Crime

FOCUS, People…

by MyBaconPress

I see more and more people coming out to protest the failures of this regime, which are legion. That’s a good thing. MAGA may be happy, but Americans are pissed off! Increasingly, they’re showing up at protests to say so. Americans are ready to fight. We know who we want to fight and we know why we want to fight them. Our problem? We lack a central point to rally around.

Bernie Sanders and now AOC are starting to have an effect. People are coming out in droves to see them and hear them. The speeches are inspiring, too. But I’m not sure Bernie and AOC are successfully going to be the bright star people follow. While their speeches ARE good, they boil down to a litany of complaints and charges. No actions. They MAY help people vent fury but they’re not DOING anything to protect the Constitution.

At one of the rallies, I heard a woman in the crowd shout, “What are you going to DO about it?” To my ear, it was a challenge, not a taunt. It had an unspoken subtext: “Yeah, the speeches are nice and even inspiring, but they’re JUST speeches. We need action and you’re in Congress. What ACTIONS are you taking?” (Yes, the subtext was longer than the text…)

Bernie heard her. He looked over at her. Then he turned back to his speech and kept on a-talkin’. I’m a Bernie fan. I’m an AOC fan. They can describe a problem clearly and with passion. They can throw out vague affirmations. “Oh, we’re not going to let them do that!” Great. Now let’s hear the plan to stop them. “We’re going to give speeches!” Less great.

I do have to add, Bernie and AOC are bringing out thousands of people to these rallies. If nothing else, that will demonstrate for everybody how many of us are furious and ready to fight. It creates a sense of solidarity. It’s inspiring to the push-back. But it STILL needs to speak to specific actions or, I fear, the movement will fizzle, eventually.

We’ve seen people focus their fury on Swasitcar dealerships. I suspect that’s because it’s a visible, focal point. We can ALL find a Swasticar dealership and we can ALL stand outside. Even better, we can SEE results as sales drop and the stock crashes. It’s tangible action with tangible results. Right now, it’s the best Americans have got, attacking the dealerships. As a side benefit, it’s making people FEEL better as they take some kind of action. For a moment, they feel less paralyzed by events of the day.

Counting on individual action is better than nothing but it’s also next to nothing. The various splinter groups around the country are a step up but they lack focus. What we NEED is a George Washington – a trusted, central figure people can rally around. It should matter less which individual grievance one comes out to protest and more that we all agree the destruction our nation at the hands of greedy, evil “people” is unacceptable. In protecting the Constitution as an umbrella issue, you’re ALSO protecting your own, individual cause…

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This is weird. 47 spent a few days, there, ripping on Joe Biden for using autopen to sign some or all of the pardons he issued before leaving office. 47 insisted this was a BAD thing. He acknowledged that he uses autopen but only for “unimportant” things. The “unimportant” thing he cited was return letters to fans who have written him.

THEN, he made a big deal about signing the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. He invoked this particular war powers act, he said, in order to accomplish something he could easily have accomplished, legally, using other, already-on-the-books laws. Then he promised he was going to deport a bunch of Venezuelan gang members using the Act. Again, if his charges against the gang members were true, he didn’t NEED the Alien Enemies Act. But that’s what he did.

Now obviously, legal types pushed back against his invocation of the war time act and a judge agreed it had been misapplied. The judge issued a restraining order telling the administration NOT to deport the targeted group until the courts could hear the case. The regime ignored the order and sent the planes anyway.

The judge got angry and ordered the regime back to court to explain why they ignored his order. I feel like The First Felon and his crew expected to ride out the storm based on the idea that people would have to defend Venezuelan gang members. Who wants to do that? (Note: it SHOULD be every American, since the problem with what he did wasn’t the victims so much as the violation of the law.)

But… oh, rats! It turns out some of the “Venezuelan gang members,” um, weren’t. Right, they weren’t gang members. Right, some of them weren’t Venezuelan. The thing they seem to have in common is they were a) brown and, b) had a tattoo. I’m no lawyer, but I’m not familiar with any law that makes it illegal to be brown and have tattoos. Neither, I suspect, is the judge. This, as you can imagine, is going to seriously undermine any claims of “just taking out the garbage.”

So NOW 47 – you remember, he’s the guy who never uses autopen for “important” things – is out and about telling people that HE never signed the Executive Order invoking the Alien Enemies Act. He says he doesn’t KNOW when the EO was signed because he left that to other people. That sounds like autopen on an important document, to me, AND it’s a confession that maybe he didn’t know it was being signed at all, right? One of his loyal minions did that TO him, right?

Now, obviously, it’s just Donny being Donny and avoiding responsibility for anything he “strongly” does that “bigly” comes back to bite him in the ass – which happens to this guy a lot. He’s taking the position that, since he can’t know when the order was signed, he can’t be held in contempt for ignoring the judges order. I’ll bet that’s not right, though.

I HAVE noticed this: now that he’s relying on autopen as his alibi, he has shut his mouth about Biden using autopen and how “wrong” that was. At least for the moment. Fear not, that lie will be back. He really wants to take revenge against anybody who participated in prosecuting him over all of those crimes he (allegedly) committed. But for right now, he needs it to be okay for some unknown, low-level flunky to use autopen to sign his name to important papers without him knowing who or when.

He spoke with reporters and told them, “Number one, I don’t know when it was signed ’cause I didn’t sign it. Other people handled it. But Marco Rubio’s done a great job, and he wanted them out, and we go along with that.” That looks like throwing Rubio under the bus, but that’s a different piece.

MAGA will buy it, of course. Hell, they’ll buy practically anything – especially the cheap crap he has made in China and overcharges for, here. (“Wow, only $11,000 dollars for a $300 dollar guitar? What a deal!”) What I’m hoping even MAGA can’t accept is the White House explanation for the sudden (and, likely, temporary) change of stance. The White House position, and I’m not making this up, was that The Felon “was obviously referring to the original Alien Enemies Act that was signed back in 1798.” That’s what White House communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement.

While 47 was actively trying to distance himself from the EO invoking the Alien Enemies Act, the White House was insisting that he was referring to the original signing of the original act? In 1798? He didn’t know WHEN that was signed or by whom? How about 1798 and John Adams? And we can be confident it WAS Adams. Autopen hadn’t been invented yet.

While the trumpster was pulling his “I know nothing. I see nothing!” shtick, the White House was swearing up and down and inside out that, “The recent Executive Order was personally signed by President Trump invoking the Alien Enemies Act that designated Tren de Aragua as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in order to apprehend and deport these heinous criminals.”

So there you go. He didn’t do what he did, he doesn’t know anything about all those things he’s an expert on, and he knows nothing about what his underlings are doing because he has his fingers so decidedly on the pulse of his regime, um, from the golf course. Clear as mud…

Distinction Without Difference…

by MyBaconPress

There’s a logical fallacy I know called ‘distinction without a difference.’ It occurs when an author or speaker attempts to describe a distinction between two things where no discernible difference exists. I think this is the situation with the Education Department. Well, no, that’s not exactly right. I think it occurs in EVERY department that the Administrative branch can’t legally shut down – only Congress can close a department established by Congress – but claim they CAN cut off it’s money and fire the workers.

So, what’s the difference? The various buildings in question aren’t the departments. Besides, these “business geniuses” want to sell the buildings. The departments, themselves, are the functions of the office along with people who perform those functions. The fact that the buildings still exist doesn’t mean the department still exists if nobody does the work. I’m not sure why it’s legal for the current maladministration to dispose of the people and take the department’s money. How are they not, de facto, “closing” the department?

In my opinion, if you eliminate all the workers, you have, for all intents and purposes, “closed” the department. I continue to believe that’s true even if you “only” eliminate so many workers the department can’t function anymore. This all reminds me of that nasty con assoholic, Grover Norquist, when he said, “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.”

It seems to me that if Congress authorizes any given department – you know, like they NEVER have with DOGE – there is an implicit presumption that the department will be staffed and funded. I’d like some help from any of my legal friends. Could a member of Congress sue the maladministration? Don’t get me wrong, I’m clear they won’t. Congress is CLEARLY complicit in the coup. I’m just asking if, in the long-lost Better America, could a member of Congress have sued the Administrative branch for not properly funding a department Congress has established?

The really irksome part is that there’s a goal, here: privatization. It works like this: you underfund and understaff a department, any department. THEN, when that department starts to fail, as it must, you pretend it’s because “government can’t do things right.” THEN you allow private industry to swoop in and take over because, you pretend, private business never makes mistakes (I mean, how stupid ARE you?) and will ALWAYS do the job better and for less money.

I want to say it’s a moron’s game but it’s really just destructive greed. We’ve been privatizing things for quite some time now. That dumbass idea appeared decades ago and cons have continued to push and push and push for “privatization.” Here are three LAWS of privatization:
One, privatization ALWAYS leads to reduced services and reduced efficiency in the long run.
Two, privatization NEVER lowers costs in the long run. BUT…
Three, some self-important, greed-head blowhard gets to stick his grimy and crooked little fingers into the government trough and make off with a nearly endless supply of money.

Of course, in the minds of the self-important, greed-head blowhards, the third law, there, is FAR more important the the first or the second. It’s summed up beautifully in the rock band Weezer’s immortal words: “gimme-gimme, gimme-gimme…”

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So, how is this not extortion? The First Felon abuses his office and threatens to remove the security clearances and cancel the contracts of a law firm he doesn’t like, primarily because they commonly represent left-leaning issues, or participated in one of the oh-so-many, true and honest legal cases against him. (He’s a petulant little prick, you know.)

So… no, I’m just going to post the paragraph from the Guardian, “To avoid the consequences of Trump’s order, the White House said (emphasis added), the firm had agreed to “take on a wide range of pro bono matters that represent the full spectrum of political viewpoints of our society”. The firm reportedly agreed to disavow the use of diversity, equity and inclusion considerations in its hiring and promotion decisions and to dedicate the equivalent of $40m in free legal services to support Trump administration policies on issues including assistance for veterans and countering antisemitism.”

“Nice little law firm ya got, here. Be a shame if something were to happen to it. I mean, we could protect you from any harm, for, say, $40 million dollars in free services? How does that sound to you?”

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I think it’s funny to watch Gavin Newsom tacking right – he would say “toward the center” – in an effort to kick off his presidential campaign for 2028. Is there ANYBODY who STILL doesn’t understand that 47 WILL BE “47” for life? I mean, sure, there will be “elections.” Hell, Russia has “elections.” We, the people, get THOSE kind, now. You know, the kind where ‘Dear Leader’ “wins” with 94% of the vote. (That’s 94%, because, realistically, nobody could win 100%. 94% makes it look “honest.”)

So go ahead, Gavin. Keep trashing your own reputation by snuggling up to Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk in an effort to woo the right. But do yourself a favor: stay out of tall buildings, lest you suddenly “decide” to unexpectedly jump out of a window…

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So, which speaks more loudly to you, the car sales promotional event The Felon hosted at the White House to promote “Teslers,” or the fact that after just under a year and a half on the roads, Musk’s SwastiTruck – and I mean ALL of them – are being recalled – for the eighth time? Eight times in just under eighteen months! That’s one crappy vehicle people are overpaying for.

Apparently, the rolling crematoriums just… fall apart while you’re driving down the road. Well, no, they don’t “fall apart.” They experience a “rapid unscheduled disassembly.” That’s so much better.

Climbing in to a SwastiTruck gives you options. You might, in fairness, get to where you’re going. You MIGHT burn to death, trapped inside after an accident when it bursts into flame. Then again, you might just experience a refreshing blast of cooling air up your knickers as bits and pieces of your car fall off while you’re cruising down the road. “You pays your money, you takes your chances.” How exciting!

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Pretty much everybody wants violent foreigners deported when possible, despite what MAGA media tells their adherents. I don’t agree with MAGA on undocumented people who aren’t violent, but I honestly DO understand their position on those who slip past the gates. “They should do it the right way,” is fair, if a bit simplistic. (The “right way” involves a huge number of barriers.)

But now? 47 is revoking Green Cards and other forms of staying here AS legal residents. In short, they DID “do it the right way.” He’s sending them away, anyway. So now there IS no “right way” to immigrate to the US? That kind of makes MAGA look like gullible fools, doesn’t it? “Do it the right way” was the fallback position. It was hard to debate. Now The Felon has destroyed that one, too, leaving them all just looking like a bunch of xenophobic, bigoted rubes.

It’s also a pretty narrow focus on whom, exactly, they want out of the country. So, if you’re brown or poor, there’s no “right way” to enter, but rich white guys are always welcome. Hell, they can even BUY their way in with a $5 million dollar “Gold Card.”

It’s also irritating that he’s revoking people’s LEGAL status based on nothing more than his unsubstantiated assertions that this person or that is a “terrorist sympathizer.” If it’s true, show me the evidence. It SHOULD be easy. “Oh, no, we could NEVER do that,” they say, “it’s a matter of national security.” My, how convenient.

So we’re just left to take the word of someone who lies so often the actual news stories are about when he accidentally tells a truth? I prefer a credible source…

Burning Themselves…

by MyBaconPress

I’m not sure car makers are required by law to be self-serving assoholics. It just works out that way, apparently. Today, we have Elon but the LAST time the United States of America flirted with Fascism, it was car maker Henry Ford at the front of the charge. In fairness to Henry, the Nazi nightmare had not played out yet. Though, in fairness to history, he didn’t seem to mind, even as it did…

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I’m okay with people protesting the actions of Muck and the trumpster in front of Swasticar dealerships. I’m not a fan of setting them on fire or shooting them up. I mean, I get it. I understand the impulse. Once they’ve burned, they can’t be sold, right? It hits Musk right in the wallet. But it crosses a legal line and my concern is it will become the excuse for a crackdown.

Mostly, though, nobody NEEDS to break laws to have an effect on Swasticar sales so just stand down and let the cars burn themselves. The protests are accentuating Musk’s destruction and the car and stock are nearly in free fall. It’s gotten so bad, I saw one story where a high-dollar Swasticar investor is publicly expressing his anger that the CEO is AWOL while the company crashes and burns. You know, like the car, itself, does so often.

So THAT seems to have prompted Elon to attempt a little damage control. He found himself a media safe-space on Fox Not-News and pretended to be shocked, shocked, I tell you. “It’s really come as quite a shock to me that there is this level of, really, hatred and violence from the left,” Musk said. There you go. He DID get the requisite dig at the left in there. “Oh, it’s just crazy lefties” is a standard MAGA slur. My guess? There are people there from both sides of the aisle in these protests, though I suspect it’s MORE thinking people than Trump supporters.

“I always thought that the left, you know, Democrats, were supposed to be the party of empathy, the party of caring, and yet they’re burning down cars, they’re firebombing dealerships, they’re firing bullets into dealerships, they’re smashing up Teslas,” Musk said. Suddenly he sounds less like he’s trying to protect the Swasticar and more like he’s trying to demonize Democrats.

Still, it’s a bit of a revealing comment. The Democrats ARE the party of empathy (or what’s left of one). MAGA dogma holds that the left is comprised of “snowflakes,” soft and weak. And they cry when you challenge them on that. Then they’re surprised when the left comes out swinging. Guess what? ‘Empathy’ and ‘milquetoast’ are NOT synonyms.

“Tesla is a peaceful company,” Musk said. That part is probably true. The company just wants to sell cars. “We’ve never done anything harmful.” Okay, I can only give him half credit on that one. A ridiculous number of people have died in his cars. It feels like a shopping cart bumps a “Tesler” and the car bursts into flames.

Oh, “feels like.” What am I, MAGA? Of the 393 people who have died in incidents with Swaticars, 95 have died from fires or using the Autopilot “feature.” During the 1970’s, Ford (remember? The OTHER fascist car maker) sold a car called ‘the Pinto.’ It had a design flaw, too. It, too, commonly burst into flames in certain crashes. 27 people died by fire in those crashes and by 1980, the car was removed from sale.

One would think the NTSB would bar Musk’s rolling crematoriums from sale, as well – which might explain why Musk keeps trying to shutter agencies that oversee his products. While I HAVE heard of the death traps (sometimes ALL of them) being recalled to address various design flaws, I haven’t heard of any major design improvements. I’d call that “harmful.”

I’ll tell you this: because of the dangers associated with driving one, I wouldn’t buy a Swasticar in the first place, but the Tesler isn’t really the issue, here. The CAR has become a symbol of the CEO and his attack on the American people – and people are fighting back. Rather than being surprised people are fire-bombing his cars, he should probably be thankful people are NOT fire-bombing him! (For clarity, I am NOT suggesting nor endorsing fire-bombing Elon Musk…)

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Holy gods, is this real? The Felon is out and about, claiming that Biden’s pardons aren’t official because, according to the lying Felon, Biden used autopen, a machine that signs for people. Bear in mind, the trumpster hasn’t provided any evidence that Biden used autopen. Like so many things that come out of his mouth, he may have just made it up.

I suppose a handwriting expert might be able to discern but, of course, we’ve been told never to listen to anyone who knows what they’re talking about, right? Experts suck. So who can say? Oh, I know, Joe Biden could say. He hasn’t yet, but he could. He should.

But is 47 REALLY so desperate to “get even” with people who said he’s a criminal based on nothing more than all of those crimes he’s said to have committed, he’s actually having handwriting experts examine Biden’s signature on documents? Oh, AND, that means Donny trusts experts, right? Well, unless he just made up the autopen story.

I think we all know, now, that Donny is going to ignore laws he doesn’t like. Even if Biden says he didn’t use autopen, 47 will just insist he did, anyway. It really doesn’t matter, though. The courts ruled some time ago that a President can direct a subordinate to use autopen to sign an official document. The subordinate can’t decide an issue, but once the President has made his decision, he CAN direct someone to use autopen to “sign.”

That means that even if Biden DID use autopen, the pardons are still solid. THAT leaves The Felon hanging his hat on “Maybe Biden didn’t know about the pardons.” All he has to do is ignore the “Maybe Biden DID know” bit. Biden knew and the signatures are legal. Donny just wants an angle to harass people. I’m sure MAGA is all in. I’m sure the rest of us are not.

Yo, Donny, just go play another round of golf. You suck at THAT, too, but at least you’re not hurting anybody…

Done and Done…

by MyBaconPress

Well, this DOES seem like the other shoe, doesn’t it? Cast your mind back all the way back to, um, yesterday. I wrote that The Felon had invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 and then a court issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) a few hours later. Well, guess what? The maladministration ignored the court’s order! They moved forward with the deportations, claiming the plane had left US airspace before the judge issued his TRO.

Oh, but that’s not all. They also ignored a different court’s order requiring 24 hours notice before any deportations and proceeded to deport Dr Rasha Alawieh, a 34-year-old, Rhode Island-based, kidney specialist. She is/was a professor at Brown University. She was a legal resident and had not committed any crimes.

My guess is, MAGA media isn’t going to give the Alawieh story much ink. She’s a surgeon. She’s smart, well educated, and skillful. She’s EXACTLY the kind of “good immigrant” the trumpster claims to want instead of gang members. She was in the country legally. The US suffers a very clear loss because of her deportation. MAGA media will have to focus on her one and only “offense.” She’s Lebanese, with all of that… (shivers) brown skin.

Instead, MAGA media will focus on the first of those mentioned because those being deported were said to be gang members. Who knows? Maybe they were. 47 lies about everything so maybe SOME were. Maybe ONE GUY was suspected of once passing a gang member on the street somewhere so, suddenly, they were ALL gang members.

The ‘gang members’ angle plays into MAGA paranoia and fear. They’ll be a-okay with “deporting vicious gang members” – even if a court told the government to wait. They’ll roll over for it because… “vicious gang members.” MAGA will accept the government ignoring court orders because MAGA will be told the court is wrong so the government HAD to.

The part they SHOULD focus on, but won’t, is that the government is now openly ignoring court orders. The idea that one might even agree with their excuse in this case, doesn’t change the fact that open defiance of the courts STARTS with an “agreeable” case but then quickly moves to any area they choose – because precedent will have been established with the “gangs” case.

It’s an old trick, by now. Our government did something like it a long time ago, when they established so-called “Drunk Driving Checkpoints.” They were sold to the public as a way to stop drunk drivers, and who isn’t down with that? They’re still called ‘Drunk Driving Checkpoints,’ of course, but they’re really just “checkpoints.” They’re hardly looking only for drunk drivers.

They’ll stop you for no valid reason. They’ll search your car. They’ll run a legal check on you. EVERY time there’s a “Drunk Driving Checkpoint,” we get stories about them taking people into custody for all kinds of things that are NOT drunk driving or things they couldn’t/shouldn’t know about if they’re only checking for glassy eyes.

But now? Checkpoints are just part of the process, right? Even if we grumble about them – and they ARE unconstitutional – they keep happening. The same will be the case with ignoring court orders the government doesn’t like.

MAGA used to bitch and bitch about the heavy-handed government engaging in illegal things. But, of course, that was when it wasn’t really happening. Now that it is? They’ll cheer. But it was the “other shoe” of an authoritarian takeover. With them openly defying courts, we’ve passed the point of no return. This is going to get ugly…

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Our current national nightmare began so many years ago when “poorly educated” conservatives were conditioned to believe that there was such a thing as “Supply-side Economics.” There isn’t. It’s a nonsense term but it SOUNDED like it meant something and stupid people, fearing they might LOOK stupid, embraced the name and the concept as presented in the hopes that they looked, for once, like they might understand something complex and confusing.

The concept of Supply-side or “trickle down” economics is simple enough: give all the money to rich people, then sit back and enjoy all the wondrous benefits the benevolent billionaires bestow on the working class. Well, at this point, a fair argument could be made that we’ve done the first part – we gave all the money to the richest people. If you want to split hairs and say, “I’ve still got some money,” I’ll agree, but you don’t have much and you won’t have what you have for long. Worse, there are thousands of people out there who don’t have any. For all intents and purposes, they have “all the money.” Certainly, they have all of the control.

They sold the idea that laws, rules, and regulations were “impediments to innovation” and that they made it more difficult to make money – and that was said to be a BAD thing. The MAGA mind lapped it up. Here’s the thing: yes. Regulations DID make it more difficult to “innovate.” Like that time PG&E wanted to “innovate” disposing of poisonous chemicals in a small town’s drinking water supply, saving PG&E lots of money, but poisoning the people of the town.

It DID cost PG&E more money to dispose of their waste properly. And all because people wanted to drink clean water and not be poisoned. How selfish is that? They should have been shareholders. Sure, they’d still be poisoned but they’d get back a few pennies on their investment so it would be okay, right? Oh, wait. The major shareholders weren’t poisoning the water the major shareholders drank. That was a special “innovation” for Joe Six-pack, alone. The One Percent didn’t even send a card when children died from the poison.

Oh, but they’re going to get to “innovate” now, aren’t they? Pay attention. ALL of their great, coming “innovations” are going to cost the work-a-day Joes more and more money. Our world is about to become a nightmare of desperation while the One Percent enjoy their privileged and easy lives. But knowing they were now free to trample over the masses wasn’t enough for them. As long as our old Constitutional Republic existed, there was a chance (a minuscule chance, admittedly) someone might do the right thing and try to rein them in.

So, they used our money to buy – and then destroy – our government. The richest man in the world is telling the same people who were supposed to – expecting to – reap the rewards of billionaire largess that they want too much and they’re taking far too much based on the idea that the working class thinks it should STILL get the Social Security we were promised.

This all has historical precedent. It’s all happened before. I’ve long said that when FDR introduced the New Deal, he saved the country, or at the very least, he bought the country some time. But in point of fact, if history is to be our guide (and what else do we have?) FDR introducing the New Deal saved the One Percent. They didn’t know it then, and they understand it even less now, but it happens over and over and over again, throughout history.

The One Percent gains all the advantage in society. Legally, economically, socially, they can’t lose. EVERYONE else suffers. EVERYONE else pays the highest of high prices for the comfort of the very few. Our billionaire class numbers around 748. The population of the US is right around 343.6 million. 343.6 million people get to suffer so that 748 people never have to touch the ground. That’s just wrong. It’s exactly what the founders were trying to escape, not create.

We are probably the most heavily armed population on the planet and in the history of the planet. We don’t have to take their crap. Cons have been shouting all along that they MUST keep an armory in their homes in case the government falls to tyranny. Well the tyranny is here now and the armories are intact. So, no, we don’t have to take their crap, though we will – for a while. But history demonstrates that authoritarian regimes ALWAYS push too far, ALWAYS take too much. They ALWAYS abuse the population one time too many.

Our billionaire class numbers around 748. The population of the US is right around 343.6 million. When they make peaceful revolution impossible, they make violent revolution inevitable. At this point, the only remaining question is, when does it start?

When Lies Aren’t Holding…

by MyBaconPress

I have to confess, I like what happened in Trump Tower the other day. Recently, a guy named Mahmoud Khalil got taken into custody, apparently for being alive. I mean, even the people who arrested him say there are no charges against him. He hasn’t committed a crime. He was arrested and is going to be deported because he opposed the American position on arming Israel in their attempts to eliminate the Palestinians, once and for all, and claim the land as their own. I opposed it, too. Are they going to deport me? (I mean, please?)

Authorities originally said they were revoking his student visa because of the protest. When his American citizen wife explained that he doesn’t HAVE a student visa but, instead, is a permanent resident with a Green Card, the authorities made a phone call, then came back and said, “Okay, we’re revoking his Green Card.” Then they took him into custody in New York and flew him to Louisiana, making it VERY difficult for his lawyer to communicate with him. The First Felon suggested (okay, lied) it was because of Khalil’s “Anti-Semitic” protest.

SO, demonstrators from a group called, ‘Jewish Voice for Peace’ staged a sit-in at Trump Tower wearing shirts that read, “Stop arming Israel,” and chanted “Bring Mahmoud home NOW!” See, anybody with a functioning frontal lobe knows that opposition to that war is opposition to the actions of a government, not “Jewish people.” 98 people were arrested.

I’ll tell you this: I can’t WAIT to hear the trumpster claim the Jewish demonstrators were Anti-Semitic…

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During his campaign, the trumpster said on multiple occasions he planned to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. Then he acted all impressed that it was written in 1798. That was one of the early hints that The Felon was getting input from the evil Heritage Foundation. I say so because there’s NO WAY a person as stup–, er, ‘intellectually incurious’ as 47 knew there was such a thing as the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

Someone briefed him, for sure. The mystery is how they got him to sit still and listen long enough to remember the name correctly. On the campaign trail, he was very impressed with himself and pleased that he finally got to sound smart around people. But whoever briefed him, didn’t tell him the whole thing.

Like, the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 is a wartime act. The only time it has ever been used was during the War of 1812, the First World War, and the Second World War. What do they have in common? That’s right, they’re ALL WARS! As messed up as everything is, the US is not currently at war. No matter, on Saturday the 16th, he signed an Executive Order invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. But then we’re right back to the madness. You see, he claimed he was invoking the act in order to deport some Venezuelan gang members.

What put the lie to his claim is the fact that the US already has laws to deport criminals. We don’t need to invoke old wartime powers. But if he got away with it for the Venezuelan gang members, he could then use it against others – like Mahmoud Khalil, perhaps? They really want to deport that guy for having principles. But when even Jews are coming to his defense, the effort to deport a legal resident has clearly run into problems. It immediately felt, to me, like The Felon was trying to do an end run around the law. “What? A convicted felon who despises laws? Say it ain’t so!”

Apparently, I wasn’t alone in that suspicion because the trumpster invoked and a Federal court revoked. Well, the court issued a temporary restraining order stopping him from using a wartime power during peacetime. US district Judge James Boasberg issued the order in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and Democracy Forward.

This whole effort on the part of the trumpster is yet another example of acting on their own false rhetoric. Everybody knows we have problems at the border but is it an invasion? No. That’s just language the cons used to catastrophize the situation. But then, his pea-brain started to believe his b.s. rhetoric and now, suddenly, he sees an “invasion.” There are words for it, when people see things that aren’t there. ‘Paranoid’ comes to mind. ‘Delusional’ is a accurate. Dare I say, ‘deranged?’

So far, it hasn’t been any fun having a REAL morally bankrupt, psychologically deranged person in the White House. This guy isn’t all scare stories and made up failings of MAGA talking about Biden. He’s the REAL DEAL. He has no morality, he’s clearly deranged, and he’s, at best, intellectually incuri– oh, to heck with it, he’s stupid, and the whole world will pay the price…

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Okay, speaking of stupid, MAGA has long-since insisted that climate change isn’t real. Then, that it IS real, but natural, not at all man-made. Okay, affected by humans but no one knows how much. Now some of that non-existent, natural, okay, minimal climate change is pounding the Midwest plains and the south with what is described as a “monster storm.” People have died in bright red Kansas. People have died in bright red Mississippi. People have died in bright red Missouri. People have also died in bright red Arkansas.

Let’s connect two dots. We’ve been listening to Musk and the Felon whining about the role the Federal government plays in people’s lives and we’ve watched them take a chainsaw to the institutions. MAGA has been cheering because of all that fraud, waste, and abuse that has NOT been uncovered or even happening – including at FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. MAGA has been conditioned to believe FEMA doesn’t do anything of value, so MAGA has been very happy to see FEMA kneecapped. You can already see where I’m going with this, right?

Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, and Arkansas are all about to find out what it feels like to suffer a tremendous natural disaster, then not have any help coming. 47 pretended that’s what happened in South Carolina and he told that lie over and over, in an effort to smear Biden. But now it’s likely to be true. No help for the desperate in a time of need, or, at least, not enough help.

It’s been on my mind, of course, because I live in California. We have fires. They’re often very bad. I’ve been wondering what would happen the next time something took flame, causing increasing damage as a direct result of climate change, with no FEMA to help. It’s a problem California is going to have because so many MAGA have such corrupted morals they voted the Antichrist into office – or so the story goes.

True confession time: I’m sorry for the loss of life, but MAGA conditioning has completely stripped them of empathy. So completely, in fact, that MAGA has to actually experience something in order to understand the implications and ramifications. So, I’m glad the red states are getting what they voted for, first. Yes, climate change IS going to hit and hurt California but as it happens, it hits everywhere, all the time – including red states.

They’re all taker states, too, more heavily latched on to the public teat than California. They’re poor. They’re less likely to be able to muster the resources needed to help themselves, based on the reality that they’ve never been able to in the past. And now Uncle Sugar may not be there for them when they’re in need.

The entire world is going to suffer because MAGA chose to live in fantasy land. I consider it a good thing that they get to experience the reality of their choice before the rest of us have to. Now all they have to do is figure out a way to blame Biden for creating the storms in the first place…

Inmates Running the Asylum…

by MyBaconPress

Elon presenting to the world as an insane person is only one reason Tesla sales are crashing and the stock is down. Tesla’s early success in the car market wasn’t because of Elon, either. Tesla benefited, early on, by being first. They offered an electric vehicle with a perception of quality and safety that had good range and speed.

As they’ve penetrated the market, though, certain realities about Tesla’s safety have been exposed. They keep being recalled. The ‘Autopilot’ feature of the car is, at best, erratic. (Hey, just like their CEO!) In crashes, they tend to burst into flames. Fortunately, they increasingly have “unbreakable” glass windows (actually just very difficult to break) so WHEN your Tesla crashes and burns, literally, with you inside? You might survive the crash, but not the fire.

Meanwhile, all of the other car makers have come up with decent alternatives that DON’T burst into flame every chance they get and many of them are far more affordable. That is to say, there are better options out there now, or, at least, competitive options. As those options became available, it was inevitable Tesla sales would drop. They aren’t the only game in town anymore.

But it really has not helped that the richest man in the world started scolding work-a-day Joes for taking too much. “Oh, you want your Social Security? I don’t need Social Security so you shouldn’t either!”

Muck and the trumpster held a publicity stunt at the White House in an effort to shore up Tesla sales. 47 pretended he bought one. He said he was going to write a check for the $80,000 dollar car. Neither of the grifters mentioned, in the moment, that Musk was planning to put $100 million dollars into The Felon’s pocke–, er, PAC. Yeah, the PAC, that’s the ticket.

Now, as Elon actively attacks the American people, the American people are pushing back by protesting outside Tesla dealerships. It really makes perfect sense. Elon is closely associated with the Tesla, even though he had nothing to do with their development or design. Tesla is quickly becoming a symbol of evil and it provides people with a very visual place to protest.

Donny says he wants to make protesting outside Tesla dealerships a crime. He wants to call it “domestic terrorism.” Look for that to happen in a once-great nation near you, soon. I remember when the United States enjoyed a thing commonly referred to as the First Amendment. Remember that? It allowed people to say things other people might not like. It allowed people to protest, so long as it was peaceful. That was pretty great.

The MAGA alternative to the First Amendment, along with the Tesla and Tesla’s CEO, sucks. I wonder how long Tesla’s board is going to stand behind Elon and his insanity. Do you think they’re going to wait until their brand is completely unrecoverable?

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Sometimes, stupid just can’t hide. A competent AP reporter asked KKKaroline Leavitt if she had ever paid a tariff. She went directly to faux outrage, “I think it’s insulting that you’re trying to test my knowledge of economics,” before moving on – quickly – to another question. (She commonly reminds me of a line from ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail,’ “Run away!”)

It wasn’t really a “test” though, was it? It was more of a demonstration. If you really think foreign companies pay the tariffs, you have no idea what you’re talking about and anybody, everybody, who DOES understand will know in a heartbeat that you DON’T know – and it doesn’t matter HOW big of an asshole you act. You’re still wrong.

The most frustrating part about this particular gaslight is that cons will be the first to tell you that adding a tax to a product will only be passed along by the seller. We all know it. Even MAGA knows it. But suddenly, THIS tax doesn’t work that way, apparently, because it has a different name? Really, sometimes, stupid just can’t hide…

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Recently, a young child died of Measles in Texas. I’m sure the child’s parents are very proud of themselves. Sure, they killed their kid – but he didn’t have Autism!

I suppose we have to set aside the FACT – you know, like they didn’t – that he wouldn’t have contracted Autism from the vaccines, anyway, since that was just a made-up story. It stems from a morally defective, British former doctor. He isn’t a doctor anymore because his “study” was crap work. He fudged his data. He was applying for a vaccine patent of his own and thought that if he discredited the one in use at the time, he’d be better off. His lie has killed countless numbers – including that child in Texas.

The dude must be MAGA because he’s still out there telling his lie – and doubling down on a lie is the MAGA way. He has apparently impressed what’s left of RFK, Jr’s brain, which doesn’t seem all that hard to do. He impresses a LOT of weak minds. I suspect he feels good whenever an unvaccinated child dies of some easily preventable disease because he convinced yet another rube. But people die. I think he should be in prison.

Science isn’t perfect. There, I said it AND, I mean it. But it’s better than not-science. It’s sure as shootin’ better than “doing your own research.” What the hell do YOU know? Do you have a lab or even a lab coat? Testing equipment? Can you do a double-blind study on a large enough, representative sample? Can you even describe a double-blind study? Or did you just cruise the internet until you found the story that supported what your husband’s cousin mentioned she heard from her friend down at the mall?

If you don’t get your kids vaccinated because you’re afraid they might get Autism from the shot, leaving your child vulnerable to readily preventable diseases that can very easily kill or permanently disable them? You’re a moron…

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I don’t know. It was a tough call. Do Democrats sign on with Republicans and help them pass their Continuing Resolution (CR), or do they stand their ground and let the government shut down in an effort to get a less vicious budget? If the CR passes, the autocrats get a shot in the arm as the CR codifies some of the things “Team Evil” want to do. If the CR fails, the government shuts down and leaves a huge opening for Team Evil to do their thing with less opposition, but makes clear the damage comes from one group and one group only – the One Percent compliant Republicans.

It seems to me the outcome was the same either way. Team Evil gets to do what it wants via the budget or Team Evil gets to do what it wants via the closure. Since that’s the case, I think it would have made more sense to vote against the CR. The short version is, either way, Team Evil gets to do what it wants, so the Democrats should do the right thing and stand with the American people. Most did.

Chuck Schumer (NY), John Fetterman (PA), Dick Durbin (IL), Catherine Cortez-Masto (NV), Gary Peters (MI), Kirsten Gillibrand (NY), Brian Schatz (HI), Maggie Hassan (NH), Jeanne Shaheen (NH), and Angus King (MA), an independent who caucuses with Democrats, all joined Team Evil in giving Elon and The Felon a free hand. But, really, it was a tough call, either way. It’s difficult to know what the right choice might have been – except…

47 said of Schumer’s vote, “I think he did the right thing.” Okay, so now I know the answer. If Evil Donny is happy about the choice you made, you definitely made the wrong choice. The outcome totally reinforces my perception that the Democrats are the Washington Generals of this political charade. The Washington Generals are the team whose job it is to lose to the Harlem Globetrotters, but both teams are paid by the same people…

What Evil Looks Like…

by MyBaconPress

Some people think that evil looks like the devil, a red-hued guy with horns and a spiked tail. I don’t, though. I think evil looks like the richest man in the world telling work-a-day Joes that they’re taking too much…

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Listen, it isn’t going to take any time at all for all of MAGA to believe that this volatile economy is Joe Biden’s fault. The economy was humming along when Biden was President. It was SO good, the First Felon was taking credit for it. “It’s good because I’m coming into office.” In truth, it was good because Biden knew what he was doing.

Then 47 GOT into office and started his mindless “trade wars” (code talk for “stock market manipulation”) – and the economy is tanking. But that, TOO is Joe Biden’s fault. I mean, obviously. Oh, it’s STILL Biden’s economy, which, remember, was doing so well before 47 stole the office. Yes, their stories ARE stupid, but MAGA conditioning keeps them befuddled and they’ll never see it.

It’s often true that economic effects last beyond one person’s term. Bush 43 left Obama a crashed economy that saw Obama struggling for the first couple of years. Obama left then-45 a booming economy that kept humming along until then-45’s mismanagement allowed a pandemic to run wild. That dragged down Biden’s early years as the trumpster’s inflation ballooned, but Biden got it under control. The economy was humming along again when now-47 stole his way back. He should have, COULD have kept it humming along – but the trumpster wanted tariffs.

It stopped being Biden’s economy the second 47 started signing Executive Orders that affected the economy – that is, day one. He affected the economy faster than any other modern sitting President. Sadly, he damaged the economy faster than any other modern sitting President.

All of this is happening because Trump is an old man and thinks old thoughts. Tariffs might have been a solid economic tool at one point in history. Hell, in some cases, they can still be solid tools. But he’s using a cannon to kill a mosquito. Mostly, the world just bypasses tariffs by turning in other directions, these days. All 47 is accomplishing is having other countries take American products off their shelves.

I’ll tell you this: that doesn’t sound so “great” to me…

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The cowardly, snowflake Republicans have decided to stop holding town halls because pissed off people keep showing up to demand action from their “representatives,” who aren’t going to do anything because they actually represent the One Percent. And to protect their cowardly selves from looking like cowardly snowflakes, they’re pretending the angry people are paid protestors funded by (obviously) George Soros.

In point of fact, George Soros doesn’t NEED to fun angry citizens. Most Americans are plenty pissed off about what’s happening and don’t need any prompting from anybody. Their anger is real, not bought and paid for – and THAT is why they’ll stop holding those meetings. They can’t afford to let people see how many of us are super pissed off about what’s happening. Solidarity is our best weapon, now…

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“But the Radical Left Lunatics, as they often do, are trying to illegally and collusively boycott Tesla, one of the World’s great automakers, and Elon’s ‘baby,’ in order to attack and do harm to Elon, and everything he stands for.” The trumpster wrote that.

He’s not altogether wrong. There IS coordination among the protestors. That’s kind of how protesting works. It COULD be called “collusion.” But illegal? Sorry, chump. It’s not illegal to NOT buy a product (except health insurance, apparently). If Americans want to boycott Tesla in response to Tesla’s CEO attacking them, that’s an honest choice. Let MAGA buy the Teslas. They LOVE electric cars, right? Well, they will, soon. Well, Teslas, anyway. (Their conditioning is so… malleable…)

I first predicted on February 13 of this year that MAGA conditioning would be modified to encourage them to buy Teslas in an effort to prop up Musk’s company. March 12 saw The Felon turning the White House into a car sales lot for a short time. He held a press conference to hawk the cars like a used car salesmen. He even got a script from Elon! He promoted the event on his social media site where he wrote, “In any event, I’m going to buy a brand new Tesla tomorrow morning as a show of confidence and support for Elon Musk, a truly great American.”

Listen, knowing the dumbest man on the planet “bought” an overpriced car from the richest man on the planet is not a strong endorsement of the Swasticar. But suddenly, MAGA everywhere will be fond of Teslas. If the First Felon “buys” one, then it’s okay for THEM to buy one. Hell, it may become requisite. Someone should tell them it was JUST a promotional event. I seriously doubt 47 will actually write a check for $80,000 for a woke car he doesn’t even get to drive. But now MAGA has to carry the company? Can they do that? Many MAGA have lost huge amounts of money to The Felon’s various schemes and scams. Can they afford a Tesla, too? Those rolling crematoriums are VERY expensive…

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Meanwhile, the stock market is crashing like it’s 1929. Credit where credit is due, ‘Fox Not-News’ reporter Peter Doocy asked during the Elon/Felon event – out loud and in public – if it was a good idea to be hawking luxury cars outside the White House while the working class was watching their 401ks shrivel.

That’s TWICE Peter Doocy has confronted the maladministration with honest questions. The first time was when Doocy questioned the legitimacy of attacking Zelenskyy for not wearing a suit in the Oval when Muck never wears a suit in the Oval. At the time, Spokesliar Leavitt ducked the question with a very not-subtle dodge, “He wore one last night.” Sure, he wasn’t in the Oval but in fairness, it was all she had.

Wait, a third time? Doocy ALSO challenged the White House spokesliar by asking if anyone in the White House was “shorting” the stock market during all of this chaos. Did you know it’s possible to bet against the stock market? Or, rather, it’s possible to bet the market is going to go down. Very simply, you buy what are called “Put Options.” They’re like a long-odds bet so they pay off “bigly.”

Famously, okay, infamously, some unknown person bought Put Options on American airlines and United airlines just before those planes were used on 9/11. After the planes hit the buildings the stocks crashed, too, and the Put Options paid off handsomely. Sadly, the purchaser never got to collect because doing so clearly indicated foreknowledge of the event. (Official word is, we “never knew” who bought those options…)

Anyway, if you’re an evil schemer and you’re in a position to manipulate the market, you buy some Put Options, announce your tariffs, watch the market decline, collect your money on the options, buy stocks at bargain basement prices you just manipulated into being, then “pause” your tariffs and watch your stock price grow as the market “recovers.”

That might give you some idea of how bizarre Bizarro America is, I have to give props to a ‘Fox Not News’ reporter for doing the job ALL reporters should be doing – but aren’t. Good work, Peter Doocy. Keep it up…

Undependable and Untrustworthy…

by MyBaconPress

The thing is, see, it won’t matter. 47 is now out saying he hates “to predict things” like a recession this year. He’s conditioning his acolytes with their new talking point. They’ll start in, first insisting, aggressively, that there will NOT be a recession this year. THEN, when the recession begins, they’ll take their next totally unpredictable move, they’ll blame Joe Biden. Either way, it won’t matter to them. They’ll believe.

Bear in mind, Biden had nothing to do with it. Biden left The Felon with one of the strongest economies in the world. 47 has already done serious harm and he’s only been in office, what, a month and a half? But MAGA is impervious to facts and, like Ron White says, you can’t fix stupid.

Anyway, according to the Guardian, 47 added, “There is a period of transition, because what we’re doing is very big. We’re bringing wealth back to America. That’s a big thing. And there are always periods of, it takes a little time. It takes a little time, but I think it should be great for us.” When asked whether he thought his tariffs on US imports would fuel inflation, he said: “You may get it. In the meantime, guess what? Interest rates are down.”

Remember, he promised on the campaign trail he was going to bring prices down. He said he had a plan and that it was going to be “so easy.” Now he’s telling everyone that he – okay, I’m trying to be generous, here – hasn’t achieved his campaign promise to bring prices down and he doesn’t expect to. In his “mind,” it’s good enough news that interest rates are down. So when you’re asked pay $25.00 for 18 eggs, fear not. You can finance them at a competitive rate…

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I never fully trust high-profile people who switch political sides AFTER being caught up in some scandal. Simultaneously, they have had front row seats to the inside workings of whatever camp they got kicked out of. David Brock spent years writing hit pieces for the right before being kicked out of that club, ostensibly for writing a balanced piece about Hillary.

In his Mea Culpa book, ‘Blinded By the Right,’ Brock confessed to creating the line, “a little bit nutty, a little bit slutty,” about Anita Hill, the person accusing Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment during his SCOTUS hearing. He attacked a book that accused Thomas of being a “habitual user of pornography” and insisted the authors had no evidence. Then, again in ‘Blinded By the Right’ he wrote, “When I wrote those words, I knew they were false. I put a lie in print.”

The left embraced him and extolled his “brave honesty.” I never trusted the guy. It’s just too convenient that he decided to switch sides only AFTER being exiled from his previous position. He founded a group called “Media Matters for America,” which he later left for “undisclosed reasons.”

Brock was happy to write whatever the right wanted, so long as the checks cleared. Then, when the checks stopped coming, he had a sudden change of heart and started cashing Democratic checks, instead. His loyalty seems, first and foremost, to himself and he just writes what his benefactors want to hear, true or not.

I feel pretty much the same way about current darling to the left, the turncoat Michael Cohen, the trumpster’s one-time “fixer.” He didn’t just wake up one day and decide to do the right thing. He got arrested and convicted for his actions working with The Felon and when 47 threw him under the bus – as he almost always does – Cohen had a sudden “come to Jesus” moment. He, too, strikes me as an opportunist, taking the money from where ever it’s coming from.

BUT… it’s also true that he really was an insider. It’s true that he really does know The Felon and the way he thinks. Cohen expects the trumpster to come after Medicaid (in process) and Social Security (started). Cohen wrote an essay on Substack in which he opined that 47’s “base might be rabid, but even the most die-hard MAGA voter has a breaking point. And when grandma’s Social Security check disappears, when their Medicaid is yanked away, when the reality of Musk’s economic war on the poor sets in; who do you think they’re going to blame?”

“You screw over 72.5 million people, and you pay the price,” Cohen continued, referring to the number of Americans on Medicaid. “Unfortunately, they will suffer. But, there is a light at the end of the tunnel…Musk’s economic jihad against working Americans will be the thing that sinks Trump’s presidency and the Republican party. And for once, the chaos will actually work in the favor of the American people.”

No, I don’t trust Michael Cohen, but I want SO BADLY for him to be correct about this…

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The right is in full attack mode against Amy Coney-Barrett for her part in upholding the Constitution. She sided with the three left-leaning justices in favor of the idea that contracted work completed should be compensated according to the contractual agreement. Now the right is just bashing hell out of her.

They say she’s evil. They say she’s “rattled.” They call her a DEI hire. All of this because she did the right thing. And do you know what? If YOU were the contractor who did the work, YOU would want to be paid, too. You wouldn’t want to hear that your money is suddenly “frozen” because some mental mite made an illegal choice.

But the thing that REALLY gets me? Chief Kangaroo John Roberts ALSO sided with the majority and the Constitution. That’s HOW they got to the 5-4 decision they eventually handed down. I haven’t heard word one about Roberts. All of the vitriol seems to be pointed at Coney-Barrett. I wonder why that might be?

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When Steve effing Doocy challenges something a Republican administration does, you KNOW the GOP has gone way awry. Doocy asked why Zelenskyy was challenged (by MTG’s paid-shill boyfriend) for not wearing a suit, but Musk never wears one in the Oval and no one says anything.

The Felon’s Spokesliar, KKKaroline Leavitt, said of Musk, “He wore one tonight,” referring to the joint-party rally speech The Felon gave. That was her only line, her dodge. “He wore one tonight.” Do you think SHE thinks she handled that one smoothly? Do you think SHE thinks she nailed it? Her line was stupid and everybody knows it. Well, everybody but MAGA and that’s really who it was for…

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Right now, the entire world is looking away from the US the way Americans look away from homeless people. “It’s a shame,” we think to ourselves, “but what can be done?” We move on with our lives, hoping for the best. That’s how the world is viewing the US since the rise of MAGA. “What a shame.” They look different directions. The world will spin without US hegemony. As it happens, the US needs the world, more than the world needs the US. Who knew? Well, everybody but MAGA, that’s who knew…

Highlighting the Gaslighting…

by MyBaconPress

I just want to pile on for a second. 47 actually said “and the days of rule by unelected bureaucrats is over.” He said it with Elon Musk, the shadow President sitting right there, in the room. The GOP pretended not to notice but everyone else in the world laughed at the moronic buffoon. If you’re going to claim the days of rule by unelected bureaucrats is over, you might want to make sure the unelected bureaucrat you’ve got ruling over the government can’t be panned to by the cameras, highlighting your gaslighting…

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Well, well, whaddaya know? It turns out, 47s tariffs aren’t so much just a stupid economic move. I mean, they ARE an incredibly stupid economic move, or, would be, if they were real. But it’s looking more and more like they’re just insider trading. Make no mistake, everybody still has to take them seriously. That’s why they’re so effective. People have no choice but to respond, just in case he really means it this time. But they may never be imposed. All of the tough talk and claims of concern are just gaslighting.

Have you noticed? He threatens tariffs. Because they’re such a stupid economic move, the stock market declines, usually by a LOT. Then he suspends the tariffs and the stock market comes back. MEANWHILE, he and his insider cronies have had a tremendous buying opportunity. Buy low, sell high. And he can do it over and over and over again.

He’s manipulating the market to his own advantage. Insider trading. Um, how else can I put this? Oh, yeah, MORE crime! What a guy. Yes, the back and forth of it IS doing serious harm to the economy but HE is making huge piles of money – and he doesn’t CARE if you suffer while he does so. In fact, I suspect he kind of likes that.

This is, essentially, the same dishonorable tactic he uses when he bankrupts businesses. Sometimes, I get tired all over listening to people say he’s a terrible businessman because he has bankrupted so many businesses. He has, too. But they were never “failures,” in any traditional sense. He KNOWS those businesses are going under even as he sets them up. He talks them up, brags about how great they’re going to be. But it’s all gaslighting.

He puts himself in a position to profit, personally, from the business while it exists and milks the thing dry. He can also borrow against the business – or he could, until US banks caught on to his scheme and stopped lending to him. That’s when he allegedly became a Russian agent. The Russians still provided him money so he’s literally in their (that is, Putin’s) pocket. Yes, setting up businesses one KNOWS will fail destabilizes local economies and harms all of the people associated with the business – except him. HE makes huge piles of money from each grift and he doesn’t CARE if you suffer while he does so.

If he was even half as competent as a President as he is as a thieving grifter, he might not be the totally useless waste of flesh he is…

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I’m beginning to feel a little embarrassed by my fellow Americans. People keep watching 47 take some new, destructive action and they ask, out loud, “Doesn’t he understand?” Yes. He does. It’s the whole point.

For decades, the GOP had been pushing the false idea that governments don’t work. This claim, too, is gaslighting. The biggest problem they’ve had the whole time is that governments DO work. There was only one option, right? Sabotage the government. So, that’s what they did.

Every tax cut for the rich starves the government of resources it needs to do it’s job. That’s not a surprise, nor is it a secret. It’s the plan. All these firings? The criminal maladministration isn’t finding ANY fraud, waste, nor abuse. They’re just firing people. THAT will have the effect of rendering government less effective. THEN, they’re going to hammer on the idea that governments can’t work, point to the struggling agencies, the agencies they sabotaged for the purpose, and say, “See?”

It’s a two-prong gain for the greedy. One, they get to run an openly criminal authoritarian regime (have you noticed?) and two, they’ll get to privatize everything. For clarity, “privatize” is corporate-speak for “steal even more.” To the best of my knowledge there isn’t a single sector, not ONE, where the US has privatized operations and the operation because cheaper NOR more efficient. Instead, it becomes more expensive and LESS effective – but some greed-head gets to shave off some money and stick it in his pockets.

This is the pinnacle of the so-called “unfettered free market.” You can buy anything you can afford – even citizenship. Sadly, most of us won’t be able to “afford” anything. For the masses, life becomes a daily, desperate struggle for survival. A very small group of people own everything. There’s a small middle class that lives to serve that hyper wealthy group. Then there’s everybody else.

It’s weird I have to go to this level of detail, but think about it. If you’re not in the hyper-wealthy crowd and you don’t get into the tiny, wealthy-serving middle class, where does that leave YOU?

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Hey, take a quick lesson from Elon. Joe Six-pack is constantly told that CEOs get paid so much because they’re so completely and totally vital to the operation of whichever organization they front. I have long-since doubted that, most especially when one gets to larger and larger organizations. I say, the bigger the corporation, the less important the CEO. And claims to the contrary? By now, surely you’ve picked up on my theme.
“Yeah, yeah… gaslighting. And don’t call me ‘Shirley.'” (Sorry…)

Oh, you doubt me? Elon has been living around the White House. He’s the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, the Boring Company, and the Brand X web site. He’s nowhere near them. He’s ignoring them, even as sales and stock prices are plummeting, users are fleeing, his rockets are exploding, and his Starlink satellites fall from the sky, damaging the Ozone layer.

Quick question: How important is the CEO if he never has to even show his face around the company? So… why are they paid so effing much, again?

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If it ain’t Clarence “Pay Me” Thomas, it’s Samuel “Gimme, gimme” Alito. In this case, it’s Alito. The Roberts Supremely Kangaroo Court recently made a ruling that – you might want to sit down for this – their ruling was in keeping with the Constitution! I didn’t know they were CAPABLE OF that, let alone that they might. Basically, they ruled that the money being illegally held by 47’s criminal enterprise had to be released to pay contractors for work already completed.

9-0 decision, right? I mean, it’s a no-brainer. The Constitution clearly gives CONGRESS the power of the purse in what’s left of our government. The House looks over spending, the Senate looks over the spending, they come to an agreement and authorize the money. 535 people look at it and make the decision – all in keeping with the Constitution. But, no. Somehow, four of the “justices” pretend to think Donny has the power to just… keep the money if he wants to.

“Does a single district court judge who likely lacks jurisdiction have the unchecked power to compel the Government of the United States to pay out (and probably lose forever) 2 billion taxpayer dollars?” “Gimme, gimme” Alito wrote in his dissent. “The answer to that question should be an emphatic “No.” But a majority of this court apparently thinks otherwise. I am stunned.”

You’re not “stunned,” Sam. You’re corrupt. That’s different. Oh, AND? (Say it with me) You’re gaslighting! The “single district court judge” didn’t authorize the money, Congress did. The single district court judge just ruled that contracts must be honored. The work was completed, the money should be paid. Alito HATES that. (If you’re a contractor and Alito wants to hire you to do work, take note. He doesn’t believe in paying what he owes any more than Donny does. Get the money up front. ALL of it…)

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I guess you won’t be any more surprised than I was – that is, not at all – to learn that the so-called “reporter,” Brian Glenn, who attacked Zelensky for not wearing a suit in the Oval – completely ignoring Muck’s sartorial choices – is actually a paid shill for 47. Technically, I think this one is more ‘hypocrisy’ than gaslighting. We’ll call it ‘gaslighting adjacent.’

He has even confessed as much, though he tried to pretend that the payments were to cover the cost of cameras and such. He pointed to a row of them and said, “Who pays for them?” In a proper journalistic environment, the interviewing company pays for them, not the person being interviewed. But he needed an “explanation” and that’s the best he could come up with. Hey, he’s MTG’s boyfriend, too. How could he be much more than a Medulla Oblingata and very little else and continue to hang around such a mental disappointment?

So AP didn’t get to come in to the Oval for that “meeting” with Zelenskyy. Neither did Reuters. But 47 DID allow a Russian TASS agent AND a paid shill. I thought he had promised to “drain the swamp,” not create new swamp monsters. Hey, you don’t suppose he was gaslighting, do you? When would he never do that?

It’s Only Thursday…

by MyBaconPress

I’ll tell you what’s weird. I received… no, that’s not right. My ESTATE received a notice from the VA expressing their condolences on my passing. “Wait,” I wondered, “am I dead?” I don’t actually FEEL dead, you know? Well, no, nobody knows what it “feels” like to be dead except dead people and I’m not one. (Unless this is a ‘Sixth Sense’ kind of deal and I just don’t KNOW I’m dead.)

Possible spoiler alert: if I AM dead, then I can tell you that when you’re dead, you’ll feel just like you did when you were alive. Sadly, that means all the same parts that hurt right now will continue to hurt. That’s not better. But how cool is it that I can still type on my computer? Or can I? Can you read this?

I received my “bummer for you” notice from the VA on a Saturday. They weren’t around on the weekend so I had to wait until Monday morning to contact them. It seems they were willing to accept me talking to them on the telephone – ostensibly live – as evidence I’m not dead yet, which I appreciate. I’m assured the whole mess will be straightened out soon, but in at least one official computer, I spent a couple of days “dead.” Now I’m alive again. Resurrected, in a manner of speaking.

What do you know? Jesus ISN’T the only one to pull off that trick! You’all might want to be impressed NOW and avoid the rush…

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Okay, back to the swamp. Sorry. I thought to myself, “Why would I watch? He’s going to lie – just, make things up out of whole cloth – and claim great successes he has yet to accomplish and never will.” I should have trusted my instincts. But I tuned in for a bit. Guess what? He lied. He just made things up out of whole cloth. He claimed great success but has actually only produced damage and suffering. In fairness, his goal is damage and suffering so, I guess, technically, that IS “success.” It’s just not the kind of “success” any decent human being would aspire to, right?

I DID get to see Rep. Al Green escorted out for speaking the truth. He addressed the dumbass lie that The Felon has a “mandate.” That’s a sin in Washington DC these days, speaking the truth. I’m sure the right is all aflutter about Green doing it during the speech. They’ll conveniently forget the way that behavior became “acceptable” during the Obama administration when GOPrick Joe Wilson of South Carolina shouted “You lie!” during Obama’s State of the Union. MTG then copied the behavior during a Biden address. NOW it’s an outrage?

One of 47’s falsehoods was about “trans” mice. He claimed someone was using millions of dollars to switch the sexes of mice. The problem? The word he saw was “transgenic,” not “transsexual.” Transgenic means the mice are genetically modified to accept human illnesses for research purposes. Now, I’ll tell you the truth, I didn’t know “transgenic,” either. But I guarantee you, I would have at least looked it up before I stood up in front of the world and made an utter fool of myself berating the misuse of money to change mouse sexes. I’d bet a DOLLAR there’s a dictionary in the White House. (I might lose that. Donny might have determined that dictionaries are a liberal plot and demanded their removal…)

President Musk and sub-president trump HAVE initiated their assault on Social Security. For clarity, that’s not just “liberal” Social Security. Are you a bright red MAGA, proudly wearing the mark of the beast on your forehead, supporting Trump in all things at all times, showing up at rallies, buying busloads of cheap, foreign-made crap The Felon hawks at every opportunity? Yeah, he’s coming for YOUR Social Security, too.

He DID say, twice that I heard, that Elon Musk is in charge of the illegal DOGE. I’m guessing the lawyers jumped all over that since it directly contradicts a court filing the government made. I THINK lying to courts is still a bad thing and now, with 47’s help, the court KNOWS the maladministration lied…

And have you HEARD his “idea” about the ‘Gold Card?’ Yeah, that will be for SALE! “Oh, you want to come to the United States and be a citizen? Here fill out this paperwork. Get yourself a lawyer because it’s a fuckin’ labyrinth of confusion and potential missteps that will cost you time and money and can easily derail success. Set aside the next couple of years of your life because you’ll need to be going back and forth from the embassy to answer questions, or provide more detail. No, it isn’t easy coming to America but it’s important that we screen every applicant to minutest detail to ensure only decent people get in…”

“OR, you could just pay Donald Trump $5 million dollars for a ‘Gold Card’ and walk right in. Oh, a Gold Card? Yeah, that’s a Green Card PLUS! YOU get immediate, unscreened access to the United States, PLUS Trump gets $5 million of your dollars. It’s a win-win.” And what could go wrong?

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For today, many Republicans are publicly disavowing The First Felon’s ridiculous claim that Ukraine invaded Russia. I expect they’ll be brought to heel soon, but for now, they’re accidentally expressing truth. The latest I’ve seen is H.R. McMaster. You remember McMaster. He was 47’s National Security Advisor during Trump’s first failed efforts in the White House. He knows Donny personally and better than you do.

McMaster did an interview with ’60 Minutes’ where he said, “Vladimir Putin couldn’t be happier, because what he sees is all of the pressure on Zelensky, all of the pressure on Ukraine and no pressure on him.” McMaster noted that Putin is a “master manipulator” with a deep understanding of how to work Trump to Russia’s advantage.

“He appeals to President Trump’s sense of aggrievement,” McMaster said. “And he’s been very successful at it because he’s a master manipulator and one of the best liars in the world.” (Editors note: I think Trump sees Putin as a role model.)

47 handled it with his usual aplomb and posted this to his failing social media platform late Sunday, “H.R. MCMASTER IS A WEAK AND TOTALLY INEFFECTIVE LOSER!” I don’t know. It seems like projection, to me, but it’s also stupid. If he’s an “INEFFECTIVE LOSER,” does that mean he’s ineffective at being a loser? Does that mean he’s a winner? If he wants lessons at being an effective loser, he should talk to the Democrats. Those idiots lose everything!

Then he added a separate post: “We should spend less time worrying about Putin, and more time worrying about migrant rape gangs, drug lords, murderers, and people from mental institutions entering our Country—So that we don’t end up like Europe!”

There he goes again, protecting Putin and working hard to distract the morally defective MAGA faithful by talking about all the scary, scary things they spend their days, nights, weekends, and vacations being terrified about, but never, ever see with their own eyes and in real life. Rape gangs. What a buffoon.

Donald J. Trump has humbled and humiliated the United States of America on the world stage. He’s an embarrassment and he has reduced the nation to a laughing stock. “…so we don’t end up like Europe!” I would MUCH rather end up like 2025 Europe than the 1939 Germany he’s working so hard to make us.

I’ll tell you this: I think the very FIRST person President Musk should send to Mars is Trump and Musk should go with him to make sure he gets there safely. Oh, no return trip? Bummer…

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I strongly suspect that 47’s “path to peace” for Ukraine is for Ukraine to surrender the land Russia has stolen – and probably whatever other land Putin wants. I suspect that is the real reason that conversation became so testy the other day. I mean, obviously, it was an ambush, but it would have helped to have Zelenskyy in a state of mind to defend Ukraine’s situation and discussing the possibility of just giving away the store to Putin in private before the press came in would be just the ticket.

Now Donny (by which I mean Putin) has suspended arms deliveries from the US to Ukraine. According to Reuters, the Kremlin says suspending military aid is the best hope for peace in Ukraine. So there you go. The First Felon has violated a treaty in which the US promised to defend Ukraine and turned his back on people fighting to defend themselves from an illegal invasion AND made Putin giddy by weakening Putin’s opponent.

Look, I know nobody is going to do anything about it, but how does that NOT make Trump a traitor, offering aid and comfort to an adversary? I have LONG since understood Trump is a Russian asset, handled personally by Putin. I’m not exactly surprised whenever 47 does things intended to help Russia. But I AM disappointed every time…

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Did you know that The Felon took all the boxes retrieved from the FBI Mar-a-Lardo search back to Mar-a-Lardo? It makes it so much easier for his Russian friends to come in an get copies…

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Wow, two of the corrupt kangaroos joined the rational few to order The Felon to pay the money already spent by USAID contractors. 47, in his normal style, intended to just stiff them. In a 5-4 ruling, the Way High Court said he has to pay. John Roberts and Amy Coney-Barrett did the right thing. Bought and paid for Clarence “give me more” Thomas, Samuel “I’m gettin’ mine” Alito, Neil “Luv my stolen seat” Gorsuch, and Brett “I like beer” Kavanaugh continue to suck.

I’ll tell you this: It always surprises me when this horribly corrupt court does the right thing for some reason…