‘Uninformed’ is Winning…

by MyBaconPress

There is a song out in “Christian” media calling Donald Trump, ‘The Chosen One.’ Donald didn’t write it but he promoted it. The Chosen One? Isn’t that title already taken in the Christian religion? I believe it’s held by a guy named…um…Oh, Jesus Christ, what IS that guy’s name? Oh yeah, Jesus Christ.

So the next time you’re out there, scratching your head, wondering how MAGA can stay so loyal to this international criminal buffoon, remember that song. They believe he’s the next coming and they’ll support him as such. What a bunch of rubes…

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Here’s a question: if Donald Trump is as popular as he says he is, why is he faking photos to show huge crowds? Shouldn’t he just be drawing huge crowds? When a thousand people show up, he claims 100,000. Recently, he released a campaign photo showing a huge crowd and suggested the crowd was at his rally. But it wasn’t. The crowd he showed was from a local music festival – where Trump wasn’t.

As a sidebar, he had a rally in Las Vegas, where he told his fans that he didn’t care about them, he just wanted their votes. To be specific, he said, “We need every voter. I don’t care about you. I just want your vote.” He said he was kidding and the crowd laughed. But he wasn’t kidding, was he? He FINALLY tells a truth, and it’s an insult to his base. But, they’re still “the uneducated” and they didn’t get it. “Oh, idn’t he funny?”

If he’s lying about crowd size every chance he gets – and he is – why wouldn’t he lie about all the other amazing “successes” he’s experiencing, like how much money he’s bringing in from donors (to pay his legal and living expenses and get Melania $8,000 dollar haircuts)?

Oh, yeah, he’s also claiming something like 22% of under-50 African Americans are Trump supporters. I heard Raphael Warnock (D, Georgia) on the radio. Warnock insists there’s no way 22% of under-50 African Americans are voting Trump. I believe Warnock, not Trump. Especially since Trump keeps getting caught faking photos trying to show how much the African American community loves him. Once again, if you have to fake it, how true could it be?

I’ll tell you this: It turns out, the sexually assaulting, convicted felon, and international criminal Donald J. Trump might be a liar, too…

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I don’t know if it’s better or worse that Europe is also suffering a surge in far-right conservatism. Better because it means we’re not alone here in the US. It usually helps to know others have experienced something someone is going through. The panic on the left at the rise of backwards, ineffective thinking in the US can be felt by the left all over Europe.

Worse because it means the far-right propaganda machine is working much of the western world and making great strides. I believe I’ll NEVER understand how so many millions of people can be so deceived, so completely, for so long. But I’m watching it happen right now, with my own eyes, and it doesn’t matter if I believe it or not. It’s happening.

The general thinking among those who still do (think, that is) is that the rise in far-right conservatism is going to make it much harder to govern Europe, just as they’ve mucked up the political process here in the US. In France, the far-right showed so many gains, their President, Emmanuel Macron, dissolved their national Parliament and called for a snap legislative election, a kind of electoral re-do. Honestly? I can’t decide how I feel about that. It doesn’t feel very democratic. The election was the election. The people spoke. If they spoke in the manner of brain-dead morons, so be it.

On the other hand, the people supporting those movements in country after country are doing so because they’ve been deceived by a sophisticated propaganda machine and they don’t have the tools (or, in some cases, the capacity) to identify the deceptions. SHOULD a country suffer under the weight of wrongheadedness just because a large number of people were fooled? If there’s legal method for an instant re-do, shouldn’t they? I’d guess that if such a thing had been possible in the UK when Brexit happened, the Brits might have jumped at the chance for a do-over.

It’s weird. We’re watching a battle between informed and uninformed – and uninformed is winning…

Consequences…

by MyBaconPress

When I write these little bits, I use “tags” to help categorize the topics and such on the hosting website. I’ve noticed I use the three tags, ‘Trump,’ ‘MAGA,’ and ‘Crime’ together all the time, over and over. It’s a LOT of crime MAGA has been involved in, led and supported by Trump…

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Speaking of which, now that he’s a Felon, he can’t travel to several countries – even as President. Oh, he ALSO lost a lawsuit regarding the Steele Dossier in the UK and hasn’t paid THAT debt, either. (That really IS his thing…) Now, he could be facing legal enforcement in the UK if he ever shows his very bulky face there. That makes it official: Trump, possibly our next President, is an international criminal! Thanks, MAGA!

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Apparently, Trump insiders are saying that Trump plans to ramp up the heat on Judge Juan Merchan if Merchan sentences Trump to jail time. That’s from an article in the Guardian titled, ‘Trump to escalate blame on trial judge Juan Merchan if sentenced to prison.’ Way to take personal responsibility for your actions, Mr Leader-of-the-Party-of-Responsibility.

I don’t really expect Merchan to put Trump in jail, though I think he should. I think that way because I honestly believe that he would have put any other person in jail, by now, if they behaved the way Trump has behaved. Or, misbehaved, as the case may be.

He committed a crime. He felt good about getting away with it, until he got caught. Then, he blamed the people who caught him. Prosecutors collected evidence. He blamed the people who collected the evidence, dismissing the evidence itself. The evidence was presented in open court to a jury of his peers. (Kind of. Trump is SO mentally malformed, I’m not sure he has “peers…”) He blamed the people who presented the evidence. The judge ran a steady, honest trial. Trump blamed the judge for Trump’s predicament.

David DePape attacked Paul Pelosi and took a hammer to his head. He got sentenced to 30 years and at least some of that time, according to the judge in that case, was because DePape showed zero remorse. Judges commonly factor that in when considering sentences. Now Trump is issuing veiled threats against the judge in the case? Not only does Trump not show any contrition, but he’s out attacking and blaming the judge for doing his job? “It’s not MY fault I did that! It’s YOUR fault I did that!” That should land Trump in prison.

I’ll tell you this: It’s too bad Merchan is showing more respect for the office of the President than the substandard, criminal ex-President…

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Hey, Israel recovered 4 hostages. Yay! They only had to kill nearly 300 innocents to do it. What a deal! I know. Israel and her supporters don’t care about the Palestinians killed and would argue they don’t qualify as “innocents.” At one point, Israel killed a five DAY old baby. I’m surprised American media didn’t report the child as the “Number two man of HAMAS” in an attempt to justify the killing.

THIS time, Israel just HAD to attack a refugee camp. (Keyword: refugee.) You know, because of HAMAS. I’m glad they rescued 4 hostages. I really am. But I’m not sure the cost/benefit analysis is on Israel’s side. The world has recently heard about the discovery of several bodies who were once hostages. Of course, Israel blames HAMAS – who DOES deserve some portion of the blame for taking the hostages in the first place. But I suspect those hostages were killed by Israel, accidentally, as they use a cannon to kill a mosquito. I don’t know that, of course, and I never will. Wars always produce manipulated information.

I look at it this way: if you take hostages only to kill them, why incur the cost and difficulty of keeping some alive? If you see the hostages as a bargaining chip you need to use to protect yourself, why kill them? You need them. This far into the war, rescuing 4 living hostages suggests HAMAS isn’t killing them. So who might be? I’m looking at the side randomly blasting and killing everything in sight supposedly trying to “rescue the hostages…”

Law and Order? Not So Much…

by MyBaconPress

Hey, there was finally a Melania sighting. She was just leaving home with her son, Barron. She was carrying a $42,000 ostrich skin purse, likely another “gift” from MAGA. I know MAGA doesn’t care that Trump is fleecing them dry. He’s taking their money as fast as they can send it and using it for things I doubt they intended. Melania’s hair management? Okay, maybe, but a $132,000 dollar haircut? What, she couldn’t find a ‘Super Cuts?’

Alright, that’s a bit hyperbolic. I wasn’t ONE haircut for $132,000. It was a single payment for several cuts, each costing thousands of dollars. But do you know what? Paying thousands of dollars for a haircut under ANY circumstances is stupid.

MAGA doesn’t care, but I would. I doubt the haircut, alone, would have caused any friction for me but such bad money management when you’re using other people’s money? I don’t know what it takes to keep her hair looking like it does – nor do I notice anything particularly special about her hair, but LOTS of people have very nice looking hair and pay far, far less. I guess it costs a LOT for that natural looking dye job. But other people manage to get lovely dye jobs for FAR less, also. I guess the Trumps are just selfish people who don’t even bother to manage the money they beg for, and receive, from MAGA…

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I just want to make one thing clear to MAGA, who seem to be having some difficulty grasping a rather basic concept. When a prosecutor lays out a case in court, using evidence they’ve collected using legal means, and a jury of one’s peers convicts? That’s not a “rigged” trial. That’s a criminal trial. Trump didn’t lose the case for any reason other than the evidence that he did the crime. Trump is the cheater, not the cheated…

Meanwhile, MAGA is out there screaming and yelling and whining and crying about how terrible it is that someone in America is forced to go through a “political” trial and at the same time, thrilled as they can be at forcing Hunter Biden through a political trial…

Yes, I know Hunter did the crime. But his case had been handled in accordance with the way other, similar cases had been handled. He reached a plea agreement. But MAGA screamed, “NOOOOO!” MAGA needed to see Hunter tried and all that fabulous, salacious information needed to be made as public as possible, mostly for prurient reasons. MAGA has tried as hard as they could to make Hunter’s drug problem somehow reflect on Joe.

Dear MAGA, Hunter Biden is NOT Joe Biden. Hunter’s poor life choices are not Joe’s poor life choices. Hunter did the (oh-so-minor) crime, not Joe. The attack may give YOU a “chubby,” but it’s just not landing with thinking Americans…

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I remember when conservatives were all about “law and order.” I’ve noticed that as the law catches up with them, they suddenly lose all respect for the people and institutions that inhabit the world of “law and order.” Suddenly, everything is rigged against them. Uh-huh…

Alex Jones is the latest. As you recall, he kept claiming the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre was all made up, with the parents being “portrayed” by “crisis actors.” But it wasn’t made up. It really happened and it happened the way mainstream media said it happened. Alex Jones, it turns out, was the one lying about Sandy Hook! Finally, a court said so, to the tune of about $1.5 billion dollars in a defamation suit judgement.

Old Alex vowed he’d never pay. They’d never get any money and he’d just keep living the high life, manipulating the system endlessly. Fortunately, the Sandy Hook families never gave up. Jones tried to protect himself from his lies by filing for bankruptcy protection and then dragging the process out. The families finally got through to the court that he didn’t really have any realistic chances of making payments by reorganizing.

Jones has finally admitted as much and asked the court to go ahead and liquidate his assets to cover the debt, or at least, what portion of the debt it might cover. He might well (probably will) lose his hate channel, Infowars, where he waged war on legitimate information for years and hawked useless “diet supplements” and other questionable products to grift money.

So, who wins? The families haven’t seen any of the money. I’m not sure they ever really expected to. Now, with this decision, the families likely still won’t see much of the money, if any. This fight is about their children, though, and Alex Jones will be gone.

Personally, I suspect he’s been secretly moving what money he could when he could to some off-shore location, so he’ll be just fine. Still, he won’t be on air every day poisoning the body politic, and that’s a good thing. The families get vindication – Jones had to admit the shooting occurred AND that he does, in fact, owe the families the money – and they get rid of Jones…

D-Day, June 6th, 1944…

by MyBaconPress

I suspect most thinking Americans know that Donald Trump’s relationship with God is, um, non-existent. He avoids questions on the topic by talking around them. At one point, he refused to name even a single favorite Bible verse because, he claimed, it was “too personal.” What horse-hockey. I’m a freaking atheist and I have a favorite Bible verse! But MAGA lapped it up like a kitten at a cream bowl, just like they always do.

Oh, MY favorite verse? It’s Matthew, Chapter 7, Verse 5. You know the one. It’s the one where Jesus tells his followers not to be hypocrites. You’re not going to look it up, are you? Okay, it goes, “Thou hypocrite,” – I like the King James Version for fiery rhetoric – “first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”

After his Felony criminal conviction, he was asked on a softball ‘Fox and Fiends’ Interview, “What’s your relationship with God like, and how do you pray?”
“OK, so I think it is good,” Trump replied. “I do very well with the evangelicals. I love the evangelicals. And I have more people saying they pray for me ― I can’t even believe it. They are so committed, and they are so believing…”
He thinks he has a good relationship with God because he does well with evangelicals? I’m not sure that’s how it works. He’s the living embodiment of the Seven Deadly Sins: Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Lust, Avarice, Wrath, and Sloth. I suspect those aspects of his reality would go FAR further in God’s thinking – along with the actual acts of stealing, lying, sexually molesting, adultery, and even having a God before God (himself, of course) – than whether evangelicals vote for him…

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You know those movies about high school where there’s some pampered bully who runs roughshod over everything and everyone in sight, often by instigating others to do his evil bidding? He usually stands opposite of the star, who eventually overcomes the abuses of the bully. I have no doubt in my mind that Trump was that bully in high school, just like he’s that bully now. Where, I wonder, is the hero who eventually overcomes the abuses of this bully?

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Today, June 6th, is the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the invasion of Europe that was the beginning of the end for the Nazis in Europe. As the United States hurtles toward our own Authoritarian Fascist destruction at the hands of those “so believing” MAGA, I’m reminded of the 80 year rule. History repeats in roughly 80 year cycles. (No, it’s not perfect. It’s an average, but it’s a solid average, one you can trust.)

My own thinking for why the 80 year cycle is, that’s how long it takes us, collectively, to forget. Those of us who are interested have seen the film of the destruction of Germany and Japan. We’ve read the books and learned a lot about that war. But we had to make an effort. It didn’t just come to us. And since so many people do not pursue that kind of history, they never really understand it, hence, they forget – and then humanity has to do it all over again.

The Nazis were not good for Germany. MAGA is not good for America. In the 1930’s, thinking Germans found themselves overrun by foolhardy followers. In the same way, in the 2020’s, America finds itself overrun by the same crowd. People in Germany couldn’t stop Hitler from coming to power. If we’re not very careful, Americans are not going to be able to stop Trump from coming back, either. Germany was decimated. ALL of it, whether one supported the Nazis or not. If America continues to follow the same path, America will be decimated, too. ALL of it, weather one supported MAGA or not.

The people who COULD have stopped Hitler in Germany, the wealthy and powerful, decided, instead, to try to use him to their advantage. Other people, the day-to-day workers, weren’t concerned enough about Hitler, thinking yes, he’s a demonstrable buffoon, but he can’t do much damage due to the structure of the government.

I used to try to imagine and understand their shock as the realized they couldn’t control him and he didn’t give two figs about the structure of government. He just dismantled said government and did what he wanted to do. Sadly, I no longer have to try to imagine how the thinking people in Germany felt. I’m feeling the very same way, most days, as far too many Americans embrace the once-unimaginable in ‘Hitler 2, Donald Trump.’

I’ll tell you this: It’s really ironic as hell. This is the anniversary of the day Americans fought and died to put a stop to Fascist Authoritarians, occurring at a time that the US is falling into the clutches of Fascist Authoritarians…

Just More DJT BS…

by MyBaconPress

“The “sentencing” for not having done anything wrong will be, conveniently for the Fascists, 4 days before the Republican National Convention. A Radical Left, Soros backed D.A., who ran on a platform of “I will get Trump,” reporting to an “Acting” local judge, appointed by the Democrats, who is HIGHLY CONFLICTED, will make a decision which will determine the future of our Nation? Our United States Supreme Court must DECIDE!”

That’s an actual post by…guess who? Oh, c’mon, pretend it was a hard question. The ONLY bit he got right was that his sentencing IS scheduled for 4 days before the Roepublicon Convention. The cons have taken to calling the left Fascists, even though Fascism is a far-right ideology and there is no greater living threat of Fascism gripping a nation than Donald Trump. (He has had an equal, but that guy is no longer alive.)

Oh, hey, as a completely random and out-of-nowhere aside, there’s a fascinating article in the Guardian, this morning, comparing the rhetorical styles of Trump and a guy named Adolf Hitler. It’s called, ‘The Reich Stuff – What does Trump really have in common with Hitler?’ Turns out, they’re twinsies – at least in rhetorical style. It’s really worth the read…

Alvin Bragg is hardly “Radical Left” and he’s not “Soros backed” any more than any other left-leaning thing the right likes to ascribe to the left. He didn’t “run on a platform of “I will get Trump,” either. Nor is he “HIGHLY CONFLICTED.”

A Trump speech is like a drive-by shooting. He points his words at a given target and just sprays everything around him. It’s some rapid-fire stuff, too. Topics get hit quickly and then the shooter speeds away. There are never any details in any of the charges he makes. He doesn’t need them. None of the cons give two figs about the details or even if he’s telling the truth. They’re having fun and they feel like they belong to something. It’s that second part, the feeling of belonging, that makes them tenacious – and dangerous.

The part that bothered me most, though, was the part where he called on his most effective legal team to help him out. “Our United States Supreme Court must DECIDE!” There’s no mechanism for the Kangaroos to stop the sentencing, as far as I know. They have to wait for the appeals to reach them, which, might be difficult. The defense has to come up with some Federal violation during the state trial. Or pretend to. They just have to get the case to the Roos and let his defense team of RATKG&B do the rest.

For their part, MAGA is out there pretending to be a Sheryl Crow song, “Lie to me. I promise, I’ll believe.” They will, too…

Slowing the Gouging…

by MyBaconPress

People seem to be closing their wallets. FINALLY! We keep hearing about “inflation,” and the cost of living IS going up. A LOT! But it’s not structural inflation, it’s greed and price gouging. The core drivers of the “inflation” are housing costs – being driven up by Wall Street investors – and fuel – as always, driven by greed.

But people have been spending anyway. They got used to easy credit and easy debt. The recent rate increases seem to be having the desired effect. That debt ain’t so easy any more and people are getting worried. Where I live, the wine industry is, well, pretty much everything these days. They’re suffering. People are eschewing the wineries (and their prices) for off-the-shelf stuff. I heard ‘Target’ is going to cut prices on something like 1,200 items. That’s an indicator. People aren’t buying. Spending is down, revenues are down. Now, in a natural turn of events, prices will start coming down, too.

But not in housing and not in fuel. As long as Wall Street can buy the houses, the cost will continue to skyrocket. Gas companies just gouge. It’s what they do. Prices at the pump here in California were making their way steadily to $6.00/gallon but the state legislature passed a law, here, that allows them to look into cost increases – and punish the companies if such a look finds the increases were just based in greed. So, as the prices started going up and up, a state politician said, out loud, ‘maybe we should look into those gas prices.’ They dropped the next day. Funny how that works…

Now there’s an entire movement out there, a “no-buy year,” in which participants buy only essentials. I doubt such a thing will go widespread in our consumer society but it won’t take a lot of people for an impact that can make a difference.

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Trump called Robert De Niro a failed actor. De Niro is anti-Trump and makes no bones about it. He spoke outside the courtroom where Trump’s criminal trial is under way. Someone tried to heckle him and he shut the guy down. Trump claimed De Niro had run into a “force far greater than the radical left – MAGA!” I saw the exchange. I thought De Niro won the moment. Just one opinion, though.

Donald J. Trump is the thinnest skinned snowflake I’ve ever even heard about.

I keep getting new favorite bits of this process. The most recent was when a spokesperson for Trump came out in front of the press, complaining that the left was trying to turn the trial “into a campaign event.” Let’s just ignore how the trump campaign has raised money off of the trial and used the press draw as free advertising where the defendant in a criminal trial is allowed to hold court and speechify on nearly whatever topic enters his diseased mind.

Trump claims he wants to be on the campaign trail. In my view, Trump IS on the campaign trail. So, of course MAGA is pointing the finger at Democrats. But, as always, with MAGA, every accusation is a confession…

Sold…

by MyBaconPress

Trump sold a plane. Not the big one, a little one. But he sold it to raise money because of his legal expenses. That came from an article in the Guardian. It’s not that big of a deal, really. People sell assets to pay expenses sometimes. Most of us don’t have hundreds of millions of dollars in legal fees and fines to pay so we’re not selling our private planes.

A paragraph from the article caught my eye: “…Trump has paid more than $100m in legal fees for the cases that have put him in court. While Trump has mostly used donations into political action committees, known as PACS, to pay the fees, the money has been running out, and Trump’s legal bills continue to rack up.”

The PACs have been paying his bills! No, it’s legal, I’m not leveling charges. But it means he really has been using donor contributions to pay his bills and hasn’t dipped into his seemingly non-existent “fortune” very much. Instead, he’s dipping into MAGA’S wealth. What’s left of it. But there’s that other bit: “the money has been running out…”

Apparently, there’s not enough money coming from MAGA to sustain his trials, his campaign, AND his lifestyle. This from a guy who famously, or infamously, doesn’t pay his bills. I can’t say I’m surprised. He lives VERY high on the hog, even if he can’t afford it. He has massive legal bills from his various and sundry crimes. Political campaigns are expensive. I know there are a lot of MAGA but they’re mostly working class schmoes. How long could they carry the genius businessman?

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Ignorance is the most dangerous thing in society – and it’s deadly to Democracy…

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Donald Trump is a terrible, terrible human being. He just is. MAGA seems to be supporting him, mostly, BECAUSE he’s a terrible human being. I think that says a LOT about MAGA. Supporting a person because they’re the lowest lowlife ever to slither across the landscape rather betrays one’s personal standing with ethics and honor, or complete lack thereof, in the case of MAGA.

Donald Trump’s message to MAGA has been simple: I give you permission to exercise the very worst instincts of humanity – all the terrible little character traits religions and philosophies have been trying to eliminate, or a least manage, for thousands of years. Instead, Trump invites them to be – like him – the very worst human beings they can be, proudly.

You can be respectful, or you can be MAGA…
You can be decent, or you can be MAGA…
You can be honest, or you can be MAGA…
You can love the Constitution, or you can be MAGA…
You can have empathy, or you can be MAGA…
You can try to help make the world a better place, or you can be MAGA…

I’ll tell you this: To me? The very worst part is how many Americans enthusiastically signed up. I genuinely thought we were better than this…

The Verdict Is In…

by MyBaconPress

Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!

No, I’m not celebrating. That’s just what 34 guilty verdicts looks like.

The trial happened where the crime happened. Prosecutors didn’t “shop” the venue. Merchan – who is NOT “conflicted” – bent over backwards to be fair to Trump. The verdict did NOT hang on Cohen’s testimony. Cohen just tied everything together. He received a fair trial. Biden had nothing to do with this. This is an action by the State of New York. It’s not even Federal.

Yeah, sure, this is the first time in American history an ex-president was convicted of crimes. But that’s because this is the first ex-president in American history to commit a bunch of crimes so blatantly – and so stupidly.

MAGA is already out there, whining about the verdict. Who can be surprised? What DON’T they whine about? But their whining is ALWAYS based on lies and misrepresentations. They’ve ignored his theft of funds from his kids with cancer charity. They’ve ignored his confession that he regularly sexual assaults women. They’ve ignored the defamation loss. There is not a single, vile thing he has done they give two figs about. They’ll happily vote for the felon. (MAGA is showing themselves to be terrible people.)

Trump walked out of the courtroom, more than any “normal” American would be able to do. He’ll remain free pending appeal. He’s not even being sentenced until July 11 and I continue to doubt he’ll be tossed in prison over this crime, though he should be. He will continue to splay his evil around our once-great nation.

Donald J. Trump is a felon. 34 times.

Closing Arguments…

by MyBaconPress

To honor the fallen on Memorial day, Trump sent out hate mail. Again. Apparently, that’s how he sees holidays, as a way to hate on his “enemies.” He wrote, “Happy Memorial Day to All, including the Human Scum that is working so hard to destroy our Once Great Country…” And so on and so forth for a rambling while. Hate, anger, revenge, and lies ruled his post, and presumably, his day. In fact, from what I’ve seen hate, anger, revenge, and lies rule his entire life.

It’s not the first time he’s used a holiday to attack people, showing none of the respect the holiday deserves (“Happy Memorial Day?”) and none of the decorum decent human beings expect of those around them…

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Well, closing arguments happened. For hours and hours, they happened. The defense was pretty quick. There’s not much to say when there is no defense.
“That guy’s a liar!” the Defense said, pointing at Cohen. “Don’t trust him.”
“Yeah,” answered the prosecution, “but he’s Trump’s liar. Trump hired him because of the things he’d do. And we’ve shown you corroborating evidence for all of it, remember? There was this and this and that and those and this and that and more of those. Why would you have to rely on Cohen? He just tied it all together for you.”

Did you see how much longer the prosecution’s answer was? That represents how the closing arguments went. The Defense was quick, with nothing to say. The Prosecution took a long time, reviewing the entire case for a jury that had taken a week off between trial and closing.

At one point, the defense got in trouble with the judge, yet again, by asking the jury if they really wanted to send an ex-President to prison. It was an effort to either induce sympathy or produce guilt. Either way, it was a cheap, emotional manipulation. The thing is, the jury doesn’t send anyone to prison. The judge determines the sentence – and I doubt Merchan will give Trump jail time, special treatment being what it is.

Merchan told us as much when Trump kept violating the gag order. Merchan said, out loud, “Mr. Trump, it’s important to understand that the last thing I want to do is to put you in jail. You are the former president of the United States and possibly the next president, as well.” He’s SUPPOSED to be a normal citizen, subject to the same laws as anyone else.

MAGA keeps pretending that it’s special treatment that keeps getting in Donald’s way, but it’s really special treatment that has kept him out of jail up until now. So don’t get your hopes up on the whole jail thing. He ain’t going. Merchan has already (kind of) said as much. Still, he’ll be a convicted Felon, unable to vote for himself in November…

The case got to the jury Wednesday, the 29th. They worked on it for several hours. As of this writing? Crickets. Nothing. Nada. (In fairness, it’s been less than one day.) There will be more deliberations today. I presume the jurors want this over with as much as anyone so they’re, likely, not mucking about…

Quick question: will it affect YOUR opinion? I know I’ll accept the verdict, either way. But one way (acquittal or hung jury) will irritate me and the other (guilty) will satisfy me. I would not want to see an innocent man go to jail. Ever. Even the guy promising to destroy the country, if he didn’t do the crime for which he stands accused.

I think the evidence supports the charge, but I’m not in the courtroom. I ALSO think nobody’s opinion about Donald Trump will change one iota. He has already poisoned MAGA’S mind on the matter, pretending Joe Biden is secretly orchestrating the whole thing, which he most assuredly is not. But on the left, we’ve pretty much decided, too. I suspect nothing will change the voter’s positions one little iota.

There’s no amount of evidence one can bring that will change the mind of a MAGA. They don’t WANT to see it so they will NOT see it. (The “NOT sees?”) So, they’ll happily vote for the Felon, if convicted. Hell, by Friday, his conviction will be a badge of honor among MAGA. “I ignored his conviction before anybody else!” Yeah, you did. Hey, we see you…

The Descent Continues…

by MyBaconPress

Wow, Trump’s paranoia has really ramped up recently. Have you heard the one about the paranoid ex-president who claimed the current president tried to have him assassinated? Yeah, there’s no punchline. That’s just Trump’s current, insane message.

See, in MAGA world, the raid on Mar-a-Lago was NOT a legal process to retrieve stolen government documents. It was a big, evil RAID in which, apparently, FBI agents were supposed to kill Trump.

Now, it could be that Trump is just lying to his base. His whole shtick is that he’s some kind of warrior and that everybody – and I DO mean everybody – is out to get him. The perception he wants to leave is that, because he’s still around, he must be a great warrior and nobody has been able to get him. The fact that nobody has even tried never enters into the conversation.

But I’m of the opinion that when you actually and honestly believe that everybody around you is against you and out to get you, that’s paranoia. So, he’s either lying through his lying teeth or he’s suffering from paranoid delusions.

During the execution of that warrant, the FBI had followed a standard use-of-force policy. It prohibits the use of deadly force except when the officer(s) conducting the search has a reasonable belief that the “subject of such force poses an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to the officer or to another person”. In other words, if someone threatens a law enforcement officer while the officer is executing a warrant, the officer can defend himself.

But you DID catch that bit in there, didn’t you? The part where it prohibits the use of deadly force except to defend themselves. THAT means the FBI wasn’t going in “locked and loaded” as Trump lies and they were specifically NOT “authorized to shoot” him – unless he attacked them first. Interestingly, if his thoughts about perfect presidential immunity were anywhere near true, he wouldn’t be able to stop them if that’s what they were told to do. The FBI is FAR more efficient than Donny’s letting on.

Trump wasn’t even AT Mar-a-Lago the day the warrant was executed and that was by design. Their whole process had been coordinated with the Secret Service. If their goal had been to kill the guy, that’s some terrible planning.
“Hey, we have orders to go to that guy’s house and kill him.”
“When?”
“Sometime when he’s not home seems best…”
“I’ll set it up.”

But, of course, his paranoid rantings could put the lives of FBI agents in danger if some MAGA-minded moron decided to act on Donny’s delusions. So, Jack Smith’s team has asked the judge in the case, Aileen “Loose” Cannon, to stop Trump from making those claims, in view of how false they are and the danger he now poses to FBI agents.

In their filing, they wrote, “Trump’s repeated mischaracterization of these facts in widely distributed messages as an attempt to kill him, his family and secret service agents has endangered law enforcement officers involved in the investigation and prosecution of this case and threatened the integrity of these proceedings.” Cannon pretends she doesn’t understand things so she can make rulings favorable to Donny, so the prosecutors added, “A restriction prohibiting future similar statements does not restrict legitimate speech.”

The problem is, Cannon was nominated to the bench by Trump and she dearly, desperately wants to protect his paranoid, snowflake self. I doubt she’ll grant Smith’s request but it’s yet another log on the fire of her appearance of incompetence. Sooner or later, Smith has to move to force her recusal, and this decision will be part of that action if she ignores reality in favor of her preferred paradigm…

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I really DO NOT like moving house. It’s a LOT of work. One comes face-to-face with all kinds of things one meant to get to, but hasn’t yet. It’s very disruptive to the daily routine. It takes months for life to settle back to some semblance of “normal.”

Nevertheless, that’s what I’m doing. Moving house. Yes, again. The last one was less than two years ago. Some of those boxes were still not unpacked. (That turns out to have been a blessing at this point.) This, of course, is all the result of out-of-control housing costs. We’re combining resources with one of our kids to make life more livable for all of us.

The reason I mention it is, it will likely affect my ability to publish next week. I can’t say for sure. If all goes well, the move might seem seamless (to you) but I have…concerns. So, I’m letting you know that if I don’t publish next Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, or Monday, it’s because of that. Stay with me. I’ll be back…