Author: MyBaconPress

The Midas Touch…

by MyBaconPress

All I see is unrestrained greed. Rampant and unrelenting greed. Republicans in Congress are working, literally day and night, to pass a massive tax cut to the richest people in the world. Another tax cut. They don’t need it. It won’t help anything. In fact, it will make things worse. But it’s all they can think about, throwing another penny on the pile. In order to pay for it, they see no option but to gut the social safety net.

As a direct result of the privileged class’s previous greedy moves, many Americans rely on the social safety net to survive. So here’s the question. If the richest people cut the social safety net and many Americans rely on the social safety net to survive, what happens to those who rely upon it once it’s gone? What does it say about a person who genuinely doesn’t give two figs about starving someone to death, so long as they gain another penny?

The ancient Greeks had an allegory for this about a king named Midas. You’ve heard of him, I’m sure. He’s the model for the term, ‘The Midas Touch.’ What most people know of that story is that everything he touched turned to gold. Many people think that would be a pretty great deal. These days, The Midas Touch is often used as a kind of a compliment for people who make piles and piles of money. We say it about the obscenely rich. “That guy has the Midas Touch.”

But it wasn’t a compliment in ancient Greece. It was a warning. You see, King Midas was a man born to great wealth and comfort, yet consumed by greed. It didn’t matter how much he had, he wanted more. One day, Dionysus, the god of wine and revelry, and his friend, a satyr named Silenus, were traveling through Midas’ kingdom. They got separated and Silenus decided to take a nap in Midas’ rose garden. Midas found Silenus there, recognized him, and invited him in and treated him well before taking him back to Dionysus.

As a reward for his kindness, the god told Midas he would grant him any wish. Midas knew what he wanted. He wanted everything he touched to turn to gold. The god suggested Midas think a little more about the wish, but that was the wish he wanted, so Dionysus granted it. It sounds great, right? Midas woke up the next morning and touched his bedside table and the table instantly turned into solid gold! Midas was exhilarated and started touching everything he could see. Everything he touched turned to gold. What a lucky man.

Or was he? The part of the tale we’ve just seen is pretty much all people remember about Midas and they don’t think any more about it. But they should. Midas had a lovely morning, running around touching things, turning them to gold. His greed was in overdrive. His avarice ran rampant. But after a couple of hours of turning things to gold, Midas began to feel a bit peckish.

He went to his dining table where he saw a rose. He picked it up to enjoy it’s fragrance – but it turned to gold. No scent. “I’ll have to enjoy the scent of flowers without touching them,” he thought. Then he reached for a grape. It, too, turned to gold. Uh-oh! He tried a slice of bread with the same result. Gold. Even the water he attempted to drink turned to gold. Suddenly, the “gift” which had been bestowed upon him began to frighten him. How could he eat if his food turned into gold? One cannot survive eating gold. As he began to understand his problem, his beloved daughter came into the room and when Midas hugged her, she became a golden statue.

Midas now understood that his endless greed was a curse, not a blessing. He begged Dionysus to remove the curse. Dionysus told him to wash his hands in a particular river and, when he did, everything Midas had touched returned to it’s original state. Midas hugged his daughter again and realized his avarice had nearly destroyed him. He became a very generous and grateful person and led his kingdom into a new age of prosperity for all.

Midas had the opportunity to learn from his mistake and make life better for everyone. Like any good story of redemption, that’s what he did. But today, people have lost sight of the parts of the allegory that teach the lesson. We stop at “everything he touches turns to gold” and leave it at that, as though that’s enough, and it’s a good thing. The people who hoard the wealth like to spread the idea that they amassed that wealth because they’re blessed. God wants them to have it. Outside of entertainment, one rarely sees any great fortune that was acquired or maintained by means God would approve.

Oh, yeah. God. Jesus meant what he said when he said, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” That’s pretty clear admonishment that the accumulation of wealth hurts one’s chances of getting into Heaven. So greedy people made up a story. “The Needle,” they claimed, ” is a small gate at the back of a walled city a laden camel could not pass through.” That’s not true. No such “small gates” exist. Jesus meant an actual camel and he meant an actual needle’s eye. He was saying, flatly, rich people don’t go to Heaven.

The United States of America is said to be the wealthiest country on Earth. But like all things wealth-related, that’s something of a lie. The US has the richest rich people and that pulls up the average. The rest of us? WE struggle with a lower quality of life than most of the developed world. And now? The richest people want even more – and they don’t CARE how it affects the world around them.

Had Midas not learned a lesson and changed his ways, his kingdom would have been doomed by greed. Today’s One Percent do not seem inclined to learn any lessons or change their ways. It’s as if they turned their own children into gold – then just kept touching more and more and more anyway. The children, THEIR children, are not relevant. Only the gold matters.

When an entire society becomes enthralled by the madness of greed, we don’t prosper. We suffer. When the only “acceptable” pursuit in a society is the pursuit of more money, we pay a price. An incalculable price. Neil Young wrote it into a song years ago, “They ‘give’ you this, but you pay for that.”

In the story of Midas’ Touch, one man stood to become inconceivably wealthy while the rest of his world suffered his greed. In the US, today, an incredibly small number of people, comparatively, will enjoy the wealth. Everyone else will suffer. Today, the United States is consumed by the Midas touch, but the Midas touch is the madness of greed. Greed for greed’s sake. Greed to the exclusion of all else. Greed to the point of destruction.

It’s greed so deeply entrenched, leaving people starving in the streets just so the wealthy can have a little bit more isn’t just acceptable. It’s the point. Apparently, it helps to pretend the victims of the avarice are at fault. “You’re poor because you’re lazy.” “You’re poor because you don’t manage your money well.” “You’re poor because God wants you to be poor.”

None of that is correct. The victims of the money grab are poor because they’re the victims of the money grab. And now, the masses are to be victimized again and even more, to satisfy the greed of an obscenely rich few. The United States of America certainly has the Midas Touch these days. One can only hope we realize the error of our ways before it’s too late. But I don’t see any evidence of that. All I see is greed. Unbridled, uncontrolled, unconstrained greed. The US has allowed itself to become mired in the madness of greed and it’s rapidly becoming greed to the point of destruction…

Corrupting Voting – Along With Everything Else…

by MyBaconPress

I wonder if women who voted for 47, knew they were voting to vote for the last time. A LOT of women still have that thing, that…oh, what is it? It’s that thing MAGA hates so effing much they’ve purged it from their hearts completely. It’s like, Oh, I remember: Empathy! A LOT of women still have empathy. That makes it harder to vote for the cruelty of MAGA. As far as MAGA is concerned, that means they’re weak and they shouldn’t vote.

There’s this bill, you see, reintroduced in the House, known as HR8281, or ‘The SAVE Act.’ It’s another one of those cute little acronym names of bills. ‘SAVE’ stands for ‘Safeguard American Voter Eligibility.’ See? Cute, right? Not only do you give your idiotic bill an acronym for a name, the acronym has to sound like it does something positive. They could just as easily have gone for the ‘WASH Act’ (Women Absolutely Stay Home) but that doesn’t sound as helpful.

Of course, the publicity around it, the optics, are about preventing all that “voter fraud” that never happens when all those busloads of undocumented immigrants aren’t driven around from polling place to polling place to cast illegal ballots – all under the watchful eyes of the evil Democrats.

As everyone knows (and I DO mean ‘everyone,’ even MAGA), the actual vote rigging that occurs happens when states like Virginia purge Democratic voters with not enough time to cure pretended defects, bomb threats to Democratic districts that leave active polling places “empty” long enough for…what? And Elon’s $290 million dollar donation and all those things “Elon knows about those voting machines.”

But listen, just because ‘busloads of illegals’ never happens, and has never happened, doesn’t mean Republicans shouldn’t do something to stop it, right? Since they’ve discovered they can squeeze their eyes closed tightly and fervently rock back and forth while chanting “illegals voting, illegals voting” they’ve KNOWN it must be true for a long time – and it must be stopped.

No, of course there’s no evidence. This is a self-convinced thing, not an actual thing. Still, this thing that doesn’t happen MUST be stopped. Enter the ‘SAVE Act.’ They can stop all those illegals, see, by requiring people to bring a paper birth certificate to their physical polling place to cast a ballot. And if the name on your birth certificate doesn’t match your current, legal name, you’re out.

THAT will certainly catch all those illegals, who, likely, don’t have “acceptable,” good-old American birth certificates. As it happens, there are many US citizens who don’t have birth certificates for one reason or another, as well. But more importantly? If you’re a woman (and many people are) and you’ve taken your spouse’s name (as many have done), your current legal name doesn’t match your birth certificate. Oh, tough luck! No voting for you.

Keep the bitches in the kitchens where they belong, I guess. I honestly don’t know how that makes America great again but then, my mind isn’t a morass of pretzel-twisted “thinking” simmering in a sauce of fear, anger, and shortsightedness so, I guess I’m not meant to know…

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Granted, it’s not much, but we have to find silver linings where we can, right? Republicans are supporting the firings of huge swaths of the work force. That’s going to leave a LOT of people with a LOT of time on their hands. Presumably, they’re going to be angry at the unfair treatment. (And it IS unfair to lose your job because some putz doesn’t understand basic things.)

Maybe it’s not related, but in Syria, drought caused southern farmers to head north, to the cities, looking for work. They didn’t find it because the cities weren’t ready for the influx. Do you know what THAT left? A LOT of people with a LOT of time on their hands, and they were angry. How did that play out? Oh, yeah, revolution that resulted in the overthrow of their king and the fall of THAT corrupt government.

There could have been a lesson to be learned from that. Leave it to MAGA to not learn and instead, add to the growing number of very angry people with a LOT of time on their hands. I mean, what could go wrong?

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“LONG LIVE THE KING.” Do you know who recently wrote that? The First Felon. Do you know who he was referring to? Himself. As king. You know what? Fuck that guy!

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I heard KKKaroline Leavitt whining in a press conference that the maladministration doesn’t like the term “Constitutional Crisis.” Apparently, they think it’s a bad thing for the press to report what the usurpers are actually doing, creating one constitutional crisis after another.

But before taking reporter’s questions, KKKaroline said, “Many outlets in this room have been fear-mongering the American people into believing there is a ‘constitutional crisis’ taking place here at the White House.”

“I’ve been hearing those words a lot lately,” she said. “But, in fact, the real constitutional crisis is taking place within our judicial branch, where district court judges in liberal courts across the country are abusing their power to unilaterally block President Trump’s basic executive authority.”

She lies with such practiced ease, doesn’t she? In fact, the real constitutional crisis is taking place within our executive branch, where an out-of-control, unelected civilian is bulldozing the government while Putin’s puppet looks on. The courts are supposed to step in. That’s their job. It’s IN THE CONSTITUTION! If the White House stopped flaunting the constitution, the courts wouldn’t say anything. Oh, AND, the judges in question come from across the political spectrum so the part about “liberal courts” is just a lying smear, too.

Another irritating lie 47 is trying to sell? This government has a ‘mandate.’ They don’t. The official numbers suggest more eligible voters did NOT vote for The First Felon, with the largest numbers being those who didn’t vote at all. Add in the factual detail that many likely Harris voters were illegally purged just before the election, the chicanery of the bomb threats at so many polling places in expected Democratic districts, AND Musk’s super-de-duper understanding of “those machines, the ones that count the votes” as Trump put it, he didn’t even really win, let alone receive a “mandate.”

241 million people were eligible to vote. 77 million voted for hate and destruction. 75 million voted for Harris. 89.5 million were either prevented from voting or couldn’t be bothered. Neither 47 nor Harris got them out. Setting aside the obvious cheating, that means most people didn’t want either one of them. That’s not a mandate.

It doesn’t matter, either way. The wrecking ball continues to swing and they’ll just keep lying and lying and lying to cover their asses and maintain MAGA conditioning. And it’s going to KEEP swinging until the American people rise up and take the power back – and, at this point, that’s the only way we’re getting it back…

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Okay, one last thing. I recently wrote about 47 having the Resolute Desk removed from the Oval room and suggested he was being petty about ‘Time’ magazine’s depiction of Elon sitting behind it. That could still be true, but it seems more likely, to me, that he had it removed because Elon’s kid picked his nose then wiped it on the desk. You remember, that was when the kid told The Felon to shut up because he wasn’t the President and should just go away.

You’ve got to admit, four year olds can be a bit gross but most people handle things like that with a cleaning spray and a cloth. Mr. Overreact is having the desk refinished…

*Edited to correct the House Bill number from 22 to 8281, as it should have been.

Petty Prevarications…

by MyBaconPress

It doesn’t happen very often, but it turns out, there are only two ways this thing can be. Either MAGA knew what they were signing up for, or they didn’t. If they did, if they KNEW 47 was going to hand the government over to Musk to watch the richest man on the planet attack the weakest and most defenseless people, well, there’s going to be a special place in hell for them. THEY, at least, get what they deserve.

If they didn’t though, they should really step up and say so. We’ve seen a few brave souls doing that, stepping up to confess they got played. I would guess that’s a hard thing to do, especially in this current social climate where cons reduce everything to their ridiculous “culture war.” People don’t LIKE confessing they got conned. It’s hard to blame them. They feel stupid and they’re embarrassed. Some of them will admit it, at least to themselves, and change tack. They’re not likely to swing left, of course, but they’ll pull back from supporting the conman, as well.

But after arguing with people about voting for 47, then actually doing it, then seeing the results of that vote, some become even more dedicated to their position. It would not be the first time in history someone supported something spectacularly wrong and then stuck to it in a desperate but vain attempt to prove they were NOT wrong. That’s called false pride.

But make no mistake, there ARE people out there who are all in on this. They’ll make excuses. They’ll defend his actions. For whatever reasons, they’re going to enjoy the destruction…

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Well, shit’s on now. Musk is coming after your social security. It turns out, Musk is a moron, not a genius. He’s been lying about finding people receiving Social Security checks. The problem? The people in question, he says, are 150 years old. I suppose people are supposed to believe the Social Security Administration has been mailing checks to people who are 150 years old. I suspect even MAGA isn’t dumb enough to accept that.

As it happens, the COBOL program the Social Security Administration uses, fills in a date by default when the birth date isn’t entered. That date? May 20, 1875. That date was used by the programmers who wrote the program because that’s the date the International Bureau of Weights and Measures was created. It’s an homage.

Musk is using it as a lie. In fact, he just lies and lies and lies. Like 47, he makes things up on the fly. He has claimed billions in fraud. He hasn’t proven one cent. Do you know why? He’s lying! Even when he DID try to show where he found fraud, he lied. He overstated what he found, likely because he’s not an auditor and doesn’t understand what he’s looking at, and many of his claims are just smoke and mirrors. It happens SO often and has gotten SO bad, if Musk says he found a quarter on the sidewalk (which he would DEFINITELY pocket, being so needy) I would consider it a lie until he proved it. Going forward, I recommend you do the same. Musk is a liar and he’s lying all the time. MAGA may never figure it out, but the rest of us can see clearly.

Look, it makes sense that in an organization as large as the US government, there are going to be some errors. There is going to be some fraud, waste, and abuse. That’s why we had inspectors general. They caught things. Never forget, the woman Ronald Reagan immortalized as the greatest fraudster in history, the so-called “welfare queen,” received that “honor” by getting caught! People might get away with it for a while, sometimes. Then they get caught. Then they go to jail (or in one infamous case, become President of the United States.)

It looks like ELON is the fraud, his efforts are a total waste, and his actions are abuse. Technically, that means I’VE found more fraud, waste, and abuse than Muck – and it didn’t cost you a penny. You’re welcome…

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This will be fun. 47 recently claimed that Ukraine shouldn’t have started the war with Russia. Yes, that’s exactly backwards, but what do you expect from this “stable genius?” Every knowledgeable person on the planet knows that Putin attacked Ukraine. Russia started this war without cause, a violation of the Geneva Conventions. Surprisingly, some Republicans stood up to correct the record.

“To the extent that the White House said Ukraine started the war, I disagree. I think Vladimir Putin started the war.” – Louisiana Senator John Kennedy.
“I do not agree that President Zelensky is to blame in any way…this was a rogue invasion by Russia” – Maine Senator Susan Collins.
“When it comes to blame for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, I blame Putin above all others” – South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham.
“It is quite clear who started that war. It was absolutely Russia, at Putin’s directive.” – Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski.

Those four have now committed the ultimate GOP sin; they’ve spoken factual truth. For now, for the moment, they sound smarter than 47. 47 doesn’t like people who are smarter than him – which is why he hates everybody. So, here’s the game: Let’s see how long it takes each of them to step up to a microphone somewhere and “clarify” their position to ‘Ukraine started the war.’ I mean, ‘Strong backbone’ is NOT a standard feature of Republicans, these days…

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I dunno. I think he’s being petty. A short time ago, ‘Time’ magazine featured a depiction on it’s cover that showed President Muck sitting behind the Resolute Desk. NOW, 47 has removed the Resolute Desk from the Oval Office. To be clear, this is not a completely unheard of move. Presidents can choose from something like six different desks. It’s just that the Resolute Desk has become sort of a tradition since being gifted to the White House. The First Felon says it’s only temporary as the Resolute Desk needs some work.

I know it’s a tiny little thing but I don’t believe him. The whole world has been watching Elon pulling on The Felons’ leash since taking over. 47 doesn’t seem to like it but he absolutely takes it. The word is, see, Elon can prove Elon’s efforts to steal the “election” at The Felon’s request, so Elon gets to call the shots. THAT means 47 has no voice in these matters and when ‘Time’ shows Elon behind the Resolute Desk, 47 can’t say anything. But he CAN remove the desk. Sure, it’s petty but when have you ever even HEARD of anyone as petty as Trump? If this is the only measure he’s got to “get even,” that’s what he’ll do.

Then again, maybe the Resolute Desk just needs some refurbishment…

No One Is Coming To Save Us…

by MyBaconPress

Karl Marx once wrote that religion is the opiate of the masses. That may have been true when he wrote it, but today? I’m pretty sure it’s social media. As happy as MAGA may be with the coup and destruction of the country they hated so much, Americans are angry and sad. But beyond saying so in social media – venting, if you will – we’re not doing much except sitting back and watching it happen.

There’s a possibility it’s shock. We’re all walking around in a stupor, of sorts. We simply can NOT believe what we’re seeing with out own two eyes and we’re waiting to wake up from the nightmare. I suspect there’s also an element of expecting someone else to step up and do… something. There’s THAT, too. Do… what?

I honestly believe we’re at a point where the people need to take to the streets. No one is coming to save us. If we don’t save ourselves, we ain’t gettin’ saved. The One Percent have started a full-on attack. I don’t care WHAT they say, their motivation is unmitigated greed. They want it ALL, and they want it NOW!

We can all see that the Republicans are “in on it.” It’s obvious. What seems to be LESS obvious is that the Dems are “in on it,” too. ALL of our politicians became bought-and-paid-for toadies of the wealthy after the Citizens United ruling. ALL of them. That explains why all we see from Democrats is some talking and posturing. Ooh, they’re getting ready to make their big move. Oh, they said some things. THAT’LL show ’em.

All the Dems are EVER going to do is talk. The press will cover things, kind of. Foreign press will cover them better but Americans don’t read. I suspect we’re all pinning our hopes to the courts. Maybe the courts can/will stop this. They HAVE stepped in on a few things and slowed them down, right?

Not really. In the first place, slowing things down isn’t enough. “Yes, your once-beloved country is falling into a brutal, fascist dictatorship, but now it’s going to take SIX months instead of three!” BFD. The One Percent planned this thing very well. They carried it out carefully, methodically. It took them a little over forty years but they control ALL of it. They corrupted one thing after another until there ARE no valid institutions left to step in.

There’s an expression, “Hope against hope.” It means to continue to hope for a thing, even though that thing is impossible, or nearly so. THAT – hope – is all the population has brought to the table so far. Yeah, we all know inspirational phrases, but inspirational phrases don’t stand up well to actual reality. The pen may be mightier than the sword, but the sword draws an awful lot of blood before the pen gets a chance to speak.

The Dems aren’t going to save us. The courts aren’t going to save us. I don’t think the military is going to save us, either. No law enforcement will step in. There is no brave soul in the bowels of the government that might use some obscure law. The Avengers aren’t coming.

God? Get real. There’s a famous saying scratched into the wall of a German jail, “If there is a God, he will have to beg for my forgiveness.” I know there’s a lot of talk about a super de duper being that watches over us and cares for the weak. I also know the Holocaust happened – and God watched. Just… watched. 60 – 80 MILLION people died in WWII. I guess God was having a nap. He seems to be asleep now, too. That guy is NEVER around when we need him. No, we have one, last shot at saving ourselves – and we’re not doing it.

All we have left is collective action by the masses. I’ve been watching for street protests. When? Where? Crickets. Oh, I’ve seen a couple of small gatherings of people, but it’s not enough to make the point. Instead, we’re just venting in social media. We complain that it’s wrong. It’s unfair. It’s criminal. Then we go about our day, happy we got THAT off our chests. Virtue signalling accomplished.

We have two steps left and ONLY two steps. Loud and long civil unrest. After that? Luigi Mangione. Failing that, all out war. I suspect we don’t take any action because our society has become so callous and brutal. We fear losing everything. But we’re losing everything anyway, so what have we got to lose?

Sadly, this, too, parallels the rise of the Nazis in WWII. The German population stood by then, too, and watched it happen, likely for the same reason. As it happens, they were too civilized to push back. In a few short years, they became the least civilized people on the planet. Now it seems to be the turn of the US. We’re too civilized. We’re too lazy. We don’t want to lose Netflix.

The richest man on the planet is literally taking food from poor baby’s mouths because he wants more – and we’re waiting, watching, hoping against hope. I learned a phrase when I was in the service: poop in one hand and wish in the other, see which one fills up first. Musk is doing the pooping and America is doing the wishing, and I can see, quite clearly, which one is filling up first. I’m starting to wonder who should be more ashamed, MAGA for bringing this to us, or the rest of us for our feckless response…

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Hey, if you DO want to try to get involved, you can go to this website, ‘Indivisible.org’. (This is the link. It might not be blue on your computer. For some reason, color doesn’t come through well on my site.) It’s called ‘Indivisible.’ It’s nationwide. They’re organizing. Find your group…

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As predicted MAGA does wear the mark of the beast on their foreheads. It’s bright red. It says, ‘Make America Great Again…’

It Started With Lies…

by MyBaconPress

This is not going to be an easy read and I apologize for that, but it’s important…

“The crematorium is a big building with a wide chimney and 15 ovens. Under a garden there are two enormous cellars. One is where people undress and the other is the death chamber. People enter it naked and once about 3,000 are inside it is locked and they are gassed. After six or seven minutes of suffering they die.”

“The gas canisters were always delivered in a German Red Cross vehicle with two SS men. They then dropped the gas through openings – and half an hour later our work began. We dragged the bodies of those innocent women and children to the lift, which took them to the ovens.”

Those words were written by a Greek Jew, Marcel Nadjari. He was a prisoner at Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. He was among about 2,200 members of the Sonderkommando – Jewish slaves of the SS who had to escort fellow Jews to the gas chambers. Then they had to collect gold fillings and women’s hair, burn the bodies, and throw the ashes into a nearby river. They did all of that at gunpoint, forced to comply.

“After deportation trains arrived at the killing centers, guards ordered the deportees to get out and form a line. The victims then went through a selection process. Men were separated from women and children. A Nazi, usually an SS physician, looked quickly at each person to decide if he or she was healthy and strong enough for forced labor. This SS officer then pointed to the left or the right; victims did not know that individuals were being selected to live or die. Babies and young children, pregnant women, the elderly, people with disabilities, and the sick had little chance of surviving this first selection.

Those who had been selected to die were forced into gas vans or gas chambers. In order to prevent panic, camp guards told the victims that they were going to take showers to rid themselves of lice. The guards instructed them to turn over all their valuables and to undress. Then they were driven naked into the “showers.” A guard closed and locked the doors. In some killing centers, carbon monoxide was piped into the chamber. In others, camp guards threw “Zyklon B” pellets down an air shaft. Zyklon B was a highly poisonous insecticide also used to kill rats and insects.

Usually within minutes after entering the gas chambers, everyone inside was dead from lack of oxygen. Under guard, prisoners were forced to haul the corpses to a nearby room, where they removed hair, gold teeth, and fillings. The bodies were burned in ovens in the crematoria or buried in mass graves.

Many people profited from the pillage of corpses. Camp guards stole some of the gold. The rest was melted down and deposited in an SS bank account. Private business firms bought and used the hair to make many products, including ship rope and mattresses.” – Holocaust Encyclopedia

My focus in this piece is not the victims. Today, I want to focus on the perpetrators. I want you to think about the people who committed these crimes. Not those forced to participate at the end of a gun, but the people holding the gun. How, I wonder, did an entire country devolve, morally, to a point where they could brutally murder thousands of people a day – every day?

These were once normal people. People with whom one would exchange greetings as they passed in the streets. They were bankers and builders, accountants, electricians, engineers. They were store clerks and store owners. They came from every walk of life. They went on picnics. They went to work. They went to church.

But in a very short period of time, those nice, normal people were brought to a morality so low, they could walk thousands of people into gas chambers and make jokes about the suffering all the while – or, at the very least, support those who did. Cruelty became normalized.

But how? It started with lies. At first, those people were just supporting the party, repeating the talking points. Yes, they were lying and they knew it, but they were conditioned to dismiss that “small” sin for the greater good – the glory of the party – so they did. Over time, the small, little trespasses and offenses became bigger and more aggressive. When their leader called for greater outrages, the people complied – for the party.

Hitler was named Chancellor of Germany in 1933. Krystalnacht, the night of the broken glass, was a pogrom against the Jews in 1938. Five short years, those same, “normal” people who might have doffed their hats in the street were attacking Jewish businesses and the people who owned them. The name of the event, Krystalnacht, refers to all of the glass in the streets after the rampage. The German government, at the time, looked on and took no action.

It was an open declaration of war against Jews. Eventually, the idea of holding a gun and shooting defenseless, innocent men, women, and children became normalized, necessary, even. By 1941, the so-called “Final Solution” was conceived and implemented. Much of the population of an entire nation went along. At first, people were murdered with bullets, man-to-man, woman, or child. But that became expensive and Nazi leadership wondered what kind of followers they were developing. What effect, they wondered, of all of that face-to-face, close-up killing?

I think about those people from time to time, the people who went along. What happened to them after the war? How did they go on? Even if they escaped prosecution for their crimes, how could they escape themselves? After what they did, knowingly, how did they look themselves in the mirror? How does one recover from murdering thousands of innocent people, every day of the week, every week of the year? How does one justify murdering millions for the sake of a talking point? Is it possible, did they ever stop seeing the faces of their victims?

I know that describing 1945 Auschwitz seems to have little relevance to today. It was, after all, the extreme of the Nazis. It represented a level of moral decay the world had not seen for decades. An entire nation, plunged into horror – on purpose, for the benefit of a few, small-minded, bitter and selfish men seemed impossible to repeat. It all started with casual lies, but was cultivated and nurtured until it grew into the worst ANY person could ever be, right? Maybe.

Something I’m sure of: if you had asked the German people to behave in that way in 1933, they would have been appalled at the suggestion. If you could have told them that by 1938, they would be actively attacking their neighbors and friends, their perceived opponents, in the streets, they would have guffawed and said you were an hyperbolic extremist. The idea of the Holocaust would have horrified them, back then, in the same way it horrifies civilized people today. But they didn’t STAY horrified. They were conditioned and led to it, inexorably.

Pointing out the dedication of MAGA to their own falsehoods, today, meets with the same derision, but it’s the same, entry-level moral defect that set the Germans on their horrifying path so many years ago. MAGA sees themselves as decent, honorable people. They’re only supporting the party. They KNOW they’re lying – and they know lying is a sin -but “it’s for the greater good.” Is it though?

A position that depends on lies for support, doesn’t deserve to be supported. MAGA talking points represent entry-level moral decay the world has not seen since the Nazis. An entire nation, plunging into horror – on purpose, for the benefit of a few, small-minded, bitter and selfish men. It all started with casual lies, but is being cultivated and nurtured until it grows into… what?

The last time huge swaths of a nation took to lying for political purposes, turning their backs on their own morality, there was no “greater good.” If I suggested to MAGA they could be easily led to commit similar atrocities today – up to and including killing people – they would guffaw and call me an hyperbolic extremist. They would – must – simply deny reality, especially since, in that reality, they already have.

Remember Covid-19? Human beings KNOW how to battle illness, even when we don’t yet know the details of the illness. You wash a lot. You “social distance.” You wear masks in an effort to protect people around you. But not MAGA. There were political points to be scored by refusing the masks. One’s popularity increased if they attended “Covid parties.”

Decent, still-civilized folks tried to explain to MAGA that they were putting people’s lives at risk with their frivolous attitudes. To MAGA, it was all a joke, a chance to deride “libtards.” They made fun of people wearing masks or later, who took the vaccine. They wore “neck gators” instead of proper masks, even after, or perhaps, because, it became known the neck gators actually spread the illness. People died by the thousands.

MAGA was conditioned to dismiss those victims and not think of them AS people. They reduced those human beings to their “comorbidities.” THAT let MAGA off the hook. In their minds, people weren’t dying because of MAGA unethical behavior. They were dying because they had comorbidities and, because they had comorbidities, they got what they deserved. It was their own fault for having asthma – or for being old.

“All we did was refuse masks,” said MAGA. “That’s not the same as physically attacking people.” That’s technically true, but it’s a rationality that exposes a moral decay deeper than mere lies, an easy disregard of human lives. It was a kind of passive killing; stubbornly refuse to do the ONLY thing available that might help – then watch people die. Standing by and watching people die is not the same as pulling a trigger. Blame the victims. Tease them for being victims. “We didn’t DO anything!”

But they did on January 6th, didn’t they? They actively attacked. They beat people with weapons, sprayed bear spray, crushed people in doors, broke glass and smashed fixtures. They killed people or so deeply traumatized them, they killed themselves. To this day, MAGA protects themselves, or tries to, with lies. I suspect some of them are ashamed of what they did, as evidenced by the fact that they deny their own actions. They downplay events, minimize conduct. But for many of them, they’re simply trying to deflect poor optics.

The deeper MAGA goes in defending themselves and/or their leader, the more loyal they’ll become to the movement. They have to. They know they’ve already committed some horrible crimes but they need to continue to see themselves as decent, honorable people. If they allow themselves to realize the transgressions they’ve already committed weren’t actually for the greater good, they would have to confess their complicity, their guilt.

Today’s piece is a warning. If you’re one of those waiting for MAGA to feel the effects of their choices and reject MAGA as a result, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. MAGA is not going to fall away no matter how bad things get. They can’t. They likely don’t realize it, but they’re already all in, fully committed. It would take only the tiniest of sparks to get the fire blazing.

Ironically, the relatively minor nightmares they’ve already committed have locked them in to future horrors. There’s already shame. If they didn’t do the things they’ve done for the right reasons, they’re guilty. So they’ll suffer any pain they need to suffer in order to stay, in their minds, on the right side of issues – “for the greater good.”

But if you’re MAGA, you’re already on the wrong side of the issues. If you don’t reconsider your loyalties and change paths, you WILL, one day, find yourself unable to look in the mirror. Lies and comforting stories can only get you so far. It doesn’t matter that you can pretend, to me, J6 was a peaceful love-fest. YOU KNOW what’s true! You can lie to me forever. You can NOT lie to yourself. Not for long, anyway.

The talking points were just the beginning. MAGA has already been conditioned to engage in violence, first passively, then, actively. Whatever else may be true, YOU will always know what YOU did. You’re living a life you’re going to want or need to hide from later. If you stay on this path, you will, sooner or later, participate in, perhaps celebrate, something far, far worse.

I’ll tell you this: the fix is simple – embrace truth. Stop with the “talking points.” The more dedicated you are to truth, the less likely you can be brought to atrocity. Don’t live a life you need to hide from. You can’t hide from yourself…

Dumb, Dumber, and Dumbest…

by MyBaconPress

It starts at ‘Stupid’ then looks for ‘Stupider.’ Sure, ‘The Gulf of America’ is stupid. And it’s wrong. Not just because the place is the Gulf of Mexico and has been for hundreds of years, but because ‘America’ is an inexact shorthand. But now I see that Republicans want to change the name of Greenland to – I swear, I didn’t make this up – ‘Red, White, and Blueland.’

It’s “clever,” see, because they changed one color reference to another – and the new one ALSO references the national flag of the United States. That’s some subtle genius, right there. SO subtle, in fact, the “genius” part just looks moronic…

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In response to US insanity and the attempt to take over Greenland and give it an embarrassingly stupid new name, Danes are signing a petition to buy California. For THEM, it’s satirical. They’re just trying to make a point. But, listen. I’m all in. C’mon, Denmark. You likely can’t save all of the US, but you CAN save California. Please?

I REALLY don’t WANT to live in the failed and corrupt United States of MAGA dreams. I preferred the rule of law. I preferred the Constitution…

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As of Wednesday, inflation is up 3%. The price of eggs is up 15%. So far, he’s done a LOT to make rich people richer. He hasn’t done squat to reduce the cost of living for work-a-day Americans.

On February 8th, he said this – and, no, I didn’t change a thing. This is exactly what he said. “I hear so much about the word ‘groceries.’ I used to use ‘groceries’ a lot on that trail. Uhh, a word that’s, like, sort of, an old fashioned word, ‘groceries.’ But ‘groceries’ is the word that’s the most accurate word and, uh, the price of groceries went through the roof. Bacon was… levels like nobody’s ever seen. Uh, you take a look at eggs today, I mean, the eggs are double, triple, quadr- they’re going through the roof.”

It’s a bit of a word salad but if I can make out his message, it seems that he knows groceries are very expensive. He’s reminding everyone he promised to lower the prices when he got elected. Of course, he’s ALSO accidentally reminding everyone that he hasn’t done that, at all. In fact, everything is going up again.

I’ll tell you this: he’s either an incompetent fool who simply has no idea about how to do the things he promised to do, or? He lied. There is no third possibility. He’s incompetent or dishonest. I think both. Promises made, promises ignored…

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I guess we’re going to call this “SwastiKarGate.” I wrote Thursday that I thought MAGA conditioning was going to be updated to get MAGA to buy Teslas in an effort to help the failing company. THEN, it came to my attention that 47 had arranged to buy $400 million dollars worth of the rolling crematoriums to put our soldiers in, so I posted a correction to the story. But THEN, I was informed that, no, it wasn’t 47 trying to funnel money to his boss’s company. It was BIDEN, all along. That’s the story a “state department spokesperson” told, anyway.

The story, as nearly as I can make it out, is that the armored electric vehicles were a line item in a State Department budget in December and that Tesla was the only company to respond to the request last May. (Yeah, before December. That is, apparently, before the line item. It’s weird that Tesla “responded” before the line item was put in place, right?)

I tried to verify that story but I couldn’t find anything about Biden even suggesting armored electric vehicles that was written before two days ago, when the story broke. Nothing. I would have guessed someone, somewhere would have written a story about it at the time. We know the Biden administration tried to squelch some news stories and some media complied, but Fox Not-News? ONAN? No, the right wing outlets, at least, would have written about it at the time – and they would have been outraged.

Even weirder, for some reason, 47’s maladministration scrubbed the website to remove references to Tesla and replaced them with “electric vehicles.” Apparently, 47 was concerned about the appearance of a conflict of interest. No word on WHY 47 – who blames BIDEN for everything – would suddenly move to protect Biden from the appearance of a conflict of interest, nor what that conflict might be, since Biden wasn’t the one handing the government over to the private citizen getting fat government contracts.

But do you know what? From one point of view, it doesn’t matter which administration tried to make this deal (but it really is the corrupt 47). Electric Vehicle technology is NOT up to the rigors of war. Not yet.
“Sgt. Tank Commander, why didn’t you respond to the surprise attack by our enemy at Fort Commandeer?”
“I tried to, sir. My tank was still on the charger…”

But, hey, if a Trump administration spokesperson says some words, well, a Trump administration spokesperson said some words. So, there…

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Okay, this HAS to be my favorite story of the week. During President Musk’s presser in the Oval Office – the one he brought his kid to and invited 47 to sit in on? The four-year-old reportedly said to The Felon, “You’re not the President and you need to go away.” How cute!

Do you know who DOESN’T have opinions on the legitimacy of Presidents? Four-year-olds. Oh, but ‘little pictures have big ears,’ right? It’s completely normal for four-year-olds to repeat things they hear around the house – even if those things are inappropriate to say out loud in other company. Famously, four-year-olds have terrible social filters. It’s WHY they’ll casually pick their noses in front of people.

So, if four-year-olds don’t have opinions on the legitimacy of Presidents, but THIS four-year-old says, out loud, that 47 isn’t the President and needs to go away, where did Elon’s four-year-old son hear that 47 isn’t the President?

And STILL, 47 doesn’t say anything. It’s completely clear, 47 is owned and operated by Musk. $290 million dollars. That comes out to about a buck and a half for Trump. The rest was to buy – and destroy – our government…

A Daily Decline – Into Madness…

by MyBaconPress

SO… we’ve come to the “attack judges” portion of our rapid slide into fascism. JD Vance said, “judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” completely ignoring the fact that the judges ARE allowed – required, in fact – to control the executive’s illegitimate abuse of power. And the places the judges have stepped in have ALL been abuses of executive power.

In order to support THIS lie, Vance added, “If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal.” That depends on whether the military operation was in keeping with the law or not. It MIGHT be illegal. It might be appropriate.

President Musk took to Brand X on Saturday and boosted a post from a user who wrote, “I don’t like the precedent it sets when you defy a judicial ruling, but I’m just wondering what other options are these judges leaving us?” That’s an EASY one. The Republicans could just obey the law. Simple.

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Pete Hegseth has brought back the Fort Bragg name. The original Fort Bragg was named after a confederate traitor who lost many battles for the confederacy. During a Democratic effort at political correctness, the name was changed to Fort Liberty. Americans think things should NOT be named after traitorous confederates. (MAGA disagrees.)

SO, one of the first actions of this maladministration was to slap the Fort Bragg name back on the post. Well, kind of. The original Fort Bragg was named after a confederate general, Braxton Bragg. That’s why it was changed in the first place. The NEW Fort Bragg is, apparently, named after a Pfc Roland L. Bragg, an American soldier of WWII who fought in the Battle of the Bulge and earned a Silver Star and a Purple Heart.

I have no heartburn with that. Sure, it’s a smoke and mirrors trick, putting back ‘Bragg’ by naming it after a different ‘Bragg.’ But it’s STILL a hat-tip to the idea that American military bases should NOT be named after traitors…

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I saw a SwastiKar the other day with one of those stickers, “I bought it before I knew what an asshole he is.” Then I see that sales of the SwastiKar are falling and the stock is dropping. I would never own one, knowing what I do about their tendency to burst into flame in crashes, burning the occupants alive. But if I DID have one, I’d be focused on unloading the thing at the first possible opportunity. (It wouldn’t be easy. Those things are stupid expensive and people who buy them are, likely, trapped in them, financially, for a while, too.)

As Muck has burst onto the scene, the sales of his cars have become, well, verboten. Or at least discouraged. Cons have been conditioned to hate electric vehicles (EVS). They’re told they should stick to fossils, so, mostly, they do. The left embraces EVS, but they aren’t interested in buying from a guy who throws Nazi salutes. NOW who is Tesla going to sell to?

I’m going to make a prediction, here, connecting those two dots. First, MAGA has been conditioned to believe that ALL electric vehicles are bad. Second, recently, sales of the SwastiKar have fallen off badly around the world. Not coincidentally, the stock price is falling, too. So here’s the prediction:

I believe that MAGA conditioning will be updated very soon to include the idea that Musk and Musk alone has solved the “environmental damage” of the EV, making it okay for MAGA to buy SwastiKars. Then MAGA will be “encouraged” to buy Teslas. If MAGA doesn’t start buying them, soon, nobody will be buying them.

Otherwise? What happens to companies when nobody buys their products? Tesla’s board ought to dump that anchor around their necks while they still have a chance. Musk is killing the brand…

UPDATE: Also, Thursday, 2/13. Wrong, already! I’m still trapped by all that time I lived in a decent, honest country, so I completely overlooked the possibility that the now corrupt US government would order several hundred armored SwastiTrucks. That, too, will bail out Tesla. It’s a good thing Elon and Donny are being so fucking transparent about the obvious conflicts of interest…

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Gulf of America. What a moron. Which one? There are three, North America, Central America, and South America. Calling the US “America” has always been wrong. Then again, maybe he meant to be inclusive. In order to get it right, at the very least, it should be the Gulf of the Americas. (I know, when has MAGA ever been concerned about getting things right?)

Google has updated their maps app so it reads ‘Gulf of America’ if you’re in the US. People have been suggesting ways to send feedback to the algorithm. I went through the steps and sent my feedback. THEN, I realized, there’s a better way.

Google has now made clear they will readily deliver false information if they have a reason to do so. THAT makes them an undependable source. Go through the steps to send feedback if you want to, but then? Stop using Google! Not just the maps, the whole thing. There ARE alternatives.

There are other search engines. I use DuckDuckGo. (Yes, that’s what it’s called. I didn’t name it.) Dump Chrome. I use Firefox. It works fine. In ANY browser, there’s a place where you can choose a default search engine. Find that place and put in one of the others. (They usually offer a list.) Don’t use Chrome, don’t use Google. If you want to ‘send a message,’ send it by impacting their money by NOT using their products where you have a choice. Your money is what gave them the power to destroy your nation. Take it away from them by not using their products…

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As a closing thought, after WWII, curious people went to Germans and asked them how such a thing could have happened in a country full of thinking people, in a functioning republic. The general answer was that people were waiting for a big moment, some grand abuse that made it clear they were sliding into fascism. No such moment ever came. It was all a slow drip, one smaller outrage after another, that culminated in what the world knows today as Nazi Germany.

We’re now living the SAME slow drip here in the United States. There will never be a big moment, so don’t wait for it. These slow drip abuses ARE the big moment…

Fakes and Frauds…

by MyBaconPress

This is weird. Some of the people who call themselves MAGA, ALSO call themselves Christians. Now, as we all know, MAGA is a group that thrives on other people’s tears, just like Jesus taught, right? Apparently, MAGA has a new definition of Christian, the kind where nobody has to follow any of the teachings of Christ, but they STILL get to call themselves Christian and they STILL think they’re going to Heaven.

Trump, though, has a personal pastor he prefers. She’s a “prosperity theology” minister. The First Felon signed an executive order establishing a White House Faith Office and chose Pastor Paula White-Cain, his personal spiritual advisor, to lead it. Just look at this woman.

Possible woman, possible mannequin.

When I first saw that photograph, I thought someone had set up a sex doll in the White House as a joke. Then I realized the mouth is wrong for that so I suspected a mannequin. But, no. This is an actual person. She’s SO heavily reconstructed, she doesn’t look real anymore. No wonder she advocates prosperity theology. I’m guessing she needs a LOT of money for all that plastic surgery and hair dye and those dead, distant eyes.

“Prosperity theology” is pretty much the exact opposite of every word attributed to Jesus. It teaches that the most faithful people are rewarded with great Earthly wealth and power. Can you see why rich people cling to the concept? It justifies all that selfish evil they commit in order to become rich in the first place. As a bonus, it also blames poor people for being poor. If they only had more faith… Uh-huh…

But SOME of the MAGA so-called Christians, hate-filled though they are, correctly reject the idea of prosperity theology. They’re very unhappy 47 chose this particular person for the role. They wanted someone THEY count as Christian. They’re surprised Mr. ‘Two Corinthians’ has a distorted view of the Bible.

Some guy named Scott Ross posted that, “Arguably, this is the worst and most dangerous thing President Trump has done—putting a false teacher at the helm of faith outreach. Lord, have mercy on our country and this administration.” Mr. Ross has no concerns about the people Trump has already killed or the people he’s setting up to die in the very near future. THIS is “the worst and most dangerous thing President Trump has done…”

Do you know what she isn’t, though? A white male. 47 didn’t hire the best person for the job, right? She’s clearly DEI, right? I really wish that, for once, MAGA would pick a position and stay on it…

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During the campaign, Trump was invited to an interview with ’60 Minutes.’ He declined, knowing he can’t sit for a real interview with a real reporter. Kamala Harris was also invited. She CAN do real interviews. So she did. That really irritated The Felon. She came off looking good. He really hated that. So, of course, he sued CBS. He’s pretending CBS carefully edited Harris’ interview to make her look good. When he filed the suit, he claimed $10 BILLION dollars in damages. IS being exposed as too scared to sit for an interview really worth $10 Billion dollars, particularly since HE was the one, um… exposing himself?

CBS is battling the suit. Trump’s team demanded the full, uncut recording of the interview. I presume they were expecting to find the edited out parts where she drooled and stumbled over her words. CBS complied. They handed the footage over. Oh, THEN they released the footage to the public, both the raw video and transcripts. NOW how can Trump lie about it? Fear not, he will anyway.

Wait, what’s this? Oh, he has filed an amended petition, doubling the amount of damages he suffered to $20 Billion dollars. He has added completely impartial Ronnie Johnson, er, Jackson to the suit as a Texas consumer who was defrauded by the interview. Trump needed a Texan on the suit in order to justify having the case judge-shopped IN Texas.

When lying ‘Fox Not-News’ lost their defamation case against Dominion voting machines, it cost them nearly ONE billion dollars and they have, well, not straightened up, exactly, but they DO make more of an effort not to get caught just making things up these days. It hurt ‘Fox Not-News.’ So, obviously, Trump is filing for $10 Billion, no $20 Billion to make sure he hurts CBS and ’60 Minutes.’ It’s just an intimidation tactic.

I’ll tell you this: I remember when Republicans HATED frivolous lawsuits…

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Apparently, President Musk is coming after the VA, now, and Pseudo-President Trump seems on board. That’s certainly unexpected. It’s clear ONE of them expects to be dictator, here, in the very near future. They’ll have to fight it out between themselves to determine which one gets the nod, but either way, it’s unusual for dictators to anger the military. Dictators often rely on the military to protect their evil selves…

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Okay, so I watched. It became clear to me I was going to by Sunday morning but I never did get any too excited about it. Well, until the game started and Philadelphia dismantled Kansas City. That was something. Kansas City looked lost from the start. They couldn’t even score until late in the game when Philly started protecting players.

There was one odd call, early in the first quarter, followed by another odd call that kind of made up for the first one. After that, the officiating seemed pretty good. Mahomes got hit the way other football players get hit and didn’t draw any special flags. That really seemed to rattle him. Apparently, the special flags during the regular season really did help – a LOT.

In truth, a lot of Supper Bowls are one-sided blowouts and this game was no different. It’s weird to see a team that successful play like a cellar-dweller in the biggest game of the season, but it happens a lot. So, one starts paying attention to other things.

Apparently, MAGA booed Taylor Swift. That’s got to be weird for her. Who the hell boos Taylor Swift? MAGA, that’s who. Swift committed the unforgivable sin of supporting Biden in the last “election.” Oh, sure, they’ll still buy her music, but in public, when they want to make a show? Just consider the source, Taylor, and Shake It Off…

The LAST time 47 infested the White House, the Eagles won the Stupor Brawl. As is/was tradition, the winning team received an invitation to the White House. So many of the Eagles refused to go, the White House cancelled the event. So, naturally, when THIS game came up, The First Felon used his awesome powers of perception to pick the winner and, obviously, he’s going to choose Kansas City, whose Quarterback has a publicly MAGA wife. (That team might even have gone to the White House, had they won, and been invited.)

The game didn’t work out well for Trump (or Brittany Mahomes, for that matter) so he left early. The team that stood him up was throttling the team Trump had picked to win. I wonder if the Eagles will get an invitation to the White House. I wonder if they’ll go…

Paths of Destruction…

by MyBaconPress

Oh, the damage he does…
47 shows up and one of the first things he does is attack the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The NEXT thing that happens? Planes start falling from the sky (or crashing into each other) at a startling rate. Sure, MAGA will blame Biden… or Obama… or China or some other unrelated person, place, or thing. BUT…

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A new gold standard of evil?
Since 1945, Adolph Hitler has been the gold standard of evil for most of the world. Whenever anyone wanted to point to peak evil, they pointed to Hitler. I suspect, by the time he’s through, the world will point to Donald TRUMP as the new exemplar of pure evil.

Remember, you have to compare Trump to Hitler at the rise of Hitler’s power, not the end. BY the end, Hitler was responsible for 60 million deaths, but he didn’t start that way. Trump only has one million, so far. His move to compete for the title has seen him remove every environmental regulation he could get away with. And as soon as he can, he’ll remove the rest. Yet another move that’s great for corporations, terrible for humanity.

I suspect the ONLY thing that will prevent 47 from formally taking the title will be in rendering the planet completely unfit to support human life at all. I mean, killing off billions of people will easily grant him the title of “most evil,” but nobody will be around to say so…

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Let’s hold a different image…
I believe that people are composed of energy and that the energy of people can intertwine. The simplest example of what I mean is that thing where you get to thinking about someone you once knew and saw often, but you’ve lost touch with through the years. Suddenly, your phone rings and on the other end is the very person in question. If you’ve been alive for very long, you’ve experienced the phenomenon.

Mary Kay cosmetics (stay with me, here) has a message they teach their sales consultants: ‘What you think about, you bring about.’ They MEAN, picture yourself getting the sale. But the idea works with a lot of things. People write books about it from time to time. ‘The Power of Positive Thinking,’ that kind of thing. The catch is, the thoughts don’t HAVE to be positive to bring about results. Negative thoughts can yield negative results.

Right now, around the world, people are envisioning Trump succeeding in his efforts to destroy the US – even if they don’t mean to be doing so. MAGA, of course, is so happy as to be barely containable. Ecstatic, in fact. MAGA is wishing and hoping and hoping and wishing for him to burn the whole place to the ground. They can’t WAIT for him to start hurting people – the more harm, the better – and they don’t even care that they’re going to be among the harmed. They just want him to fuck things up and they keep a clear image of his “successes” in their minds. “Ooh, look what he’s destroying today.” (Can you imagine, living a life of cheering the Four Horsemen?)

On the other hand, sane people are living in day-to-day dread, anger, and sadness that he’s burning the whole place to the ground. We’re focused on it. We think about it. We worry about it. We fret the details. Yes, it’s for different reasons, but the end result is, WE keep a clear image of his “successes” in OUR minds, too. My concern is, what we’re worrying about, we’re bringing about.

The thing is, that means everybody, MAGA or otherwise, is maintaining a clear image of his “successes.” If you oppose what The First Felon is doing, you have to stop doing that. You don’t mean to be, obviously, but you might be helping him. You have to change the image you’re holding so you can change the energy you’re enabling.

When I realized all of this, I developed a different, random mental image of him. He’s just laying there, looks like he’s asleep. He even has a trace of that moronic smirk of his. He looks peaceful and serene and he’s cradled in a well-padded, well-appointed box. I make NO effort to determine HOW he got there. That’s not important. I’m going to let the universe take care of that part. What IS important, is that I’m no longer focused on his “successes,” either through happiness nor fear.

If I’m watching him on TV or something, of course, I see him, moving, talking, breathing, just fine (for him, I mean). But in my mind’s eye, when I think about him, the picture is different and I hold THAT image instead of fearing his success. If you oppose him, YOU need to change the picture, too. If we all use the same, basic, image, THAT will be the energy we’re putting forward.

I don’t know if it will work. Even if it does, I can’t say how long it might take. But I CAN tell you that since I took up the practice, it has gotten easier to do. It wasn’t difficult to learn to switch to my replacement image, and it’s only been about a week that I’ve been trying. Oh, and I’m very much happier, not adding energy to his destructive path. Try it yourself. You’ll be much happier, too…

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I really need to lighten the mood…
I know it can be hard to tell, but I DO try to be fair. I’m definitely in the camp of those who suspect the NFL has “managed” the outcome of games in an effort to sell tickets. I think the fact that they’re legally registered as a ‘Sports Entertainment League’ puts them roughly, on par with ‘Big Time Wrestling,’ a “league” famous for fixing outcomes. But nobody was betting on the wrestlers. Most people KNEW it was fixed and wouldn’t be so stupid. I doubt it was even possible.

Now, though, the NFL has “partnered” with sports betting site ‘FanDuel.’ They’re expecting over a BILLION dollars to be bet on the Stupid Bowel, alone. “Managing” the outcome of games would also qualify as bet-rigging, wouldn’t it? Fixing games might be okay under their legal makeup but would definitely open the NFL up to civil lawsuits over rigging the games and affecting bets.

I wanted to mention it because I think it’s the best argument against those (of us) concerned that some unnamed players (rhymes with ‘catacombs’) have been receiving helpful calls all season. It IS possible the NFL is just trying to take extra-special care of their extra-special star. They didn’t used to do that. Quarterbacks used to be football players, too.

Actions Speak Louder…

by MyBaconPress

Illusions…
It’s weird, but it seems the ONLY person on the planet who thinks Donald Trump is the actual, acting President IS Donald Trump. EVERYONE else seems to believe the person running the show, title or no title, is Elon Musk. ‘Time’ magazine put a photo of Muck behind the Resolute Desk on the cover. 47 pretended not to care, but asked if ‘Time’ was still around, suggesting he didn’t know that. That’s Trump-talk for ‘I don’t like what they printed.’

But then Trump failed to follow through with his usual bluster and start calling Elon names. Remember when people started suggesting Steve Bannon was really in charge? He got the ‘Trump Dump’ and was out, with a few insults on the side. But with Musk? Trump just tucks his tail and lets Elon run wild. In Trump world, that suggests Elon has something on Trump so Trump has to behave…

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Confusion…
The truth is, we shouldn’t get confused. In a very real sense, this is not the coup. This is simply the culmination. The actual coup took place January 21, 2010. That’s the day the Robert’s Supremely Corrupt Kangaroo Court handed down their traitorous ‘Citizen’s United’ ruling. That’s the day politicians – ALL politicians, left and right – started being purchased by those with money. You either played the game of the rich and powerful, or you found work elsewhere.

That’s why it will prove to be a mistake to wait for the Dems to “do something.” For one thing, there’s not much they CAN do, but even if there was something, they wouldn’t do it. They’re not allowed to. They can pretend to fight back, but their job is to lose, so lose they will…

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Louder Than Words…
Finally, we’re starting to see some action in the streets. Signs are being painted. Bullhorns are being dusted off. People are protesting. It’s only a start, but it’s a start. We need a LOT more of this. Bigger, louder, and longer protests. I think people should follow Elon around, everywhere he goes, and warn everyone in the vicinity to lock their doors as he shows up. I think people should chain themselves to buildings. I’m glad to see people taking action. It’s the tool we have available, protest.

It’s not going to stay easy, though. Right now, the protests are smallish. This is not a huge thing, yet. As they become larger, 47 will push back. There will be confrontations that result in even larger protests. There will be confrontations that result in injury and possibly even deaths. “Overwhelming force” is the dictator way. He’ll call out cops. He’ll call out the National Guard. This criminal MAY call out the regular army.

But the American people are the “overwhelming force.” What we have working for us, perhaps the ONLY thing we have working for us, is the numbers. MOST Americans do NOT want these things to happen. MOST Americans recognize that, yes, the government has issues, but burning the whole thing to the ground is NOT the best answer to correct things.

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A Few Connections…
SO… 47 claims he “got the water flowing” in California. He did, too. It has long-since been part of MAGA dogma that California mismanages it’s water supply. It’s not true. California gets that blame because of droughts caused by the fact that much of California is a desert. But on top of THAT, there’s always MAGA’S climate change. (MAGA fought the truth. MAGA owns it, now.)

Much of LA burst into flame, recently, and the hydrants couldn’t do their thing because of the simultaneous demand all over the system. As far as MAGA was concerned, that was proof they were right. It turns out, they were STILL wrong. But, because The First Felon had flapped his jaws on the topic, he had to do SOMETHING to, you know, “show California how it’s done.”

To that end, he ordered two Federal dams to release a bunch of their water so the water could “get to LA” – and, of course, because of DEI. (I don’t know, you figure it out.) MAGA got to enjoy a little waking wet dream over their he-ro. But, of course, it was a show and in this case, a costly one.

In the first place, the fires were contained before he ordered his pretended-to-be-helpful water release. But the really important part? THAT WATER HAD NO WAY TO REACH LA! That water never got to LA. The farmers in the area had to beg the Feds to stop the release before their farms were flooded. The water flowed to an empty lake bed, where it will now evaporate, unused. Clever boy, Donny.

But that water wasn’t just sitting around waiting for someone to figure out how to use it. It was for farming. You know, during the time farmers actually farm and NEED THE WATER? In an effort to pretend he was “in command” and knew what to do, He WASTED up to 5 BILLION gallons of precious California water. Wasted. Now we ALL know who really mismanages California’s water: The First Felon, Donald J. Trump.

Dear MAGA, you’re going to feel that, right alone with everyone else, this summer, when you go to the grocery store and food is through-the-roof expensive because your “he-ro” wasted the necessary water trying to prove he isn’t an idiot (but accidentally proving he is). The farmers won’t have what they need. YOU will pay more. Of course you’ll blame Biden. Or Obama. Or “Newscum.” You’ll be wrong. And wrong. And wrong, again. Donald J. Trump is to blame. Nobody else. Donald J. Trump. What a waste…

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Don’t take the bait…
I don’t know who needs to hear this but when it comes to 47, one has to learn to give everything he says about 24-48 hours before reacting. It’s almost amazing how often that boy flaps his jaws about stuff he doesn’t understand and never intends to do. He’s just blathering. You can usually tell because one of his enablers will quickly step forward to “walk back” whatever stupidity he uttered on a whim.

Donald Trump is 99% mouth, and, really, too lazy to take action on the remaining 1%. He even sits to sign his illegal Executive Orders. If he tells you he’s going golfing, you can take THAT to the bank. Everything else? Wait a beat. Give him a minute. Someone, somewhere will explain to him why this plan or that intention won’t work – and he’ll walk it back.

Because he’s a psychopathic narcissist, he NEEDS you to believe that no matter what it is, no matter how obviously stupid, “people loved it.” He’ll always tell you, “People loved it.” But then he backs off of it and it goes away. I’m saying, don’t put your money down on a condo in Gaza. That ain’t happening. He said so. He said, “People loved it, (editor’s note: see?) but now’s not the time.”

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A Possible Positive?
Obviously, I bash The First Felon a LOT in these pages. He makes it so easy. But he’s got California’s pretended super-fast choo-choo in his sights and if he can put a stop to THAT boondoggle, I’ll be happy to give him credit (ACTUAL credit) for the deed.

That train has been a flop since the start. It has cost (read: paid someone) BILLIONS of dollars and there is absolutely, positively NOTHING to show for it. Even the scope of the project has been scaled back. Now, if it ever goes at all, it’s supposed to run between Bakersfield and Fresno. I don’t mean any offense, here, but who the hell wants to go to either Bakersfield or Fresno? And, more importantly, why would you need to travel between those two towns at a higher rate of speed? I mean, obviously, someone might need to get to Bakersfield or Fresno but nobody needs to get there quickly.

I’ve long since believed that train is funneling money to someone, somewhere. At BEST, it’s been a make-work program, generating jobs. I have to believe there are other jobs to be done that would, indeed, make work but ALSO be functional for something. If I have to root for 47 to get the thing stopped, I’m rooting…