iran

The White Trash White House…

by MyBaconPress

47 got his UFC fight, disgracing the White House. Bully for him. I’m not a UFC fan but my understanding is that many of the fighters were old. You know, for professional fighters. They put an old guy against a young buck and let them go. According to ‘The Guardian,’ “Every bout on the seven-fight card ended by knockout or technical knockout, the first time that has happened in the UFC’s 33-year history.”

The main event ended with an upset. 37 year old Justin Gaethje beat up previously unbeaten Ilia Topuria who many regard as the sport’s top pound-for-pound fighter. Yeah, the old American beat up the younger “feriner,” currently considered the best in the game. EVERY fight ended with a KO or TKO with the final match being an unlikely upset by an old guy? It feels like, perhaps, the fix was in. Look, I don’t have any evidence to that effect, so it must be true, right?

Yeah, I know, 47 has stolen billions of dollars so he’s rich, but that dude is as white trash as they come. I kind of expect to see broken down cars on the South Lawn any day now. I’m not sure he can surprise me with his debasements any more. If I found out his next planned event was a wet T-shirt contest or he was cooking Meth in the Lincoln Bedroom, I’d just shrug and file it under ‘More of the same.’ What more could anybody possibly expect from this guy?

The White Trash White House, brought to you by Donald Trump and Team Evil. I remember when the US was respected and behaved with dignity. I do…

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Say, we have a deal with Iran! Well, we have a deal to make a deal. Um, it’s more of a framework to consider details of a possible deal to make a deal down the road. Apparently, the shooting is going to stop for awhile, though. That’s good. The US and Iran have agreed to talk about the things they’ve been killing each other over for the last three months. It’s less of a final peace agreement and more of an extension of the cease fire.

That is good, don’t get me wrong. But the sticking points still to be discussed include the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s enriched uranium. Oh, AND, Israel is still going to kill Palestinians. No, they haven’t said it that way. But Israel made clear they’re staying in Lebanon and that, likely, means more killing. The price of a barrel of oil started falling right away. I wouldn’t expect any concurrent savings at the pump, if I were you, though. Price increases pass on to us quickly. Price decreases are always in less of a hurry, because Capitalism works for the Capitalist, not the consumer.

Last night, 47 posted, “I hereby fully authorize the toll free opening of the Strait of Hormuz, and, simultaneously herewith, authorize the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade. Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!” But then an hour passed and he acknowledged that, no, it’s not open yet. First they have to sign a deal – scheduled for this Friday – and even that is about mine removal. Oh, AND the “toll free” part of his claim is not settled, either.

Iran says the deal getting done includes the the phrase, “Iranian arrangements,” which, Iran maintains, means they still get to charge ships to pass through the strait. So, to review, the war-that’s-not-a-war started over enriched uranium (still not settled), Israel attacking Palestinians (still not settled), and free travel in the Strait of Hormuz (still not settled).

It seems to be an awfully big splash over an awfully uncertain conclusion, but at least some of the killing might stop for a while…

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I saw a meme that read, “While you were so worried that Socialism would take your freedoms, Capitalism stole your pension, took your savings, destroyed the climate, shipped your job overseas, robbed you of health care, dismantled the educational system, and shackled you with debt, leaving you only your racism, xenophobia, patriarchy, and guns.”

It’s a good meme except it left one out: Capitalism has taken your freedoms, too…

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If you’re sporting a certain amount of grey in your hair, you’ve met somebody in your lifetime – or possibly BEEN somebody in your lifetime – who has known Polio. It’s a pretty horrifying illness, leaving it’s victims paralyzed or dead. People who survive often have lifelong physical struggles as a result. It was a tremendous blessing when a vaccine was introduced to combat Polio. It allowed for peace of mind, knowing your child was protected. Polio in the US, became something of a thing of the past.

It turns out, that’s bad news. It made Polio rather abstract. For years, young mothers didn’t have to worry baby might contract Polio. The reality of Polio was less in-your-face. That created a luxury space where people could pretend it wasn’t so bad and that vaccines are the real enemy. Young mothers who make that mistake run an extremely high risk of learning exactly how bad Polio is via their own children. By then, it’s too late.

I mention it because there was a news story that Mitch, the bitch, McConnell is in the hospital with some ailment likely related to his age. The story included the fact that McConnell had contracted Polio as a child and walks with difficulty to this day because of it. McConnell voted against the RFK, Jr nomination, largely because of RFK’s moronic, wrong-headed stance on vaccines.

I don’t like McConnell but he did the right thing, there. He did it because he KNOWS Polio. Those of us who remember the scourge – whether it touched us directly or not – embraced the vaccine. I’m not looking forward to the reality of life without vaccines – by choice…

Market Manipulation…

by MyBaconPress

It’s a simple enough scheme. He announces he’s going to bomb the crap out of Iran and the stock market drops. This represents a buying opportunity to anybody who happens to know the situation will change. Then, he announces he’s decided not to bomb them because peace is at hand. The market recovers, he makes tons of money. It’s called market manipulation. It’s a crime. He does it a lot. I believe the current count is twenty-seven times, or thereabouts.

Until very recently, Iran had maintained that no peace agreement is close at hand. Really, we the people of the United States of America ought to listen to the Iranian leaders when it comes to the question of peace. We know we can’t trust them, but nobody – nobody – lies like a trump, and among the trumps, 47 is the master liar…

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I thought I had seen video of workers removing his evil name from The Kennedy Center shortly after the judge ordered him to take it down, but I guess I was mistaken. A lawsuit was filed and a delay requested. The delay was refused and now his name is coming off of the building – for real, this time. Lovely…

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The headline said, “Palestinian American woman held without charge by Israeli military.” Held without charge. That’s the language. When a Palestinian grabs a person and holds them against their will, the press everywhere calls the person grabbed a “hostage.” When an Israeli grabs a person and holds them against their will, the press everywhere calls the person grabbed a “prisoner.” The person grabbed is a hostage in both cases. The world should use the correct term.

Speaking of Israel, did you see how Netanyahu just obeyed Donny’s commands? 47 insisted. HE calls the shots. Bibi doesn’t call the shots. Then Bibi called a few shots, once again scuttling any chance our Fearful Misleader had of getting out of his Iranian debacle. Donny fumed, of course, but didn’t do anything else. What’s he going to do, stop providing the weapons Netanyahu uses to trap Donny in Iran? I wouldn’t count on that, if I were you…

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Speaking of which, there’s word from various sources that an end to the hostilities with Iran is at hand. Even the Iranians have said so at this point. 47 says the deal will be signed today but only an idiot still believes 47 about anything. The Iranians have said a deal could be signed sometime this week, though. At this point, the Iranians have more credibility.

So, Bibi launched another assault on Beirut. It’s weird, but the deal between Iran and the US is contingent on Israel giving up it’s warlike ways in Palestine. Netanyahu says he won’t tolerate people shooting into Israel – as he should not. But it seems he won’t even tolerate CLAIMS that someone shot into Israel, which he can make anytime he wants. And he does.

Israel loves to run around claiming ‘victim’ status, but they’ve been running an aggressive war of attrition against the Arabs in the region since the 1948 purge. They’ve been relentless. Inexorable. And now Netanyahu thinks he can see the end, his ‘Final Solution,’ as it were. Either that, or he’s trying to keep the war going to stay out of jail. That’s a real possibility, too.

So Bibi keeps making claims and firing weapons and gumming up the peace talks between our Foolhardy, Felonious, Feckless Fuckup and Iran. I don’t mind the Drumpfster being shown up for the gullible fool he is before the entire planet. I enjoy it, in fact. But in this case, the financial burden is killing me…

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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. People are not forgetting that. Don’t you forget that.

According to recently released Trump/Epstein files, there was an FBI intake form in which a tipster claimed that President Pedo “knew and funded underage sex parties” at one of his golf courses. There is no record of the follow-up, and I have no evidence to support the claim. So, according to MAGA Mike the Johnson, it must be true…

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Okay, here we go. Kevin Warsh, 47’s handpicked sock puppet now running the Fed is about to chair his first meeting of the bank’s rate setting committee. Remember when Donny promised to reduce inflation? Yeah, yet another promise made, promise not kept. In fact, promise broken in spectacular fashion.

When inflation was high under Biden, it was because Trump had allowed the Covid-19 virus to spread so widely it crashed the world economy. One does not easily recover from that kind of damage, but Biden did it – well ahead of the rest of the world. That’s because Joe Biden was a FAR better, FAR smarter President.

Donny’s been infesting the Oval for about 17 months, now, and he’s already got inflation on the rise again. A three year high, in fact. And HIS only excuse is his own terrible judgement (though he blames everyone else). So inflation is going up and the Fed’s normal response to that is higher interest rates to cool the market. But Donny’s a dumbass and he wants interest rates lower.

Warsh is in the job in the first place because Donny knows Donny can tell Warsh what to do and when. The only saving grace is this: Warsh doesn’t get to make the decision alone. There’s a board. So, does Warsh try to do the right thing and maintain rates at higher levels to battle Donny’s terrible management of the economy, or does he try to present Donny’s wishes as somehow important, and lower rates anyway? Bear in mind, Team Evil never does the right thing…

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Congratulations to the New York Knicks. They won the NBA championship in five games, ending a 53-year drought. And, really, congratulations to the fans. They didn’t play, of course, but they stayed loyal. Players come and go. The fans stick around. The players likely didn’t feel that 53 year losing streak, but the fans did…

He’s SUCH A Loser…

by MyBaconPress

I suspect it might finally be dawning on 47 that Netanyahu has his own agenda, isn’t interested in Donny’s agenda, and is going to do what he’s going to do. Word is, Netanyahu tried to get other Presidents to attack Iran. None of them were foolish enough to bite. Then came trump, an amazingly stupid person who believes he’s the smartest person in any room. All anyone has to do is praise his intelligence and you can get pretty much anything you want. Like airstrikes on Iran, for example.

But Dumb Donald effed around and now he’s finding out. Iran isn’t the pushover Israel pretended. Iran DOES have some fighting capability AND the ability to hurt the US, as they’re proving. Sustained, near-record levels of gas prices are hurting Joe Sixpack and the economy. Oh, AND, Iran is hurting the chances of Republicans in elections as the economy spins out of control.

Lying Donny needs his ill-advised war to end. Now. Part of the peace deal is a requirement that Israel stop killing Palestinians. But Netanyahu seems hell-bent on taking ALL of the land in that region that once was NOT Israel. There are still illegal settlements. Bombs are still falling. People are still dying at war-like rates – and Bibi ain’t stopping.

So Sleepy Don needs Bibi to stop in Beirut in order to settle his war with Iran, and Bibi isn’t inclined to stop as he has goals of his own. THAT means President Pedo can’t stop his war with Iran, which means gas and other prices keep soaring higher and higher. The latest talks on a peace agreement included a demand in which Israel leaves Arabs alone. Lying Donny agreed, because he’s lost this war and has no choice. He has to accept conditions handed to him because he’s a loser.

So when Netanyahu went ahead and dropped a bunch more bombs on Lebanon, Donny got angry. 47 said Netanyahu was “f*cking crazy!” (I don’t think he said it with an asterisk.) He got Netanyahu on the phone and shouted at him in what people described as an “expletive-laden” call.

“You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me,” trump reportedly said to the Israeli leader. “I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this. What the f*ck are you doing?” The answer, apparently, is ignoring Dumb Donald’s rant. 47 told us what a terrible negotiator he was during the campaign when he suggested he could solve the Russia/Ukraine war just by picking up the phone and saying to Putin, “Look, you son-of-a-bitch…” No more. Just that. That would end the war in what’s left of the Drumpfster’s mind.

After 47 straightened Netanyahu out, Israel released their own statement, showing the exact effect the tongue-lashing had on Netanyahu’s resolve. Their statement read that “Israeli forces will continue to operate “as planned” in southern Lebanon, and that he told Trump “if Hezbollah does not cease attacking our cities and citizens—Israel will attack terror targets in Beirut.”

That translates to, “Shut Up, Donald.” So the great negotiator can’t negotiate his way out of the war he started and he can’t shout his way to taming Netanyahu. It looks very much like Donald is NOT the master in charge he pretends to be. In fact, 47 is looking pretty impotent, to me. Donny got himself caught in a trap Netanyahu sprung – you know, the one the other, better Presidents were all too smart to get caught in.

It should be noted, MAGA has not turned away from the Drumpfster. I guess that means they like the higher gas prices and regime-change, war-of-choice 47 launched for no reason. This must be what MAGA wants, right? And here I thought they were against all of those things…

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47 has named Bill Pulte to serve as acting Director of National Intelligence, a fitting choice from the no-nothing regime – a guy to run intelligence with no known history of intelligence. I mean the field, of course. Pulte currently leads the Federal Housing Finance Agency and apparently, the plan is to have him continue in that role, too. I guess splitting his time between agencies won’t be all that tough, considering the people in charge aren’t doing anything but blowing smoke for Donny, these days…

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Scott Pelley, of ’60 Minutes’ fame, said of Bari Weiss, the hitperson brought in to sabotage ’60 Minutes’ to death, “She’s murdering 60 Minutes. She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it and is doing exactly that.” Then, as if to prove his point, Weiss fired him. It’s probably a relief, more of a liberation than a dismissal. I would not want to be contractually obligated to a program that was being dismantled and distorted like is happening to ’60 Minutes,’ and getting fired might be the only way out of his contract. It’s a real shame. Team Evil is destroying everything, large and small…

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Tom Steyer said Xavier Becerra might not be a good choice for governor because he is backed by “corporations and billionaires.” That’s a bit of weird argument to make. Steyer is a billionaire and he got that way by running a corporation. So Becerra is backed by corporations and billionaires – bad. But Steyer IS a corporate billionaire and that’s somehow better? I’m confused…

Meanwhile, the primary was two days ago and we still don’t know who won. That’s okay with me. I’d rather get it right than fast. It’s down to Steve Hilton, Xavier Becerra, and Tom Steyer. Hilton leads the pack which probably makes cons happy. He’s a trump toady. BUT…it must be remembered, there were only TWO candidates on the Republican ballot. On the Democratic side? Hell, the ballot looked like a phone book. (Ask your parents, kids.)

That means the Democratic vote was split between a bunch of candidates, many not even in the race anymore. Accused sexual assailant Eric Swalwell drew something like 18,000 votes. But the general election will be between only two, in this case (it doesn’t have to be that way), it looks like a Democrat and a Republican. In California, when each side focuses their hopes on their guy, Democrats win…

Deal Or No Deal?

by MyBaconPress

I wonder what he means. I wonder if HE knows what he means. He wrote that a deal he gets with Iran will be the “exact opposite of the JCPOA disaster negotiated by the failed Obama Administration.” The JCPOA is the ‘Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action’ Obama negotiated with Iran. Donny didn’t like it because Barack did it and Donny is the most petty of petty individuals. Then 47 goes on to claim the JCPOA was a direct path to nuclear weapons for Iran, but that’s because he lies about everything.

In fact, it was a solid arrangement that kept Iran from developing nuclear weapons for a long time to come. It was probably easier to negotiate than one might imagine, since Iran issued a fatwa against “building, maintaining, or using” nuclear weapons as contrary to Islam in 2004. The negotiations sounded like, “Will you promise not to do that which you have already said you don’t want to do?”
“Um, sure.”
“Okay, then, here’s some of your money back.”

Of course, now Lying Donny has killed the people behind that fatwa so he may have opened the very doors he says he wants closed. He does that a lot, the exact opposite of what he says he wants. Mr. ‘Make America Great Again’ has brought this once-great nation to it’s knees and to the brink of insolvency, for example. Nothing great about that. Really, when you get right down to it, he sucks at this ‘President’ stuff.

There are people out there suggesting he’s getting ready to surrender in Iran. I’m not sure he’s smart enough, even for that. Every day that passes, energy prices rise, costs for everything go up, in fact. It’s becoming burdensome and will move on to unsustainable very quickly. His whole oil war is a great reminder of one of the best reasons to move away from fossil fuels in the first place: nobody fights over sunshine. That stuff is everywhere.

For some reason, the price of a barrel of oil has dropped below $100. The story given is ‘hope of peace with Iran.’ Are these Wall Street types really so stupid as to keep being at the end of his yo-yo string? How many times can he claim peace is just around the corner and then start bombing things – or threatening to – before Wall Street realizes it’s more market manipulation than successful peace strategy?

In the end, that part doesn’t matter to me. The price at the pump is steady. It doesn’t fluctuate up and down like the barrel price is doing so their costs go up and down but their revenues are as strong as ever. Record highs, in fact. MY wallet is hurting, though, as, I suspect, is yours…

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Yeah, that will probably work. The Team Evil DOJ website is quietly removing references to the J6 attack. Do you think that will work to get us all to forget it? I suspect the removal has something to do with the fact that he’s planning to give them money for their treachery. It sort of increases the need to minimize the “treachery” part. One can almost hear the wheels turning in their twisted little brains – if we remove the reference, nobody will know what happened.

Do you know what? We all know what happened. Records exist. More, the internet gets backed up on a regular basis. A lot of people don’t know that, but it’s true. It’s possible, if you know how, to go back and read things in the archived web that were once posted and have since been removed – like all of the information they’re hiding…

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Is it a conspiracy theory, or an actual conspiracy? The term ‘Conspiracy Theory’ is, essentially, belittling an idea. It’s intended to make the person suggesting a conspiracy sound paranoid, perhaps slightly around the bend. If I suggest Donald Trump and his friends are making money by manipulating the stock market with comments and tweets, one can dismiss that as a ‘conspiracy theory’ easily enough.

But look at a definition of ‘Conspiracy.’ “An agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime or accomplish a legal purpose through illegal action.” If Donald Trump and his friends are making money by manipulating the stock market with comments and tweets, that’s likely an actual conspiracy, not just a conspiracy theory.

Just because I have a theory that Trump and Co is a criminal enterprise robbing the entire nation blind as fast as they can doesn’t mean I’m riddled with “conspiracy theories.” Really, it just means I’m paying attention…

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So how long do you think it will take Kevin Warsh to start dropping interest rates? Of course, he promised he was going to be independent and do only what was called for according to economic conditions. But my guess is the only “economic condition” he plans to respond to is whatever Lying Donny tells him. Worse, I suspect Warsh will start dropping the rates at oversized clips.

Commonly, the rates move in eighth or quarter points. That leaves room for response in case of error. I suspect that when Warsh starts fulfilling the Drumpfster’s dreams, rates will drop a point at at time, maybe more.

I’m not the only one thinking we’re facing a world-wide financial crisis and I’m not alone in thinking the US is particularly ill-prepared for such an event. We’re currently led by a bunch of clowns pretending to know what they’re doing. Clearly, the nation can coast for awhile but sooner or later, an actual and honest crisis is going to hit – or be caused directly by the Dumbass, himself.

The Keystone Kops might be fun to watch but when you have an actual emergency, if the Keystone department is all that shows up? You’ve got a real problem…

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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. People are not forgetting that. Don’t you forget that…

A Deal Is A Deal, Until It Isn’t…

by MyBaconPress

47 is threatening Iran. Yes, again. Apparently, the clock is ticking. Time is running out. Apparently, he’s just about to do something. Iran better do as it’s told or it’s facing a serious timeout, buster. Do you want me to start counting? Because you’re getting very close to your last chance. I mean it. It’s time to make a deal or else. One… No, I’m serious. Two… You’re really gonna get it. <later> 4,726… You’re getting close to your last chance. 4,727… I mean it, buster!

So Fred Mertz, no, that’s Lucy and Ricky’s neighbor. Friedrich Merz, the current German Chancellor, decided to help by telling the Iranians they had better get serious about negotiating with the US. He wrote on Brand X, “Iran must enter into serious negotiations with the USA, stop threatening its neighbors, and open the strait of Hormuz without restrictions.“

Easy to say. Not as easy to do. Iran must enter into serious negotiations with the USA? Is the USA seriously negotiating with Iran? Currently, because certain people think it’s a good idea, the US is governed by a group of the most untrustworthy morons the world has seen in decades. Team Evil lies about everything, all the time. How does one negotiate with that?

One thing everybody knows about Donald Trump: if he makes a deal and then decides he didn’t like that deal, after all, he’ll just ignore the deal he made. For a guy who talks about “deals” all the time, he’s not trustworthy in deals. HE, invariably, is the weakest link. Even if Iran does negotiate with the US, will the US honor anything it says? I think the hardest thing about ending Donny’s war-that’s-not-a-war is finding someone dependable with whom to negotiate…

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I saw conservative talk show host Bill Maher this weekend. He challenged his audience to support Israel or admit you’re antisemitic. Clever framing. Either/or, huh? Those are the only choices? I’m going with option C, which Bill pretends doesn’t exist. I think Israel is wrong and it has nothing to do with Judaism.

Israel is fighting a war of attrition, with an end goal of having no Arabs in “their” region. From the river to the sea, as a matter of fact. The idea that it was the Arab’s “region” before doesn’t much affect their thinking. For the record, I think it’s wrong to attack Synagogues and other Jewish organizations in protest of the Israeli government, too. Walk a picket line outside Israeli embassies. Don’t attack places of worship.

It’s weird, watching Maher move right. He doesn’t even know it, either, though I think that’s common when it happens. People don’t realize. It’s often a single issue that gets hold of their minds. In Maher’s case – surprisingly, for a self-proclaimed atheist – it’s Israel and Judaism…

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Well, there’s a new delay in the ballroom. You remember. It’s the $200 million, no $300 million, wait, $400 million dollar ballroom that will be completely and totally privately funded and you can take that to the bank – where you’ll find all of the private funding has disappeared and now the Congress wants to give him a billion dollars in taxpayer money, instead.

This boy just keeps taking things away from the masses so he can give more and more to, um, <checks notes> RIGHT! Himself. But the Senate’s parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, has shot down the line item as a violation of proper procedure. The cons can try to get it back by re-writing the bill, so it’s more like delaying, rather than killing the item.

Look, I know it’s a little thing. It’s most likely he’s going to get his ballroom. His toadies work on his behalf all the time. But the delays and challenges frustrate him and I like that. It feels like he’s getting back just a small amount of what he’s sending out into the world on a daily basis. Reaping as he sows, in a manner of speaking…

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I have a question. Do you feel badly for the poor, suffering Congress critters who have to try and survive on only $174,000 dollars a year? Things are tough all over, I guess. MAGA Mike, the Johnson, says it’s really hard trying to make ends meet on such measly income. His solution? Insider trading! That’s not even hyperbole, though he only mentions “stock trading,” trying to downplay the “insider” part.

He also trotted out that old saw about how less qualified people will come to Congress if we don’t pay them properly – which, in his mind, is a LOT. I always think back to the Founders, who built an entire nation on no salary and only a per diem income of about $8.00/day. (Of course, that works out to around $306/day in today’s money…)

Still the “unpaid,” all-volunteer congress laid out and established an entire nation that rose to empire and dominated the world before Congress gave way to well-paid weasels who don’t do anything of value and have pissed the whole thing away. It looks very much, to me, like better pay did NOT equate to better people. Exactly the opposite, in fact.

$174,000 dollars/year puts congress critters in the top 10% of income, and that’s before all of the other perks and benefits that come their way. Now they “need” to trade stocks in order to support their families? I suspect they may not be living within their means. Maybe they could pass up on that morning coffee from their favorite shop. That outta do it, right? Isn’t that their prescription for us?

Their best argument is about housing. They maintain housing in two places, their home district and Washington DC. They argue that because they have to do that, they need more and more and more money. The solution isn’t more and more pay. The solution is government housing for the congress critters when they’re in Washington DC.

I should mention, Johnson hasn’t talked about this recently. But a clip of him making the comments last year went around on the one-year anniversary of the whining, May 14th. I’ll tell you this: I don’t feel his pain. I can’t relate. I don’t have much sympathy for the person who has to “get by” on “only” $174,000 a year – before the perks…

The Gaslight Regime…

by MyBaconPress

So, by now, anybody paying any attention at all realizes the best overall name for Team Evil’s current run is ‘The Gaslight Regime,’ right? I mean, they just gaslight everything. I saw one guy claim that Stupid Donny’s stupid war in Iran is going on so long because we’ve just been so darned effective. That seems like gaslighting to me, although he could be confessing that the goal is to keep the war going for reasons of their own.

It’s happening again with 47’s China trip. Xi referred to the US as a nation in decline and quite simply, the nation has not been in this bad of a state for a long, long time. So, 47 said otherwise. Oh, we WERE in decline. Now we’re the hottest of the hot. Just look around. We’re clearly not. Gaslighting. Once again, our National Embarrassment humiliates the US on the world stage.

The thing is, despite the gaslighting, most Americans – and even some MAGA – are starting to see (no, I do not mean ‘sea,’ as in water. I mean ‘see,’ as in vision) The Gaslight Regime just says what they wish was true, ignoring what’s actually true. Republican politicians are noticing too. Or, more accurately, they’re noticing that people are noticing and, gaslighting notwithstanding, blaming the Republicans.

That threatens their phony-baloney jobs. They might not get re-elected if the voters get too angry at the current economic situation. It looks like that reality has kicked off a new strategy from the White House: gaslight the Republican politicians, too. Evil Bartiromo asked Kevin Hassett about current policies increasing gas and oil prices.

Hassett asserted without any evidence and against all logic that prices will come down quickly pretty darned soon and “…certainly ahead of the election.” I think that “…certainly ahead of the election” part is aimed at Republican politicians. I think it’s supposed to calm them. I think they’ll be fools, likely out of work fools, if they listen…

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You know the murders he keeps ordering in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific? You know, the little fishing boats the US keeps blowing up, killing everyone in them? Yeah, those murders. I’ve called them murders since the start. Sure, ‘The Gaslight Regime’ says those guys are drug runners, but they have yet to provide even a scintilla of evidence. Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

But there IS evidence coming out now, and it keeps saying the people in the boats are poor people from struggling villages, just out fishing in order to eat. They stay on shore as long as they can because of the madman in the White House. But after a while, the village starts to suffer the loss. People start to feel it. Desperate men go out, hoping to feed their families. Then some gaslighting moron orders their deaths.

To be clear, I would call these murders even if every explosion included a mushroom cloud of cocaine. I come from a country and a time when even criminals deserved a trial. I know, quaint. Still, I liked that better. I thought it was better to believe, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that the person being punished deserved the punishment they were receiving.

I genuinely believe those guys are being murdered just so The Gaslight Regime can try to look like a bunch of tough guys, like this is some big, macho move. I don’t think there’s anything macho about being hundreds of miles away and ordering the murder of people just trying to feed their families. Donny regularly reminds me of a weak man’s vision of what a strong man might look like and now the entire regime reminds me of what a coward might think a tough guy looks…

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I imagine 47 enjoyed his trip to China. He got to act like he knows things. He got to feel really important. He got to meet with Xi! They put on displays just for him. He got to attend fancy dinners. He got to drink champagne. Weird, for a guy who insists he’s a teetotaler but then, he lies about everything else. Why not that? Anyway, it was the whole shebang.

The Chinese took him to The National Museum on Tiananmen Square to show off the latest advances in green energy, robotics, and space exploration. The display was titled: “Forging the path to national strength.” The Drumpfster was looking right at the future and didn’t understand a minute of it, dedicated, as he is, to mastering yesterday’s technologies.

We’re supposed to be competing with China, right? But under President Pedo, the US has unilaterally sat down in the race. Oh, sure, we’re still talking about how fast we’re going to go when we get up, but in the meantime, the Chinese are blazing down the track, rapidly escaping our ability to keep up as they they disappear from view in front of us.

Policy? No, no policy. Trade deals? Well, concepts of frameworks. When the topic is Taiwan, nothing changed. When the topic is Iran, nothing changed. He declared — uh, oh, he declared that China would be buying crops from the US again, particularly Soybeans. He said, “The farmers are going to be very happy.” The uh-oh part? This is The Gaslight Regime. Donny lies about everything and regularly says the exact opposite of the truth. If he says farmers are going to be happy, farmers had better start looking for good bankruptcy attorneys.

His big takeaway seems to have been this: “China has a ballroom, and so should the USA!” I wonder how much the American taxpayer paid for his useless little excursion to China…

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Americans are upset by the current level of power vested in (or stolen by) the White House. We were not supposed to be a country with a king. We were not supposed to have an executive with this much power at all. The founders wouldn’t recognize the powers of the Presidency today and they would likely be horrified by that much power concentrated in one person’s hands. So how did we get here?

Watch this video: “How the Presidency Became Too Powerful.” Click the title. It’s a link. It’s 22 minutes long, but it’s very informative. It follows the power gains in the Executive Branch from Washington to Dumbass. Yeah, it’s a bit long, but it’s worth the look…

Oh, Hey, Another Tantrum…

by MyBaconPress

I read an article that included this sentence: “Mr. Trump has repeatedly lashed out at critics of his Iran strategy.” My problem with the sentence? The suggestion that the Drumpfster has an “Iran strategy.” So far, the whole thing has looked like reaction and overreaction to whatever Iran does in response to the US/Israeli attack. He looks like he’s flailing, to me. And I’m not alone. Germany, for one, has noticed.

47 really is nothing more than a little petulant brat, isn’t he? If he doesn’t get his way, he comes up with some version of holding his breath until he turns blue. In this case, he’s mad at Germany’s Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, for saying that the US is being “humiliated” by Iran, based on nothing more than how badly the US is being humiliated by Iran. Have you seen the Lego man taunts? They’re really very good.

Donny starts an illegal war, a war nobody supported nor wanted. Then, when it wasn’t just a two-day cakewalk, like fools always believe wars will be, he needed help and started taunting our allies for not stepping in to his moronic illegal war, the war nobody supported nor wanted. Pretty much the whole world has been thrown into upheaval because of his stupid little illegal war that nobody supported nor wanted. Europe doesn’t see the value in aiding and abetting war crimes. Go figure.

Donny’s a bully. He’s used to saying horrible stuff about people, places, and things and being protected by his money or, now, the Secret Service, so he often gets his way. But the world is tired of Donny and the things Donny represents. The rest of the world is pushing back. He can’t bully the world, try as he might. And, oh, man, is he trying.

Pulling 5,000 troops from Germany is more of a symbolic gesture, sort of a low-key threat. It’s the guy coming in before problems start and saying, “Nice place you got here. Be a shame if anything happened to it.” 5,000 troops leaving will affect the local German economy. That’s the point. Don’t give Donny his way – especially when he’s egregiously wrong – and he punishes you.

Germany will be fine. 5,000 troops is a drop in the bucket. The US has something like 35,000 troops in Germany. This is just another tantrum. He might even draw them down. But they’ll go back. After the big headlines, someone will explain that those troops were there for a reason and he’ll quietly start redeploying them. TACO, you know…

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It really is toothless, the War Powers Act. Team Evil stands in violation of the Act. They’re supposed to seek Congressional approval for military actions within 60 days of deployment in combat situations. Donny keeps insisting the stupid war he started is over. Bombing continues, the Strait of Hormuz is still blocked and blocked again. Oil prices continue to rise. People are still dying.

Donny says he has no intention of asking Congress for approval. He points out that nobody else has done it, why should he? The truth is, he has a point. The War Powers Act was passed after the Vietnam debacle. The idea was to reassert Congressional authority over war, like the Constitution says. But Presidents tend to ignore it and Congress tends to let them.

You’ll hear a bunch of whining from the left on this but the truth is, both Obama and Clinton could be said to have violated the Act and gotten away with it. There are work-arounds…

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Have you heard that Mexico City is sinking? Not just a little bit, mind you. It’s sinking 10 inches a year! That’s a LOT. Mexico City, of course, was built on a lake bed. It has 22 million people. That’s a LOT of water being pumped from the aquifer and it finally collapsed. This one doesn’t seem like climate change. This one is overpopulation.

Florida is Climate Change. Florida is breaking out in sinkholes. The ocean is finding it’s way in under the ground, undermining the stability of the ground. Sudden holes just open up. I’ve been wishing and hoping and hoping and wishing for one under a certain, unnamed piece of (Mar-a-Lardo) property but so far, the devil continues to take care of his own. Hope abides, though. Climate change isn’t going anywhere any time soon…

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If you ask MAGA, 47 stands at the forefront of a successful administration, just chock full of promises made, promises kept. But then, if you ask MAGA, they’ll tell you trump is a competent leader, out-thinking everyone else in his game of, what, 5D chess?

Rational people also saw his rallies. We heard the promises. We know what he said. We know how often he said those things. As far as we can tell, his is a long, long, I mean really LONG list of promises made, promises NOT kept. The latest is his oh-my-god-how-stupid ballroom. This guy seems awfully focused on decorating, doesn’t he? Do you suppose all that raping of women and children was just over-compensation for his internal, secret desires?

He promised, over and over, that the ballroom would be paid for with bribes, known these days as “private donations.” According to him, the bribes were all paid. He collected the money. Now Congress is out there trying to give him the money for the ballroom. So what happens to the bri— er, “donations?” I’m guessing he keeps that and We, the People pay for the ballroom. Promise made, promise not kept…

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Hey, 8647 okay? As far as I know, the expression “86” traces it’s roots back to soda jerks. When the shop (or, perhaps ‘shoppe’) ran out of something, the guy behind the counter would say it was ’86’d.’ It just meant, “we’re out of that,” and I would LOVE to run out of trump…

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When it comes to the cost of gas, the Republicans have decided to stick to their favorite tried-and-true tactic: lying. They’re just going to TELL you gas prices are coming down and, since you have absolutely no way to discover the truth for yourself (unless you use gasoline), you’ll just believe them. Oh, gas prices are down.

Except gas prices are NOT down. They’re up. They’re WAY up. MAGA would want me to add that they were higher under Biden so I will, but they ignore the fact that Biden was digging his way out of the economic crisis created by our National Embarrassment in his first run at the thing. Biden inherited a mess that 47 just said was the best. On the other hand, Biden left 47 a pretty solid economy, though 47 lied about that, too.

In an interesting variation on the ‘price isn’t high’ lie, Republicans are also claiming that gas started off SO high when Donny started his illegal war that they’re actually down, now. Here’s the thing: I know what I see when I roll up to a gas pump. I don’t CARE how “affordable” politicians tell me gas is. It isn’t. It’s just another brick in the ‘promises made, promises not kept’ wall…

C’mon Montana…

by MyBaconPress

At this point, I’m thinking props to Montana – the state, not Hannah. Come this July Fourth, the US will pretend to celebrate 250 years of the United States, but the fact is, in 2010, our Constitutional Republic was corrupted by a “decision” of the Robert’s Supremely Corrupt, Kangaroo Court called ‘Citizens United.’ It wasn’t presented this way, of course, but it basically said rich people get to buy our government, if they want to – and Oh! Em! Gee!, did they want to.

The US has been suffering ever since. It was a corrupt decision by a corrupt court and it corrupted our once-great nation. The corrupt court said corporations could buy our democracy because it was within their rights, a corrupt concept based in the corrupt idea that corporations are people. Rights are hard to mess with in our once-great nation, unless you’re evil Donny.

But Montana is coming at it from a new and rather original angle. They’re not attacking the idea that a corporation has rights. Instead, they’re attacking the corporation’s powers, which are created by individual states. The idea sidesteps the Corrupt Supreme Court and doesn’t require a constitutional amendment. That is to say, this could work.

A guy named Tom Moore wrote a paper that basically boils down to this: All American corporations are chartered and given their powers by state governments, which means that state governments (or voters in states where initiatives and referendums can enact or change laws) can rewrite their charters to deny corporations the power to involve themselves in elections.

Now, you may know that most corporations are chartered in Delaware. You may ask yourself, what good does it do for Montana to pass laws on corporations chartered in Delaware? Well, an 1869 ruling from an actual decent Supreme Court says that “foreign corporations” – which, in this case, includes corporations chartered in other states – must comport with the corporate charter law of every state in which they do business.

That’s some pretty juicy stuff. Montana can pass a law saying corporations do not enjoy the power to participate in elections and the law applies to all corporations doing business in Montana regardless of where the corporation is chartered. Really, lovely. At first, I suspect corporations will threaten to bail on Montana but I ALSO suspect that if this works in Montana, most states will follow suit as quickly as possible. No, not some of the red states, but they should be too few in number to help corporations corrupt too many more elections. This could be a very good thing. Stay tuned…

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If (When) the Roberts Supremely Corrupt, Kangaroo Court strikes down late-returned mail-in ballots this summer, as expected, it seems to Alaskans like it will hurt Alaska the most. Alaska is a very rural state. Many people send and receive mail via airplanes, not roads. The geography, alone, makes voting more challenging.

These anti-American efforts out of the White House to restrict as much voting as possible will hurt red voters as much as blue voters, and blue voters, I think, are STILL more motivated to come out for the mid-term election than red voters, who are, and should be, extremely disappointed that their Precious turned out to be just another mealy-mouthed politician, lying to them for personal gain…

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Team Evil did everything it could. Really, everything. They sent people to offer support. Jarringly Dumb Vance went over and told everyone how happy it would make 47 if corrupt Viktor Orban was returned to his corrupted office. Little Marco Rubio went over, too. JD and Marco explained to the Hungarians how much trump like Orban and how happy it would make trump if Orban won.

Even trump, himself, got involved. He made a video endorsing Orban. He explained that he’s very good at endorsements, which he most assuredly is not. I have to acknowledge, he was. The people he endorsed had a tendency to win because if Donny said “That one,” MAGA voted accordingly. Blindly, but accordingly.

But an endorsement from the Dotard doesn’t carry the same weight, anymore. He recently endorsed a candidate for Governor here in California, Steve Hilton. “He was on TV,” seems to be Donny’s “thinking,” “so he must be good.” I think the guy must be freaking out. Associations with Donny just ain’t what they used to be. Donny’s endorsements have taken on a ‘kiss of death’ feel.

So, anyway, Vance, Rubio, and trump all tried to make clear to the Hungarian people that the typically conservative, typically corrupt misleader of Hungary, Viktor Orban, should be returned to power and, after sixteen years as an iron-fisted strongman, Viktor Orban was voted out of office. Trump’s endorsement failures have gone international.

At least Orban had the decency to concede when he lost, pushing trump even farther down the ranks of human failures. It means one less dictator in the world. That’s a good thing. This world has FAR too many dictators. We don’t need any others. Especially here, in the US. Let’s follow Hungary’s lead and dump our wanna-be dictator, too…

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So, 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 wants people to forget that. People are not forgetting that. Don’t you forget it…

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Well, Jarringly Dumb Vance was unable to re-create the agreement Iran once had with the US. I mean, the agreement was in place. Donny tore it up because it happened under another, better President, Barack Obama. The thing is, Obama may not have pulled off all that great a trick, either. After all, Iran has had a fatwa in place banning the building, maintaining, or using nuclear weapons since 2004.

Muslims take their religion seriously, in a way no Christian could even imagine these days. Fatwas mean something to them. If they have a religious ruling that says no nukes, they weren’t building nukes. Every extra penny you pay at the pump, every extra dime you have to pay for goods moved by truck, every dead body coming home (or not) from Iran are the direct result of Donny’s malfeasance and incompetence. It’s completely unnecessary. The evidence is in and it’s undeniable. When all is said and done, Donny is terrible at this “Presidentin'” stuff. Just terrible…

Blockade The Blockade? Yeah, That’s The Ticket…

by MyBaconPress

All right, I have to make sure I have this correctly and I’ll presume this will be another TACO moment for our Fearful Misleader. He and Israel attacked Iran without provocation. Anybody who knew anything on the topic told him it would prove a terrible idea, but 47 insists he always knows better than everyone else – especially when he clearly does not – and went ahead anyway.

Mr. Insight, as it happens, was wrong. It wasn’t the quick and complete victory he had claimed he anticipated. Worse, Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz using mines and drones and cut off international shipping of oil. This has caused an oil crisis and adds costs to any and all goods moved from place to place, so, everything.

Some of us came to realize just how desperately – and dangerously – addicted we are to Middle East oil during the 1970’s oil crisis. If you’re of a certain age, perhaps you remember odd days and even days to get gas. (I had a friend I could trade plates with if one of us needed gas on a “wrong” day.) It sucked. We should have learned WAY back then, we need to get OFF of oil as a main energy source, but some people just… never learn.

Many of us did learn -and never forgot the lesson – but the corporations weren’t about to let go of such a controllable cash-cow. We’re not fully powered by renewables, today, because Exxon and Shell and Chevron, et al don’t know to profit from them. But THIS oil war is the single most ridiculously stupid war in the history of the oil wars. We absolutely, positively, did not need this war for any reason, whatsoever. Ah, but I digress.

I was giving an update because of his latest dumb announcement. Okay, so we started this stupid war and Iran retaliated by closing the Strait of Hormuz and choking off the oil supply to most of the world. Since then, the Drumpfster has tried everything his pea brain can think of. He talks tough. He makes threats. He hurls insults and foul language. Nothing works.

So now he has a new threat and THIS one, I think, will be withdrawn by lunchtime. Get this: now he says HE is going to blockade the Strait of Hormuz! Iran is blocking the Strait of Hormuz and in response, Donald Dork says he’s going to blockade Iran’s blockade of the Strait. That’ll show ’em!

Iran says they’re letting some ships through, but only if they pay a toll of up to $2 million dollars. Iran is trying to collect money for reparations for all of the damage the US and Israel have done. A few days ago, Donny was hailing the idea as a great way to make money. Then he found out HE wasn’t getting any of that money and now he thinks that’s a bad, bad idea.

So, any ship that Iran allows to pass because they paid the toll will be stopped, according to Donny, thereby exacerbating the oil crisis. We don’t like what you’ve done. We want you to stop. So we’re going to do it even more. That’s some quality thinking, there. Let’s hope he doesn’t decide to punish Iran by bombing American military installations, too. That’ll show ’em!

Oh, okay. I’m not even going to get to the ‘Publish’ button before he backtracks. Apparently, it’s going to take a little while – maybe two or three weeks – to get his blockade of the blockade up and running. So he’s definitely going to hold a blockade blockade but not before his magic cop-out time-frame of two weeks. Still the threat was worth a laugh. This mighty, mighty moron threatened to blockade a blockade to protest the blockade.

MAGA thinks he’s playing 10-demensional chess. It looks like demented chess, to me…

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FINALLY, after fifty years, the US goes back to the moon. No, we didn’t land, that comes later. Or, uh, does it? The Mega-maniacal Moron wants to cut funding – by as much as 47%. He’s got pockets that need more money in them, I guess. NASA calls it an “extinction level” funding cut. I call it yet another attack by the greedy swamp monsters. Always enough for war, never enough for anything else is the mantra of a dying empire. It always has been. It always will be…

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Marjorie Taylor Greene is predicting a bloodbath for Republicans in the mid-terms. Rachel Maddow is talking about a report Mark Warner is highlighting in which the evil trump regime is planning to come up with some national emergency that allows the regime to control the election. MTG is expecting free and fair elections, and, if we do get them, I think she’ll be proven correct. The right should get shellacked in this next election.

If Warner and Maddow are right, though, MTG may not even get the free and fair election her prediction depends upon. Here’s the thing, MTG isn’t making some deep, insightful prediction. Everyone on Earth can see with their own eyes, trump has failed at nearly everything he has touched. He’s done more harm to Americans than any President in history and he’s done more harm to Americans than most of our historical enemies have done.

The horrifying Robert’s Supremely Corrupt, Kangaroo Court has assisted him at nearly every turn, and don’t even get me started on the Corrupt Republican Congress. MAGA Mike, the Johnson goes so far as to just shut down Congress and ignore his job in order to facilitate trump’s criminality. He’s still picking up his paycheck though. The One Percent have done a very good job of corrupting every branch of our government.

Essentially, it’s all corruption, all the time and we, the people, are paying the price. I absolutely believe Donny will do anything, everything he can to disrupt fair elections. He KNOWS he can’t win but he also knows he HAS to win if he wants to stay out of jail, let alone keep all of that beautiful, ill-gotten lucre coming his way. Find your pitchfork and prepare your torches. If we let this son-of-a-bitch steal this election, we’re surrendering our Democratic Republic to the One Percent. That never, EVER, works out well for the working class…

Over? Not So Fast…

by MyBaconPress

The announcement of the so-called cease-fire came Tuesday night. I wrote this next bit on Wednesday morning, before I left for work:

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It appears Trump surrendered. Unilaterally. I’m not sure how well that’s going to work. If Israel doesn’t stop bombing, does Iran hold the US responsible? Can Israel kill the ceasefire deal? If they can, I presume, they will. When the US presented various bombastic threats, scary promises, and demands, Iran gave a kind of “ho-hum” attitude. They sent back a 10 point plan, calling it the only plan to which they would agree.

It looks as though 47 has acquiesced to all ten demands. One of those demands is that Iran gets to enrich uranium. Again, the US has agreed. Today, Donny said Iran would stop enriching uranium. Here’s a weird bit. According to the Guardian, Iran released it’s 10-point plan. In Farsi, the language they speak in Iran, the list included “acceptance of enrichment” for it’s nuclear program. In the English version, that list item wasn’t included. I suspect that means Iran gets to enrich uranium, but the US gets to say otherwise.

I think Iran has the stronger hand, going into negotiations. It looks like the US isn’t getting anything it was trying for, making the deaths of those American military members just wasted flesh. It’s even worse for the Iranians. Donny was just trying to look like a tough guy but people, real people, died. Kids. I wonder which talking point in the negotiations brings back those kids.

I’m not surprised that ‘Team Fake-Tough-Guy’ would present their surrender as a win. That’s not for people paying attention. It’s for MAGA. Iran is also claiming complete victory. The one thing we know about the Pedo President is that he’s undependable as hell. His “word” isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. A good word to describe him? Erratic.

The stock market has hated this war and with word of the US surrender, seems to be responding quickly. The price of oil has come down and stocks are going up again. But technically, this is only a two-week ceasefire and the two sides have to come to agreement. I’m not paying much attention to the crowing of the two sides. We’ll have to wait and see what comes out of any final agreement, if anything.

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So now it’s Thursday. It’s likely that while I was writing Wednesday morning, Netanyahu was sending bombs into Lebanon. One of Iran’s negotiating points was no more bombing, including Lebanon. Israel declared the agreement didn’t cover Lebanon and bombed away. Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz again. I suspect that’s our answer. Donny won’t be able to stop his stupid war because Israel won’t let him.

Netanyahu and 47 have something in common: if they leave their respective offices, they go to jail. Well, technically, they go to trial. Netanyahu needs to keep wars going to stay in his office. Donny is just dumb enough to think people won’t notice HE started his war of choice and will try to turn it into some existential battle that must be fought. 47 intends to use his war of choice to try to interfere with the mid-terms.

Donny’s in a panic about the mid-terms. His regime has been an unqualified, unmitigated disaster. The GOP in general has debased itself, groveling before their Precious, abdicating their responsibility to everything. MAGA Mike, the Johnson seems to be trying to keep the House in perpetual recess so he never has to do anything. Well, anything but accept his paycheck. He’s not doing his job but he’s taking the money. People – even conservatives – want this collection of corrupt clowns out. Donny was hoping a quick victory would change his fortunes.

To hear 47 tell it, it IS existential for Iran, though. President Pedo did say he was planning to wipe out “a whole civilization.” (He didn’t say which, theirs or ours.) Even the threat is a war crime. I believe old Bibi convinced Dumb Donald an Iranian invasion would be quick and easy. A quick victory for the Drumpfster might make him look decisive and tough. He wanted – needed – that. Instead, Iran has made him look like a weak, confused, and incapable dotard. Even MAGA can see it now…

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See? It’s not a lock, necessarily. Democrats have been sweeping special elections. It looked like that was going to be the knock-on effect of being Republican, what with the party looking so hapless, reckless, and downright anti-American. But yesterday, Republican Clay Fuller beat Democrat Shawn Harris in Georgia’s special election to replace former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. The Dems CAN still mess this up…

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This is an odd little bit I wanted to mention. Landmines are a problem worldwide. Armies bury them during wars. Or conflicts. Or police actions. Then after the hostilities, the armies leave. Did you notice there was no mention of going back, digging up the mines, and taking them along? Yeah, they don’t. They just leave ’em.

In Cambodia, for example, estimates suggest there are as many as six million undiscovered landmines left over from the Vietnam war. For years, often decades after the end of fighting, people get blown up by landmines. 20,000 killed, 40,000 injured in Cambodia since 1979. (The war ended in 1975.) Yeah, I’d call that a problem.

Some clever sod out there figured out a way to train African pouched rats to find them. Their little noses are powerful enough to smell the explosives inside, but the rats, themselves, are too small to trigger the devices. It takes a human being four days to clear a tennis-court sized area. The rat can do the same job, with less risk, in twenty minutes.

Rats take a lot of heat from humans. That has a lot to do with them being freight trains for bubonic plague infected fleas during the Middle Ages. It’s nice to have a good thing we can apply to rats, now, as well…