politics

Handlers and Assets…

by MyBaconPress

I’ve been listening to Chuck Schumer and other Democrats call on our National Embarrassment to cancel his one-on-one with Putin.  The position is that because there’s so much evidence – like the 12 Russians just indicted for conspiracy – linking the Russians to attempted disruptions of the last “election” it’s probably not a good idea to have a private, one-on-one meeting.

That’s the correct position, of course, but only in a world where right and wrong matter.  We no longer live in that world so, right or wrong, the meeting proceeds.  Besides, do you actually think a spy enjoys the authority to tell their handler whether or not they’ll answer a call?  I don’t think so.  Putin calls, Trump responds.  That’s the way it works.

I’ll tell you this: Trump will be lucky if Putin doesn’t make Trump blow him before they trade information and the next assignment…you know, just to show who’s boss…

Who Wins?

by MyBaconPress

Scary.  That’s the only word I can think of for what’s coming.  Scary.  I just finished reading an opinion piece from the BBC called, ‘What is Donald Trump’s Family Separation End-game?‘  The writer opines that there’s a two-fold strategy in place: one, get his stupid wall or, failing that, two, motivate his base.

It should say enough that terrorizing little children motivates his base to fall out in support.  It’s motivating Democrats and progressives to fall out as well but in defiance – so at least lefties won’t find themselves on the wrong side of history and they won’t have to tell themselves comforting lies in the future.  The question is, who wins?

Ted Cruz says liberals will crawl over broken glass to vote in the upcoming mid-terms.  Republicans, of course, will be the ones breaking the glass.  I’ve never wanted to agree with Ted Cruz but I hope he’s right about this one.  Dems and Progressives MUST fall out to vote.

History supports the notion that Republicans win when there’s low voter turnout.  (Do a search on “Goo Goo Syndrome.”  They KNOW this to be true.  It’s the reason they work so hard on voter suppression.)  But they can be counted on to vote in every “election”, every single time.  Dems and Indies are less…compliant.  But history ALSO supports the notion that when something big is happening, Dems DO come out in large numbers.

There are more sane people in this country than Republicans so, if Dems DO come out in force, we’ll win.  We’ll take enough control of Congress to stop President Beeblebrox in his tracks.  (For the uninitiated, the reference is to Zaphod Beeblebrox in Douglas Adams’ ‘Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy’ series.  His job, as President of the Galaxy, is to distract people from noticing what’s really going on around them…)

But the punitive crowd will still come out as well – and in force.  Dems often don’t bother with mid-terms.  So the question is, who wins?  The results will have consequences that determine the very soul of this once-great nation.  No, we’re not going to be able to impeach Trump – not just yet, anyway.  Sure, the House might vote for it but the feckless Republicans in the Senate will not lift a finger to stop Trump because he’s so lucrative for them.  Still, we CAN stop him…or, at least, slow him down.

It’s curious.  I have this belief that anything begun dishonorably is destined to fail.  It’s a fairly easy argument to make that the United States of America – what with all it’s official support of enslaving human beings – was begun dishonorably, which, in turn, means it MUST – sooner or later – fail.  Every day that goes by and the country I love falls further and further into a pit of it’s own making that it may never climb out of, I’m vindicated in my larger, over-arching belief.

But I’ll tell you this: I’m not happy about it…

Let the World Ignore Him…

by MyBaconPress

Image: BELGIUM-NATO-DEFENCE-POLITICS-DIPLOMACY-MEETINGI shouldn’t be, I know, but I’m always surprised whenever I rediscover there are people out there who don’t seem aware that Fox “News” is a political propaganda machine.  It’s not a credible news outlet, despite it’s misleading name.  It’s just an attack machine aimed at any individual considered an enemy by whomever is running the show that day.  Barack Obama was a favorite.  If he said “up”, Fox “News” said “down.”  Simple.  Always oppose.  It’s just what attack news is all about and always has been.

You may not be aware that when this country was born, well-positioned people sponsored entire newspapers to be their voice to the populace, specifically creating papers run by editors loyal to whatever cause the sponsor was promoting at the time.  In that same tradition, Fox “News” is set up by rich people to benefit rich people.  They’ve taken advantage of a certain mindset in this once-great nation and those minions keep Fox going by parroting whatever they hear on ‘Fox and Friends’ or Hannity.

Mostly, the adherents of Fox are old.  Really old.  Scared of dying, they become frightened of everything else, too, and Fox is there to make sure the fears seem real and justified.  It’s actually unkind.  These people don’t think well anymore.  Fox “News” is terrorizing old people and weak thinkers to further their own political agenda and they do so with great effect.  And now, we’ve got a group of those gullible, weak-thinkers in the White House…

I don’t know exactly how long Trump has been a Fox viewer but I’d guess it goes all the way back to when his brain first calcified.  The self-described master of the Art of the Deal – which, apparently, is NEVER honor an agreement – doesn’t seem to understand that Fox “News” doesn’t know – or even care – if what they say is true.  “True” isn’t relevant.  Only attack is relevant.  As such, they attacked everything the Obama administration did, good and bad.  But Trump, apparently, never figured out that it’s just a ploy so, like most Fox viewers, he actually believes the crap they spew.

When the world made an agreement with Iran, Fox trashed the deal.  Sure, they had to make up details in order to attack it but they’re always happy to make things up over at Fox and so…attack they did.  Not because it was a bad deal.  Fox trashed it because Obama was in office when it was finalized.  That’s it.  It was the attack message of the day: Obama = bad.

So, naturally, our National Embarrassment has used faulty information to make actual, real-life decisions about the world at large, including Iran.  Trump just did what Trump does: pull out of an agreement that has already been made and start agitating for “a better deal.”  Was the Iran agreement the very best deal in the history of deals?  Probably not.  Was it the complete and utter failure Fox told Trump it was?  Not in the least.

Smart people, so-called “intellectual elites” in the Fox crowd, tried to stop him.  Emmanuel Macron came from France to try to stop him from pulling out.  Angela Merkle came from Germany to try to stop him.  Intelligence agencies from around the world insisted the deal was working as planned.  But Macron and Merkle – people who DO know what they’re talking about – don’t hold the same sway with the dotard as Fox and Friends – people who clearly DON’T know what they’re talking about.  So, Trump pulled out of the deal, anyway.

At first, I was a little concerned.  Outside of Fox “News” and Trump’s calcified brain, everybody knows that ending the deal is setting Iran on the path to nuclear weapons right away.  But, as is the case with everything regarding this maladministration, one doesn’t jump right in and start making predictions.  It’s better to wait a day or two, think about things; watch things unfold a bit.  I pretty quickly realized that the rest of the world knows that Trump is untrustworthy, dishonorable, and just plain fucking dumb…um…not at his intellectual best.  So the rest of the world has put the US on hold, as they should have done.  They’ll get back to us just as soon as we solve our problem.  In the meantime, the world is moving forward without us.

That thought gave me comfort.  Sure Trump can be counted upon to do the wrong thing, make the wrong move.  But the rest of the world doesn’t have to pull out just because Trump did.  I’m guessing that even as Donnie was holding up his paper to demonstrate that he can still write his name, the rest of the world was on the phone to Iran reassuring them that they’ll stay in the deal.  Sanctions, for example, don’t have much effect if the rest of the world won’t honor them and I’m hoping the rest of the world won’t honor them.  (And, yes, that is what it has come to: most Americans hoping the rest of the world can hold out against America!  Thanks, Don…)

Then I see this headline in the Guardian:  US threatens European companies with sanctions after Iran deal pullout.  Think about that for a second.  Trump made the wrong move for the wrong reasons.  Now he’s threatening US allies if they don’t make the wrong move with him.  You might want to read that again: Trump is threatening US allies if they don’t make the wrong move with him.  Our allies…

I’ll tell you this: I hope the world defies Trump despite the threats.  They just need to hold out for a little while.  We’ll correct our error and dump Trump as soon as we can.  Then we’ll be able to rejoin the world community as grownups, not petulant brats…

You Chose Out…

by MyBaconPress

When I was young, ‘you chose out’ was a fairly common refrain from parents across the land.  Back in those days, children were allowed to play outside…unsupervised!  (I know!)  I wrote “allowed.”  I meant “forced.”  Once you chose to go outside, you stayed outside until dinner – for which you’d better not be late.  It was a kind of “you made your choice, now live with it.”  I’ve got to offer that same advice to conservatives, these days…

It seems they’re all worked up over these ongoing investigations into our National Embarrassment and the swamp creatures that surround him.  There’s this District Judge in Virginia, T.S. Ellis, whose head is WAY too far up a Fox “News” hole, who decided to defend his President.  He repeatedly expressed his opinion that the prosecution of Paul Manafort, Trump’s one-time campaign manager, was really about Mueller’s investigation into Trump.  Mueller’s investigation has alleged criminal wrongdoing by Manafort.  According to CNN, ‘Manafort has asked the judge to review Mueller’s authority to bring charges in an investigation that began well before the special counsel’s appointment and focused on actions years before the campaign.’  Ha, ha…good one!  I’ve got just one word for you.

Whitewater.

Whitewater was a failed land development deal in which Bill and Hillary Clinton lost money – in 1979.  In 1992 (13 years after the fact) a Resolution Trust Investigator named Laura Jean Lewis was looking into a Savings and Loan owned by Jim and Susan McDougal – friends of the Clintons and co-investors in the Whitewater deal.  She submitted a criminal referral to the FBI.  Both the Arkansas District Attorney (sure, possibly biased) and the FBI concluded that the referral lacked merit but that didn’t stop Lewis from pursuing the matter.  After all, when has “lacked merit” ever mattered to conservatives?

Lewis continued to issue referrals for another couple of years and in 1995, testified before the Senate Whitewater committee – because the Senate had convened a Whitewater committee to look into charges that lacked merit from now 16 years prior.  Initially, a guy named Robert Fiske was appointed to investigate as special prosecutor.  In may of 1994, Fiske issued a grand jury subpoena to the sitting President and his wife.  (The subpoenaed documents were reported as “missing.”)  In June, 1994, Fiske made an announcement that no criminal charges should be brought and that he was about to conclude his investigation.  So, the GOP fired him – they accused him of having a conflict of interest because he’d been appointed by Clinton’s Attorney General – and replaced him with Kenneth Starr.

Starr seemed to have had an agenda.  He enlisted the testimony of a guy named David Hale.  Hale was in trouble for embezzlement from his own insurance company.  He received a reduced sentence after suddenly “remembering”, in 1993, that the Clintons had pressured him to make a loan to Susan McDougal – a remembrance he hadn’t made during his initial testimony in the original FBI investigation in 1989.  Susan McDougal refused to answer questions about the investigation.  Starr held her in prison on contempt charges for 18 months.  McDougal has always maintained that Starr offered her “global immunity” from other charges if she would cooperate with the Whitewater investigation.

By April of 1998, Starr had pretty much concluded the Whitewater deal was a non-starter.  In September of that year, Starr issued his infamous “Starr Report” which mentioned Whitewater only in passing.  But they had found a blowjob.  Even THAT didn’t stop the GOP.  They appointed yet another “independent” counsel, Robert Ray, who, in September, 2000 (and 60 MILLION dollars later) issued a report that said, “This office determined that the evidence was insufficient to prove to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that either President or Mrs. Clinton knowingly participated in any criminal conduct.”

So…do special prosecutors use little fish to try to catch big fish?  Heck yes, they do.  Is investigating charges from YEARS prior “out of bounds”?  It doesn’t seem so.  CAN someone continue to investigate even after multiple “final” reports state no factual basis for the charges exists?  Yep.  Might a sitting President be subpoenaed?  Absolutely!  Might that same sitting President be charged with offenses that have nothing whatsoever to do with the charges that launched the initial investigation?  Ask Monica Lewinsky…

I’ll tell you this: ALL of these lovely little legal niceties regarding a sitting President were established by conservatives in their “witch-hunt” against Bill Clinton.  Do conservatives now get to change their own precedents because the target of an investigation is a Republican?  No.  No, you don’t.

You chose out…

 

Not In The News…

by MyBaconPress

It sure is tough writing about politics, these days.  With our vaunted “fourth estate” in tatters, it’s hard to even know what’s going on.  Have you seen the cleverly edited video in which newsreaders were ordered by Sinclair Broadcast Group to read a script supposedly decrying the practice of forcing newsreaders to read scripts that “ some members of the media use their platforms to push their own personal bias and agenda to control exactly what people think…”  These pieces are called “must-runs” as in, the given station is ordered to run them whether they agree with the content or not.

But when you get ownership groups pressing their agendas by using their platforms to complain about ownership groups using their platforms to press their agendas it becomes that much more difficult to figure out who’s trustworthy and who’s not.  Here’s a hint: American broadcast media is NOT trustworthy.  Print media is better because you have time to linger and think about what’s being presented but if it originates in America, you should assume it’s owned by one of the five companies that own most media in this once-great nation and accept that you’re getting either useless fluff or carefully edited news…

My greatest complaint tends to be around what’s NOT reported.  I’m not talking about conservative bubble “stories” only THEY get because they have their super-secret decoder rings.  (“Why, oh why won’t the mainstream media cover THIS?”  “Um, because it’s bullshit?”)  I’m talking about REAL news stories that don’t get carried for reasons that serve the owners.

As an example, these days, we’re treated to a semi-regular feature in which someone is asked for their “best” example of Trump/Russian collusion.  The most common answer I see is the pee tape.  (And how great IS it that we all get to talk about the President of the United States of America and a “pee tape”?)  They don’t ask me, though.  MY best example of possible Trump/Russian collusion is about a Tanzanian bank that operated mostly in Cyprus, FBME, or the First Bank of the Middle East.

It’s closed now.  Pretty good timing, if you ask me.  But before it was closed down, it was a known haven for Russian money laundering.  Some of the Russians laundering money were VERY close to Putin.  Do you know who else stands accused of laundering money through FBME?  Well, that would be Paul Manafort, the one-time campaign manager for Trump.  Manafort denies the charges.

Turns out?  Deutsche Bank was a Correspondent Bank for FBME.  A Correspondent Bank is one that provides financial services for the “partner” institution – wire transfers, accepting deposits and documents, that sort of thing.  Oh, and Deutsche Bank is, far and away, Donald Trump’s biggest lender.  Nobody else will lend to the guy anymore.  He’s too big of a risk.  But Deutsche went out of it’s way to find borrowers who were out of favor with more…respectable institutions and they found the Donald…

I’ll tell you this: in fairness to our crap media, Robert Mueller has played it pretty close to the vest when it comes to the details of his investigation – as he should.  But the Guardian from the UK covered it, so it was clearly “coverable.”  I guess it’s just more fun to salivate over Stormy Daniels’…um…accusations…

Parade THIS…

by MyBaconPress

So…President Tiny Hands wants a grand military parade.  I guess he wants to see what a big missile looks like.  Apparently, he’s been quite impressed by Kim’s missile and now Macron’s.  Somebody should explain it to him.  Parades don’t change anything.  Sorry, Tiny, but if you want your “missile” to look bigger, your stomach is going to have to be smaller…

I wonder if he’ll show up wearing one of those stupid-looking pseudo-uniforms, covered from shoulder to shoes with medals and ribbons and declare himself the newest, greatest, highest rank in the military: ‘Field Marshall Von Admiral General’.  Dumb-ass.  You’re already the highest rank in the American military: the civilian Commander-in-Chief.  He could have known this already, of course, but when he had the chance to get up close and personal with military hardware, he sought deferments, instead…

I guess the entire disgusting affair will be “sold” as an opportunity to support our troops.  But, don’t we already support our troops?  I mean, sure, we do nothing to help them re-adjust to civilian life when they come back, we let them suffer in homelessness, and we fail to provide adequate health care for the injuries they sustain securing our nation’s oil…but we have those little magnets on the back of our cars…

Politicians are always on about how there’s no money for this, that, or the other thing and yet taxpayers are going to cough up a bit more so Tiny can pretend he’s a “real dictator”?  I’ll tell you this: I think we, the people, are already paying more than enough for displays of American military hardware around the globe.  If Tiny wants a parade, he should pay for it out of his own pocket…

The Nunes Memo…

by MyBaconPress

By now, I presume we’ve all had a chance to take a look at the so-called “Nunes Memo.”  On Friday, February 2, 2018, Devin Nunes (R, of course) “released” this bit of creative writing.  It’s based loosely – VERY loosely – on actual events…in the same way Godzilla attacking Tokyo could be viewed as a “documentary.”  After all, Tokyo is a real place so, perhaps the attack was “based on actual events.”  The memo hadn’t even gotten out of the chute before Nunes was forced to admit he hadn’t even read the underlying intelligence.  Of course, he didn’t need to.  The intent of his writing assignment was to undermine the FBI in the service of his overlord.

Nunes has done this before.  He’s actually had to step away from this very same investigation over his own unethical behavior before.  Now he’s back – and the first thing he does is produce this memo – best suited for cleaning up after a bowel movement.  Trump is pretending the memo is “proof” that the investigation is a witch hunt.  Most of the Fox “News”-level thinkers accept this.  Some are even out in social media trying to convince people that the smoking gun of conspiracy has been found, personal credibility be damned…

Thinking people want to know why there’s so much effort to deflect an investigation that, we’re assured, will produce nothing…especially since it has already produced something; two convictions.  I, personally, want to know why the Trump team doesn’t seem to understand that the more they lie the guiltier they look.

Honest men don’t lie to prove their honesty…

Both Nunes and Trump are known, proven, serial liars.  The known, proven, serial liars are the “source” for the notion that the FBI might be lying.  But I’ll tell you this:  If I have to choose between the Nunes/Trump axis, one lying from the safety of his congressional perch and the other lying on Fox “News” and Twitter or Mueller, gaining actual convictions in actual courts, I’m going with the FBI…

 

Who Counts The Votes?

by MyBaconPress

Joseph Stalin, of all people, is credited with a rather infamous comment: It’s not who votes that counts.  It’s who counts the votes.  Maybe he said it, maybe he didn’t.  It’s still an important idea and it’s one we face in this country on a regular basis.  I’ve said this before and I feel a need to say it again – with a bit more…urgency.  Do NOT cast your ballots on a computerized or electronic voting machine.  Use paper ballots.  The reason is simple enough: we, the people, cannot trust the integrity of electronic voting machines.  The “fix” is simple enough as well: cast absentee ballots.

I suspect, on some level, we all know the machines are easily rigged.  Americans should have demanded the removal of voting machines early on.  We should still.  We SHOULD have been suspicious the moment we were told by the manufacturers – the same companies that build ATM machines – it’s not possible to build a voting machine that creates a paper trail.  What?  They can do it for an ATM but not a voting machine?  That seems odd.  I can make deposits, withdrawals, and payments on an ATM and when I’m done I collect a little receipt that summarizes my transactions.  The machine also keeps a paper copy and updates it’s computer with the current information.  So what happens when the total on the paper doesn’t match the computer total?  Time to review the footage.  (Oh, yeah, the ATM can even take your picture while you do whatever it is you’re doing…)

So, how hard might it be to set up the same system – the one they already use so there’s no need to reinvent the wheel – to provide a paper copy to the voter and keep a paper copy in the machine while updating the computer count?  Not much of a challenge, I imagine.  BUT…if, at the end of the day, the paper count doesn’t match the computerized total, it would prove something was amiss.  How would the people who control those machines successfully control the outcome of “elections” if the paper trail betrayed the vote flipping inside?  Simple solution: eliminate the paper trail.  Pretend it’s “not possible.”  Prattle on about the “integrity of the election.”  Repeat as necessary.

We the people, can…should…MUST refuse to use those machines.  But I do NOT support the notion of simply not voting.  We have one teeny tiny glimmer of hope remaining to recover our once-proud nation from the grips of the one percent without bloodshed: voting.  But if the one percent control the voting machines, they control the votes.  So…get out and vote – specifically because someone out there doesn’t want you to.  But don’t use their equipment.

Cast an absentee ballot, instead.  It’s paper.  It’s a written hard copy.  It can be manually counted and recounted if necessary.  The machines?  You get a total.  You have to trust it.  There’s no double-checking because there’s no paper trail.  Think of it this way: perhaps Donald Trump didn’t even “win” the Electoral College, but there’s no way to prove that because it happened on voting machines.  The internal numbers can be changed, easily, as it happens, with no evidence such changes occurred.  (Look, don’t take my word for it.  Search ‘Vote Flipping Video’ and behold the avalanche of information…)

So vote absentee.  Cast a provisional ballot if you must.  Whichever, don’t use the machines.  Create a paper trail.  The key is, a HUGE number of people have to participate in this process in order to be effective.  There must be enough absentee ballots to force the “counters” to count them BEFORE an announcement of a “winner” can be made.

I’ll tell you this:  In November, 2018, you need to vote and you need to vote on paper ballots.  Tell your friends.  Tell your friends to tell their friends.  (Maybe just forward this essay to everyone you know…)  This needs to become a “thing.”  It should become a wave.  A movement would be better.  At this point, America needs every vote it can get and the votes had better be on paper…

One Way A Thing Could Be…

by MyBaconPress

I hear a lot of talk, these days, about impeachment.  From the left, the conversation is “What are they waiting for?”  On the right, the conversations is, “Move along.  Nothing to see, here”.  (Okay, actually on the right the conversation is, “What about Hillary?”  Tell you what, we’ll investigate her Presidential crimes just as soon as she’s the President committing crimes…)  In truth, the Democrats may not be “waiting” at all.  These things take time.  One of a lawyer’s prime jobs is to delay.  One never knows how a thing may play out over time so the more time one can stuff into the process, the better.  But the natural process of legal proceedings could well work to the advantage of the Democrats (and, of course, the country as a whole…) for two reasons.  One, the order of succession and two, the rules regarding terms of office.

Do you know the order of succession?  If the President can’t serve, in comes the Vice-President.  If both the President and Vice-President are unable to serve, here comes the Speaker of the House.  Trump, Pence, Ryan – in short, there’s no escape…at least for now.  Besides, with conservative control of Congress, there’s not going to be an impeachment, anyway.  Period.  Sure, it’s a flagrant disregard of the Rule of Law but Trump said, flatly, he could shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue and it wouldn’t affect his base.  He’s right, too.

One possible assessment (presumption? guess? hope? dream?) is that the Democrats intend to take advantage of the glacial movement of legal proceedings, hoping to benefit from the 2018 “elections.”  IF they can recapture Congress – or even one chamber – the madness stops – or, at least, slows.  IF they can recapture Congress, impeachment might proceed.  And, just for fun, IF the Democrats can recapture the House, impeachment proceedings might be possible against both Trump and Pence…and the new Speaker would be a Democrat!  That last possibility, there, is mostly wishful thinking.  It’s true, Mueller and I aren’t talking but I haven’t seen anything against Pence so far.  (That doesn’t mean much, either.  I’d never even heard of Popadopoulos until his plea deal was announced…)

Here’s the other piece: if the President is ousted for any reason, the amount of time remaining on his current term defines whether the incoming replacement can run for one more term or two.  If the replacement serves more than half of the ousted President’s term, the replacement is considered to have served one term.  If the replacement serves less than half, they can run twice.  That means one President could serve as many as 10 years…

So, to recap: the order of operations for Democrats is; win back the House, seat a new Speaker, THEN impeach the national embarrassment.  It’s that first one, though, “win back the House”, that’s going to be the hardest.  You see, whether Gerrymandering, voter suppression, or outright manipulation – conservatives cheat.  They cheat bigly.  If an “election” is close, conservatives “win” (search “Goo Goo Syndrome”) because conservatives have a finger on the scale.  These days, it’s more like they’re actually standing on the scale…

They have to, really.  You see, those who dwell inside the conservative bubble think they “win” because their positions are the most popular but as it happens there are far more thinking people than conservatives.  The thing is, lefties don’t enjoy the group-think and obedience of the right.  “Herding cats” is the phrase people commonly use.  Lefties commonly don’t turn out, particularly for mid-terms.  But the fact is, when liberals DO turn out, we win.  We CAN overwhelm the right with sheer numbers but we HAVE to overwhelm the right with sheer numbers.

I’ll tell you this: we’d better.  This whole thing is going to come down to 2018.  Conservatives just think it’s about “their team.”  Everyone else – by now – knows it’s about saving what’s left of this once-great nation…

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

Apparently, I haven’t settle on “a day” when I’ll be posting, yet.  It would be BEST if you’d just come over to http://www.MyBaconPress.com and follow the blog.  (There’s a little button in the bottom right corner.  You’ll be asked for an email address, then the next awesome – or awful, depending – piece will be delivered right to your inbox.  How convenient is that?)

Franken vs Moore…

by MyBaconPress

Look, I get it.  I do.  I’m supposed to believe the women no matter what and, mostly, I do.  But as it happens, my faith is not universal.  I have in the back of my mind a single fact which must not be ignored: conservatives will say anything – anything – to “win” an argument.  They’re not hampered by facts, honesty, nor reality.  Their positions change as quickly and easily as the wind shifts.

When the first woman said Al Franken touched her butt at a fair, he didn’t want to disrespect her.  He didn’t flatly deny it.  He simply said he didn’t remember the event the way she did.  He didn’t call her a liar – he COULDN’T in this current environment.  But it opened a door and when it became clear that “he touched my butt while taking a photo at the fair” was recognized as a “legitimate” line of attack, I knew Franken was in trouble.  Not necessarily because he touched any butts at any fairs but because Senator Franken (D) is a major nemesis to conservatives and – as I’ve already indicated – conservatives will say anything to “win.”

All they needed was a few women to “come forward” and complain.  Franken was kind of “low hanging fruit” as the saying goes.  He’s a guy whose been to countless fairs and taken countless photos with countless fans.  There’s no way he could dispute every single accusation some loyal conservative might be willing to sling – yet never have to prove…

Franken, of course, is the “offset” for GOP-supported pedophile Roy Moore (R, of course).  As a sidebar, I have a question.  Moore insists he had “permission” from the mothers of the children he…”dated.”  Moore was the District Attorney.  What, I wonder, what the legal status of the mothers in question?  Were they facing charges that could be reduced if Moore could be allowed to spend a little private time with a daughter?  I don’t know.  I have no information suggesting any quid pro quo but the question has crossed my mind…

The worst part about the entire Franken issue is that it could undermine other claims made by other women.  Of course, for the GOP, that’s an actual benefit.  It might even be the goal.  If Franken’s accusers are lying, couldn’t Moore’s accusers be lying, too?  (They could be…)

For the record, I’m going to continue to believe the vast majority of these claims.  My feeling is that most of the assaults that have been revealed are more about power plays than anything else.  Yes, the exercise of said “power” was in whipping out one’s junk or touching something that shouldn’t be touched (or both!)  But Franken wasn’t exercising any power when he was taking a photo with a fan and, frankly, a hand-full of butt for a couple of seconds just isn’t enough of a thrill to risk everything on.  But it IS an easy story to tell…

…and conservatives will say anything to “win”…