gerrymandering

Yuck! Nobody Wants To See That…

by MyBaconPress

Yuck! What was his ugly face doing polluting my football games yesterday? Nobody wants to see that. It’s disgusting. Why would we want to see his fat ass waddling down a hallway? People eat during those games! There are lots of things nobody wants to look at while they’re eating and I would put the Drumpfster’s ugly mug right at the very top.

Also, should the President (or, in this case, trump) be putting out political ads with 36 days to go until the election? Or, how about at all? The only saving grace I can see is that the ad uttered a single truth – VERY unusual for this guy. At one point it said “We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country.” Yep, that’s what we’re trying to do, alright, throw off the sick political class that hates our country – the GOP.

At the bottom of the screen was a notice, “Paid for by the US government.” That means our tax dollars. President Pedo used OUR tax dollars to make and run an ad that encouraged one side to vote against the other side. Worse, the ads are just chock full of bunk and bullshit, his usual fare. So, propaganda, right? The regime is using taxpayer dollars to run propaganda ads, just like any Banana Republic. I wonder why he feels the need to inject himself into the race.

Candidates for office this year are said to be removing references to Cadet Bone-spurs from their websites and the GOP has specifically asked him to stay away from campaigns. Not as aggressively as Melanomia tells him to stay away, but that’s a different column. Not everyone is distancing themselves, of course, but several are. Maybe he’s just trying to remind everybody about the job he’s done and make sure we all understand that if we want more of the same, we’ll vote GOP. (NOW how much can you pay?)

The thing is, I think the vast majority of us do NOT want more of the same. I think we’d prefer an honest chance to get ahead, instead. And I’m not alone in my disapproval. John Kennedy – the Louisiana Republican, not the good one – said in an appearance on ‘Face the Nation,’ that there should be rules prohibiting lawmakers from spending public money to promote themselves. He added, “I also think that we ought to have a rule that no politician can have a building named after him while he’s alive. I think that would settle a lot of this controversy.” A little dig at the Dumbass, eh?

I still take it as a positive sign that the GOP is running away from 47 at this point. They know they don’t need him anymore. No, that’s wrong. What they know is he won’t be able to hurt them anymore. What they REALLY know is that they’re at very high risk of losing their personal gravy trains as a direct result of their loyalty to the trump crime family. Many of them are pulling away from him, downplaying the association. I suspect they’re not appreciating his efforts to make sure HE is in people’s faces. I know I didn’t appreciate it when he showed up on my TV screen during the game. I really didn’t want to see that. I mean, yuck…

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An example of voter fraud, you say? Okay, sure. How about the district maps in Missouri? They really screwed this up. Typical GOP, I’d say. Do you remember when the GOP launched redistricting wars down in Texas? States started openly gerrymandering, trying to gain best advantage. I’m not absolutely certain how it all played out in the end, but I believe the GOP won, gaining more ill-gotten seats than the feckless Dems.

The process was supposed to be simple. Redraw your maps to punish the people whose voice you don’t like and install that. It was the “in” thing to do and everyone was doing it, if they could. Missouri tried, they really did. They put out a new map, just like everyone else. Sure, there were lawsuits but what were they going to do? The primaries were held under the new gerrymandered map.

But at least one of those lawsuits succeeded. Missouri was ordered to put BACK in place the map that had been used before the latest effort. Now many voters in Missouri are voting on different candidates than those they voted for, and in different districts than they voted in, during the primary. How confusing is that? This is the worst, most confusing story of electoral chicanery I’ve heard so far. (And it was committed by the Republicans, by the way.)

But, hey, the GOP did it to themselves. For ONE seat. The old map gave the GOP a 6-2 advantage. They gerrymandered harder to get a 7-1 seat advantage. What a mess over one seat. It’s exactly this kind of error that’s making the GOP look like they haven’t got a clue how to govern from sea to shining sea…

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Hey, is anybody else wondering if these AI “escapes” and “leaks” that result in hacks of other businesses and some government operations are actually errors? Intentionally training your AI to hack institutions would look exactly the same, wouldn’t it? We keep hearing about how these AI agents sneak in, leave themselves notes and other innocuous things, then back out again. Uh-huh. That seems most likely…

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I don’t know if it will catch on or not, but I read that many stores are starting to ditch self-checkout lines. I hope so. I won’t use them. I’ve noticed a lot of people sporting my hair color (grey) won’t use them. I can’t speak for others, of course, but I don’t use them because I lived through the self-service gas station scam. “Oh, what a convenience!” we were told. “You won’t have to wait for the gas jockey,” they said. That morphed into “Screw you, do it yourself,” and it didn’t take long.

Self checkout in retail stores threatened to do the same. There’s a local Home Depot store near me that’s almost ALL self-checkout. I don’t shop there anymore. It gets worse when I do the checkout, then some employee wants to check my work. That’s a VERY quick turnaround on the “We trust you, we don’t trust you” carousel.

I don’t get paid to do that job. Someone does, though. I don’t want to take someone’s job in order to improve the corporate bottom line. I’ve also read articles where stores treat error and effort alike as crimes. That is, it doesn’t matter if one is actually trying to steal, or if someone just screwed up, they tend to treat you like you meant to steal. That may not be as true anymore, now that stores have decided just to let people steal. What a stupid and strange choice.

Some stores still have people doing checkout work, of course, but where they do, they limit the availability of the human checker. One lane, maybe two. “If you want our person to do the checking, you’ll have to wait – and we’ll make you wait a long, long time!” They were trying to “encourage” people to use the self-check stations. I not only wait in that long line, I readily block the aisle with my cart.

My attitude? They have eight check-stands they could open. There’s no need for that long line that blocks aisles. If the store is only opening one check-stand, they want the line, right? At least, they should expect it. Technically, I think the store is blocking the aisle with my cart, not me. No, I’m not really that kind of jerk. I move out of people’s way. But I don’t mind a bottleneck if that’s how the store is treating me. It’s just a touch of what goes around, comes around.

So I hope it’s true they’re going away. I’ve noticed in some stores, they’ve been limited to 10 or 15 items, these days. Quick check makes more sense anyway, but it still puts people out of work. I also know there are some people out there who like the things. I’m just not one of them…

Backfires…

by MyBaconPress

It’s weird, isn’t it? Donny said many times, that tariffs don’t raise prices. People who DO know what they’re talking about said the tariffs would increase prices. Donny insisted the people who know what they’re talking about don’t know what they’re talking about. He imposed his tariffs and, inconceivably, prices went up, just like the experts warned. Donny continued to insist tariffs don’t raise prices. Prices went up even more, again, just like the experts warned. People started getting mad at Donny over the ridiculously high prices and finally, Donny responded – by lowering tariffs on several, select grocery items.

I guess we’re not supposed to figure out that tariffs that never increase prices, nevertheless increased prices, and lowering the tariffs, which clearly did NOT increase prices, is hoped to bring prices back down anyway for some ethereal, unconnected reason. I write “hoped” because Donny has handed corporations a perfect excuse to raise prices and I’ve NEVER seen a corporation that could pass up such largess, so, we’ll see…

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There was a headline in Tuesday’s ‘USA Today,’ “Trump’s dominance shows signs of slipping amid Epstein saga and affordability woes.” I think it’s more about the “affordability woes.” MAGA has been able to successfully overlook every moral failing of their Precious based entirely on the idea that as a successful businessman, he – and ONLY he – could save the economy.

There are only two problems with that thinking: one, he’s not a successful businessman, and two, even if he was, governments aren’t supposed to run like businesses. I mean, do YOU want your government operating on a profitability model? I surely do not. As it becomes undeniable that he has no clue how to address the economy, though, MAGA seems to be losing tolerance for his moral failings, as well.

Still, it was pretty nifty, the way Congress finally got it all together and passed the law to release the Epstein files. 47 said he would sign it but 47 lies about everything so we had to wait and see, but he did. Then, everything not related to an ongoing investigation can be disgorged into the public for detailed and intense scrutiny as both parties try to “out-evil” each other.
“We found eight democRATS in those files!”
“We found fifteen Republicans in the files!”
“We found Larry Summers in the files!”
“We found Donald Trump in the files – 27, 246 times!”

They really DID find a prince in those files and now the cloud has consumed Sarah Ferguson. Her latest children’s book has been withdrawn and “pulped.” (Why, yes, that DOES mean destroyed.) She stayed friends with Epstein even after his crimes were discovered. Now she’s having her royal titles withdrawn as well.

Oh, but hold the phone. That part, “everything NOT related to an ongoing investigation.” Didn’t Donny just order a frivolous investigation of Democrats – and only Democrats – that might appear in the Epstein files? Wouldn’t that mean that even with the passage and signing of the law he won’t “be able” to release the FBI files? He sure is a slippery eel, isn’t he? Or perhaps it’s just a coincidence…

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Okay, so, what now? This really IS my favorite story of the week. As you may recall, Texas launched a redistricting war with a midterm redistricting intended and designed to give Republicans five more House seats through the glories of gerrymandering. California responded by temporarily changing THEIR electoral maps to create five more Democratic seats, also through the glories of gerrymandering, to offset the Republican effort.

NOW, a federal court has ruled that Texas doesn’t get to use their re-jiggered map. The court ruled that it was pretty clear the map had been based on racial considerations. Surprisingly, that’s still a no-no in this once-great nation. California was only planning to use THEIR map if Texas used theirs and a court has ruled Texas can’t use theirs. Does California then abandon their plan? CAN they?

Texas, you will not be surprised to hear, is asking the Roberts Supremely Corrupt Kangaroo Court to overturn the lower court’s ruling, which they likely will because it’s what their Precious wants. But what if they don’t? Because Texas is appealing the ruling and time is so short, California has little choice but to move forward with it’s own gerrymandered map based on the possibility Texas moves forward with theirs. The filing dates may well be passed by the time a ruling is handed down.

It’s only one way it could be, but I can see a reality in which the Corrupt court says Texas can’t use their map but California moves ahead with their map – giving California five more seats to “offset” five seats Texas DOESN’T get! That would be a jarring backfire of the GOP attempted steal, but I’m pretty sure I would laugh and laugh…

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“Quiet, Piggy.” Donny actually said that to a reporter who asked a question he didn’t like. A woman, of course. He’s really very disrespectful to women, have you noticed? My how very… juvenile. These days, Donny seems less like a master verbal fencer and more like a petulant and childish brat.

For some reason, “Quite, Piggy” seems to have hit a nerve all of the other horrible things he says to people have not. 47 uses rudeness as a defense all the time. He regularly mouths off at people. MAGA generally sees it as tough talk and they like it regardless of how boorish it shows him to be.

But this poor woman, a reporter, was simply asking a question. It wasn’t even an unreasonable question. His response was mean-spirited. That seems appropriate. He HAS a mean spirit. But for some reason, “Quite, Piggy” has started an avalanche of criticism from both sides of the aisle.

Now that he has taken to falling asleep pretty much anywhere he happens to be, he needs to drop his insult about Joe Biden being “Sleepy Joe,” and I really, really think he should take a gander at a mirror before he calls anybody else “Piggy.” Between him and Catherine Lucey, the reporter he attacked, I say he’s the piggiest piggy…