So…now that the Republicans have settled on a Speaker, they’ve decided to get down to doing the important things – like investigating Hunter Biden. Great. That really needed to be done, didn’t it? Here’s a primary difference between the conservative base and a left-leaning base: do your investigation. If you find something, follow it up and pursue a proper coarse of action. If Hunter committed a crime, he should be punished accordingly.

I’d guess the attitude displayed here is common among progressives and Democrats. Contrarily, the attitude from the conservative base when one of theirs gets caught committing crimes? Ignore it. Deny it. Defend it. Under NO circumstances is a conservative to be made to take account of their actions.

I’ll tell you this: Progressives and liberals believe in the rule of law more than conservatives…

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The other day, the Federal government released a jobs report. It said that companies had added workers. It also said that the wage gains those workers had been enjoying were slowing down. The Dow responded by jumping UP 700 points. Reducing wages for workers causes the Dow to jump UP? Of course it does. The other thing the Dow has gone up for recently was when the Fed announced they were not going to lower interest rates as a means to raising unemployment. My, that seems…counter-intuitive.

Do you know WHY the Dow goes up when life gets worse for the working man? Because the Dow is not the economy. The Dow is more of a CEO Happiness Index. When workers gain, profits slow. Profits don’t disappear. In America these days, multi-national corporation’s profits are obscenely high. (In this case, I can’t define “obscene” but I know it when I see it…) One could cut the profits in half and give the money to the workers who produce the wealth. The company would still be profitable. But not AS profitable. Lower profits means lower stock price and lower stock price means the CEO’s compensation goes down. (CEO’s get “paid” in stock, commonly, because the only get taxed at the Capital Gains rate of 15% percent rather than paying the working man’s rate of 32%.)

Every day on my morning news they “report” on what the Dow is doing as though that has something to do with anything, complete with a little pre-orgasmic shudder when the Dow goes up. Then they cut to stories about homelessness and deaths of despair and rising crime rates as though the two are not directly related. The “news” offers a wide variety of explanations as to why quality of life in America has consistently gone down for the working class while the owner class lives better than ever – and never once touch on the real reason: desperation and poverty. They’ve even tricked much of the population into applauding increases in the Dow and fearing the drops.

I’ll tell you this: All of this is the direct result of policies pushed by conservatives for the last forty years. “Deregulation,” they call it. It’s been lovely for the people with money and market power. Less so for everyone else. Every tick UP of the Dow is a tick DOWN in the quality of life for the working man…

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Human beings are not the fastest animal on earth. We can’t fly at all. We can only swim short distances, not too far from shore and not too deep. We don’t have weapons (tools?) attached to our bodies. We, the species, weren’t given any of the tools the other animals have yet, over time, we’ve out-done them all. We can cross greater distances at greater speeds in our machines. We can fly higher and faster than any naturally flying animal. We can “swim” across – and to the bottom of – oceans. We can destroy even the fiercest of creatures before they can get their natural weapons anywhere near us. We’ve out-done them all. How? Our brains, the gift we received from nature.

Not one of those achievements is frowned upon by the church. We used our brains to figure out solutions to every one of those concerns and everybody just cheered. But when we also used our brains to understand and figure out how to manage our reproductive process, the church stepped in and called that a sin. “Leave it up to our God,” they pretended. One can trace just about every problem the world faces today to the simple fact that there are just too many of us.

In 1970, the world population was estimated to be 3.6 billion people. Today? 8 billion. See, religions know that the best way to get new people giving them money is to have them born to that particular religion. It’s harder to convert someone than just raise them up in the “tradition.” The result? They disapprove of managing reproduction. Sure, the world would be a better place but the church(es) would lose money. The churches aren’t alone, though. Businesses also know that more people competing for jobs means less compensation required to get those jobs done. Overpopulation serves business in the same way it serves religion; it’s good for profits. But it’s all bad for the common man. We need fewer people. Period.

There’s a current trend among “the youngs” where they’re not having babies and people are hand-wringing and trying to find out why. Of course, pure Capitalism demands that the “answer” may NOT include “it’s just too expensive to try to raise kids anymore” so we’re told it’s probably social media. Oh, we’re also not supposed to mention that the world has become – again, thanks to corporate profit pursuits – far too dangerous and unstable to risk bringing children into it. Okay, so…video games! Let’s say it’s video games.

Corporate media will point their grubby little fingers at anything and everything except the real reason: overpopulation. Not having babies is the right thing to do. Not having babies should be encouraged by governments, not lamented. Not forced, mind you. That doesn’t work. Just…encouraged.

I’ll tell you this: I’m glad to see it happening and I hope the trend continues. It may prove to be too little, too late but if there’s going to be any chance at all of the human race continuing much longer, it will be found in having FAR fewer of us competing for increasingly scarce resources…

Well, ladies and gentlemen, what you’ve seen before you for the last four days is an example of the kind of governance we can expect from a party that no longer believes in government – the Republicans. After fourteen attempts, Kevin McCarthy managed to bribe and cede power to enough of the Freedumb Caucus to take the Speaker’s gavel on the fifteenth ballot. “Never Kevin” became “Okay, if you give me enough, maybe Kevin.” Six of them never did vote for Kevin, though. They voted “present.” Their abstention opened the path the McCarthy’s “victory.” One guy, Alabama Republican Mike Rogers, had to be physically restrained during an argument with Matt Gaetz. Quality work there, guys…

Voting in the new Speaker is supposed to be pro-forma. Now, it’s true the Democrats didn’t do anything to help the situation but they shouldn’t have had to. (And why would they? It was such fun watching these bumbling fools pretending like they know how to govern.) The Republicans have the majority and their choice for Speaker might well be the easiest legislative process they’ll face – and they couldn’t even agree on that. Lovely. I suspect the American government will be on hold for the next two years as the Freedumb Caucus obstructs…well, everything, really. On the one hand, this is good. They won’t be able to come together to do the harm they love so much. On the other hand, the government has things it’s supposed to do and those won’t get done, either.

Nobody should be surprised. The so-called Freedumb Caucus should never have had that kind of power. Hell, they should never have been elected to Congress in the first place. These aren’t principled opposition members. These are lunatic Libertarians pretending to be Republicans in an effort to achieve some level of relevance. They succeeded, too…for awhile. As time has passed, they’ve increasingly dropped their cover and become more openly vocal about their hatred of government, the American government in particular, and their desire to simply burn the whole thing to the ground if they don’t get their own, whiny way.

20 members of the House of Representatives held up some 350 million people simply by being unreasonable, obstinate assholes. Talk about tyranny of the minority. And the tyranny will continue, all day, every day. They’ve now proven they can stop anything at any time just by stomping their rhetorical foot, holding their breath, and energetically shaking their head “no” until they do more damage to their already impaired brains.

The American people need to pay attention to this debacle as it plays out. Maya Angelou said that when someone tells you who they are, believe them. The Republican Party has just put on display exactly who they are for the entire country – no, the entire world – to see and it isn’t pretty. Or functional. Believe it…

I feel badly for the old-school Republicans. I know. I was surprised, too. The old-school had positions I disagreed with but they DID believe in compromise government and getting things done for the good of the country and Americans in general. This new breed? The disguised Libertarians? Useless. They were useless as Libertarians, which is why they usurped the Republican party in the first place, and now they’ve pretty much doomed the Republican party to the same irrelevance the Libertarians proudly enjoy today. Now, though, old-school Republicans who still believe in governance have no place to go. Nobody represents them.

I’ll tell you this: what we just witnessed from the Speakership battle is just a prelude to what we can expect for the next two years out of the dysfunctional House of Not So Representatives. If the American people can’t find a way to eliminate this sorry group of puny minded morons – and do it soon – this will be our future, the Idiocracy, indeed. That is NOT an exciting prospect…

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If you’re not a fan of American football, you might not enjoy this next bit. By now, you’ve heard that Damar Hamlin had a heart attack and collapsed on the field during a game between the Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals. To be clear, there’s nothing organically wrong with Hamlin’s heart. He suffered a freak accident that stopped his heart. It happens in the US about 30 times a year, here and there. The NFL cancelled the game. Mr. Hamlin is fine, now, so we can get back to thinking about the implications of that decision without feeling like an insensitive s.o.b.

It’s playoff seeding time in the NFL. The team in first place gets a first round bye. That means they don’t have to play and they get an extra week’s rest. It’s their reward for being the best that season. The decision to cancel the game had huge implications. Before Hamlin’s event, the Bills held the number one seed. The Bengals were in a position to take it away from them and that was what they were playing for in that game. When the game got cancelled, the Bills no longer held first position. Neither did the Bengals. Now the Kansas City Chiefs are in first place and looking forward to the first round bye.

These days, professional sports are polluted by gambling again and one can openly bet on anything. People place bets on who will win the Stupor Bowl before the season even begins. I’d guess the same is true for conference champions. Think, for a minute, about the people who picked the Bills for conference champions and were well on their way toward winning money when the NFL stepped in and just…took the win away. I also found myself thinking about all the other money that was on the line. Cancelling that game likely cost the NFL and broadcasters and advertisers millions and millions of dollars. Local bars and restaurants hosting watch parties lost out on revenues as well. Millions – perhaps hundreds of millions – of dollars were lost in that one moment. To tell you the truth, though, I don’t care about that. The NFL and it’s associates will all be fine. It just seems so unfair to the players on both teams.

I’ve read that the NFL wanted the game to continue the night Hamlin went down but the teams refused. I understand both sides of the argument but I wonder if the players would have played had they known they were surrendering much of what they had accomplished by not playing. When Hamlin woke up, the first thing he communicated was a question: “Did we win?” It was the first thing he wanted to know. It’s exactly the kind of mindset one needs to succeed in the NFL and most of the players share it. Sorry, Damar, the answer is no, you didn’t win. You didn’t exactly lose, either, but you lost a lot anyway. The road to the NFL’s big game is going to be much tougher than it might have been for both the Bills and the Bengals and much easier than it might have been for the Chiefs.

Practically speaking, there was no good way to “fix” the issue. There was no time to squeeze in a replacement game without disrupting everyone else. There are no double-headers for one team in the NFL. The game is FAR too physical. They could have calculated the seeding based on win percentage. Maybe they did. That, too, would have left the Chiefs in first place…

I’ll tell you this: I’m going to look at it like an historical event I got to witness and I’m not going to let it dampen my enthusiasm for the games going forward. But the “what if” will be in my mind for the remainder of the playoffs…

I’m pretty sure Gretta Thunberg whooped Andrew Tate in their recent dust-up. He is a well-established, poorly developed human being. She’s the well-established exact opposite. He didn’t like the idea of her running around trying to save the planet so he decided to troll her. He sent her a tweet bragging about how many highly polluting cars he owned and asked for her address to he could send her the details on each car and it’s massive emissions. I don’t know how she does it, but she commonly has tremendous answers for such trolls and Andrew was no exception. She replied, “Yes, please do enlighten me. Email me at SmallDickEnergy@GetALife.com”

Okay, so that’s a win right there. He should have STFU and left it alone but, no. The guy IS after all an infamous misogynist and moron and would not, likely could not, let a woman whoop him. So, he responded and his response included being handed a pizza box from someone off screen. He told them to be sure NOT to recycle the box – another dig at Greta’s activism. Authorities in Romania recognized the box and went and arrested Tate – for human trafficking. Apparently, Andrew, his brother, and two other scumbags are charged with capturing, kidnapping, and raping women, and forcing the women to make porn for the men to sell.

That, alone, is a win, right? Getting a human trafficker to out themselves and get themselves arrested is just wonderful. But, just to be sure the message hit home, Gretta tweeted, “This is what happens when you don’t recycle your pizza boxes.” That woman really IS going to clean up the planet, isn’t she?

His incel fans have hit social media to insist Tate is being framed. They’re trying to defend him! They know nothing about the guy except that they’d (secretly) like to have sex with him – but that seems to be enough for them. Evidence? No, the cops have that. His supporters have nothing but blind loyalty. I’ll tell you this: I’m never sure why these guys don’t just get over themselves, find a nice guy, and settle down but my respect for Gretta – already sky high – went even higher…

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I saw this actual headline: “Governor Kathy Hochul legalizes human composting after death.”

I didn’t even know a person could legalize…anything, really, after they’ve died…

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Barbara Walters died. I was sorry to hear it. She was a very good journalist. She didn’t take any guff and worked to make the world a better place AND created a path for other women to follow into journalism. Barbara was a person who makes me wish there was a heaven…

Bennie the Rat died, too. You probably know him better as Pope Benedict XVI. He helped the pederast priesthood of the Catholic Church protect themselves from repercussions of their actions AND worked to protect the church who worked so hard to protect the perverts instead of the victims. Bennie the Rat was a person who makes me wish there was a hell…

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On the topic of sexual abuse, I hear that some of the large organizations where sexual abuse was the norm – organizations like the Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts of America, and USA Gymnastics, for example, have taken to using bankruptcy laws to protect themselves. They file the bankruptcy claim and the judge sets the amount the victims have to settle for AND sets up a future fund for as yet unknown victims who will come forward at a later date – but NOW have to fight other victims for a piece of a smaller pie.

I’ve long held that NO organization or person who is fundamentally solvent or has a financially solvent parent company should be allowed to file bankruptcy under any conditions. I guarantee you, if YOU show up in bankruptcy court, they’ll take a very close look at your finances and if they determine YOU have the money to pay, you WILL pay. None of this “no, we’re fine, financially. We just want to re-organize” b.s. for you.

I’ll tell you this: It was bad enough when companies started doing it just to eliminate pension obligations they hadn’t fulfilled and didn’t want to fulfill but now being used to protect the perpetrators of sexual abuse from the victims? That’s just too over-the-top for me…

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So, that DINO moron Joe Manchin is trying to block commercial and consumer tax credits for electric cars because of…reasons. It’s my guess that his “reason” is that he’s a coal baron and fossil fuel supporter and that group is pushing back HARD to maintain the economic advantages they gain from killing the planet. In like fashion, here in California, PG&E, the corrupt main power supplier, is trying to unravel incentives for rooftop solar in a back door attempt to harm the rooftop solar industry and protect it’s own profits for awhile longer. Across the country, the cons are being encouraged to support the oil industry and more drilling. It’s all about money and control of the market so one can make MORE money.

I’ll tell you this: fossil fuels are finite resources. Using them all up at once is one of the stupidest things the human race has ever done…and we, the species, have done some incredibly stupid things over time. We make a lot of things from oil. A LOT of things. Burning up the remaining supply in our cars as fast as we can only means that ALL of those things either disappear or become ridiculously expensive – and that’s before we ever even get to the argument about climate change…

Well, the cons are at war again. The difference this time? It’s a civil war and it’s being fought on several fronts. There’s a fight for control of the House of Representatives. Kevin McCarthy wants the job but there are several far right members of that body that do NOT want McCarthy and that has sparked a battle. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert once sat shoulder to shoulder heckling the President of the United States during a State of the Union speech. Now they’re trading barbs, each claiming the true path to conservative heaven. Matt Gaetes is also in the fray, arguing against McCarthy. The far-right contingent prefer a guy who thinks McCarthy was just too cooperative with the Dems. There’s also the ever-present Former Guy/DeSantis battle.

The key to success in the conservative movement (aside from electoral cheating, of course) is solidarity. These guys have been moving lock-step with each other for a long time. In fact, I’d call it an impressive display. So long as their interests ran parallel, they worked together like a Swiss watch. (Sadly, they’ve been working to undermine America but that’s a different aspect of the topic.) But the key was in parallel interests. When they began to disagree among themselves as to whom is best suited to harm America fastest, the claws came out – aimed at their one-time compatriots. (OMG, pass the popcorn…)

They worked together so well for so long because they all perceived that working together best served themselves. Although it seemed like team play, it was cooperative selfishness. Selfishness is a feature, not a bug, of conservatism. One of the things I believe about the cons is that, sooner or later, everybody’s “motivated self interest” tends to clash and come into conflict and it seems to be happening right now. I can’t say for sure if it’s a long-term break or a temporary fracture but, for now, they can’t harm America while they’re trying to harm each other so…have at it…

I feel the same way about all of the “investigations” they’re promising to initiate. So long as they’re focused on “revenge” for delusional, perceived wrongs they won’t be doing much damage to the country so I hope they “investigate” as much as possible for as long as possible.

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Alright, I’m about to step in it with my own team again. It happens from time to time. I believe in the law over party loyalty. When the cons are wrong, I say so. When the Dems are wrong, I say THAT, too. If that bugs you, you might want to review your own priorities. Yesterday, the House Ways and Means Committee released the former guy’s taxes to the public. Once again, it’s a case of the Dems handing the cons a weapon in the culture wars. Now, don’t get me wrong, here. I want to see the taxes just as much as anybody else but the fact is, the Dems exceeded the scope of the law to do it and I don’t much like when the Dems are who the cons say they are. Now Former is out publicly whining about it. (And…my Gods does this guy whine. To hear him tell it, life is just…unfair to generational multi-millionaires) He insists it sets a dangerous precedent that the cons will wield in return. He’s also bragging to his base that the taxes will only show what a brilliant businessman he is. So…it’s a dangerous precedent to show what a brilliant businessman he is? Okay…

I’ve written, in this space, defense of the idea that the Congress has every right to see anybody’s taxes. That law was implemented after the Teapot Dome scandal in the early 1920’s. The law says they can see the taxes for legitimate legislative purposes. Releasing the taxes to the public IS a violation of Former’s privacy and NOT within the scope of the law. Don’t get me wrong, here. I want to see them as much as anybody else and I’ve wanted to ever since he promised to release them as soon as the IRS was done with the audit. (Promises made, promises broken…) He never did, of course. In fact, he wasn’t audited – even when he was supposed to have been! What’s more, I think the law should require candidates for high public office to release their taxes but that would entail a Constitutional Amendment so I don’t see it in the future anytime soon. Yes, it’s standard practice for more honest politicians to release their taxes but it is NOT a legal requirement. Former is a lying weasel (he DID promise to release them) but he was within his rights to renege on that promise.

The news started excitedly talking about how Former paid little to no taxes in the six years of the release. Well, duh! Rich people don’t pay taxes in this once-great nation, or at least not their fair share. Everybody knows that. (Well, not cons, of course. THEY think rich people pay too much and so they, the con rank and file, are happy to pick up the rich person’s tab. Deep thought is NOT their forte…) The real meat and potatoes of the taxes will be found in the details. Accountants are already pointing out that in order to avoid taxes like that, one has to have quite a bit of money. In other words, they’re all deductions for every American. Well, every American who can show losses of millions of dollars each year.

Based on various comments and testimony, Former likes to inflate the value of his holdings for loan purposes and deflate the values on the same holdings for tax purposes. All of these details will come out over time, as people get a look at the filings. We’ll also get to see which entities he’s doing business with in the first place. (Russia, anyone?)

There’s really only one justification for the release that has any credibility with me at all and, mostly, people aren’t using it. In an effort to hide his nefarious dealings, Former has gone to a ridiculous – dare I say “unprecedented” – amount of trouble because we all know that it’s best to hide one’s honest dealings as much as possible. He knew he was going to lose. The law is clear and the outcome was a foregone conclusion. His actual goal was to run out the clock. Had the law worked just a bit slower, the rulings might have been delayed until the cons took the House back and dissolved the committees, replacing the members with boot-licking loyalists and dropping the matter entirely. As it was, the committee didn’t get the forms until very nearly too late. They simply didn’t have enough time to review the forms properly so, releasing them to the public for further perusal was really the only option.

I’ll tell you this: in all candor, I’m glad he didn’t get away with his delay tactic but that’s a personal pleasure because I don’t like the way he manipulates laws to his very wealthy advantage. (I don’t like when ANY rich pricks do it, left or right.) If I was making some kind of ruling on the legality of releasing the taxes, I’d rule against the Dems. It’s weird. I’m happy to have a look at the forms but simultaneously unhappy that they were released illegally. Talk about conflicted…

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I hope everybody has a safe and fun New Year’s Eve and that the new year proves better than the old one…

Merry Christmas to you and yours from MyBaconPress.com. Here’s hoping you have a wonderful day and holiday season…

I don’t know if it’s schadenfreude – pleasure derived from the misfortune of others. I am enjoying it, though, so it’s possible. People who understand things have been in a kind of proxy battle with Fox “News” pretty much since Fox hosts started lying on air in the 1990s. The proxies, in this case, are conservatives blaring the bunk spewed by Fox on a daily basis. I can’t just tell them they’re being deceived. I’ve tried. They don’t believe me. I can’t tell Fox, either. They don’t care. And, really, why should they? It’s not like they don’t know they’re lying. It’s not “news” to them. So the battle has raged for decades – Fox attacking America, Fox viewers waving the banner and marching in the parade.

It got SO easy for Fox to lie, they became increasingly confident in their acolyte’s ability to shout down all opposition and simply broadcast more lies and even louder. It’s been quite frustrating for those of us who love this once-great nation, watching conservative lies tear it apart piece by piece. But Fox got ahead of itself, didn’t it? Fox got too far out in front of the great lie of the feckless fuckup, Donnie “the dumbass” trump. Now it’s coming back to bite them. It’s the so-called “moment we’ve all been waiting for.” We NEVER have to credit Fox “News” again and if someone cites them as some kind of authority, the citation can be dismissed without a second thought.

Oh, you haven’t heard? One of the “devils” the dumbass chose to target in his great lie was a company called Dominion Voting Systems. They make voting machines. The MAGA cons claimed Dominion was cheating on behalf of Biden. They don’t have a single shred of evidence, not one thing – over 60 court cases say so. But, my gods, one could not shut them up about it, in part because Fox “News” had done story after story after story. Rupert Murdoch, the Australian owner of Fox, is evil, not stupid. He likely knew when he named his editorial opinion station that calling it “News” would grant it a certain gravitas it never deserved – and it worked. When things got too tight in one of their lying tales, the talking heads on the show would just remind everybody they’re not journalists, they’re simply “entertainers.” But the viewers dutifully dismissed such disclaimers and took the hosts words as news, if not gospel truth – the exact effect Murdoch seemed to want.

But Dominion has them trapped now. The Fox “News” hosts can (and do) say anything they want outside of the courtroom. That’s how they get away with being slippery in the ways they are. But once one is under oath? Things change. Dramatically. On television, Sean Hannity, for example, gets paid to lie. But he goes to jail for lying under oath. So when it came time for Hannity to be deposed in connection with trump’s…er…trumpery, Hannity came clean. Under oath, he said he didn’t believe the Dominion voter fraud claims “for a second.”

He sure seemed to, though, didn’t he? He brought guests on to repeat elements of the big lie on a regular basis and didn’t challenge any of them on any of their made up points. And Hannity isn’t the only one. Dominion has also deposed Tucker Carlson, Jeanine Pirro, Lou Dobbs, Maira Bartiromo and Steve Doocy. It appears they have all taken pretty much the same position – under oath. They march right back to their shows and continue lying as though they hadn’t just sworn under oath and in private the exact opposite of their pretended opinion being broadcast. But now we ALL know, without question, without doubt.

Fox “News” lies and is NOT a dependable source of information…

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Musk ordered the removal of Twitter’s suicide prevention tool. It was called #ThereIsHelp and it tied help resource references to certain specific searches. Can you believe it? No one knows why he did it. He said he didn’t think such a tool was necessary since upsetting content was down on Twitter. (Fair enough. ALL content is down on Twitter.) I think it displays his ignorance. These little help notices pop up in all kinds of media these days. If someone kills themselves on a show, for example, there’s almost always a disclaimer before or after offering connections to related help agencies. Honestly, I don’t know if they help but they certainly couldn’t hurt and I just don’t understand why Musk would attack connections to resources for potentially suicidal people.

I think Musk has now pretty much convinced everybody that he hasn’t a clue as to what he’s doing or how he should be or could be doing it. My own suspicion is that he had a rich-guy temper tantrum. Cons, in general, do not like the fact that various social media platforms began cracking down on lies (deceptively labeled “fake news”). They took it personally which, of course, they would since the vast majority of the fraudulent posts being removed as false were from conservative sources.

It never once penetrated their calcified brains that perhaps those stories were being removed for being false. They simply would not – will not – accept the idea that they’re being manipulated by their favorite talking head into helping the uber-rich usher in a “more perfect (for the uber-rich)” fascist state. Instead, they decided it was some kind of war on conservatives. The funny (to me) part is, the conservative bubble is a kind of feedback loop and the messages get picked up and repeated over and over until ALL con consumers believe the stories and sometimes, that includes members of the uber-rich class and/or the pretenders to the class, like trump.

In this case, that was Musk. He’s supposed to be smart but he can’t distinguish a lie from a fact? All I know for sure is that he clearly bought into the whole war on conservative “information” story and decided to do something about it. He put up $44 Billion dollars to buy a social media platform he knows nothing about. HE thought he could go in and “fix it” by just taking off all of the brakes and letting the thing roll. And rolling it is – straight down hill. (Okay, in fairness, he did just seem to be shooting his mouth off when he made the offer and he tried everything he could think of to get out of the deal but was forced – by his own mouth – to go forward in the end.)

Each day, it seems a bit more likely that Twitter is headed for the dustbin of history. I’ve never been a twit (or whatever they call themselves) so I don’t really care but his investors – twits or not – seem to care very much. Tesla is rapidly losing ground to competitors as well. Now that Musk has totally exposed himself as a moron con people who like to buy electric cars – mostly progressives – are not buying Teslas. This is a development I like since I’ve long thought of Teslas as rolling crematoriums. I doubt the space project will take much of a hit over the whole deal but Musk, himself, might end up forced out as hurting the brand.

I’ll tell you this: I’m very much enjoying this short moment of watching the truth take back some of the gains the lies have held for so long. Fox “News” is getting overrun by the truth. Musk is being run over by the truth. Next? Why that looks like the dumbass is about to have to answer to the truth – perhaps for the first time in his putrid little life…

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On the topic of January 6th, there appear to be two different kinds of people: those who watched the January 6th Committee hearings and know that the dumbass is a traitor who engineered an attempted coup in order to steal power and those who assiduously avoided the hearings and know…well…nothing, really but have very strong opinions anyway.

Now comes the final report. 845 pages of evidence. Here, let me save you some time. The dumbass did it. He’s guilty and there are no ifs, ands, or buts. (As a digression, I know the cons believe their Cheetojesus has never once failed at anything. People who understand things know that the exact opposite is true – trump has never started anything that succeeded – and his egomaniacal coup attempt is no different…) The guy has been slithering out of trouble his whole life with lies, bullying, and scumbag lawyers. Now he’s up against Federal law. Federal law has been dealing with lies, bullying, and scumbag lawyers for a long time. Federal law remains unimpressed by theatrics and hysterics…

I STILL say he won’t go to jail. Although that would be my favorite outcome, he won’t so I’ll settle for a conviction that prevents him from ever holding public office again and takes as much of his stolen lucre as they can legally take. (His supporters will just give him their money instead. If Donnie wants it, they’ll eat cat food for awhile and they’ll never question eating cat food so they can support the so-called billionaire business dude. The cons do not display vast intelligence…) Anyway, all true Americans knew trump was guilty based on the evidence and now the evidence has been formally laid out in this report. Yeah, it says he’s guilty but read it anyway. The details, I’m told (I haven’t read it yet), are delicious.

I’ll tell you this: sometimes, the truth really CAN set one free – but it isn’t helping Donnie one little bit…

One can only wonder how many more times the Dumbass will be able to scam his self-blinded believers into giving him some more of their money. His latest scam is NFT trading cards. NFT is the abbreviation for a Non-Fungible Token. It’s basically a blockchain, like cryptocurrency, which should tell you something about it’s value and dependability for future gains. Sure enough, as the cryptocurrency craze has crashed, so have NFTs. So, naturally, that’s when trump steps in – and his acolytes all jump in and give him $99 for each photo showing him doing things he never has done, never will do, never could do. Curiously, all of them are just his head superimposed onto drawings of a thin guy with ripped abs, doing “manly” things. To me, they seem kind of reminiscent of the various photos we see of Putin doing “manly” things with his shirt off.

In addition to the fantasy photos, the cards are sold along with a promise. If you buy one, you’re automatically entered into a contest to win certain prizes. Dinner or a Zoom call with trump, that kind of thing. Apparently, the fine print says that the “dinner with trump” is really just an invitation to one of his fundraising rallies and the Zoom call is a group thing – and NONE of it is necessarily going to happen at all. The “win” is predicated on “validation and eligibility verification.” Oh, AND you don’t even get to select the card you like. You give the Dumbass your hard-earned money and the card is randomly generated. Apparently, some are more valuable than others and the folks running the program created several of the most valuable for themselves before the first offering and are keeping them, making them less available to the gullible buyers. Reports say they are hard to buy and hard to access. The buying process sends the cards to the wrong place. If you’re very good with a computer, they can be found. If you’re an “old” who doesn’t quite get “the internets,” you might think the process failed and try buying again – a scam within a scam…

Sure, it’s a swindle – let’s call it trumpery – but it’s yet another he won’t go to jail over. In the fine print, they make clear that these things actually have no value and he’s not making any claims they do. Each one had a value of $99.00 to him, though. According to the news, they sold out in a day but 1) we don’t know who bought them and 2) they seem to have irritated more cons than they ingratiated him to them. One of his previous supporters – a guy going to prison after participating in trump’s Capitol assault on January 6th – sent out a tweet saying he couldn’t believe he’s going to jail for an NFT salesman. (I’d bet his family and/or friends tried to warn him…)

The Dumbass Don announced his presidential bid as quickly as he could after the November elections. He only waited on that announcement because the Republicans were paying his legal bills and threatened to stop if he announced before the election. They tried to get him to wait until after the Georgia run-off but trump wouldn’t wait. He thinks he’s protecting himself from his criminal activities by running for president so he threw his hat in the ring. He’s done a few “campaign appearances” in conservative media but he’s not exactly on the campaign trail. As of December 8 of this year, he’s had NO rallies and doesn’t even have a campaign manager. He DID have a much publicized lunch with not one but TWO well-known racists, his company has been found guilty of tax fraud, officials keep finding classified documents that he stole from the White House and the January 6th committee looks all set to recommend at least three charges against him after their extensive investigation.

I’ll tell you this: the whole “we don’t jail ex-presidents for political reasons” thing has gone too far. If we don’t jail THIS ex-president, what little remains of the facade of “the rule of law” will collapse completely…

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Most of the people who understand things know by now that the NRA uses the term “responsible gun owner” as a euphemism for “gun owner” whether that person is “responsible” or not. Then, when one of them snaps and goes on a mass-murder spree, they try to distance themselves from that, particular, “responsible gun owner.” Last July, some “responsible gun owner” opened fire on a July 4th parade in Illinois and killed seven people and injured dozens of others. Now the nut-ball’s father, Robert Crimo, Jr, is facing felony charges for helping the mentally disturbed shooter get the gun in the first place. Lake County State’s Attorney, Eric Rinehart, said the father was criminally reckless when he sponsored his son’s application to get a gun. The kid had issues. Everyone who knew the kid, knew the kid had issues. The dad signed the form anyway.

For me? It’s a welcome trend. It started in Michigan after some teen-aged “responsible gun owner” killed four of his classmates in a school shooting. The parents were charged with involuntary manslaughter for buying their kid a gun despite knowing he was disturbed. Now the father of this Illinois shooter is charged, as well. I hope the trend continues and the enablers go to jail along with their disturbed children…

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I’ve got to say, I’m glad the Dems passed the Defense of Marriage Act ensuring gay marriage is here to stay for as long a the act remains in tact. I wish they had done the same for Roe v Wade but, apparently, couldn’t be bothered. They were busy, instead, passing a defense spending bill that gave the Pentagon $50 billion dollars MORE than they had asked for. (“Looks like honest government to me.” he said facetiously…)

Another thing they COULD have done, but didn’t, was pass a spending resolution that was so high the incoming cons couldn’t hold the country hostage to financial demands for a year or two. Now, though, we’ll have to endure threats (and realities) of government shutdowns until more tax cuts are passed for the wealthy – harming America – and social services are slashed again – harming America. It’s the Republican way to comfort the comfortable and afflict the afflicted.

I’ll tell you this: something you might want to remember, every tick UP of the Dow Index is a tick DOWN of the economic health of this once-great nation…

Big ole’ Joe Biden was giving a speech to the victim’s families of the Sandy Hook shooting. It’s the 10 year “anniversary” of the shootings.. He said the nation should have ‘societal guilt’ over taking too long to address gun violence and the curse of school shootings.

I’m going to give that a big ole’ “Screw you, Joe!” What I have on the topic is bleak, helpless, depression and foreboding. YOU, on the other hand, Joe, you and your fellow politicians? YOU absolutely should have societal as well as personal guilt. You see, I have no power – none – to do anything whatsoever about gun violence in America. If I DID have power, I would have done something a long, long time ago. (Have you read my ‘Keep Your Gun Act?‘)

The politicians in Washington DO have the power to act and guess what? You didn’t. You haven’t. You won’t. Surprisingly, speeches haven’t done it. Thoughts and prayers have been remarkably ineffective. Hand-wringing and laments, it turns out, have little power against bullets and large capacity magazines.

Don’t you dare try to lay your feckless failings off on me…

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The Republicans are at it again. The party of projection is, once again, working as hard as they can to disrupt fair and honest elections. Yes, certainly, they’re still whining about how bad stolen elections are. Still, nobody interferes with elections in this once-great nation more often or more effectively than the Republicans. Their latest? They’re hoping to make it possible to gerrymander every state they can to gain permanent governing power…

In state after state, districts were often set by the sitting legislature. Not surprisingly, those legislatures tend to draw maps that allow them to keep power despite the fact that they’re in the minority. That’s how, say, Mitch McConnell, keeps his power. California used to be nearly ungovernable due to Republican districting. By drawing very carefully considered districts that favored Republicans, they kept enough Republicans in office to disrupt California politics for years. Then, California passed a proposition that required the districts be set by an independent committee, the California Citizens Redistricting Committee (CCRC). Suddenly, the districts more accurately represented the state’s population and Republicans lost their once-gerrymandered seats. To be clear, there are still Republicans in our state legislature and they continue to try to harm as many people as possible. There just aren’t enough to get the job done.

I don’t know if the CCRC was the start of a movement or just part of a movement, but I know similar ideas started popping up across this country whenever and wherever the people could make it happen. But the Republicans are evil, not stupid. They see it happening. They KNOW that if their chances are based on their policy positions, they’d likely never win again, or at least not enough to keep up their harm offensive. FAR too many people would benefit and stop suffering if districts are drawn fairly and they know it. So, naturally, they’re trying to stop it.

The mightily moronic Supremely Kangaroo Court is hearing a case, Moore v Harper, that is trying to strip questions of voting rights and congressional districting from state courts and hand those powers to state legislatures. Wherever Republicans control the legislature, they would never lose that control again despite that fact that their “ideas” suck and appeal only to the smallest number of people. Such a case, of course, requires funding. Republicans can’t just make cases on their merits – they would have to have merits – so they force them and that takes cash. So far, as nearly as people who track these things can tell, they have received $90 million dollars in so called “dark money,” the tool of fascism brought to you by the oh-so-stupid (and certainly anti-American) 2010 Citizen’s United ruling inflicted by the Roberts Court.

The Republicans are pressing this idea that state legislatures cannot be overruled by state supreme courts when it comes to setting rules for federal elections, even if the legislature’s actions violate the state’s constitution. They call this the ‘Independent State Legislature Theory’ (ISL) in an effort to make it sound legitimate, not like “election thievery…” It’s a very dangerous idea. According to this idea, a state legislature could set a rule that one guy – “Let’s just have Dick do it” – simply declares a winner in every federal election and there’s nothing anybody can do about it. For clarity, I haven’t actually heard anyone float that particular idea – but according to ISL, they could – and nobody could stop them. Besides, they don’t need one guy. Gerrymandering is very much the idea that one Dick declares the “winner” before any ballots are ever cast…

The term ‘Dark Money’ refers to spending on an election in which the source of the money is not disclosed. In simpler terms, ‘dark money’ is rich people buying elections and the outcomes they prefer – a decidedly unamerican activity. The leading dark money financier of the conservative groups is called DonorsTrust and it’s known as the ATM of the right. They get their money from unknown sources and distribute it to various other conservative, anti-American groups to support conservative causes.

Because it’s so effing stupid, the ISL was once, solidly, a fringe idea, rejected by every knowledgeable person. Now we have so many lawyers and judges that got their “law degrees” from conservative diploma factories and buy fully into conservative ideology, America is facing the risk that it may become the law of the land. Normally, Americans could trust that the Supreme Court would prevent such stupidity but since it’s now packed with diploma factory lawyers who keep making rulings based on their personal preferences and not the law itself, there’s no telling how these unqualified morons might rule. ISL serves mostly to support the extremely unpopular conservative agenda so it seems the conservative ideological activists on the court might like it. On the other hand, courts, even the Supremely Kangaroo Roberts Court, might be disinclined to remove power from the courts in any circumstances.

I’ll tell you this: when I updated (and corrected) the United States Constitution as a personal project, I inserted a line that said the districts should be as close to square-shaped as possible. It’s a pretty simple solution that precludes such a threat…

The truth will out…

A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on it’s shoes… – Charles Spurgeon

Three things cannot long be hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth… – Buddha

The truth seems to be making something of a comeback in this once-great nation, despite the best efforts of conservative media. With Alex Jones being ordered to pay over One Billion dollars to the people he lied about in the Sandy Hook shooting to the impending challenge to the lies of Fox “News,” there seems, finally, to be a way to combat misinformation that is having an effect: defamation lawsuits. The latest? Why, that would be Rupert Murdoch – chief evil leader of Fox “News.” When the broadcasters take their lies too far, they can be sued. It isn’t easy but it works when it can be used and I think people who CAN sue for defamation, should sue for defamation.

Oh, and before the cons all start in with, “well, two can play at that game,” no…you can’t. Since you can never prove your lies (being, you know, lies) you can’t prevail in a defamation suit. You don’t have any evidence supporting your claims and trying to only opens up your company to further scrutiny. As it happens, the truth is a one-way weapon. Because of conservative mendacity, facts really DO have a liberal bias, these days…

People who understand things know that Murdoch’s “Fox” has been broadcasting mostly lies for something like 26 years. They’ve had such a huge megaphone, very little has been able to slow them down and certainly no one has stopped them. But now? Murdoch tied his fortunes to America-hating Donald Trump. Like most things Trump-associated, the relationship has left Trump intact but Fox “News” facing impending destruction. (Fingers crossed.)

Dominion Voting Systems took exception to Trump’s lies about the so-called “stolen election.” When Fox “News” decided to support the lie and trumpet the fraud, Dominion decided to sue for defamation. According to the Guardian, they’re building a pretty solid case. They’ve been deposing one lying piece of…um, failed human being after another. The next on the list is old Rupert, himself. They’re slowly exposing each and every operating piece of the internal workings of Fox.

I’ve spent years fretting over Fox “News.” I’ve been stunned, over and over, as they broadcast some obviously stupid lie, only to have their consumers start repeating it just a little later that day. The daily Fox talking points became fodder for one lying right-wing broadcast and/or publication after another. It became fashionable among the people who don’t understand things to pretend they never watch Fox “News” the minute they realized citing Fox hurt and didn’t help their credibility. At some point, I realized it might even be true that they don’t watch but that didn’t mean they weren’t citing Fox “News.” Just because that person hadn’t watched, didn’t mean other people hadn’t watched then picked up and repeated the talking point. It’s been very frustrating.

Fox is pretending it’s presenters are protected by journalistic privilege. The problem is, at least one of their presenters, one Sean Hannity, has said over and over again that he’s NOT a journalist. He’s just a talk-show host. He’s blatantly saying he doesn’t have to tell the truth since he’s not a journalist while Fox is arguing that, as a journalist, Hannity is protected in his lies. It can’t be both and I accept Hannity’s own statement of his position over Fox’s. Meanwhile, most of the people who stuck to the truth have been purged from Fox. (They just really hate the truth over there. It never, EVER helps conservative causes…)

I don’t know how this will play out. The sensationalist headline in the Guardian reads, ‘Is Dominion’s $1.6bn Defamation lawsuit a death blow for Murdoch and Fox News?‘ Murdoch is worth billions. Even after paying over a billion dollars (and still counting) in the UK related to another of his scandal rag’s wrongdoing – in this case the hacking of private phones – he can lose the Dominion suit and STILL have billions of dollars available to finance Fox so I doubt it will be a “death blow.” Still, it’s going to hurt.

I’ll tell you this: I’d like to see Fox have to broadcast, over and over, a complete retraction and apology for the misinformation on each show that supported the lie, for as many times as they told the lie, with a proviso that they can NOT dismiss it as “error.” I doubt such a legal remedy is available but it would be fun (and honestly a bit weird) hearing Fox “News” hosts telling the truth for a change…

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Speaking of lying liars, Kari Lake – who ran a losing campaign for Governor of Arizona – is trying her hand at the trump technique of whining about the election and begging for a do-over. (The United States doesn’t DO do-overs.) She’s pretty sure she’d have won if only so many Democrats hadn’t come out to vote against her and she has the “fix” in mind. She thinks it would be great if the courts would just throw out all the democratic votes and leave only the Republican votes intact – because she’s “concerned” about improper elections. I guess we’re not supposed to noticed that arbitrarily tossing away votes against you is the very definition of “improper.” It seems Lake is just fine with that kind of tampering.

I’ll tell you this: I’ll be very happy when this “they stole the election” bunk is finally laid to rest. It’s tiresome…

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I’m pretty excited to see what Brock Purdy can do with the Forty-Niners today. He’s the seventh round pick taken to run a practice squad and not really expected to need to do more. Now, because of injuries, Purdy is thrust into the role of starting Quarterback on a team making a playoff run. There’s been much talk (speculation) about how Purdy will do, being a seventh round pick and facing off against Tom Brady, the most asterisked player of all time.

Brady has regularly been associated with the stink of cheating since his early days in the league but nobody can question his talent and skill. (It’s one of the main reasons all the cheating has been so frustrating. He doesn’t need to and never has.) People often dismiss Purdy’s chances because he’s a seventh round pick. They seem to forget that Brady, himself, was a sixth round pick, also never really expected to do much and who, coincidentally, also got his opportunity because of injuries. If the story gets framed as sixth rounder vs seventh rounder, it sounds like it will be a much more balanced game.

I’ll tell you this: I’m pulling for Purdy. Yes, partly because he’s running my home team but also, I like the underdog story and Purdy could be it…in spades. (Fingers crossed…)

I’ll have to admit I found Kirsten Sinema’s defection irritating, though not surprising. The entire time she’s been in Congress (that I’ve been aware of her) she’s been irritating, though not surprising. She ran – and won – as a Democrat but many had her pegged as a DINO, Democrat In Name Only, right away. The part I DID find surprising? She’s really a nothing. She’s actually just an opportunist. She’s been a registered independent before. She’s ALSO been registered in the Green Party. She ran as a Democrat and won. Now she’s an independent again. She works like a Republican. There’s no telling how long it will be before she moves into that camp but my guess is, she will, sooner or later. She seems to have NO loyalty to anything or anyone but herself.

I don’t know why the Democrats continue to support DINOS. I supposed putting Kirsten Sinema or, say, Joe Manchin in office gets the party control of the committees but what good is that control if “Democrats” like that will constantly undermine the efforts of the party? Sinema has now cut herself off from support from the Democratic Party and I suspect Manchin will do the same soon. My attitude? Don’t let the door hit you on the way out. Yeah, sanity needs to expand it’s hold on this country but using fakes won’t get ‘er done, you know?

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14,000 Barrels. That’s how much the latest (discovered) leak from the Keystone Pipeline dumped into a creek in Kansas. 14,000 barrels. I’ve been seeing stories like this my whole life, an oil spill here, an oil spill there. The Keystone Pipeline started operations in 2010. There have been 22 previous serious spills. Truth be told, it’s one of the larger reasons I’d like to transition away from crude oil as an energy source. (That’s in addition to the climate change effects and the fact that it’s finite and running out.) The cons – certainly not a dependable source of information – blame Democrats for…well, everything, really. But in THIS case, I’m talking about their dogmatic belief that Joe Biden DESTROYED the oil industry. To me? The industry seems to be doing just fine, thank you very much.

One of the points the cons pretend to understand is that Biden cancelled the Keystone XL Pipeline. Now, the XL was only the latest branch in a complex of pipelines and it was still under construction. It had not moved one drop of crude and was not scheduled to move a drop of crude for another couple of years. But, somehow, Biden cancelling the project “destroyed” the oil industry. Leave it to the cons to display – furiously – their lack of understanding.

I prefer solar. I find that when oil spills all over the landscape, everything dies and it takes years to clean up. When solar “spills” all over the landscape, flowers grow. That’s a better outcome. Is solar the perfect solution? Not yet. It still needs development. That takes a bit of time. Some people take issue with solar because it doesn’t solve every problem today. That’s some solid thinking, isn’t it? (It’s a logical fallacy called ‘making the perfect the enemy of the good.’) When cars were first invented, they didn’t solve every problem immediately, either. In fact, the horse was the better option for a LONG time after the invention of the automobile. But horses can’t compete with cars anymore when it comes to travel. The same will be true for alternative energy sources.

There’s only ONE reason we haven’t made the switch we should have made years ago: greed. The people who own the centralized energy distribution systems make lots of money manipulating that market to their own advantage. The very best long-term power solution is DEcentralized generation. Once that happens, “they” lose their ability to manipulate the market. They know it. They bought time with their anti-science claims about climate change but they’re starting to lose that battle – as the oceans lap at their feet in Omaha. (Hyperbole alert!)

If you live in California, you’re likely FAR more sensitive to the realities of price fixing and market manipulation than any other place in this once-great nation. The oil companies have LOTS of reasons for their failures. None of them ever hold up under scrutiny. So, we’ve been paying HUGE amounts of money just to fill our tanks here on the west coast and, excuses notwithstanding, nobody can figure out why. This last fall, there was this massive spike in gasoline prices at the pump. According to the Governor’s office, it put $63 BILLION dollars into the company’s coffers in just 90 days. The key point, here, is that the prices spiked in California at a time when (again quoting the Governor’s office) “crude oil prices dropped, state taxes and fees remained unchanged and gas prices did not increase outside the western U.S.”

The Governor started off calling for a windfall profits tax. Now his suggestion has morphed into some complex kind of scheme that’s supposed to encourage the oil companies to do the right thing. I suspect the change is related to his constantly denied but well-known desire to be President of the United States and the need to work with the corporations to get there. It’s how fascist states work. It’s why he’s about to eliminate some of the financial incentives to roof-top solar, to placate Pacific Gas and Electric.

Corporate greed is holding down the economy and rapidly rendering the planet incapable of sustaining human life. It’s pretty simple really. We could stop. We could do so quickly. But we have to have the will and…we don’t.

I’ll tell you this: humans like to pretend we’re the smartest thing to ever grace the face of the planet. I’d say wiping out one’s own species for a dollar is pretty effing stupid, though…