Month: August 2026

Jeffries Met With Kushner? Heaven Forfend…

by MyBaconPress

Well, they’re trying. Democrats. Losing. They’re trying. Hakim Jeffries had a meeting with Jared Kushner. Democrats and other trumpster critics – that is, sane people – are all in a dither. I would just like to invite them to go engage in some biologically impossible activities. The beef is, Kushner isn’t a formal part of the government. Yeah? So? This regime is crooked in every way – including whether they count certain individuals as “part of the government.”

Kushner isn’t part of the government when he’s overseas talking with the Iranians, either. But his is seen as some kind of official role. A guy who’s not part of the government but works in official government roles should STILL be understood to be a guy who has some say with the Dumbass. I think Hakim Jeffries should be talking with some representative of Team Evil, “part of the government” or not.

Quick question: who, in this government, does one talk to who is NOT corrupt, eh? You can’t name one. (Neither can I. That’s not on you.) Every single person associated with Team Evil has “corrupt” as a main feature on their resumes. But talking is better than not talking and what Kushner may have that none of the others have is sanity. Sure, he’s corrupt. Hell, he’s rich. How the hell do you think people GET rich in this once-great nation, hard work and pluck? Oh, you sweet, naive thing.

So, corrupt? Yes. Likely to lie? Sure. One of the few people Jeffries might talk to and get some kind of coherent thinking? I think yes. I think it’s a good thing to talk. Let’s not rip on Jeffries for trying. IF Jeffries bets the farm on something Kushner says, I’ll revisit this post to acknowledge my gullibility. But just talking? We have so much more to worry about…

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It’s not even in widespread use and it’s already killing people – and generating lawsuits! I’m talking about that electric glove, cleverly named G.L.O.V.E. for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter. Clever, eh? It generates a low voltage shock, strong enough to incapacitate a suspect. This is one of those “tools” law enforcement loves and probably sometimes needs. This is ALSO one of those “tools” it becomes easy to rely on too often. Sometimes, FAR too often.

A 43-year-old man in Kentucky, for example, died after being shocked 27 times. The glove user manual instructs wearers to avoid using the product on elderly people, small children, pregnant women, and disabled people. I’ve noticed it’s not always possible to know a woman is pregnant just by looking at her. Tough cookies for her, I guess.

The truth is, I think law enforcement might really need these things. Richard Pryor used to tell a story about shooting a movie called ‘Stir Crazy.’ He and Gene Wilder filmed it in a real prison, surrounded by real inmates, whom they got to know a little bit. He said when he went into the prison the first time, he thought he was interacting with the oppressed black man and the downtrodden suffering under the thumb of society. (These are not his exact words.)

By the time they wrapped filming, he said his attitude was, “Thank GOD we have prisons!” He had met some of the inmates. “But why did you kill the whole family?” “Well, they was home.” It’s a solid point. There are some VERY bad people on this planet. A G.L.O.V.E. might mean subduing a suspect without having to draw a gun. That’s a good thing.

But Team Evil wants to give these things to the ICEholes. These are not the best trained people in law enforcement and their targets are usually just people in the US without proper papers – and often people here WITH proper papers. We’ve seen article after article of mistreatment from ICEholes. We’ve seen them gun down innocent people in the streets. People are dying in detention centers from maltreatment.

I doubt ICE needs these things. They’ve already misused the tools they’ve been given. These gloves will constitute an escalation in the violence our government is bringing to harmless people. That’s a bad thing. But, of course, this is Team Evil. They seem to brainstorm ways to do the worst possible thing. The G.L.O.V.E. is only the latest example…

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In the race to snuff out most human life from the planet, Climate Change has been making some pretty impressive moves, recently. I STILL have it as my prime choice. But AI should not be taken lightly – most especially when said AI is being installed into humanoid robots. AI, alone, might be able to trick us into pushing a wrong button or maybe it can launch it’s own nuclear attack, but once you’ve installed it into humanoid robots, AI can chase us down.

And, no. You can NOT outrun it. China hosts the ‘World Humanoid Robot Games’ in Beijing. One of those bad boys outran a world-record time set by Usain Bolt, so unless you can outrun Usain Bolt, you’re in trouble. The robots aren’t coming quite yet. Bolt can STILL do something they apparently can’t: stop running at the end of the race.

The robot that beat Bolt’s time just…ran into a padded wall at the end. It fell down and was taken off the field on a stretcher. Most of the other entrants just fell down and/or broke up, never finishing the race. But give these developers a couple of years. Maybe less. The robots will be faster and stronger – AND able to stop. The AI will be sharper – possibly designed by other AI so we have no clue what it’s doing.

I’ve enjoyed technology throughout my life. I admire the leaps and bounds people are capable of making. I wish – oh, how I wish – people could just use it well, to the advantage of everybody. But our society… okay, our species, is a least common denominator group. We ALWAYS have to consider the few. The one guy who screws it up for everybody else. And he’s always out there.

I’m not sure I can think of any technology that is employed as a helpful tool that isn’t also used in some nefarious way. That doesn’t even mention simple human error. One honest mistake – or one dishonest broker – and the AI-powered robots go all Terminator on us.

Issac Asimov wrote the Three Rules for Robots: ‘a robot may not injure a human or allow harm through inaction, must obey human orders unless they conflict with the first law, and must protect its own existence as long as it doesn’t conflict with the first two laws.’ Later, he added a fourth: ‘a robot may not harm humanity or allow humanity to come to harm through inaction.’

Comforting. But in one of his books in which he relies upon the rules, ‘I,Robot,’ one guy builds an army of robots and intentionally leaves the robot rules out. It’s a bad day for humanity. One mistake, one bad choice, one equation humans don’t even realize AI has discovered, and the outcome could easily be unimaginable.

I’ll tell you this: In the race to remove human beings as a consideration, Climate Change is still my lead dog. But I’ve long maintained that AI is capable of catching up fast and it’s getting better every day…

Election Battles Heating Up…

by MyBaconPress

Every day, the mid-term elections are one day closer. Every day, the concern that Evil Donny will try to intervene grows. Everybody who understands anything knows that the mid-terms should reflect a tsunami of anger aimed at Republicans in general, driven by the failures of the Dumbass and Team Evil. The mid-terms are simultaneously, both a tremendous threat to the ongoing criminal enterprise known as the trump regime, and the last chance to save our once-great nation without violence, if at all.

Team Evil is not even trying to pretend they’re going to play fair. Steve Bannon recently texted CNN: “We need a National Security Emergency about the midterm elections immediately – this is a powerful predicate for that.” Asked about pretending some national emergency by rightwing broadcaster Wayne Allyn Root, 47 replied, “Let me just say, stranger things have happened, OK?”

No. They haven’t. We haven’t skipped elections in this country, ever. We didn’t even skip elections during the US Civil War. It should be obvious to anyone – anyone – that predicting an as-yet-unrealized national emergency that takes place just in time to impact elections that so threaten Team Evil makes clear they’re making it up, yes? Then again, I’ve become massively disappointed in my fellow Americans’ ability to engage in critical thinking. The US is dogged by some very stupid people – who knew? – and the rest of us all know we should never underestimate the power of stupid people in large numbers.

There ARE people looking out for American interests. Aria Branch, a partner at the Elias Law Group, who led a lawsuit blocking Trump’s previous executive orders on election administration said Team Evil is, “trying to lay the groundwork to declare some sort of emergency to nationalize elections. I think the president is looking for any opportunity to do that.”

Santiago Mayer, president of Voters of Tomorrow, a gen Z-led voter advocacy organization, said, “I mean, listen, I think it is quite obvious that the man is losing his grip in reality, so I think we need to be prepared for everything. We have spent a long time thinking and preparing for any eventuality and anything that he might attempt. I think our focus at the end of the day is to turn out enough voters where, no matter what he pulls, it won’t succeed.”

But the effort to destroy the elections is real. Tulsi Gabbard testified before Congress that she had been leading an investigation into claims of foreign interference in US elections. Her team claimed to be involved in the seizure and examination of voting equipment in Puerto Rico, and spent months scrutinizing potential vulnerabilities in voting machines and the possibility of foreign interference. I submit that they were reverse engineering voting machines to determine the best way to manipulate them.

Meanwhile, the one voting process Donny is most afraid of, though he uses it himself, is mail-in ballots. Voting on paper. NO. EFFING. MACHINES! If you use those evil things, you should know that you’re likely voting for trump, regardless of the candidate for whom you pull the lever. Vote on paper, no matter how hard Team Evil tries to make it. We need to turn out a deluge of voters, like we did in 2020, and the votes need to be cast on paper. That’s how we got rid of the son of a bitch the first time. That’s how we get rid of him this time.

I’ll tell you this: The biggest threat to America is the Drumpfster’s ongoing, unfettered access to the levers of power in Washington, DC…

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John Roberts, the corrupt toady of Team Evil, has said publicly he has concerns about the legacy of his court. No doubt, eh? On Friday, Roberts allowed Donny to continue with his ballroom despite all the laws and lower court rulings that say he doesn’t have the authority. Here’s a hint, John. That’s exactly the kind of thing that’s going to seal your sad, failed legacy.

THIS, possibly the last Supreme Court the United States will know, is the very worst, the most corrupt, dumbest, and least competent court I’ve ever seen or read about in America or American history. It’s so easy for Roberts to SAY he cares about the legacy of the court, but rulings that fawn over his Precious despite violating all of the laws on the topic suggest he only cares about the bribe money rolling in to his pockets…

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He spent $1.7 BILLION of our tax dollars in his show of strength deployment of National Guard troops to Washington DC, Memphis, and Los Angeles. He says it was an awesome display and a complete success, but then, he lies about everything. So other people have looked at the situation. Among them, the Center for American Progress (CAP), who found, after looking at actual evidence rather than just delusional rants, the deployments had no significant impact on crime.

Their report looks at the falling rate of crime in cities without a National Guard intervention and concludes that they are not statistically different from the rate of decrease in those that had the intervention, noting that violent crime began falling well before Trump took office in 2025. (By the way, it’s my prediction those rates will be climbing again, soon, as Donny’s economic nightmare worsens by the day.)

But… but… Donny said it was a success. So obviously, he has to sue CAP. He’s threatening a $5 billion dollar lawsuit if CAP doesn’t retract it’s report. One of his personal bootlick, er, “lawyers,” Alejandro Brito, sent a letter to CAP demanding the retraction or face the suit. Donny is claiming defamation. He very commonly thinks the truth makes him look bad. In fairness, the truth commonly makes him look bad.

In Brito’s letter, Brito pretends that, “the effect on the mind of the reader and viewer of the Statements that Defendants intended to impose is that the President of the United States knowingly deceived the American people, manipulated crime statistics for political advantage, exploited public fear, abused military and executive authority for an ulterior purpose, staged a sham law enforcement operation, and then lied about its success.”

Of course, CAP has a response. According to them, the report and commentary “on their face, concern crime statistics and causality, or actions of the federal government, not President (sic) Trump himself. In addition to being true, these statements cannot defame President Trump because they are not about him.” That last line just confuses the crap out of Donny since everything, in his demented mind, is about him.

Brito is the same guy who represented 47 in the case of the bawdy birthday card. You remember. The Pedo President drew a picture for his good friend and likely co-conspirator Jeffery Epstein. It was an outline of a young girl that framed a suggestive commentary, with his signature standing in for pubic hair. 47 didn’t like that people found out about that and he sued the Wall Street Journal and his frenemy Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch’s response? Trump’s reputation is already so bad, so bawdy, he can’t be defamed. The judge agreed and tossed the suit. Now Brito is taking another swing at it with all of the odds stacked against him. Donny’s about to lose again. One would think he might learn at some point…

Atrocity Propaganda…

by MyBaconPress

The year was 1990. Saddam Hussein asked the Bush 41 administration if they objected to him invading Kuwait. He was told the US had no opinion, diplomat-speak for “go ahead.” Hussein did. But the US should have checked with their master, Saudi Arabia, who DID NOT like that invasion at all. The Saudis told Bush to get Hussein out of Kuwait. That was the start of the first Gulf War.

WHEN one gives permission that must now be forcibly revoked due to politics, one has to fire up the army to get interested in going in an killing a bunch of people they don’t even know. A good way to do that is to let YOUR army know what terrible things that evil, immoral OTHER army is doing to people. Americans were told Iraqi soldiers were taking Kuwaiti babies out of incubators and throwing the babies on the ground. What an outrage. Well, it would have been – had it been true. But it wasn’t.

It was an atrocity that never happened. But it DID fire people up and we DID get our war. That’s the actual goal. Once wars get started, they’re hard to stop and munitions suppliers get to make lots and lots of money. The US hasn’t fought a war of actual defense since the 1940’s. Everything since has been “defending American interests,” which means the economic interests of a few rich people. They don’t seem to mind killing ‘poors’ to protect their own money.

58,000 American servicemen lost their lives in Vietnam because one boat supposedly attacked another in the Gulf of Tonkin. That never happened. 58,000 Americans and countless Vietnamese died anyway. The second Gulf War happened because Saddam was making WMD’s, remember? Only, Saddam was NOT making WMD’s. He even certified as much to the UN in writing. The US response was “too little, too late” and the attack was on. I’ll never forget Colin Powell sitting in front of the United Nations Security Council telling scare stories about all the horrible, terrible, bad weapons Saddam may or may not have while all of his credibility sloshed away from him and out the door, never to return.

It’s just the way governments gain approval for whatever war they feel like making poor people fight. It’s almost stunning. It’s so common, it has a name: atrocity propaganda. We got a BUNCH of it after the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel. We were told about all the children intentionally and brutally killed by heartless Hamas. We were told about all of the rapes and beatings and other general sociopathic abominations committed by Hamas. Did you hear the one about the baby being cut from the belly of the mother? Yeah, brutal. Also? Fake news.

It turns out? Much of it is not true. I need to be clear, here. Violence as a way of life has been ongoing between Israel and Palestinians since the 1948 Nakba, or purge. In those confrontations, some horrible events must occur. It turns out, Israel is committing them every day. It’s part of their war. But to have so many stories turn out to be less than truthful? At some point, someone should be held responsible.

Much of Netanyahu’s genocidal efforts are predicated on these false stories. The US is instrumental in killing thousands of innocent and defenseless victims based on those false stories. 47’s wider war-that’s-not-a-war with Iran can trace it’s roots back to the October 7th attack – along with the now infamous trump stupidity.

Here’s a quote from Hermann Goering, one of the most powerful Nazis of Hitler’s Third Reich.”Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” It’s not a positive commentary on humanity that he was right and people can so easily be deceived…

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Oh, I get it. So long as he’s going after hosts and shows you don’t like, it’s a-okay with you. It’s even fun. But you really ought to think about how you’ll like it when it works against you. Team Evil is attacking ABC. They don’t like some of the programming. They don’t like Jimmy Kimmel. They likely hate him even more now that Rosie O’Donnell sat in as guest host. Team Evil wants to control what the networks broadcasts.

To that end, they’ve demanded ABC apply for their broadcast license renewals early – because the regime can threaten ABC during the process. ABC has filed a lawsuit and should win, based on that First Amendment MAGA hates. But it’s going to cost them lots of money, time, and effort and it’s all because Donny is such a thin-skinned, weaselly, little whiner.

But if that’s the game, harassing networks that say things you don’t like, couldn’t that same attitude be pointed at, say, Fox Not-News? Maybe some left-leaning President down the road – yes, hope does spring eternal – decides he doesn’t like Fox’s content. Maybe he manages to force them to fire all of your favorite talking heads and change their content by threatening their broadcast license. I suspect there are a lot of people out there laughing about ABC who would stop laughing as soon as it happened to them.

That’s why one should stand up for the right thing, even when it’s a thing you don’t necessarily like. It makes it easier for people to stand up with you when it IS your turn to be attacked. I don’t like Fox Not News so I don’t watch it. Simple. If you don’t like Kimmel, don’t watch him. Problem solved. Easy. We don’t need the government dictating what we can watch, think, or say…

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Okay, so this is a personal beef. I play Madden Football, a video game put out by EA sports. I have since the very first Madden Football was introduced. Madden Football once set the standard – at John Madden’s insistence. Now? Honestly, it kind of sucks. EA managed an exclusive contract with the NFL to use the NFL rules, players, team names, etc. No one else could. That made their efforts in the area less-than. EA, essentially, had a lock on the market and used it to add stupid features while removing useful ones.

The lack of competition has really allowed EA to put out a substandard product. People have been bitching about the quality of Madden Football for years, but because EA has that exclusive license, many keep playing. The market, it turns out, doesn’t really have the power to force EA to put out a better game. So EA doesn’t put out a better game.

Now, EA has been bought by an investment group that includes Mohammed Bin Salmon, the guy who ordered Jamal Khashoggi’s brutal murder, and his good friend Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of the most corrupt President in the history of the US. I’m going to try and stop buying EA games. I don’t want to do one single thing to add to the coffers of those killers and thieves…

Donny Wants Gold…

by MyBaconPress

If I might make a confession, here. I honestly thought that 47 was decorating everything he sees with gold paint, not actual gold. He keeps insisting it’s actual gold, of course, but he lies about everything. I just couldn’t see him parting with the money for all of that gold. Then I remembered: it’s not his money. It’s yours. It’s mine. It’s our tax dollars.

He’s stripping services from all over the map. He’s not paying for anything the government normally covers – like supplies for an aircraft carrier in the Strait of Hormuz. He, personally, is pocketing more and more of our money. And the nation keeps posting record budget deficits. Maybe it IS real gold. IF it is, we, the people, are paying for it.

Do you need health care? Screw you, Donny wants gold. Inspectors to ensure food safety? Screw you, Donny wants gold. Need a little help in his crashing economy? Screw you, Donny wants gold. Social Security? Screw you, Donny wants gold. Sailors trying to commit suicide due to poor conditions? Screw you. Donny wants gold…

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Have you seen the video of that dumbass berating a reporter for asking him a question he didn’t like. She wanted to drill down on some of the issues with the USS Lincoln, but he knows his failure there makes him look even worse than normal and HIS plan is to simply not mention it. Nor to let anyone else mention it.

So, when she asked about it, he told her she was being rude and, because she was with CNN, she was “fake news,” a line he uses to confuse the base when some real news comes out that he doesn’t like. Then again, he has lived his entire life in an artificial world. How the hell would he know fake news from real news?

It always irritates me when he starts berating reporters. They just have to stand there and take it because everybody is expected to “respect” the President (or, in this case, the “President.”) I don’t see him as a tough guy when he does that. I see him as a bully. He KNOWS he’s protected. He uses that to his advantage. That makes him a bully. Worse, his most aggressive attacks are usually aimed at women. Just once, I’d like to see the bully get a little of his own back.

It would take a special set up, a “throw-away” reporter, if you will, because there would only be one shot at this. But I would just love to see some reporter 47 has called “fake news,” reply that HE is a fake President, so it all works out. Donny would explode! That reporter would never be allowed in the White House again. (That’s why they don’t do it.) But I would laugh for the rest of the day. It would be great…

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Shasta County, here in California, is planning to hire Tina Peters as an election consultant. Yeah? So? So Tina Peters is the woman who allowed people to come into her office after hours and tamper with voting machines after an election. She likes Donny, you see, and thinks he should win every election – even if he’s not running. She went to prison for what she did. She’s still on parole. Now Shasta County wants to make her an election official, likely as a finger-in-the-eye to thinking people everywhere.

Frankly, I don’t get it. She’s a convicted criminal. Specifically, she was convicted of tampering with elections. So Shasta County wants to hire her as a consultant on elections? Why does the right always seem to think that if they double down on stupid, is somehow equals clever? Thinking people have been trying to point it out for years but the more we do, the worse cons get.

They started acting stupid. Thinking people saw the behavior and said, “Wow, they sure are acting stupid.”
“Oh, you think we’re stupid?”
“Well, we didn’t. But then you started saying or doing this thing and now it looks pretty much like, yes, you’re stupid.”
“Oh, we’ll SHOW you stupid.” And then they do. I’m not quite sure how smearing poop all over their own faces is supposed to put me in my place…

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47 is forever out there, telling anybody who will listen – and I can’t believe anybody is still gullible enough to listen to him – that mail-in ballots are bad and shouldn’t be allowed in most cases. But HE still uses them. That’s just more hypocrisy from one of the most hypocritical people on the planet. He really sucks…

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Oh, jeez, do you suppose he’s really THAT dumb? (With a ‘b’?) He’s threatening yet another war. This time with Oman. Look anybody, smart or stupid, can make a mistake. People do. But to keep making the same mistake, over and over, in the hopes that maybe this time it will work out better? That’s just 100% pure stupid. I say he shouldn’t get to start any new wars until he finishes the wars he has already started…

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I saw ZZ Top in concert a couple of times. Great show. Then we lost Dusty Hill, aged 72. Now we’ve lost Frank Beard, who passed at 77. Beard played with the band for 56 years. He was the only member of the band that didn’t wear a beard – cause he wore the name, see?

It’s weird when band members you’ve known of for most of your life start shuffling off the mortal coil due to age. I mean, we’ve been losing band members forever. Plane crashes, drugs, and general hard living take their toll. But these guys survived all of that. Now they’re being taken out by Father Time, and the bands will never be the same. ZZ Top made a lot of great music. I think the best thing about them having made the big time is that their music lives on forever – even if they don’t get to…

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Hey, more gaslighting by the gasbag. 47 posted to social media – a thing he does FAR more regularly than he does any of that pesky “Presidentin'” – that “My Endorsements within the Republican Party have been virtually insurmountable! It is such an honor to realize and say that almost everyone I Endorse WINS, and wins by a lot, especially in Texas!”

He has also claimed, “If I endorse a person, they win. … With the Republican Party, it’s like, 399-0. Think of that.” Well, I have thought of that. You’re lying. By some estimates, he runs about 50-50. Overall about 55% of the candidates he endorsed won in the primaries. That’s not nothing. But it ain’t 399-0. Hell, it isn’t even “almost everyone.” It’s just over half. And that’s in a party that’s terrified of defying him for fear that he might call them a mean name…

This Time, It Really WAS Biden…

by MyBaconPress

It was way back to…oh, that’s right, yesterday when I pointed out that 47 is trying to gaslight is way to perceived success, since he can’t accomplish the real thing, lacking skill, talent, knowledge, or intelligence. I’ve been focused recently on how many times he takes credit for something someone else accomplished. That is, when he’s not desperately trying to deflect blame for the things he actually does.

To that end, he made a special effort to meet with reporters where he started flashing around a printout of an article with a headline that read, “Prescription drug prices record sharpest drop in more than 60 years.” He actually asked reporters to photograph the headline so they could highlight the thing. He wants credit for lowering drug prices and he found an article that made it look like he had done. Assuming, that is, one never actually reads the article.

You see, the piece acknowledged the drop in prices AND recognized that 47 is claiming credit, but made clear the success in lowering drug prices is the direct result of Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. Oh, Republicans hated that one. It helped people who need help. Not one Republican voted for it. Now Donny needs to steal the credit, because his own efforts at everything except crime fall SO short.

According to the article our Fearful Misleader was waving about and claiming credit for, Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act “requires Medicare to negotiate prices for some popular prescription drugs” and “is more likely to be driving down costs.” In short, Biden did it, not “Hide Me” Don. MAGA won’t know because there are none so blind as those who WILL NOT see. Or who WILL NAZI. It’s the same group.

More gaslighting from the Gas-master in Chief. I suspect that if he spent more time trying to solve problems instead of looking for excuses and scapegoats, he might not have as many problems to worry about. That thought seems never to have entered his calcified head, though…

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Isn’t it awesome how Team Evil rolled back all of those pesky regulations? Particularly, those focused on food safety. We know 47’s regime has brought back Screw Worms to cattle and a cyclosporiasis outbreak in leafy greens. Of COURSE they’re also bringing back salmonella to eggs. Of course they are.

It turns out, regulations mostly existed for a reason – and that reason was not just to make life harder for food producers. Those regulations made the food supply safer. As it happens, there are always not-smart people who will try to game the system. Always. The few always ruin things for the many. That’s just the way it is. So, regulations get introduced. They’re a small burden to some, but a great relief to the vast majority.

We could eat a salad without needing a clear path to the nearest restroom. Now, thanks to trump, a garden salad with eggs might kill you. I’ll tell you this: I don’t consider that better in any way, shape, or form…

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Around the world, weather events are picking up. Europe is experiencing record-breaking heat, for example. Japan is suffering torrential rains, bringing flooding that has killed nine so far. Here in the US, Indiana is drowning, too. Those are just a few examples. Meanwhile, where I live, the weather couldn’t be nicer. That’s a bit deceiving, though.

It’s August. Temperatures this week have held to an average around 77 or 78 degrees Fahrenheit. I’ve enjoyed every second of it, because normally, the temperatures would be much higher. Our mild summer is also a weather event. It’s just not killing anyone and, really, it’s kind of nice. If one must suffer a weather event, comfortable, shirt-sleeve weather isn’t a bad event to endure.

But if the forecasts are right, our time is coming. I’m hearing a lot about a Super El Niño, a major weather event that promises to bring rain that matches or exceeds what Japan is suffering right now. I’m seeing road crews out there clearing drainage ditches and culverts. That’s a kind of forward thinking and preparation I’m just not used to from political leaders these days. The concern must be pretty great.

Sadly, at this point, I think our choice is to get used to these things. One can prepare where one can prepare, but I think there will be things we just can’t prepare for. Things we’re just going to have to endure. It’s so stupid. We had our chance. Instead, a small group of selfish people worked to maximize shareholder value, regardless of the cost…

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“Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t goin’ away.” – Elvis Presley

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$46.5 billion dollars. That’s how much American taxpayer money the Republicans shoved into 47’s Big Ugly Bill to pay for his border wall. Yes, he DID promise Mexico was going to pay for it. But like everything else he says, he made that up. THEN, because he’s the world’s worst negotiator, he couldn’t make it happen. “Oh, well,” he thinks, “We’ll just make the rubes pay for it.” $46.5 billion dollars worth. Yet another promise made, promise not kept. This guy seems to be quite the liar, you know?

It’s coming to a head again because Team Evil has moved their construction process into Big Bend National Park in Texas. They’re doing major environmental damage. People in the area point out that there are natural barriers to crossing the border in that region. No wall is necessary. That area supports only about 1% of the total number of people crossing.

It was infuriating left and right equally, though now that the right is aware the left doesn’t like it either, they’ll switch their tunes soon enough. The right cannot agree with the left – even when they do. Team Evil is downplaying what they’re doing, of course. They pretend it’s just a survey road. One. Nobody believes them. I suspect that’s because of all of the other lies this group tells all day, every day.

Even the weasel Governor Greg Abbott opposed the wall through Big Bend. He says it’s unnecessary and the perfect place for electronic observation. I mean, this is what he voted for, even if he thinks he didn’t vote for this. I’ve been saying all along that when the country suffers because of Donny’s incompetence, it would be the entire country, not just the blue states. Cons messed around anyway. Now they’re finding out…

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I was reading an article from the USA Today titled, ‘Trump has become the very thing he fears most.’ It included this paragraph: “In Trump’s public appearances, you never hear solutions. You hear complaints. You hear insults hurled at political opponents. You see cruel theatrics mocking transgender athletes. You hear conspiracies about the 2020 presidential election.

“It’s a tired patter that might still work on the conservative base if we weren’t dealing with gas prices that are higher than they’ve ever been at this time of year. Or if the promised “Golden Age” didn’t seem like such a fabulous con.” Again, that’s the USA Today. Conservatives might be waking up…

Little Success, TONS Of Gaslighting…

by MyBaconPress

It’s the ultimate gaslight. It seems he just plans to tell everyone his preferred reality and everyone is supposed to just get on board. That’s just crazy. The most recent was when a reporter mentioned that the families of the sailors on board the USS Lincoln are concerned about conditions on the Lincoln. This, after one guy jumped overboard. 47’s answer? “No, they’re not.” Um, yeah. They are.

He says people are mad at Republicans, but not him. I know several one-time supporters who ARE quite angry with him, personally. They feel betrayed. He’s just telling the world they don’t. He’s doing the same thing with the economy. It’s perfect, don’t you know? Gas is .38 cents a gallon. Grocery stores (a name he thinks he made up) are actually giving the food away. We’re supposed to ignore how much deeper into your pocket the corporations are reaching just so you can eat and get to work, right?

Despite a court filing from his own team that the Reflecting Pool was not vandalized but failed as the result of shoddy work, he maintains the Reflecting Pool was vandalized. He prefers that idea so that’s the idea he sticks with. No evidence? No problem. He’ll just TELL you what you think.

He won the Iran war and the US is completely in control of the Strait of Hormuz. Everything is coming up roses. He’ll tell you the US is more respected than ever as world leaders laugh in his face. Under trump, and because of trump, the US is an increasingly horrifying nightmare but he’s telling you to ignore the evidence of your own eyes and stick, instead, to his lying words.

The really freaky part is that a large swath of supporters will do everything in their power to comply. Not me, though. He’s not going to simply talk me into believing things that aren’t true. He can tell me ‘affordability’ is a made-up word all day long. I know better and I won’t change what I know because he says I should. Especially since I know he’s only gaslighting like he is to try and protect his cowardly, soft self…

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Here’s a weird bit. There was a full solar eclipse across the arctic and parts of Europe on Wednesday. That’s not the weird part. Full solar eclipses happen. They happen because the moon is 400 times smaller than the sun, but about 400 times closer to the Earth. We get to see full eclipses because of that odd fact.

BUT…the facts get even more odd. You see, the Moon is slowly moving away from Earth. That means within a mere 1.2 billion years (so don’t wait up) solar eclipses won’t be possible. The Moon will appear too small in the sky to completely block the sun. Weird, eh?

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If you’re going to vandalize a national memorial AND you’ve chosen to livestream your actions under an account using your own, real name, why run away when authorities show up? That’s what Melissa L. Farris did, though. It wasn’t hard to find her, even for these clowns. Now she’s facing vandalism charges and the main available video is provided BY her and totally implicates her as the vandal.

It doesn’t make sense, does it? 47 is out there gaslighting his believers with the idea that his Reflecting Pool was vandalized only to have all of the video evidence AND a court filing undermine his delusions. (Dear MAGA, “undermine his delusions” means “prove he lied.”) Then, suddenly, a woman shows up to vandalize a completely different memorial, AND make certain to livestream it so there can be no mistake?

There was no vandal in the first episode, so there absolutely HAD to be a vandal, readily identified, in the second? The press is going to dig into Farris’ life. They’ll want to know who she is. She may turn out to be some nutball who thought she was striking a clever blow for democracy or some such, but I won’t be surprised to learn that she’s a rightie, falling on her sword in an effort to prop up her Precious…

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I once went outside at stupid o’clock in the morning to watch the Geminids meteor shower. We see it in December so it can be quite cold. The associated meteors are said to be slow moving for meteors. What I saw was, frankly, amazing. The meteors, as they passed, looked like flaming angels. One could make out a head and shoulders.

The shape was unmistakable. I knew I was looking at meteors, but in that moment, I also understood where the idea of flaming angels came from. If I were living in, say, the 4th century BCE, and had never heard of meteors, gods and angels might be the only “explanation.”

Now science thinks it may have discovered the root of some of the stories of little people from all around the world. As it happens, stories of little people like fairies and leprechauns can be found in many cultures from a wide variety of places. And, as it happens, there’s a mushroom that causes people to specifically hallucinate little people. Who knew?

If you ask me, that’s a weird little evolutionary defense. “If someone eats me, they’ll see little people.” Why would a plant develop such a weird effect? How does it know to show little people? No one can say, for sure. But researchers at the University of Utah have discovered a fungus that induces hallucinations that can manifest dozens or even hundreds of tiny people.

“People pretty much always report seeing dozens or hundreds of little people, about 3 to 30 centimeters [1 inch to 1 foot] tall, in incredible detail, like they’re actually there,” study coauthor Colin Domnauer, a doctoral student specializing in mycology at the university, said in a statement. Around 90% of the people who consume this fungus report seeing the little people, who follow the laws of physics in our world. “One person told me that while they were eating soup, the little people were jumping off their spoon into the bowl and swimming around,” said Domnauer.

In the same way those meteors might have boosted religious servitude, if one knew nothing of hallucinogens, one would actually believe they had seen little people and nothing could convince them otherwise, and fairies and leprechauns are born. Humanity shares stories of them to this day and probably will for as long as we exist. It’s kind of fun to realize those stories likely came from our forebears tripping balls from the mushrooms they ate with dinner…

Bye, Bye, Lyin’ Leavitt…

by MyBaconPress

KKKarolyin’ Leavitt is only twenty-eight years old. To be so young and to have so thoroughly destroyed her name for all time already. Quite an accomplishment. But apparently, she’s done with the self-harm for a while and she’s leaving the regime to go spend time with her family. She DID just have a baby.

The press is focused on who will do the job now. They suggest that with only three months before the midterms, it might be tough to find someone who can lie so easily and so effectively and get him or her up to speed in time. A child could do the job. Hell, a child HAS been doing the job. “Trump is perfect in every way and anybody who says otherwise is just stupid.” See? All you have to be is completely amoral and willing to lie with every breath. Apparently, if you wear a cross, Jesus might not even mind all of that bearing of false witness one does. At least, that seems to be the hope.

Donald Trump attracts amoral and immoral people like light attract moths. Finding some new scum-sucking liar within the ranks should be a pretty straight-forward effort. Maybe 47 can get Fox’s Tomi Lehren to do the job. She’s blond. She’s loyal. She’s happy to lie. She’s comfortable in front of cameras. At thirty-four, she IS a little old for 47. It’s just a suggestion. He probably has some even scummier person in mind already…

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I saw a bit in the press on Thursday that said our fearful misleader would be in Washington all day. Word was, he was participating in private meetings that would be closed to the press all day. Based on everything I know about 47, that means he’s going to spend the day watching TV and hiding in the residence. With all of this news about him fleeing his plane while leaving his staff and the press pool behind as bait, I can see it. He doesn’t want to have to answer questions about it.

Never forget, the Drumpfs changed their family name to Trump after Grandpa Drumpf (Frederick) – who made the family fortune trafficking women in the Klondike – was banished in disgrace from Germany for refusing his required military service. It set a precedent. Drumpfs or Trumps are STILL running away to this day…

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Just to touch base on it, the budget deficit for 2026, so far, is $1.8 trillion dollars. Yet another promise made, promise not kept by the Drumpfster. The thing is, he cut billions of dollars of services to the American people and the world in general. His random and not-thought-out cuts have killed thousands of people across the globe and promise to kill even more. Every time I turn around, he’s cutting some other service to the people.

So where is all of the money going? His war-that’s-not-a-war? That seems awfully expensive. I suspect the money is flowing freely into his pockets and the pockets of his cronies. I mean, why do YOU think those no-moral morons stay so loyal to him? Those are American citizen tax dollars, from the left AND the right. THAT’S why no more health care? He’s killing you to take your money? $1.8 trillion dollars. So far. It’s only August…

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The music industry is working very hard to increase interest in local, live music. No, they don’t KNOW they’re working so hard to increase interest in local, live music. They just think they’re maximizing revenues by eliminating human beings in the music manufacturing process. More and more AI slop is polluting the mainstream airwaves and it isn’t very good.

“So what?” say the industry leaders. “It’s cheap to produce and we don’t have to coddle any Prima Donnas.” Yeah, but it isn’t very good. More accurately, it’s crap. Because it’s cheap, the industry will continue to foist it on us, like it or not. Because we don’t like it, the industry will start to lose revenues. Crap product equals crap return, right? Then we’ll hear a bunch of hand-wringing entreaties, “Oh, no one buys music anymore.” “Why are they canceling their streaming services?” “What’s wrong with people?”

People will be out at the clubs and other places where they can still hear actual music, performed by actual people. The music will be people-generated. Some of it will be bad, of course. Much of it will be good. Some of it will be VERY good. But we’ll have to find it ourselves. The industry is going to press in on the cheapest option, whether that’s a good option or not…

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The jobs number was revised down for June by 37,000. The jobs number was revised down for May by 66,000. 103,000 FEWER jobs than originally reported. Kevin Hassett – or should that be Kevin Asshat? – said – and he really said this – if you don’t count the number of people who lost jobs, jobs are actually up! Well, sure. It turns out, that’s not the first time Republicans have massaged the number that way.

Evil Ronald, the Reagan, did the same thing. His team decided to count military members as employed but did NOT count the military jobs they do as available jobs. That artificially boosted jobs numbers. But it was a lie then and it’s an effing lie now. Trump is harming America and Americans…

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Our fearful misleader is trying yet another tack to get his name on the Kennedy center, one of his inexplicable obsessions. He stuffed the board with loyalist toadies who voted to renovate the center and put his name on it. The problem was, only Congress can change the name, so his name was removed. Now he’s moving forward with his plan to renovate the place, and that leaves him with the opportunity to put an inscription under the center’s official name that reads, “Restored and Renovated by President (sic) Donald J. Trump.” That will, I presume, very helpfully show people where, exactly, to spit.

Maybe it’s just me, but I think he should be spending a lot MORE time trying to end his illegal war of choice in which he’s bankrupting the nation and squandering strategic weapons stockpiles and maybe LESS time on his interior decorating passion. So far, most of his projects have fallen flat. Either the efforts fail entirely, like the Reflecting Pool, get blocked because they’re illegal, or they look cheap and tawdry. Your war, Dumbass. Focus on ending your war…

Crowley Over Hong? Curious…

by MyBaconPress

We’ve seen this before. It’s mind-boggling, but the clear message is, we’d rather lose than risk a progressive. The Democrats are struggling against the popular messages of the Democratic Socialists running for various offices around the country. Struggling against. It was most notable when the Democrats sidelined their more popular candidate, Bernie, in favor of the more centrist but FAR less popular candidate, Hillary.

Bernie would have won. People flocked to Bernie’s appealing message of change. Hillary couldn’t. Didn’t. Centrists, it seems, don’t appeal when it translates to more of the same, and that was Hillary’s whole campaign. But Democrats preferred to lose, handing the White House to Donald Trump, than risk a progressive. That ought to tell you something.

Now they appear to be teeing it up again in Wisconsin. The current frontrunner in the governor’s race is a woman named Francesca Hong. She’s trying to succeed Tony Evers, the Democratic governor who is not seeking another term. There are others in the race. One guy, David Crowley, had dropped out. He had deferred to another candidate, Sara Rodriguez, who then left the race after campaign finance “irregularities.” You know, mainstream politician.

That left the door wide open for Hong. Dems didn’t like that. Crowley decided to reenter the race. You know, to give the Dems more choices. “Please,” the Democrats pray, “Please choose the corporate guy.” According to polls, Hong was up huge. At one point, Hong had 38% voter support to Crowley’s 7%. As of Monday, her odds of winning were 95.5%. Somehow, she just barely lost to Crowley right there at the end. Now, as usual when the outcome doesn’t match the expectation, we’re being offered a list of reasons “the polls got it so wrong.” I’ve noticed the polls have been “getting it wrong” ever since we started using voting machines. Coincidence? You decide.

Hong had some baggage, including a tweet to cancel Thanksgiving and defund the police. Politically correct bunk. Cons woul certainly use that to attack her. For her part, she could only point to the most corrupt regime in US history and all the crimes and rapes and theft and bribery and fear-mongering and scare tactics and spinelessness and fealty to the trumpster and general darkness. Democrats thought it would be a tough race. They insisted they weren’t trying to sideline the progressive due to her popularity. No, not at all. Instead, they’re focused on “electability” – by working against their most electable candidate. Again.

Electability is their story and they’re sticking to it. The one thing most Americans know is that since Reagan, the US has been in assault mode against her own citizens and most of us are sick and tired of it. We preferred the land of opportunity, the home of the brave, and the great American melting pot. What we’ve gotten, instead, is trickle down theory that doesn’t work and economic disparity that makes a tiny handful of people obscenely rich while millions struggle and/or crash and burn.

Bernie promised change. Donny promised change. Hillary promised a steady hand on the never moving tiller. When the Dems sidelined Bernie, people desperate for change turned, instead, to the Dumbass. It’s not their fault he was lying through his teeth and hasn’t done a single thing to help anybody but himself. But with corporate Democrats promising more steady hand and the alternative being the insanity of MAGA, more and more people are looking to progressives.

And I’ll tell you this: if the Republicans could ignore “grab her by the…”, Democrats could certainly have ignored, “Maybe cancel Thanksgiving…”

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So…here’s a sentence I never thought I’d hear: The United States of America seems to be running out of missiles. Here’s a sentence you can always guarantee you’re going to hear: according to Donny, it’s not Donny’s fault. That boy always wants to take credit, whether he did it or not. And he NEVER, ever takes responsibility, whether he did it or not. That’s stolen glory and cowardice all rolled into one. But we ALL know 47 never takes responsibility for problems – especially when he causes them. The fact that we’re running out of missiles is just the latest.

Oh, and you’ll never guess who he DID blame. Oh, shoot, you got it. And you’re right. Biden! Biden, he says, sent missiles to Ukraine and now we’re out. What else could it be? He doesn’t even mention all of the missiles he shot into Iran. Apparently, those don’t count. Biden DID send missiles to Ukraine. He wanted to help a victimized nation defend itself from an unwarranted, criminal attack from Russia. But he left a stockpile for the US.

Donny used that stockpile to victimize Iran in an unwarranted, criminal attack. 47 has used those missiles to kill children and attack civilian infrastructure in ways that violate the Geneva Conventions, firmly establishing his bid as a war criminal. In short, Biden used missiles for good, 47 used them for evil. Biden left some for us. 47 did not. I suspect even MAGA isn’t gullible enough for this one, though they have surprised me before.

This is the same cowardly attitude that has him claiming that people are mad at Republicans but not him – as though he isn’t every Republican thought that’s allowed to take place these days. What kind of man can’t take responsibility for his own actions? What kind of narcissistic blindness allows a person to deceive himself to the point he really thinks no one will notice HE was the one shooting all of those missiles into Iran and HE is the driving force of the Republican party?

In truth, I AM mad at the Republican Party for being a bunch of spineless simps and/or collusive criminals. But I’m far more angry with the Drumpfster for choosing to do one harmful thing after another, all while shoving taxpayer money into his own pockets and sowing misery everywhere he goes…

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Did you hear? Mr Bravery flew his bribe jet over to Turkey. Then the bribe jet went to England. Team Evil announced 47 would be flying back on the old Air Force One. Then, Donny ascended the steps to the plane and gave the traditional “I made it up the steps!” wave. THEN… he snuck out of the plane on the other side – hidden in a food delivery container – and boarded yet another plane.

When all of the planes got to England, he reversed the process. Out of the military aircraft, into a food services container, onto the old Air Force One and out the door. All the while, the powder blue version of the airplane maintained the Air Force One call sign. Oh, yeah. AND, he left his staff and the press pool on the powder blue Air Force One. He protected himself and left all of those people – many quite loyal to him – as bait or cannon fodder. What a guy…

AI or aiR? I Guess We Don’t Get Both…

by MyBaconPress

It could be a science fiction movie. Aliens come to Earth but find the atmosphere just too full of oxygen and freshness. So they begin the long slow process of converting the Earth’s atmosphere to their preferred, much higher CO2 levels with a desertified landscape. It takes a while, so they hide among the locals. They use a tiny fraction of their alien technology to become ridiculously, obscenely rich so they have control.

Over time, they discover that power plants are fundamental to their goal of increasing the CO2 levels. The problem is, once they provide enough power for all of the houses and business, it looks too suspicious to keep adding capacity. It’ll still work, so long as they can focus on coal and natural gas, but it will take too long. The aliens need an excuse.

Enter data centers. These bad boys gobble up energy like small towns. Perfect. Now, alien Bezos announces that his company, Amazon, is going to build a 35-turbine, 7.6 GW natural gas power plant to service a Texas data center. It will be the largest CO2 emitter in the US, twice as bad as the next plant. With the added benefit that the data centers use massive amounts of fresh water, Texas, where this alien is building his climate-destroying machine called a data center, stands to dry up, too.

Really, it’s perfect AND it’s the conflation of BOTH of my bets as to what wipes out humanity first, climate change or Artificial Intelligence (AI). The data centers, you see, are being built, so the story goes, in support of surging AI demands. The aliens get to waste all of that water and dump all of that CO2 into the air and the masses aren’t rising up in revolt. In fact, the masses are begging for it. “Ooh, this AI is so much fun.” “How neato.” “Hey, strip that girl from math class.” “Give us more!”

It’ll be a hard movie to watch. The movie is a warning and doesn’t have a feel-good ending. Billions die rather horrible deaths. There doesn’t seem to be a hero out there, steadily working to defend the planet from the alien invaders. The Justice League was going to come out, but they’ve been bought off and now they defend the aliens. The X-men are all looking at their screens and making funny AI videos to post online. (What could be more important?) Angel just WILL NOT stop “nudifying” Marvel Girl.

I wish someone would – could – write a better ending to this thing. We go to the movies to escape the darkness of our real lives, if only for a while…

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I’ve been saying, the climate has a huge advantage in the goal of wiping out humanity, and it’s pressing in right now. We all know about dwindling water supplies and lost crops. Now we’re learning about migrating toxic insects and illnesses. A recent entry? Flesh eating bacteria. Yuck! Louisiana has confirmed NINE cases of flesh eating bacteria this year. All nine required hospitalization. Five died. For comparison, over the previous decade, Louisiana had seen an average of seven cases and one death.

It comes from a bacteria called Vibrio vulnificus. One gets it from seawater, when you go swimming in warm, brackish water. It enters the body through breaks in the skin, cuts or even just scrapes. It can kill in three days. It ain’t messin’ around. Because the Vibrio virus likes warmer water, most infections are reported from May to October, and most happen in states along the Gulf coast.

But now, thanks to climate change, the oceans are warming. That means the Vibrio bacteria family, including Vibrio vulnificus, is moving northward. Each year, the number of cases has been rising and the northernmost case of infection moves north by about thirty miles. That’s a clever trap Mother Nature has devised. The temperatures keep going up. We get hotter so we go jump in the ocean – where we contract flesh eating virus through a shaving cut or some such – and die…

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Hey, sorry about all of this. I’m not feeling nearly as dark as these two bits, so far, might indicate. Those were just two stories that caught my eye, this morning. So let’s laugh at a dumbass for a minute. 47 tried to take on a Senate candidate from Michigan. His name is Abdul El-Sayed. Well, that’s the name he uses. His actual, full name is Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed. As far as 47 is concerned, that, alone, is enough to disqualify El-Sayed from running.

So you can just bet that 47 will never, ever, mention the guy without the FULL name. It sounds so, so, Muslim. Recently, 47 decided his best course of action in attacking Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed was to attack his marriage. I just don’t get that. If there’s one topic that dumbass should keep his dumbass mouth shut about, it’s other people’s marriages. Donny has never been in any marriage he didn’t defile. I guess maybe he’s trying to turn his weakness into a strength?

Among all of the myriad, countless things 47 absolutely sucks at, marriage is right at the top of the list! To that end, 47 posted a meme that showed two photos. One, possibly Photoshopped, showed 47 and Melanomia standing together, smiling, at some formal function. The other showed the dangerous Muslim and his wife, Jukaku, out for a meal at what looks like a “family style” restaurant. 47 titled his post, “Two VERY DIFFERENT America’s” (sic. HE put the apostrophe there, not me.)

Like nearly everyone, El-Sayed is FAR smarter than 47. His response to Donny’s baby-like taunt? “Yeah, he’s right.” Then he highlighted the differences in the two marriages. “One in which your overlords are two people who don’t like each other, but join in the interest of making billions of dollars off of you – or two people who genuinely love each other, enjoyed some pancakes together, want to come together to build the kind of America where they can raise a family and know that that family is going to have the good things.”

It says something to me about MAGA that 47 knows he can simply pronounce the man’s full name and many of his base will freak out. Also, El-Sayed uses “inshallah” more than they would like, which is not at all. Inshallah is an Arabic word. It means, ‘God willing.’ Yeah, what a horrible thought to express. So, El-Sayed has a scary name. He’s a Muslim. He says scary words. Sadly, all of that actually WILL make it harder for him to get elected.

As to his policies? FAR Too many Americans will just stop at ‘scary words from the scary man with the scary name.’ “Argh! Dark skin! Crap your panties! RUN!!!” I liked it better when America was the home of the brave…

It’s Not Communism…

by MyBaconPress

We’re starting on the Capitalism/Communism argument again. Isn’t it boring? We’ve been having this argument for decades. Nobody even WANTS communism. That’s just the scary story one side tells to terrorize their own base into voting their fear. Now they’re telling it again. The sad part is, it’s a real toss-up as to whether those same people are going to buy that same tired story yet again. A conman will sell you a bridge as many times as you’re willing to buy it.

Even Democrats are freaking out because so many Democratic Socialists are doing so well in campaigns, and that scares the lard out of so-called free-market capitalists. The Democratic Socialists ARE doing so well in campaigns because they’re talking about a more equitable system, a system that gives more people an honest chance to succeed. That’s all people really want, an honest chance to succeed.

I can take it one step further, too. When most people talk about Democratic Socialism, they’re talking specifically about what is known as the Nordic model. It’s a highly-regulated, Capitalist economy. It includes private ownership of businesses but a strong safety net and controls over what are called the commons, things everybody needs like water, power, education, and health-care. Those kinds of things.

When the masses talk about the known and proven benefits of the Nordic model of Democratic Socialism,the response is usually along the lines of “This is a different country.” Well, that’s true, but it doesn’t really mean anything more than that. The implication is that they can do it, but we never could. In truth, it’s just capitalists afraid they’ll lose dictatorial control over businesses.

Besides, even capitalists know that free-market capitalism is a wildly unstable economic system subject to wide swings of equality and success. Think about the Roaring 20’s, followed immediately by the worst economic crash the world had ever seen to that point. WIDE swings. Worse, so-called free-market capitalism is pretty much opposed to democracy.

Free-market capitalism is SO unstable, capitalists try to hide it in a catchy name, the “Business Cycle.” They’ll tell you that the business cycle dictates that the economy will crash to one degree or another every seven to ten years. Really? Economic crashes are built into the system? How is that better? Is there really no way to stabilize the system? Why, yes. Yes there is. Democratic Socialism.

Oh, but – and this is already widely known – where do the self-congratulating, self-serving, so-called free market capitalists turn when the whole thing comes crashing down, as it does on a regular basis? Socialism! “Please, sir,” they beg the government, “bail us out sir.” It’s so common, there’s a saying about it; ‘privatized profit, socialized risk.’

Here’s a bit of a startling number I’ve picked up from an economist I follow: employers – and that includes the self-employed – make up only three percent of Americans. Three. That means ninety seven percent of Americans are NOT employers and have little to no voice in their workplaces. Isn’t it stupid to build a system that best serves three percent of it’s population?

Those of us who have seen the free-market failures and understand that those failures are inherent to the system are simply looking for a better way, a more democratic way. We’re asking, why not skip the darkest parts of so-called free-market capitalism and just go with the life-saving socialism in the first place? It’s a fair question and Americans are asking that question more and more…

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Democrats are war-gaming elections. They’re literally getting together and planning responses to expected and unexpected disruptions to American elections. To be clear, the only evidence of any electoral fraud I’ve seen revolves around Donald Trump, but he is selling scare stories that everyone else is cheating. They’re not. He’s lying.

But that boy regularly responds to his delusions with real-life activity. It’s less important that election fraud doesn’t exist and more important that his demons tell him otherwise. He’ll respond to those demons, evidence or no. So the Dems are trying to find answers to his attacks.

One of the biggest concerns is centered around artificial intelligence (AI). People are worried about floods of AI generated election bullpucky, intended to confuse voters by spreading false and misleading information. Will that happen? Hell, have you been on social media lately? OMG, my feeds are FULL of AI generated videos and ads already. It’s just getting harder and harder to find legitimate information created by actual people.

Even when there ARE people involved, it’s just so much click-bait. ‘The end for Trump.’ ‘Donald melts down as administration collapses.’ ‘Trump can’t take the heat.’ Uh-huh. But he just keeps going and NOT collapsing, doesn’t he? I want decent information, not click-bait. (That’s why I don’t get my news from social media, by the way.)

It can’t be good that Democrats feel the need to game-plan the upcoming elections to offset the cheating virtually everyone knows Donny is going to initiate. We all know he has to do something to save his ass. We’ve seen him trying over and over to control the outcome in his own favor. So far, he has been thwarted by the Constitution and/or Republicans who know that disenfranchising voters means disenfranchising Republican voters, too.

But 47’s desperation seems palpable. Everyone knows he’s going to do something. We just don’t know what. It’s hard to imagine. He’s a sociopath. He’ll do things normal people wouldn’t even think of, and that’s the problem. Increasingly, the fight is centered on mail-in ballots because Donny knows he can’t cheat against those. They’re the safest form of voting so of course 47 decries them as the least safe form. Lying continues to be his favorite weapon.

Donny says voters are mad a Republicans, but not him. Those are just words. If he thought voters weren’t mad at him, he wouldn’t need to cheat like he’s planning. But he IS working to cheat so he must know voters ARE mad at him, right along with the rest of the Republicans. Why wouldn’t they be? What has Donny done for anyone but himself? I’ll tell you this: I, for one, AM mad a Republicans for being so spineless AND at 47 for being so evil, so I guess Donny’s wrong again…