Charges, Claims, and Evidence…

I know. It can be difficult to keep track of which judge goes with which trial so I’ll try to keep it clear. Judge Scott McAfee, the judge in the Georgia trial, has dismissed 6 of the 41 charges Donny and his co-conspirators face, assuming the GOP can’t get the case tossed over some technicality, a pretended conflict of interest. (Hey, now that I think about it, that’s a good “band name” for that pretend patriotic “song” the cons – and in this case, that’s “convicts” – put out, ‘Donny and the Co-conspirators.’)

The 6 tossed charges include 3 of the 13 against Donny, himself. It’s important to note that McAfee did NOT dismiss the charges permanently. He said the prosecutor hadn’t provided enough detail as to the underlying felony for the defense to prepare. Basically, his order is drop it or revise it for clarity. But they CAN revise it for clarity.

I think sometimes, prosecutors throw in everything but the kitchen sink in case something gets thrown out and these charges might be that. So even if they don’t revise those charges, the allegedly criminal group still faces 35 charges and Donny, personally, still faces 10. And none of those charges raised any questions with the judge at all…

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I saw a story out of conservative media the other day. It asserted that certain charges the cons have made are too true, so there! It asserted these things have been proven and STILL the liberal media won’t report on them. (In the MAGA mind, if three people shout it loudly enough, and it might help Donny, then it’s “proven.”) One of them was about how it has now been proven, beyond question, that the Dumbass Don did too offer up 10,000 troops to protect the Capitol on J6! The point to that charge, in their minds, is that PeLOsi (you have to spit that. It’s the law.) is at fault for J6, not Donny, because she didn’t protect the Capitol properly.

It’s just a short step to the next, obvious question but the MAGA mind just never seems able to get there. Specifically, what was Pelosi protecting the Capitol from on J6?
“Hey, nice Capitol building you got, here. It would be a shame if something were to happen to it. We can get you, say, 10,000 National Guard troops to help protect the Capitol on J6?”
“Why would I need 10,000 National Guard troops to help protect the Capitol on J6? What do you know?”
“Oh, nothing. Nothing. No reason at all, really. We just thought it might be nice.”
“What’s ‘nice’ about surrounding the Capitol with 10,000 troops?” she wondered. “Look, nobody has ever done anything to disrupt this procedural event in the history of this country. Why would they start now? I’m sure we’ll be fine.”
“We’re going to remember you said that.”

On January 6, 2021, the Capitol building would not have needed 10,000 additional troops, let alone even the Capitol police if only Donald J. Trump had not decided to send an (admittedly ragtag) army to try to cling to power.

Hey, Dumbass, that was an option, too. The preferred one, in fact. The course EVERY defeated candidate before you had taken: accept your defeat like a man (even Hillary has bigger balls than you), walk away with a modicum of your little dignity still intact, and maybe run again in the next round. But no. You chose ‘whiny tantrum insurrection.’ THAT was MAGA. THAT was trump. Pelosi was not the problem, here…

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The right puts out video of President Biden stumbling over words from time to time. They call it incontrovertible proof that Biden has dementia. So, the left puts out video of their own, Donny stumbling over words. Also proof of dementia? Don’t be ridiculous. That’s just super clever stupidity – or something.

Here’s the thing. Biden has a long-since acknowledged speech impediment. It makes sense he might stumble over words from time to time. He’s done it as long as he’s been alive. But Donny? Donny presents himself as perfect. Infallible, in fact. When HE stumbles over words, he WILL NOT confess an “error.” He claims it was intentional. (It is not.)

For a dude who’s perfectly infallible, Trump messes up a LOT. I mean, it doesn’t take that much time to put together a blooper reel of the guy stumbling over even basic words and there’s video evidence out there of him locking up entirely. Can you imagine if Biden were giving a speech that included a sentence like, “We’re a nation that just recently heard that Saudi Arabia and Russia will ree… pee… too… ahhh…” and then just…blank out for a moment? To their credit, even MAGA seemed startled by that one. To their discredit, they just tucked their concerns away and started attacking Biden again.

Still, it’s down to these two again. An old man who occasionally stumbles over words vs an old man who occasionally stumbles over words but also faces multiple felony charges, has been adjudicated a rapist, has been adjudicated a thief, stands credibly accused of abusing prescription drugs, and regularly brags about someone thinking he needs yet another cognitive test. I swear to the gods, I don’t understand how this is even a question…

Correction and Update…

Well, I have a correction to make. Yesterday, I wrote that the focus of Katie Britt’s sex trafficking story was kidnapped and forced into prostitution at the age of 16. That was wrong. The person was 12, just a child at the time. She escaped when she was 16. (Even after all these years of MAGA, I STILL can’t believe how badly people can suck.) MyBaconPress regrets the error…

After being called out for misrepresenting, Britt went on Fox Not-News to defend her statement. She pretended people thought she said the person was a woman at the time. That wasn’t the issue. She pretended to be disgusted people would try to shut down her tale of sex trafficking. Nobody was doing that. She did NOT address the fact that the victim who actually suffered the event, Karla Jacinto, wasn’t happy Britt told the story during the rebuttal. She said, “I hardly ever cooperate with politicians, because it seems to me that they only want an image. They only want a photo — and that to me is not fair.”

It’s important to note, Britt took office in 2023. She mentioned that Biden had taken 94 “executive actions” in his first hundred days and then mentioned a couple that affected the border, trying to leave the impression that all 94 actions were border-related. They were not. Twelve of them were border related. Ten of the twelve reversed actions taken by 45. So the rest was just a bit of conservative misrepresentation to inflame people’s minds. (Hey, it’s what they do.)

After misrepresenting Biden’s actions at the border, Britt said she took a different path “after she took office.” She went down to the border and met Jacinto, who told her the story. Then, with no segue, she said, “We wouldn’t be OK with this happening in a third-world country. This is the United States of America. And it’s past time we start acting like it. President Biden’s border crisis is a disgrace,” Britt said. “It’s despicable, and it’s almost entirely preventable.”

So…did Britt SAY, exactly, that the trafficking occurred under Biden’s watch and in America? No. She just implied it so heavily the idea couldn’t be missed, AND she buried those pesky details – which make such a difference – so deeply it took people a little while to dig them up.

I’ll tell you this: I have a rule about cons: Their tales of terror and woe are NEVER ‘the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.’ There is ALWAYS some bit left out that should be included or some bit tossed in that should not. It’s how good lies are built and the cons are VERY skilled liars. They have to be. It’s all they’ve got…

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Also yesterday, I wrote about the case against Fani Willis and how the cons are trying to protect their Precious by eliminating the prosecutor for “impropriety.” (The actual focus was the GOP controlled legislature giving Ashleigh Merchant a bully pulpit to make whatever case she felt like making with little to no pushback.)

I don’t think they can show any impropriety. The actual charge is that Willis hiring Wade violated a Georgia nepotism law. ALL cons will tell you, Wade was not qualified for the job. Of course, they’ll also tell you that Trump won in 2020. As we’ve seen – and see constantly, cons lie. Wade is an established lawyer with a thriving law practice. He also sits as an associate municipal court judge and a state court judge. Does he have any experience prosecuting criminal ex-Presidents? No. Who does? This is all new territory because we’ve never had such a corrupt and outright criminal ex-President as we have in trump.

But after claiming some professional impropriety, the cons have focused, almost exclusively, on revealing salacious details of the lover’s affair. They have shown, over and over, that a dude took his girl on a couple of trips – and that he used money he earned by working to pay for it. Isn’t that how ALL dudes take their lovers on trips? Paying with money they work for? (Yeah, I’m setting aside criminals and criminal activity for the moment.) The idea, as nearly as I can tell, is to suggest that these two had sex – so they hate trump. That’s dumb. Most people hate trump whether they’re having sex or not.

There are other problems with Merchant’s filing. For example, it didn’t include any factual support for key claims. It was all innuendo. That’s weird enough, but here’s a quote from a Politico article called ‘A Reality Check on the Fani Willis Scandal:’
“The motion may also have violated an important ethical rule that requires lawyers to disclose controlling law that is at odds with any position that they are advocating in the case. In particular, Roman’s filing claims that Willis and Wade may have violated the honest-services and RICO statutes because they “personally benefited from an undisclosed conflict of interest,” but that theory of criminal liability was foreclosed by the Supreme Court nearly 15 years ago. The lawyers who wrote that language either did not know that it was wrong (ethically fine, perhaps, but embarrassing) or refused to level with the court about it (not fine at all and deeply ironic).”

There was an opportunity for a Georgia Democrat to question Merchant during the spectacle. He showed that the primary case she cited in her filing (Whitworth vs State) didn’t support her claim. She even admitted as much, after a bit of verbal sparring. He also made the case that impropriety refers to profiting in ways you normally wouldn’t by getting the win in a case or by getting some piece of the case to work better to get the prosecution, like getting a bonus for flipping a witness or some such. Wade is being paid whether the State wins or loses. That’s not impropriety. Prosecutors get paid to prosecute.

I actually think the weakest point in Willis’ defense is Wade, himself. In court, it came out that Wade was trying to hide some income from his soon-to-be-ex-wife. During the Georgia Senate dog-and pony, Merchant said she thought one of the reasons the legal firm Wade had with lead witness Terrance Bradley came to an end because Wade insisted on using his own trust accounts rather than the official trust accounts of the firm. So Wade appears to be maybe a little shady with money, personally. None of that indicates that he has done anything improper during the case, though.

I’ll tell you this: I hope the case proceeds. I really hate the idea of justice being derailed because two human beings exercised their infatuation with each other for a short time…

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Sometimes, I get a little pushback when I decry Daylight Saving Time. Oh, hey, you disagree? Okay. That’s easy. In view of current issues, this one is very low-level. The position pro-DST people take, though, is that they get “more daytime.” No you don’t. There are 24 hours in a day. Period. The reason you get “more sunshine” is because the Earth/Sun relationship changed to Summer mode. We get more sun.

What YOU get is the opportunity to go to bed while the sun is still up and being forced to use a little more power in the morning when most of us have to get up and go to work. Less of an issue, I guess, if you’re retired or don’t have a job.

A law passed in the Senate is trying to set the clocks to Daylight Saving permanently. It has not progressed in the House. As it happens, we’ve tried that. It was (hyperbole alert) carnage on the roadways and death to schoolkids. The program was implemented on a two year test basis but cancelled after less than one year because of the increase in deaths. That’s true.

I would be okay with leaving the clocks alone but I could only support Standard Time as the permanent choice. Fear not, my DST lovers. You’d still get the same 24 hours in each and every day. It’s the way science works…

Is Lying REALLY Their Only Trick?

Uh-oh. Republicans have been caught lying, yet again. (It just never ends.) This time, the culprit is Katie Britt, the GOP “rising star” who gave the GOP “rebuttal” to Biden’s State of the Union speech. The GOP has angered most women by attacking women’s right to bodily autonomy, so they cynically put a woman forward to give the rebuttal – but STILL wouldn’t let her out of the kitchen, where women “belong,” right? She has already received much criticism. It started during her little chat – and from her own team. Worse, for her, these were words coming out of her mouth. Words have meanings. They can be checked. They were checked.

Apparently, MAGA never checks anything. I’ve read many conservative tales in which links have been placed to look as though they link to supporting articles or other evidence. But if you DO click through, it’s almost ridiculously obnoxious how many of those links only go to the definition of a word or some similar non-support. It’s deceptive. It LOOKS like support but it isn’t. It’s a kind of a lie.

Anyway, Britt told the story of meeting a woman on the Mexican border who had been kidnapped and held by drug cartels and then forced into prostitution when she was 16. The woman was held for several years and repeatedly raped. She was finally rescued, no thanks to Joe Biden. This is Biden’s border, Britt lied.

A journalist and author named Jonathon Katz knew the case. He checked it out. It was all true. It HAD happened to this poor woman. Um, between 2004 and 2008. It wasn’t “Biden’s Border.” It was Bush 43’s border. Yeah, a Republican. Of course. AND, by the way, it’s never going to be Biden’s Border now. Not in the minds of the majority, the rational Americans. The GOP slapped down their own border bill that promised to changed things just so they could keep the border around as a campaign issue. Actions speak louder than words. NOW the border is in disarray because the GOP won’t LET the Dems fix it. We all know it. The whole world watched that play out.

Cons, man. They’re just always the opposite of what they claim to be. They lie as easily as breathing, all while setting themselves up as the arbiters of morality. They present themselves as the party of fiscal responsibility, all while crashing the economy over and over and adding more to the national debt than the Dems ever do. (The current record holder is Trump. Barack has a higher number but much of that was created by 43, who simply left it off the books.)

Stronger on national defense? THAT depends on how you feel about love letters between the wanna-be dictator, Donny, and the actual dictator, Kim Jong Un, or the passing of nuclear secrets from Donny to the Russians, as the whispers suggest. Yeah, 43 was quick to react when “security failures” allowed the fall of the World Trade Center – but he started not one, but TWO wrong wars in his haste. I guess that leaves the party of law and order?

Oh my gods, don’t make me laugh. Are you paying ANY attention at all? Have you seen how much trouble the GOP is going to in their efforts to keep their precious from facing any law and order, whatsoever? At no time, in NO way, have they made even the slightest attempt to show the Trump is not a criminal. Instead, they’re working as hard as they can to stop the trials from even happening. Here again, actions speak louder than words. The GOP is tipping their hand. They KNOW Donny is guilty. They KNOW it. Here’s how I know.

Let’s say you wanted to prosecute, say, me for, oh, I don’t know, how about the assassination of John Kennedy? I don’t need anyone to derail that trial for me. Have at it. You can’t possibly have any proof that I killed Kennedy, because I didn’t. For MY part, I’m going to show up in court and present my exculpatory evidence: I was two years old at the time. I hadn’t yet developed any proficiency with weapons. If you can show that a two year old got himself from the LA basin to the Dallas book depository (or even the grassy knoll, an easier crawl), squeezed off a few very well placed rounds, then got himself home again – ostensibly all during nap time – I guess I deserve to go to jail, right?

I watched some of this dog-and-pony show the GOP sponsored in Georgia. They formed a very special committee to “get to the bottom” of this Fani Willis thing and subpoenaed Ashleigh Merchant, the attorney trying to get Fani removed to come on over and have a chat. They called it a “hearing” but it was really just an opportunity for Merchant to smear Willis in public for awhile with little pushback. I think the GOP thinks they’re losing this effort to have her removed for impropriety so they decided to try to boost their position. So much for law and order, right?

I’ll tell you this: The thing that remains true no matter how badly the GOP wishes it were not true? A position that depends on lies for support, doesn’t deserve to be supported. And every position the GOP supports, requires lies in order to present even the appearance of support. Like Peter, of ‘Peter and the Wolf’ infamy, it’s best just to ignore the lying GOP going forward…

Joe Is Better Than Donny…

Donny was giving a speech at a rally in Greensboro, NC. Here’s a quote. Well, as nearly as I can spell it, here’s a quote, “We’re a nation that just recently heard that Saudi Arabia and Russia will ree… pee… too… ahhh.” Then he just…blanked out for a moment. No, it wasn’t a Moscow Mitch blank. Nobody needed to bump his head to get him started again. (Although they MAY have some wireless electrodes hooked up to some sensitive part of his body so they can zap him, should the need arise – as it did.)

Look, I get it. He’s under a LOT of pressure right now, right? He’s facing 91 Felony charges and doesn’t want to go to jail. He’s trying to manage his lawyers so he can stay out of jail. He’s trying to regain the White House so he can stay out of jail. He’s got to activate his ideologue, sycho-fanatic “judges” so he can stay out of jail. I mean, that’s a LOT of trying to stay out of jail.

In addition, there have long been whispers – and now reports from the White House pharmacy – that Trump takes a LOT of pills. They’re all prescription so he can honestly tell his fawning admirers he doesn’t use “illegal” drugs, but when you have access to the pharmaceutical stuff, who would? Word is, he likes Adderall. Adderall is a brand name medication that treats ADHD. It’s speed, all dressed up official and pretty. MyBaconPress can neither confirm nor disprove the rumors. We don’t have access to the records and he’s a lying son-of-a-bitch.

It remains true: Every conservative accusation is a confession. They’ve been attacking Joe Biden over his gaffes since the race began – back in 2019. (Or 2018, or 17, or even 16. It’s like these things never end…) Of COURSE “Biden seems impaired” is their battle cry. THEIR guy is clearly impaired! They HOPE, that by pointing and screaming and shouting and spittling at Biden, people won’t notice that Donny seems FAR worse. Oh, we’ve noticed.

“Biden is impaired” is dogma, now, in conservative circles so I imagine that any cons who tuned in to the State of the Union address were expecting a train-wreck of a speech. They didn’t get THAT, though, did they? Old Sleepy Joe did really quite well. At least some of the scheme of the cons was to try to rattle the old guy. They tried. He didn’t rattle.

In fact, he took on several of their pet peeves, directly. My favorite part, though, was when he scolded the Kangaroos right to their stupid, ideological faces. Except for Clarence Thomas, of course. He wasn’t there. I heard he was out collecting some bribes but, again, I can’t confirm that. It was probably just cowardice.

So, according to MY scorecard in the ‘Battle of the Brain-Farts,’ Biden is winning with the fewest number of serious gaffes. But the media, left AND right, simply will not stop with the “Biden is old” bit. Yeah, he’s old. So is Donny. Biden moves like an old man. So does Donny. I don’t like when Joe tries to run out on stage but I like Donny’s dual handjob dance even less. The primary difference? Biden is doing a very good job running the country. Donny crashed the economy worse than any President in history and killed more Americans than any other President in history, leaving a trail of damage and wreckage in his wake.

No, cons don’t know that. THEY think (or pretend) they live in a Hellscape of destitution and ruin. All they have to do is look outside and… well, no. All they have to do is look at the numbers and they get… um, no. All they have to do is check their day to day lives and then they have…dammit! Okay, all they have to do is tune in to their favorite, lying, talking head and they get all the confirmation they crave.

So, what? You’re not going to vote for Joe because he’s old? Then you can’t vote for Donny either. He’s old, too. Joe just doesn’t inspire you? Donny does? Joe might have a “senior moment?” Donny is having them right out in public, for all the world to see. The only thing Donny does better than Biden is crime.

But listen, nobody voted FOR Biden, before. We ALL voted against Trump. Do that. Vote against Trump. Yes, Biden is doing a very good job and has earned your vote but if you just can’t, at least vote Biden to block. It’s the American thing to do…

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Don’t forget to turn your clocks tonight. Forward. Spring forward. The whole point, it seems, is to sow chaos and confusion into people’s lives. The primary thing the time changes accomplish is disrupting people’s rhythms. It causes heart attacks and car accidents and, for a while, sloppy thinking. It doesn’t benefit anybody in any way. By all means, let’s just keep doing this oh-so-stupid thing…

Bizarro America, March 2024…

Huh. So, the Kangaroos ruled just the way I said they would. On the one hand, it’s great to be vindicated? Not so much, really. I think the only surprise was the 9-0 nature of the ruling. Now, to be sure, they didn’t agree on WHY they think the 14th doesn’t apply but they all said it doesn’t.

The cons on the court said it can only be implemented by Congress, the exact opposite of how the text reads because, you know, “Originalists!” Oh, and “Textualists!” Specifically, the text says, “But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.” Nowhere does it say, or even suggest, it’s up to Congress to impose the disability.

For their part, the lefties on the court said they were worried about a patchwork effect, some states allowing a given candidate, some states not. Of course, they would have put an end to THAT pretense by upholding the 14th, as well. Once it applied, it applied across the board, in the exact same way it does NOT apply…pretty much at all anymore.

But, I wrote at the time they decided to take the case up, they were not going to uphold the constitution so I’m not too surprised. Next up? They’re going to clear Donny of his J6 crimes by pretending he was just engaged in “official duties.” So he WILL be running. We’ll HAVE to beat him at the ballot box, which shouldn’t be too hard. BUT…

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An article by a guy named Thom Hartmann was brought to my attention. It’s called, ‘The New “Over the Top” Secret Plan on How Fascists Could Win in 2024’ (Click here). You really need to read this. I found it frightening and depressing. (Yes, I’m aware that’s poor upselling. But people would feel deceived if I described it as a delightful read – and then read it…)

Mr Hartmann, a brilliant mind with FAR too many consonants in his name, claims to have information regarding the NEXT conservative plan to steal the upcoming election. It’s frightening because it’s imminently “do-able.” It’s depressing because no rational mind anywhere on the planet would put it past conservatives to attempt to steal this election, any more than they continue to try to steal the last one.

The plan is predicated on two things: 1) A Trump/Putin loss, making the steal necessary, and 2) GOP control of the House of Representatives. Now, I don’t know about you, but I expect, after the wasted time, foolish follies, ineffectual “leadership,” and just general all-around clown show that has marked the Republican majority in the House, Americans are likely feeling the need to have some rational grownups in charge and will try to send Democrats back and put them in control.

That’s when step one of the plan kicks in: MAGA Mike Johnson – who worked tirelessly to help steal 2020 for Donny – simply refuses to swear in the new Democratic members, citing “voting irregularities,” and artificially (but legally) keeping conservative control of the House. Conservatives have been screaming about voting irregularities since 2015. Every single one of them knows ten, maybe fifteen, stories of some cheat “everyone knows” happened and they’ll be MORE than happy to share/shout them at you. Over and over and over again.

Not ONE of them has even the smallest scrap of evidence to support their claims, of course. They brought the crap they could scrape together into sixty different court rooms. Sixty! They lost every one. (MAGA thinks the cases “weren’t heard.” They were. They lost because there was no evidence.) No matter. Scream about it anyway.

The basic plan is this: artificially create a “Constitutional crisis” that throws the election to the House of Representatives, still artificially controlled by the GOP, who puts the Dumbass back into power (and destroys America in the process). You really should read this article (second chance click here). It will NOT uplift your spirit but it WILL inform you.

Frankly, I was a little hesitant to forward the article. After I read it, I thought, “Well, what’s the point, then?” I mean, it’s depressing, mostly because I have no doubt this is right up MAGA alley. I really gave it some thought. Finally, I arrived at something. Hartmann writes about the event, hijacking the certification process, and then jumps to the long-term consequences of GOP control and he does a masterful job of taking the reader along with him. It took me awhile – my emotions had to settle down – but I finally arrived at a question: what about January 4? January 5? What about January 7th? That is, what happens in the immediate aftermath of the hijack?

An issue not addressed; is the plan to NEVER seat the Democrats who won? Currently, Democrats control the Senate. Assuming rationality maintains Senate control, is there NO action the Democrats can take to intervene? In Hartmann’s analysis, there is little mention of Democratic responses, or of the responses of the American people. Some of the harm the GOP wants to do to the country can be accomplished with Executive Orders but some of it would require legislation. Would Senate Democrats be in “compromise” mode while the House was being held hostage?

What will the American people do when the House is held hostage to the GOP? Will we just get up and go to work or will we hit the streets, “France style” and do some screaming and yelling (and burning and rioting) of our own? Hartmann thinks the former because so many Americans were so tepid in their response to the GOP theft of the Supreme Court seats.

There’s a thing about liberals, though. We don’t want to fight. We would rather solve problems with our minds. Over time, that attitude can be mistaken as meaning we won’t fight. Cowards, you know. But historically, there is zero evidence to support that position. Yes, we might be slow to fight – because we don’t want to. But once we decide a fight is our only option? We fight. We usually win. See, the advantage of the slow-to-fight position is that we ensure we’re on solid moral ground. Having the moral high ground helps. It motivates.

Think of it this way: Russia should have simply overwhelmed Ukraine. Ukraine was disarmed a while ago and Russia is always heavily armed. But the Ukrainians are fighting for their homes and their families and the Russian soldiers are fighting because they were told to. They don’t have a legitimate reason to be killing and dying in some foreign country and they know it. It’s the same reason the powerful United States lost in Vietnam. Motivation.

Something that has become clear over time? The cons KNOW they’re lying about all the various charges they toss around. There’s no question. No, of course they’re not going to admit that to you. (False pride is a bitch of a taskmaster.) But they know. I’m sure of it because of all the times they readily refute their own talking points in trying to make another.

So the left will have the moral high ground and BOTH sides will know it. But that’s only if they fight. If Hartmann is right, we’ll just get up and go to work and wish it was different. If we do that, though? If we just throw up our hands with a “we’ll get ’em next time” attitude? We get what we deserve. The American people have had to fight to protect this country before, even against others who might have been called “fellow Americans.” It seems now the actual, most looming question is, will we fight for America one more time?

Donny’s Decline…

Donny has incorporated his “explanations” into his stump speech. The whole Nikki/Nancy thing caught a lot of people’s attention. I’m referring, of course, to the speech when 45 repeatedly said that Nikki Haley did a terrible job protecting the Capitol from his assault. Donny never admits error, one of the surest signs of a weak mind. So, when someone pointed out the error, he claimed it was intentional. He said – and continues to say – that he just interchanges the names back and forth because he doesn’t like either of them.

By that standard, I could interchange Donald J Trump and Adolf Hitler. I don’t like either of those guys so, what’s the difference, right? Well, when a sentence starts, “When Hitler so badly bungled his pandemic in the US in 2019…” it doesn’t make any sense. Hitler didn’t bungle the pandemic, Trump did. It doesn’t get any better in reverse, “When Trump launched WWII, leading to the murders of 14 million people, 6 million of them Jews…” Nope. No better. Because that wasn’t Trump. It turns out, the names don’t become interchangeable just because someone doesn’t like both of them.

He’s such a snowflake. The left started pointing out – and making jokes about – Trump’s inability to speak the language, complete a thought, or keep people straight on the who did what scale and Donny just HAD to respond. Not only did he put out a video speaking to his malapropisms, pretending they’re intentional, it has become a talking point in all of his speeches.

What a waste of time. He’ll never convince Americans his gaffes are anything other than evidence of his mental decline (perhaps outright stupidity) and MAGA will never believe he was anything less than “funny” when it comes to his gibberish.

Sure, Biden is old and does “old guy” things. But Trump is old, too, and does “old guy” things AND seems delusional and unable to track from moment to moment. Remember, it’s not BIDEN regularly taking cognitive tests because someone around him thinks it’s a good idea and a solid brag point. That’s Hitler, er, Trump, who, in fairness, CAN still recognize an elephant, though, he’s more likely to call it a “Heffalump…”

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Here’s irony: The US has started dropping humanitarian aid to Israel’s victims in Gaza. This has become necessary because the US supplies many of the bombs and other weapons Israel is using in Netanyahu’s current effort to “cleanse” Gaza of Palestinians.

It seems to me there should be a better way. Maybe…tell Israel we’re not sending any more weapons if they’re just going to use them for war crimes. War crimes is currently the American bailiwick – “enhanced interrogations” anyone? – and we do not like competition.

I can only guess, because Biden doesn’t take my calls, but I suspect there’s some treaty obligation binding Biden’s hands so he has to resort to trying to offset the damage he’s participating in by trying to help the people on the suffering end, while supplying the weapons of that suffering. It’s times like this “Presidentin'” doesn’t look fun at all…

Convict or Suffer? No…

I was watching Real Time with Bill Maher and his guest made the point that the 91 felony indictments against 45 are seen by the left as legal problems, but dismissed by the right as over-doing the persecution. And of course they dismiss them. That’s what they’re told by their media. They readily believe it, of course, because they know THEY don’t have any compunction about lying to try to make a case – and we all see the world through our own filters.

That is to say, when you know YOU lie, you believe EVERYBODY lies. When you know YOU make up charges to frame a political opponent, you believe EVERYBODY makes up charges to frame political opponents. But the conservative media works all day, every day to help, pumping out “rebuttals” and “explanations” that don’t really make sense if you delve into them. But, since the cons won’t delve into them, the lie-mongers are safe.

Cons in the house are trying to frame Joe Biden for something and, because Hunter has drug issues, they decided Hunter was their best weapon against Joe. It hasn’t worked out that way. Not one bit. But they keep trying. So the FBI received some information about Hunter and Joe receiving $5,000,000* each from Burisma. They hadn’t verified the information but the cons in the House found out about it and ran with it. The FBI warned them that the information was, as yet, unverified. The cons ran with it anyway.

Turns out, nope. The FBI informant was lying. He was trying to feed the FBI misinformation he was getting from the Russian government. But MAGA had run with the story already and they’ve decided to stick to it. So, the minute the fraud was exposed, the GOP doubled down and the conservative media bubble started cranking out “articles” about how it was really Hunter, after all. So the cons get to believe whatever they want.

Part of the conservative story is the Democratic effort to revive the Russia, Russia, Russia story. Revive? Did that story ever go away? 45 had control of the DOJ when the final report was released. He had a compliant AG, who did his bidding (legal or not). The GOP controlled the Senate and refused to impeach him. He managed to successfully bury the most damning parts of the report – but NONE of that proved he wasn’t in bed with the Russians. It just killed the political arm of the conversation.

In the upcoming election, I don’t worry about 45 being elected by MAGA. I worry about 45 returning to the White House because of the Russians. I know that sounds a bit crazy and I want to make clear, I’m not questioning the machines. I absolutely question the people in charge of the machines, though.

We’re all finding out, right now, exactly how much damage Republicans have done to the American judiciary by installing conservative loyalist crackpots. We also know that MAGA loyalists WILL allow nefarious people to tamper with the voting machines. It’s not speculation. It happened in 2020. So why is it so hard to believe a MAGA loyalist might connect the machines to the internet and let someone dial in and “adjust” the information? It’s not like it has to be done on every machine in every precinct in the country. There are only a handful of states in play and it doesn’t take much in those states to make a difference.

So, I’m worried. And from the things I hear, I’m not alone. Consider; Americans have been trying to conduct trials to find out, one way or the other, if Donald J. Trump is, in fact, the head of a crime family. The evidence says he is but it takes a trial to prove it. 45 has made NO effort to prove his innocence. Instead, he’s seeking legal trickery and loopholes, not to mention direct intervention and other help from the courts he corrupted.

He’s doing everything he can to run out the clock and some of the conservative corrupted courts are doing everything THEY can to help him. And we all know, “run out the clock” means “get to the election.” If Donny faces trial, he goes to jail. If he gets elected before the trial, he gets his loyalist AG to drop all the charges and ends the cases – and that second part scares the heck out of Americans from sea to shining sea. Justice delayed is justice denied, right?

But why are Americans viewing the thing as one or the other? He goes down at trial or he gets elected President? What about, he loses the election? That’s a possibility, too. If he loses the election, the trials will have been delayed but not destroyed. Protecting him from the law is more likely to happen by his protectors on the corrupt Roberts Kangaroo Court.

So far, it looks like his loopholes and corruptions are working for him. That means that we, the people, have an obligation to beat this piece of…guy at the ballot box. Since there’s a concern about the integrity of the machines, don’t use the machines. Vote absentee, on paper. The Russians can’t dial in and change votes on paper.

Failure to gain convictions doesn’t automatically mean the Dumbass goes back to the White House. Yes, his followers are self-deluded loyalists whose love for him is faith-based. That means blindly loyal, no matter what. But there are more Americans who DON’T like Donny than there are MAGA who do. Yes, Trump is sweeping the primaries. But that’s all MAGA. And MAGA is the only group that will come out to vote for the guy in the general. Well, MAGA and the Russians…

I don’t know how it will play out, obviously. This is just a reminder that it isn’t ‘convict or get Trump in the Oval.’ There’s still the possibility, perhaps the probability, that we can just beat him at the ballot box and end the long national nightmare once and for all. Let’s do that…

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This relates: I see people around the country unhappy with some things Biden is doing, or not doing, as in the case of Israel. People say, “If he doesn’t do what we want, we won’t vote for him.” Really? Look, I think Biden has done a horrible job managing Israeli aggression in Gaza. But not voting for him? What kind of job do you think the Dumbass will do? With the exception of the tax cuts for the rich, he mucked up everything he touched. MAGA believes based on faith anyway, but rational people? You know better.

I’m sorry, I kind of despise it, too, but NOT voting for Biden over some single issue, even one as big as Israel/Gaza? You get Donny. It really IS that simple..

*I inadvertently wrote $5,000 received. It should have been 5 Million. MyBaconPress regrets the error.

Proposition 1…

Well, it has begun. We’re voting here in California. It’s a primary for candidates but it includes other things as well. One of them is Proposition 1, ‘Behavioral Health Services Program and Bond Measure.’ Basically, the State wants to re-create drug treatment and mental health facilities in which people can be involuntarily held. That sounds ominous, doesn’t it? Involuntarily held.

Cons are against the idea, of course. They talk about the cost, because the homeless, drug addicts, and people suffering breaks don’t cost anything, right? Oh, they also talk (a bit less) about how badly it interferes with people’s “freedumb.” I’m not sure why it is that whenever cons want to talk about freedom, it ALWAYS comes out “freedumb.” The thing they don’t want to focus on is, it helps people, and THAT, more than any other single thing, the cons will not have.

It’s a sad commentary on many conservatives that they oppose anything – everything – that helps people (except when it helps themselves) because programs that help people make it look like the government CAN do things, and that idea violates their dogma. They pretend governments can’t succeed, then do everything in their power to ensure the government doesn’t succeed. Sadly, they’ve been very effective.

A quick and simple history: California used to operate mental institutions, including those that held patients against their will. Pat Brown, one-time Governor of the state and Jerry’s dad, bought into the notion of “local control” and relinquished control of the facilities, instead sending block grants to the counties so THEY could manage them. Quality began to vary, depending on local sensibilities. Then, Reagan took over the state and cut those block grants to the bone, finally eliminating them altogether. This turned the inmates out – into the streets – and added a new word to the lexicon: Homeless. California has been struggling under the weight of those poor (or greedy) decisions ever since.

I’m going to let you in on a little secret the cons don’t seem to know: drug addicts and mental patients? Shocking as it may seem, they don’t make good decisions. Why, it almost seems as though something is addling their thinking. They do things, by choice, that defy reason and common sense. Leaving choices to them isn’t freedom or even “freedumb.” It’s cruelty.

I don’t get this from reading or what I hear in the media. I’ve seen it, up close and personal, with my own two eyes. It’s a nightmare you can’t wake up from. It never ends. It NEVER leaves your mind. When you find yourself suddenly thrust into a situation you never, ever thought you’d be in, the first thing you do is look for somebody, anybody, who can help. There’s nobody. There’s nothing. Well, unless you have large sums of money, which most of us don’t. I CAN NOT tell you the frustration of realizing that, for political reasons, your “choice” is to wait for a horrifying phone call. Is it the police or the morgue? You find yourself hoping it’s the police because the morgue is too…permanent. Too…unthinkable.

It’s easy to look past homeless people. We WANT to. They scare us. Partly because they may be unhinged and dangerous. Partly because many of these people are simply victims of the Greatest Economy on Earth™ and we know that even the smallest of setbacks in this once great nation can land any one of us in that situation at any given moment.

In many ways, they represent everything wrong with our world and we don’t want to believe things like this happen in America. But they do. All the time. Every day, some unfortunate finds themselves struggling with some challenge they’re not up to. NOBODY is up to that challenge. That’s why it hangs on so long and so fervently – and does so much damage.

It’s not their fault. I know, “nobody made them start taking that shit.” That’s true. It’s also true that not one of them sat down and said, “I think I’ll get desperately addicted to drugs today!” Make sure someone else is holding your beer while you’re pontificating on participating in potentially addictive behaviors, okay?

Can you tell how I voted on Proposition 1? I support it, wholeheartedly. I hope you will, too. I would throw my loved one in a lock up treatment facility in a freaking heartbeat rather than wait for that phone call. Not jail. That’s not what jails were meant for. Nobody gets treatment in jails. There’s no help there. But a facility designed and built to treat them, to help them – even if they don’t want that help? Hell yes. Like I said, in a heartbeat. I think I would be shocked to meet someone with a struggling loved one who doesn’t feel the same way.

Weirdly, I think it’s the Christian thing to do. I count myself an atheist but my Christian upbringing rings in my ears all the time. Although I’ve rejected the theological stuff, I accept good philosophy from where ever it might come, including the mouth of Jesus (okay, Joshua) who said, “as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’” (Matthew 25:30) Be like Jesus – the good one, not the twisted, conservative version – and do the right thing for people who need help. Because I’ll tell you this: doing nothing has not been successful on any level and continues to harm on every level. Let’s do something!