Month: April 2024

Joe Biden Urges Restraint…

by MyBaconPress

Boy, the whole Israel/Gaza thing is getting bigger, isn’t it? Hamas attacks Israel with a stupid, deeply ill-advised attack. Israel responds, then KEEPS “responding,” quickly turning international sympathy away from their cause. Joe Biden urges restraint. Israel starts dropping the occasional bomb on places outside of Gaza, first the West Bank, then Damascus, Syria. When they bombed Syria, they killed a bunch of Iranians. The United States continues to supply weapons so Israel can “defend itself.”

So, of course, Iran took it in their turn to respond as well. This they did, but they did it carefully. Their response was designed to send a message, not do any real damage. Joe Biden again urges restraint. Israel, not to be outdone, felt they had to “respond” to Iran’s response to Israel’s assault on the Iranian consulate in Syria. The United States continues to supply weapons so Israel can “defend itself.”

Meanwhile, Israel has not let up one iota in their actions in Gaza. The international community starts clamoring, pleading with Israel to reconsider it’s aggression. Joe Biden again urges restraint. From the world’s point of view, FAR too many civilians are dying. Israel responds to international pressure by “accidentally” destroying a convoy that had delivered humanitarian aid into Gaza after coordinating their movements with Israel to ensure no such accident occurred, slowing international aid, killing more civilians. The United States continues to supply weapons so Israel can “defend itself.”

Joe Biden’s poll ratings suffer from what appears to be ineffective handling of the Israel/Gaza conflict (and because the United States continues to supply weapons so Israel can “defend itself.”) People start taking sides around the world, including the US. Joe Biden continues to urge restraint. Troubles start brewing on American college campuses. People seem to forget these are actions of governments, not people, and racism starts rearing it’s ugly head. The United States continues to supply weapons so Israel can “defend itself.”

Now the International Criminal Court (ICC) is said to be preparing arrest warrants for Israeli leaders as Israel prepares to attack Rafah, the city the Palestinians were told to go to in order to be safe from Israel’s military actions. Oh, did I write “prepares to attack?” I meant “attacks.” Joe Biden again urges restraint. The attack has started – although not yet in earnest – killing 22 people so far. Israel got six women and five children. One of the children was an oh-so-dangerous 5 DAY old baby. Certainly, THAT will stop radicalism, yes? The United States continues to supply weapons so Israel can “defend itself.”

There are a couple of threads, here, that run all the way through. Joe Biden urging restraint hasn’t worked. Israel ignores him so long as the weapons keep coming. And the weapons DO keep coming so, why would they?

In what could be a completely unrelated comment, Ukraine had to cede ground to Russia while the US Roepublicans dithered about whether democracy was worth defending or not. No weapons meant no military action was possible. I’d bet money that same philosophy would apply in Israel. Having no weapons would really hamper Israel’s ability to attack.

I’ve long suspected Biden is obligated by treaty of some kind to provide the weapons and has little choice, but I’m pretty sure he could find ways to gum up the works and delay the delivery of said weapons until Israel gets serious about a cease-fire. It appears Netanyahu is NOT going to stop on his own. I doubt threats of an arrest warrant from the ICC is going to alter his stance. Biden needs to look stronger on Israel and force is going to be needed to rein in Israel.

Everyone knows Biden could stop this assault by simply denying the weapons Israel uses to prosecute the thing and I think that’s exactly what he should do. Because I’ll tell you this: In my opinion, Israel and the Palestinians may well yet wipe each other off of the face of the earth in their stubbornness but American weapons should not be used in the process…

The Great Corruptions…

by MyBaconPress

The other day, I read an editorial in the LA Times that said, when it comes to crime, Donny is a buffoon but when it comes to corruption, nobody does it better. I think that’s dead-on.

Donny has been engaged in corruption, literally, his entire life. He has developed corrupting into an art form. He’s beyond professional level skill. For him, it’s a way of life, corruption. It’s second nature to him.

He corrupts anyone and everything he comes into contact with. If it’s a process, he corrupts it. If it’s procedure, he corrupts it. If it’s a person, he corrupts them. When the scales fall from the eyes, that’s what’s left: Donald J. Trump, the Great Corrupter…

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I’m beginning to suspect that even MAGA is seeing the shine of their would-be deity starting to tarnish. It’s a couple of things. From what I hear, MAGA media isn’t hammering on “Ain’t Donny great?” stories so much as “AAAAH! We’ve GOT to stop the Democrats and Trump is our only choice!” That’s hardly a full-throat, hearty endorsement of Donny.

More importantly, Donny has complained several times about the lack of supporters outside the courtroom where he’s being tried for his crimes. He has even called the faithful out – and they haven’t shown up. At least, not in any significant numbers. In an effort to deceive any of the remaining still-deceived, he claims it’s because law enforcement is keeping them away but that lie was easily exposed. All the media had to do was take a camera outside the courtroom and show the few MAGA who DID show up. There aren’t a lot of them but those who are making the effort can get all the way to the courthouse without the police bothering them.

So, he whines it’s because everyone in New York City is a Democrat. How stupid is that? NY has something like 8 million people in it. ALL of them are Democrats? Based on the MAGA base rate in our population, out of 8 million people, 2 million of them should be dim enough to be deceived into MAGA. Even if you account for increased liberality of cities, he should STILL have over 1 million people ready to destroy the country in his name.

The estimate I’ve seen for the number of Trump supporters turning out is twelve. No, not twelve million, thousand, or even hundred. Just twelve. And I’ll tell you this: That is certainly NOT the fearsome army he was once thought to be able to conjure – emphasis on “con…”

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By now, thinking Americans should NEVER be surprised to find a MAGA accusation is actually a MAGA admission. These days, I’m not surprised by that. I expect it every time some new bit of story comes from MAGA media. “Oh, what are they confessing now?” But I’m still “back-filling” older information and, for some reason, it continues to blow my mind, from time to time.

David Pecker’s admission that Donald Trump was the author of massive amounts of the FAKE NEWS that came out during the 2016 campaign, all while screaming about all the FAKE NEWS out there shouldn’t surprise me. Of course Donny was the perpetrator. Cons are ALWAYS doing the thing they accuse their opposition of doing. ALWAYS.

And STILL, I shake my head in disbelief. The depths of deception this guy stooped to in order to get what he wanted continues to boggle the mind…

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Speaking of Fake News, Fox Not-News has reported that Trump’s defense team member, Clarence Thomas, asked an “important question” while pretending to “weigh evidence” in the immunity case. Thomas asked if the on-scene attorneys for Donny had raised the question of Jack Smith’s legal ability to prosecute Trump. Apparently, that’s a thing in MAGA – a new story to sell. It’s made up of weasel-words.

As it happens, the Attorney General has authority to appoint a special counsel and said counsel does NOT need to be confirmed by Congress – and cons know it. They don’t even argue congress had to approve previous special counsels to the role. They’re pretending that Congress had to have approved them for something somewhere along their career paths.

I’m no lawyer but I didn’t see that requirement when I read the Congressional Research Service’s report on ‘Independent Counsels, Special Prosecutors, Special Counsels, and the Role of Congress,” dated June 20,2913. In fact, what I read there was, “Under the Constitution and its separation of powers principles and structure, Congress has no direct role in federal law enforcement, nor in triggering or initiating the appointment of any prosecutor for any particular matter (other than the advice and consent role of the Senate regarding certain nominations made by the President).”

I’ll tell you this: Since MAGA media lies about everything, all the time, I’m going to just assume this pretended ‘confirmation-at-some-point’ role is yet another in a long, long, long, oh, gods, even LONGER list of lies already rolled out and debunked by reality…

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Oh, hey, speaking of corruption, I know, now, why David Pecker was so forthcoming and in-detail complete while he was on the stand: immunity. Pecker was given immunity for his testimony. THAT means, the more he can spew in court, the greater his own protection, see? (It’s a fatal flaw in the whole “selfish serves” mantra of the cons. They can only “team up” as long as their own personal interests don’t come into conflict.)

I’ll tell you this: I found that kind of ironic. Donny claims he should have complete immunity from all crime because he was President once. Meanwhile, one of his cronies GETS immunity in this case to help prosecute Donny in a case RATKG&B wouldn’t be able to help him with anyway…

Immune To Reality?

by MyBaconPress

Donny’s legal team – Roberts, Alito, Thomas, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, and Barrett (RATKG&B) – are doing what they can. They heard arguments on Thursday on the question of whether or not Presidents have perfect, blanket immunity for any and all actions, no matter what. Okay, arguments were presented. Whether or not they were “heard” remains to be seen.

They’ve come to the conclusion that others before them have already come to. Yes, the President of the United States DOES, indeed, have immunity for some official acts of the office while in office. Um…duh! That has long since been the case. How could a President drop a bomb on an unsuspecting civilian car carrying the “number two man in Al-Qaeda” (along with his wives and children) without immunity? If we’re not in a declared war, that’s murder. Unless you’re the President of the United States, right?

In fact, the actual question at hand is whether a President has immunity for criminal acts committed outside the duties of the office. For example, if a President, say, loses an election and then tries, over and over again to stay in office anyway, is he immune? Technically, he was in office at the time. Doesn’t that count?

No. But if it does, I hope Joe Biden uses HIS immunity to have Donny’s “legal team” rubbed out so he can pack the court with his own people, solving the problem of having Supreme Court Justices moonlighting as defense attorneys. (Dear NSA, that’s satire, used to make a point.)

Trump team loyalists Alito and Kavanaugh suggested that some of the charges against Donny were hard to defend so they shouldn’t count. They said that if using laws is going to be the standard, future prosecutors could prosecute future ex-Presidents whenever they wanted to. (Interestingly, they didn’t mention the part about needing to violate that law in the first place, a key point in Trump’s trials.)

When the lawyer for the Special Counsel’s office dismissed that idea, citing the Grand Jury process, Alito sneered that a grand jury could “indict a ham sandwich.” That’s true, but could the prosecutor get a conviction? Alito even argued that our entire society might collapse if Presidents can’t just murder people, willy-nilly. For clarity, ‘murder’ was not mentioned, specifically. But “any crime” is ANY crime, right?

Two of the smart, non-ideologically impaired Justices, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonya Sotomayor, tried to inject some logic and common sense into the “debate” but they’re outnumbered so logic and common sense have no real place on that court.

Court-watchers are suggesting the way-too-high court is going to remand the case back to the lower court to double check if crimes are still, you know, actual crimes and if they’re really, really sure they want to indict Donny just because he committed them. Alternately, they might just hold their “ruling” until June 30 and issue it as they slither out the back door for their two month vacation. (Sounds like a hard damn life to me…)

Either way, it’s a win (of sorts) for Donny. If the case is remanded, it will buy Donny time. The trial likely won’t happen before the election. If the case isn’t remanded, the delayed decision will ALSO prevent the trial from moving forward until after the ballots are cast.

I’ll tell you this: Donny has a VERY effective legal team in RATKG&B, the best lawyer/judge combo money can buy…

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Hey, I thought the trial was a trick to keep Donny off of the campaign trail! Donny said so himself. He has said so more than once, too. “They’re trying to keep me off the campaign trail.” “I should be out there campaigning but I have to come here.” That would be a problem, too.

But, it’s not a ploy. He has to attend his criminal trial. That’s not a special rule for Donny. That’s the way it is. (And, btw, the ONLY one enjoying special privileges is Donny, no matter what he tells you.) That trial takes up every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday so the only days he has to campaign – get out there and press the flesh and meet the people as he claims he so badly wants to do – are Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday.

So, THAT clearly explains why, when he had a day off from court when he could campaign he set out as quickly as he could and…hit the golf course? Wait, what? When he’s doing his “Woe is poor, poor me” shtick, all he wants is to be out campaigning. When the cameras are off, he DOES what he really wants to do: he golfs. That was his presidency, too. Golfing.

From what I hear, for someone who golfs as much as he does, you’d think he would be a better golfer. The number of people out there who have played with him and will tell you he cheats is huge. Pretty much everyone who isn’t beholden to Donny in some way confesses Donny cheats. I think that makes him a double terrible golfer. He plays every chance he gets and he STILL has to cheat to get a good score?

But I digress. Dear MAGA, What Donny says is that he wants to be out there, with you. What Donny does is blow off a chance to be with you so he can go golfing. Actions speak louder than words…

The Truth Will Out…

by MyBaconPress

Well, David is certainly not pulling his punches. Pecker, I mean. David Pecker. He’s on the stand in Donny’s hush money trial. He’s just spewing information. It could be because he has to after the ‘National Enquirer’ got in trouble for their part in his scheme, but I don’t think that’s it at all. It has been no challenge to get Pecker to share everything he knows and he’s not trying to hide things behind weasel words. That’s not a person forced to testify. That seems like someone salivating at the opportunity. Weird. I thought they were still friends.

David and Donny had made an “informal” agreement. Pecker would use his paper to assist Donny. They made up and published stories about Donny’s opposition candidates, not just from across the aisle but even fellow Roepublicans. Be clear about that: they made up stories. They published anything they could find (or make up) to shine a nice light on Donny AND they were involved in a catch-and-kill scheme for him. If someone had a bad story to tell about 45, the National Enquirer bought it as an “exclusive” – which they then never published.

As an “exclusive,” the seller of the story signed Non Disclosure Agreements and promised not to tell anyone else. Then, the Enquirer just filed the story in File 13 and that was the last of it. They paid a certain amount, then Donny was supposed to reimburse them. Pecker is Donny’s friend. He didn’t have any reason to think the scheme would work out any other way.

So, when the doorman wanted to tell his unverified story about Donny’s illegitimate child, Pecker was there. $30,000 dollars worth. And when Karen McDougal showed up with a story about an ongoing affair throughout Melania’s pregnancy, Pecker rose to the occasion. $150,000 dollars worth.

That’s a lot of media manipulation Donny participated in. ALL THE WHILE, he was out on the campaign trail complaining about media manipulations against him. MAGA was out screaming and yelling about “fake news,” remember? The “fake news” was coming from the right. I know. Who can be surprised? The right making an accusation that turned out to be a confession? When has anything like it ever…? Oh, right.

The Trump campaign was the source of much (most?) of the fake news of the 2016 election. Pecker has testified that these fraudulent stories were prearranged. Trump and Cohen had coordinated the manipulations with Pecker. Pecker was specifically asked what the Enquirer could do to help the campaign. The ‘Fake News’ and ‘Catch-and-Kill’ schemes were born. And MAGA was snookered.

I’ve been saying MAGA stays loyal because MAGA is deceived. Pecker has just confirmed that under oath in a court of law. Pecker laid out exactly how Trump, Cohen, and Pecker went about deceiving the base. He’ll be doing more of that today. Describing the scheme and it’s effects, I mean.

My guess? MAGA isn’t hearing ANY of it. MAGA media will simply not cover that aspect. Instead, they’ll cover how bravely Trump came into court and how persecuted he is and just how tough is this tough guy, anyway? There will be nary a peep about how Donny and the MAGA media worked together to deceive them…

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Before trial Tuesday, Donny came into the media ring and whined and cried that someone must be blocking all of his supporters from coming down to the building to show their support because there were precious few outside. It took no time at all for the media to debunk that bit – based entirely on the fact that Trump supporters ARE outside the building. Just not as many as Donny thought there might be. I suspect he was looking for a J6 crowd, hoping for some J6 intimidation. I ALSO suspect the J6 crowd, those not still in jail anyway, have learned a lesson.

So instead, he got a tiny, little crowd, even AFTER he tried to encourage people to come down and show support. It’s possible, his remaining supporters DID come out. There just aren’t as many as there used to be. He has fleeced his fan base into near-poverty. He has lied and lied to them, leaving them with egg on their faces, over and over again as they try to defend him only to learn he lied – again. (How many times are YOU willing to look like a fool defending him, especially when you KNOW not ONE of his stories has held up under scrutiny?)

Who knows, maybe they’ll show up en masse today. Maybe they’ve just been biding their time, looking for the perfect opportunity to get to the courthouse and show off their ignorance. Maybe. Maybe not. There seem to be some cracks in the loyalty. Even MAGA knows the famous phrase, “Fool me 107,286 times, shame on the Democrats. Fool me 107,286 times, eventually, shame on me.”

I’m Laughing…

by MyBaconPress

Donny is telling his faithful loyalists that he’s “gagged” in court. “They won’t let me speak.” Well, they don’t just let the defendant have a chat in the courtroom but that’s not a gag. His gag order only prevents him from attacking court staff (except the judge), their families, witnesses, their families, or prosecutors families.

We’ve seen this before from him and I’m still not used to it. He’s not faking this. If he can’t say horrible things about people, he has nothing to say. What kind of mind is that? He continues to claim prosecutors have no case. Then it should be an easy matter to get in there and prove your innocence, right? No problem. So just do that. But, no. He has to attack, threaten, and intimidate.

What a loser.

I know I’ve said it before but I’m just tired of his shtick. He really needs new material. Yeah, we get it, Donny. Everybody lies but you. Everybody is out to get you. YOU’RE the big fighter able to leap tall buildings in a single bound but you’re ALSO getting pushed around by the DOJ like you’re, you know, a criminal. It’s all political. Biden is a senile old fool and ALSO the mastermind behind this entire criminal prosecution. Yawn. BOR-ING!

Barring some unexpected development, opening statements start Monday. I expect the prosecutor to lay out facts, supported by evidence. I expect the defense to whine. Then cry. Then obfuscate. Then cry some more. “C’mon, guys, this isn’t fair!” His BEST defense is, “You shouldn’t do this to an ex-president” but that defense is terrible. In fact, the ex-president shouldn’t have committed those crimes.

The media thinks his actual best hope is finding a juror who can’t be convinced, that is, a MAGA who slipped through the cracks. But playing for a hung jury isn’t anywhere near winning. When a chess player is in a game that hasn’t gone their way, the last ditch effort to keep from losing is called a stalemate, a tie. But in chess, a tie ends the game. For Donny, a tie ends THAT trial but might well lead to another. So even that is no guarantee he walks away from this.

In truth, this is the “little trial.” Odds are best he loses but I don’t see him going to jail over this one. Unless the case is bigger than just paying off his side-honeys, he cooked his books (by his own dumbass admission) to the tune of about $280,000. That’s not much in corporate criminal terms. He likely won’t go to jail, even if they find him guilty. He’ll likely face a fine and perhaps some probation. BUT…

He WILL be a felon. I think THAT is my favorite part of this, particular, trial. If he’s found guilty, he won’t be able to vote for himself come November. MAGA really should take note of that – even Donald Trump won’t be voting for Donald Trump. Why would anybody else?

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MAGA Mike did a not-so-MAGA thing. I’ll be interested in seeing how this plays out. He worked with Democrats and reasonable Roepublicans to pass aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. The Freedumb Caucus is very upset with him for doing something that helps someone. That runs the risk of looking like a win for Joe Biden, although it’s really just doing the right thing. MAGA HATES when Congress does the right thing.

MAGA Marge has already filed the paperwork to remove Johnson as Speaker. She has a handful of like-minded marginals on her side. She CAN call for his removal though she has not done so as of this writing. MAGA media started right away talking about Johnson now heading a “coalition government.” MAGA HATES cooperation.

It’s curious because I have MAGA Mike down as the person willing to overthrow the November election on false pretenses in order to install Donny, like they wanted Mike Pence to do in 2021. If Johnson is removed, he loses power to do that. Besides, how long would it take them to find yet another Speaker? They don’t HAVE another fifteen months.

So, I suspect there will be much MAGA moaning and shouting but Marge won’t pull the trigger on removal. That gives Johnson a chance to do the right thing a time or two just to provide the appearance of reasonableness. MAGA can be mad at him today (or pretend to be) but they need him in the Speaker position on January 3rd if they’re going to try to pull off their next coup attempt.

I’ll tell you this: I’m not looking for Johnson’s removal. But if they do? I’m going to laugh and laugh and laugh…

Roepublicans…

by MyBaconPress

Oh, those wacky Arizona Roepublicans. First, they celebrate the fact that they have one of the most restrictive anti-abortion laws in the nation. It was already on the books, just waiting for some dysfunctional sycophants to overturn Roe v Wade and when Roe was overturned, the Arizona GOP was giddy. Then the GOP from sea to shining sea started reaping the rewards of their “success” by losing election after election.

Eventually, it dawned on them that maybe people aren’t happy about overturning Roe. To be clear, the GOP doesn’t care if people are happy. In fact, they prefer when people are not. But they DO want to win elections so, they started lying about Roe, acting as if they have no idea how that happened or even who did it.

They also started lying about their intentions for restrictions in the future. After the Arizona State Supreme Court upheld their cruel little law, the Arizona GOP made the rounds in the media, insisting the law went too far and this can not, WILL NOT stand. But, hey, the GOP controls the state legislature, right? If anybody can overturn their restrictive law, it’s the state legislature, right? So, let’s get to work…

No. Just, no. They won’t even bring the legislation repealing their law up for discussion, let alone a vote. Let’s think this through, shall we? What could it possibly mean, when the Arizona GOP claims they want to change a law and absolutely has the power to do so but when given the opportunity, they decline to proceed? I think it means actions speak louder than words and the Arizona Roepublicans lie, lie, lie.

I’ll tell you this: You should never pay any attention to what any Roepublicans anywhere say. People can, and will, say anything, especially cons. Words are easy to string together. Instead, pay attention to what they do – and vote accordingly…

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Recently, I was turned on to a website by a young friend of mine. The site is called ‘Ground News.’ It’s a news aggregator but is a little different from some of the others. THIS site collects stories from around the web – both sides – and groups them by subject. But the best part is, they also rate the truthfulness of the stories. They show the political leanings of the publisher – left, center, or right, AND they show how much attention each “sphere” is giving the story.

That last bit is pretty cool. You can see it with a glance. They use a bar under the stories coded blue (on the left), white (for center), and red (on the right). It illustrates, in real time, something I’ve suspected for a long time: cons often don’t know what’s going on in real life because nobody’s telling them. At least, nobody they trust.

As an example, auto workers in Tennessee recently voted to join the United Auto Workers union. The story was covered by left-leaning sources and center-riding sources but there were only two mentions in right-leaning sources. One was from a local paper in Tennessee and the other was, um, in German and printed in Frankfurt, Germany! That one was likely not really helpful for English readers in America.

The little bar below the stories showed a long blue bit and a long white bit and a just barely noticeable red bit. So, with just a glance I can see that the left knows about the unionization success and so do readers of center-based news, but cons haven’t heard anything about it. (They’re only told when unions “fail,” or appear to. That’s because their dogma teaches that unions are bad and they MUST support the dogma. It’s FAR more important than the truth.)

Some don’t show any red at all. I’ve only seen a couple of stories that work the other way, a white bar, a red bar and little to no blue and when I have, they’re rated ‘Mixed Factuality’ or ‘Low Factuality.’

I’m new to the site, but I recommend ‘Ground News’ if you’re looking for accurate information. You could also use it to find pure gobbledygook, too, I presume, if that’s what you’re interested in but why would anybody want to do that?

Donny’s Defense…

by MyBaconPress

Unlike Donny’s other lawyers, his defense team from the firm of Roberts, Alito, Thomas, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, and Barrett is having some real success. I suppose it’s MUCH easier when you are literally both the team for the defense AND the judges in the case, like this group.

They’ve appealed to themselves to determine whether some of the pesky laws used to convict some of the J6 rioters – and to indict their precious defendant, Donny – might be made to, you know, just…go away. Specifically, they don’t like the charge of ‘Obstruction of an Official Proceeding.’ “Using ‘laws’ to try to determine whether or not someone is a ‘criminal’ makes it very difficult to defend criminals,” Chief Defense representative, John Roberts, didn’t say. “We would prefer to have fewer laws so our job is simpler.”

Fortunately, they’re not only the defense team. They’re the judges, too, so odds are good they’re going to honor their request. “This is why we get so much money,” Clarence Thomas didn’t confess, “we have more pull than most defense teams and our clients often prevail in the highest court. Spare a dollar?”

There is no word on how quickly the court will rule, but based on past issues they’ve taken up, if it helps their client to rule quickly, they’ll rule quickly. On the other hand, if it helps their client to wait, they’ll wait. “It is incumbent upon the court to provide the appearance of deliberation and deep thought on these very not-so-complex issues,” Samuel Alito didn’t add.

“Glorious President-for-Life Trump is finally paying the right legal team,” Gorsuch didn’t say, “and we’re going to give him his money’s worth. It’s our most precious legal standard, here at RATKG&B: come through for the highest bidder.”

“I can belch my name!” Kavanaugh has definitely said.
“Yes, Brett, we know…” answered Amy Barrett, who should be home – barefoot and pregnant – and so isn’t a “true” woman…

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Donny’s going to be relying on that legal team – RATKG&B – more and more in the coming months because he certainly can NOT rely on keeping his own big mouth shut. He’s GOING to spill the beans in each of his cases, one by one. It’s practically guaranteed. He has already done it in his “hush money” trial. It’s really a “cooking the books” trial but the hush-money-to-the-porn-star angle is more fun for the left.

Whenever he sees a camera these days, he likes to walk up and repeat his litany of lies – all in one sentence if he can. It has become quite tedious, listening to him. It’s always the same, boring collection of words that all boil down to, “Waah, poor me! I feel SO sorry for myself! These guys are such meanie-pants! Don’t they know I’m a big-boy tough guy? Why are they pushing me around so much?” Then as his mind melts, “Oh, what a world, what a world! Who would have thought a few little laws like these could destroy my beautiful wickedness?”

But then, AFTER the “poor me-gasm,” he gets into the specifics of his crimes and just – confesses. He did it again Tuesday morning when he told reporters that all he did was give money to his attorney and write it down as legal expenses. Yes, that IS what he did. That’s exactly what he did. The thing is, they weren’t legal expenses. They were, by legal definition, campaign expenses. He was paying women he had cheated on his wife with to keep their mouths shut in order to protect his campaign.

For clarity, in case you’re confused, he slept with Playboy model Karen McDougal ($150,000) while Melania was carrying Barron. Then, four months after Barron was born, Donny slept with porn star Stormy Daniels ($130,000). It’s pretty clear there were no “legal services” connected with any of that and they don’t suddenly become legal services just because you funneled your illegal payments through your shyster attorney.

Somebody should explain it to him. Donny, you’re accused of giving money to your lawyer to pass along to your paramours and then recording the cost as a “legal expense.” DON’T go out in front of the cameras you love so much and TELL them that “all you did” was give money to your lawyers and write it down as a legal expense. How the hell are we supposed to show you’re NOT guilty when you go running around proclaiming your own guilt?

I’ll tell you this: I’d bet that someone – many someone’s in fact – have tried to explain it to him. Over and over and over again. He’s just not capable of keeping his mouth shut when he needs to.

All Rise…

by MyBaconPress

I’ll tell you this right up front: I don’t like Donny. You may have noticed. I don’t make much (okay, any) effort to hide it. I’m not going to sugar coat it. I don’t like the guy. He strikes me as a terrible human being. I think he’s guilty based on all I’ve seen in the media. BUT… I honestly believe if I had been called to jury duty for his case, I could set aside my personal feelings for the guy and make a judgment based on the evidence. I really do.

For one thing, I think justice is more important that my feelings about the defendant and I would NOT want to participate in punishing an innocent person – even a person I don’t like. The other thing? News outlets get things wrong sometimes. I understand, clearly, that what I hear in the media and what comes out of a courtroom might be different things and I believe the courtroom has the higher standard.

I should acknowledge that maybe I’m just kidding myself, safe in the knowledge that I’m not going to be called for his trial but I don’t think so. Justice is important to me. As an example, like many people, I strongly suspect OJ killed his ex-wife and Ron Goldman, even though he was acquitted. But had I sat on his jury? I would have voted for acquittal, myself, because of the cop caught carrying around a vial of blood in his pocket for hours at OJ’s house, coupled with testimony that blood spots had not been noted, for example in the entryway, and then were suddenly, clearly present.

I never thought the cops were trying to frame an innocent man, there. I thought they were trying to secure the conviction of a well-connected rich man they had had more than enough trouble with through the years, only to watch him avoid legal consequences over and over. But mishandling evidence could mean anything from simple and honest oversight to outright framing the wrong guy. It would have kept me from voting to convict. I could do it with Donny, too, and if I could do it, others can do it…

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This is a day I didn’t think was going to happen. No, I know Mondays happen. I’m talking about Donny’s trial. The ‘cooking-the-books-to-pay-off-the-porn-star’ trial. It’s starting. Back in March, I wrote “At this point, I’ll believe Donny faces justice when he actually meets justice – and not one second sooner.” Yeah, I was having a rough day but I stand by the statement. A trial and a conviction are two different things and an upheld conviction is something else again. There’s STILL a long way to go, folks.

But the fact that he’s even in a courtroom represents some of that justice I was on about earlier and I’m pleased it’s finally happening. According to the media, Trump didn’t just pay off Stormy Daniels, the porn star. He ALSO paid off a woman named Karen McDougal, a Playboy model he also slept with and paid hush money to. He paid Daniels $130,000 through Michael Cohen. He paid McDougal $150,000 through the ‘National Enquirer.’

They “bought” the story as an exclusive with the intent of never publishing it. It’s a trick called ‘Catch and Kill.’ As an “exclusive,” she couldn’t talk about it. Then, they locked the story away and that was that. Donny allegedly reimbursed his friend David Pecker, the owner of the Enquirer, using the same bookkeeping manipulation he used to pay back Cohen.

When Bill Clinton got caught having an affair, there was a howling chorus of people out there crying, “Why doesn’t Hillary leave Bill?” I haven’t heard the same about Melania. But from what I can tell, hers has become a marriage in name only, assuming it was ever anything else.

Melania appears to be contractually obligated to make a few campaign appearances with Donny. Very few. HE tries to present a picture of a happy marriage. HER presentation is more, “I hate this guy and I’m about to puke.” I guess they can make her show up but they can’t make her smile. Now she gets to be treated to the details of the affairs, laid out point by point as they move through the trial. Make that, “I hate this guy and I’m about to puke – but the money’s good.”

I imagine Melania will be free to divorce Donny AFTER the election. After the election, the divorce won’t matter. He’ll be in, and since he appears determined to never leave, why the hell would he keep a woman around who despises him all day, every day? But his sham marriage deceives the rubes and THAT’S what he needs.

I’ve heard polls show that a conviction in this trial could hurt Donny among his base. I’m not sure I believe that, either. MAGA has a seemingly endless capacity to convince themselves of the most ridiculous things and even if he’s convicted by a jury of his peers, how hard will it be for the deceived to decide he’s been framed? Donny’s already calling it the ‘Biden Trials,’ as if Joe had anything to do with them, whatsoever.

Still, the possibility that he might actually face some kind of justice is stronger today than ever. Yes, he’s been given every break. The deference from the system has been frustrating, angering, even. But, on balance, the system seems to be working, albeit glacially slowly. Maybe, just maybe, there’s hope, after all…

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Okay, speaking of glacially slow, I wish people would STOP ripping on Aileen “loose” Cannon and Alina Habba as “stupid” just because they do so many stupid-seeming things that delay the trials. Whether or not those things are stupid depends entirely on ones goals, doesn’t it? Sure, if the goal is a proper trial using proper procedure, Cannon is an idiot. But that’s not HER goal. HER goal is to disrupt and, hopefully, derail the trial. EVERY so-called “stupid” move she makes, facilitates that goal. If it advances her game, exactly the way it’s supposed to advance her game, how “stupid” could it be?

It’s the same with Habba. People keep sneering at her because she files motions that should be embarrassing to a lawyer. “WHY,” people ask, “would she do THAT?” I presume she KNOWS her motions are ridiculous. The point is not the validity of the motions. The point is the delay. Every one of those motions must be ruled on, dumb or not. That takes time. I have the exact same question about Habba I have about Cannon. If it advances her game, exactly the way it’s supposed to advance her game, how “stupid” could it be?

I suspect I could easily endure the entire world calling me a dummy if it resulted in millions of dollars in my pocket and these two women clearly feel the same way. The only true measure of how stupid they might be is this: did they got the money up front?

It’s STILL Israel…

by MyBaconPress

Have you heard of FISA? That’s the ‘Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.’ It’s a clandestine program in which our government monitors potential foreign bad actors. Donny HATES it. He hates it because it was through FISA surveillance of Russians that the trump campaign was found to be communicating with those same Russians before the 2016 election. (HE claimed the US Government was spying on him. They weren’t. They were spying on the Russians and caught him. That’s different.) Donny sent out the order: “Kill FISA!”

The Freedumb Caucus tried. They wouldn’t let MAGA Mike bring the bill to the floor, at first, likely STILL bitching they don’t have border legislation because they killed it themselves. But then? Unexpected compromise in the ranks. The original authorization was for 5 years. They agreed to lower the number to 2 years. That made it okay in the MAGA mind because it means Donny gets to mess with the law if he gets back into the White House. Yet another reason to vote against Trump – and ALL Republicans, for that matter…

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Well, this is getting bigger, this “conflict” in the Middle East, but the news in America keeps presenting it as Israel defending itself. I keep seeing Israel as the antagonist. Iran dropped some missiles into Israel yesterday. The press talks about the “attack on Israel,” but it was a response. I even think Iran showed great restraint in their response. They limited their attack to a military target in a less populated area. Even Israel acknowledged, Iran didn’t do a great deal of damage. To me, that means they sent a message.

Yes, it’s ‘diplomacy-by-bomb’ but that happens all over this brutal world these days and it’s seen as acceptable. There’s some magical formula. Send a few bombs targeted to do only a little damage, and to a legitimate military target, it’s a “message.” It’s what HAMAS should have done in October, 2023.

Iran wasn’t just sitting around, bored, looking for some evil to perpetuate in the world. Israel attacked the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, killing several Iranians. Iran responded with a “measured attack.” Iran is not the aggressor, here, as nearly as I can tell. They dropped their missiles onto the base, then said they were done. Message sent. They won’t do any more unless they’re provoked again. (At this point, I would bet Netanyahu won’t stand down, though.)

Israel attacked. Iran responded. The papers are full of “What will Israel’s ‘response’ be?” Israel won’t be “responding.” Israel will be “escalating. This is all happening because of the extent of Israel’s “response” to the October 7, 2023 HAMAS response to Israeli antagonism in the region. But Israel’s “response” has not been “measured” by any means. Netanyahu has seized this opportunity to eliminate Palestinians in Gaza once and for all. No, they say otherwise. Words. I stand by the idea that actions speak louder than words and herding 2 million people into a single city and then attacking that city? When there is no place left to run to? I have a difficult time coming up with an accurate description other than ‘genocide.’

“Hey,” Israeli apologists will say, “Israel didn’t attack the city, they only threatened to.” They DID attack. No, they ARE attacking. Granted, not with bullets and bombs. THIS attack is being made, currently, with famine and disease, two VERY effective weapons. Israel even went so far as to murder a group of humanitarian aid workers trying to provide aid to the population, warning off, with their actions, other do-gooders who might want to help. I guess well-coordinated, carefully planned “accidents” happen in war. Words.

I feel like we’ve seen this before in history, where human beings are concentrated together and then allowed to starve to death or die of the conditions but I just can’t quite…

I try to see this from other points of view but no matter how I look at it, I see Israel as the aggressor, both in Gaza AND with Iran. American corporate media will continue to pound the message that Israel is the victim because they see the effectiveness of a heavily repeated lie in MAGA media. Maybe they can do that to ALL of us. But I don’t think they’ll succeed.

I’ll tell you this: The only people who will see Israel as the victim, here, are people who WANT to see Israel as the victim. The rest of us are going to follow the evidence and allow it to take us where it will. Meanwhile, our tax dollars continue to rain death and destruction on human beings the world over. I can’t TELL you how much I wish it was otherwise…

O.J.

by MyBaconPress

Okay, so did you ever see OJ play football? Most people know he did. He played for the Buffalo Bills. He ended his career with the San Francisco 49ers. Many people never got to see him play. They missed out. No, this isn’t a ‘thing of beauty’ kind of piece, although it was. He played in an era when nobody was doing anything to protect the players. He played in an era when a guy running with the ball was taught to put his head down and smash into would-be tacklers if he could. (The tacklers were also putting their heads down and smashing.) You can still find plenty of video of OJ doing exactly that, head down – smash! Maybe you break the tackle and run free. There’s plenty of video of him doing that, too.

Do you know what CTE is? Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy is brain damage football players get from doing what OJ (and everybody else back then) was taught to do. People thought they were safe because they were wearing helmets. As it happens, a helmet does nothing to keep your brain from rattling around in the brain pan after a hard impact. Do it over and over again and you’re likely to develop CTE. It can lead to early onset dementia, rage, depression, and eventual death.

It plagues retired players and, I suspect, some still playing. For many of them, their lives become nightmares. Junior Seau was one of the greatest in the game while he played. He had a well-deserved reputation as a hard hitter. CTE plagued his after-retirement years so badly, he killed himself so doctors could study his brain. He shot himself in the chest so his brain would remain intact. (CTE can only be confirmed postmortem.) You’ll hear story after story about retired players and the changes and decline in their personalities. In 2017, one of the largest studies conducted on the subject discovered that 110 of 111 deceased NFL players had CTE.

I’m ready to bet OJ will be found to have had severe CTE. He was a pretty rare bird. We watched him play. We watched his after retirement commercials. We watched his movies. Most of us liked him. Then, we watched his trial. He had allegedly brutally murdered his ex-wife and a friend of hers, though he was acquitted. Then, he participated in a petty heist trying to recover sports memorabilia and went to prison. OJ! We all, collectively, watched his decline, though we didn’t realize it at the time. We shook our heads. WTF?!?

I do not offer this thought to try to excuse OJ nor mitigate what he did. That can’t be done. But it does add yet another heartbreaking piece to an already tragic tale. Did Nicole die because, decades earlier, OJ was taught to put his head down and smash? Did CTE damage OJ’s ability to control his actions? It’s hard to say. American Football is a violent game, played by violent men. Mostly, though, they control themselves off the field. CTE interferes with that control, sometimes even causing the fury they can’t manage.

I doubt any of this would offer comfort to Ron Goldman’s family, nor to Nicole Brown Simpson’s family. They are still gone. Forever. But there might still be some small comfort in knowing that OJ’s actions may have been caused by brain damage and far beyond his control…

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Recently, my Facebook feed has been rather banal. There are an awful lot of stories about the Beatles and Star Trek and clips from third rate movies about taking on bullies. Not much more. I know that Facebook can, and does, manipulate it’s feed and it appears they are limiting posts from news outlets.

Then I read an article in the Guardian that says Google is manipulating search results to remove references to California news organizations. They’re doing so because California is working on a law requiring companies who use news stories to pay the news outlet that created the story. Google and Meta don’t want to pay so this is their retribution. Google wants to make sure we all know, they control what we see on their platforms. Commonly, they DON’T want us to realize they control the feed but it’s called a “feed” for a reason. You’ll get what they feed you.

This has always been true, to one degree or another. “Editorial decisions” have been used to control content going back, well, forever. Google and Facebook have already faced this battle in Canada and Australia. Meta, Facebook’s parent company, turned off their news feed in Canada during the recent wildfires. They still haven’t turned it back on. They’re still restricting news in Australia, too. In 2021, Australia passed a law similar to the one California is working on.

As it happens, I don’t think it’s a good idea to get one’s “news” from Facebook or Google. In my experience, when the companies aren’t restricting “news,” much of the information comes from ‘less-than’ sources, opinions dressed up as journalism. Many of us wanted them to control the constant barrage of bullshit that was coming from MAGA media. Now we’re not getting anything at all.

I suppose if my choice is misinformation mixed with journalism, I’d prefer nothing at all. But I’m curious to see what happens to those sites. I like Star Trek. I’m a fan of the Beatles. But I think there’s only so many stories one can read about either of them. What then? I suspect, less and less engagement with the sites. They may well be shooting themselves in the foot, being so blatant about how they control your information – and leaving us with…not much.

Long term, I think the pay to use laws will only work if they’re implemented everywhere. Both Meta and Alphabet, Google’s parent company, can absorb losing users in Canada and Australia for a while but if the law becomes widespread, they’ll have to change their stance or lose their most important asset, users. Meanwhile, MyBaconPress can just keep publishing since I don’t charge, anyway, and there will be less competition for eyes so…maybe not all bad, eh?