Epstein

Diplomacy?

by MyBaconPress

This is just my opinion, but I would think an administration so mired in charges of pedophilia would be a little careful about the optics surrounding any such charges in their midst. That doesn’t seem to be the case. The US had – had – a diplomat in the UK. He was accused of possessing indecent images of children. The UK says the crime should have been investigated and tried in the UK, according to UK laws. Instead, the US sneaked in late at night and whisked the guy out of the country.

On the one hand, I can’t say I’m surprised that Team Pedophile would take care of one of their own. It seems weird, to me, that they go to SO MUCH trouble to distract everyone from the Trump/Epstein files, then just come and whisk away an accused pedophile. “Hey, let’s put the spotlight right back on our most irritating issue!” Jenius at work, I tell ya.

But this doesn’t seem to be the only time the US has stepped in to protect their own, regardless of the crime. I’ve heard a lot from MAGA about people from other places coming to America and committing crimes, as though that’s a phenomenon unique to people from south of the border but here’s this guy, in the UK, passing around child porn and being actively protected by the US.

He’s not the only one, either. How about American fighter pilot Capt Jacob Wulfson? He was accused of strangling a woman to death in Cambridge. The US whisked him to safety as well. He DID stand trial, but on a US airbase. He was sentenced after court-martial to six whole months in prison for the murder. The US courts acquitted him on the charges of sexual assault and aggravated sexual contact. He, too, should have stood trial in the UK, according to the laws of the UK.

Oh, but he’s not alone. Take the case of Anne Sacoolas, a US state department employee. She killed a British teenager with her car. She, too, was taken out of the UK and brought back to the US. She eventually pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving. She was sentenced to eight months. For killing a kid. Oh, the sentence was suspended. That seems…insufficient.

I suppose these get filed under the “diplomacy” umbrella. The US certainly needs to be careful that the UK isn’t just scapegoating foreigners for their own reasons. But just taking them away? Our replacement, limited punishments for their very serious crimes seem like kind of an insult…

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All of this recent bad, some would say honest, press about Artificial Intelligence (AI) is having an effect. The corporate heads of AI are now saying out loud that they think maybe the industry should slow down a little. Who knows what they’re doing? We only know what they’re saying.

Well, we also know that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has decided to delay an IPO amid rising concerns over AI safety. Uh-huh. I’m sure that decision has nothing to do with the bad press keeping the offering less exciting. That is to say, Altman decided he’ll get a better price if he waits until the heat is off. The only hitch to that plan is if AI keeps misbehaving – and people keep finding out.

So for now, the CEOs of the biggest companies are making a great show of slowing down and being more careful. Don’t forget, these are the SAME CEOs that spent millions of dollars on their preferred politicians to prevent regulation and get favorable legislation. It seems very likely they’ve suddenly seen the light and intend to slow down, be more careful, and regulate themselves.

I predict it won’t be too long until someone discovers the corporations are still blindly racing down the road at breakneck speeds at which time, we’ll be offered the “explanation” that, “Well, someone is going to do it. It might as well be me.” In the human life destruction derby, AI is making some moves of it’s own. Climate Change had better come up with something fast if it wants to maintain it’s lead…

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The measles are still killing people. Team Evil is responding by trying to get the reporting states to pretend the victims died of something else. I guess that’s easier than trying to actually do the very difficult job correctly…

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I own a Kia. Whenever I get it serviced, I’m offered a free trial of SiriusXM, the satellite radio service. I usually sign up because they have some comedy channels that are tolerable. Mind you, I ONLY sign up for the free trial. I NEVER accept the “offer” to subscribe. Each time I do, my impression of SiriusXM is reinforced. It’s not great.

First, at $300.00/year, it’s VERY expensive – especially considering it STILL includes advertisements on some of it’s channels. I don’t do that. If I pay a subscription, I don’t want commercials. If I get commercials, I’m not paying a subscription. SiriusXM wants both.

I know Howard Stern is the big SiriusXM deal, but I stick mostly with the comedy stations. (And now, even Stern is cutting back.) During this most recent free trial, the company revised the lineup and added even MORE commercials. Ooh, tantalizing. The one area I had an interest, the company made it worse. Nice.

My biggest objection, though, is that the service doesn’t work well. That’s not quite right. It works fine – unless you drive under something. How often does THAT happen, though? I mean, are there really bridges and tunnels? Are trees even real? Because a tree CAN block the SiriusXM signal. If you’re like me, and focused on the comedy channels, just imagine how much fun it is to miss the punchline because you drove under a tree.

Too expensive, undependable signal, AND ads on top of high subscription prices? It’s a wonder they get anybody to sign up. They won’t be getting me, though…

Shut ‘Er Down – Again…

by MyBaconPress

Word is, MAGA Mike, the Johnson is shutting down the House two weeks early. Obviously, there’s going to be speculation in the media as to why. One idea I heard was that the GOP knows it’s in such deep trouble in the upcoming mid-terms, (now only 55 days away) they need to get out there and campaign more. Plausible, right? The GOP IS in trouble. Maybe campaigning more will help.

Oh, but then, what’s this? Oh, hey, it looks like Thomas Massie was working to force a House vote on the Trump/Epstein Files Transparency Act II. The Trump/Epstein Files Transparency Act II would strengthen the enforcement mechanisms of the original transparency law, including giving certain victims and officials a way to challenge the inJustice Department over the withholding or redaction of covered records.

What?!? STILL trying to get the Trump/Epstein files released in whole? Well, then, shutting down the House seems like an excellent dodge. It’s true, they won’t be working. They’ll still be getting paid, though, won’t they? I think the whole thing sets the example of how work life should be, don’t you? Oh, you’re sick? Maybe dead? Stay home. Don’t even call. Take as long as you like, months maybe. You’ll still receive your full pay and benefits AND all of your bribes and other “gratuities” and, um, campaign contributions. That will be the McConnell rule.

Oh, you have a secret to hide? It’s probably best if you just don’t come in for a couple of weeks, maybe a month. You’ll still receive your full pay and benefits AND all of your bribes and other “gratuities” and, um, campaign contributions, too. That will be the Johnson rule.

When I re-wrote the Constitution, I added a clause that reads, “Members of government may not exempt themselves from laws applying to the general population, nor grant themselves privileges unavailable to the general population except as provided herein.” That would include things like endless time off at full pay. Fifteen days PTO. Then? Get your ass back to work or the money stops until you do…

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On September 11, 2001, the only thing the Drumpfster said about the attack was that now he owned the tallest building in New York City. That was his only concern, because, obviously, he only cares about himself. AFTER that, though, he has made up several stories – ALL of which steal honor from the first responders who actually DID go down to the rubble and start digging.

It bugs me a lot. That useless waste of human flesh will steal honor from anybody at any time. We all know Cadet Bone Spurs ran away from his opportunity to serve. Hell, he comes from a long line of cowards. These days, he’s releasing AI generated pictures of himself in a military uniform – clothing he was never man enough to wear in real life.

He runs around on each anniversary of 9/11 lying that he was in the building, at the building, near the building, or went down to the building afterwards. (The specifics depend on the moment.) He sent a crew, or he took a crew. Mind you, there’s no record of any of it. People were not just coming and going at ground zero. They were admitted and their names recorded. People were taking photos. Not one piece of evidence supports his lies that he was there.

He wasn’t there. He used the opportunity to grab a spotlight and shine it on himself, bragging about now owning the tallest building in Manhattan. You will not be surprised to learn, THAT was a lie, too. It’s all this guy does. Lie…

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Well, straight up bribery is an idea, too. 47 went to the first night of his Mid-Term Republican convention and blathered for awhile. While he was blathering, he promised every US citizen $5,000 if Republicans control Congress after the election. Uh-huh. I’ll just put that over here, next to my $5,000 DOGE dividend and my $2,000 tariff rebate. I wonder if some people are stupid enough to still believe his promises of money. The money never materializes and would only add to the debt if it did. Everybody is laughing at him. Again. He should have tried doing the job well. That would have worked best…

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(I thought we might like a break from the horrors of our reality, these days.) The NFL started it’s season LAST night. It was a Wednesday night. Through the years, the NFL has expressed it’s greed by – well, every way they can think of, really, but in this case, they keep taking on new nights to broadcast the games.

The 2026 season officially kicked off on Wednesday. The NFL “explained” they had to open on Wednesday because their international game from Australia created a “scheduling conflict.” The thing is, the NFL does the scheduling. They knew they already had a game scheduled for Thursday, so why schedule another? Why, it almost seems as though they intended a scheduling conflict, just to make sure they could try to grab another weeknight.

“No,” they’d tell me. “It was just an unfortunate oversight.” Oh. Okay. Um, so why the SECOND Wednesday night game, the night before Thanksgiving? I think it’s bad for the game – saturation – but I KNOW it’s bad for the players. American football is a brutal sport. The players need time to recover from the games. Look for increasing injuries as the NFL adds days. Some of them will be serious. Serious injury to marquee players keeps them off of the field. That, too hurts the game. (Not to mention the player.)

And never forget, watching an NFL football game on television is one of the very worst time investments a person can make. The viewer gives the NFL three and a half hours of their lives, 210 minutes, for which the viewer gets up to 11 minutes of action. Total. 11 minutes.

I’m not sitting in judgment. I’ve been doing it for years. I mitigate the laziness by doing my laundry on Sundays. At least I’m doing something. One can rationalize Monday night football as being tired at the beginning of the week. After that it gets harder to justify. Thursday has been a real push for me since it started. I’m not on board with Wednesdays, at all…

Let The Voting Begin…

by MyBaconPress

By my count, there are 60 days until the mid-terms, including today. Team Evil was STILL trying to implement their last-second, complete overhaul changes that just happen to prevent millions of Americans from casting perfectly legitimate ballots – until yesterday. Technically, the election started yesterday, as well, by which I mean ballots are being shipped. People could start sending them back by Monday, right?

I imagine trump supporters – and there are still some – might argue that the 2020 election featured changes late in the game, too. I have to concede that point but then feel compelled to point out that it was not a complete overhaul of the process and the election had not actually started at the time. And there’s still that pesky problem that the constitution grants authority on elections to the states.

So, to summarize, the federal government has no authority to impose the program it’s trying to implement with which it would be impossible to comply anyway. The very BEST they should be able to hope for is, “Okay you can implement your new rules, but for the NEXT election. You’re too late for this one.” And, of course, they still have no authority to implement these new rules so I doubt they could even get that much.

And they haven’t. As of late yesterday, the federal judge overseeing the case, Indira Talwani, ruled in favor of the Constitution – which means against Donny and the USPS. Again. She had to repeat her earlier ruling after Cheat Justice John Roberts stepped in to help his Precious. Her ruling was based on exactly what it should be based upon: the federal government has almost no authority to get involved and, really, it’s too late anyway. Cheat Justice Roberts will have to decline to re-hear the case or rule against plain English wording in the Constitution.

I heard someone describe the latest effort by Donny to cheat with the mail-in ballots as a “Hail Mary.” Be advised, this is not his Hail Mary. This was his 13 seconds left in the game, third-and-long effort. He has one last play and THAT will be his Hail Mary: Widespread accusations – ALL without evidence – of fraud or other election anomalies.

Expect charges to fly, fast and furious, from all over. Claim after claim after claim but no proof. Never any evidence. Expect whatever chicanery Donny and MAGA Mike, the Johnson can dream up. JD Vance would certainly do what Mike Pence refused to do: reject electors and block certification of votes. Be aware that Congress passed a law because of Donny’s deadly ‘Day of Love,’ J6, making clear the Vice President’s role in the process is purely ceremonial.

MAGA Mike, the Johnson might refuse to seat the winners but that will be met with lawsuits and they should be seated eventually. What’s left of MAGA is going to be screaming loudly about “the steal” again. We’ll be treated to all kinds of stories – all anecdotal and without evidence – of “weird” things happening. Thanks to AI, they’ll present photos of ballots tossed into creek-beds insisting they’re discarded conservative ballots and other such bunk.

I honestly believe, the left has no reason to cheat in this election. EVERYBODY is angry at that guy, even MAGA. It’s just that MAGA won’t admit it. Well, not to me, at least. They’re discussing among themselves, though. Decent Americans are just champing at the bit to go out and vote in this election. It’s literally our last chance to save this once-great nation from the disaster that is trump. If you think things have been bad so far, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

The Big Beautiful Bill has some very ugly, very nasty surprises built into it. They’re SO nasty, the GOP made sure they trigger AFTER the election in an effort to protect themselves for the mid-terms. If the left wins, they might be able to stop some of the worst provisions. Maybe the poorest Americans still get to eat, after all. If the left loses, the BBB kicks in at full force – against everyone, MAGA and non-MAGA alike.

So expect the left to come out in force. The numbers should be HUGE, maybe the highest numbers anyone has ever seen. Nobody will have seen numbers that high before. He WILL throw a temper tantrum. THAT will be his Hail Mary and it will be all he has left…

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One of the reasons there has been so little movement in the release of the Trump/Epstein files is that many of the men in the files are very, very rich. Take Leon Black. Please. He skipped a deposition with the House Oversight Committee on the topic of his relationship with Epstein. There’s clearly some dollar amount where a person can simply decide if they want to comply with the law or not. That makes it seem like he has something to hide, yes?

In fairness, despite being one of Epstein’s top clients over the years, Black now denies any wrongdoing and says he regrets dealing with Epstein. You know, now that things are coming out. These guys have clever weasel words to get around things. “I didn’t do anything wrong” might mean “I didn’t have sex with underage girls” but, because he’s a billionaire, HE might mean, “I can do no wrong because I’m rich. Begone, peasant.”

Then, Black filed a lawsuit. When his team announced the suit, they said in part, “This is no longer about finding the truth about Epstein. It is about trying to destroy Mr Black.” That’s an interesting take. Perhaps it’s both? Maybe the truth about Epstein just happens to destroy Mr Black. Innocence could be his legitimate defense but hiding behind lawsuits to maintain secrecy isn’t going to convince anybody.

Helpfully, the lawsuit pretends, in part, that Black filed it because he wants to protect the privacy of certain women who have no known connection to Epstein. How considerate. And what a convenience that the men coincidentally protect themselves by “protecting the privacy” of women. Weird. There seems to be a correlation between the number of times one’s name appears in the Trump/Epstein files and the sudden concern for women’s well-being.

Now the committee is pretending they might hold Black in contempt for his refusal to show up. I suspect they won’t for…reasons. The “reasons” usually being, Congress doesn’t want to upset rich people. You know? I think applying laws based on economic position is a trustworthy sign a nation is more corrupt than not. Historically, it has also been a good time to start sharpening up those guillotines…

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Wow. Maria Bartiromo is out over at Fox Not-News. No lead-up. Just gone. What did she do, accidentally tell a truth? Actually, word is, she was feeding information about internal network operations to Team Evil. Our inglorious misleader is apparently angry she’s been ousted. She’s been there a LONG time. Now she’s just out? Weird. There are some who say she’s up for the regime’s spokesliar position, replacing KKKarolyin Leavitt, but the nature of her exit seemed cold. The network just announced “She’s gone” and pulled her staff page from the website. She’ll be fine. These cons are like herpes. They always come back…

Limited, Precise Action…

by MyBaconPress

There must be some more bad news coming for Donny pretty soon. He recently decided… no that’s wrong. He doesn’t “decide” things. Everything is impulse with this clown. Anyway, a recent impulse saw him bomb Iran again. Iran responded by bombing US assets in Jordan. The US, of course, claims total annihilation of whatever target they wanted to hit – perhaps another girl’s school – while simultaneously insisting Iran’s response didn’t hit anything.

That’s their official story. It turns out, though, the USS Abraham Lincoln wasn’t resupplied for such a long time because Iran had taken out the bases the US used to do that. Team Evil was trying to cover up the successful response by Iran so they didn’t acknowledge the destruction. The problem is, they didn’t do anything to compensate for it, either. They just – didn’t resupply the ship.

You will not be surprised to hear that Iran considered being bombed an act of aggression. For it’s part, the US says that’s not fair. It wasn’t aggressive at all. Instead, they called it a “limited, precise action” against what they said were mine-laying forces. That’s an interesting distinction. What they’re saying is, if, say, an Iranian sniper took out a single, orange, bloated, Jabba-the-Hutt type, golfing moron, that wouldn’t be an act of aggression. Just a “limited, precise action,” right? Hey, they set the definition…

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Well, to be fair, it seems 47 may be making a way for more oil into the US. That may or may not bring down costs at the pump. We all know the story: greater supply equals lower prices. We all also know the reality: gas companies set the price at whatever the market can bear regardless of how much they have on hand. (We have lots of feel-good stories about free market capitalism that have no basis in reality. “Supply and demand” is just one of them.)

47 says he’s going to revive Venezuela’s oil fields. It’s only going to cost American taxpayers tens of billions of dollars. (Make Venezuela Great Again, eh?) Then, all of that beautiful lucre goes into some very specific pockets. There are a few nuances. Team Evil’s direct entry into Venezuelan oil through the Department of Defense is likely to raise legal and political questions in both countries.

You see, it’s really the Pentagon entering into partnership to control Venezuela’s oil. The Pentagon having direct control over oil in a foreign country is rather unusual. Oh, and obviously, Donny couldn’t do it without getting into bed with a known (or suspected) criminal. Specifically, an accused fraudster, a money laundering guy, named Alejandro Betancourt. Betancourt controls Venezuela’s second largest oil company. All of that alleged money laundering is just a side hustle.

Donny doesn’t care about that. No, that’s wrong. Fraud is a required behavior if one wants to do business with the Drumpfster. Betancourt was the subject of an international criminal investigation. That’s the kind of guy Donny can work with, so US officials stepped in. They lobbied to resolve the case in a way that would avoid criminal charges and end travel restrictions against the Britain-based Betancourt.

Official word is that the US is looking for private partners for investment. So far, every time he has promised private investment, the US taxpayer ends up footing the bill. Chevron wants in on the deal. That means MORE private profit, socialized risk. Make no mistake, rich people are very, VERY into socialism when said socialism saves their companies or puts money into their pockets. They just don’t want that socialism to benefit anyone else…

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It’s a peek into his twisted brain. If I can’t have it, nobody can. That’s the Drumpfster’s feeling about the Kennedy Center. He wants his name on it, as though he has accomplished something. The thing is, he can’t legally just slap his name on it. So his team tried an end-run. Oh, we’ll just give him credit for restoring the collapsing building. ‘Restored and renovated by President and Anti-Christ Donald J. Trump.’ That may not be the exact wording they intend. Same answer. No.

“Well, then,” he replies, “I guess we’ll just have to tear the thing down.” That’s a stalker attitude. It’s a twisted mind. If I can’t have it, nobody can. I doubt the Kennedy Center is as badly in need of repair as pretended. Donny just wants to cover everything in gold, cause there’s nothing tacky about that. MOST importantly, he wants his name on it. It’s stolen glory, right? He can’t EARN his name onto a memorial Americans would respect so he’s trying to slap his name next to a decent President in hopes some of JFK’s fame might rub off on him.

He strikes me as nothing more than a petulant brat throwing a temper tantrum. Watch for him to start starving the Kennedy Center of funding in an effort to bring about the very consequences he predicts. But frankly, I think I’d rather see the thing torn down than allow his disgusting and pukish name on it…

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Okay, it’s been awhile, so I thought I’d take a second to remind everybody that Donald J. Trump was a client and likely co-conspirator in a sex trafficking ring operated alongside his best friend Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. There’s a reason he won’t release the Trump/Epstein files in full, despite having promised exactly that during his campaign. Yet ANOTHER promise made, promise not kept.

It feels like nobody cares anymore. The message is, “You ain’t getting it,” and most seem resigned to that reality. I suspect there are just FAR too many rich and powerful men in the files and Donny gets protected by default, as those rich powerful perverts get protected because of all of that money they have. In short, the message is, “We CAN rape your daughters. There’s nothing you can do about it.” This is the America MAGA loves, the America MAGA demands. I preferred justice…

Election Battles Heating Up…

by MyBaconPress

Every day, the mid-term elections are one day closer. Every day, the concern that Evil Donny will try to intervene grows. Everybody who understands anything knows that the mid-terms should reflect a tsunami of anger aimed at Republicans in general, driven by the failures of the Dumbass and Team Evil. The mid-terms are simultaneously, both a tremendous threat to the ongoing criminal enterprise known as the trump regime, and the last chance to save our once-great nation without violence, if at all.

Team Evil is not even trying to pretend they’re going to play fair. Steve Bannon recently texted CNN: “We need a National Security Emergency about the midterm elections immediately – this is a powerful predicate for that.” Asked about pretending some national emergency by rightwing broadcaster Wayne Allyn Root, 47 replied, “Let me just say, stranger things have happened, OK?”

No. They haven’t. We haven’t skipped elections in this country, ever. We didn’t even skip elections during the US Civil War. It should be obvious to anyone – anyone – that predicting an as-yet-unrealized national emergency that takes place just in time to impact elections that so threaten Team Evil makes clear they’re making it up, yes? Then again, I’ve become massively disappointed in my fellow Americans’ ability to engage in critical thinking. The US is dogged by some very stupid people – who knew? – and the rest of us all know we should never underestimate the power of stupid people in large numbers.

There ARE people looking out for American interests. Aria Branch, a partner at the Elias Law Group, who led a lawsuit blocking Trump’s previous executive orders on election administration said Team Evil is, “trying to lay the groundwork to declare some sort of emergency to nationalize elections. I think the president is looking for any opportunity to do that.”

Santiago Mayer, president of Voters of Tomorrow, a gen Z-led voter advocacy organization, said, “I mean, listen, I think it is quite obvious that the man is losing his grip in reality, so I think we need to be prepared for everything. We have spent a long time thinking and preparing for any eventuality and anything that he might attempt. I think our focus at the end of the day is to turn out enough voters where, no matter what he pulls, it won’t succeed.”

But the effort to destroy the elections is real. Tulsi Gabbard testified before Congress that she had been leading an investigation into claims of foreign interference in US elections. Her team claimed to be involved in the seizure and examination of voting equipment in Puerto Rico, and spent months scrutinizing potential vulnerabilities in voting machines and the possibility of foreign interference. I submit that they were reverse engineering voting machines to determine the best way to manipulate them.

Meanwhile, the one voting process Donny is most afraid of, though he uses it himself, is mail-in ballots. Voting on paper. NO. EFFING. MACHINES! If you use those evil things, you should know that you’re likely voting for trump, regardless of the candidate for whom you pull the lever. Vote on paper, no matter how hard Team Evil tries to make it. We need to turn out a deluge of voters, like we did in 2020, and the votes need to be cast on paper. That’s how we got rid of the son of a bitch the first time. That’s how we get rid of him this time.

I’ll tell you this: The biggest threat to America is the Drumpfster’s ongoing, unfettered access to the levers of power in Washington, DC…

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John Roberts, the corrupt toady of Team Evil, has said publicly he has concerns about the legacy of his court. No doubt, eh? On Friday, Roberts allowed Donny to continue with his ballroom despite all the laws and lower court rulings that say he doesn’t have the authority. Here’s a hint, John. That’s exactly the kind of thing that’s going to seal your sad, failed legacy.

THIS, possibly the last Supreme Court the United States will know, is the very worst, the most corrupt, dumbest, and least competent court I’ve ever seen or read about in America or American history. It’s so easy for Roberts to SAY he cares about the legacy of the court, but rulings that fawn over his Precious despite violating all of the laws on the topic suggest he only cares about the bribe money rolling in to his pockets…

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He spent $1.7 BILLION of our tax dollars in his show of strength deployment of National Guard troops to Washington DC, Memphis, and Los Angeles. He says it was an awesome display and a complete success, but then, he lies about everything. So other people have looked at the situation. Among them, the Center for American Progress (CAP), who found, after looking at actual evidence rather than just delusional rants, the deployments had no significant impact on crime.

Their report looks at the falling rate of crime in cities without a National Guard intervention and concludes that they are not statistically different from the rate of decrease in those that had the intervention, noting that violent crime began falling well before Trump took office in 2025. (By the way, it’s my prediction those rates will be climbing again, soon, as Donny’s economic nightmare worsens by the day.)

But… but… Donny said it was a success. So obviously, he has to sue CAP. He’s threatening a $5 billion dollar lawsuit if CAP doesn’t retract it’s report. One of his personal bootlick, er, “lawyers,” Alejandro Brito, sent a letter to CAP demanding the retraction or face the suit. Donny is claiming defamation. He very commonly thinks the truth makes him look bad. In fairness, the truth commonly makes him look bad.

In Brito’s letter, Brito pretends that, “the effect on the mind of the reader and viewer of the Statements that Defendants intended to impose is that the President of the United States knowingly deceived the American people, manipulated crime statistics for political advantage, exploited public fear, abused military and executive authority for an ulterior purpose, staged a sham law enforcement operation, and then lied about its success.”

Of course, CAP has a response. According to them, the report and commentary “on their face, concern crime statistics and causality, or actions of the federal government, not President (sic) Trump himself. In addition to being true, these statements cannot defame President Trump because they are not about him.” That last line just confuses the crap out of Donny since everything, in his demented mind, is about him.

Brito is the same guy who represented 47 in the case of the bawdy birthday card. You remember. The Pedo President drew a picture for his good friend and likely co-conspirator Jeffery Epstein. It was an outline of a young girl that framed a suggestive commentary, with his signature standing in for pubic hair. 47 didn’t like that people found out about that and he sued the Wall Street Journal and his frenemy Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch’s response? Trump’s reputation is already so bad, so bawdy, he can’t be defamed. The judge agreed and tossed the suit. Now Brito is taking another swing at it with all of the odds stacked against him. Donny’s about to lose again. One would think he might learn at some point…

Team Evil vs Nudification…

by MyBaconPress

One of the “joys” of Artificial Intelligence is that one can generate “nude” photos of people, whether the subject of the photo likes it or not – or even knows about it or not. I put the ‘nude’ in quotes because, apparently, the final photo isn’t truly “nude.” The makers have the photo generator “dress” the subject in a single string or something. So some small-minded moron can “get even” with the girl who dumped him because he’s a small-minded moron by posting a “nude” photo of her online, thereby proving she was right to dump him in the first place. But she’s still out there, “exposed.”

One can generate “nude” photos of children, too. And guess what? There are people out there doing exactly that. The practice of ‘undressing’ people in photos – adult and/or child – has become SO commonplace, it has a name: “nudification,” a name that makes clear the subject wasn’t nude, then someone made them appear nude, right? Someone “nudified” someone else.

Politicians – always slow to move on any topic – have taken notice and are trying to craft legislation to rein in the AI companies. People and politicians want the AI companies to limit the abilities of less developed people to do things like that. To that end, Minnesota passed a first-in-the-nation law that bans “nudification” technology on websites and apps. The law is set to take effect today as Minnesota becomes the first state to try to outlaw the increasingly proliferating technology that lets people use AI to to create fake nude images of real people.

“Not so fast,” says failed human being Elon Musk. “The whole point of Grok is to allow evil people to do evil things to innocent victims. Why would you want to stop that?” Yeah, okay, that isn’t what the lawsuit Musk filed said at all. Musk is evil, not stupid. What xAI actually said was that it does not contest the state’s interest in banning the distribution of AI-generated nude images of real people without their consent (wink, wink).

No, the problem xAI has with Minnesota’s new law is that it provides no “safe harbor” provision for companies that make good-faith efforts to prevent such images from being created by users. That’s the big tech bros excuse for everything their companies do. “Oh, we’re trying to fix that problem. Just because we provided the tools and the platform doesn’t mean it’s our fault!”

There are already laws on the books punishing users for creating deepfakes. Minnesota’s law intends to hold the makers of the nudification tools responsible for the fakes and they mean to charge the developers up to $500,000 per violation. See, all the AI companies have to do is pull the nudification tools. THAT would be – should be – the only good faith effort that qualifies as actually trying to solve the problem.

But Musk doesn’t want to do that. He went to a lot of trouble to add nudification tools. Now, obviously, he doesn’t want to be seen as supporting his nudification tools, either, so he’s pretending the law is just over-broad. He agrees with the goal, he pretends, but thinks this legislation goes too far. Uh-huh. He’s obligating states to try to use legislation to force him to remove the nudification tools he claims to dislike and could simply remove himself. How serious is he about wanting to protect victims?

Honestly? I don’t like AI. I’ve got it down as one of the two most likely things to destroy humanity altogether. Humans are having enough trouble with reality. We don’t need fakes, deep or otherwise, gumming up the works. So take that into account, here, because, frankly, once fake nudes and AI generated child porn started showing up, I would have banned AI entirely. And I STILL think that’s the right answer.

For clarity, I don’t think it’s a matter of free speech, either. Posting fake nude photos of real people should fall under the few umbrellas where we control speech, like shouting “Fire!” in a crowded theater when no fire exists, maliciously spreading ruinous rumors about someone, or threatening them.

If the tech bros can’t put out a helpful, harmless product, they shouldn’t be allowed to put it out at all. Intentionally adding tools like nudification doesn’t seem like they’re even trying to put out a harmless product. If the offset is “not at all, then,” I guess they’d police themselves more aggressively…

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It’s just another opportunity to learn a lesson the right WILL NOT learn. We should break our dependence on oil so we don’t need to worry about what happens in oil producing regions, right? That lesson became clear way back in the 1970’s, when Saudi Arabia proved a point by shutting off the spigots. Americans were stuck in gas lines and could only buy gas on designated days.

The US economy suffered greatly. That, right then, was the moment a smart nation would have said, “Hey, let’s find a better answer and get off of this stuff.” We did, too. Well, we tried. Big oil didn’t WANT us breaking our addiction and, like any good pusher, has worked to maintain our dependence ever since. Now that dedication to antiquated technology is going to bite us in the butt again.

The US has pulled Saudi Arabia into that stupid, ill-advised war-that’s-not-a-war in Iran. Iran will respond, of course. Most likely, that will involve attacking oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia. That will hurt supply AND take years to rebuild. It also widens Donny’s stupid war. We’ve had lots of opportunities to learn. We refuse to. That’s going to be costly…

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It looks like Donny is trying to ratchet up the pressure on his Republicans in Congress to pass the SAVE My Ass Act and eliminate the filibuster to do it. He sent Susan Wiles, his Chief of Staff to Congress to huddle with Senate Majority Leader John Thune. Thune has maintained consistently that he doesn’t have the votes for either. 47 wants him to do it anyway. No, it doesn’t make sense but then, less and less of what he does makes any sense…

Quick question: what do YOU think Donny is going to do to try to interfere or stop the upcoming midterms completely? It’s not a rhetorical question. We all (except MAGA, and even some of them) know he’s going to do something. The whole world hates this guy with a white hot passion. If a free and fair election takes place, he loses as badly as we can manage. Then he faces honest investigations, criminal indictments, and, likely, impeachment. He CAN NOT let that happen. SO…what do you think he’s going to do to intervene?

Grilling Fauci…

by MyBaconPress

So, does it matter any more where Covid-19 came from? Did it ever? There are two schools of thought on the topic: either it was a natural jump from animals to humans or it came from a US-funded lab in China. Okay, great. How does knowing where it came from affect anything? We still had to go through it. All the same people died. It was a big fight once between left and right, though. Apparently, for the right, it still is.

They called Dr. Anthony Fauci, who served as the nation’s infectious disease expert during the pandemic, to testify before Congress about Covid-19. Fauci knows, from experience, what the cons want: an excuse to harass Fauci and his family. He invoked his Fifth Amendment rights on over 100 questions.

At the time, Fauci was trying to understand and manage a new health threat while fully a third of the population challenged every word he said because they had spent a few minutes online doing their “own research.” Fauci only had years of education and decades of practice to work with. How could HE know what they learned in five minutes from some conservative talking head?

Fauci DID get some things wrong, too. He was working blind, having to determine courses of action in real time with little information. Much of what he said was ‘best guess’ or ‘best practice’ stuff that was later modified as information became available. Cons often can’t accept that. They think once a thing is said, that’s the thing and nothing can change it. Smart people know that new information requires modification of thought and that was the battle between left and right on Covid-19.

Fauci generally supported the natural transmission line but even he had doubts. It’s very difficult to say, for sure, and when the focus is managing the problem, where it came from is less important. Meanwhile, Donny was out there suggesting people drink bleach or shove a blacklight up their backsides to get rid of Covid and insisting Fauci didn’t know anything, and since it was uttered by the mouth of their Precious, Fauci had to agree or spend his days being bullied and harassed by blindly loyal MAGA.

Fauci stayed true to the science to the best of his ability and just took the abuse as long as he had to. But as quickly as he could, he returned to private life and has stayed there ever since. The cons won’t leave him alone, though. They’re STILL trying to prove he was just lying to make 47 look bad. (Generally speaking, it’s the truth that makes 47 look bad.)

He responded to the Congressional subpoena. He showed up. He refused to answer their stupid questions. Then he went home. Now Rand Paul, Homeland Security Chairman, wants to hold Fauci in contempt for invoking his Fifth Amendment protections. It makes sense. Having perfect information on a teeny-tiny, rather irrelevant detail of an event that took place over seven years ago is clearly more important than any of the minor challenges the US faces today, right? Leave it to the cons to keep their eyes on the wrong prize…

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Wow, this is going to hurt. On Monday, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) ended for people from Haiti and Syria. They can no longer legally work in the US, and now they can be removed from this once-great nation. The bigots couldn’t be happier.

But there are 200,000 Haitians and 2,000 Syrians contributing roughly $5.9 billion dollars to the US economy. Plucking 202,000 people out of the workforce at once is going to hurt the economy. And for me? It’s not enough that bigots are going to be happy. Turns out, I don’t much care what bigots want…

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We have a little university, here in Sonoma County. It’s called, cleverly, Sonoma State University. The school ran into some money troubles. They ran out. So, something had to go. Did they lose benefits to school functionaries? No. Did they adjust salaries of administrators? Don’t be ridiculous. What they did was, they got rid of ALL of their athletics programs and stopped teaching other subjects.

Just what every student wants, right? A school that doesn’t teach the topics the students need. What a brilliant way to entice students to the school. When the academic program can’t bring enrollment, athletics often does. But, rats, Sonoma State got rid of that, too. Since then, they’ve recorded the steepest enrollment decline in the California State University system.

Who could have guessed? I mean, really, who could know that not teaching subjects and eliminating athletics would cause students to want to go somewhere else? But that’s what happened. No sports? No classes? I’m going somewhere else! Ok, the “no classes” is a bit of hyperbole. They still had classes. But they closed eight different programs entirely so there were “no classes” in those subjects.

But now? Now the sports are coming back. So are the cancelled programs, though stripped down. Cancelling programs and athletics didn’t do what people hoped it would. No doubt. It’s like a car dealership trying to improve sales by not selling any cars. Dumb, with a ‘b.’

Fortunately, the school ALSO got a new President, Michael E. Spagna, and Spagna is bringing back the sports and the subjects. He’s “reimagining” Sonoma State as a whole. That’s his spiel. We’ll see if it works. I hope it does. The old plan seemed to put the university on a death spiral. Hopefully, this will help…

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I know a young lady who just turned 16 years old. For her birthday, she wanted vinyl albums. Not a subscription to some online service. Not a playlist. Actual, physical vinyl albums. I like that. It reminds me of Sony’s choice to stop producing physical discs for their PlayStation game decks – and how people are angry about it. Finally!

I recently moved house. I dragged my CD collection with me. CD’s? Who the hell still listens to CD’s? I do. If some streaming service decides to withdraw music or movies or games or whatever else I’ve “subscribed” to, it’s gone. Oh, you bought it? No, you rented it. You never owned anything.

Look, I understand the value of streaming. It IS convenient. It does serve. It has a place. But it should never have replaced actual ownership of one’s favorite music or whatever. From the producers point of view, the benefit of the physical disc is the problem. I can share my owned discs. I can’t share my streamed stuff the same way.

I still have my disc after the service pulls it from streaming for whatever reason. For example, Sony is about to delete 551 movies and TV shows from the UK PlayStation store because its content licensing agreement with StudioCanal has expired. If you “bought” any of those titles, you’re just out. Had you purchased the physical copies and brought them home, you’d still be able to enjoy them even though Sony deletes them.

Young people seem to be figuring this scam out and they don’t seem to like it. Thank goodness. I’ve never liked it. They HAVE migrated to vinyl instead of CD’s. (One of her new albums skipped on the first play, a frustration I thought young people would never know.) Still, it’s a physical copy of the work, not some stream. There’s a movement afoot for gamers to boycott PlayStation this August in protest of the elimination of physical discs. I hope it works. I’d rather own a physical copy of the things I buy then a digital download that may or may not be there tomorrow…

Let The Traffic Flow…

by MyBaconPress

Back in February of this year, I told you about the Gordie Howe International Bridge. To recap, there’s a bridge connecting Detroit, Michigan in the US and Windsor, Ontario in Canada. It’s called the Ambassador Bridge and it is owned by a wealthy family named Moroun. It’s old (opened in 1929) and inconvenient. It connects surface streets on the Ontario side so if you use it, you’ll still have to wend your way through town. Oh, AND, it’s a toll bridge. The Moroun family makes money from the thing – and THEY get to say how much money. It’s an important trade route. They’ve been making a LOT of money from it.

So Michigan and Canada got together and decided to build a new bridge, the Gordie Howe International Bridge. It’s safer. It’s easier. It’s just better. So, obviously, the Moroun family has been filing lawsuits since the project started and when the span was completed anyway, they used their wealth in the way wealth works best. The bribed Donny. Allegedly. All I can say, for sure, is that the Moroun family has dumped large sums of money into 47 and when the Gordie Howe bridge was ready to open, Matthew Moroun visited President Pedo personally.

The next thing anyone knew, Donny was declaring the Gordie Howe bridge a national threat and he wouldn’t let it open. As usual, he was vague on the details of exactly HOW a bridge that makes travel safer, easier, and more affordable (there’s that word, again) constitutes a “national threat.” We DO know the Moroun family makes about $100 dollars per semi-truck each way, while the Gordie Howe Bridge will only cost them about $43 dollars. Sure, that saves money for the truckers but it takes money out of the Moroun family’s pockets. I’m not surprised to hear that Donny considers a billionaire losing money to a better way a national threat.

But now the bridge is opening anyway. I was curious about how that happened. Donny’s demented mind sees demons in Canada and he really wants to punish them for all of that nothing they’ve done to us. So I was curious about what changed. Why is the Gordie Howe International Bridge no longer a national threat? Well, it turns out – and you won’t be surprised to hear this – Donny extorted Canada.

Canada paid for the bridge – all of the money, up front – and arranged to recoup their investments with the toll revenue, but intended to share some of the revenue with Michigan, as well. Team Evil claimed the bridge was a threat until Canada gave up some of the revenues they expected. Donny says it’s a better deal. Canada says, “We’re dealing with an administration like we’ve never seen before. They renege on deals. They don’t follow agreements. It’s like dealing with pirates.”

That’s an honest look into how other nations view the US today. “It’s like dealing with pirates.” So? Expect more typical trumpery. You just KNOW Donny will be out there telling his base the world respects us more than ever, but “like dealing with pirates” doesn’t sound like respect, to me. Still, the bridge is open now. Well, until Donny has another fever dream and throws another tantrum, that is…

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‘Narcissistic Collapse,’ they call it. When you see or hear Donny rage-tweeting at 2 am or listen to one (any) of his speeches, he’s really on more of a rant than trying to deliver any new information. He attacks one time supporters and he uses very aggressive words.

One author on the subject, Tina Swithin said, “Narcissistic collapse occurs when a narcissist’s carefully constructed self-image is threatened or shattered, often by criticism, public humiliation, perceived abandonment or a loss of control.” She added, “Basically, narcissistic collapse is ‘the moment the mask slips.’ A narcissist’s facade of power, authority and unique greatness goes away as their vulnerability is exposed ― laying bare negative behaviors that were previously hidden or controlled.”

In short, he’s melting down as more and more people see who he really is and just how bad he is at, well, everything, really. He sucks as a human being. HE has always known that about himself. He’s just terrified YOU might be seeing it, too. Many of us do, Donny, and more will see the real you every day…

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There’s this law. It’s called the ‘War Powers Act of 1973.’ It requires the president to end military operations within 60 days unless Congress authorizes an extension. Team Evil is trying a workaround. At one point in their illegal war, they declared a cease-fire in Operation Epic Fury. Now, obviously, the fighting has resumed. But Donny doesn’t WANT to turn to Congress for permission to keep bombing innocents – so Team Evil is trying to pretend THIS US vs Iran fighting is different from the last US vs Iran fighting.

Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, wrote in social media, “Let me explain this absurd ruse: The Pentagon is pretending there have been TWO Iran wars separated by a brief cease-fire.” It really IS absurd. It will lose in court if it ever gets there, but it buys the regime time, and time is what they need to create even more confusion.

This is all coming up because the regime wants to hide the number of American war dead and wounded. If they can convince somebody of their ‘two wars’ delusion, they can separate the number of casualties and obscure the body count, which currently stands at 18 US soldiers killed and 624 wounded since his illegal invasion…

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Hey, is now a good time to remind you that Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein were best friends and likely co-conspirators in a sex trafficking scheme for years and years? He’s trying very hard to distract people because he wants people to forget that. As he declines, his behavior becomes more outrageous and more dangerous, he’s slowly pushing the Trump/Epstein files off the front pages. But people are not forgetting his pedophile past. Don’t you forget it, either…

An Address in Prime Time…

by MyBaconPress

Oh, gods, his prime-time address. Look, Donald J. Trump is a liar. He lies about elections, among other things. That lying piece of human waste never, never, NEVER presents even a shred of evidence. That’s because there IS no evidence to support his stories, and THAT is because his stories are lies. He’s desperately trying to convince somebody, somewhere that American elections are untrustworthy because HE tried to steal 2020 and lost anyway.

He’s been telling these lies for years. The charges do NOT just spew into the wind where everyone ignores them. They get investigated. Extensively. Over and over – every time he starts accusing someone, somewhere of meddling, another investigation. He filed lawsuits but never presented any valid evidence. His election lies have been investigated by the intelligence community, the FBI, DHS, DOJ, bipartisan state election officials, audits, recounts, and the courts.

Never ONCE have they found evidence of extensive cheating – the level one would need to change the outcome of a national election. In fairness, each election DOES usually turn up a Republican or two who tried to vote more than once. But a single vote, here and there, doesn’t have much effect on the outcome.

So trump is definitely lying. Well, I suppose he could be delusional. Maybe he really believes he was cheated. Some people really believe they can see six foot tall, pink rabbits, too. That doesn’t mean they can. Mostly, though, I think evil Donny is crazy like a fox. He knows the elections were secure. He didn’t like the outcome. And now, he’s terrified there’s going to be another fair election.

By every measure, Donald J. Trump has been a terrible President. He has done more harm to America and her reputation around the world in a single year than anybody could have imagined. There’s not a single metric to which one can point that shows positive results for the largest number of people. In fact, he’s hurting as many work-a-day Americans as he can, as badly as he can, as quickly as he can.

Cons like to point to the border and pretend that’s a success but even that effort has resulted in American law enforcement gunning down innocent people – including Americans – in the street with no charge, no trial, and commonly, no crime. People are dying of maltreatment in detention. The program is brutal and cruel and actually and honestly dangerous – AND, it’s damaging the economy! I’m not ready to call that a success.

By now, even MAGA knows this. I know, they’re telling pollsters they’re still fully on board. They’re still, mostly, not ready to confess their disappointment publicly. But they know. They buy gas. They buy groceries. They pay rent. I’ll tell you this: even if all of that WAS Joe Biden’s fault – which it absolutely is not – Donny is still in the driver’s seat now. Whether he likes it or not, it’s his responsibility. He doesn’t get to ignore that responsibility based on the idea that Joe did it.

It’s Donny’s job to address and correct problems. Who did it isn’t relevant. That’s what his supporters voted for him to do. That’s what he promised. Then, after he’s in office and the money starts flowing into his personal pockets, suddenly “affordability” is a made-up word? He’s really just going to TELL you inflation is down and you’re supposed to believe him, despite actually going into grocery stores?

Although he’s failing completely in Iran, he lied. He said (again), “We are…winning big in Iran, and you will see the fruits of that labor very, very shortly.” Uh-huh. Let me guess. In about two weeks, right? Right after you release your new and improved health care plan? Should we hold our breath?

The economy is struggling and headed down. The food supply is threatened, thanks to all of that beautiful deregulation. Once-eliminated illnesses in both humans and livestock are making grand comebacks, thanks to the anti-science stance. We’re voluntarily, unilaterally, surrendering any/every lead we had in technology because he prefers yesterday’s technologies. His ill-advised war continues. We’re paying millions to bomb a foreign, sovereign nation for no discernible reason – and these Bozos on Team Evil are laser focused on – sperm counts and algae blooms?

Yeah, a terrible, terrible President. And he’s being supported by terrible, terrible people, all of whom hope to profit, personally, from the corruption – and all at the expense of the work-a-day American people. The vast majority of the American people want this guy stopped and elections are our ticket to do that. But he doesn’t WANT to stop. He has literally made BILLIONS of dollars, grifting from the Oval Office. Worse, he faces criminal charges already and there’s a long and increasing list of new charges just waiting for him.

He knows that. He knows he’s looking at a shellacking at the polls and he knows that means taking responsibility for his actions. He HATES that more than just about anything. He simply can NOT afford a fair and secure election. He’ll lose, and he knows it. So he’s lying. He has cooked up a scheme. All he has to do is convince MAGA to ignore their own eyes and listen to him instead. Some actually will, or they’ll try. Some will know better but support him anyway. <Shakes head.>

I suspect everyone knew this was going to be nothing more than a tantrum. MAGA watched, anyway, just to get a glimpse of their glorious Precious. Most of the world looked away, unable to look at that ugly mug or hear that grating voice for one more second. Even most of the major networks refused to air the thing. They put it in their social media feeds, but not the airwaves. He whined about that, too. He just whines about everything. But, really, who needs to listen to more lies? And, really, that’s all this loser has…

Reality Bites Back…

by MyBaconPress

You DO realize, do you not, that the worst, most harmful effects of the GOP’s “Big Beautiful Bill” are set to kick in AFTER the mid-terms, right? They passed the bill and it contains some real ugly stuff. They KNOW it’s ugly stuff and they KNOW it’s going to infuriate it’s victims (i.e., the American people). So they delayed it. Oh, to be sure, they DID it, but they delayed it so you wouldn’t feel it until AFTER the elections. The Republicans were trying to protect Republicans from the actions of the Republicans…

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Ah, rats! McConnell still pollutes Earth. He stuck his head out from his shell yesterday to explain that he fell down. Oh, AND he had a “mild case” of pneumonia. He says doctors have no explanation as to WHY he passed out. He just did. Actually, I suspect he’s on blood pressure medication and he stood up too fast. That gets REAL as you age. I once stood up too fast and blacked out. When I fell, I banged my head on a door, putting a nice little head-shaped dent in the thing.

This could be like a ‘Christmas Carol’ moment for him. Maybe he could read most of the stuff written about him by people who thought (hoped and prayed) he had died. Maybe he could understand how people feel about him, the legacy he’s leaving behind. Maybe he could reconsider being the evil jerk he is and do a personal “reset.” I mean, he won’t, but he certainly could.

It’s important to note that many people are pointing out potential flaws in the photo his team released. Even people on the far right are questioning the validity of the photo. They say – correctly, in my view – that McConnell should have released a short video instead of a photo. People ALSO want to know why all of the metadata has been stripped from the photo. That’s a fair question.

Perhaps the photo and statement are AI. People are also pointing out that rescuers were performing CPR on McConnell when he was taken to the hospital. Does one do CPR for a fall? Does pneumonia respond to CPR? It’s possible the cover-up continues. It’s possible McConnell can’t make a current video. It’s possible he really is dead. I wish I could know for sure. I’d like to know if I should be celebrating or just still disappointed…

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The thing about McConnell is that he might have fallen down as a result of the polio he contracted when he was a kid. He had only a minor case. His mobility was impaired but he got away without much worse. Another victim, Martha Lillard, contracted polio when she was five. SHE had to use an iron lung while she slept for her entire life. She just passed away June 26th. She was the last known polio survivor who used an iron lung. She was 78.

I imagine people like Lillard and possibly even ‘The Bitch’ McConnell were happy when a vaccine was introduced, so nobody else would have to go through what they went through. Then we get RFK, jr with his message of, “Heck yes we can stop it. We just don’t thing you should.” I can’t believe people – young mothers – started lining up to avoid the vaccine for their child. So long as stupidity rules the day, professionals should keep a few of those iron lungs around. We’re still going to need them. It’s very embarrassing to be an American, these days…

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This is just a passing thought, but the ONE thing I regret about Graham Platner having to drop out of the race in Maine is that we’ve missed the opportunity to listen to MAGA bitch and moan about how terrible, horrible, disgusting, and incomprehensible it would be to elect a person accused of sexual assault.

They wouldn’t even notice that their Precious has to pay E. Jean Carroll the five million he owes her for defaming her after he sexually assaulted her, and they’ve certainly “compartmentalized” the Trump/Epstein files. “OUR raper is okay. YOURS is an outrage!” That’s a hell of a case to make. American politics just ain’t what it used to be…

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Sad! Donny can’t get out of his stupid war-that’s-not-a-war in Iran. It’s got me wondering: how come he claims to have “solved” a bunch of wars nobody can see or knows anything about, but he can’t solve any of the active wars the entire world knows about? It’s almost as if he’s just lying.

Expect gas prices to jump again. The Strait of Hormuz is closed still/again/still/again. OPEC has increased their output but that takes a little time to affect the market. Missiles in the Strait take no time at all. I’ve got to tell you, I liked it better when the United States had competent Presidents…

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The GOP is considering a vote to end Daylight Saving Time. I support that. Their actual goal is to KEEP Daylight Saving – that is, to stay on that schedule instead of locking in on standard time. I do NOT support that. I only have evidence to rely upon, here, and we all know how cons feel about evidence, but I’m going to mention it anyway.

California tried that once, staying on Daylight Saving. It was a test program, intended to run two years. The first year was SO disastrous, they ended the program after the first winter. Too many dead kids. That’s real. It turns out, staying on Daylight Saving for more light in the evening, means more darkness in the mornings.

You know mornings. That’s when kids walk to school or to school bus stops. Making sure it’s extra-dark during those hours got lots of kids killed by drivers who just couldn’t see them. There’s no reason to assume the same thing won’t happen again.

Besides, Daylight Saving doesn’t provide any benefit. Americans live by clocks, not sunshine. Let’s stop the time changes, but stay on standard time. Americans lose nothing and school kids are safer. I call that a win-win…