Well, it looks very much like corrupt Republicans in Congress are about to anoint a king, 53 – 47.  (The rich guys who bought Moscow Mitch are certainly getting their money’s worth.)  It breaks my heart.  I loved our Constitutional Republic.

But the truth is, the United States of America isn’t the first country in history to fail and devolve into some kind of monarchy or dictatorship.  I believe that anything begun dishonorably is destined to fail.  Slavery was our dishonorable beginning.  Greed has been our unforgivable sin.  The fall was inevitable.

The thing that makes me the saddest, though?  THIS:

is our new “royal” family…

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My friends tend to agree, I’m being overly concerned.  They insist there’s something, somewhere playing out that I can’t see that will swoop in and save the day.  I’ve been wrong before, of course.  Maybe there IS something going on that I can’t see.  So, I keep an eye out for…whatever.  Anything.

Here’s a possibility: “The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for forty-two months.” Revelation 13:5.

Do the math.  42 months equals 3 and a half years.  ImPOTUS has been uttering proud words and blasphemies and exercising his authority for, almost exactly, 36 months, now.  That puts the end of Trump in July, 2020…

Granted, if you know the story, things go downhill from there…

But I’ll tell you this: when the only glimmer of hope one can find comes from a 2,000 year old storybook, one does not feel sanguine about the future…

This is kind of funny…

I wrote recently (yesterday, in fact) that Donnie Dumbass had assembled his legal team.  The very best team Donnie could get – likely because nobody in their right mind would trust the guy.  Alan Dershowitz and Kenneth Starr are the lucky opportunists.

Dershowitz defended or participated in the defense of OJ Simpson and (along with Ken Starr) Jeffery Epstein.  He’s currently working to defend Harvey Weinstein – and now he’s doing Trump.  I guess he was once viewed as a liberal – likely because he once helped get a porn star (Harry Reams) out of jail on obscenity charges.

Ken Starr actually did to Bill Clinton what Trump now claims is being done to him; railroad a sitting President until tripping him up enough to…well…trump up an impeachment.  The difference, of course, is that Ken Starr had to create a crime.  (Starr “got” Clinton by asking about an illicit affair.  Clinton tried to parse words, as cheating spouses are often wont to do, and Starr called Clinton’s response perjurious.)  Curiously, Starr did put in a good word for an old pervert, Christopher Kloman, who, yes, pleaded guilty to molesting 5 girls but, c’mon…he’s an old family friend!  Pretty much, Starr is a dependable conservative, willing to adjust his legal opinions depending upon the political affiliations of the people in question.

These two legal scholars have offered up the official defense of the ImPOTUS’ crimes.  The thing is, the positions they’ve taken are just the Fox “News” crap conservatives have been spewing ever since Fox “News” told them to spew.  But these are in a 171 page legal brief filed today!  These two highly regarded legal scholars have filed Fox “News” talking points as considered legal positions.

Oh, the process isn’t “fair”.  (It is…)
No Republicans were allowed to participate.  (They were…)
No impeachable offense was committed.  (More than one…)
Dems want to overturn the last election.  (Not possible…)
Dems just don’t like the President.  (Likely true but moot…)

They just don’t like the President?!?  As a legal defense?  Since when did ‘you can only be arrested by someone who likes you’ become the deal?  Feel free to file that one right next to ‘the process is unfair.’  If accused criminals can avoid prosecution simply by claiming the process is unfair, I think we’ve convicted our last criminal.

I like the ‘No impeachable offense’ bit, myself.  In my own reading of the Constitution, I’ve always believed that a President had to commit an actual crime in order to be impeached.  Still, I’m no Constitutional scholar and a case was once made that says I’m wrong.  “It certainly doesn’t have to be a crime if you have somebody who completely corrupts the office of president and who abuses trust and who poses great danger to our liberty, you don’t need a technical crime.”  You know who said that?  Alan Dershowitz on ‘Larry King Live’ in 1998.

I still think I’m right…but the point is moot.  There was, in fact, an impeachable offense.  Trump tried to commit bribery – an actual crime.  The fact that he failed doesn’t excuse him.  Also, Obstruction of Congress is, in fact, an actual thing.  Trump ordered his minions to ignore Congressional subpoenas.  They did.  That’s a crime.

It’s my understanding that they only needed to show up.  They didn’t need to testify beyond asserting Executive Privilege or Fifth Amendment protections but they had to show up.

The single most important thing I noticed about the points the shiny sober legal team offered up?  There’s not one point that directly contradicts the charges against ImPOTUS.  All of their complaints are about the process, complaints AROUND the charges.  Nothing about the charges themselves.  Just yesterday, I wrote: “The ImPOTUS had better hope they’ve got something better than that for the actual trial…”  Turns out, they don’t.

This might be the scariest moment I’ve ever known as an American.  The mountain of actual admissible evidence against Trump is so high as to be undeniable.  The defense is and has been pure sophism – fallacious arguments used deliberately to deceive.  I don’t care that the rank and file conservatives repeat the silly things they’ve been conditioned to repeat.  But the grown-ups in the room, the people who will be presenting evidence at trial, haven’t offered ANY exculpatory evidence at all.  Nothing.  To me, that indicates that EVERYONE concerned knows Trump is guilty.  Yet the Senate has already stated their determination to nullify the charges regardless of their validity.

What happens to a country that moves from rule of law to “Yeah, he did it.  So what?”

Okay, so, is “They’re trying to overturn an election” a dumb response or the dumbest response ever?  Just asking.

See, nobody can “overturn” an election.  With a little help from Putin, trump got the votes to take the Electoral College.  He got inaugurated.  He set up office in the White House.  He assigned his criminal cronies to important positions (then replaced them as they were hauled off to jail).  He found the person most likely to destroy a given department and put that person in charge of that department.

THEN…he committed a crime, first in private, then in public – on the White House lawn no less.  See how that works?

“Oh,” they say, “but you’ve been trying to impeach him from the start!”

Well, that’s actually kind of true.  But it’s not an attempt to overturn an election.  It’s a proper response to the fact that trump and his cronies have been involved in criminal activity since the start.  When the FBI discovered candidate trump’s people communicating with so many “compromised” Russians, they launched an investigation.  It’s their job and it was the right thing to do.

I think trump dodged a bullet on Mueller but got caught in the Ukraine thing.  Now he’s hired his “team.”  Alan Dershowitz and Ken Starr.  Remember Starr?  He’s the guy who thinks a personal peccadillo is impeachable but, apparently, bribing a foreign country isn’t – or at least, shouldn’t be.  That’s a quality team, right there – the very best  trump could get.  (And it took awhile to get them…)  What did this crack team of legal irregulars offer up?  “Democrats are just trying to overturn an election.”

The ImPOTUS had better hope they’ve got something better than that for the actual trial…

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Speaking of the trial, Moscow Mitch has been repeating his determination to nullify the process in thrall to his dedication to party over country for some time, now.  THEN, he swears and signs an oath to be impartial.

Was he lying then or is he lying now?  It will be interesting to find out…

When all is said and done, though, it will be important to remember that at NO time did Republicans ever offer point by point defenses of the charges.  That, of course, is because trump is guilty and plainly so.  The Republicans can offer distractions, nothing else…

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I’m disappointed in the Sanders campaign.  His people have sent out a carefully edited video that shows sleepy Joe seeming to agree with Paul Ryan that Social Security should be cut.  Biden says it’s taken out of context.  My disappointment is that the Sanders campaign didn’t need a carefully edited video.  They’ve got Biden’s actual record to point to.  He has been calling for cuts/freezes in Social Security going all the way back to the 1980’s.  Here’s a quote from Sleepy Joe in January, 1995:

“When I argued that we should freeze federal spending, I meant Social Security as well; I meant Medicare and Medicaid; I meant veterans’ benefits; I meant every single, solitary thing in the government.  And I not only tried it once, I tried it twice, I tried it a third time, and I tried it a fourth time.” — Joe Biden defending the proposed balanced budget amendment.

Apparently, candidate Biden’s website currently calls for increases in Social Security payments.  I don’t know.  40 years of clamoring for cuts/freezes and a sudden reversal during a campaign?

Seems like pandering…

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Well, the Santa Clara 49er’s are playing the Green Bay Packers today for a chance to go to the Super Bowl.  I hope the Niners can pull it off.  I’ve been VERY disappointed in the NFL and tried to step away.  Then the Niners started doing well.  Just when I thought I was out…they pull me back in.

Still, I have firm resolve and intend to stick to my guns.

Um…next year…

This morning, I got into a social media “discussion” with an individual who seems to believe himself a constitutional scholar.  He’s got ALL kinds of information about what the Constitution says.  It doesn’t even seem to bother him that the Constitution says no such thing.  It seems that conservatives have been conditioned to believe that if they just say, “the Constitution says,” then there can be no more discussion about it.

It got me to thinking…

This country was declared – as most of us know – on July 4, 1776.  It didn’t actually become a country until 1789, when the colonies finally signed off on the deal.  When the Constitutional aspect of this once-great nation finally failed will be a question for future historians.  I think one could put the date of demise at January 20, 1981, when Ronald Reagan was sworn in.  That was certainly a dark day for the vast majority of Americans but I think future historians will pin the actual, final death of the country a bit later.  Reagan started the destruction, sure, but it was still possible to save it – had Americans understood sooner what was happening.

These days, we’re witnessing an American “President” more faithful to Russia than the United States lying about trying to extort a political favor from a foreign national in order to win the next “election” with his accomplices in the Senate (Moscow Mitch, for example) working tirelessly to defend the ImPOTUS’s illegal activity and protect him from consequences.  Moscow Mitch (among others) has already declared his intention to nullify the impeachment process for his preferred partisan outcome.  To me, that makes it pretty clear that the passing of the Constitutional United States occurred sometime before – because the Constitution is currently being totally ignored…

This country went through a lot during it’s short Constitutional period.  At one time, I would have pegged slavery as the single most devastating thing ever to happen to the nation.  Certainly slavery was the single most devastating thing ever to happen to the slaves and racism has been an ongoing cancer in this country since long before day one.  This country has suffered natural disasters, man-made disasters, and war after war after war after war.  But we survived it all, clinging to our aspirations.

Even the Civil War failed to destroy the foundations laid by the founding fathers…

History now pegs the fall of the Roman Republic to when Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon river with his army.  That isn’t precisely true, though.  That was the moment that led, inexorably, to the Empire.  But it’s not as if Caesar crossed and the next day Rome removed all of the “Republic” signs and replaced them with “Empire.”  It took time for the precipitating event to lead to the final outcome.  Still, historians generally agree that Rome shifted from “Republic” to “Empire” in January, 49 BCE.

In like fashion, I think an excellent date for the “crossing the Rubicon” moment for our once-beloved Constitutional Republic will prove to be October 7, 1996.  Why that date?  That’s the day Fox “News” launched.

A democracy – or in our case a Constitutional Republic – requires solid information in order to function properly.  Fox “News” entire reason for being is to spread false information.  It succeeded brilliantly.  Apparently, up to 40% of this country is simply unable to distinguish actual information from the devious misinformation repeated by Fox over and over, day after day.  According to the book of Mark (3:25) Jesus said “if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.”

The little bit of Roman history, above, was brought to you so you can understand that I don’t mean to suggest that the day Fox launched saw the end of the republic.  It has taken time.  It’s a transitional thing.  Hell, Fox operated at a LOSS for YEARS after it was launched.  They stuck with it, though.  They hung in until they built up a large enough audience to sustain the channel and then to undermine the country with the most effective disinformation campaign the world has ever seen.

When you think about it, our great experiment was kind of paltry.  207 years, total.  The “greatest nation on the planet” part lasted a mere 63 years.  It didn’t have to be that way.  This country was teetering on the brink of failure in the 1920’s.  FDR introduced the New Deal and not only saved the country but created the greatest middle class the world had ever seen.  We KNOW the programs FDR envisioned work because they’re working brilliantly in Scandinavia – where the masses are happier, more productive, better educated, and live a much higher standard of living than anywhere else in the world.  All we had to do was protect the New Deal.

It seems odd to me that the founders didn’t ever seem to conceive that the country might be brought down from the inside but that’s exactly what happened.  Charles Koch made a determination that he loved his money more than his country and he launched his attack.  The Australian Rupert Murdoch was only too happy to join in and bring down the county and Fox “News” was born.  Literally, two super-rich assholes (and a few of their friends) did the deed.

Oh, it’s important to note who was President when Fox first aired: William Jefferson Clinton III.  The reason it’s important is because the Clinton administration had to issue waivers to allow Fox to exist in the first place.  Apparently, the coup was bi-partisan…

Don’t get me wrong.  I know the United States of America will continue to appear on maps for the foreseeable future.  It just won’t be the SAME United States of America the founders envisioned…

I’m kind of tired of hearing Trumpsters pretend the ImPOTUS has been tougher on Russia than any other President.  CONGRESS has been pretty tough on Russia – and I mean BOTH sides of the aisle.  But Donnie Dumbass, himself?  He’d bend the knee, unzip Putin’s fly, and get to work on national TV if Putin told him to.  (And conservatives would explain how it was exactly the right move, of course…)

Yes, Congress has imposed sanctions.  Congress, not Trump.  Congress had to FORCE Trump to sign the legislation (by passing it by a veto-proof margin).  But where the decisions/actions are up to Trump and Trump alone, Russia wins.  So far, every time…

Yes, I know the conservatives don’t know this…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My conservative brethren have started pretending that as long as Nancy Pelosi doesn’t send the Articles of Impeachment to Moscow Mitch’s corrupt Senate, Trump isn’t technically impeached.  Of course, this is wrong.  Trump HAS been impeached.  It’s just that the impeachment hasn’t yet been adjudicated.  Think of it as an indictment.  A criminal gets accused, THEN there’s a trial.  The criminal isn’t free of the charges until the trial date.  He remains indicted.  Trump is impeached and he remains impeached with a trial pending.

Yes, I know the conservatives don’t know this…

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Okay, so Trump decided now is the time to kill a known bad guy, Qassem Suleimani.  I haven’t heard anybody saying Suleimani was a good guy.  Just the opposite, in fact.  I HAVE heard many people question the wisdom of such an action.  The concern isn’t for Suleimani or his family.  The concern is about the expected blowback.

Apparently, Iraq has voted to expel all US troops in Iraq and the killing has created a suspension in an international group dedicated to fighting ISIS.  There is no expectation that Iraq can force the Americans out.  Trump claims he’ll hit 52 targets “very hard” if Iran retaliates for the extra-judicial killing of one of it’s top generals.  (He’s just waiting for Putin to tell him which 52…)

Trump’s distraction war with Iran will be different that George’s Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Iran has teeth.  Iraq had been effectively disarmed when George misled America into attacking them.  True, they had a large army but it only had rifles.  Afghanistan?  Rocks.  (I note that we STILL haven’t defeated them, though…)

There IS an upside, of course.  Now the US can find out if Iran has finished it’s nuclear bomb program since May, 2018 – when Trump gave them permission to restart it.

Yes, I know the conservatives don’t know this…

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Patriots fans, you might want to stop here…

I’m glad the cheatin’ New England Patriots got bumped from the playoffs in the Wildcard round.

There’s an ongoing argument about whether the Pats cheat or not.  If you’re a pats fan, they didn’t and don’t.  If you prefer evidence, they did – and do.  I recently thought of a less concrete consideration in the matter.  Bill Belichick, the coach of the Patriots and one of the masterminds behind Spygate, is said to be some kind of “genius” coach.  That’s no big deal, really.  The league has always had coaches with real vision, true genius.  The thing is, THOSE coaches produce OTHER coaches who learned from the original great coaches.  The phenomenon is so common it has a name: a coaching tree.  One can trace the occasional great coach back to some mentor someplace.  Al Davis produced Bill Walsh who produced Mike Holmgren, that kind of thing.

Belichick has never produced an “offspring” great head coach.  MANY of his assistants have been picked up.  None have achieved greatness in the NFL.  Most haven’t even achieved success in the NFL, if success is defined by a winning record.  That suggests Belichick has no great vision to pass along.  He just cheated…

So, it came to my attention that a web page has been created for the ImPOTUS that, ostensibly, “teaches” conservatives how to win arguments with liberals.  It goes on to list one talking point after another, all of which are basic conservative catechism, none of which are too tied down by “facts” or “truth.”

My question: what makes Donnie Dumbass think he needs a special web page to teach the conservatives how to regurgitate what Fox “News” tells them?  They already KNOW all of this stuff.  If they’d come out of their hidey-holes, we could be “discussing” them.  (That means I could explain why the talking points are wrong and conservatives could ignore me and continue to repeat them anyway…)

So…here’s an idea I’ve had to beat your conservative uncle in these conversations: bet him.  Make him part with money  – say, $10 bucks – for each fact he fails to follow.  Now, this isn’t perfect.  There are some things that are too complex to settle quickly.  But when some conservative says, for example, there were no first person witnesses who testified at the House Impeachment hearings (as they’ve been conditioned to say),  there doesn’t have to be any shouting or energy.  A quick search of the web will prove them wrong – and it’s not debatable.  It’s a yes or no proposition.  Were there any first person witnesses?  Yes, three: Lt Col Vindman, Jennifer Williams, and Tim Morrison.  $10 bucks.  Were Republicans left out of the loop in the basement?  No, there are 17 Republicans on the intelligence committee and they were all allowed to be there AND asking questions.  $10 bucks.  See?  Easy!

Not perfect, though.  For example, they’re going to believe this is “Trump’s economy” no matter what and economics is too complex to settle in simple yes or no questions.  Showing them trend lines going back to 2014 won’t convince them.  But when you can boil a question down to a simple yes or no, you should – then take Uncle Conservative’s money…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’ve noticed the conservative community that normally engages in social media is keeping their collective heads down.  I’ve also noticed that Senate Republicans are playing the whole Impeachment thing down.  “Hey, if they send the Articles, great.  If not, that’s great, too…”  But the ImPOTUS is NOT playing it cool.  I guess he didn’t get the “pretend we don’t care” memo.  He just keeps tweeting and tweeting.  It makes him look as though the pressure is getting to him…

It’s weird, though.  His tweets claim he’s innocent.  If he’s so innocent, he could put the whole thing to bed, not by tweeting but by testifying – or at least letting his minions testify.  Instead, he keeps himself in a pressure cooker of his own making.  I wonder why a guy who could so easily prove his innocence refuses to do so?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Truth?  I’m not sure why I keep hearing that the impeachment process will energize Trump’s base.  Trump’s base doesn’t NEED “energizing.”  They’re going to come out in force no matter what.  They’ve worked very hard over the course of his maladministration to ignore everything they once held dear so they can continue to support this…human-type being.  The base isn’t going to change.  Likewise, Trump’s liberal opposition isn’t likely to jump to Trump – for any reason.  So it’s just the middle that remains in play.  But here’s the thing; in order to BE in the middle, you have to accept facts – even if they’re contrary to your preferences.  (It’s really the correct attitude…)

You might think the impeachment was a bit over the line.  Are you REALLY going to go out and vote Trump because of it?  If you accept facts, do you REALLY ignore all of the damage Trump has done to make some statement?  I don’t think so.  I don’t think one CAN energize Trump’s base any more than they already are and I don’t think anybody who’s not ALREADY on board with Trump will shift for – well, any reason, really.

Ultimately, I don’t think the impeachment will make any difference in the upcoming “election.”  We already know the outcome of the trial since the Senate has already announced the outcome – always a sign of a nice, fair, honest event, yes?

Here’s my question: the Constitution says the President (or in this case, Trump) has the power to pardon except in cases of impeachment.  Donnie stands impeached but the corrupt Republicans in the Senate are going to nullify the action.  Can Trump then pardon those who participated in his crimes or is his pardon ability in this case still revoked regarding this matter?  Rudy Giuliani really needs to know…

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So, this is the last post of 2019 (probably) and I’d like to thank my loyal reader for hanging in there with me.  It’s been an…interesting year.  2020 looks like it’s going to be even weirder.  So…Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and the Happiest of New Year’s from MyBaconPress.  Here’s hoping the new year brings glad tidings to you and yours…

So…the cheatinest team in the history of the NFL, the New England Patriots, have been caught cheating yet again!  Worse, they got caught filming an opponent’s sideline!  Again!  No rational case can be made that the cheatin’ New England team doesn’t understand the rules of filming opponents.  That’s the very crux of their FIRST cheating scandal, ‘Spygate.’  They filmed opponents from 2000 until 2007 when the NFL finally got around to asking them to, if they wouldn’t mind, please stop cheating.  Apparently, the answer was, “We’ll hold off for awhile, until this blows over, but we’re not going to stop.”

The thing is, Robert Kraft, cheating owner of the cheating Patriots, is one of the most powerful people in the NFL.  Apparently, he’s more powerful than Roger Goodell, the Commissioner of the NFL.  So, I understand Goodell has no real authority to stop the Patriots from cheating.  Last time, all the NFL could muster was a fine of pennies on the dollar from some of the people involved.  Likely, that will be along the lines of what Cheatin’ New England will face THIS time, too.

Personally?  I think the Cheatin’ Pats should be barred from post-season play.  Whatever they “accomplish” on the field during the regular season will just be set aside (since the safest bet is that they cheated to accomplish anything anyway) and the next team in line should take their place.

If the cheating didn’t pay off so handsomely, they wouldn’t need to cheat…

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So, this woman intentionally crashed her car into a child – a 14 year old child – because “she looks Mexican.”  Fortunately, the child was not seriously hurt.  The article I read in the ‘Independent’ indicated that the driver is an alcoholic racist.  The article did NOT indicate the driver’s political affiliation.  But if I had to bet, I’d put my money on “conservative.”  This is the reason inflammatory rhetoric (rapists, killers, drug dealers) from the ImPOTUS is dangerous.  This is the second time some conservative acolyte has used a car to attack people with whom they disagree.  On the up side, it looks as though there will be one less conservative voter out there this November as she’ll be sitting in jail, instead…

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I have to admit, I was impressed by the absolute control the conservative bubble demonstrated over it’s adherents during the impeachment hearings.  I know many conservatives.  I don’t know one who paid direct attention to the hearings.  (I DO know several who CLAIM they watched or listened but, of course, those of us who actually did can tell by the claims of the conservatives that, no, you got your information later, from Hannity or Carlson or whichever Fox blowhard you like best…)

Now, on the one hand, I really was impressed.  On the other, it’s kind of DEpressing that so many people would – could – just close their eyes, ears, and minds and insist pretend is real and real is fake.  I honestly don’t know how Fox and it’s downstream subsidiaries got so many people to go along.  I imagine they didn’t just come out and say “don’t watch” but I don’t know that for sure.  I once heard Rush tell his audience that they didn’t need to think.  He’d tell them what to think.  So they don’t and he does.  His listeners don’t even know he’s lying – because they won’t check…

Conservatives like to think of themselves as the true Americans, holding the line against the evil hoards of Democrats and liberals.  Patriots.  Sure, “patriotic” like Benedict Arnold, another whiner willing to betray his country during a temper tantrum…

It might be thought that the one good thing about the current ImPOTUS  is that he has exposed everything true and corrupt about the modern Republican party.  Their pretended concern about fiscal responsibility went out the window.  The party of strong defense?  Yeah, except the ImPOTUS literally GAVE AWAY a hardened military installation – to the RUSSIANS!  Love and respect for the US Constitution?  Not when you’ll work so relentlessly to pretend actions that directly contradict the Constitution don’t really mean anything.  Conservatives are anything BUT patriots…

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There’s one thing all Americans can take to the bank: when conservatives start throwing around accusations, one can bet the rent that the conservatives are projecting.  Conservatives actually believe (because the bubble tells them so) that Democrats cheat in the “elections” by busing in hoards of illegal aliens to cast ballots – then drive the bus to the next polling place.

Sure, that seems likely.  There’s NO WAY anybody would notice buses full of people driving up and unloading, sneaking in the back door, then loading back up and driving away.  As it happens, it’s just so much easier to have your friend and handler Vlad dial into voting machines and simply flip votes – something conservatives have been convinced couldn’t possibly happen ever anytime, anywhere – because that’s the actual way it’s done.

Now one of Donnie Dumbass’s workers, Justin Clark, has been caught confessing that “Traditionally it’s always been Republicans suppressing votes in places.”  Hey, no shit, huh?  Of course, Mr. Clark pretends he was taken out of context.  He was only referring to the charges that get leveled at Republicans all the time about voter suppression based on nothing more than the countless times the party has engaged in voter suppression.  (Conservatives always seem to get upset about being accused of this or that just because they did it.)  Of COURSE it’s a misquote, taken out of context.

What conservative would EVER participate in such underhanded behavior?  I mean, it’s not like we have video evidence of any conservative leaders named Paul Weyrich making exactly the case that fewer people voting benefits conservatives.  Oh, and I guess I should include the second paragraph from the Guardian article:

“But the report emerged just days after news that a conservative group is forcing Wisconsin to purge upwards of 230,000 people from state voter rolls more than a year earlier than planned, a move that would disproportionately affect Democrats before the 2020 election.”

Just a couple of things:  I’m kind of tired of listening to Republicans repeating stories that aren’t true in place of an actual defense of our impeached so-called “President.”  Since the rank and file have been SO dedicated to their current strategy of sticking their heads in the sand and ignoring reality, they don’t KNOW the stories aren’t true.  This lapse has them repeating bunk over and over, rudely, as though they know things.  So…I’m offering a couple of responses in the hopes that loyal Americans will pick them up and explain them to snowflake conservatives should the opportunity arise…

One of the stories regurgitated by deceptive Republicans is that Democrats have been out to impeach Trump since the day he was inaugurated because lefties hate him so much.  This is only partly correct.  There HAVE been voices calling for his impeachment from the start but those calls aren’t because we hate him (though most Americans do).  The reason for the calls for impeachment is based on the fact that Donald Trump has been so closely associated with so much criminal activity going back to the campaign…

Story two: Democrats are trying to overturn the 2016 election.  No.  The election is over and can’t be undone or overturned.  But winning the Electoral College during an “election” doesn’t allow the “winner” to commit any crime he or she desires from that point forward.  Trump, with the help of the Russians, allegedly “won” the Electoral College.  Election over, Trump wins.  But then he committed crimes – at least, according to sworn testimony.  The “election” can’t be overturned.  But a criminal President can be and should be removed from office…

Senate GOP: “We, the jury, find for the defendant.”
America: “Um…the trial hasn’t even started yet…”
Senate GOP: “What’s your point?”

Both Moscow Mitch and Lindsey Graham have declared they’ll be working closely with the White House during the “trial” in order to bring about the result the White House prefers.  This, from the party who have been crying and whining about the “fairness of the process” from the start.

Mitch and Lindsey should recuse themselves.  Clearly, they lack impartiality…

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Near the beginning of the Judiciary Committee phase of the House Impeachment hearings, a conservative – pretending to be a “true American” (but actually just a conservative) – stood up in the chamber and began shouting that the process was flawed and that Democrats should be impeached.

He was a plant by the GOP.  You know, to make the process more “fair.”  His name is Owen Shroyer.  He’s one of the people who lies for Infowars, the Alex Jones falsehood machine.  Why, it’s almost as if the conservatives KNOW they have no legal leg to stand on so they decided to pound on the table and scream like hell.  I accept their attempted distractions as acknowledgment that they know their “President” is as crooked as Lombard Street in San Francisco…

They just don’t care…

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Somewhere along the way, conservative pseudo-christian men – fearful that someone may someday discover their secret desire to have sex with other conservative pseudo-christian men, created a process they cleverly called Gay Conversion Therapy.  Sure, it sounds like they’re trying to convert people TO the gay lifestyle but, apparently, the opposite is the case.  They’re trying to “ungay” themselves, or, rather, gay people.

Well, that isn’t going to work.  But I’d like to adopt the concepts of the practice and apply it to conservatism, in general.  Most conservatives in this once-great nation seem to be under the thrall of the opinion-based conservative bubble.  It’s a kind of Stockholm Syndrome.  For the most part, they’re NOT going to be able to save themselves.  They’re going to have to be rescued.  We’ll put them through Conservative Conversion Therapy by teaching them to recognize facts and use the scientific method and to disregard opinions and assertions from the bubble.

At least Conservative Conversion Therapy would benefit mankind…

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We have a popular local trail here in my home town called the Joe Rodota Trail.  It has been taken over by an encampment of homeless people and now people WITH homes are complaining they can’t use the trail.  “Why don’t those people just…go home?” they ask.

In the 1930’s, after the conservatives had, once again, destroyed the national economy and caused the Great Republican Depression, people who could no longer afford to function in our society formed little homeless encampments across the country that came to be known as ‘Hoovervilles’ in honor of the dumbass conservative President who presided over the failed economy at the time, Herbert Hoover.

These days, I’m told over and over about the booming economy and how great everything is for everybody but I notice that the homeless encampments keep growing.  It’s almost as if people’s actual day to day lives aren’t paying attention to the good news we’re being fed on a daily basis from the corporate media.

I suspect the homeless encampments are going to continue to grow.  They’re a natural consequence of the so-called “free market.”  I propose, in honor of their forerunners, we name ALL new homeless encampments “TrumpTowns…”

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Okay, you can’t make this up.  The outgoing governor of Kentucky, Matt Bevin, in an effort to prove to the good people of Kentucky they made the right decision in ousting him, pardoned a bunch of people.  No big deal, really.  It’s common practice.  It’s WHO he pardoned that has raised eyebrows.  I’ll let the Guardian tell you:

“But a number of the pardons were for particularly violent crimes, like a woman who gave birth in a flea market porta-potty and dumped her newborn into the toilet’s septic tank; a man who hired a hitman to murder his business partner in front of his family; a man convicted of beheading a woman and stuffing her body in a 55-gallon drum; a man convicted last year of raping a nine-year-old child; and a man convicted in a home invasion homicide whose brother hosted a fundraiser for the governor last year.”

The last guy on that list pretended to be a law enforcement officer in order to gain entrance to a home where he and two other guys killed the man inside.  The two who DIDN’T have a brother hosting a fundraiser were NOT pardoned…

I’ll tell you this: Blevins could certainly use some Conservative Conversion Therapy…

I hear George Zimmerman, the guy who stalked, provoked, and then murdered Trayvon Martin, is suing the Martin family for $100 million dollars.  Apparently, even though he was acquitted in one of Florida’s Kangaroo Courts, people still have an opinion about what he did – and it isn’t a nice opinion.

Zimmerman says he feels ostracized, like people continue to think he got away with murder.  And all because he got away with murder.  Wow.  The indignity.  Zimmerman’s “lawyer” is a guy named Larry Klayman.  He’s a right-wing nut ball and the founder of Judicial Watch, a web site for right wing nut balls.

It’s classic conservatism.  First, you get away with murder utilizing backward Florida’s ‘Stand Your Ground’ law, even though it was Trayvon standing HIS ground against an unknown assailant, THEN you decided that, hey, maybe there’s a way to profit from this, too…

Personally, I hope George Zimmerman feels the burn of societal judgement for the rest of his dark days…

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ALL patriotic Americans are following the impeachment process as it plays out.  Conservatives are hiding from it, waiting for Fox “News” to tell them what happened – whether it happened or not.  It’s rather a stunning act of cowardice, from my point of view.  I suspect they KNOW, on some level, Trump is guilty of trying to bribe a foreign country into meddling in an American “election” so they dare not risk hearing the actual evidence.  It’s hard enough to maintain the pretense of Trump’s “innocence” as it is…

ALL patriotic Americans expect the process to be nullified by the corrupt conservatives in the Senate.

But Senate dishonor cannot bestow honor on the personification of pride, envy, gluttony, lust, avarice, wrath, and sloth that is the criminal Donald (“Donnie Dumbass”) Trump…

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I’m told from time to time that calling conservatives stupid only makes them more determined to vote Trump so we shouldn’t do it.

I know it’s rude, so I won’t.  But if they don’t want me to think of them as stupid, they shouldn’t give me so much evidence to support my supposition…