Trump

Shame…

by MyBaconPress

Shame, noun – a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behavior.  They say adversity builds character.  We all know, by now, that Donald Trump has never known a minute of adversity in his entire life, which explains his complete failure as a human being and his total lack of character.  Every time I think the bar can’t be lowered, it gets lowered and I’m left gobsmacked trying to figure out what happened to this once-great nation…

I’ve been known to refer to the POS (oh, did I forget the T and the U?) as our ‘National Embarrassment’ but in my mind, he’s earned a change in status.  Is it an upgrade or a downgrade?  I don’t know but from this point forward, he’ll be known, by me, as our ‘National Shame.’

The Saudis have admitted to killing Jamal Khashoggi but say it was the result of an impromptu fistfight.  I’ve got to say, it sure was prescient of the Saudis to bring a bone saw to a meeting just in case an impromptu fistfight broke out that would end in the need to dismember a body!  Who knows, perhaps Saudis take bone saws to EVERY meeting.  That would certainly explain the GOP’s cowardly and deferential behavior toward them.  (Remember when 43 gave King Abdullah a big kiss on the lips?)

Our National Shame says he finds the explanation credible.  Oh, and let’s be sure that whatever response the United States comes up with does NOT interfere with the arms deal…

So there it is.  The United States has been finally, fully exposed.  It doesn’t matter what you do or don’t do, so long as nothing interferes with profits.  Even a blatant murder can be – should be – overlooked…so long as nothing queers the deal.  The weapons in question are most likely going to be used to kill innocent Yemenis, too, but even that’s okay…so long as the checks clear.

It should be noted that our National Shame might react a bit if his buddy Sean Hannity was murdered.  After all, Khashoggi wrote for the Washington Post and Trump effing HATES the Washington Post.  (They write honestly about him and he can’t have that.)  But even if it was Hannity, the Shame would move forward with whatever deal was on the table.  Hannity would understand.

But I don’t…

Uncivilized…

by MyBaconPress

Reuters is reporting that The National Embarrassment says separating families at the border and stealing children deters illegal immigration.  I’d have to guess that’s true.  The people running for their lives were looking for a civilized place where they might be able to survive.  Trump has shown the world that the United States is NOT a civilized place any more…

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Still holding hope for a ‘Blue Wave’?  Is it true that Democrats don’t get out the vote or is it MORE true that Republicans cheat so shamefully, completely, and sadly, successfully that it isn’t possible for enough Democrats to vote?  I’d say it’s the second one.  Case in point?  In Georgia, a man named Brian Kemp is the Secretary of State AND the Republican nominee for Governor.  He’s using his office as Secretary of State to suppress opposition votes in every way he can – legal and otherwise.  It’s an obvious conflict of interest but his supporters will just say it was smart.  I find myself thinking about JFK’s warning: “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable”…

Opinions…

by MyBaconPress

Look, I get it.  Everyone has a right to their own opinion.  But I learned from Francis Bacon (no, not directly) that the sheer number of opinions that exist stand as testament to the number of opinions that must be wrong.  Is that not true of the faith-based “Movement Conservatives”?

TrumpShootsUncleSam2

This cartoon recently traveled around the internet.  It has one major flaw: our National Embarrassment is a coward and would NEVER shoot someone himself.  But I think it’s brilliant in many ways.  It hearkens back to a campaign speech now-President Crumple made in which he said he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any supporters.  It demonstrates his loyalty to Putin and Russia and his contempt for Uncle Sam and the United States.  His acolytes simply ignore what they see and stick with their preferred narrative.

I occasionally excuse their behavior with the idea that they’re being deceived by people who are VERY good at deceiving but the truth is, after awhile, one must acknowledge they’ve CHOSEN to be deceived.  They prefer it.  So, how much longer do thinking people have to pretend that Movement Conservatives have anything of value to add to the national conversation?

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And while we’re on the topic (and when are we not?) have you seen that the so-called POTUS is now talking tough to Iran?  (From a safe distance, of course.)  IN ALL CAPS, no less.  Iran is upset, rightfully in my opinion, that Trump welched on the Iran agreement.  They recognize that Trump is unstable.  They expressed their displeasure at his fecklessness.  He responds with threats.  His negotiating tactic – ‘Never honor an agreement’ – is becoming tiring to the rest of the world…

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I think it’s hilarious that China has retaliated to Trump’s stupid (wait…isn’t that redundant?) tariffs by attacking his supporters in the heartland.  I suspect the Chinese are thinking that when the Trumpsters begin to suffer the results of Trump’s stupid policy they’ll re-think their support.  They won’t.  They’ll just blame Obama…

Oh and speaking of deferring blame, would Movement Conservatives please come up with something more entertaining than Hillary’s emails?  I know, you can’t defend so you have to misdirect but could you please find something to point to other than the deleted messages?  They’re gone.  (That’s the ‘deleted’ part, see?)  There’s nothing anybody can do about it.  Hell, I’d agree that they probably contained nefarious or otherwise harmful information.  It hurt her more than helped her that they went missing.  But they’re gone.  Find a new talking point.  That one has run it’s course…

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…

 

Market Movements…

by MyBaconPress

Did you hear?  The stock market crashed…then recovered…then crashed again…then recovered some more.  Down, up, down, up – some fairly wild swings in some fairly short periods of time.  Profit taking?  An inevitable “correction?”  Did the stock market take such a rough ride because of the jobs reports that showed modest growth in real wages?  Maybe.  Real wage gains was one of the myriad suggestions out there.  I hope that one is wrong, though.  It’s not a good sign – the suggestion that the market might crash if workers start to get more fair wages.  It DOES, however, support my contention that the “Dow” reflects only the happiness of CEOs and has nothing to do with the state of the economy so…victory lap?

I can’t pretend I’ve heard each and every one of the possible explanations out there but the one I DIDN’T hear was this: 45’s policies are starting to take effect.  For reasons I can’t explain, FAR too many Americans don’t seem to realize that the first year of a President’s term – any President – plays out under the LAST year of the previous President’s budget.  So all of this “good” economic news that’s been playing out over the last year has REALLY been the “end” of the Obama administration.

It seems quite possible to me that one of the problems is that the GOP can’t seem to get it’s financial house in order.  They’ve been trying to come up with their own budget and, so far, we’ve measured not one but two “government shutdowns” as the GOP careens between “cruel” and “not cruel enough” for the various “Republican” factions.  When they DID finally come up with…something…it added over one TRILLION dollars to THIS YEAR’S deficit.  Talk about “fiscal responsibility…”

But, in addition to the jobs report on the Friday the crash “started”, another event took place on the subsequent Monday: Janet Yellen was replaced as Fed Chair by a Trump pick, Jerome Powell.  Okay, “Trump pick” isn’t exactly right.  Powell was already on the Board and he was put there by Obama.  But Yellen was doing a good job as the Chairperson and it is described as “highly unusual” for a competent Chair to NOT be recommended for a second term.  Replacing Yellen with Powell introduced uncertainty and one of the things the markets hate beyond any other is uncertainty.

So, why the change?  Acknowledging that Trump and I haven’t spoken on the subject, I’d have to submit that, perhaps, the driving factor was Powell’s known aversion to “regulatory burdens.”  He was once a partner in the Carlyle Group – a Washington based private equity firm.  OF COURSE he wants to reduce “regulatory burdens.”  How the hell can banks game the system and rip off their customers if regulations prevent them from doing so?  And, sure, that will help usher in new instabilities as the economy returns to the boom and bust days of old…

I’ll tell you this: “Uncertainty” and “instability” are words regularly associated with this maladministration.  Sadly, they’re also the very intangibles investment markets try to avoid at all costs.  Perhaps Mr. Trump’s Wild Ride has only just begun…

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…