’s how the Republicans got away with showing their “revenge porn” of Hunter Biden, when they displayed huge blown up photos of him nude. They first tried posting them to various web sites but each time, Biden operatives got with the site and had them removed AS revenge porn, complete with very believable threats of lawsuits, I presume. The floor of Congress was literally, the only place they could do it, so, shamelessly, they did.

I would NOT like to see Dems in Congress go down that road – at least that far. But I’ll tell you this: I’m MORE than ready to see a Dem, any Dem, (please, God, SOME Dem) stand up after one of the MAGA makes some stupid, false claim on the floor and say, “You, sir (or madam, of course) are a liar! A stark-raving, bold-faced liar! You can either produce evidence of your claim, right now, or prove I am correct and you are lying.” Every time. Every. Single. Time.

They need to be just that blunt. Don’t couch it in political speak. As a group, Americans are stupid. They don’t understand, “I believe the gentlemen (or gentlewoman, of course) from (red state) has possibly misstated some of the salient facts in this issue that are not borne out by any evidentiary support whatsoever.” They understand, “You are a liar! Put up or shut up.”

The Dem base would love it. It would show the Dems really ARE fighting back against this nightmare. Hell, even some of the Cons would love it. (They wouldn’t admit it, though.) They admire strength (as they understand it) and straight talk is better that political talk. Besides, how would MAGA media “spin” (read: lie about) that? Do they try to belittle the Dem by showing the challenge, only to ALSO have to confess no such supporting evidence exists?

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

Well, Rudy is out of the game. He got hit with a $148 Million dollar order to pay the election workers he smeared without basis during Donny’s 2020 election coup attempt for defamation. Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss from Atlanta will likely never see any of that money, or most of it anyway. Rudy doesn’t have it and there is already a long line of creditors in front of them.

Rudy has claimed financial hardship in several of the legal actions he’s consumed by. I believe he’s already had to sell some property and the bills are piling up. That kind of a judgement likely will exceed his ability to pay. So he just shut his mouth, of course, and is making careful choices about the fights he’s fighting and the words he’s saying in public, right? What, did you just fall off a turnip truck?

No, he says he’s not allowed to present evidence. Dear Rudy, Lies are not “evidence” and the courts won’t let you just spew whatever you feel like saying. He says the whole thing will be turned over on appeal in a “fair” tribunal, the standard response from some puke who just got his ass handed to him in court. THEN, he says Freeman and Moss did exactly what he said they did – STILL without evidence. Oh, he should have talked to Donny about E. Jean Carroll before he doubled down on his defamation. They can come right back with, “See? He did it again, your honor. Apparently, he still hasn’t gotten the message.” Then, he’ll be given the opportunity to pay even more. For the rest of his life, every dime he makes will be garnished to pay the order. Standing by Donny sure paid off, eh, Rudy?

I think “Team Traitor” thought they could get away with smearing those two because they’re just average Americans. That is, they don’t have any money. But the Ladies Freeman and Moss have good lawyers. They’re being represented by a group called Protect Democracy. Pro Bono. ”Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss’s counsel team work on their behalf because of a shared belief in the righteousness of the case and its importance — both for the clients and for American democracy,” John Langford, an attorney for Protect Democracy, told Business Insider.

My understanding is that Protect Democracy employs some of the best lawyers in the business. Maybe they can file paperwork that moves Freeman and Moss to the front of the creditor line so they get something but I’m not sure the money was the most important point for these two. Sure, whatever they see will be nice, but I don’t think it was the focus.

Bye, Rudy. Don’t let the door hit you…

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

So, Donny thinks he has immunity for life because he was, ostensibly, the President of the United States, although, as we know, he just golfed for four years. I don’t even believe he should have immunity while he’s infesting the Oval but, apparently, legal eagles disagree with me. Still, for life? I remember when Americans knew the President was a citizen first and President second, meaning he was subject to all the laws of the land, just like everybody else. It was better that way. Now MAGA thinks Donny is entitled to special treatment for some reason. So, Donny tried to stall his trials by claiming lifetime immunity, intending to move the thing through one court after another for, what, months?

Jack Smith is too smart for Donny, though. Jack asked the Roberts Supremely Kangaroo Court to just bypass all the lower court dawdling and hear the case right now. And the corrupt High Court said they would! That’s pretty cool. They have to get Clarence the Corrupt to recuse himself, though. His wife was an active part of the coup. She’s one of the High Lieutenants of Team Traitor and her bribe-taking husband shouldn’t be allowed a voice on ANYTHING relating to the coup attempt. Or anything else, for that matter.

Sometimes, this court actually uses the law to make decisions. It’s hard to say when that might happen but I don’t see anything in the question that might conflict with the religious views of those who prefer to rule by “feels” so…maybe Donny loses this one, too. We’ll all just have to wait and see.

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

I have to do better at this. Recently, I wrote about a bill being introduced to block Wall Street from buying up all the single family homes in this once-great nation AND force them to divest their single family holdings within ten years. I suggested you call your congress critter and tell them to support the bill but I didn’t add contact info. So, here: https://www.congress.gov/contact-us (that’s a link). Using that site, you can find your Representative or Senator and how to contact them. The bill is ‘The End Hedge Fund Control of American Homes Act of 2023.”

Take the time. It’s important to America’s future…

Speaking of Tax Frauds…

by MyBaconPress

Here in California, the cons are out with a new campaign against taxes. They bought a ballot initiative that is trying to limit the taxes the state can raise on it’s own AND make it more difficult for citizens to raise taxes via legitimate initiatives. (I distinguish between “bought” and “legitimate” based on whether paid signature collectors were used. Paid collectors shouldn’t be allowed. They have corrupted the process.) The supporting campaign keeps trying to make the case that the thing that makes California so expensive is taxes. That isn’t true. Granted It IS true that taxes are higher, here, than many other places. But when I start thinking about cost of living, taxes generally aren’t on the list. I don’t blame the government. I blame private and corporate entities.

Yes, California adds a bunch of gas tax – probably the most visible spot for “high taxes.” It’s somewhere between .83 cents and $1.08 per gallon, depending upon whom you believe. But the gas companies charge every cent they can get AND manipulate the market to keep prices higher than they need to be. The tax is dependable and predictable, but the rest of the price? That’s the variable and it fluctuates wildly based on…reasons.  The price fluctuations affect the prices of everything “downstream” that gets shipped anywhere. By themselves, the gas companies can seriously harm the economy on a whim – and they do so on a regular basis, often as a political statement. Those decisions are made in corporate boardrooms, not government offices.

When it’s time to cover my housing for the month, it’s not taxes that depress me. It’s the rent. It’s outrageous. Rents and mortgages in the state are probably the single most important driver of cost-of-living these days. And they’re outrageous because of private companies, not government. In fairness, it was a conservative government (43) decision that allowed (even encouraged) Wall Street to attack our living situations but that was deregulation, not taxes, and deregulation is a darling of the One Percent and the far right.

When I push my cart up and down the aisles in the local market, pricing decisions by private companies, not government, are looking me in the face, depressing the crap out of me. People don’t shop just on what they want. They have to consider what they can afford, as well. For many, that means less. Perhaps less quality, often, simply less food. But it’s not the taxes causing those choices. It’s pricing decisions made in boardrooms.

Our local, corporate, killer power provider (PG&E) already charges exorbitant prices and the increases just keep coming. Every time they kill a few people or burn down a town, they get a rate increase. Then, they get another increase to do the work they should have been doing in the first place. I don’t even buy power from PG&E, but they get to gouge me anyway through “delivery fees.” In winter, I don’t fear taxes. I fear my PG&E bill. We, the victims, get happy ads telling us how they’re working to do the right thing. And even that took deaths and lawsuits. Again, corporation. Not government, not taxes.

I do acknowledge that taxes are higher on the working class than they should be – everywhere in this once-great nation, not just California. But that’s because of a tax shift from the wealthy to the non-wealthy. If the One Percent would pay taxes at the same rate they extract from society, taxes could actually be reduced on the working class.

This tax trap measure is basically the same play Ohio tried to make to keep citizens from adding abortion protections to their state constitution. Get a ballot measure on some fake “issue” to make it harder to govern or make changes, locking in advantage for one team that disadvantages everyone else. In this case, the One Percent don’t want to pay taxes on what they take out of our society, so they try to make it harder to raise their taxes by subjecting the process to a decidedly NOT democratic two-thirds threshold instead of a simple majority.

I’ll tell you this: I don’t think we should let them do it. If you agree, vote against this latest measure, the ‘California Two-Thirds Legislative Vote and Voter Approval for Fee and Charge Increases Initiative,’ (that’s a mouthful) when it comes up on the ballot…

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

Well, Draymond Green finally got himself suspended indefinitely. Green has been a dirty player for quite some time. Those who like him just say he takes no guff but I think he’s too aggressive and has been for a long time. He keeps getting suspended for unsportsmanlike behavior and after his last episode, hitting an opposing player in the face, the league has had enough. Good. The Warriors keep him around because of his talent, but I don’t know what value he brings to the team, not being on the court…

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

In a move that shocked absolutely nobody, the cons have decided, reluctantly, of course, to move forward with their politically driven “impeachment inquiry” into Joe Biden’s activities. I get it. They have no choice. The lack of evidence demands it. They absolutely MUST do it. How else are they going to find a charge? So far, nothing they’ve done has worked. They’ve leveled unsubstantiated accusations. They’ve suggested, without support, misbehavior. They’ve made unfounded assertions. I mean, what does a corrupt party have to do to get a response from people, these days?

They had it all worked out. They’d get Hunter to “testify” behind closed doors so nobody could hear what he said, then they’d rush out to the microphones and claim that Hunter had handed them the smoking gun and now they just HAD to move forward. Hunter sort of shot a hole in their plan by not showing up. (I think he plans to honor their subpoena right after Jim Jordan honors the subpoena he ignored from the J6 committee.) So they couldn’t blame Hunter but it didn’t stop them from moving forward with the rest…

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

Hey, speaking of stupid, does anybody know exactly what the right wants to see at the border? I mean, are we actually supposed to set up gun turrets and simply murder anybody we see who happens to be too close to the border? ”Close the border” is so much easier to say than to do. What, exactly, are they asking for?

I’d like to wind the cons up a bit. Sure, any thinking person knows walls don’t work but I say we should give them their stupid wall after all – but only if we use a billionaire tax to pay for it. (It turns out Mexico didn’t, won’t, never has, and never will pay for it.) It’ll be in interesting social experiment. Do cons hate brown people or love billionaire wealth more? Inquiring minds, indeed…

Fears, Frauds, and Frustrations…

by MyBaconPress

It’s not that I think the machines are rigged so I hope none of the makers decide to sue ME for $1.2 Billion dollars. BUT…one thing we’ve learned from Donny and his henchmen – and henchwomen (you don’t really hear much about henchwomen, these days, but henchmen need love, too) – is that the people overseeing the machines might well take actions that benefit their preferred candidate instead of just doing their jobs.

I KNOW this because Cathy Latham, a former GOP chairperson of Coffee County, GA, did exactly that. She let people in and let them root around in her machines for awhile. They even brought in sandwiches and she took a proud selfie with one of the intruders, now charged with burglary! She’s just one. But think of the number of election workers out there who might just love, love, love Donny and might do anything to help him win – even cheat (and then go to jail, of course.)

DO NOT vote on machines. They CAN be distorted to a person’s preference, assuming a little help from despicable people who move into positions of trust, and such a deal could change the outcome of the election. Might a worker allow Russians to hack the machines and change the results? Of course. Might they allow someone in to bring their own dongle and change results? Why not? It’s not the machines that are a problem. It’s some of the people overseeing the machines I don’t trust.

We KNOW evil Vlad wants Donny back. It will help him take Ukraine. It will help him destroy NATO. Donny wants the help and Vlad wants to give it to him. His sycophants will do the rest. Vote by mail-in ballot. It’s more secure. It’s harder to distort. It’s safer for America…

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

Well, how disappointing. Donny isn’t going to testify today. First, he was going to bring in over 100 witnesses in an attempt to slow things down but the judge said he doesn’t want or need people repeating testimony that has already been entered into the record. After all, how many people can swear to their unsupportable belief that Donny isn’t a dumbass, despite all available evidence to the contrary? So, they pared it down. Eric would testify on Wednesday but Donny, himself, would take the stand and prove his innocence by Monday.

Obviously, Donny’s expected brilliance rendered Eric’s fawning testimony moot so he was canceled, leaving Donny to come in and clean up the mess. I suspect he was planning to prove his innocence by laying on the floor, kicking and screaming, while threatening to hold his breath until he turned blue and calling it the “nuculer option.” (Even THAT would have come out “nuclaler.”

Alina Habba, Donny’s “lawyer,” who might want to start preparing for her own defense, was trotted out to offer an excuse. She says she discouraged his testimony while there was a gag order in place because a gag order would have squelched his testimony. Couple-a things. One, Donny doesn’t listen to attorneys. His attorneys listen to him and do as their told. (That’s why they keep going to jail.) More importantly, the gag order only keeps him from attacking people associated with the trial, not offering testimony relevant to his defense. The sudden turnaround lends credence to my theory that he planned to use the ‘laying on the floor, kicking and screaming, while threatening to hold his breath until he turned blue’ defense.

As a sidebar: Donny has taken to saying that shutting down his criminal enterprise will discourage any other businesses from coming to New York. My guess? One, he’s wrong again. Two, if you want to bring a criminal enterprise to New York City, I’m thinking New York won’t mind, much, if you don’t. Otherwise, I’d guess New York is going to be just fine, thank you, very much…

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

Sports Stuff
Well, the Kansas City Chiefs are having a bad moment. They ran a play at the end of their game that gave them the game winning score. It was brilliant and a beautiful thing to see and I’m glad I got to see it. Sadly, it didn’t count because a player on their team lined up illegally at the start of the play. It’s very clear he was offside but the team was in the middle of enjoying the high that came with pulling out a last minute win when the flag was thrown – then it all went away and the Chiefs lost, instead. Talk about emotional whiplash!

Their Head Coach, Andy Reid, and their Quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, were furious. It’s rare to see either of them behave that way. They had tantrums on the sidelines. They complained at the after-game presser. KC fans are all worked up. It’s outrage. But they’re going to watch the film of it. They’ll see their guy in the wrong place. HE was the problem, not the officials. (I have no love of officials. They mess up as often as not but this time they got it right.) They’ll settle down. I respect both men so I’m going to let them have a bad moment…

More importantly, though, everything fell into place for the “local” and beloved Santa Clara Forty-Niners. The teams that needed to lose, lost, and the teams that needed to win (including the Niners) won, moving the Niners into first place in the Conference. For now, anyway. It means home field advantage throughout the playoffs but their position is a bit precarious. They have to win all the rest of their games to keep it. Otherwise, they need a little help.

I thought they were going to lock up their Division with that win and the Rams loss, but they haven’t quite done it, yet. There’s a not-very-likely but mathematically possible scenario where they end up losing the Division to the Rams, so it’s going to take one more week. (I guess I’m being a bit impatient.)

I’ll tell you this: I’ll be watching…

‘Stupid’ the Country Away?

by MyBaconPress

Sometimes, I hammer on a topic. A LOT. Those are the issues I tend to see as the most crucial to be addressed and you, my faithful reader, get to see it over and over. One of my focal points has been, as you know if you’ve followed me for very long, about “pooled money investors” (Wall Street) buying single family homes and all the damage it does to our society. Sure, people are making money right now but that money is going to be useless when society collapses under the weight of a furious and frustrated population. Well, guess what?

Two Democrats (it had to be Democrats. They’re the only party interested in helping people.) introduced a bill to stop Wall Street from buying single family homes! AND they would be required to divest of all of their single family holdings within 10 years! That’s a little slower than my proposal but I’m not one to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Democrats Adam Smith (Wa) and Jeff Merkley (Or) introduced the ‘End Hedge Fund Control of American Homes Act.’ There are several co-sponsors, all Dems, of course. Call yours. Tell them to vote in support of this act.

Forcing working class Americans to try to “compete” with the endlessly deep pockets of Wall Street was NEVER Capitalism. There IS no competition. Capitalists ALWAYS want complete control over things people MUST have so they can squeeze and squeeze and squeeze the money out of you and housing is a plum target market Wall Street tries to corner from time to time. Congressional rule changes in 2011, after Wall Street crashed the economy through a mortgage scheme that had created false home values and was now leaving FAR too many homes on the market unsold and owned by banks, allowed Wall Street to start again, and start they did. (You may recall the stat that ONE COMPANY now owns enough single family homes to house the entire population of Iceland – and there are lots of these companies.)

You want to know why rents are so high? Wall Street buying single family homes as investments. You want to know why house prices have skyrocketed? Wall Street buying single family homes as investments. You want to know why so many young people still live at home and simply can’t afford to move out or buy their own homes? Wall Street buying single family homes as investments. You want to know why the homeless problem has ballooned? Wall Street buying single family homes as investments. You know what would help fix all of those problems at the same time and in one fell swoop? Stop Wall Street from buying single family homes as investments!

Dear MAGA, this bill will help YOU, too. You’re being priced out of the home-buying market right along with everyone else. Your side maintains that wealth is built generationally and that home buying is a key factor. This is a rare opportunity to do the right thing AND to do so thinking of yourself and nobody but yourself – your favorite person to consider. For God’s sake, don’t help the Dems – screw the Dems! Help yourself. Contact YOUR congress critters, too, and get them on board. Or, try, at least. I’d bet there are truckloads of bribes on their way to Congress right now and Republicans are well known for pampering corporations. But try.

This is a good thing…

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

Donny did a rant outside his fraud trial the other day. Same old, same old. “We won at the appellate level.” No, you didn’t. You lost. The Appeals court has paused a ruling, but they have NOT struck it down – and they’re not going to. “I expect him to rule against me.” That would be FAR more insightful if the Judge had not ALREADY ruled against him. Donny has lost this case, already. He and his family committed the crimes he stands accused of and there is no question. (I don’t even have to say, “allegedly.”) The rest is just to determine an appropriate punishment.

Watching him ramble, blame, obfuscate, ramble, digress, lie, distort, ramble some more, deceive, and spew his nonsense is a very old act, by now. Bor-ing! We know, Donny. Everybody lies but you. Thousands of people are simply engaged in a perfectly kept conspiracy. People enforcing laws that have been on the books longer than you’ve been alive are the bad guys and you, the perfect business man – who has never run a successful, honest business in his life -are somehow a victim.

I know most of your audience is old and old people tend to like hearing the old, familiar bits but if you’re going to expand your base, you’re going to need some new material – and soon. You’ve played out the whole “Oh, poor, poor put-upon me” bit. You don’t remind me of a fighter with great resolve so much as a little brat having a tantrum that has gone on for years, now. Snore. Someone needs to send that child to his room…

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

An officer of a company is a formal leader who has more responsibility and authority than rank-and-file employees and is elected by the board of directors. If the “company” is the United States, and the “board of directors” are the citizens of the United States, the President of the United States IS an officer.

So-called (likely self-described) legal “experts” (HEY, don’t they effing HATE experts?) are bending themselves into pretzels trying to pretend the President of the United States can engage in insurrection any time he wants and nobody can touch him because he’s not an officer of the United States.

What about the so-called “originalists?” When the founders originally wrote the Constitution, they wrote in Article II, Section I, “…and the Congress may by Law provide for the Case of removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the President and the Vice President, declaring what OFFICER (emphasis, mine) shall then act as President, and such OFFICER shall act accordingly…” Okay, in fairness, that sentence was removed by a subsequent amendment (the Fifteenth) but it certainly indicates the founder’s intention that the President of the United States is, indeed, an officer of the United States.

We, the people, shouldn’t have to surrender our Constitutional Republic to a autocratic dictator because some schlub wrote an amendment less eloquently than the writing of the founders. It defies logic and common sense that the President of the United States might not be an Officer of the United States. Please, God, don’t let us “stupid” our country away…

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

Quick question. We know from the trials that Donny received advice from two different groups of attorneys. One group consisted of highly qualified lawyers who knew the law and told him what he was planning to do – and then was actually doing on J6 – was illegal. Another group consisted of highly UNqualified, soon-to-be-NOT-lawyers who happily confirmed his delusion that the President of the United States can do anything he wants.

Donny is supposed to be some kind of genius, brilliant leader, right? If the argument he’s trying to make in court that he was mislead by his lawyers is true (it isn’t), how could he have been so completely deceived by the bad attorneys and so completely disregard all the good, solid legal input he was receiving at the exact same time? I mean, where was his pretended “shrewd insight” then? Just asking…

Troubles With Conservatives…

by MyBaconPress

I saw a woman I like very much the other day. I hadn’t seen her in awhile and I don’t expect to see her again before December 25. I know she’s a conservative. As I hugged her, I wished her a Merry Christmas.

Look, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Joyous Kwanzaa, Super Saturnalia, Awesome Athiestica, I don’t care. But if YOU do, and I know your preference, I’ll tailor my well-wishes to you. Generally, I use ‘Happy Holidays’ because I don’t know who does what at any given moment and I intend to wish people the best of the season. Secretly, I think we should all use the real message, “Holy crap, we survived another one!” but I doubt it will catch on anytime soon.

When conservatives launched their war on the non-existent war on Christmas, insisting everybody say ‘Merry Christmas,’ lefties responded that ‘Happy Holidays’ covers them all. This seems to have set up a two-side thing but I don’t have loyalty to any of them. If I see you wearing a sweater with Santa, Rudolph, Frosty, trimmed trees, and snow – you know, to capture the glory of Christ’s spring birth – I’ll wish you ‘Merry Christmas.’ Your yarmulke is definitely going to inspire a ‘Happy Hanukah.’ Honestly? I’m not familiar with the symbols of other religions, so you’re going to get a ‘Happy Holidays’ but that’s lack of information, not aggressive anti-Christmas.

I’ll tell you this: Looks like it’s going to be another year with zero casualties in the Season’s Greetings War…

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

Hunter got into more trouble. Tax troubles in California. Cons are certain Joe Biden is running interference for Hunter in his various cases and they think Joe should suffer because of Hunter’s misdeeds. They believe Joe is covering for Hunter because they KNOW that, given the chance, THEY would interfere to protect 45. They already have! It’s called projection. They know they would cheat, so they assume everyone cheats.

In a completely unrelated note (but is it?) rational people the world over are currently freaking out about the possibility that 45 might end up back in the Oval Room. (Apparently, it’s not an Office.) One main reason is the power of the President to issue pardons. Everyone knows (even the cons know) that if he gets back, Trump will pardon his henchmen and try to pardon himself for his and their crimes.

But wait! That means that if Joe wanted to run interference for his son, he could easily PARDON Hunter. But he hasn’t done that. Why, pray tell, would he tinker around the edges and never just solve Hunter’s problem? Nope, he’s letting it play out properly.

Another always-wrong conservative hypothesis bites the dust…

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

This is your world on conservatism. A Texas woman got pregnant and, sadly, the fetus is not viable. It has a fatal chromosomal condition called Trisomy 18 and cannot survive. Doctors have warned that continuing the pregnancy could endanger the life of the mother and/or her future fertility. Texas, of course, is one of those “Suffer, Bitches” states and she had to sue to get permission to obtain an abortion. The judge in the case, Maya Guerra Gamble, has given official permission for the procedure.

It’s obnoxious enough that the conservatives inserted the extra (costly) step to the only viable choice this woman has but, hey, it worked out, right? Well, no. Of course not right. Because of the right. The Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, (go ahead, guess which party. I’ll wait.) has warned every doctor he can think of that he plans to take legal action against any/every medical professional who dares to help that woman.

Oh, for good measure, he has also threatened medical facilities in the area – just in case she finds a doctor who cares more about good medicine than partisan politics. In his letter to the facilities, Attorney General Paxton actually wrote (I’m not making this up) that Gamble was “not medically qualified to make this determination.” Ostensibly, AG Paxton studied law, not medicine. How is HE medically qualified to deny the judge’s motion? Oh, and wouldn’t Judge Gamble’s original decision have been based on input from medical professionals, specifically, doctors? I’m going to go out on a limb, here, and suggest that doctors are FAR more “medically qualified” than the AG. Oh, but evil never rests.

You see, the State of Texas appealed the ruling, asking the State Supreme Court to put an immediate hold on Judge Gamble’s ruling – which it did “without regard to the merits.” This is just cruelty writ large. This is no party girl who just wants an easy way out. This woman wants to be a mother. This is a tragedy in her world. There is no “baby” to protect. The fetus is not viable. Continuing the pregnancy puts the mother’s life and future fertility at risk. There is NO reasonable explanation for why these men – and you KNOW it’s men – are fighting this, except for their real reason for being anti-abortion in the first place, “That slut had sex and needs to be punished for it.”

I’ll tell you this: This is the world conservatives want for everybody, Americans first. If this kind of horrific nightmare is what you crave, you really should vote Republican. But if you prefer a better world for FAR more people, never, ever vote for any conservative. Those people have “issues” and they want to inflict as much damage as possible, as far and wide as possible, because of them.

Pointless Failures and Horrific Success…

by MyBaconPress

The Republicans wanted to make absolutely, definitely, for positively sure that anybody and everybody knew that THEY are the party of not trusting women to make their own reproductive choices. (Some of that “Freedumb” they’re always on about.) So they put up a GREAT BIG TENT, with a great big neon sign that read ‘Suffer, bitches!,’ and set Senator Tommy Tumorville outside as the barker.
“Um…It’s Tuberville.”
“Are you sure? He sure seems like a cancer. ‘Tumorville’ is FAR more accurate.”
“Don’t be a baby. It’s Tuberville. And it’s pronounced like a bath tub. Tuberville.”
“Oh, all right.”

Tuberville used his b.s. filibuster to block over 400 military promotions. Why? Well, because he’s a self-important blowhard who believes that he, and he alone should decide how the military works AND what women do with their bodies. When the Roberts Supremely Kangaroo Court took away a woman’s right to choose – after swearing under oath such a thing was Stare Decisis, legal gobbledygook for “settled law” they would never, ever touch, oh, nosiree – the military said they would reimburse any member who had to travel to another state for an abortion or for other reproductive services.

Tommy didn’t like that, so he attacked the military by holding up hundreds of promotions in the highest ranks, interfering with operations across the land. Even Republicans pointed out that none of the officers in question had anything to do with that reimbursement decision and none of the officers in question had or would have the power to change the policy. Nothing like taking the fight right to where it isn’t. (It is the way of the moron, Grasshopper…)

This went on for a long time. Cut to the end. On Tuesday, Tuberville finally, magnanimously “relented” – since he was about to be beaten, anyway, with a legislative maneuver – and lifted his blockade of promotions and almost immediately, 425 promotions were approved by the Senate. Because he’s still a petulant asshole, Tuberville is still holding up around 10 more, for four star generals.

There was a time in this once-great nation when left and right argued about government spending and came to some compromise. Now the Republicans have devolved to a point where they want to throw women and doctors in jail over medical procedures and that’s not even the worst thing they’re proposing and swearing to do to Americans. Never vote Republican!

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

I guess if Kevin McCarthy doesn’t get to be Speaker of the House, he doesn’t want to be anything. Finally, something McCarthy and I can agree on. He shouldn’t be in Congress. Thankfully, he’s leaving. Despite our reputation, California has some areas that are BRIGHT, one might say blood-red (being conservatives) and McCarthy represents one of them, the Bakersfield area. That means his replacement will almost certainly be a Republican, but not until a special election so his seat might be vacant for awhile.

What with the ostensible George Santos “quitting” Congress in a huff immediately after being fired by Congress, the nutball contingent is getting smaller and smaller. If they’re not careful, they might accidentally allow Congress to get something helpful done.

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

I’d like to take a moment, here, to congratulate the NRA, the conservatives, and the murderous mass shooters out there. Your efforts have paid off handsomely. It took TWO on Sunday, December 3, to get ‘er done but you rose to the challenge and worked it out, propelling the United States to a new, world record when it comes to the number of mass shootings in which at least four people died (not including the shooter) in a single year.

From now until the 31st, any more mass shootings will just be padding the stats. You’ve already set the new bar for next year, but raising it a bit means your record might stand for awhile. Meanwhile, all you cons better get to cleaning your weapons and stockpiling ammo. You’ve got a LOT of murdering to do to catch up to your fellows next year.

Sadly, I’m sure you’re up to it…

Drug Deals…

by MyBaconPress

Before the scourge of Fentanyl, there was another, equally devastating wave of destructive and “Killer Drug” that swept America. Do you know who the Sackler family is? They’re the wonderful people who brought us Oxycontin. They controlled a company called Purdue Pharma. They marketed their wonderful new drug aggressively and one of their main points? Oxycontin was non-addictive. You may want to read that again. They pretended Oxycontin was non-addictive and pushed it as hard as they could.

Their efforts became known as the “Opioid Crisis.” Aggressive addiction turned people into zombies – and then killed them. Purdue, under Sackler guidance, continued to push Oxy. After all, while it’s true their drug was ruining lives and killing people, it’s ALSO true that Purdue, and therefore the Sacklers, were making lots and lots of money. Billions, even. And, as we all well know from living in this conservative, Bizarro America, piles of dead bodies are merely “collateral damage” when profits are involved.

Eventually, Purdue ended up pleading guilty to three Federal felonies and thousands of people starting suing the company causing Purdue, and specifically the Sacklers, to flee to bankruptcy court for protection. I’d bet the families of the lost would have appreciated some protection, too. Maybe, not lie about how addictive your product is? Something like that? Anyway, as I mentioned, they had lots and lots of money and they used some of it to stonewall the bankruptcy court. Eventually, the court and the family did something only Billionaires get to do: they entered “negotiations” in which the Sacklers made an offer about how much they were willing to pay in response to their murders and the court said, “Okay.”

The court agreed to let them off the hook by creating a sweetheart deal for them. Yes, Purdue Pharma was dissolved and the Sacklers had to pay $6 Billions dollars – a likely drop in the bucket compared to the killing they made from their killing spree – but they didn’t have to admit any responsibility AND they demanded immunity from future prosecution, and the judge granted that oh-so-stupid request. Oh, and the $6 Billion got paid out over time from future profits, and never touched the money they had already pocketed. It’s a pretty lovely deal for Sackler and Purdue Pharma.

Many people signed off on it because they believed they would never receive ANY compensation if they didn’t, money being a VERY effective stonewall. Most of the legal woes the Sacklers faced came from entities (governments, medical groups, that kind of thing), not individuals. So, most of the individuals would see little to nothing without the settlement and very, very little with the settlement. (“Here. We think your kid’s life was worth about $1.38. Now get out.”) It took no time at all for other corporations to glom onto the same strategy and use it to protect themselves. Johnson and Johnson is using it right now in the lawsuit about leaving so much asbestos in their powders.

Fortunately, not everybody agreed to the deal and the legal process has been playing out. The “legal process” is very slow. The legal part of this all started in 2019. Today, the Roberts Supremely Kangaroo Court is scheduled to hear arguments on the case. CAN corporations use bankruptcy courts to protect themselves from further legal liability after knowingly committing a dangerous act? In other words, can they buy their way out of responsibility for anything they do?

I’ve got to tell you, it always irritates the hell out of me when I hear that some company has “entered negotiations with the court to arrive at a settlement.” The perpetrators shouldn’t get to decide, or even comment, on how much is “fair” to compensate victims for the actions of the company (keyword: “victims”). In MY mind, the penalty should ALWAYS be at least two times the amount they made by engaging in their “activities” (read: crimes) in the first place. I mean, sure, it sounds like a lot, $6 Billion dollars. But if the profits from Oxycontin were, say, $12 Billion, getting away with only $6 Billion payout is a pretty sweet deal. Go ahead, find me a corporation that would do such a thing in the first place that might pass on that kind of profit. I’ll wait. Meanwhile, set the penalty at $24 Billion dollars and start seizing assets until the bill is paid.

I would have a little hope about this reaching the SCOTUS, except this is the Roberts Kangaroo Court. Not only do they LOVE conservative positions, a few of these guys are openly for sale. Any word on whether the Thomas’s are enjoying their new luxury yacht, yet? I’m guessing there will be soon…

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

I enjoyed watching the Forty Niners beat the stuffing out of the Eagles, yesterday. It settled a bunch of stuff. The Eagles didn’t like the narrative that they only beat the Niners last year in the Championship game because the Niners didn’t have a functioning Quarterback. But yesterday, the Niners DID have a functioning QB, and the Eagles didn’t have a chance. Good. It really has shaken up the NFC, too. The Niners still have an actual shot at the top seed. (C’mon Dallas? Sometimes, the world turns upside down.)

My absolute favorite moment from the game, though, came when Christian McCaffery tried a “flop.” A flop is when a player falls dramatically to the ground in an effort to draw a flag. It’s supposed to look like the opposing team did something wrong. It’s so common, it has a name (Um, a “flop”). It happens, commonly, in Basketball, Futbol (Soccer), and American Football. It’s often executed so poorly, it’s obviously just a flop. McCaffery’s effort was so overly dramatic, it actually drew a laugh from the official, which the camera caught. McCaffery and the official just had a little laugh together and the game went on. McCaffery’s a great player but he’s not a great flopper. He should leave that out of his game going forward…

Dark, Dumb, and Dramatic…

by MyBaconPress

Dark
On November 26, I wrote a piece called, ‘Meandering to the End.’ It was a stepped-back look at the failures of human kind that might (will) lead to the end of humanity. It was all very depressing. The key is the success of the 1% to deceive people into believing false things at a time when people need actual, verifiable facts to make existential decisions – as evidenced by the rise in popularity of the extreme right, for example, based on pure fraud and, well, trumpery.

I pointed out that we’re in desperate trouble, as a species, even before we introduce Artificial Intelligence (AI) but pretty much left AI out of it for that moment. But AI is the final piece. You have, no doubt, seen stories either supporting or fretting over AI. Some people think it’s going to be a great tool that helps everybody do everything. Others are concerned it’s not well-enough understood, it makes dangerous decisions and often comes to faulty conclusions, it actually produces tons of carbon (because of the computers behind it). It will put people out of work.

It’s not that AI, in and of itself, is particularly bad. It’s the people behind AI that scare me. No, not the nerds. The people doing the actual work are just people doing something that fires their imaginations – and in their imaginations, AI just shines and helps and does good. (Even the people who built the first Atomic Bombs were hoping they were doing a good thing. Human capacity for self-deception, sadly, seems boundless. I mean…Jesus!) The danger from AI comes from the people financing the projects, the ‘One Percents,’ people who have convinced themselves they have what they have because some invisible cloud being decided they should have it.

In their minds, it has nothing to do with opportunism or wage theft. It’s all about their legendary genius. (It IS “legendary,” too, as in, they are generally NOT the geniuses behind the technology they maneuvered their way into controlling, and profiting from. But they reinforce the “legend” of their own greatness at every turn and, because they have lots of money, people think maybe those guys actually did something.)

Sadly, it’s a pretty short leap from, “Hey, I’ve acquired a LOT” to “Hey, I should be KING!” and they start to believe that, too. It was, after all, the One Percent who launched the current war on truth (because Charles Koch didn’t like all that fairness and equality stuff). The One percent bought up most news outlets and turned them into nearly useless “infotainment” outlets. It IS the One Percent who keep the masses fighting with each other through constant infusions of misinformation. And now, it’s the One Percent that just keeps pressing forward on AI, despite concerns raised by people with ethics.

So the question becomes, why would the people who believe they should rule be so preoccupied with developing tools designed to fool? Have you even seen a “deep fake?” You have, whether you know it or not, and that’s the point. It can be difficult to tell, and the work these days is to make it harder to know. There’s a deep fake of Obama out there that fooled millions. There’s a high school in New Jersey having a problem with deep fakes of the girls in the school. The faces of the girls are being superimposed on the nude bodies of other women and passed around for the prurient interests of the viewers. And that’s nothing compared to what is happening to starlet’s faces on porn stars bodies (and behavior). And these are only the warning signs!

Once the technology is perfected, or at least dependably deceptive, there will be no way for the average Joe to know the difference between a news story backed by video and a fake intended to deceive. I suspect that will be the final nail. Again, the problem is NOT the technology. It’s the people who control the tech. Despite their “Oh, ain’t we great?” rags-to-riches stories, these are among the least developed human beings on the planet, willing to do anything to advance themselves – and only themselves. (And hasn’t that been the way of the wealthy since the dawn of wealth?) In their quest to rule, they’ll run with AI as fast and as far as possible, disregarding all the red flags and warning signs as they approach what they believe will be ultimate power.

But I’ll tell you this: I believe the rollout of AI will be the final piece in the Drake Equation. At a time when humanity needed accurate and honest information in order to make decent decisions, we are, instead, going to be treated to inaccurate and dishonest information and as the saying goes, garbage in, garbage out. In the name of our Lord and Master, Profit. Amen…

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

Dumb
Speaking of pure, unadulterated fraud, the conservative Anti-War on Christmas is back! (It’s weird to have an anti-war movement with no actual war as an offset.) I saw my first post, this morning, telling me it was okay to say “Merry Christmas!” I have never once run into somebody who took issue with me saying Merry Christmas. Where ARE they? It seems to me, NOBODY has done more damage to the meaning of Christmas than the people shouting at the top of their lungs to check out THEIR own holiness, displayed in their unwavering support of Donald Trump, the very embodiment of ALL of the Seven Deadly Sins. (Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Lust, Avarice, Wrath, and Sloth. Which one is NOT Donald Trump?)

I’ll tell you this: If you’re going to continue to ignore the teachings of Christ, I’m going to continue to believe you are NOT a Christian and don’t know the first thing about Christianity. And, heads up… Your “God” knows, too…

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

Drama
Okay, football season is heating up. Yeah, I know, it’s been going on for months, now, but so far it’s been preliminaries. Now we’re getting down to the nitty-gritty. The Santa Clara Forty-Niners are playing the Philadelphia Eagles, today. It’s just a game in the schedule. The outcome won’t change much for either team. But it’s also NOT just a game. This one seems personal.

See, last year, the Eagles beat the Niners in the NFC Championship game. No, that’s not really right. The full-strength Eagles beat a Niners team that had no Quarterback. For three and a half quarters, it was basically an eleven-on-ten game. It just wasn’t fair. Nobody did anything wrong. The Eagles didn’t cheat or anything. The Niners QB got hurt early on and they had no replacements left. The Eagles took their “win” and went on to lose the Stupor Bowl. (The NFL sues if you use the real name of the game without paying them.)

Ever since, the Niners have ridden on the reality that they might well have won that game, had they been full strength, and the Eagles have taken to denying their advantage had anything to do with their win. The difference in the perceptions has led to a lot of energy going into today’s games. ALL the fans in both cities are charged up. Think of how the players feel. The Niners are itching to prove that at full strength, they can beat the Eagles. The Eagles are itching to prove it wasn’t the imbalance that gave them the win.

The whole thing is kind of stupid. BOTH teams are different, now. Each has lost players, each has gained players. The Niners have a new Defensive Coordinator who isn’t really as good as his two predecessors. The Eagles have lost some impact players, a couple to the Niners! But, both teams are very, very good and the energy they’re using to get ready for this game is still valid, if a little off. 1:25pm, Pacific Time. It should be a great game, either way…

Crimes And A Campaign…

by MyBaconPress

Alright, but he’s not even smart about it. Donny got caught trying to move $40 million dollars, illegally, from his company without reporting it to the court monitor as he is required to do. He apparently moved the cash in three payments over 10 months. He reportedly used it for taxes and to pay part of his liability to E. Jean Carroll, a woman he sexually assaulted.

It doesn’t much surprise me that Trump is trying to skirt rules regarding his behavior. It DOES surprise me that he seems to have used it to actually pay some of his bills. He’s FAMOUS for stiffing creditors. I guess he still needs the people he’s still paying. They’d better collect the balance due before he’s finished with them, though…

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

Well, they actually did remove George Santos (if, indeed, that is his name) from Congress. Obviously, they should have. But these are cons. They NEVER do the right thing, so why would anyone expect it from them now? Besides, they’ve set themselves up in a hugely hypocritical position now. Santos had to go because he’s a liar and a likely criminal and, according to the GOP, liars and criminals have no place in government. But now they’re going to continue to defend Donny? He lies at least as much as Santos. Worse, he’s a proven criminal.

But, the GOP is very…um…flexible when it comes to ethics and standards. All they have to do is insist they don’t see the crimes or lies and they’re home-free. But at this point? The ONLY people who don’t see the lying or crimes is – no one. EVERYBODY knows. It’s just that MAGA won’t admit it. Being mistaken, knowing you’re mistaken, but refusing to acknowledge your mistake is the mark of a small mind. Smart people aren’t afraid to acknowledge mistakes…

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

It was only a matter of minutes after the “pause” expired that Israel started pounding Gaza with bombs, again. The planes must have been in the air, already, waiting for the “go” order. The US and some of her allies are still trying to pretend Israel is just trying to protect itself, but Netanyahu saw an opportunity and he’s seizing it. Predictions are stupid. Who can see the future?

But I suspect Netanyahu will stand down his attack once Gaza is emptied of Palestinians. Israel can then declare all of that land “disputed territory,” the walls, barbed wire, and gates can come down, and the Israelis can start building settlements and moving people in. In just a few years, Gaza will be Israel and the Palestinians will be pushed into the West Bank or into the sea and Israel can begin, again, (as if they might have stopped in the meantime) to agitate the Palestinians until they do, yet another, emotion-driven, stupid thing.

Hamas used the teeny, tiny, very limited resources they had available to buy rockets and attack Israel in an incredibly brutal, astoundingly stupid raid that served, mainly, to hurt the image of Palestine in the eyes of the world and to give Netanyahu the opening he needed to wipe Gaza off the map. They should have checked with me. I would have suggested that, instead, they use their limited resources to hire a good PR firm and begin a campaign of image rehabilitation – and then to let the world know the actual conditions in Gaza and why the Palestinians are so pissed off in the first place…

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

I still don’t know what Gavin Newsom is about. He had a debate with Ron DeSantis. Well, a kind of a shouting match, anyway. I REALLY don’t like the shouting. But what was the point of the debate? If it was just to hurt DeSantis in the polls, it seems to have done that but old Ron has been doing an excellent job of flaming out all by himself. Gavin has stated over and over that he’s not running for President in 2024. He said so during the debate. So what’s he doing? He keeps doing ‘running-for-something’ things. Maybe, he’s trying to position himself for a VP opportunity. I suspect he’s setting up a run for 2028. I think he may have started a little bit early because he certainly looks as though he’s running. Maybe he’s positioning himself so that if Joe dies, he can step up with a “campaign” under way.

He won’t run against Biden because it would put him in poor standing with the party. We all know, once the party makes their backroom choice, the world is stuck with it, like it or not. The party will do whatever it needs to do in order to get the nomination for their preferred choice and they’re not likely to turn away from a successful incumbent. I’m very ambivalent about old Sleepy Joe. He has done a very good job as President but he’s frighteningly old. And it’s not just a number. I know several people with higher numbers who don’t seem as old. Joe seems old. He looks old. He moves old. He sounds old. When he runs out on stage trying to impress people with his vigor, he looks like an old man trying to impress people with his vigor. When he tries to trot up steps, he falls down. If you put him on a bicycle… No, don’t put him on a bicycle, again. Those old bones break pretty easily.

Still, he’s done a good job, mostly. No, I don’t agree with everything he does but the need for perfect agreement likely means there’s nobody I could vote for so that’s not a fair standard. Truthfully, and I don’t mean to be mean, here, but, it doesn’t really matter how good Joe is at the job if he’s too dead to do it.

I suspect Gavin is doing a little of both. He’s setting up a run for 2028 but doing so early has him already going should Joe, um, let’s just say, not be able to continue, for some reason…