Voting

Good Luck…

by MyBaconPress

Well, here we go, eh? I mean, I know voting started a while ago. I, myself, described the start of Trump’s coup attempt as being a few days ago. But today? Oh, today is the day the battle is joined. Everything has been theoretical until today. Now it’s real. Very, very real. Today is the day we begin to determine if MAGA gets the authoritarian dictatorship of their dreams, or if Americans can save what’s left of our democracy-on-the-brink.

There HAS been some attempted rigging but, so far, it has all come from Republicans. They’ve been flooding the information sphere with fraudulent polls to make it seem as though Trump is doing better than he is. Virginia started purging Democratic voters from their rolls as close to the election as possible (supposedly against the law but the SCKCOTUS said it was okay just this one time) so there was no time for the disenfranchised voter to correct the challenge.

Georgia even tried to make a rule that if the certification board didn’t like the results, they could just declare that vote invalid and substitute their preferred outcome. (Fortunately, that one didn’t make it.) But the most basic part of the rigging? Shouting about all the “election irregularities,” which MAGA has been doing since, well, 2020, right? Can you believe it? It’s about to get LOUDER!

As of now, the polling places are open on the east coast but not yet anywhere else. Has Trump declared victory yet? We know he’s going to. It’s part of the plan. Also as of right now, because of early voting, Kamala has a lead. She’s leading in all of the swing states and she even appears to have a lead in Nevada and Iowa. (Wow.) But, again, that’s the early, blue wave. We all know about THAT, too, and it has happened.

Now, today, comes the red wave that’s supposed to gain ground for Trump. The very moment he perceives he has pulled ahead in some state, he’ll declare victory. He’ll be lying and, because we all know the plan (I’m writing about it right now) we all expect it – and we’ll KNOW he’s lying. EVERYBODY will know it – because we all know the plan this time.

Bear in mind, this is not like the last time. The last time, MAGA was able to pretend (and convince themselves) that what happened was just a series of natural, spontaneous events that, unfortunately, spun out of control by January 6th. This time? Everybody knows the plan and cons who repeat the big lie will be active, knowing, co-conspirators. It was one thing to go along with the coup attempt when there was some possibility to convince oneself events just got out of control.

THIS TIME, everybody will know it’s just a part of the plan. MAGA will know – and be unable to deny – MAGA is actively attempting to overthrow a legal election because they didn’t get their way. I wonder if knowing they’re actively attacking the Constitution will dissuade any of them. These are NOT naturally occurring events – it’s a plan. MAGA is being used as the puppets to carry out the coup – and THIS time, they absolutely know it…

Frankly, I’ve been concerned about this election from the point of view of how the result will affect me. Yeah, a little selfish, I guess, but we’re supposed to vote our own interest and I expect a Trump win won’t be good for me, personally. But then I realized, if Trump “wins,” the result will be seriously bad for the vast majority of Americans. Even MAGA. We ALL suffer.

But then I thought about how that outcome affects Ukrainians. We all know Trump will tell his good buddy Putin to just have at it. That will be very bad for Ukraine. The US will cut off all aid in an effort to help Putin and it will be up to Europe from there. But…oh, yeah. Europe.

Trump, himself, said he had no idea what NATO was before becoming President. Now he wants us to leave NATO because, like most things, he doesn’t understand it. NATO has been the main stabilizing organization between nations in Europe. Trump thinks we should leave. And he plans to.

THEN, I thought about the Palestinians. I expect Trump to just tell his good buddy Netanyahu to have at it, too. Do what he wants. Go ahead, wipe out every Palestinian from the river to the sea. A Trump victory will be very, very bad for the Palestinians. But, oh, Jeez, I almost forgot.

The world. The whole, effing world. Trump wants to eliminate regulations, in general, but environmental regulations in particular. We, the species are already on incredibly shaky ground when it comes to climate change. With NO guardrails, Trump will put climate change on steroids. We’ll hit each tipping point in no time at all – until finally, most of humanity just…tips over.

So…good luck. Yes, to me. I don’t WANT to end up in a gulag for expressing my opinion.
Good luck to you. I presume you like the country as much as I do.
Good luck to every American (this obviously excludes anti-American MAGA) because most of us would suffer under Trump. (Hey, just like his wives and girlfriends!)
Good luck to Ukraine. You don’t deserve what Trump will allow Putin to do to you. In fairness, Trump, likely, won’t have any choice. He DOES as Putin tells him to do.
Good luck to all of Europe. You deserve better than an intellectually incurious imbecile like Trump, who only recently discovered there’s a thing called NATO.
Good luck to Palestinians. Your situation seems to be spiraling out of control and Trump simply doesn’t understand. Maybe, he just doesn’t care.
Good luck to the world. Please understand, we the people, the true American people, are doing what we can to stop this from happening. But there has been MUCH corruption inflicted on our once-great nation by MAGA and I really can not say if we can hold. I can only promise, we’ll try.

Good luck…

Too Distracted To Save It?

by MyBaconPress

Well, I confess, I’m quite concerned about the outcome of this election. My mind STILL won’t accept the fact that the United States might really choose a racist, criminal, idiot with delusions of grandeur who wants the job, mostly, to shut down the criminal investigations that promise to convict him, and then enrich himself with stolen lucre while doing as he’s told by Vladimir Putin, of all people.

But we might.

The right is out screaming about how unfair it is that the left keeps comparing their beloved with Adolph Hitler. They do not see (Nazi?) the comparison and they’re just sure it’s over-the-top hyperbole. Is it though? Is it really? I suppose that depends on how well you know your history – and I think it has been QUITE well established that MAGA does NOT know their history. Of course they don’t see the comparison. But their ignorance won’t protect them from the onslaught of Trump.

MAGA thinks if they just toe the line and be good little MAGA, they’ll be fine. They’re not taking into account the economic wreckage he keeps promising, as if it might be a good thing. And another bit they don’t understand is that with a damaged personality like Trump’s “the line” they’re toeing will keep moving. They may well find themselves on the wrong side of that line having done nothing “wrong,” but because the line moved.

Meanwhile, they fear Kamala because she keeps promising to help people who need help – including them, by the way -and not the richest one percent who are doing just fine, thank you very much.

MAGA is scared of Kamala because they don’t understand things.
I’m scared of Trump because I do…

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Cons keeps asking, “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?” The other day, I was thinking about that. Guess what I remembered. I remembered the election of 2020. You know, the one Trump lost in a landslide? Do you remember that? Do you remember WHY Trump lost in a landslide? People were furious at his feckless and failed handling of Covid-19. Remember? People were dying so fast it was hard to keep count, and the misleader of our once great nation (Trump) just kept trying to wish it away.

The anger at Trump’s failure was white-hot and people came out in droves to vote against him. Record numbers, in fact. The highest numbers, the biggest numbers. We had never seen so many voters come out to vote against a guy. One voter, big voter, brave voter came up with tears in his eyes and said, “Sir, you’ve fucked up bigger than any President has ever fucked up and we’re literally dying to get you out of office.” It was a record turnout to vote against Trump because he was so bad at his job and had done so much damage.

The economy had crashed. People were “social distancing.” Most people were locked inside, with nowhere to go. His failed policies led to a crash in the supply chain that took months to straighten out – and only AFTER he was out of office. Oh, the economy has struggled under Biden? He inherited an economy that was basically dead and he has brought it back to record levels. I don’t argue it’s perfect in every way. I’m not delusional like a MAGA, who pretend America was a perfect utopia under Trump.

But THAT is the main thing I remember about Trump and his Presidency: the number of Americans who died as a direct result of his stupidity – and how angry the American people were about it. AM I better off today than I was four years ago? Well, the economy is humming along at record levels and medical staff aren’t stacking bodies in refrigerator trailers because they’re out of room in the morgues, anymore, so, yes, I’d say we’re all better off…

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I interact with MAGA on a regular basis. The secret? Don’t talk politics. It works, but it can be tough, especially right now. Everyone is on edge about the election and that makes it hard to keep it off the table. But what I just wrote, there, is true. EVERYONE is on edge about the election. I find it odd that MAGA is just as scared of a Harris victory as Americans are of a Trump victory.

A MAGA recently shared a prediction with me: if Harris wins, there won’t be any adverse reaction from the right. If Trump wins, the left will pour out into the streets and riot. Obviously, I disagree with that prediction but not for the reasons my friend might think.

The cons may not riot in the streets, but Trump has been vocal about his “secret plan” with MAGA Mike the Johnson to just steal the election outright. The thing I fear is that the left may NOT riot in the streets if Trump “wins.” We already know Trump can’t win on the power of his dark and hateful message. But the level of underhanded and nefarious activities intended to steal the voices of the majority of Americans is almost mind-boggling.

MAGA has been doing everything in it’s power to disenfranchise as many Democrats as they possibly can. As an example, Virginia started purging Democrats from it’s voter roles a very short time ago, in violation of Federal law that says specifically, states can NOT purge voters too closely to an election because it’s too late for the victi-, er, voter to correct the action.

Of course, the Roberts Supremely Kangaroo Court has ruled against that common sense notion and harmed the United States, yet again. It’s just what they do. So now, not only Virginia, but other red states and the so-called “battleground” states controlled by cons can do the same thing. And you can bet your sweet bippy they will.

The whole world’s watching. Conservative efforts to simply disenfranchise voters is plain to everybody. EVERYBODY. Even if Trump were to “win,” how could ANYBODY take his “victory” seriously, knowing how much the Republicans cheated, lied, and stole to make it happen? When you manage to simply keep your opposition from voting, did you “win?”

Look, I didn’t like it when Trump won in 2016. I even think things were actually hinky in that election – in Trump’s favor. But nobody was ever able to prove anything and I accepted the result. (Grudgingly, I grant you.) This time? We don’t have to wait for after-the-fact proof of chicanery. We’re watching it happen in real life and in real time. We already know “Trump cheated.” He may cheat and still lose. He may cheat and be called the winner. But either way, he’s already cheating.

If Americans, true Americans, are going to suffer an election process destroyed enough to bring to power a man who is promising to dismantle the United States of America, the very least we can do is hit the streets. The cons think they’re fighting to save America. They’re exactly backwards, of course, but they believe it. It will be up to the left to ACTUALLY save America, and that might mean a fight. Does America still have that revolutionary spirit, or are we too engrossed in TikTok and other social media? We’re all about to find out…

Lefties REALLY Need To Vote…

by MyBaconPress

As of this writing, there are still twelve days to go until election day. So far, something like 25 million votes have been cast. Several states have set new records for early voting turnout. People are voicing their opinions. Sadly, not ALL of the people are voicing sane opinions. (Some of those votes must be for Trump.)

The early voting, so far, has favored Democrats. The Dems have embraced mail-in ballots and the cons are dedicated to using the machines (so Russia can “help” by strategically flipping votes). IF this keeps up, by the time we reach election day, itself, the Dems should have a huge lead. It’s called a ‘Blue Wave.’

Even mentioning such information can be dangerous. Saying the Dems are building up a huge lead runs the risk of people feeling like enough has been done. Maybe their vote isn’t needed. Maybe they sit this one out. DON’T DO THAT! Because a ‘Red Wave’ is coming, too.

Remember, the anti-American cons WILL come out, in force, on election day. They’ll stand in line for hours and hours just to vote for a traitorous, wanna-be dictator. They’re intent on destroying their own lives just to “own a lib.” They will not stop. They WILL follow orders, just like any good Naz… er… MAGA is expected to do.

So don’t let all this talk of a huge Harris lead at this point slow your roll. Get out there and vote, if you haven’t already. Help your (liberal) friends vote. Long ballot? Just check off Harris/Walz and send it in. You don’t HAVE to check every issue. Your ballot will count where you vote and be ignored where you don’t.

Remind your cons that Trump said to vote on January 5th and Trump is never wrong so they have to wait. I saw a guy on the web suggesting that if we can get 100 million votes out for Harris, it will be very hard to pretend the election was stolen. (Of course they will anyway. We’re just making it harder for them.) I like the plan. Get out there and vote for Harris…

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Well, he stalled and put off taking responsibility for as long as he could, but Rudy Giuliani is finally starting to pay Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, the two women he defamed by accusing them of cheating in their vote counting during Trump’s Big Lie about the stolen 2020 election. See, like all of the rest of the Big Lie, it was, well, a lie. They didn’t cheat. They just did their jobs. Giuliani lied about them. They sued. They won. Giuliani has to pay.

The judgement against Giuliani is over $140 million dollars. It’s my understanding that Giuliani doesn’t have $140 million dollars. But he has stuff. He has been disbarred for being so dishonest but he still KNOWS all the legal stuff and he used what he could as long as he could but justice seems to be coming for him, now. Good. It’s comforting to see that justice CAN still prevail, even if it so rarely does, these days…

He has to hand over a New York apartment, a Mercedes Benz, some watches, and the fees Trump owes Giuliani that Trump intends never to pay. (That last one seems of limited value, eh?) And that’s just a start. He’s got a LOT more he owes and he’s going to lose everything.

I’ll tell you this: I’ve noticed that the closer one gets to Trump and the more energetically one defends Trump, the more they lose in the end. I guess the Devil IS getting his due…

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Look, Trump is just acting. From time to time, we get a candidate for high offices that learned to work crowds by acting. Ronald Reagan learned on the Silver Screen. Arnold Schwarzenegger learned on the Silver Screen. Trump learned on ‘The Apprentice.’ They all had appeal to begin their political careers, and all of it because we were already familiar with them from other sources. But they were – and are – just acting.

Reagan delivered the first death blow to the United States by introducing and selling “Supply Side Economics,” a fictional economic system that has done great harm to the country. Arnold didn’t do too badly as Governor of California, but I doubt he would have gotten the job if not for a special election, where the requirements were much lower, combined with his fame. Trump? By now, we all know the damage, death, and destruction Trump brought to the office. (Yes, even MAGA. They cannot, WILL not admit it, but they know…)

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Trump says he needs generals like Hitler’s generals. That’s weird. Do you think he knows Hitler’s generals tried, several times, to kill him? But, hey, if he insists…

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Well, whaddaya know? Aileen “Loose” Cannon hasn’t been acting impartially from her bench. Who could have guessed? Instead, she’s been angling for a Cabinet position this whole time! NOW, it looks like she’s up for the job of Attorney General in the upcoming Trump maladministration. Not bad for a toady not even qualified to be a lawyer…

I think the public admission that Cannon is up for the post of AG should be enough to get the Eleventh Circuit Court to overturn her “decision” to dismiss the charges against her precious AND cause them to remove her from the case. She has clearly NEVER been impartial in this trial but now, knowing she has personal gain in her vision? CAN the Eleventh just sit back and watch their judges work on a Quid pro quo basis? The whole world is watching…

Ballot Box Busters…

by MyBaconPress

Yeah, lets’ send him…
“We want to reach Mars before the end of my term.” Trump said that at a rally in North Carolina. I presume he means people reaching Mars since we’ve already reached Mars with machines. Maybe not, though. He might start taking credit for every mission that has ever gone to Mars, regardless of when it happened or even which country sent which machines. He just loves taking credit for things other people do. I’ve always presumed that was because he has never actually accomplished anything in his life. Come to think of it, I’d be okay with the idea of Elon just sending Trump to Mars…

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FORE!
The guy who staked out Trump’s golf course thinking he might get a shot has written a letter. He stated, flatly, that he meant to shoot Trump and that he is sorry he didn’t get it done. That’s not the kind of crazy that keeps you out of jail, but it’s crazy. They couldn’t have prosecuted him for attempted assassination unless they could prove his intent. Well, HE just proved his intent.

He was facing some gun charges. By the first thing Tuesday morning, he was facing FAR worse charges. There’s no way to know what he was thinking. All he had to do was shut up. I guess he’s no better at that than Trump…

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Close, mister, but no cigar…
Oh, too bad. I wrote a few days ago about Nebraska considering changing their system of electoral vote distribution in an effort to help Trump. The idea was, apparently, a scheme of some of the MAGA cult members but you know MAGA. If it’s cheating, they’re all in. So they tried. I’m happy to report, the scheme has failed and Nebraska won’t be rigging it’s system to benefit one candidate over another…

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The voices in his head…
Trump keeps “reporting” things and I find myself wondering, “How the hell could he know that?” Then I realize, he doesn’t. He’s just making stuff up. I just watched a clip of Trump at one of his rallies and he’s claiming “Joe Biden HATES her!” in reference to Kamala. Do you suppose Joe Biden is confiding in Donald Trump? I’m going out on a limb, here, but, I kind of doubt it…

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Not theft, but not moral…
The mayor of Wausau, Wisconsin was photographed personally removing a ballot drop box from in front of City Hall. Oh, sorry. Did I write “A” ballot drop box? I meant “THE” ballot drop box. As in the ONLY ballot drop box in the city. This clown, Doug Diny, is out there posing for photos and bragging that he’s making it more difficult to vote.

If you know anything, and clearly, MAGA doesn’t, you know that mail-in ballots are very safe. There are all kinds of safeties built in. But MAGA doesn’t like them. During COVID-19, many states turned to mail in ballots to protect people’s lives. MAGA had already decided that people were expendable and protecting their lives was for snowflakes so they objected. I’d say, rather energetically.

In fact, Trump recommended that people don’t use the mail-in ballots and go to the polls, instead, and MAGA obeyed. By the time the election rolled around, MAGA had been convinced (without evidence, mind you) that mail-in ballots were dangerous to democracy. Because, of course they were. MAGA can ALWAYS identify a “danger to democracy” – unless it’s a REAL danger to democracy. Those they miss, for some reason.

Spoiler alert: Trump lost that election. You know, the 2020 election. Yeah, he lost. Fair and square. He just got out-voted. Sure, it launched a now four-year temper tantrum, but he still lost. So, MAGA being MAGA, they decided he lost because of the mail in ballots. It violates their dogma to accept that Trump lost in 2020 because of the terrible, terrible job he did as President and people were tired of his shtick.

Trump, himself, had spent a lot of time telling people NOT to use the mail-in ballots. He was (dare I say?) wrong – and he lost because of it. AFTER he lost because he sucked at “Presidenting,” HE started telling people to go ahead and use the mail-ins if they wanted to, but MAGA, from sea to shining sea, tried to eliminate mail-in ballots everywhere possible and MAGA-tainted officials started eliminating ballot drop boxes.

This Diny dork ran on eliminating ballot drop boxes and he won so…let’s get them, no, it, out. The ONE box they had in the city, and he pulls it. When asked about it, he just focused on whether moving the box was legal. (It was.) He just ignored the question of whether it was a good idea. (It wasn’t.) So, he can’t be prosecuted for stealing the box. Can he be prosecuted for election interference?

MAGA, to hear them tell it, HATES election interference. I’m sure they would support an effort to prosecute ANYBODY who engages in any kind of election interference because of MAGA honor and dedication to truth, justice, and the American way, right? Ha, ha, that was fun. Of COURSE MAGA thinks taking the box out was a good idea. Of COURSE MAGA supports election interference when the people interfering are doing so FOR Trump. If they can’t cheat, they can’t win. It really IS that simple and they prove they know it by their own actions every single day…

Miscellanea – 9/22/24…

by MyBaconPress

God needs more atheists like me in his tent. I give him more credit than most of his followers. If you’re a person who claims to believe, that should bother you. It certainly bothers me…

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Wow, young people are coming out in droves to register to vote. The next trick, of course, is to get them to come out and actually vote. I suspect many of them will, assuming the GOP allows them to. (My Gods those people are doing everything they can to prevent people (on the left) from voting.) This is a big election. Many people don’t follow this stuff too closely. They start to “tune in” the closer the election gets. As young people have tuned in, they’ve felt the need to get involved.

A website called ‘Vote.org’ reported that 150,000 people registered. On Tuesday. Last year, they registered a total of 279,400 voters – for the whole year. It looks like people want to raise their voice in this race…

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“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.” – JD Vance

“If I have to create stories to scare people enough to vote for us, then that’s what I’m going to do.” – kinda JD Vance

“If I have to create stories to convince people the country is in terrible shape, then that’s what I’m going to do.” – also kinda JD Vance

“If I have to lie to you to get elected, then that’s what I’m going to do.” – I mean, isn’t that what JD Vance is really saying?

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Harris agreed to a second debate. Big, tough Donald can’t make it. Uh-huh, I’ll bet. As always, he claims he won the last one. If he really believes that (he doesn’t) he’s the ONLY one who believes that. But I doubt he actually believes it because his campaign also offered up a host of made up “explanations” for why she won.

The biggest “tell” that indicates he knows he lost that one is that he won’t risk coming back and doing it again. He says there’s not enough time. I guess that means he wouldn’t want to reschedule expected golf games. It’s too bad. I really enjoyed watching her lead him around by the nose in the last one.

I feel like I need to enjoy this right now, while I’ve got the chance. I kind of expect to be angry and confounded listening to MAGA rejoice at the success of their coup in January, so I’ve got to savor it now…

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Well, the Niners (1-1) are playing the Rams (0-2) today. Both teams enter the game depleted. The Rams are lacking two of their best weapons. The Niners are down at least two of their best weapons. The game is difficult to predict because of the adjustments both teams will have to make just to field a team. They both need the win and this is a divisional game, giving the winner an effective two game bump on their opponent.

Mostly, I want to see Seattle (2-0) lose. They currently lead our division. They’re playing the Dolphins and, guess what? The Dolphins don’t even have their starting Quarterback. Injury, you know. It’s kind of wild how deeply injuries have already affected so many teams this season…

VOTE…

by MyBaconPress

Remember back a few years ago when every faith-based “Movement Conservative” knew – and I mean absolutely knew – that Mexicans were coming across the border and cutting off the heads of farmers who lived nearby?  The stories were rampant.  Finally, a reporter went on down to the areas around the borders and asked the Sheriffs for the incident reports.  Surely people weren’t having their heads chopped off without law enforcement at least making a report, right?  Turned out, of course, it was just a myth…a Movement Conservative Myth.  Sure, they still believe it.  Nothing can cause them to change a belief they’ve decided on, least of all factual basis.  But for the rest of us, it confirmed what we already suspected: Movement Conservative Blather…nothing more…

It’s the same with this voter fraud…um…fraud.  Every one of the Movement Conservatives knows – just KNOWS – that in-person voter fraud is rampant.  Thousands, millions, maybe billions of fraudulent votes get cast in every single election if you ask them.  In truth, it doesn’t happen, at least not to a statistically significant degree.  When it DOES happen, it’s usually a matter of sending in an absentee ballot and then going to the polling place anyway.  I know Ann Coulter did it.  I’ll bet she wasn’t trying to help Hillary, though.

Trump said it happened again in the 2016 election.  It didn’t.  They said it anyway.  Trump established a commission.  When they started to discover that it hadn’t happened, Trump disbanded the commission.  People argued about it over the internet.  In today’s Guardian appears this article,  ‘Documents disprove White House voter fraud claims, says ex-member of Trump commission.’  Spoiler alert: it didn’t happen.  No, don’t try to convince your Trumpublican uncle.  He can’t hear you.  He’s faith-based…

You know what DOES happen, though?  Computer voter fraud.  These are the voting machines built by the companies the build ATM’s but those same companies insist they can’t build a machine that handles complex transactions AND gives you a receipt.  Anyway, you cast a ballot on one of those computer voting machines and maybe your vote gets counted as intended, maybe your vote gets applied to the vile candidate.  There’s no way for you – or anyone else – to know.

I keep hearing about how the Russians interfered with our “election” by saying mean things about Hillary on the internet.  Truth be told, I have a hard time getting upset about it.  The conservatives have been saying absolutely horrible things about Hillary since 1992.  When I saw some lying meme about her during the campaign, the thought of Russians never crossed my mind.  I just dismissed it as more conservative bullshit.  But while all this talk is going on, there’s also talk around the edges about the security of the voting machines.  Did they hack in?  Did they flip votes?

Of course they did.  You don’t really think this country elected Trump, do you?  But the “two parties” don’t want to admit it for two reasons.  The public face is that they want to reassure the public that the voting system is fair and accurate.  But the real reason is that each party wants to try to maintain the ability to hack into the machines and swing elections they way they’d like to see them come out.  In my mind’s eye, I see two “war rooms”, one Republican, one Democrat, each furiously hacking into machines and switching votes.  The Dems flip one, the Repubs flip another.  The Dems flip one the Repubs have already flipped and the Repubs come back to flip it back their way and vice-versa.  Back and forth the battle goes until the polls close and a “winner” is announced.

Either way, your vote probably didn’t get counted accurately – at least not if you wanted to vote for someone other than the conservative.  So, if you want to vote for the conservative, go ahead and use the machines.  (Can you tell I think the cons are better at it?  They’ve had more practice.)  BUT…if you want to vote for someone other than the conservative and you want your vote to count, DO NOT – under any circumstances – use a computerized voting machine to cast your ballot.  Vote absentee.  Paper.  Traceable.  “Unflippable”, if you will…

The major parties won’t like it and the press won’t like it.  It will take FAR longer to count the ballots and announce a winner if they have to count all the absentee ballots – but it will be a better outcome.  Vote!  You just have to, that’s all.  There are no acceptable excuses in this “election.”  But vote absentee.  (Hey, it’s actually easier and you can vote in your underwear – or less, if you’re so inclined.)  Make the bastards count the paper ballots.

I’ll tell you this: we cannot count on our “elected” officials to do the right thing in this matter.  They have too much to lose.  The ONLY way we can take back the vote is if we use paper and the only way we can voluntarily use paper is if we all vote absentee, so that’s what we need to do…

Thoughts?

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…

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…