Month: January 2025

Facts Are Facts, Even When Fiction Wins…

by MyBaconPress

When The Felon campaigned, he promised all the good things to all the right people. It was easy. He found out what his people wanted to hear, then he said it. They believed him. Lower gas prices? Done. Lower food prices? Day one. End Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine? Even before he took office. Deport every non-white person he could find? Count on it. Pardon every J6 rioter, even if they attacked cops? DAY ONE! Tariffs to balance the trade deficit? That’s the plan. Promises, promises.

He said lower energy prices would lower food prices because of energy used in producing and shipping food. Experts in the field say the energy costs are too small of a component to make a big difference. Oh, AND the energy producers have made clear they have no intention of increasing their drilling efforts.

The US, you see, is already producing record amounts of oil and natural gas. The producers don’t WANT to lower the cost any more. Sure, it would help consumers – but it would hurt shareholders. Who do YOU think our corporate overlords are more worried about?

He has already failed at ending Putin’s war ‘even before taking office.’ He’s looking at failure in producing more natural gas and oil. He won’t be bringing prices at the supermarket down. (“It’s hard,” he whined.) He’s backpedaling on which J6 rioters will get day one pardons. If he follows through on his promised tariffs, the most likely result will be inflation – and everything will cost MORE! Not surprisingly, that’s the SAME result we will see if he actually starts deporting every brown person he can find. Everything will cost MORE.

It’s starting to look like there’s not ONE THING he promised that he intends to do. Worse, if he DID do them, there’s not ONE THING he might do that will improve our day-to-day lives. He told a rabid mob what they wanted to hear and they supported him. It’s looking like ‘rabid mob’ may not be the best format for decision-making…

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In retrospect, though, I’m not sure WHY I’ve been so upset over possible economic programs of The Felon and the damage those programs will do. His environmental plans promise to derail every human endeavor over the next four years. With people suffering fires, record-strength hurricanes, tornado clusters, extra cold winters and extra hot summers, flooding and/or drought (fueling crop failures), there’s going to be MUCH unrest, struggle, and desperation…

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It’s weird, watching Steve Bannon call Elon Musk a racist – as an insult, I mean. (Pot? Kettle. Kettle? Pot.) It’s even weirder hearing Newt Gingrich talking about the importance of open legal borders in direct defiance of MAGA right now. Arguably, Gingrich is more responsible than any other politician for launching the far right movement that eventually became MAGA. He’s a deeply evil individual with folksy charm.

He created a monster that DOES NOT DO nuance. Now, he’s trying a nuanced argument to justify some immigration. I suspect that’s going to be a tough sell. Gingrich seems to think The Felon won’t follow through on his promise to use the military to get to every undocumented person they can find and deport them. Oh, but not JUST them.

Trump is quoted as saying, “I don’t want to be breaking up families, so the only way you don’t break up the family is you keep them together and you have to send them all back.” Send them all… back? Where, to East LA? That’s not much of a deportation. Trump’s words sound like he’ll deport any undocumented person AND their American family members. “Deporting” Americans sounds like nonsense but, then, many things that fall from his lips sound like nonsense.

Meanwhile, Gingrich says, “I’d be very surprised if you see any significant effort to change the game for people who are here legally. I just think there’s a very small faction of the party that’s rabid about this.” He has also said, “We are a nation of law [sic], despite some of the things that have been said. And I think that if you have legal standing in the American system, it’s very difficult to deport you. On the other hand, if you have no legal standing, it’s pretty easy to deport you, right? And I’m for doing the easy first. That’s why we should give [Dreamers] legal status, as a practical matter.”

Do you think Gingrich can get The Felon to deport people in a nuanced and thoughtful way? ‘Nuanced’ and ‘thoughtful’ are not words I normally associate with Trump and his acolytes…

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Let’s say you have a house. It’s been in your family for 250 years and, let’s face it, it could use some attention. Is the right answer to identify the problems and correct them as they come up, or would it be better just to set fire to the whole freaking thing and burn it to the ground?

MAGA has chosen, “Burn it! Burn it all!” I can’t agree that was the best answer…

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I want to make something clear. Jack Smith has resigned as Special Counsel. He didn’t resign because he lost his case. He resigned because the target of his prosecution created a legal loophole that allowed him to slither away unscathed. (There are advantages to being the Anti-Christ.) Donald J. Trump did NOT “beat” the charges. He did NOT “win.” He cheated – and got away with it. I believe that, had he stood trial, he would have been convicted. He’s still a criminal. He just got away with it…

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I’ve heard yet another smear in the politicization of the SoCal fires: fire trucks from Oregon have been held up because they couldn’t pass a smog check. Yeah, that’s the story. As with all things MAGA, it’s false. It’s just a smear.

Fire trucks from Oregon WERE stopped in Sacramento and examined. It was a safety and equipment evaluation, not a smog check. No smog checks were performed. The idea was to make certain that the trucks were up to the terrain they were heading into – for the safety of the firefighters involved. ALL trucks from Oregon are now on scene in LA.

But I’m guessing that the fact that the story is pure and unadulterated bunk won’t stop MAGA from repeating it over and over. (“They’re EATING THE DOGS!”) When have facts ever been an issue for a MAGA?

Brawndo In Action…

by MyBaconPress

Joe: For the last time, I’m pretty sure what’s killing the crops is this Brawndo stuff.
Secretary of State: But Brawndo’s got what plants crave. It’s got electrolytes. 
Attorney General: So wait a minute. What you’re saying is that you want us to put water on the crops? 
Joe: Yes. 
Attorney General: Water. Like out the toilet? 
Joe: Well, I mean, it doesn’t have to be out of the toilet, but, yeah, that’s the idea. 
Secretary of State: But Brawndo’s got what plants crave. 
Attorney General: It’s got electrolytes. 
Joe: Okay, look. The plants aren’t growing, so I’m pretty sure that the Brawndo’s not working. Now, I’m no botanist, but I do know that if you put water on plants, they grow. 
Secretary of Energy: Well, I’ve never seen no plants grow out of no toilet. 
Secretary of State: Hey, that’s good. You sure you ain’t the smartest guy in the world? 
Joe: Okay, look. You wanna solve this problem. I wanna get my pardon. So why don’t we just try it, okay, and not worry about what plants crave? 
Attorney General: Brawndo’s got what plants crave. 
Secretary of Energy: Yeah, it’s got electrolytes. 
Joe: What are electrolytes? Do you even know? 
Secretary of State: It’s what they use to make Brawndo. 
Joe: Yeah, but why do they use them to make Brawndo? 
Secretary of Defense: ‘Cause Brawndo’s got electrolytes.
– Joe vs the MAGA mind in the movie ‘Idiocracy’

I’ll tell you this: the right-wing disinformation machine is VERY good. People on the right actually believe Gavin Newsom is withholding water to fight fires in an effort to protect a smelt. It’s not true, but now that they believe it, of course, it’s gospel. Meanwhile, a Republican US Congressman has said the government should withhold disaster relief unless and until California reforms it’s forest management practices.

Never mind that this is NOT a forest fire. It’s conservative zeitgeist, now, and it isn’t going anywhere. The point is to politicize the fires. Accuracy isn’t important to them. Only blame. And blame, of course, ONLY falls on Democrats, never Republicans. That’s Rule Number One. Oh, and when blame DOES fall to a Republican? See Rule Number One. Sure, because that’s the way life works.

I’m not sure what kind of craven thought process it takes to politicize such a destructive natural disaster and think it’s a proper, or even a decent, thing to do. You know? I can’t say it’s unexpected, though. This is just how some people are. I would say it’s boring except for one thing. Cons have taken to actually responding to their delusions. They decide a thing – evidence never a factor – then they act on their decision.

I don’t really care if someone wants to think a fire started because someone failed to take their broom to the forests. There’s not much I can do about that. I believe comedian Bill Engvall coined the now-famous saying, “You can’t fix stupid,” and it’s true. But now the MAGA mob is acting on stupid.

You just watch, this crowd is going to start watering crops with Brawndo because Brawndo has what plants crave. It’s got electrolytes!

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There’s a MAGA Republican out there, James Comer. He led an “investigation” into Joe Biden. It never went anywhere or found anything because it was REALLY just an harassment campaign. To be clear, Comer kept shouting to anyone who would listen that the investigation DID find something and Biden is too guilty – because he said so, that’s why. He never produced even a shred of evidence of any wrongdoing.

Now we learn that Comer has written a book smearing Joe Biden but he also decided to smear Bob Woodward, of Watergate fame. Comer claims in his book that “Woodward explained that everyone in DC knew that Joe allowed his family to sell access to him, but as far as he was aware, that was not illegal. He added that it should be, but it wasn’t. ‘You will have to prove all of Joe Biden’s wrongdoing,’ he said, ‘and you will likely not be able to do that.'”

Comer also pretends that he asked Woodward “what he thought about my investigation. He replied that he thought Biden had obviously worked the system his entire political career, and that his son and both brothers had a troubled financial history. He predicted that my investigation ‘would either be bigger than Watergate or it would end up being a big nothing burger’.”

Wow, strong stuff. It would have been stronger had Woodward actually SAID any of those things to Comer but, according to Bob Woodward, himself, he never did. Woodward insists Comer is “peddling stories.” Specifically, Woodward wrote to ‘the Guardian,’ “The dinner with Comer was tape-recorded with his knowledge” (emphasis added), and said that he had listened again to the tape, which was “two hours and 55 minutes” long.

“The statements attributed to me in what is apparently his book are false,” Woodward said. “I made none of those statements he attributes to me. I repeat none, and not even in a paraphrased form – either about Biden or about the media. I never said Biden was corrupt or sold access.”

Just to drive the point home, Woodward added: “In the course of the interview Comer made a series of wild and over-the-top allegations about various people and political figures. It was an endless stream. None checked out.”

And, by the way, Comer’s investigation ended up a big nothing-burger. But he’s going to sell books to the ‘water the plants with Brawndo’ crowd based, apparently, on crap he just made up out of whole cloth and is now MAGA doctrine, or soon will be…

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Okay, so The Felon ran on anti-immigration and American jobs for Americans. His base liked that and voted for him. VERY shortly after he was “elected,” his boss, Elon, told the world that (paraphrased), “Yeah, American jobs for Americans unless it causes ME to pay more for employees, so SOME immigrants are coming, no matter what.” Wage-theft billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy took it even further when he said, flatly, that Americans are too stupid and too lazy to do the work they need done. That upset MAGA, who think The Felon is honest, but the billionaire’s comments didn’t bother them as much as Trump agreeing with Musk and Ramaswamy.

A little mini MAGA war started, led by Laura Loomer and Steve Bannon. Loomer lost right away, apologized for her insolence, and bent the knee. Bannon, though, is still fighting. NOW, Bannon has decided he’s going to get rid of Musk. “I will get Elon Musk kicked out by the time he’s inaugurated,” Bannon told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. “He won’t have a blue pass with full access to the White House. He’ll be like everyone else.” So… Bannon is planning to have Musk excommunicated by inauguration day. Oh, but he wasn’t done.

In the interview on Wednesday, Bannon said, “He (Musk) suffered a major defeat in America on H1B visas, he derided our movement as racist and retarded, and he lost. He has the maturity of a child. He has tried to change the conversation, after losing credibility in the United States and the fact that, frankly, people around Trump are tired of him.”

Truthfully, I thought Musk and Trump WON the H1B visa fight, based on the idea that they’re going to continue to use them at will. Where was the defeat? Oh, right, facts don’t matter, so then came Bannon’s next salvo: “He is a truly evil guy, a very bad guy. I made it my personal thing to take this guy down. Before, because he put money in, I was prepared to tolerate it; I’m not prepared to tolerate it anymore.”

Someone is about to find out where the power actually lies. It will either be Bannon and the MAGA faithful, or it will be the Billionaire Boys Club – and Bannon ain’t a member. I have no idea how this will play out but like all criminals, The Felon follows money. That can’t be a good sign for Bannon…

Burning It All Down…

by MyBaconPress

Mr. Thirty-Four Felonies KNOWS climate change is real. It’s part of his justification for wanting Greenland. (Climate change melting ice caps will create new, year-round shipping lanes.) But he keeps denying it because that’s dogma of the MAGA brand. So when climate change causes fires, 34 knows that, really, it was because Gavin Newsom did not, personally, take a broom into forests and sweep up the debris. Yes, of course, it’s amazingly, stunningly stupid. Just remember the source.

Hey, guess what? No, you’ll never guess, so I’ll just tell you. It turns out, MAGA doesn’t like Gavin Newsom. No, I’m sorry, “Newscum.” They’ve connected some dots. There are several great big fires in Southern California and MAGA doesn’t like Gavin Newsom. Ergo, the fires in Southern California MUST be “Newscum’s” fault, right? I mean, it’s logic! Okay, yeah, it’s BAD logic, but…

Newsom wasn’t in the mood, though. After Trump posted that the fires are Gavin’s fault, Gavin responded. “You don’t believe in climate change. You are excused from this conversation.” Newsom is right. People who deny science have no business in intelligent conversations. (Of COURSE you have a right to be wrong, but don’t expect intelligent people to “respect your opinion” when your “opinion” is rooted in intentional stupidity.)

Yes, it was fun watching Gavin clap back at 34. The problem, of course, is that once he’s in office, the petulant puke (34) will direct FEMA to ignore California. Fortunately, for THESE fires, we have Biden still in office, and he has already approved FEMA help for the state. But going forward? Once Trump takes over? We’re on our own. I don’t know what Newsom is planning on THAT score.

Perhaps, once the US turns it’s back on California, California will turn it’s back on the US. We provide FAR more money to the US than we take back. Perhaps we just stop that. We’ll keep our money here to fight the fires the federal government refuses to help with because of 34’s political pettiness. It’s just a thought. But I digress.

As I was saying, and you may have noticed, MAGA is mad. Just in general, to be sure, but in this case, MAGA is mad at Newsom for not taking a broom and sweeping up the debris in the forests. They are NOT heavily focused on the fact that these are not forest fires. (The problem with the hydrant pressures might have been a clue.) It turns out that, being a desert, the LA basin hasn’t had much rain. Hmm, go figure. THEN, these hard, warm winds hit the area.

They’re called the Santa Ana Winds. Really, they have a name. They blow very hard. As far as MAGA is concerned (for the purposes of politicizing this event), it’s the first time in history that exceptionally dry conditions coupled with strong, warm winds has ever had anything to do with fire. EVER! Just ask Mr. Thirty-Four Felonies. And now that the words have been uttered, they MUST be set in stone as gospel truth.

These fires are also a great political opportunity to blame “Newscum” for low water pressure in the hydrants. As it happens, when firefighters hook up to several hydrants in many different places at the same time and open the spigots, the water pressure drops. That’s not water mismanagement. It’s just physics. The ACTUAL problem is the number of fires that have broken out all over the area, all at the same time. “NEWscum!”

It’s almost as if, no matter WHAT happens, no matter WHEN it happens, MAGA needs to quickly find a way to a) politicize the situation and b) blame Democrats. For clarity, that’s ‘Democrats,’ in general, but usually the closest, high-profile Democrat gets the focus of their silly, little faux rage. (Conversely, when a Republican is caught failing, dead to rights, it’s NEVER the time to “play the blame game.”) But if they can somehow pin the blame on a Democrat, the GOP never, and I mean EVER, misses a chance to politicize a natural disaster. EVER! That’s an amazing streak they’ve made up, there.

But while MAGA is finger-pointing and playing the blame game, Newsom is just…dealing with the problem. He has experience with this. He’s done it before. He knows how to handle this emergency and I have faith he’ll stay on top of it. The implication from MAGA, though, is that if 34 were in charge, the response would be much, much better. Really? We’ve seen Trump responsible for an emergency, in charge of the response. He threw paper towels in Puerto Rico and as I recall, after allowing Covid-19 to get rolling so fiercely, he flat-lined the nation’s economy and killed over a million people.

Yeah, um, nice work, Donny. God help us in the next emergency…

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Okay, so it’s official. Donald J. Trump is a convicted felon. No, he didn’t get in any trouble. Essentially, he just got a black mark on his permanent record. BFD. About the only thing one can say about it is, now I really CAN call him ‘Mr. Thirty-Four Felonies.’ Which, let’s be honest, I’ve been doing anyway. Yes, it’s petty. But it ALSO keeps it top of mind that he is, in fact, a convicted felon. MAGA doesn’t like it, but facts are facts, so MAGA hates facts, too!

I’m not clear on why the sentencing defines it as a done deal and not the finding of “guilty.” To me, when he was pronounced guilty because the evidence supported the charge – that is, he did the crime of which he stood accused – he was guilty. But some feature of the law says, no, the sentencing has to happen to close it out. So that’s done now.

Obviously, Trump insists it was all a witch hunt. (It wasn’t.) He called it “lawfare.” (A made-up term, but a practice he claims to abhor, yet intends to engage in with a vengeance.) He pretends it’s just political or electoral “interference.” (Wrong, again.) Of course, he’s the father of lies and I’m not sure he EVER speaks truthfully, so the more he protests, the more sure I am the evidence correctly supported the conviction…

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The job of DOGE, Trump’s new, expensive “government efficiency” office, is to trim fat. Eliminate excess. Get rid of all of those expensive employees. Of course it is. First on the agenda? Hire a large group of expensive employees. Rent office space. Buy desks, phones, tables, and chairs. That is, spend a bunch of money setting up a new bureaucracy. Great start, there, guys, way to reduce costs. Hey, come to think of it, I may have found a place you can cut some fat…

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I’m hoping for snow. No, not here. In DC, on January 20th. Like, FEET of it. It seems Mr. Thirty-Four Felonies never really got over the fact that his LAST inauguration was such a sparsely attended event. I presume he’s planning to bus in some extra “crowd” to make sure THAT doesn’t happen again. But then he gets word the flags are supposed to fly at half-staff on his dark inauguration day and now he’s all whiny about THAT.

I just think it would be funny as hell if, in addition to the half-staff flags, a paralyzing snowstorm hit DC and ground local travel to an absolute halt. Half-staff flags and practically NOBODY in attendance? That might break his teeny, tiny, little ego before he even gets started…

Just The Worst…

by MyBaconPress

I have to start by saying my heart goes out to Southern California. We, here in Northern California, have been through what they’re going through, now, and I know, without question, there are no words. I remember the panic of people in the moment. It’s all just a confusion of “Where do we go?” and “What, now?” I remember the stories people told, after, of how they made it out. I remember the stories about the people who didn’t.

I remember the wreckage. I remember the smell of the burned buildings lingering in the air for a long time. I know how they’re going to react to even the faintest smell of wildfire smoke in the future. And I was one of the lucky ones. I didn’t lose anything. I STILL react. They will, too. The buildings can be, will be, rebuilt. The precious mementos are gone forever. But Nor-Cal DID come back and SoCal will, too.

Stay strong, SoCal…

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When a Special Counsel finishes their job, they’re supposed to issue a report explaining, in detail, why they did what they did. That is, why they prosecuted (or declined to) and the details behind those choices. Jack Smith has written his report and turned it over to Attorney General Merrick Garland. Apparently, it’s in TWO volumes. The first is about the election interference charges 34 negated by getting back to the White House. The second is about the Classified documents he stole, I suspect to give to Putin. The question now is, should AG Garland release the report for public consumption.

I haven’t seen it, of course, but MY guess (and yours, I’d bet) is that the report just says something to the effect of, “We were GOING to prosecute because we have evidence enough to fill three trucks, but then The Felon “won” the “election” and is expected to abuse his authority to protect himself so we had no choice but to stand down.”

Puppet-elect Thirty-Four Felonies doesn’t want people to know what’s in the report about him, presumably because it says, “Oh, yeah, he’s as guilty as can be and here’s the evidence!” So, he judge-shopped. It didn’t take long. He knows he has Aileen “Loose” Cannon in the bag and, oh, hey! Lookee, here. He took his case to his corrupt, loyalist judge and she put a temporary injunction on releasing the report. She protected him again – and just in time.

It will buy him time, which is the loophole he used to slither out from under the charges in the first place. Once again, with the help of a corrupt judiciary, he’ll get away with it. This is what the “law” is going to look like going forward in this once-great nation. Sometimes, I think this whole thing is going to get very ugly…

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I read an article in the ‘Motley Fool’ about Social Security. It pretended Social Security is low on funds because of an imbalance in the difference between paying in and taking out. It didn’t mention politicians “borrowing” from the fund for other purposes, then not paying the money back as promised. Nor did it mention the cap rich people enjoy that protects some of their income.

It pointed out that, in an effort to confront the shortfall, Congress started taxing SS benefits. Again, nobody ever mentions eliminating the cap rich people enjoy as a solution. (YOU pay in to Social Security on 100% of your earned income. Rich people pay a tiny fraction of that percentage from their income. It is generally understood that lifting that cap funds Social Security nicely.)

I noticed Congress started taxing SS in 1983. Guess who was President, which party, in 1983. Go on, guess. Did you guess Reagan and the Republicans? That’s the right answer. In fairness, the taxes were adjusted to get more in 1993. Clinton was President. I know, he ran as a Dem, but I’ve long held that Bill Clinton was one of the most effective Republican presidents in decades. He got away with it by hiding in plain sight, as a liberal. But he signed and supported NAFTA. He “reformed” welfare. He killed the free press. He increased taxation on Social Security. There’s more. He was a con, like it or not.

The point, here, is that Social Security can be fixed easily by simply removing the cap rich people pay from their checks. If they pay into SS on 100% of THEIR paychecks, like everyone else does, we don’t really have a problem. No, of course the politicians are just going to tell you there’s no more money and nothing can be done so you lose, but they’ll just be serving their rich paymasters…

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Musk bought Twitter claiming he wanted free speech, then turned it into an insulting conservative misinformation machine that regularly censors speech. Zuckerberg, apparently, likes what he sees in Musk’s example and has decided to follow suit and eliminate the guardrails on Facebook, as well. First he eliminated news feeds almost entirely, then, when they come back, he has opened the door to conservative misinformation to flow freely?

I don’t call for boycotts, per se, because they’re dumb and don’t work dependably. (Besides, who would listen to ME?) But we CAN avoid doing business with companies we don’t like or trust whenever it’s possible, if we choose. My advice? Pay attention to who still advertises on X and avoid them if you can. As Facebook declines, it would be a good idea to do the same with whoever keeps advertising there.

The ONE thing we can count on about a fascist nation is that money rules the day. Always. Most of the Small Folk KNOW they’re Small Folk and don’t think of themselves as able to have an impact. But we can. Collectively. By all means, flee X for Bluesky, but pay attention to who keeps advertising on X (and now Facebook) and direct your dollars accordingly. If nothing else, we can keep them from gaining some of the money they’ll eventually use against us…

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MAGA doesn’t seem to have noticed, yet, but The Felon is already setting the stage for the expected economic collapse that will accompany Trump policies. As we all know, they see Biden as old. VERY old. (He is, too. No argument, here.) They see him as senile. (I’m still sitting quietly.) They see him as incompetent. (He has actually done a very good job…)

They ALSO see him as a mastermind genius capable of some very detailed, intricate, and complex planning. It really depends on what they need at any given moment. According to The Felon, the senile, mastermind, incompetent, genius has set an “economic time-bomb” meant to blow up at a precise moment. Specifically, the moment the inauguration ends.

We all know how trump works. He’s been bitching about the horrid state of the economy for four years. The minute he’s inaugurated, he’s going to start claiming Biden’s successful economy for himself. It will go from “Horrid!” to “Hurray!” in moments. If he was smart (yes, I SHOULD stop there) he would simply not touch anything and let the economy hum.

But, he’s not smart – and he doesn’t plan to do that, leave well enough alone. According to him, he plans to reduce government revenues while instituting a shiny new program that STARTS with an $80 billion dollar stake. That’s going to do some damage. He knows it. But he doesn’t want to be seen as doing the damage he plans to do. He NEEDS that blame to fall elsewhere and, of course, he chose Biden. Curiously, the damage won’t happen until Trump takes office and starts doing his thing.

By definition, that is NOT a time-bomb. A time-bomb goes off at a specific time. If one sets a bomb to blow up at, say, 2 pm on December 31st, that bomb blows up on December 31st at 2 pm – because it’s on a timer. It’s a “timed-bomb,” see? A bomb that waits for a specific trigger, like, say, moronic policies triggering an economic meltdown? That’s not a time-bomb because nobody knows WHEN it blow – or even if it will.

It requires a specific act, like tax cuts for the rich, side-by-side with a shiny new, $80 billion dollar deportation program. BOOM! There’s a reason Mr. 34 Felonies suddenly hates the debt ceiling – and it isn’t that he plans to lower the debt. (I’ve noticed the price of eggs has gone UP since the “election,” not down, despite his promises…)

It’s a standard con trick. They ALWAYS blame their own economic wreckage on the previous Democratic administration, and they ALWAYS take credit for the economic successes actually achieved by the previous Democratic administration. Once, they even blamed and INCOMING Democratic administration for their own failures. Yeah, the party of personal responsibility…

J6, Four Years Later…

by MyBaconPress

Today, January 6th, 2025, Congress certifies the stolen 2024 “election.” Tom Manger, chief of the US Capitol police, says he’s planning on using unprecedented security measures because, “We cannot be taken by surprise again.” He’s referring to how police were outnumbered and overwhelmed by the rampaging mob four years ago, when Trump prompted his loyal cultists to attack in an effort to steal the election, ironically calling it the “Stop the Steal Rally.”

Oh? Has anybody heard anything from the left, calling for a rally, or even a speech on the ellipse? Has Harris posted a message telling followers to be there, “will be wild?” Has Harris or any of her followers funded such an event? Is there a list of speakers planned, each intending to incite violence and mob mentality? Have the Democrats even mentioned an ‘unauthorized tour?’

So now, this Manger guy is going to surround the Capitol building with cops in riot gear to ensure the safety of the people inside because four years ago a MAGA mob attacked? Does he think another MAGA mob is coming? Because Democrats don’t behave that way. Yes, the left IS pissed off about the outcome of this “election” and we have questions about it’s accuracy and some of the details. No, the left is NOT going to attack Congress’s procedural process in a huge demonstration that serves mostly to send supporters to prison.

Sidebar: isn’t it funny that 34 got elected by pretending foreign countries were emptying their prisons and putting violent prisoners onto the streets of America, now that HE intends to empty American prisons and put violent prisoners onto the streets of America” by pardoning the January 6th rioters? It just strikes me as hilarious.

Trump instigated the January 6th riots. Trump paid for them. Trump called his people together. Trump whipped them into a frenzy. Trump then sent them to the Capitol to attack – and even, perhaps, kill the sitting Vice-President at the time. TRUMP did that. THEN, Trump abandoned them, knowing he could use them as a campaign issue in the next run. (He could have pardoned them before he left office. He had the time.)

At this point, one of the more glaring differences between the left and the right is that the left continues to respect the US Constitution while the right ignores the thing in whole or in part. The left respects the peaceful transfer of power even as we question the details of the “election.” The left is going to be satisfied with the imagery of the nation’s flags at half-staff on that dark day.

But some MAGA con feels the need to put on a great show, “defending” against the threat MAGA brought last time? Yeah, okay, you do you. Bonehead…

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‘The Washington Post’ was once a respected publication. Then Jeff Bezos bought it. Now it’s a biased rag. When the editorial board at the Post wanted to endorse Harris, Bezos stepped in and said no. Apparently, that caused something like 300,000 subscribers to cancel. Now, an editorial cartoonist has penned a cartoon depicting Bezos, among other rich guys, bending the knee to 43. It’s factually accurate, of course, so, naturally, the paper spiked it. (I’d guess there are more cancellations in the Post’s immediate future…)

This is the cartoon:

Rich people groveling at the foot of Trump.

It depicts corporate wage-thieves—including Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman, and Patrick Soon-Shiong, and, of course, Bezos – trying to curry favor with the president-elect. Soon-Shiong also spiked an endorsement of Harris in the LA Times – ALSO earning thousands of cancellations. The rest have each ponied up a million dollars for his inauguration.

Dead Mickey, there, represents ABC’s flaccid capitulation to Trump in a defamation suit in which Trump said he wasn’t convicted of rape – “only” sexual assault. The judge in the case said it WAS a form of rape and most legal people think ABC would have won the suit easily, but ABC laid down to make life easier for 34.

In fairness to ‘The Washington Post,’ they had a cover story (read: a lie) at the ready. ‘We had already done a piece about rich people sucking up to Trump,’ they lied, ‘and we’re about to do another piece about rich people sucking up to Trump, so we couldn’t do THIS piece about rich people sucking up to Trump.’ Uh-huh…

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When US Army veteran Matthew Livelsberger blew up a Tesla Cybertruck outside of a Trump hotel, Muck went into damage control mode by pretending the guy meant to do a GREAT deal of damage, but the Cybertruck is built SO WELL, according to Musk, it contained the blast, limiting the damage. Of course, by Livelsberger’s own statement, he meant only to create a spectacle of some kind.

Oh, but Musk wants to defend his “truck” and he couldn’t WAIT to point out that it wasn’t a failure of the vehicle. I guess that’s important to stress since other Cybertruck fires ARE so clearly caused by failures of the vehicle. (I continue to think of them as rolling crematoriums.) THEN he bragged that the Cybertruck “contained the blast.” Yeah, the guy used fireworks, not high explosives.

I suspect Livelsberger’s protest was against Musk’s involvement with, and control over, 34. Trump spent a LOT of time telling work-a-day Joes he was on their side and he was going to look out for them. They believed him. Now Trump is dancing to the tune of the billionaires and all indicators are pointing to the idea that Trump may not be as loyal to the working class as he made out.

MAGA thinks they’ve installed a champion. I think they’ve installed their worst nightmare. Only one of us can be right and we’ll ALL find out together starting January 21st. (He’ll just party on the 20th.) MAGA was built on fear and, more importantly, fury. What happens to that furious mob once they discover they’ve been deceived and used?

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Trump is wishing for a large package. According to MAGA Mikes Johnson, Trump wants ONE big bill to cover his tax cuts for the rich, the border plan he spiked for political reasons, AND opening up national parks to drilling we don’t really need because we’re already producing more oil and gas than ever in history.

Apparently, they’ve been trying to decide between using two bills, one for border and energy, and the other for tax cuts, or just the “one big beautiful bill” Mr. 34 Felonies has asked for. The “one big, beautiful bill” will make it harder to negotiate. It will take longer and, remember, the cons can only lose two votes and the thing fails.

These are the kinds of details I look for, right now. Yes, these people intend to do terrible things to this once-great nation, but trying to do them all in one fell swoop makes it harder – MUCH harder. It will slow them down. ANYTHING that slows them down, benefits Americans – and even MAGA, though they won’t know it. The left is going to need to stand in their way to try and slow them down from time to time, but not if they’re going to stand in their own way and slow themselves down. THAT, the left should just help with…

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Two stories, side by side, in this morning’s ‘Guardian.’ On the left is a headline that reads, “‘We have our country back’: convicted January 6 rioters anticipate Trump pardons.” The story immediately to it’s right? “‘The tyrant is gone and the nightmare is done’: Syrian exiles hope for a brighter future.”

One nation, the US, moving inexorably into tyranny, another, Syria, celebrating the possibility of finally throwing off tyranny. Syrians didn’t seem to like it. I suspect Americans aren’t going to like it, either…

BOOM, Goes The…Fireworks?

by MyBaconPress

Tesla Cybertruck burns outside Trump hotel.

Have you seen this? It’s a pretty good metaphor for what the country expects. I haven’t commented on it, yet, because it’s too hard to say with any certainty who the guy is, a con or an American. It’s kind of freaky that it could, honestly, be either one…

There’s a possibility he did it because he and his wife had just broken up. But a Tesla Cybertruck outside a Trump hotel is a political statement, not a personal one. If he was just killing himself over the breakup of his marriage, he could have used ANY car, in any place.

People who knew him say he was a conservative and that he LOVED Trump. That was a weird thing to do to Trump if he really loved him, a weird image to create. It could well be that he was unhappy he voted for Trump, but got Elon. I know I’d be irritated by such a bait and switch. I’ve also heard it suggested he was trying to kick off some kind of left vs right battle. Every once in a while, some con does some violent thing in hopes that other cons will follow suit. So far, that hasn’t happened but extremists keep trying.

Maybe something happened that caused the scales to fall from his eyes and he suddenly realized the damage he had done in his world based on his love of Trump. But in writings on his phone, authorities found he supported President-elect Thirty-Four Felonies, President non-elect Musk, and even worm-food brain RFK, Jr. So, WTF?

Apparently, he left a suicide note. It read, in part: “This was not a terrorist attack, it was a wakeup call. Americans only pay attention to spectacles and violence. What better way to get my point across than a stunt with fireworks and explosives?” Well, we all saw what you did but, to tell you the truth, I STILL don’t get your “point.” And now you’re too dead to ask what the hell you were saying. Nice work…

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I could use some help from cons, here. On the left, we’ve been treated to several examples of “people who voted for Trump but now regret their vote.” To be sure, these aren’t MAGA. Mostly, they’re low information voters who supposedly got hoodwinked by 34’s rhetoric in the moment, then realized it was a mistake. The left is enjoying these examples under the hashtag, #FAFO. #FAFO is ‘F*ck Around and Find Out.’ The idea is, they ‘f*cked around’ in voting for Trump, now they ‘Find Out’ what they’ve done, see?

I’ve seen, maybe, 20 or 25 of these things. They get pulled together into one presentation and put side-by-side and presented under ‘MAGA is turning on Trump.’ But I’ve been thinking. Something like 77 million people (ostensibly) voted for the felon. How difficult might it be to find 20 or 30 or even 50 people who have quickly come to regret their vote? (Spoiler alert: it would be easy.)

So then I got to wondering, is MAGA media now presenting evidence of Harris voters who wish they’d voted for Trump? Many people have noticed that the corporate media works to keep left and right battling over stupid, niggling little things and some of the battle fodder is making certain each side feels “right” about their own positions. Telling consumers the other side now regrets their choice (as they see the light) supports each team’s faith in their own positions.

So I’d like to know. IS MAGA media presenting Harris voters who now say they wish they’d voted for Trump? (I just don’t want to have to consume MAGA media to find out…)

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Well, we knew it would play out like this. It shouldn’t. In Better America, it would not have done. But we live in Bizzaro America, now. Judge Merchan has set a date, January 10th, to sentence President-elect Thirty-Four Felonies for his, well, thirty-four felonies. We live in this pretend world where there’s a fantasy rule called, ‘The rule of law.’ It only exists for Small Folk, though. Rich people get a different standard. “34” is about to enjoy the rich guy standard.

He was found guilty of thirty-four separate felonies by a jury of his peers. If I was found guilty of thirty-four separate felonies by a jury of MY peers, I’d be in prison. But he’s going to get a stern talking to and pay a fine – THEN he gets to go be king!

Shit, man! I guess crime DOES pay…

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Sadly, Trump is coming back. Oh, also? Covid-19 is coming back. They were a great combination last time. Trump’s fecklessness allowed the deaths of more Americans (and MAGA, of course) than the American Civil War. Now we’re coming back for round two.

Over a million dead and around $7.8 Trillion dollars added to the debt, last time, because 34 tried to wish the illness away. (Spoiler alert: that didn’t work.) What a great time to have a self-serving, incompetent boob coming into the White House.

I’ve spent a good bit of time concerned about the various kinds of damage 34 is going to do to this once-great nation. I’m really trying to stay in the moment and only worry about things he actually does or tries to do. I STILL think that’s the best option. I’m starting to suspect that Trump’s own fecklessness is going to work against him again.

With the return of Covid-19 (“THIS time, it’s personal!”) and the need to double down on battling climate change just as the incoming maladministration eliminates all climate change considerations, this incoming group might well be so distracted handling emergencies they don’t really have a chance to deal any (or much) damage of their own.

It’s a hell of a question: are we more likely to be wiped out by Trump’s intentional actions (like tax cuts plus profligate spending), or by Trump’s unintentional actions (like ignoring real and present threats)? Inquiring minds want to know…

It’s A Little Bit Funny…

by MyBaconPress

I confess, I thought this was funny. Top Kangaroo – I think I’m supposed to call him “Chief Justice” – John Roberts wrote a year-end report on the status of his crappy and corrupt court. Roberts wrote that people need to respect the court. I think he believes it, but I laughed out loud. I think the Supremely Corrupt Court needs to respect the High Court – and maybe even the Constitution – but they have no more intention of doing THAT than I have of respecting them.

Here’s what KangaRoberts wrote: “Every Administration suffers defeats in the court system — sometimes in cases with major ramifications for executive or legislative power or other consequential topics. Nevertheless, for the past several decades, the decisions of the courts, popular or not, have been followed. Within the past few years, however, elected officials from across the political spectrum have raised the specter of open disregard for federal court rulings. These dangerous suggestions, however sporadic, must be soundly rejected.”

In theory, I agree with that. But in practice? A bad ruling is a bad ruling, and this group has a slew of them. I submit that a bad ruling SHOULD be disregarded by all and sundry. And these guys haven’t just made ‘bad rulings.’ They’ve made rulings that say the EXACT opposite of the words in the US Constitution. We’re supposed to just accept that?

He IS right, though, that the entire political spectrum has kind of turned their backs on the Way-High Court. When they overturned Roe because they think they know what Jesus wants, people on the left suggested ignoring the ruling. But when the ‘roos upheld the use of Mifepristone, the RIGHT thought they had gone too far. That’s just one example, of course.

After providing President-Elect Thirty-Four Felonies with near perfect immunity, NOW Roberts is saying “…but he’d better follow our rulings?” That’s just embarrassingly stupid. “34” spent much of his FIRST maladministration defying Way High Court rulings. At one point back then, KangaRoberts issued a public rebuke – which 34 ignored. They made 34, effectively, a king and now they think they can rein him in? Do we laugh or cry?

It turns out, the kangaroos CAN NOT go around making rulings that defy the Constitution and are based on their political or religious preferences without surrendering their credibility as judges. Actions speak louder than words. Delivering bad decisions qualify as actions. Writing, “but we still get to count” won’t change that.

Dear KangaRoberts: if you want to be respected for the job you do, you have to do a respectable job. That’s just the way it works. But, hey, you’ll always have your bribes, I mean, “friendly considerations…”

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There is video out there of Trump, while telling everyone that in reality, HE will be President and not Elon – something he shouldn’t have to explain to anyone – saying he’s “safe.” The Constitution, he explains, won’t allow Elon to be President because he wasn’t born in this country.

So, they plan to burn the US Constitution, except for that one sentence? Weird…

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During a 2016 primary debate, President-elect Thirty-Four Felonies called the H1B visa program, “very bad” and “unfair” for U.S. workers. He said, “First of all, I think and I know the H-1B very well. And it’s something that I frankly use and I shouldn’t be allowed to use it. We shouldn’t have it.” Seems pretty clear (for him) but, hey, actions speak louder than words, right?

In 2017, he issued an Executive Order called, “Buy American and Hire American,” intended to discourage the use of H1B visas. Then, in June of 2020, his maladministration tried to issue new rules aimed largely at curtailing the use of H1B visas in general. Okay, that’s consistent. He said he doesn’t like the program, then he tried to limit and even eliminate the program.

But then President Non-elect Musk told him to shut up and that H1B visas WILL NOT be touched by 34’s criminal maladministration. For his part, Trump, having already declared and demonstrated his opposition to H1B visas and taken action to curtail their use, looked Musk right in the eye and said, “Look, you son of a bitch. Okay, you win. I love H1B visas, now, and I always have because you told me to. Please, sir, may I have another?”

So, it’s a “very unfair,” “bad” program people “shouldn’t be allowed to use” and he took action to make sure the “very unfair,” “bad” program people “shouldn’t be allowed to use” wouldn’t be used by people, only to back-peddle at amazing speeds and claim that he LOVES H1B visas and always has. You know, now that Musk has declared the program sacrosanct.

I’ll tell you this: I totally believe Trump is running the show, not Musk. Sure…

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It’s just petty, right? Jimmy Carter died. While we all knew that was going to happen, we didn’t know when. As it happens, it was December 29th. Since Jimmy Carter had been a US President, the American flag flies at half-staff for thirty days after his death. It has been so ordered and the flags are lowered appropriately. Here’s the rub: Donny’s inauguration falls within that thirty day period. That is to say, while President-elect Thirty Four Felonies is trying to keep from bursting into flame as he lays his hands on a Bible – or, at least, a Bible cover – the flags will be at half staff.

From MY point of view, it’s quite appropriate. It’s a sign of respect for a one-time president – the kind ALL presidents get – even him, once he graces the world with his death. But also, most of the nation, most of the world, will be in mourning over the passing of a once-great nation. There can be NO greater symbol to mark that final passing than Trump being inaugurated to his dictatorship with American flags flying at half staff.

I’d like to address how he whined on his social media site. He wrote, “The Democrats are all ‘giddy’ about our magnificent American Flag potentially being at ‘half mast’ (he means ‘half staff.’ ‘Half mast’ refers to a flag on a ship) during my Inauguration.” (This is true. The left noticed and we DID think it was appropriate.) He wrote: “They think it’s so great, and are so happy about it because, in actuality, they don’t love our Country, they only think about themselves.” (Yeah, Captain Bone Spurs? Tell me your dates of service before we discuss who is more dedicated to America.)

But he can’t help himself. He continued: “Look at what they’ve done to our once GREAT America over the past four years – It’s a total mess!” (Biden cleaned up the mess he left, which proves 34 made a typo. It WAS ‘a total mess!’) Trump said “In any event, because of the death of President Jimmy Carter, the Flag may, for the first time ever during an Inauguration of a future President, be at half mast.” (STILL ‘half staff,’ dumbass.) “Nobody wants to see this,” (I’m okay with it.) “and no American (he means MAGA. Americans are fine with it.) “can be happy about it. Let’s see how it plays out.”

Biden has already said the flags would be flown to show respect for President Carter’s passing for the full 30 days, as they should be, and I suspect THAT’S how it will “play out…”

The One Percent Effect…

by MyBaconPress

Because, of course he did. President non-elect Musk came to America in 1992. He became an American citizen in 2002. HE says his early stay in America represented a “legal grey area.” The Washington Post says he was almost certainly working without proper paperwork in 1995. He came to this country on a student visa but then dropped out of school, rendering the visa null and void. He stayed anyway. That is to say, Elon Musk was an illegal alien, here taking American jobs.

Let’s deport him, first…

Oh, hey, while we’re on the subject of Elon, he started backing away from his “f*ck yourself in your face” stance on H1B visas, saying the program is “broken.” Here’s an idea: let’s change the program. See, I believe that no matter WHAT they say about Americans not being up to the work, their actual attachment to the H1B visa program is that they can pay foreign workers less than American workers. So, let’s require employers making use of H1B visas to pay the people they hire from overseas a premium, say, 10% over market.

I’d bet that, suddenly, there would be plenty of qualified Americans and they would be FINE for the job. Just fine…

Quick update: Laura Loomer has bent the knee to Musk in the H1B visa fight. Loomer lost. She stood down and is pleading with Musk to please reinstate her “@premium features.” She said she had productive conversations with “@AdrianDittmann and others.” @AdrianDittmann is supposedly a “burner” account owned and operated by Musk, himself. (Musk posts something, see, then ‘Dittmann’ comes on a declares Musk’s post “genius.”) Trump has been known to promote himself using a fraudulent persona, too, one ‘John Barron.’ I guess it works.

So, when you see a new account named ‘Bark Macon’ declaring all of my writing, thoughts, and perceptions pure and unadulterated genius with never before seen insights into the most complex issues, don’t be suspicious, okay?

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$86 Billion dollars. No, really. 86. Billion, with a ‘B.’ Trump’s choice for ‘Border Czar,’ (remember when MAGA hated ‘unelected czars’?) Tom Homan, the POS primarily responsible for family separations during Trump’s first maladministration, says Trump’s mass deportation plan would cost a lot. $86 Billion dollars is just his opening number. Some estimates go a high as One Trillion dollars. (I suspect a touch of hyperbole, there, though.)

I don’t know where they’re going to get that kind of money but it seems as if they’re going to have to do a great deal of damage to a huge number of people so they can do a great deal MORE damage to even more people. What a goal. That has GOT to be a hard way to live. Can you imagine living your life trying to harm as many people as possible, and, worse, really loving your job? These “people” will be laughing about the pain and misery they inflict. I’m shaking my head.

But, really, where WILL they get that money? Do you think they’ll take it from the Pentagon? They should. If all of these undocumented people are such a threat to national security, shouldn’t “team defense” pay to do battle with them? But they won’t do that. Nobody is allowed to touch the bloated “defense” budget. That leaves you and me. The little guys. The Small Folk. The Social Safety Net.

Holy gods, it’s no wonder Trump wanted the debt ceiling eliminated. If he follows through on this, he’ll do so much damage to the national debt, hell, he’ll probably earn the top spot in the run-up-the-debt challenge. I think he already holds it, but I suppose it depends on how you count it. Barack gets the blame for the largest increase, but that was because his predecessor had run not one, but TWO wars on credit cards and had NOT included their costs in his budgets. Obama put the numbers where they should have been all along and, viola, ‘boosted the debt.’ But much of that debt was Bush 43’s from his ill-advised wars.

After Barack and his accounting correction comes Trump. MAGA likes to excuse Trump’s increase because much of it was associated with Covid-19. (They don’t make excuses for anyone else. Just Trump.) The fact is, Trump OWNS Covid-19. HE was the one who disbanded the pandemic response team and allowed the pandemic to grow to the proportions it did through his fecklessness. The fact that his failed management of the virus cost a lot of extra money is STILL on him. So in MY mind, he already owns the top spot because HIS increase was HIS fault.

We’ll see how things play out. He hasn’t even taken office yet. There’s no sense in fretting about what may or may not happen until he does it, or tries to. But that’s a LOT of money, $86 billion dollars. Hey, I wonder why the corporate media isn’t covering this much?

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Alright now, hear me out. Denmark offered to buy the US and give everyone health care and a better education system. I suspect it was a joke, based on President-elect Thirty-Four Felony’s claims to Greenland. Still, the US is yesterday’s news, now, right? I mean, look around. It’s pretty clear. The One Percent have destroyed a potentially pretty great thing. We had a chance. For a short, wonderful while, there, we did pretty well.

But then Greed stepped up, supported by Stupid, to do battle with Decency. Sadly, Greed won. Many of us tried, but in the end, with Stupid’s help, Greed won. What looms in our immediate future doesn’t seem like it’s going to be pleasant at all for the masses. Yes, I’ll wait to assess, but the LOOK of the very near future doesn’t seem as bright to me as it must seem to MAGA.

My first thought was just to try to secede. That hasn’t worked well in past attempts, but maybe we can keep Trump from finding out we’ve left. We can easily distract him, just by telling him we think he’s pretty. (Oh, yeah, like you’ve never lied before…) Someone ELSE might realize we’ve left, though, and come and try to bring us back so we, likely, would need some backup. So I was thinking…

Can we GIVE ourselves to Denmark? Probably not all of us, but California, for sure. Whichever blue states want to go, we’ll take with us, the New Denmark. I’d try to learn Danish, but they know English so we could get by. The red states? We don’t want them. (We can create an underground railroad, of sorts, to get blue people out of red states.)

See, I’d prefer to be a citizen of a country that wants to do well by all of it’s people, not just the rich ones. I’d prefer to be a citizen of a country that respects the individual and doesn’t see them as faceless drones intended to work until they drop, making someone ELSE rich. I’d prefer to have continued to have been a citizen of Better America, but that’s gone now. We’re left with…this. And, frankly? This sucks.

So maybe Denmark WAS kidding. But maybe, just maybe, we could work something out with them. I’ll tell you this: I sure would like to try…

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What, they have someone worse? The GOP is currently having a challenge finding the right person to act as Speaker of the House. Apparently, they got angry at MAGA Mike Johnson for DARING to keep the government open over the holidays. That’s true. I’m not making that up. Because he passed the Continuing Resolution that kept the government open, MAGAGOPCORP, Inc, is looking for someone better. And by “better,” of course, I mean far, far worse.

MAGA Mike’s actions prevented a LOT of suffering during the holidays and MAGA is furious with him for doing it. They WANT someone who can and will inflict pain on the most vulnerable people without batting an eye. Even a trace of decency is too much decency to these guys and doing the right thing – EVER – is an immediate deal-killer.

Pay attention to the names MAGA puts forth for this role. Win or lose, those are the people MAGA thinks are just selfish enough, just cruel enough, to be the “better” House Speaker. Harm without concern. Denmark is looking better and better to me…