donald-trump

The Pampered Progeny of Privilege…

by MyBaconPress

Kamala went on Stephen Colbert’s ‘The Late Show’ and had a beer with Stephen. Trump’s campaign went nuts. A Trump campaign spokesperson, Steven Chung, said, “Kamala drinks a beer to show Americans how relatable she is, but she ends up looking like an out-of-touch elitist trying to gaslight everyone into thinking she’s one of them.”

Kamala, who was raised middle class, is “trying to gaslight everyone into thinking she’s one of them” but the pampered progeny of privilege, the guy raised in wealth and luxury and who was given huge piles of money before his third birthday, that guy, is the REAL “down-to-Earth” guy to whom every working man should relate? Yeah, that makes sense…

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Can we all just agree, please, that Marjorie Taylor Greene is NOT a smart person? I mean, falling for standard MAGA mumbo-jumbo is one thing, but MTG falls for some of the weirdest conspiracy theories one can imagine. Jewish space lasers, anyone?

And now, she’s certain that “they” can control the weather. No word on who this mysterious “they” might be, but take her word for it, “they” are probably Democrats. She’s pretending Hurricane Helene hit the area it hit because Democrats wanted the storm to hit there to make it harder for Republicans to vote. Please do NOT inquire as to how Democrats in the area remain unaffected and free to vote as they wish. That would be VERY inconvenient. Otherwise, that storm makes it harder for EVERYONE to vote and it really loses steam as “an attack on cons.”

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Even when I want to, it’s just impossible to NOT write about Trump. That guy is just unbelievable. He’s out on the campaign trail, pretending that FEMA money has been commandeered by the Biden administration and is being misused to house illegal immigrants.

As it happens? That’s not true, BUT…he didn’t just make it up. What he DID, was…remember. He remembered when HIS maladministration stole FEMA money to house undocumented immigrants. Then, as is standard in MAGA land, he simply accuses the other side of doing the thing HE actually did.

Dear MAGA: If you think stealing FEMA money and using it to house illegal immigrants is a terrible thing that warrants withholding one’s vote from the offending candidate, remember that it was TRUMP who did that, not Kamala. If you were willing to not vote for Kamala because you thought she did that, then you shouldn’t vote for Trump because we all KNOW he did that…

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Trump spends a lot of time on the campaign trail pretending he gives a rats tail about the American people. He commonly says that he always puts the American people first. Does he, though? Let’s take a closer look at just one opportunity to put the American people first and how Trump chose to address that opportunity.

“I don’t want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you.” That’s a quote from Russia’s Putin to Trump, AFTER the traitor Trump gave him several Covid-19 testing machines, according to Bob Woodward’s new book. These aren’t just the test kits the government sent to everybody for free. These were special machines that could detect Covid in a matter of minutes.

At the time, the US was struggling to meet demands for equipment to battle the illness. Trump sent a bunch to Russia, to Putin. Hey, what are friends for? So, yet another example of Trump saying he puts America first, then actually putting America second, prioritizing the needs of Americans AFTER the needs of his buddy Putin. As it happens, actions speak louder than words. And MAGA wants to send this guy back to the White House? I wonder what favors he’ll do for Putin in the second round?

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Trump gets invited to participate in an interview on ’60 Minutes’ and, initially, agrees. Then he finds out the interviewer, Leslie Stahl, intends to ask real questions that require real answers. Of course, that’s unacceptable to him, so he leaves. No ’60 Minutes’ interview if the questions are going to be hard – or fact-checked. I ask again, what does it say about a person who complains about being fact-checked? If one is dealing in facts, checking shouldn’t be an issue.

As it happens, Kamala was also invited to participate in an interview on ’60 Minutes’ and, being braver, smarter, and stronger than Trump, agrees – and then sits through the thing, answering the questions about the border, her economic plan, and charges that she has changed some positions.

So…quick review: Trump agreed, then chickened out and walked away, mostly because the interviewer was focused on the truth. Harris agreed and sat through the whole thing. So, of course, Trump attacked her for the worst interview ever. He insisted she didn’t know what she was talking about. He thinks his lies about the administration not helping victims of Helene will cause voters to vote against her but I suspect the reality of the help that has actually arrived, despite Trump’s claims to the contrary, might even HELP her in the campaign.

Kamala did what Trump couldn’t do. She sat for an interview that was NOT made up of softball questions and stayed through the whole thing. Trump cowered and ran – so naturally, he has to attack her. It’s just his way. He doesn’t DO anything. He just pretends. And MAGA, dutifully, pretends with him. It’s really weird…

Nobody Lies Like A Conman…

by MyBaconPress

“The rules were, you guys weren’t going to fact-check.” Oops. That was a Vance misstep in the debate. Not to think it, but to say it out loud. How does “you guys weren’t going to fact-check” NOT translate to “I need to lie to get anywhere?”

Of course, he doesn’t care about lying. He said in an interview that if he has to lie to get people talking, then he’ll lie. Except, won’t that have people talking about the lie or what an effing liar you are? How is that beneficial to the political discourse? I mean, I can see how it benefits YOU, personally, but how does it…?

Oh, I see. Never mind…

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Trump is STILL obsessed with trying to prove nobody leaves his rallies, even as video floats around of people leaving his rallies and reporters interview people leaving the rallies to find out WHY they’re leaving the rallies early. Primarily, the interviews suggest people leave because Trump is usually late to take the stage, they don’t like the length of his speeches, and they don’t like his rhetoric. (That’s from the interviews.)

One of Trump’s spokespeople, Karoline Leavitt, claimed it’s not true that people leave and that Trump’s rallies are the “biggest political events in history!” That’s yet another example of MAGA not knowing their history. Hitler’s Nuremberg rallies, anyone? Anyone?

Isn’t it interesting that the two most reviled people in history, Hitler and now Trump, are BOTH so obsessed with having the biggest rallies? They BOTH insist that nobody should love anybody more. “Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” indeed…

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Trump says the GOP is now the party of the working man and unions? Trump’s plan includes tax cuts for the rich and higher cost of living for the working man. How is that the “party of the working man?” Trump was giving a speech at one of his rallies and he said, out loud, to working people, that he hated to pay overtime, so he just didn’t pay it. Sure, he owed it according to the law. He just didn’t pay it – because he didn’t WANT to. HE said it, not me.

He was also quite specific that he doesn’t use union workers if he can avoid it. How is that the party of unions? That STILL seems anti-union, to me. You know what? I think I’m going to believe the plans they have written down (Project 2025 and Agenda 47) and not the words (or other sounds) coming out of his mouth. He’s a known liar. But he has a playbook and, like Tim Walz pointed out, one doesn’t make a playbook if they don’t plan to use it.

He’s just trying to tell you what he thinks you want to hear. He’s been doing that a lot recently. He’s promising anything, everything to everybody in an effort to convince them he’s on their side. He’s not on anybody’s “side” but his own. He’s not trying to help, he’s trying to deceive…

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Okay, I have a question. How come Israel is the only group involved who “has a right to defend themselves?” Israel was attacked on October 7, but they weren’t “innocent victims.” Israel has been engaging in Micro-aggression since it’s founding, what with all the settlements, legal and otherwise being quickly built and occupied.

But still, the logic just doesn’t track. Hamas attacks Israel, Israel has the “right to defend itself.” Israel attacked Syria but the warning was, don’t strike back because Israel has the right to defend itself. Israel attacked Iran but the warning was, don’t strike back because Israel has the right to defend itself.

If Israel has the right to defend itself because Hamas turned to weaponry, doesn’t Syria have the right to defend itself because Israel turned to weaponry? Doesn’t Iran have the right to defend itself after Israel turned to weaponry? Israel seems to be the only group with a right to defend itself because it has a big, bad bully of a bodyguard in the US.

Israel and the US are NOT on solid moral ground in this whole thing. Setting up an obvious double-standard isn’t going to convince me of the righteousness of their cause. What a freakin’ mess…

Joffrey Knows No Bounds…

by MyBaconPress

I realized last night that I’m watching the battle between Donald Trump and Jack Smith play out like I watched ‘Game of Thrones.’ Two great houses, each working to bring down the other. One makes a move, the other makes a counter-move. Each week, we, the viewers, tune in to see this week’s plot twists. This version doesn’t have nearly as much nudity but, having seen the cast fully dressed, I think that’s probably preferable in the vast majority of cases.

House Trump is known to be scoundrels, criminals and layabouts, wreaking havoc on the world around them and they command a huge army. They represent Pride, Envy, Greed, Lust, Avarice, Wrath, and Sloth. The patriarch of House Trump has committed numerous egregious crimes and must be held accountable. In an effort to avoid the dungeon, the patriarch of House Trump is attempting to usurp the throne.

House Smith is honorable, faithful, and true. They enforce laws of the king by chasing and prosecuting wrong-doers, and they command a huge army of their own. The patriarch of House Smith is a MASTER of the law. He and his house understand the details on a level most houses can simply wonder at. It has been the responsibility of House Smith to protect the realm since it’s founding.

When the story opened, House Trump was caught, red-handed, committing a wide variety of crimes. House Smith stood up to pursue justice, but House Trump was in a strong position. With so much power under their control, House Trump had quietly slipped loyalists into positions expected to help the House repel any efforts of the forces of good. Now, House Trump has loyal followers everywhere. Many are in disguise and one doesn’t know from where they’ll jump out until they jump out.

House Smith relies on the processes and procedures they know, but find themselves constantly thwarted by House Trump allies. House Smith is unaware of the depth of corruption House Trump has already installed and finds themselves being stalled by the very people who are supposed to be supporting them. Many of the lower houses sworn and expected to support House Smith attack House Smith from the shadows. House Trump benefits. House Smith must constantly watch their backs.

Early in the season, House Trump had all of the advantages. House Smith made moves to bring House Trump to justice but House Trump called in favors and turned to lackeys who stood up for House Trump. Several skirmishes have taken place but none have been decisive. The action has been the behind the scenes stuff, the plotting of the primary characters.

In a recent episode, with the help of a flagrant betrayal of House Smith from another great House, House Roberts, House Trump had thought they had secured a victory that would lead them to their goal, the throne. It appeared as if, after a stunningly unexpected flanking move by House Roberts, House Smith had no army left. The attack had seemed devastating. (Hell, I thought the show was over.)

If the patriarch of House Trump can make it to the throne, he can eliminate House Smith once and for all. As king, the risk to his house will be behind him and nothing can stop him from his rampage of destruction and pillaging. Wildfire for all. The damage to the realm will be unimaginable. But first, he has to win the conclave to reach the coronation and there is a FAR more popular claimant to the throne, House Harris. There are rumors the current king, House Biden is directing House Smith from the shadows in support of House Harris but there’s no evidence to support that specious claim.

The House Trump patriarch CAN achieve his goal through legal means, but he needs to convince people he will be a king of the people, despite all of the evidence to the contrary. Many have flocked to his banner, taken in by stories he tells them. He promises every house will have a dragon and a barrel of gold, and all things will be perfect – and a huge number of the small folk actually believe him. They simply ignore his penchant for flaying people alive. His stories make them feel good.

Already, he has a coup built in, just in case the first, legal way fails. Some of his henchmen have already cleared the way for him, should it become necessary, and House Roberts had managed to put his legal troubles on hold, making it easier to deceive the people who believe in House Trump. Can House Trump get to the conclave and, through deception and machinations, win it?

Meanwhile, House Smith has been working behind the scenes trying to get some upper hand. Everywhere they turn, they find House Trump loyalists standing in their way. People who SHOULD BE supporting House Smith are inexplicably supporting House Trump, often covertly. House Smith has been scattered to the winds and nobody knows for sure who’s still alive and who has been killed. For much of the season, House Smith has seemed in disarray. The House Trump loyalists will do anything, sacrifice anything, to help House Trump in every way they can. Nevertheless, the law persists and House Smith has mastery House Trump lacks.

In this week’s episode, we saw House Smith make a masterful move in the battle. Nobody saw it coming. As the conclave approaches, House Trump was smugly ignoring potential legal hurdles because well-placed loyalists (House Roberts) had interfered with House Smith efforts. But House Smith doesn’t give up. Even as House Smith faces ruin, they keep their honor and they have been working behind the scenes to come up with a new challenge to the legitimacy of House Trump’s claim to the throne.

This week, House Smith unveiled their new challenge, a new indictment, free of the details House Trump’s Special Court had tried to kill. House Smith can still go after House Trump because the rules the Special Court set weren’t as strong as they had hoped and House Smith is very, very good at what they do. It was a major blow to House Trump but only moves forward if House Trump loses the conclave.

House Trump was very upset this information has been revealed. House Trump fears that if people realize the truth about who and how they are, some of that support may abandon them. They won’t. The lower houses supporting House Trump are there out of fear or obligation, not loyalty. Knowing their liege is a deceitful troll won’t move them because it can’t. If they take their banners elsewhere and then House Trump wins, House Trump will seek revenge and those lower Houses fear destruction.

Meanwhile, House Smith suspects that SOME House Trump supporters are being forced to bend the knee to House Trump against their will. They believe that if House Smith can make one decisive move, some of those supporters will fall away, happy for the opportunity to be free of House Trump. If it looks like House Smith has a fighting chance after all, some of those Houses might even return to the banner of House Smith.

We’re waiting for next week’s episode to find out how House Trump responds to House Smith’s latest move, but we know the show is set up as a limited series set to run through January so whatever plot twist is introduced, it won’t be a final move. It can’t be. They’ve got to fill hours between now and January. This season ends with the conclave and they go straight into the next season right away, the after battle. The conclave is important but the after battle is where the action is expected to be.

So far, it’s been very exciting, even stressful. EVERYBODY is talking about it. Everybody has an opinion. SO MUCH is riding on the outcome. The viewers know, House Smith isn’t guaranteed to win this thing. The writers seem to take an almost gleeful joy in NOT giving the audience anything they expect at any time. The situation is rigged against House Smith but not completely overwhelming. House Trump got a head-start, giving them an early advantage.

House Smith has appeared on it’s heals more than once, but keeps battling back. House Trump has tremendous advantages right now, but neither side can get a true upper hand. If House Smith wins, the land is saved. If House Trump wins, we can only hope for mercy from the Old Gods and the New. Most of the nation is pulling for House Smith, but House Trump commands a huge army.

If House Trump wins, the nation falls into crime and disrepair. Our status as a world leader is over and we become a world pariah and laughing stock. The patriarch of House Trump assumes the throne, and like King Joffrey before him, will be free to do anything he wants. The patriarch of House Smith ends with his head on a pike but it’s not just House Smith that loses. It’s everybody. EVERY House, even those who have bent the knee. Joffrey knows no bounds and believes loyalty is a one-way street. It’s really that simple.

Debatable…

by MyBaconPress

At this point, considering Trump too demented to be President is kind of doing the guy a favor. I mean, a Purge? Look, either the guy is lost and doesn’t know what he’s saying, or he’s not and he knows exactly what he’s saying. Which is worse, in this case? Yeah, I know, he never said the word, ‘Purge.’ He just described it, right?

He was talking about shoplifting and how bad it’s getting. He was pretending that shoplifting is a Democrat thing, the left supports it. In fact, during a part where he was pretending the left allegedly prevents police from enforcing the law, he shared his plan to “end it.” “You know, if you had one day, like one real rough, nasty day, one rough hour, and I mean real rough, the word will get out and it will end immediately. End immediately. You know, it’ll end immediately.”

Not exactly a ‘Purge,’ since it wouldn’t be a completely lawless day. It would be more like Germany’s infamous ‘Kristallnacht,’ where Nazi mobs attacked Jews in Hitler’s Germany. One night. One really rough, nasty night, and I mean real rough. And the word got out.

He seems to get all of his favorite ideas from some of the very worst people, doesn’t he?

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Can we talk about Tay for a minute? Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala. She’s an American. She has the right to choose the candidate she prefers. She prefers Harris. I don’t know if she would have said anything, but Trump started pretending she was endorsing him. HE kind of forced HER into announcing her support for Harris. But MAGA didn’t like it.

I saw video of a guy who bid $4,000 on a guitar at an auction that was originally reported to have been signed by Taylor. I’m not sure what the event was, because when the man went up to get his guitar, the auctioneer handed him the guitar and a hammer, which the guy then used to smash a few holes in the guitar. $4,000. Who pays $4,000 dollars to buy a guitar and then smashes it? The mind of MAGA, that’s who. (Actually, as a MAGA, the guy probably just won’t pay. He’ll bitch that the guitar was “broken…”)

As it happens, the guitar was NOT signed by Taylor. Hell, it was never owned nor even played by Taylor Swift as far as anybody knows. The person who donated the guitar included a CD cover that HAD been signed by Swift, but there’s no traceable provenance for the guitar that I’ve heard about. But some guy out there spent $4,000 to destroy a guitar just because someone associated Taylor Swift’s name to it. The effing guitar didn’t endorse Kamala! Why the hell did the guitar have to die? (Full disclosure, it could STILL turn out to be hers. There’s just no evidence at this point.)

So now there’s a story out there in the media that Taylor Swift lost supporters after endorsing Kamala. The story is trying to convince people she’s really suffering for her choice. Oh, she lost 2 million Spotify users? According to the article, that “only” leaves her with 91.9 million. She must be in a panic.

More likely, she doesn’t care. For one thing, I would guess the numbers ebb and flow anyway. For another, she, perhaps, remembers the big MAGA “boycott” of the NFL after Colin Kaepernick expressed an opinion. The MAGA boycott didn’t last long. They LIKE football. The people who got all pissy in the moment probably like Taylor’s music, even if they disagree with her politics. They’ll be back. I’d guess Taylor thinks that, too…

Oh, yeah, she has earned over a billion dollars – FAR more than Trump ever earned – or even grifted. I’m guessing if she lost her entire fan base overnight somehow, she’d be fine. But DAMN, MAGA desperately wishes they had a celebrity with a tenth of Swift’s stature to endorse Trump. Instead, he gets Kid Rock, Scott Baio, and Cameron Kirk. (Who? Exactly…)

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I’ll say this for Vance, if you give him several weeks to practice speaking, standing, and looking, he does quite well. I don’t know how well Vance did to advance the Trump/Vance ticket but he seemed to help his own prospects for a 2028 run. Word is, Trump doesn’t LIKE Vance and regrets choosing him for a running mate. How do you think he’s going to feel, now that Vance out-performed him on the debate stage?

Vance stayed focused, something Trump simply cannot do. Vance looked calm, something Trump definitely did NOT do during the Harris/Trump debate. Vance stayed on message, yet another failing of the would-dictator. Vance just did better than Trump. That, I’m sure, will irritate Trump to no end. No, not like “small crowds,” but a LOT.

Vance stood up there like a pro. I think he shed much of the ‘clumsy oaf’ characterization he’s been struggling against since trying to make small talk with a stranger in a doughnut shop like a real human. He just didn’t seem to have any actual answers, though. Lots of quick-time, double-talk to get around questions, but nothing responsive.

Q: “For example, would you deport parents who have entered the U.S. illegally and separate them from any of their children who were born on U.S. soil?”
JDV: “Blah, blah, blah. Fentanyl. Blah, blah. Opioid addiction. Blah de blah de blah, blah…”
Q: “Senator, the question was, will you separate parents from their children, even if their kids are U.S. citizens?
JDV: “Blah, blah, blah. Parents who can’t afford health care. Blah, blah. Schools that are overwhelmed. Blah de blah de blah, blah…”

“DID he (Donald Trump) lose the 2020 election?”
“Tim, I’m focused on the future, did Kamala Harris censor Americans from speaking their mind in the wake of the 2020 Covid situation?”
See what he did, there? “Focused on the future” to avoid answering the question (he used that phrase twice to duck the same question) but focuses on the SAME past in response. “I’m not going to answer a question about 2020 but what about 2020?

When asked about conservative dreams to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) but maintain protections for pre-existing conditions, Vance said, “Well, look, we currently have laws and regulations in place, in place right now that protect people with preexisting conditions.”
Yeah, the ACA. The one you want to repeal…

My final take? If you’re MAGA? Vance won. If you’re not MAGA? Walz won. Not one mind was changed and no new insights into either candidate. Debates are kind of dumb. We all know it going in. Questions, sometimes good questions, will be asked but they rarely get answered by cons. “I’ll get back to that important question, but first…”

Yeah, screw you. Answer the question, THEN make your efforts to “correct” (read: distort) the record. Vance largely stuck to (delusional) talking points (lies) on the right. Walz was different than the Tim I’ve seen on the campaign trail, and I like campaign trail Walz better than debate Walz, but at least he had answers to questions…

Reality Can Be Very Confusing…

by MyBaconPress

I guess he just jumped right to the heart of the matter, eh? Trump was at a rally in Wisconsin. He said this – out loud, “Kamala is mentally impaired. If a Republican did what she did, that Republican would be impeached and removed from office, and rightfully so, for high crimes and misdemeanors.” That’s a bit heavy on the assertion with NO detail. There is NEVER any detail from Trump. It’s always just the big charge. But he kept talking, “Joe Biden became mentally impaired. Kamala was born that way. She was born that way. And if you think about it, only a mentally disabled person could have allowed this to happen to our country.”

Now, even Republicans are disavowing the comments. They (correctly) think he should stick to the issues. Then, they (insanely) pretend that “The issues are, Donald Trump fixed it once. They broke it. He’s going to fix it again. That – those are the issues.” I’ve got to give them one out of two, there. Yes, they SHOULD stick to the issues but, no, Donald Trump never fixed anything, anywhere, at any time.

Dear MAGA, you’re asking us to believe one of your fever dreams. The fact is, Trump enjoyed the benefits of Obama’s economic policy before allowing the whole thing to crumble under his delusional mismanagement of Covid-19. That’s what happened. You can tell another story all you want. But that’s what happened…

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Yesterday, I wrote about JD Vance going to a restaurant and being denied entry because they didn’t want a “campaign event” or cameras in the place. Cons knew he was coming. They had filled the place up, made orders for food, and they were waiting for Vance. When Vance was denied entry, they cancelled their orders and went out and held their little mini rally in the parking lot. It’s still a little confusing, though. If the cons knew Vance was planning to be there, why didn’t Primanti Bros, the restaurant in question?

They didn’t want a campaign event? That doesn’t square with when Kamala stopped in. It was a little over a month ago. Nobody blocked her. She met with supporters inside the restaurant and cameras recorded the whole thing. She worked the crowd and glad-handed for a little while, then moved on. That seems like a campaign event, to me. Apparently, Primanti Bros. didn’t want a conservative campaign event.

Listen, given the toxic environment that IS the GOP, these days, I don’t blame them…

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Yet another of the people Trump worked closely with has commented on who and how Trump is. The fact is, the people who work with him and know him best, think he sucks. They can’t put up an image and desperately cling to it, like most of MAGA does on a day to day basis. They know, from direct experience, who Trump really is. And yet? They still don’t seem to get it.

Ty Cobb, a one-time lawyer in the Trump White House, has said he thinks Trump is “a deeply wounded narcissist.” Someone asked him about the GOP scheme to simply steal the election should Trump not win. Cobb said he didn’t think the GOP could come up with the goods, legally speaking, necessary to make the case of election fraud. He said, “the one thing they need in court is evidence. They didn’t have any last time and they’re unlikely to have any this time.”

In one sense, of course, Cobb is right. Trump never had any evidence of any impropriety in the 2020 election. He just made it up. His team tried to take their fever dreams into court and present them as evidence but court after court just threw the cases out. Over and over and over again. Over 60 times, in fact. They brought material they tried to produce as “evidence” that was SO lacking in support to SO many courts, SO many times, most of those lawyers are now being (or have been) disbarred.

Quick question: have you noticed a silly little thing like “no evidence whatsoever” to stop the wagging jaws of Trump or the faithful? No, me neither. As I reflect on it, the ONLY cases of voter fraud I remember hearing about were cons trying to stuff the ballot box with extra votes in one way or another. I suspect Cobb is right in his “diagnosis” of Trump’s mental condition but I think he might be just a bit optimistic about loyalty to reality in the case of elections.

Trump and MAGA don’t CARE that they’re lying. I mean, they KNOW it, they just don’t care. They honestly believe they’re doing it for the greater good. They honestly believe they can sin their way to purity. Hey, good luck with that.

I’ll tell you this: For some people, reality can be very confusing…

Stock Shifts…

by MyBaconPress

Largely, because most of what MAGA says is pure, unadulterated bunk, made up by some talking head to attract viewers, I dismiss pretty much everything MAGA says, pretty much all the time. They have absolutely NO credibility with me, whatsoever. But you know the saying, ‘Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.’ Every once in awhile, the cons bitch about something that we should all pay attention to because they’re right. I mean, even then, they don’t quite get to the meat of the matter because they always always, always excuse behavior on the right they condemn on the left. But at least they’re close.

They’ve got a good one going now and they’re right. There’s just no other way to put it, they’re right. The part they get right? Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul, sold $500,000 worth of Visa stock – literally months before a DOJ investigation was launched against Visa on antitrust charges. Coincidence? Maybe. I can’t prove otherwise. But tell the truth, when you see that the one-time speaker of the House made up to a million dollars on a stock sale just before the stock dropped because of legal woes the one time Speaker very likely knew about in advance, you DO say, “hmm,” right?

It got worse. When people asked about it, we were treated to weasel words by one of her spokespeople, “Speaker Pelosi does not own any stocks, and she has no prior knowledge or subsequent involvement in any transactions.” Right. It’s all Paul. They never talk about what goes on in Congress. He has no insider information and she doesn’t own stocks. That doesn’t pass the smell test and it really stinks.

The part MAGA misses, of course, is that insider trading is legal for Congress critters – unlike the rest of us – and they ALL do it, party notwithstanding. This isn’t a Pelosi problem, it’s a Congress problem.

Their story? Oh, we have to make laws and regulations about these companies and we have to manage our portfolios so how could we NOT use insider information? But trust us, we won’t – because we said so. And who can you trust more than a politician?

The true story? In my lifetime, it was common practice for Congress critters to put their portfolios into blind trusts, managed by people outside of their sphere who had no idea about pending legislation. Pols could work without regard to their portfolio position because they didn’t KNOW their portfolio position and the investments could happen cleanly because the people managing the funds were not privy to the insider news. See? It CAN be done. It just won’t be because who is going to walk away from all that beautiful, easy-to-get money?

But I’ll tell you this: it’s a practice that very definitely should be stopped, for Pelosi and everybody else…

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“Remember, there’s a hat that’s made that sells like crazy… Oh, there’s a fly, oh. I wonder where the fly came from? See, two years ago, I wouldn’t have had a fly up here. You’re changing rapidly. But we can’t take it any longer…” – Donald J. Trump

No word on who or what was “changing rapidly.” Apparently, he never finished the hat story. The fly distracted him and he was lost. A fly.

And MAGA just sees a genius who can do anything…

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Weird little JD Vance goes into a super market in a campaign event. He wanted to decry the cost of groceries like Harris and Biden are sitting in the Oval Office setting prices and not the corporate C teams in their various suites. He picked up some eggs and bitched about a dozen eggs costing $4.00. Yeah, that would suck.

It’s just my opinion, mind you, but I think he should have had his advance team take down the sign right behind him that showed a dozen eggs selling for $2.99. They ALSO might have pointed out to him that he was holding a flat of eggs (30), not a dozen (12). If the guy can’t tell the difference between twelve and thirty, the accounting of this once-great nation is in deep trouble. Then again, maybe THAT’S why these guys think everything is bad. They take any issue and randomly more than double the size.

So, his advance team sets up a speaking engagement in a restaurant in Pennsylvania. The place has plenty of patrons who came to hear JD speak. When JD showed up, one of the workers told them no cameras were allowed and they didn’t want a campaign event in their restaurant. So JD had to schmooze that crowd outside, in the parking lot. It has shades of Rudy setting up a presser at a landscaping company. You know, the one right next door to the porn shop. JD’s advance team needs a bit of a revamp, I’d say…

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Okay, before I go, big props to Bob Van Dillen this morning. I know, “Who?” Bob. Van Dillen. He’s a weather guy on a local Fox affiliate and he was doing a report, as they do for some reason, outside in the rain. He heard a woman calling for help. His team called 9-1-1 and tried to get back to their broadcast but she was scared, in danger, and still screaming. So? He cut off his report – and went and saved her. It was the right thing to do and he did it…

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Well, the Niners are off to a start. It’s a bad start, but it’s a start. They’re losing players to injury at a precipitous rate. It’s a rough time to be a Niner fan. I know, I know. Three games in is a little early to be raising the white flag, and I’m not. It’s just that this team has been together for awhile and consists of players who have been in the league for awhile and it’s starting to look like age is becoming a factor we fans had hoped wouldn’t start until next season.

At 1-2, the Niners are in dead last in their division. It sounds a bit worse than it is, since most teams in the NFC West are 1-2 as of this morning, but they really need a victory today…

Meltdowns…

by MyBaconPress

I know MAGA doesn’t get it. They just LOVE his shtick and they don’t care that he’s pretending about anything/everything. They actually believe he’s authentic. (<shakes head> Cult members…) But these days, when I see Trump at one of his rallies, he doesn’t seem to have anything of value to say. It’s all just whining and complaining, threatening and terrorizing, and bitch, bitch, bitch about his crowds. OMG, what IS it with him and crowds?

Have you ever noticed the people standing behind Trump at any of his rallies? Recently, they’ve been catching my eye for a weird reason. They are often in costume. I don’t mean they’re dressed up as Count Dracula or even decked out head to toe in Trump apparel but they appear behind Trump wearing hard hats and construction safety vests or some such? Really?

Are we really NOT supposed to notice that underneath those safety vests the people are wearing clothes decidedly NOT appropriate to construction work? Are we really supposed to believe those people just walked off the construction job – in their good clothes – to wander in to a Trump rally? I’ve heard those people are paid, anyway, so I guess dressing them up is just part of the job, like waving the signs…

He’s STILL obsessing over Kamala’s comment about people leaving his rallies, too. He claims, simultaneously, that the people leaving won’t get to take pictures with him AND that people don’t leave his rallies. “The people that you see leaving… because nobody ever leaves. And when they do, I finish up quick, believe me.” I mean, that’s both sides. Nobody leaves and when they do? Sounds like people leave.

And of COURSE people leave. Hundreds or thousands of people at a rally and nobody leaves? Nobody misjudges the time spent or plans for delays? I’ll tell you what, people save for Disneyland and then one of the kids vomits on Mickey’s shoes and they…what? That’s right, they leave. Right? Things happen. Just because people are leaving doesn’t mean they’re tired of Trump. But all the left has to do is pretend it’s because they’re tired of Trump and he can’t think of anything else. THAT, my friends, is one deeply damaged and fragile ego…

I also get a kick out of listening to him brag about talking without using a teleprompter – while standing in front of a teleprompter. He has one. He uses it. And when he doesn’t, he rambles like an insane person. He starts in with “I don’t need a teleprompter and windmills cause cancer and people eat pets and the world is in such bad shape you’re all already dead and only I can save you and isn’t the world mean to poor little me?” and his team is in back, cringing, shaking their heads, and saying to each other, “This was supposed to be a speech on the economy…”

I know that when MAGA watches him at a rally, they see something different than what the rest of the world sees. To quote Paul Simon, “A man sees what he wants to see and he disregards the rest (hmmm)” I’m a musician. I can’t leave out the “hmmm.” These days, he reminds me of the crazy person at the end of the movie who can’t hide it anymore and everyone finally sees. He’s like the Captain Queeg of American politics and the whole world is watching him melt down. Except MAGA. They just think he’s pretty…

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Look, the stock market is NOT the economy, but the 32nd record close of the Dow this year? Somebody is making money somewhere, right? Trump seems to think the Fed dropping the interest rate by a half point means the economy is struggling. As is usually the case among MAGA, it means exactly the opposite.

The economy was humming along strongly. TOO strongly. Eventually, that can lead to some serious problems – like inflation, so the Fed steps in and raises interest rates. It gets most of us to lay off the credit cards for awhile, slowing inflation. When things slow down just a bit, the rates start coming down again. But make no mistake, rates are coming down these days because of the strong position our economy is in, not because it’s struggling. (And please don’t tell me it’s not perfect. No doubt, and I agree, it’s not perfect. But I’m not interested in letting the perfect be the enemy of the good and I’ll take ‘strong, if not perfect…’)

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Oh, sure. What could go wrong? I hear “they” want to open Three Mile Island again. If you’re my age (or thereabouts), you’re thinking, “WHAT?!?” Yeah, me, too. You’ll be happy to know they aren’t trying to re-open the reactor that melted down. I mean, it melted down. It ain’t starting again. But they had two reactors at Three Mile Island and the other one just kept humming along until 2019, when they finally shuttered the plant.

Now they want to open it again – for one customer. That ONE reactor that can still work at Three Mile Island? That can produce 800 Megawatts of energy! 800 Megawatts is enough to power something like 800,000 homes. And they want to fire it back up and sell the power to one company. One. And guess who it is? Microsoft, of course.

The story is, it’s power for the future of AI. Would we be surprised to find, eventually, it was also power to “mine” bitcoin? I don’t know if you know this, but mining bitcoin takes MASSIVE amounts of electricity. The practice is horrible for the environment as it causes power plants to have to spew carbon into the atmosphere. So, at least a nuclear power source eliminates that threat.

Now all we have to worry about is a nuclear power plant built 50 years ago by the lowest bidder with a history of only one partial meltdown so…

The partial meltdown happened in Unit 2. Unit 2 went online December 30, 1978 and melted down March 28, 1979. Hey, they got three months out of it before it became the worst nuclear disaster in US history so, I’m feeling pretty good about, um, the fact that Three Mile Island is in Pennsylvania and I live in California…

Ballot Box Busters…

by MyBaconPress

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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