Month: August 2024

Controlled with a Cluck…

by MyBaconPress

Predictable and easily manipulated Trump was waffling about whether he was going to debate Harris on ABC, following the rules established earlier with Biden. He didn’t really want to. He felt good debating Joe but worries about Kamala. It’s hard to blame him, there. So he started dropping hints that maybe he wouldn’t do it or maybe they should change the rules.

The Harris campaign put out an ad showing Trump complaining about debating Harris – with chicken clucking sounds in the background throughout. That was all it took, calling him a chicken. Now he’s all in. He’s still attacking ABC, mind you. When the hell is he ever happy with anything? But he’s on for the debate. Easily manipulated. Predictable.

Just think of what an adversarial foreign leader could do to a spineless mini-mind like his…

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Despite the rhetoric (okay, lies) from the Trump campaign, it looks like business is worried about Trump taking over in January. I know MAGA pretends everything was hunky-dory when Trump was in charge. They just ignore the…you know, last two years of his maladministration. They’ll ask you, to your face, are you better off today than you were four years ago? Hell yes, I’m better off.

Reuters is reporting that US Miners and battery recyclers are “rushing to close government loans worth billions of dollars before January out of concern that former President Donald Trump would, if reelected, block funding needed to boost American output of critical minerals for the energy transition.”

The miners and recyclers need the loans to keep expanding operations to get the minerals and bits needed to help move America (and the world) off of fossil fuels and into the 21st century while keeping America at the economic forefront of the future. Those industries, anyway, are concerned that Trump will block the funding, since he doesn’t like the future or progress or human life on Earth, I guess.

Trump has promised to “end the electric vehicle mandate” and the vile Project 2025 document recommends shuttering the department that makes those loans, the US Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office (LPO). NOBODY believes Trump when he claims he has nothing to do with Project 2025. Nobody.

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Well, he’s sure working to get the women’s vote, isn’t he? His team got into a scuffle with a worker at Arlington National Cemetery, where he went to disrespect the law and some of our fallen soldiers. The worker happens to be a woman. So, they just pushed her out of the way. Literally. She filed a police report but she’s not going to press charges, as of this writing. Do you know why? MAGA attacked! She began receiving threats, so she’s standing down. MAGA can’t defend his actions. They can only bring a mob to stop you from mentioning them. J6, remember?

Oh, AND he “attacked” Kamala by attacking ALL women. I’m sure that helped. He posted a picture of Kamala and Hillary together with a caption that suggested Kamala had risen to power through sexual favors. How is that NOT an attack on all women? How does that NOT suggest that if any woman is successful, she could ONLY have achieved her success through sexual favors?

You don’t hear that one about men any too often, do you? Oh, he slept his way to the top. No, it’s not relevant to a man’s success. If he is successful, it’s because he was smart and worked hard. (In truth, it’s usually because he is exploitative and watched other people work hard.) Whatever sex he may or may not have had never enters into it. It shouldn’t with women, either. But if this guy will dismiss women’s success so easily when he’s trying to impress them, think of what he’ll do to them when he gets back into power permanently…

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Well, the cons tried to hit Kamala over her interview. They really, really wanted to. But she didn’t give them anything to work with. The most Donald could say about it was “Boring.” Why, no, she didn’t turn everything into hyperbolic over-statements of absolute destruction or absolute perfection or absolute failure or absolute success. No broad, over-the-top claims that only SHE can solve problems. No terrifying tales of impending doom should someone else end up in charge (except to the Constitution, of course). She just made rational comments on topics of concern.

A Swing And A Miss…

by MyBaconPress

Okay, now they’re getting it together. The cons have finally found some footing to start an attack. They’ve found a few misstatements and perhaps embellishments in Walz’ CV. They’re trying to brand him a liar. I mean, you can’t make that up, right? What do we know about the cons, above all? They don’t care about lying. It’s what they DO. The object of their misplaced affection is the most prolific liar in the history of lying. In fact, Trump lies so often, I’d say it’s notable when he utters a truth of any kind.

Hey, at least it’s something. It’s a very tiny, nothing-burger something but it’s something. The things they’re jumping on seem somewhat…nit-picky. Photos of two different dogs, both called ‘Scout?’ Oh, the humanity! Oh, and…no. One is Scout, the other is not. Walz was an assistant coach and not a head coach? Hey, man, people still call assistants “Coach.”

Did he overstate the rank he held on the day he retired? Maybe. He was promoted to the rank. There was apparently some coursework to do he didn’t finish, because he retired. I’d need to see what his DD-214 says. (A DD-214 is the form you get when you process out. It summarizes your service.) But take note, the guy attacking Walz’ military record, Chris LaCivita, one of Trump’s top aides, a veteran Republican operative, and just an all-around puke of a human being, spearheaded the Swift Boat campaign against John Kerry. In short, LaCivita is already an established liar.

Their position seems to be Walz is a liar and that’s totally unacceptable because only WE get to lie. Yeah, that will hold up…

One more thing. A group sprang up – of course it did – called ‘Never Walz.’ They failed to secure the website. So now, if you go to NeverWalz.com, you see a post that says ‘Trump is a convicted felon. Let’s vote for adults.’ Then you get automatically re-directed to Harris’ site…

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Hey, speaking of lying, Trump keeps trying to distance himself from this vicious ‘Project 2025’ junk. But one of the lead authors, Stephen Moore, made quite clear in an interview last March that he was in close contact with Trump while they were writing the thing. Then he said something that gave me a chill.

Moore says he asked Trump how long it would take him to “revive the economy.” Trump said, “Give me six months and we’ll be back to where we were.” So is Trump promising that six months after he’s installed, we’ll all be out of work again in a flat-lined economy, locked in our houses, with millions of Americans dying all around us? My that IS a tempting campaign promise…

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Superseding indictment? Jack Smith is very good at what he does, isn’t he? I mean, I’m not sure he can win, in view of the corruption in our court system but he really is giving himself every chance.

The Donald J Trump Roberts Supremely Kangaroo Court made a ruling that the President enjoys near-perfect immunity for any and all core and official duties. The idea was to protect one “President,” Trump, from facing the consequences of his actions. All of his criminal trials were put on hold while the prosecutors looked over the indictments to root out any “official conduct” that might be protected under the corrupt court’s corrupt decision.

But Jack Smith? He didn’t just look the old indictment over and cross out the lines that don’t work anymore. He secretly empaneled an entire second Grand Jury, presented a new case, free of the things the court is trying to protect Trump over, and got a second indictment to take the place of the first. It’s essentially, an entirely new case with the focus being on personal actions Trump took as a candidate and stressing the idea that the President of the United States has no official role in the certification process.

In short? They can still prosecute this guy for the crimes he committed on January 6th. The indictment isn’t as far-reaching but it still stands as a threat to Trump. (Actually meaning Trump is MORE desperate and dangerous regarding the MAGA plot for a coup, sadly. Donny has to win – or he goes to jail.) You will not be surprised to hear, he reacted badly to the superseding indictment.

He babbled out some bunk on his web site. It must be challenging, getting all of those assertions, claims, insults, and lies into single, VERY long sentences. He babbled and rambled and rambled and babbled, calling the indictment “election interference,” yet another of those situations where MAGA thinks THEY can interfere with elections, that’s just fine. But if somebody else tried it? Well, that would be bad.

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Trump recently decided to denigrate the military by saying the Presidential Medal of Freedom is “better” than the Congressional Medal of Honor because so many of the people who receive the Medal of honor are shot to pieces or dead. He really said that. Many military members, active and otherwise, didn’t like that. So, he needed a photo op to try to pretend he doesn’t think people who serve are suckers. Of course, he has said that, too, because he does think they’re suckers. “Why,” he wonders, “didn’t they pay a doctor to pretend they had bone spurs, too?”

So, Trump decided to turn Arlington National Cemetery into a campaign prop. He was “invited” by thirteen families of service members killed at a suicide bombing at Kabul Airport in Afghanistan. The deceased are buried in an area of Arlington called ‘Section 60.’ Trump shows up with an entourage and wants to film himself laying a wreath for the fallen.

When it became clear that Trump intended a photo op in violation of Federal law, a person at the cemetery tried to stop the team. The report is, Trump’s team “verbally abused and then pushed aside” the Arlington official. Trump’s team got their pictures. To hell with the fallen, right? That seems to be his attitude all the time. Now we’re supposed to know Trump respects the military because he disrespected a cemetery and a Marine trying to protect the cemetery from politics.

Cemetery officials released a statement on the subject. It said, “Federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities within Army National Military Cemeteries, to include photographers, content creators or any other persons attending for purposes, or in direct support of a partisan political candidate’s campaign,” and “Arlington National Cemetery reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants. We can confirm there was an incident, and a report was filed.”

Trump’s effort to “fix” things with the military turned into a campaign problem and includes a report filed with police. And, I’d bet he STILL thinks military members are suckers. I cannot understand how a person who served or is currently serving could EVER vote for this “man.” What is it, Stockholm Syndrome?

Love Struck…

by MyBaconPress

Have you ever had a friend who fell for the wrong person? Perhaps you have some information about the new paramour your friend can’t – or more likely, won’t – see. You do tell your friend about your concerns. When you’re young, there’s an urgency that makes you want to convince your friend, right away. Usually, that ends up costing you the friendship. So, as you age, you learn NOT to keep hammering on it. You tell your friend, they reject your input because they just KNOW the new object of their affection is perfect, and you shut up and wait it out.

Eventually, of course, your friend sees the error of their ways. One hopes that happens before there’s too big of a commitment but sooner or later, the truth shines. The scales fall from their eyes. There was a time your friend would have dumped you for saying unkind things about their lover, now they say the harshest things without batting an eye. NOT being perfect was the ultimate betrayal. Your friend feels like (and, let’s face it, was) a self-deluded, blind fool. We all know somebody. I hope it wasn’t you. (Full disclosure? It has been me. Drat!)

That’s how I expect MAGA to be after Trump, disillusioned and a bit embarrassed to have been so taken in by such an obvious shyster. I suspect THEY will be madder at Donald, and hate him more, than anything the left could gin up. They’ll finally understand how they were used. They’ll finally see that he never really cared about them at all. It was all about him. They’ll think of all the money they gave him and the time and the absolute, blind loyalty. And for what? For a con.

Let’s hope the scales fall from their eyes before it’s too late…

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When Trump thought he was going to debate Biden, he was all over it. Who could blame him? After that first debate, I would have been all over it, too. But then Biden stepped down and Kamala took the reins. Initially, Trump agreed he would do the debate on ABC that had been planned for Biden anyway. But now? Not so much.

He’s using as his excuse the fact that ABC sometimes says truthful (read: unkind) things about him. I guess I get it. A person whose entire life is a fabrication that must be maintained at all costs is in great peril going into an environment where truth might be a factor…

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According to ‘Business Insider,’ Trump aides are having a difficult time keeping him focused on the campaign. He seems to prefer playing golf and sulking. He doesn’t like that Kamala is getting more – and better – press than he is. His people keep trying to get him to deliver a coherent message at a rally – just one. He can’t.

Some of Kamala’s media coverage suggest that he is less hardworking than she is. He doesn’t like that depiction of himself. So, he goes golfing, which, of course, kind of supports the narrative. That’s how he spent over a year of his maladministration, too. Golfing.

In an effort to keep their boy on task, the aides have packed his schedule full of events. They’re also STILL trying to get him to talk about something more substantial than name-calling and whining about how unfair life has been to the self-described “billionaire.” They think he can’t win with the “poor me” strategy. He seems to disagree, since that’s all he ever talks about. Oh, poor him.

I hope he keeps doing what he’s doing. I suspect that, every day, the scales fall from a few pairs of eyes. Whether or not they’ll admit it, more cons are turning away from Trump. I just read an opinion piece in the USA Today written by a con who couldn’t vote for Harris (she’s a commie, you know) but couldn’t vote Trump, either. So the writer is sitting this one out. Even THAT is okay with me. A vote withheld for either candidate is, de facto, a vote FOR the other candidate…

Shifting Realities…

by MyBaconPress

Hey, if you’re one of those “people” who thought it would be a good idea to attack Guy Walz for being proud of his father? May you reap as you sow. Most writers include the information that Guy is, apparently, autistic. Does that matter? Can’t a son be proud of his father? Oh, AND, we’re supposed to have an agreement: no kids. Gus is seventeen. Off-limits.

I’m SURE I heard that kids are off-limits when people wanted to make fun of Barron for being weird. If I remember correctly, kids were off-limits when the Bushes were in the White House and George’s daughters were…um…misbehaving. I don’t think they were even under 18 then. They were just “off-limits.”

The same rule never seems to apply to the right, though. THEY think they can attack anybody at any time, so they do. But they shouldn’t. Kids should be off-limits, but under ANY conditions, trying to put someone down for being proud of their father seems like a rather stupid attack. Nice work, MAGA. I’m guessing if you had something stronger, you’d use it…

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I think he’s scared. Maybe scarred. Trump went down to the border. (He was looking for a soul to steal.) He stood next to border wall steel and bitched and whined about the world being mean to him. Then, a reporter asked him a question and he only wanted to get the hell out of there. He didn’t even answer the question. He just said they weren’t safe and he had to go. He DID tell her to go, too.

Some dude had threatened to kill Trump and was still on the loose. I don’t blame Trump for being concerned. People really do hate the guy and someone has already tried to kill him, once. Someone else trying to kill him is totally believable. In this case, though, they’ve captured the nutball so Trump will be fine. He claimed to be unaware of the threat but he was very focused on getting out of there as quickly as possible.

Maybe he’s finally coming to understand the risks to the kind of fire he’s stoking and finally starting to understand that anybody might be a target when nutballs start shooting. It’s a good thing that Federal “judge” in Kansas has ruled that banning machine guns was probably unconstitutional. THAT will make Trump – and everybody else – much safer…

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Well, the two astronauts who went to the space station for a few days (about 8) finally get to come home – in a few months (about 8)! Boeing got them there, though just barely. Boeing can’t get them home. They have to hitch a ride with someone else and the next available slot is in February!

They went up just to test Boeing’s Starliner. How would you mark it down, success or failure? The crew got there, they just can’t get home. At least none of the doors fell off en route. The astronauts will come home on Boeing’s competition, a SpaceX craft. The Starliner will come home “uncrewed.” They can’t risk putting people aboard. Boeing’s reputation (and production) just ain’t what it used to be. It’s almost as if corporations can’t be trusted to properly self-regulate…

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Trump’s tune on choice seems to be changing a bit. He claimed the Dobbs “decision” was behind us and nobody was focused on abortion, anymore, but he seems to know better as he tries tacking to the left on the topic. “Sure, I put three aggressively anti-abortion judges on the Supremely Kangaroo Court but I never thought they’d try to end abortion. That should be up to the states.”

He says he doesn’t support a national ban but a huge number of his fans do. If a national abortion ban bill shows up on his desk, would he sign it? That’s a bit of a different question, right? He may not push it, but would he support it?

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Trump said during his chat with Musk that if he didn’t win, he and Musk should retreat to Caracas, Venezuela because it would be “safer” to be in Venezuela than the US. (This at a time when Venezuela is burning over an attempted stolen election.)

How could the US send Trump anywhere? He has already made it clear: even HE thinks it’s a bad thing for one country to export it’s criminals and rapers to other countries. I’m pretty sure, by definition, he has to stay here…

It’s Official, Now. He’s Losing…

by MyBaconPress

Well, that’s a wrap on the convention. Kamala gave a good speech. The energy on the left is infectious. It feels all…possible. It’s a very positive message. The Dems aren’t pretending everything is great, but they’re not in a ‘sky-is-falling-so-panic-right-NOW’ mode, either. It’s much easier to align oneself to a message of hope, don’t you think?

Hers was bigger. She didn’t have to do anything special. It just naturally grew bigger. Her crowd, I mean. At the convention. The live crowd on hand was bigger and the ratings showed millions more people tuned in to Harris’ speech than Trump’s. In fact, each day of the Democratic convention brought more viewers than the same day in the Republican convention.

Trump is OBSESSED with crowd size. He has been since his tiny Inaugural Address crowd back in 2017. I had heard that Trump was certain, absolutely certain, that he would have higher ratings than she had. Yet ANOTHER thing Trump was wrong about. Gees, he’s wrong about everything, isn’t he?

Harris was taking the lead even before the convention. I’m sure she’s going to see a huge bump now. Sure, there’s commonly a bump after the convention but she was already trending the right direction and the convention only sealed the deal. The Dems did a pretty good job, staying positive and advancing their message. It looks, to me, like this is Harris’ race to lose at this point.

Obviously, Donald is upset. The better she does, the more he spins out. He’s kind of flailing. His speeches are getting a bit rambling, even for him. Even MAGA has to notice, right? I mean, they may not care but they must notice the guy is increasingly unhinged. He’s being beaten. He hates that. By a woman. He hates that more. A woman of color. He hates that most of all.

Of course, to hear him talk, he hates everything so, maybe he’s just being his normal, bad-natured, weird little self…

He’s trying every trick he knows. Lying, name-calling, disrespect, NOTHING has worked. Hell, he even tried to deliver an actual message in a speech, although he found himself incapable of focusing long enough to get it done. But the fact that he even tried to focus on a single thing, shows how upset he is by the recent developments.

No matter what he says, Donald knows he’s losing, too. How do I know? He’s challenging her to debates. But he has already made clear that he doesn’t participate in debates when he thinks he’s winning. That was his attitude during the primaries, “Why would I? I’m the front-runner.” Now? He’s tossing out dates and trying to goad her into participating. It’s really bugging him that most people don’t love him the way he needs to be loved.

I’m a little surprised at Donald’s brooding. For a while, I took it as a good sign. I’m very worried about the GOP plan to steal the election in January. I keep wondering, they’ve drafted the plan and put the necessary pieces in place. Why wouldn’t they follow through? But if Trump knows the GOP plans to simply install him, why would he CARE what happens in the election, right? In that situation, he can’t lose.

But then I realized, no. Trump just can’t stand the thought that he might lose this election even if he knows they’re going to install him anyway. He’s being confronted by an unavoidable fact: people don’t like Donald Trump. We think he’s weird. We think he’s mean. We think he’s stupid. We think he’s unprincipled, unscrupulous, and undeveloped. In fairness, the poll numbers don’t show all of that. They only show that he’s losing but most Americans know WHY he’s losing…

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RFK, Jr sure has embarrassed the Kennedy name, hasn’t he? He tried running on his family’s political cachet as a serious guy. He told us his brain was eaten by a worm and that he once posed a dead bear in Central Park as a joke. Way to draw the crowds, there, Bobby.

He started his campaign running as a Democrat. He said he was just offering people a choice. He MEANT he was trying to siphon votes from Biden, in an effort to help Trump. When nobody in the Democratic Party was interested in his very conservative brand of “left,” he left the Democratic Party and became an independent. He thought that might help him attract voters. Then Biden stepped down and Harris became the candidate and the left is ecstatic and having a great time and ready to come out and vote for her and the presences of RFK doesn’t stand a chance of siphoning votes from the left.

In fact, he was adversely affecting his buddy, Donald. So, he’s out. He worked it out with Donald that he would step down and endorse Trump in exchange for a Cabinet position. Trump probably promised, but he’s Trump. RFK had to do HIS part first and he did. That does NOT mean Trump will feel any obligation whatsoever to uphold HIS end of the deal. He’s a weasel that way…

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The cons are STILL trying to convince someone, somewhere, that if Trump sticks to policy, he wins. Um, in what world? We’ve seen his policy proposal, in ‘Project 2025.’ There’s not ONE thing in that horrible plan that average American embrace. Project 2025 isn’t a blueprint of what he wants to do FOR anyone (except the richest rich). It’s a blueprint of what he plans to do TO everyone who isn’t rich. Tim Walz said it best, “When someone takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re going to use it.”

The “issues” Trump focuses on aren’t real. He can say they are all day, every day, but he’s tilting at windmills. The inflation rate is 2.9%. Their hoped-for economic crash they thought they were getting that day the DOW dropped never happened. The border is a non-starter since HE killed the best bill on the topic in a long time, just for political reasons.

I STILL can’t find any place that he has picked up votes. I can see places where he has certainly lost votes but I can’t see anyplace where he gains them. Conventions commonly bring a bounce to the candidate (unless you’re JD Vance, apparently). Trump enjoyed that. Getting shot at give him a temporary boost, too, but even THAT he overplayed. Slapping that feminine napkin on his ear to cover his teeny, tiny, little owie just made him look stupid. MAGA swooned, but MAGA has no self-respect.

At this point, all that’s left is to get out and vote. It’s not enough to have enthusiasm for your candidate. You MUST cast a ballot. We need all we can get. I’m STILL more concerned about what the unethical Republicans are planning to do in January, and having the largest margin of victory in the popular vote will help prove they’re stealing. Nobody (but MAGA) wants Trump. NO patriotic American would tolerate Trump. Let’s prove it with the numbers, shall we?

Unreal…

by MyBaconPress

Trump thinks his best attacks against Harris are inflation, crime, and the border. Meanwhile, he said he thinks abortion won’t be a “big factor” in elections and that it will end up being a very small issue with the voters. High inflation, surging crime rates, and an “open border” are articles of faith in MAGA land. Now, to be clear, the facts don’t comport with the conservative views.

The current inflation rate? 2.9%. Cons will tell you it’s out of control and killing the country. People are not spending, right now, because the interest rates are still up and many people count on credit cards to be able to participate in this society. The Fed is expected to lower interest rates this coming September. Trump is trying to run on an issue he made up – and we all know it’s made up. MAGA doesn’t know and maybe Donald doesn’t know, either, but everyone else knows. Inflation is down.

The crime rate is down, too. Crime always goes down as economies pick up. At least, blue collar crime goes down. White collar crime tends to increase when there’s money to be stolen – and we all know Trump is a primary practitioner of white collar crime. (Why would he want to focus attention on his own criminal behavior?) Yet another scare story come to life for MAGA. So, first he creates the threat, then runs against his own, pretended threat? That seems unstable, to me.

The border? Sorry, Donald, you own the border. When you told your team to kill the bi-partisan but conservative-written border bill, you became the major reason the border is still a problem. It’s such an easy and honest answer to such a silly, delusional charge. “Yeah, you shouldn’t have killed the bill, Donald.” In fact, I would go so far as to say it encourages people to vote blue for Congress, too, so we can pass that bill and get things moving forward again.

As far as abortion being yesterdays news? Oh, I don’t think so. The left is heavily focused on the loss of choice and we KNOW what cons want to do to women, should they get the chance. They’re still trying in various states, even as they try to distance themselves from their own actions.

He’s STILL on “drill, baby, drill,” as though the US isn’t producing more oil and gas than ever before in history. In view of climate change, I’d say, overall, that’s a BAD thing, but it’s a true thing. Yet another windmill to tilt against.

Here’s my question: if Donald Trump can’t tell the difference between real and NOT real, how is he qualified to be President of the United States?

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So, yeah, he’s an idiot but I had no idea he was THAT dumb. Saying the Presidential Medal of Freedom is better than a Congressional Medal of Honor was stupid. Just. Effing. Stupid! Captain Bonespurs thinks a medal someone might get for, say, singing well, is “better” than a medal a soldier earns through sacrifice, often the ultimate sacrifice.

I don’t mean any disrespect to Medal of Freedom winners, but there IS no comparison. And Trump KNOWS the way soldiers get the Medal of Honor. He cited the results as his reason for preferring the Medal of Freedom. He said service members who receive the nation’s highest military decoration are often wounded or awarded the medal posthumously. Yep. Defending our nation, which Capt Bonespurs was too afraid to do.

He is a coward, you know. I suspect that’s why he denigrates Medal of Honor recipients. They outperformed him. They were braver. They, quite simply, did better than Donny, and he KNOWS it. So he’s jealous. And in his jealous pique, he smears people who are far better than him on any day of his life.

Military members got upset by Trump’s outrageous comments. (Clearly, you can count me among them.) So he goes out, where some sycophant tries to give him an out, tries to take Trump’s foot out of Trump’s dumbass mouth, tries to make Trump look less of a fool. And the dumbass doubles down! He said in it public, you see, and he’s incapable of admitting mistakes. He MAKES mistakes all the time, he’s just incapable of admitting his mistakes, a mark of the smallest of small minds.

Our military members make a sacrifice so that cowardly, selfish pricks like Donny don’t have to. They deserve respect. They deserve HIS respect. If you’re military or ex-military, he’s telling you how he feels about what you did, the sacrifice you made, the price you paid. Are you really going to vote for a draft-dodger who thinks YOU are the fool for serving your country?

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Real quickly, I’m going to circle back to Trump’s lies about crime. He was scheduled to do an interview with ‘The Detroit News’ after a speech. When the reporter expected to do the interview asked the Trump campaign for data backing up his claims about crime? Trump ran away. The official phrase is “backed out.” But the reality is, he wasn’t about to face even the slightest scrutiny about his claims.

I’ll tell you this: In a way, it’s comforting. Now we can know he’s not just delusional. He’s lying, outright, and he KNOWS it…

Turn On Your Gaslight…

by MyBaconPress

There’s a movie, released in 1944 and starring Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman, called ‘Gaslight.’ Basically, it’s the story of a man who tried to drive his wife insane so he could steal her estate. He makes things happen, then denies they happened. So, for example, she says she hears sounds from the attic when nobody else is home. He tells her there are no sounds. She’s just imaging them. When the gaslight that lights the house dims momentarily, he tells her it’s in her mind, the gas did NOT dim.

He plays some other nasty little tricks on her, insisting a letter she saw didn’t exist and hiding a brooch she KNEW she had, that kind of thing. After a while, she starts to doubt reality. The name of the movie refers to only one of his tricks, but it became the basis of a term we’ve all come to know: gaslighting.

In modern terms, gaslighting is insisting something didn’t happen that did (or vice-versa). Like the movie, it’s intended to cause one to question their memories or even reality. Like the movie, it’s usually done by bad people intending bad things. Oh, AND it’s stock-in-trade for MAGA. The MAGA mythology couldn’t exist without gaslighting. It’s very important to their ethos.

You see it from them ALL the time. Remember when a group of armed, radicalized cons attacked the Capitol building and threatened to murder the Vice president in an attempt to disrupt the certification process? That’s what happened. But ask MAGA, they’ll tell you it was just a friendly and certainly peaceful but unauthorized tour through the building. (Make America Gaslight Again?)

Trump, himself, recently said in an interview, “Nobody died.” Ashli Babbitt and Brian Sicknick died as a direct result of the events of that day and a handful of others followed. But MAGA will tell you, insist, that “nobody died.” MAGA will insist there was no violence, despite the mountains of evidence to the contrary. MAGA is gaslighting you. They know what happened. They just need YOU to doubt yourself.

Remember after 2020, when MAGA started screaming about all of that horrible disarray and mismanagement of the election that never happened? All of their pretended Democratic attempts to steal the election, all of the “abnormalities” that could never be proven? Gaslighting. MAGA KNOWS the election was fair and honest. They just need YOU to doubt yourself.

We’ve all seen Project 2025 by now. We know what’s in it. We know who wrote it, the American Heritage Foundation and a bunch of Trump cronies. We KNOW what the cons are planning to do to this country if they can manage to get it back. But they’ll tell you differently. “What? What is this ‘Project 2025’ you speak of? Never heard of it. Oh, AND it has some terrible things in it, that document I’ve never heard of.” MAGA is gaslighting you. They know what the plan is. They just need YOU to doubt yourself.

You don’t even have to doubt yourself for long. Just long enough for them to accomplish whatever evil goal they have in mind at the moment. Of course, it’s better if you buy into their game and come to question what you saw for real. Pick an issue, any issue. MAGA will try to gaslight you. It’s quite common from them. They do it all the time. And they’re doing it for the same reason the bad guy in the movie did it to his wife: there’s something they want to steal. In this case? It’s the entire effing country!

The bad guy in the movie didn’t expect to drive his wife mad in one fell swoop. It took time. He had to keep coming up with new examples of her “erroneous” thinking to create a deep mistrust in her of her own stability. But he was willing to put in the time because his goal was so important to him. He was patient.

So, too, has MAGA been patient. They started all this whining about unfair elections in 2020 and have kept at it because they have to put in the time. They want and need Americans to question the validity of our elections so that when they start complaining about how unfair the 2024 election was, people might doubt the outcome just long enough for them to steal the thing in Congress.

Don’t let them. The sounds from the attic are real. The gaslight IS dimming. MAGA DID attack the Capitol. People DID die. Our election process is essentially sound. (Generally, when someone IS caught trying to cheat, they’re cons and they’re cheating FOR the GOP.) Project 2025 is a real and present danger to the United States of America. Trust what you know. NEVER take a con’s word for anything. Highlight their gaslight attempts. Oh, and vote for the Democrat. This might be our last chance if we’re not careful…

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Speaking of which, did you hear that the Trump campaign is pretending Taylor Swift has endorsed Trump? Donald released a bunch of AI-generated photos that make it look like Swift and her fans are all-in for Trump. They’re less of a “gaslight” and more of an “outright lie.” She hasn’t endorsed anyone for this election – yet. But in 2020, she endorsed Biden/Harris. With the introduction of these fraudulent photos, Trump might well be unintentionally pressing Swift to make an endorsement, after all. My guess is, that won’t go well for Trump…

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Can we please, once and for all, focus on claiming the entire Congress for sane Americans and not these MAGA “nattering nabobs of negativism,” as Spiro Agnew might describe them? I’d really like a Congress that can get something done and not be constantly obstructed by what Agnew described as “…their own 4-H club—the hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history.” Agnew described MAGA perfectly and he’d never even met one. I wouldn’t gaslight you…

He’s Gonna Need A Coup…

by MyBaconPress

If she gets in, you’re all going to DIE!
If she gets in, the economy will crash worse than any economy has ever crashed.
If she gets in, every one of you will have to marry a goat!
If she gets in, the planet will explode!
If she gets in, everyone will get health care. (He actually said that one, like it was a bad thing.)

Yeah, yeah, we get it Donald. If she gets in, terrible things will happen. Well, to you, anyway. He wants everyone to think all of those terrible things will happen to everybody, everywhere, all the time. But the entire truth is, if she gets in, the only person who will face “terrible things” is Donald, himself. If she gets in, he goes to prison because of the crimes he committed.

Everyone else will be just fine, thank you very much…

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So, it can be hard to remember, but if you can think back ALL the way to…um…yesterday, you’ll remember I wrote that his team still thinks they can pull out this election if they can just get Trump to settle down, stay focused, and focus on the issues, especially on the issues he is perceived as being the better option. (Sidebar: can you believe somebody thinks Trump might be a better option for ANY issue outside of theft, grift, and adultery?)

All they had to do was give him a carefully written script, put it on the teleprompter (that he never uses), and have him stick to the script. His team set all of that up and put him in front of a rather sizable audience. 8,000 people, reportedly. I mean, it’s no Harris/Walz crowd size, but it’s not nothing. Word is, he started well enough. Apparently, he CAN read. Who knew?

It didn’t matter, though, because he didn’t read. Not for very long, anyway. I suspect he finds talking about actual issues as boring as he found working on actual issues. He can’t DO either one. Oh, but he CAN attack his opponent with lies and promise the worst of all possible outcomes for all people everywhere if he doesn’t win. Chicken Little come to life.

Now seems a good time to point out that he made all the same predictions in 2020 when he ran. If Joe got in the economy would crash. Didn’t happen. If Joe got in, everyone would die. Didn’t happen. If Joe got in the world would take advantage of us. Didn’t happen. If Joe got in the sky would fall. Nope. The sky is still up there. It’s almost like Donny is just making up scary things to frighten his audience. Of course, it’s more likely he’s deranged, making ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ a real thing. Oh, but I digress…

So, he started strong but couldn’t stay on topic for long before leaving the script to chase a butterfly. He called Kamala both Communist AND Fascist, proving he doesn’t know the definition of either word. He attacked her laugh again. He can do that because she does laugh. She seems a MUCH happier person than he is. Come to think of it, I’ve NEVER seen nor heard him laugh. I presume that’s because he’s a bitter old man, terrified of all the specters he creates in his own head.

I think my favorite part was when he started rambling about how he doesn’t ramble. You do, Donald. You ramble a LOT. It’s always the same re-hash about grievances that don’t exist, too. BOR-ING! And it’s not boring only to me. MAGA started leaving the venue early – while he was talking. (In fairness, those who left early might have been the people they pay to attend his rallies.) As soon as they realized he was just doing the same routine, they started to go. They’ve heard all of this before and they have better things to do. But he can’t help himself.

He just wants to re-litigate everything. He asked why, if Harris could become the nominee “without an election,” were Republicans having an election? Couldn’t they just name HIM the nominee, too? “I said, so why are we having an election? They didn’t have an election. Why are we having an election?” Hey, Donny, I don’t want to wake you from your fever dream, but you ARE the Republican nominee.

So, at least at last they know. They WILL NOT get their boy to focus on, well, anything for too long. His ADD, or OCD, or whatever it is with his malfunctioning brain kicks in and he’s off chasing squirrels again. If they’re going to get their boy into the Oval, they’d better get the January 3rd coup ready…

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There’s a place in the city I live in called ‘Caritas Center.’ It provides comprehensive services to homeless individuals and families. They can wash their clothes and get cleaned up but they can get health care and recovery help and pretty much any other service you can think of that people struggling with homelessness might need. It’s an amazing place, doing amazing work.

I had a chance to attend a walk-through for people who participated in getting the program off the ground. (Full disclosure, I was not one of them. I was WITH someone who was one of them.) It’s a truly beautiful facility. I’m told it cost $39 million dollars to build. (It’s a whole city block and includes a dormitory.)

The people and the place provide an absolutely necessary service to the victims of our brutal little society. Interestingly, I learned the same day (from a different source) that only a third of the people suffering homelessness have mental health or drug issues. As it happens, we SEE them the most, so we THINK they’re the primary demographic, but they’re not. MOST are people who have been priced out of the markets by Wall Street greed. The largest growing, single segment? Seniors. God bless America, where we throw old people out into the streets for profit. I’ll tell you this: Capitalists make Capitalism look very, very bad.

I want to make sure this is clear, Caritas is a vital service staffed by people doing very good work for a very vulnerable segment of our society and I’m glad they’re there. Nothing I’m about to write should be construed as in any way denigrating to their good work and what they’re trying to accomplish. But as I was driving home from the event, all impressed by the facility and people, a thought crossed my mind. (Hey, it happens…)

The Caritas Center cost $39 million dollars to build. It employs lots of people. It will be providing tax revenues to the city. This is a model facility and I’m sure they will be springing up all over the place, soon, because I’m sure the need won’t be corrected any time soon. And that’s the source of my concern. Caritas treats the symptom. It can’t cure the disease.

Congressman Mike Thompson was there and he spoke of all the good things people are doing to address the homeless problem, treating the symptom. He did NOT mention the ‘Stop Wall Street From Buying Single Family Homes Act,’ curing the problem.

I’m probably late to the party but it seems to me, there’s an industry developing around caring for homeless people. Why is that a problem? Because in this once-great nation, once an industry develops, maintaining the industry becomes part of the challenge. If one solves homelessness, jobs will be lost, tax revenues lost, and a large, $39 million dollar facility will stand empty with nothing to do. People profiting from the homeless industry will be loath to let that happen. Sadly, it’s the American way.

Think of when conservatives decided that private prisons were just as good as state-run prisons. (They’re not. In practice, they cost MORE and provide worse conditions. Profits, you know.) Private prison contracts require a certain minimum number of inmates at all times. If crime starts going down, the state may not be able to send enough inmates to fulfill it’s contractual obligations. It incentivizes states to criminalize behaviors just to maintain an agreement. How dumb is that?

Now we’re doing something similar with the homeless population. Will the burgeoning homeless industry reduce incentives to solve the problem outright? I know, the question seems stupid, but “stupid” seems to rule the roost, these days, here in America…

Adapting and Adjusting…

by MyBaconPress

“If we can just get him to settle down, stay on message, and act his age, we can still pull this out.”
“Yeah, you’re talking about Donald Trump, here. What are the odds he might do any of those things?”
“He must know how…”
“Maybe, but have you ever seen it?”
“Crap.”

Apparently, he’s going to do more campaigning. Apparently, he thinks only HE can save the day. Narcissism doth make a fool of the narcissist. Is lying and whining going to do it? I don’t know. It’s all well and good to try to knock your opponent down a couple of notches but he doesn’t seem to understand that just tossing out made-up stuff isn’t going to DO anything. And, listen, mispronouncing someone’s name as a put-down? That is SO second grade. Sure, MAGA enjoys it. But let’s be honest, shall we? He could stand up at that lectern farting and crapping his pants (and, from what I hear, may have) and they would just swoon at how amazing he is.

MAGA cannot be the measure of…well, anything, really. Let’s just say MAGA is an undependable source. Oh, and there aren’t enough to get him elected. He needs at least SOME mainstream voters and I think his ‘poor me’ shtick is wearing thin for normal people. It has moved beyond ‘boring.’ Most of the country, no, the world, just wants him to dry up and blow away, already. I NEVER have to tune in to a Trump speech. I saw it eight years ago and it’s been in reruns ever since.

I do get a kick out of listening to a silver spoon-fed blowhard, crying and whining about how unfair life has been to him – to a bunch of people who have actually struggled all of their lives. (They think he’s “one of them.” He is OH, so not, one of them…)

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Polls are starting to break for Harris/Walz, too. According to an Emerson College Poll released last Thursday, even old people are turning to Harris over Trump. It’s not a huge lead. Harris is at 51% while Trump is at 48% but the over-70 crowd has been reliably Republican for a long time, now.

The under-30 crowd has shifted toward Harris by nine points, too. It said that as many as 93% of voters said they were extremely or very motivated to vote in the election on November 5. It showed that black voters who are very or extremely motivated to vote went from 80% to 91% over the course of the last month. If you’re Harris (or a Harris supporter) things are trending well for you.

There’s a lot of time left but it’s looking like America is ready to move on from it’s most extreme edges, move away from MAGA (like one moves away from a crazy person on a bus) and get back to serious matters. (Kids getting cat boxes in schools? Some people will believe anything…)

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Hey, people are mailing abortion pills to states that don’t allow them! I kind of love that. As it happens, most abortions in this country are done with medications, not in doctor’s offices. It’s early days in this round, but it looks like cons might have missed their chance to totally damage women by a little bit. Unless they claim power, of course, and institute a nationwide ban.

It’s kind of like the Underground Railroad back in the slave days. People from free states would help runaway slaves from slave states to freedom. Sure, it was illegal and dangerous but it was the right thing to do and there were people ready, willing, and able to help.

So now, people from free states are helping victims of red states in a similar way. The packages are “discreet.” Sometimes, they’re mislabeled. They’re about the size of a hardcover book. There are organizations springing up and setting up shop to participate. AND, they do it on a sliding pay scale. It means that women and girls in red states won’t necessarily be forced to have babies, after all!

Eight states have passed shield laws to protect the providers of this oh-so-important medication to the people who need it. In simple terms, there are laws that say a telehealth provider has to be licensed in both the state they practice in AND the state they’re sending meds to, but the shield laws protect the providers since they likely would not be able to be licensed in the oppressor states.

I’ll tell you this: I count this good news. I’m glad to know there are people stepping up to help where help is needed. It’s heartening to know there are still good people on this planet…

Maybe/Maybe Not…

by MyBaconPress

Well, I certainly hope I’m wrong about this but it looks more and more like we might find ourselves in yet another conflict over in the Middle East. I don’t mean just supplying weapons. I mean boots on the ground. What can I say? America is a blood thirsty nation. We can’t stay out of conflict for very long.

In October 2023, Hamas attacked Israel over what they perceived as years of abuse and encroachment of their land. 1,200 Israeli’s, mostly civilians, died in the cowardly attack. (Attack the leaders who caused the actions, not innocents just living their lives.) Israel retaliated – is STILL retaliating – and, so far, have killed 40,000 Palestinians, men, women, and children. According to Israel, Hamas, all! Left to their own devices, Israel and the Palestinians would fight until there were no more Israelis or Palestinians to do any fighting – just like their Gods want them to.

But more than once, Israel has attacked people in places other than Gaza, drawing in a larger pool of combatants, widening the war. One time was when Israel attacked the West Bank, challenging Hezbollah, who seem happy to oblige in the fight. Israel attacked the Iranian consulate in Syria. Iran’s response to that was…”measured.” THEN, Israel attacked Tehran, Iran. Now the world is waiting to see how Iran is going to react.

How do you think the US would react if some foreign, hostile power took a military action on our shores? Remember 9/11? One attack, two wars that lasted years. As it happens, other countries feel the same way about military operations in their countries and will respond. The US remains committed to Israel, apparently, no matter what. How long until Israel makes the war so much worse, so much bigger, the US has to field troops to “help?”

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I feel like Kamala is winning this race at the moment. I see her opposition trying to land a punch that slows her momentum, but I haven’t seen anything effective. By all accounts (on the left) Trump is flailing, angry, and depressed. I think he’s going to lose an honest and fair election. I think HE thinks he’s going to lose an honest and fair election, too. SO…one doubles down, gets to work, hits the battleground states over and over and over again trying to drum up support, right? One says the things people want to hear. One settles into professional mode and presents their image of the future and how they intend to make it better, right?

But not Donald. He has some other strategy. First, he took a week off. Just…sat down in Mar-a-Lardo, scratching his fat ass. (Okay, he DID do a press conference and made his situation worse.) Then, he followed up with a rally in (checks notes)…wait, is this right? Montana? Has Kamala made inroads into Montana? If he has Montana in the bag, and he does, why expend resources in Montana?

At first, I found his odd response comforting. I thought he was dazed and confused and flailing for an answer. I thought he was spending time in “safe zones” in an effort to rebuild his oh-so-fragile confidence, trying to get his groove back. But then, I got a cold chill.

I’ve heard (and related) about a plan to simply install Trump in January, should he lose in November. Taking a week off and visiting places where your support is strong are not quality actions for a candidate trying to win an election. But they’re just fine for a candidate confident he’s going to be installed, anyway, so why bother?

I know people who tell me I’m a bit over-the-top on this. Smart people, who could totally be right so take my concerns, here, with a grain of salt – but only a tiny grain of salt. The GOP has already outlined the scheme. They already have the pieces in place. Hell, they’ve already initiated the process. (Every time they claim the election was/is/will be rigged, they’re setting the stage. That’s the lie they need to get the ball rolling – and it’s already rolling…)

I can’t, for the life of me, think of a reason a person would define the game, set the pieces in place, start playing, and then just…stop. One step away from reaching their goal and they just decide not to? In what world? In that sense, Trump campaigning in safe states and speaking to already-gonna-vote-for-him loyalists, concerns me “bigly.”