Day: October 3, 2024

Embellishment or Lie?

by MyBaconPress

I wish Tim Walz had not padded his resume. I presume he did this when he was in state politics and people didn’t look as closely as when one is in National politics, most especially, when one is running for Vice-President, but I don’t really know. (Tim and I aren’t on speaking terms, despite my casual use of his first name.)

TWICE, he’s been nailed for embellishments. He got comfortable using the phrase, “like the gun I carried in war.” It left the impression that he had been in combat. He has not. He DID serve during a war, but he was never in combat. Not a lie, exactly, but not exactly true, either.

Then, at the debate, he gets called out for claiming he was in Tienanmen Square while the anti-communism protests were taking place. Nope. He was in China a few months AFTER the protests. He MAY have been in Hong Kong, but Hong Kong is quite a distance from Tienanmen Square. He wasn’t “there.” THAT one is less of an embellishment and more of an outright lie.

Still, I don’t think it rises to the level of eating pets, taking over cities, utopia under Trump, or any of the other myriad lies being tossed casually around by Trump and/or Vance. Those are full-on, made-up-out-of-whole-cloth whoppers. So, of course, MAGA considers Walz’ stories deal-killers while completely ignoring Trump/Vance lies. It’s just the way of things…

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Cons hold two beliefs at the same time. One, Biden should use Executive Orders to secure the border. Two, it sucks (to them) that Biden was able to simply reverse Trump’s Executive Orders on the border. They NEVER make the next connection, so I will. Executive Orders are NOT as stable as a law. Executive Orders can be reversed. Easily. Executive Orders are not the best answer.

That’s why the Biden White House wanted a law. They wanted the law written by a far-right conservative. Trump killed it so he could use it as a campaign issue.

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I suppose the big news, here, is the reissued indictment against Trump in his criminal case. No, not that one. No, the other one. Yeah, that’s it, the pending election-theft case. It turns out, Jack Smith plans to use most of the damning evidence he was already planning to use against him and a little bit more. Smith filed the amendment in Tanya Chutkin’s court and argued the document (with redactions) should be made public.

“Oh, no, no, no!” argued Trump’s team. “We don’t want people to find out so close to an election what Trump did. Facts really hurt our guy. Hide it until AFTER the election, k?”
No. It has been released and it’s not good for Trump. I was very concerned the corrupted Kangaroo Court had helped him out considerably but Trump’s crimes are just too vast and WAY too far afield from his official duties and Smith plans to show that.

He’s even going to use testimony from Mike Pence now.

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Do you ever get tired of hearing MAGA pretend the world was perfect in every way under Trump? Man, I do. It doesn’t matter the topic. Trump had fixed it and it was perfect under Trump. There were no problems, no challenges, no difficulties. Everyone was making money. Everyone was safe and happy. There were no wars, did you know that? No wars. It was a beautiful thing.

Dear MAGA: we were there. We remember. We’re not going to just let you gaslight us into thinking things that weren’t true, no matter how many times you say them. Trump hadn’t fixed anything. The world was NOT at peace. The country was not perfect in every way. Trump lost more jobs than any other President. Oh, and he killed more Americans than any other president. Trump sucked just as badly at Presidentin’ as he sucks at everything else he does. He even cheats at golf.

Debatable…

by MyBaconPress

At this point, considering Trump too demented to be President is kind of doing the guy a favor. I mean, a Purge? Look, either the guy is lost and doesn’t know what he’s saying, or he’s not and he knows exactly what he’s saying. Which is worse, in this case? Yeah, I know, he never said the word, ‘Purge.’ He just described it, right?

He was talking about shoplifting and how bad it’s getting. He was pretending that shoplifting is a Democrat thing, the left supports it. In fact, during a part where he was pretending the left allegedly prevents police from enforcing the law, he shared his plan to “end it.” “You know, if you had one day, like one real rough, nasty day, one rough hour, and I mean real rough, the word will get out and it will end immediately. End immediately. You know, it’ll end immediately.”

Not exactly a ‘Purge,’ since it wouldn’t be a completely lawless day. It would be more like Germany’s infamous ‘Kristallnacht,’ where Nazi mobs attacked Jews in Hitler’s Germany. One night. One really rough, nasty night, and I mean real rough. And the word got out.

He seems to get all of his favorite ideas from some of the very worst people, doesn’t he?

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Can we talk about Tay for a minute? Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala. She’s an American. She has the right to choose the candidate she prefers. She prefers Harris. I don’t know if she would have said anything, but Trump started pretending she was endorsing him. HE kind of forced HER into announcing her support for Harris. But MAGA didn’t like it.

I saw video of a guy who bid $4,000 on a guitar at an auction that was originally reported to have been signed by Taylor. I’m not sure what the event was, because when the man went up to get his guitar, the auctioneer handed him the guitar and a hammer, which the guy then used to smash a few holes in the guitar. $4,000. Who pays $4,000 dollars to buy a guitar and then smashes it? The mind of MAGA, that’s who. (Actually, as a MAGA, the guy probably just won’t pay. He’ll bitch that the guitar was “broken…”)

As it happens, the guitar was NOT signed by Taylor. Hell, it was never owned nor even played by Taylor Swift as far as anybody knows. The person who donated the guitar included a CD cover that HAD been signed by Swift, but there’s no traceable provenance for the guitar that I’ve heard about. But some guy out there spent $4,000 to destroy a guitar just because someone associated Taylor Swift’s name to it. The effing guitar didn’t endorse Kamala! Why the hell did the guitar have to die? (Full disclosure, it could STILL turn out to be hers. There’s just no evidence at this point.)

So now there’s a story out there in the media that Taylor Swift lost supporters after endorsing Kamala. The story is trying to convince people she’s really suffering for her choice. Oh, she lost 2 million Spotify users? According to the article, that “only” leaves her with 91.9 million. She must be in a panic.

More likely, she doesn’t care. For one thing, I would guess the numbers ebb and flow anyway. For another, she, perhaps, remembers the big MAGA “boycott” of the NFL after Colin Kaepernick expressed an opinion. The MAGA boycott didn’t last long. They LIKE football. The people who got all pissy in the moment probably like Taylor’s music, even if they disagree with her politics. They’ll be back. I’d guess Taylor thinks that, too…

Oh, yeah, she has earned over a billion dollars – FAR more than Trump ever earned – or even grifted. I’m guessing if she lost her entire fan base overnight somehow, she’d be fine. But DAMN, MAGA desperately wishes they had a celebrity with a tenth of Swift’s stature to endorse Trump. Instead, he gets Kid Rock, Scott Baio, and Cameron Kirk. (Who? Exactly…)

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I’ll say this for Vance, if you give him several weeks to practice speaking, standing, and looking, he does quite well. I don’t know how well Vance did to advance the Trump/Vance ticket but he seemed to help his own prospects for a 2028 run. Word is, Trump doesn’t LIKE Vance and regrets choosing him for a running mate. How do you think he’s going to feel, now that Vance out-performed him on the debate stage?

Vance stayed focused, something Trump simply cannot do. Vance looked calm, something Trump definitely did NOT do during the Harris/Trump debate. Vance stayed on message, yet another failing of the would-dictator. Vance just did better than Trump. That, I’m sure, will irritate Trump to no end. No, not like “small crowds,” but a LOT.

Vance stood up there like a pro. I think he shed much of the ‘clumsy oaf’ characterization he’s been struggling against since trying to make small talk with a stranger in a doughnut shop like a real human. He just didn’t seem to have any actual answers, though. Lots of quick-time, double-talk to get around questions, but nothing responsive.

Q: “For example, would you deport parents who have entered the U.S. illegally and separate them from any of their children who were born on U.S. soil?”
JDV: “Blah, blah, blah. Fentanyl. Blah, blah. Opioid addiction. Blah de blah de blah, blah…”
Q: “Senator, the question was, will you separate parents from their children, even if their kids are U.S. citizens?
JDV: “Blah, blah, blah. Parents who can’t afford health care. Blah, blah. Schools that are overwhelmed. Blah de blah de blah, blah…”

“DID he (Donald Trump) lose the 2020 election?”
“Tim, I’m focused on the future, did Kamala Harris censor Americans from speaking their mind in the wake of the 2020 Covid situation?”
See what he did, there? “Focused on the future” to avoid answering the question (he used that phrase twice to duck the same question) but focuses on the SAME past in response. “I’m not going to answer a question about 2020 but what about 2020?

When asked about conservative dreams to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) but maintain protections for pre-existing conditions, Vance said, “Well, look, we currently have laws and regulations in place, in place right now that protect people with preexisting conditions.”
Yeah, the ACA. The one you want to repeal…

My final take? If you’re MAGA? Vance won. If you’re not MAGA? Walz won. Not one mind was changed and no new insights into either candidate. Debates are kind of dumb. We all know it going in. Questions, sometimes good questions, will be asked but they rarely get answered by cons. “I’ll get back to that important question, but first…”

Yeah, screw you. Answer the question, THEN make your efforts to “correct” (read: distort) the record. Vance largely stuck to (delusional) talking points (lies) on the right. Walz was different than the Tim I’ve seen on the campaign trail, and I like campaign trail Walz better than debate Walz, but at least he had answers to questions…