elections

Failed Strategies…

by MyBaconPress

If one’s goal is to eliminate Hamas, one does NOT achieve that goal by thoughtless, random killing. The “terrorist” of tomorrow is the victim of an indiscriminate attack today. The next group may have a different name, but it will be a continuation of Hamas. Israel brought Hezbollah into the conflict, as well. Now, Israel is suffering attacks. That seems like it backfired.

Israel thinks it solved a problem by killing Sinwar, but now, he’s going to be martyred. Palestinians are making a hero of him. I suspect Israel has added to their problems. I sure do wish these people would stop killing each other…

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When I look at the news, I see story after story that Kamala is having trouble convincing this group or that group that she can do the job. Every time I see a story like that, said group is insisting Kamala has to “earn their vote.” Palestinians in the US are pissed off at the US government for helping Israel, so they think maybe they’ll withhold their vote from Harris, giving it to (or at least helping) Trump, instead. Trump is on record saying Israel is being TOO tolerant and should just unleash their worst.

Being so angry with the Biden administration for not having greater success at negotiating a cease fire that you support the guy who thinks just like Netanyahu isn’t going to make the Palestinian plight any better. I give Biden low marks on Israel but I KNOW Trump will make the situation far, far worse for Palestinians. One does not, should not, jump from the frying pan into the fire. Harris is STILL the best option.

Black men don’t want a black woman in office? Why not? Misogyny? Maybe. I guess we’re finally getting the answer, which is more important, misogyny or racism? Because Trump is a proven racist. This isn’t a gut feeling thing. He has intentionally and knowingly engaged in discriminatory housing practices in the past, for example. You don’t want a woman, so you’ll support the man who seems to think, not-so-secretly in his shriveled little heart, that black people would just be better off, in general, if they “went back” to Africa (even if they’re from, say, Seattle) or, even better from the corporate point of view, still in chains? Yeah, that’s a quality position.

Trump went to a rally filled with working people and explained to them that he just hates to pay overtime – so he doesn’t. He’ll bring in other people to finish a job, just to avoid paying overtime. That working class group of people who may have depended on overtime during their lives, just cheered the guy. “Yeah, he LIVES to screw us! Four more years!”

But maybe, just maybe, these stories are narratives from the media and not as true as the stories make them seem. The press wants to sell papers (metaphorically, these days) and creating a close-race narrative where one group or the other is still “undecided” makes it seem like a tight race.

But then I see that Georgia is experiencing record voter turnout. They had over 300,000 voters on the first day of early voting, alone. As of today, they’ve had over a million ballots returned. People seem to be flocking to the polls to vote. Now, bear in mind, these are ballots, not votes. I can’t tell you Kamala has over a million votes in Georgia. That wouldn’t be true (necessarily).

I CAN tell you that it tends to be Democrats who vote early. The GOP decided (wrongly, as usual) that mail-in ballots are a bad thing. They have a few different reasons, none of which are correct, but because they randomly decided that mail-in ballots are bad, they tend to avoid them. At this point, it’s safe to say the vast majority of the ballots being cast are coming from Harris supporters. (I presume Democrats, in general, are NOT casting their ballots for Trump.)

The general trend is this: early voting builds up strength for the Democrats, who then need to stand firm against the “red wave” of election day. (Considering how much manipulation we can expect from Russians, “Red wave” seems a particularly apt name for the phenomenon, eh?) Cons WILL come out to vote. They are an obnoxiously dependable group. The ONE thing you can count on from MAGA, they are dedicated to doing the wrong thing, like putting the Anti-Christ into the Oval Office. Still, it’s an encouraging start. Lefties ARE coming out.

So maybe the stories about who might be cutting off their noses to spite their faces, or polls being skewed by politically affiliated “polling” groups who seek to distort national polling outcomes, are, um, less than accurate.

I’m looking at ballots being cast – and WHEN those ballots are cast. If record turnout is any indicator, it seems things are going well for blue these days. At least, they seem to be going well for blue in Georgia…

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Trump went to a rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania and started bragging. Hey, no surprise there, Trump brags. That’s what he does. The weird part? He was bragging about Arnold Palmer having a big…um…”unit.” And, of course, because Palmer had a big unit, he must have been “all man.” It was quite high praise. It’s especially curious to imply that only men with big units are really men, considering how small Trump’s hands are.

I wonder if MAGA realized, Trump was telling them he’s really into men with big units…

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Elon Musk is paying people to register. Paying people to register is a felony. So, Musk is paying people to sign a petition – and register. Apparently, there’s some “question” as to the legality of that, particular, ploy. Wait, let me guess. MAGA “lawyers” see no problem, whatsoever, with the practice, so long as it’s only a rich MAGA in support of Trump, right? Yeah, who could have seen THAT coming? I hope the law gets involved with this soon…

Hogwash…

by MyBaconPress

I think it’s hilarious that cons can’t accept the idea that both Kamala and Walz are gun owners. We’ve fallen DEEPLY into a false narrative in this country, one that teaches that righties own all the guns and lefties would never, ever, in a million years, own a gun. Turns out? Nope. I know LOTS of lefty gun owners. Turns out, owning a gun is NOT a righty thing.

The reason it’s important is this: cons have come to the conclusion that, should shooting be “required,” they have all the advantage because they’re the only ones with guns. I’m pretty sure there are some surprises in store for the cons, should they choose that course…

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Okay, so here’s something I’ve been wondering. Recently, Trump started naming names of cities where atrocities are definitely occurring and “everybody knows it.” For example, Haitians are eating people’s pets in Springfield, Ohio. Gangs have completely taken over and sacked Aurora, Colorado. MAGA buys these stories and laps them up – even MAGA in Springfield and Aurora.

Are these people SO self-deluded that they go outside into their own cities every day and never lose a pet to a Haitian, or they go about their business freely in Aurora without suffering gang violence, and then convince themselves that Trump is speaking truth anyway? HOW, fercrissakes? What does it take to convince oneself that their own, lived experience should, properly, be set aside in favor of Trump’s deranged rantings?

And yet? Here we are and that, they do. As it happens, Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) is real. It’s just that it’s MAGA who suffers from it…

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The polls just don’t make sense, to me. One minute, Kamala is up by four points, the next, she’s down a point. How? Why? What changes from day to day that causes such wide swings? Who in the HELL is Trump picking up? I mean, look, MAGA is forever faithful (for a while, anyway). We all know that. But outside of MAGA? Not so much. How does one GAIN voters with obvious, insane lies like Trump (and Vance) spew? What might Kamala have done to turn people off?

What I know is that since Kamala signed on as the nominee, voter registration has been through the roof. When Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala (because Trump forced her to), 400,000 new registrations were reported by Vote.org, a voter registration site. We’ve also heard from that site that, besides the Swift surge, nearly 200,000 OTHER registrations have occurred since Kamala’s entry. That seems like 600,000 new voters, likely inspired to vote FOR Kamala.

So where did she lose and, more importantly, where did he gain? It’s like we’re getting “Dueling Polls.” Pollsters aren’t supposed to be partisan. Nonetheless, some are. It turns out there are several polls out there “affiliated” with Republicans and several non-affiliated polls but only one affiliated with Democrats. Do you know what that is? That’s the Republicans, gaming the polls to make Trump look like he’s doing better than he actually is.

I suppose different results could reflect different polling techniques or different questions. I KNOW polls can be affected by the questions asked and I KNOW some of those techniques aren’t considered ethical, but they happen anyway. It turns out, one can’t trust polls too much unless one has access to the details of the poll. What questions were asked and HOW were they asked?

During one election, potential voters were asked, “If you knew John McCain had a black child, would it change the way you think about him?” As it happened, McCain DID have an adopted, black child. But the question was intentionally vague and it left the impression that McCain had fathered a child out of wedlock and with a black woman.

That’s called a ‘Push Poll.’ The pollster is actually “pushing” false information to the subject, while pretending to be simply asking a question. Their weasel words when they get caught? “We didn’t say that. We simply asked a question.” “If you knew…”

I’m not a polling expert. That’s just one, unprofessional technique I know about that gets used on a fairly regular basis. Is that, or something like it, why the polls swing so wildly? That kind of thing is the only thing that makes sense to me as an explanation of Trump’s success. HIS numbers shouldn’t change. You’re either MAGA, and therefore impervious to accurate information and loyal to the core, or you’re not. If you’re not MAGA, you’re not impressed by Trump. In fact, he looks the fool most of the time.

So, where are his new supporters coming from? In Pennsylvania, ballots are already coming in and being counted. Of the ballots that have come in, 285,072 have come in from Democrats, 95,666 have come in from Republicans, and 35,914 have come in from Independents based on recent reports. (The numbers have likely changed a little since.) That looks like advantage Kamala, even if one assigns ALL the independent ballots to Trump, which would be a huge mistake since I’m an independent voter and WILL BE voting Kamala. (Today or tomorrow, in fact.)

Those aren’t polls. Those are actual ballots, actually counted so far. I know, Trump has been pushing voting machines again instead of mail-in, but the Democrats have a huge lead so far, and I just don’t see where normal people are going to walk into a voting booth and pull the lever for “insane.” MAGA, sure. Rational Americans? Absolutely not. I guess I’m praying there are STILL more rational Americans than MAGA…

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If you bet on the NFL, you’re…well, for now, I’ll go with “not smart.” There’s a rule of thumb many people know, ‘The simplest answer tends to be correct.’ Oh, there’s another one, too, ‘Once you’ve eliminated all other possibilities, whatever is left, however unlikely, must be the answer.’

On Thursday night, the Forty-Niners played the Seattle Seahawks. At one point, a Seahawks player touched the ball on a kick return after letting it bounce, and the Niners fell on it. It SHOULD have been Niners ball but the “officials” gave the ball to the Seahawks. The Niners challenged the call and replay clearly showed the Seahawks player touching the ball. But the final word comes from New York and THEY said, no, give it to the Seahawks. (Seattle lost anyway, despite the assist.)

EVERYONE watching saw the player touch the ball and KNEW it should have gone to the Niners. The NFL finally claimed, “Oh, we didn’t have the enhanced image the viewers had. We used what we had and made our call from that.” THAT, to me, is some first-class bullshit. How does the NFL, a multi-BILLION dollar corporation, NOT have a feed the rest of the world has? Specifically, how does the team expected to make final calls on controversial plays not have the best possible image to work with? No, I don’t believe them.

I started noticing “hinky” calls from NFL officials a couple of years ago. Since then, the NFL has “partnered” with FanDuel, a sports betting site. Now we see calls all the time that just don’t make sense. Currently, the broadcasters will go back and show a replay to find the offense being called and show the viewers. Commonly, the calls don’t make sense. What they DO, is boost one team.

Sports betting by the leagues has been against the rules since the 1919 Black Sox Scandal, in which the Chicago White Sox were accused of accepting bribes to throw the World Series. The scandal hurt the popularity of the leagues, so they took action. The leagues wanted to ensure there wasn’t even a suggestion of impropriety. It worked for decades. But then, the rules changed. (Hey, there was money to be made.)

Now, the NFL has “partnered” with a betting web site, FanDuel. “Partnered” means the NFL makes money when the web site makes money. The NFL has control over the outcome of games via the calls the officials make. They don’t need upsets in every game but they can still profit by point shaving. Based on everything I’ve seen from the NFL over the last twenty years, if they CAN profit, they WILL profit.

So why would anybody believe the NFL isn’t working in the background to make sure they make money by manipulating the outcomes of games? So, here’s my advice. Don’t bet on the NFL. But if you’re…um…”not smart,” and you DO bet on those games, try to determine what outcome you think the NFL wants and bet on that. Don’t bother with which team is best and which is worst and who has the best whatever against the other team’s whatsits or whatever. What does the NFL want? THAT is the only question you need to answer.

And it says terrible things about the state of the NFL – and sports betting in general – these days…

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…