Guns

Tales That Don’t Track…

by MyBaconPress

Is it true conservatives are ALREADY embracing the Biden economy as Trump’s own? The economic “glory days” they remember from Trump’s first term were the months at the beginning where America was still enjoying the benefits of Obama’s economy. The more Trump messed with it, the worse it got. No, MAGA won’t confess that. It’s just true. THEN, they just ignore the part where it crashed and burned because of his terrible handling of the pandemic. But that part is true, too.

So when Trump started running on how bad the economy is today, I thought enough people would know the difference to understand he was lying. They didn’t. It turns out, young people are still turning toward Trump and even though Trump hasn’t taken the oath of office he’ll ignore, I hear he’s already taking credit for the health of the economy, these days.

There’s a certain element that explains some of the young people’s support: dishonest media. For the last 40+ years, conservatives have been lying to people about what works and what doesn’t and why this and how come not that. Those of us who have completed a higher number of trips around the sun still remember Better America. No, it wasn’t perfect but it was FAR better than this bizarro crap.

So when I hear some talking head pretend there’s such a thing as “Supply Side Economics,” I just shake my head in disgust that people might do that to others. But young people? All they’ve ever heard is that supply side economics IS a thing. That same media works tirelessly to keep them from realizing the longer this supply side crap is in play, the harder their own life has become. There’s a direct relationship. But you have to understand the details to see the connection, and too many people are bored by the details.

I’ve never ONCE argued that the United States was in perfect, or even excellent shape. We’ve had problems since the start. (Largely because of small-minded people.) But we were addressing them, one by one. Maybe we would have made it, given enough time. I thought we were on a good track until Reagan.

But over the course of those 40+ years, young people have never heard correct information about how economies work and instead, have been treated to misinformation and disinformation of the far right. Now, we see the young people out there, supporting the destruction of the nation because they think it’s necessary. But it’s not their fault. They know not what they do…

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The right has been wrong, of course, on the economy. It’s in FAR better shape than they were willing to admit before the “election.” Yes, prices DID go up at an infuriating rate. But people who know understand; that wasn’t “inflation.” It was “greedflation.” Companies were raising prices because they could, and blaming inflation for doing it. But there hasn’t been any systemic inflation in quite some time. It’s all just greed.

Now Trump has offered them a new excuse to start raising prices again: his tariffs. He’s promising some BIG numbers – as high as 20% on things from most foreign countries. He’s threatening even HIGHER tariffs for stuff coming from China. ALL of this will raise prices and make it harder to make ends meet, not easier. AutoZone, Columbia Sportswear, and Stanley Black and Decker have all made clear that if the tariffs go into effect, their prices go up. It will be that way for most imports, which is most products in America, these days.

The excuse will be that the corporate costs went up due to the tariffs so they HAD to pass those costs along. But I’d bet a dollar the prices will go up FAR more than the tariffs will drive because corporate America will have a new excuse to gouge. And gouge they will…

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So, Musk and Neil DeGrasse-Tyson are in a bit of a dispute. Musk thinks he’s going to send humans to Mars. DeGrasse-Tyson thinks he’s not. DeGrasse-Tyson is speaking the truth. His observations are NOT political – they’re economic. Sooner or later, someone is going to have to pay for a project that takes humans to Mars. To do that just for the sake of doing it? When the hell have investors done that? If they don’t expect a financial return for their investment, they don’t invest. It’s pretty simple, really.

Musk says he knows it’s a bad investment so he’s not looking for investors. He’ll just cover the trip, himself. But you’ve STILL got to get people to buy in to the idea enough to actually go, knowing he doesn’t even plan to bring them home. You go. You shout “We MADE it!” You die. There’s probably no optics problem, there. There’s another, more important point, though.

The idea to go to Mars is at least partially driven by the damage we’re doing to Earth. Elon thinks he can just go to Mars and terraform that planet to better match THIS planet. Quick question; why not just fix THIS planet and skip all that other trouble? I mean, if he’s ready to turn Mars into Earth, couldn’t he turn Earth into Earth?

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Every time the gun argument heats up, sooner or later someone insists that guns don’t fire themselves. It can’t happen, we’re told. Apparently, it can. A man insists he had his Sig Sauer P320 holstered as he was coming down the stairs in his house when the gun just…fired. The gun shot the guy in the leg – all by itself. More than 100 other people have come forward to say the same thing; the gun goes off by itself.

Thoughts and prayers, right? Well, no. Not in this case. The guy has been awarded $11 million dollars. (Sig Sauer says they’ll appeal, of course.) His attorney said, and you can’t make this up, “This gun is a danger to gun owners and anyone within the vicinity of this gun.” Apparently, the guy should have bought one of those safe guns that represent no threat to anyone anywhere…

While I’m on the topic of guns? I have a personal theory. Dictators are, generally speaking, not too comfortable with an armed populace. There have already been a couple of less-than-credible-but-still-reported attempts to shoot our incoming dictator. How long do you suppose it’s going to be before a tiny little light goes on in his tiny little brain and he decides it’s too dangerous to him for the masses to have guns? I suspect that conservative sweetheart Donald J. Trump will, sooner or later, be the one who actually comes to “take people’s guns.”

At this point? It’s just a hunch…

Coming For Our Guns…

by MyBaconPress

Here’s a funny thought I had. For years, nay decades, we’ve been listening to gun rights advocates (GRAs) whining that the left is trying to take their guns. We’re not. We’d like to control which crazies have access to guns but I haven’t heard any serious calls to repeal the Second Amendment.

Trump, rather infamously, insisted during his J6 ‘Wind-Em-Up Rally’ that the Secret Service should remove the weapons detectors at the gates. When told that there were many credible reports of armed people in the crowd, he (again, rather infamously) retorted that they weren’t there to hurt him. Trump felt safe around all those armed people because he felt like they were all on his side. But now, one of HIS people has taken a shot at him.

Even Trump might well figure out that his reasoning on J6 may have been less than perfect. Loyalty is an unpredictable thing in crazy people. You know who Donald J. Trump loves more than anything or anybody? Donald J. Trump! On July 13th, he received instant information that, despite his preference, people with guns could, very well, constitute a threat to his oh-so-beautiful self. How do YOU think a self loving, paranoid, megalomaniac authoritarian is going to react to the possibility that some gun nut might use one of those guns to try – again – to kill him?

So guess who I predict will be coming for people’s guns. Go ahead, take a guess. If you said Donald J. Trump, you win. (There is no prize so, nice job!) Only Nixon could go to China. Only Trump can take the guns. I suspect it won’t be too long after he’s installed that he feels the paranoid need to remove the threat – that is, the guns. Especially if there’s a second attempt.

Remember, it was a gun nut conservative who took the shot. Trump may well realize that ANY gun nut, left or right, could become a serious threat – to HIM – with little or no warning. After all, the guy who kills Trump gets to live in history forever the same way the guy who killed John Lennon did it to live in history forever. It turns out? There are twisted people out there…

My head will spin as I watch MAGA media denounce gun ownership and see the new laws banning guns imposed by MAGA from sea to shining sea – all to protect their dear leader. It’s going to be fascinating watching GRAs try to decide how to respond. Will they just turn their weapons in? Some will. Will they go all “from my cold dead hands?” Maybe. Will they withdraw support from Trump? (Too late, guys. Once he’s in, he’s in – and you will be, I predict, disarmed.)

I guess the Lord DOES work in mysterious ways. Sure, the entire world suffers and burns under another Trump maladministration – but at least we will have finally managed the gun problem in this once-great nation…

Terrible is Still Terrible…

by MyBaconPress

So, yesterday, I wrote about Trump getting winged. I speculated on possible reasons, since nobody knew anything substantial at the time I was writing. One of the possibilities I mentioned was that it was NOT a political hit. It was just another in a long line of MAGAGOP/NRA shootings in which crazy people compete with each other to try to get the most horrific mass shootings and stand atop the crazy shooter pile. It turns out, this was that.

MAGA thinks the Dems have to tone down the violent rhetoric, though. Yeah, cause Dems are the party of shooting beer to protest an ad they don’t like. Wait, is it the Dems who run political campaigns by shooting… anything they can think of that they relate to liberalism? No, that’s right. I mean, that’s THE right.

MAGA also thinks their god protected their guy. Apparently, their god didn’t give two figs about the others who got shot. Quick question, if god is out there protecting certain people from becoming victims, why does he allow innocent seven-year-olds to be cut to pieces but saves the life of the personification of the Seven Deadly Sins? I mean, which “god” are you people praying to? Because it seems to stink of Sulpher…

At least one guy suggested BIDEN should be arrested for attempting a political assassination. If he would tune in to reality for even a second, he would know that a) Biden had nothing to do with it and b) even if he had, Biden enjoys perfect immunity for official acts, thanks to the conservative Kangaroos on the way-high court.

All Biden would have to say is he was “testing the effectiveness of the Secret Service” as part of his official duties. You know, the same story Trump tells about his attempt to steal the election. Besides, if Biden was going to attempt an assassination, do you really think he’d send a poor shooting kid? Biden has access to the best snipers in the world, people who know how to account for windage. Why would he send that failed human being?

But, alas (because when does one get a chance to use ‘alas’) it was just a run-of-the-mill standard conservative nutball trying to make the record books…

So then the other question is, how is this going to affect the race? Did Trump just win? If anything, Trump won on debate night. I don’t think getting winged is going to offer him much, long-term. Sure, he’ll play it up as much as possible. (Be honest, Dems would, too.) MAGA will rend clothing and clutch pearls and swoon but now that we know the shooter was just a standard crazy doing MAGA-endorsed crazy stuff, we’re kind of back to normal.

I saw an article in the Guardian suggesting some of Biden’s talking points were now muted. I disagree. Trump is still an existential threat to democracy and to the health of America. Am I really not allowed to say so because of some conservative crazy? Are we on the left not allowed to mention the Trump inspired violence of J6 because of the MAGA enabled violence at ONE political rally?

Yeah, sure, MAGA is going to try to blame the left. MAGA always blames the left. MAGA has not proven itself a very well informed group. I can’t see standing down on facts because of one event. Especially when (with respect for those who were seriously hurt or killed) it’s a such a non-event for MAGA. The only one who counts for them is Trump – and he was only scraped.

Of course Trump will see a bump in his support. I hear shares of his struggling media venture have gone up in value. Polls might bump in his favor for a short time. But Trump is still who he is. He has still done what he has done. Having a bullet whiz past him isn’t going to change that and there’s still time to remind everyone of the threat.

As an example, on the same page where the Guardian is doing the inevitable post-shooting stuff, there’s an article from leading economists warning that Trump’s proposed economic plan is going to do FAR more harm to the US than not. One guy is even from the far-right conservative stink-tank American Enterprise Institute, so it’s not just lefties ripping on their opponent.

I have to confess, he DID get a pretty good photo out of it. He did. But he’ll plaster it on T-shirts and mugs and sell it for way too much money and the photo will become as hackneyed as his “never surrender” surrender photo. Yes, MAGA is going to get a little “chubby” every time they look at it but the rest of us?

Since, like everything, it was NOT what MAGA will say it was, to my mind, it’s already yesterday’s news. I don’t think people will jump aboard the crazy train because of a cool photograph and his policies still suck. Saying the shooting won Trump the election is like saying the shooting made women comfortable about losing bodily autonomy and that, maybe, rampant, outright racism isn’t so bad.

I’ll tell you this: Terrible is still terrible, cool photo or not…

Questions, Conflicts, and Cons…

by MyBaconPress

Okay, so some failed human being goes to a splash pad in Detroit and…opens fire. An eight year old boy was shot in the head and is in critical condition. Eight other people were shot, too. They’re in stable condition. THEN, the idiot shooter goes home and kills himself. A LOT of these random crazies end up killing themselves in the end. My question? Why not just do the second part and leave everyone else out of it?

Perhaps he was just celebrating the Kangaroos return to stupidity when they restored bump stocks to the nation. A bump stock is an add-on device that allows a semi-automatic gun to fire at rates similar to a machine gun. For the most part, it’s illegal to own fully automatic machine guns in America. There are some exceptions, of course. But the gun world’s work-around was bump stocks. Bump stocks are the key to how that idiot in Las Vegas was able to murder so many people in such a short time.

Oh, yeah, bump stocks were banned by the Trump maladministration. (He got one right. He deserves that credit, though, he’s now denying he did it…) No matter. The Kangaroos overturned the ban and now bump stocks are back. The ethically challenged moron Clarence Thomas, of course, insisted that bump stocks don’t turn semi-automatic weapons into fully automatic weapons. No, they don’t. But they allow a semi-automatic weapon to fire at nearly the same rate, so the difference is negligible…

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One of the things I note about MAGA is that they lack empathy. As a group, to be sure, but I mean individually. I consider it a defining characteristic. One definition of empathy is: “The ability to identify with or understand another’s situation or feelings.” This, MAGA can not do. The only way MAGA can understand anything, even have a chance of understanding, is if they experience that thing themselves and even then, there’s no guarantee.

Steve Scalise (R, La) is a rabid gun nut. He got shot by a random shooter at a softball practice. He nearly died. He’s STILL a rabid gun nut. He’s also still in good with MAGA. Compare that to Gabby Giffords. She was also a strong gun supporter, though maybe not a “rabid” gun nut. Then she got shot. Now she’s more wary of allowing just anybody to have a gun or to carry one anywhere and everywhere. She learned. Scalise couldn’t.

The reason I mention this is that there’s a tendency for me to momentarily wish upon them the things they deny others. Does that happen to you? When I heard Thomas’s claim about bump stocks, I momentarily wished he could be on the receiving end of someone with a bump stock. When that young woman insisted she’s going to destroy a woman’s right to control her own body, I momentarily wished her pregnant by her rapist.

I really don’t like that. It shames and embarrasses me that such thoughts might even BE in my head. I don’t mean them. They just show up, unbidden. Then I have to slap them down and reproach myself for even considering it. I don’t WANT to be like MAGA. I suppose (hope?) it’s a natural, animal response. But I KNOW it’s not decent nor civilized. I think it comes from a place of, “Well, if it’s the only way they’re going to learn…” But it isn’t the “only” way. It can’t be. How DOES one teach a person who doesn’t WANT to learn?

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Everybody on the left is worried that the cons are ushering in Fascism because we, on the left, know what Fascism is. Everybody on the right is worried that the LEFT is ushering in Fascism because cons DON’T know what Fascism is. I think both sides are wrong. I’ve seen all kinds of lists about what MUST be on display to be Fascism but I never agree with them. They seem a distraction from the simplest, most correct definition, the one I take from the so-called “Father of Fascism,” Benito Mussolini.

Mussolini kept it simple. Fascism, he said, was the merger between government and corporate power. He didn’t say anything about the “add-ons,” things like authoritarianism. Those came later. But IF one sticks with Mussolini’s definition, it seems the United States has been a Fascist nation since 2010, when the SKCOTUS made their dreadful, infamous Citizens United vs the FEC ruling. That’s the one that allowed (required?) rich people to buy politicians through unlimited campaign contributions.

Consider: we all know that politicians these days are owned and operated by corporations and rich people. If the politicians want to keep their phony-baloney jobs, they have to stay ‘hat in hand’ with the money people. The average Joe, sending $20, or $50, or even $100 to some candidate isn’t the person the candidate will look to after winning. They’ll look to the rich guy or corporation that sent them $20,000, or $200,000 in bundled cash, or the people who pay the tab on expensive gifts and other bribes.

But that system absolutely reflects the “merger between government and corporate power.” The wealthy buy the politicians, the politicians do as they’re told by the wealthy – and the wealthy only want politicians to do what’s best for the wealthy! Voila! Fascism. It happened quietly. Most people didn’t even seem to notice. Many haven’t noticed yet.

But I’ll tell you this: it happened. Fascism came to America in 2010. It WAS wrapped in the flag and carrying a Bible, too. But make no mistake, it came because wealthy people bought it and morons supported it. Now we’re all suffering from it…