israel

Sneaky Weasels…

by MyBaconPress

Well, aren’t they clever? The cons passed a bill against insider trading over the objections of Democrats. Wait, what? Over objections? But we, the people, WANT laws against insider trading by congress critters. Why would Dems stand against that? Well, they wouldn’t, now would they? I mean, they did, but not because of the bill’s ostensible primary purpose.

Some of the Dems DID suggest the bill in question didn’t go far enough to curb insider trading, but the main opposition to the bill came because the cons are sneaky little weasels and they tried to insert language of the SAVE Act into this insider trading bill. THAT way, see, cons could campaign on trying to curb insider trading – which they were not really trying to do – but the evil Dems stopped them, without ever mentioning the voter suppression details hidden within.

The cons, it seems, KNOW their SAVE Act is a terribly unpopular effort at voter suppression. To me, that’s the message behind their sneaky little effort to slip those provisions into other legislation…

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One barely has time for outrage anymore. First we find out 47 has made a deal with Saudi Arabia to let them enrich uranium for civilian use, so long as any support comes from American companies. Energy Secretary Chris Wright announced the deal on Wednesday. People were… confused. Why would Donny let Saudi Arabia have nuclear power?

By Thursday, though, things had changed. Apparently, Wright wasn’t supposed to make the announcement he made. Donny’s irritated. When the questions and criticisms about the deal – signed on Wednesday – started pouring in, Donny added a caveat: Oh, they can’t enrich uranium and they have to normalize relations with Israel.

The White House denies Netanyahu got on the phone and told Donny no, but those just happen to be two pet issues of Israel: no nuclear power for Arab states and better relations with Israel. For their part, Saudi Arabia continues to reject normalized relations with Israel until Israel agrees to a Palestinian state. Since Israel’s goal is obviously to drive out every Arab in the area in a “leave or die” kind of way, a Palestinian state doesn’t seem likely at this point.

So it’s looking more and more like there is no deal with Saudi Arabia, after all. Hey, just like everything else those clowns announce, yeah? I suspect Donny was trying to backdoor the deal and Wright’s announcement derailed the whole thing. That’s just a guess, though…

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Elon Musk says he “got a little too involved in politics” and “got carried away, frankly” by his cruel efforts to dismantle the US government and her reputation around the world with his DOGE crap. His primary concern, it seems, it that people now know who he really is and the vast majority of the world now hates that guy’s guts with a white hot passion. His businesses are suffering because decent people don’t want to do business with him.

The cuts DOGE made were supposed to save money. They haven’t. Instead, DOGE cuts forced tens of thousands of government workers out of their jobs and laid waste to foreign aid — with catastrophic consequences. I mean, people around the world started dying almost right away. People around the world are STILL dying because of DOGE cuts. Oh, also? DOGE leaked highly sensitive data.

DOGE has sparked waves of protests, hollowed out the Social Security Administration, and fundamentally undermined the role of science in the United States. So now Musk thinks maybe he overdid it? Hey, welcome to the party. We ALL think you overdid it and many of us hope you pay the price in your businesses every single day in a “what goes around, comes around” kind of way…

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Look I don’t know why MAGA prefers economic wreckage, rampant struggling, widespread hunger, and re-released killer illnesses but that’s all 47 has brought and they still support the guy. Those must be the things that represent their vision, right? The US is now being considered to decide if we LOSE our status as a state that has eradicated measles – because of the measles outbreak RFK jr brought with his “vaccines suck” message.

Political gamesmanship is all well and good as far as sowing discontent, but it will never defeat objective reality. You want to pretend vaccines are terrible and ineffective? Fine. Now you have to deal with the disease the vaccine prevented because it doesn’t suck and it IS effective. That’s not speculation. It’s every day real life in Bizarro America…

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When a Democrat is in the Oval Office, cons like to run around saying, “Not my President.” Nothing new, there. When a con is in office, Dems will do the same, “Not my President.” The response from the opposition in each case is the same, “He’s all of our President.” That’s supposed to be true and until the most recent infestation at the White House, it was.

Sitting Presidents made decisions about the US based on what was best for the people involved. (Yes, sometimes it was the RICH people involved but the point is the same.) Those decisions were not based on politics, they were based on need. Until 47, if a state suffered a natural disaster, the state received help based on the need. Nobody looked at the voter roles.

Wait, what? Voter roles? What the hell has that got to do with anything? Well, until 47, nothing. They weren’t relevant. But Donny makes decisions about who gets what based on who voted for him and who voted against him. I suspect he thinks he’s teaching his opposition a lesson. “Vote for me and I’ll take care of you. Don’t vote for me and I won’t.” Exactly the message NO decent President would ever, ever deliver.

But is Team Evil really doing that, or does it just seem so? Well, in a recent court filing, Team Evil admitted they cancelled $7.6 billion dollars in grants for hundreds of clean energy projects “based solely on the political identity of the grant recipient’s state” — in this case, 16 states that voted for Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.

So when I say to you that he’s not MY President, that’s not MY attitude. It’s his. HE says he’s not the President to every American, only a select few. And the “few” ain’t poor people running around in red hats. He means rich people and only rich people. I think a decent President would try to win over the people who didn’t vote for him with projects that help the opposition states. But with Donny in power, there’s no sense in discussing what a decent President might do…

Wrapping Up The Weekend…

by MyBaconPress

Ah. I knew there would be a gimmick. I just didn’t know what kind. He bragged he’d give a long speech despite the high temperature just to prove he can do anything. I thought maybe he’d give the speech from an air conditioned building or maybe with coolers directed at him. I didn’t think of ‘late-at-night,’ but he did. That worked, too. He gave the speech from a stage strategically located to hide the Reflecting Pool. But he promised he’d have the Reflecting Pool finished and ready to show off by the Fourth. Yet another promise made, promise not kept.

Apparently, he tried to give a standard political ‘Ain’t-America-Great?’ speech. He only veered off into his favorite tangents a little bit. It lacked greatness. No memorable lines, no soaring rhetoric. I even heard it referred to as boring rhetoric. He’s not good at staying on topic when the topic is not him. Someone referred to him as ‘Teleprompter Trump.’ They try to get him to stay on task by getting him to stick to the teleprompter but he has the attention span of a three-year-old and his aging mind wanders.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a trump event if it didn’t include white supremacists. So the hate group Patriot Front showed up, faces carefully covered, and marched the Confederate flag down the street. Do you think they covered their faces out of concern over Covid-19? That’s awfully respectful for a hate group. But they weren’t just hiding their identities, were they? Wouldn’t that be cowardice? How does one take a stand on an issue while hiding? If you believe a thing, why hide? No, it must have been the Covid thing. Thanks, haters.

White supremacists marching down the street? Obviously, when 47 started flapping his lips, he used the opportunity to condemn, uh, <checks notes> right, communism. Obviously. Communism isn’t a problem of any kind in this once-great nation, and racism and white supremacy have been put on steroids since our racist pedophile president came to public attention so it makes perfect sense to condemn the imaginary problem while overlooking the actual problem. Classic trump.

He pretended there were 350,000 people there, too. From what I’ve seen, he might get a tenth of that throughout the entire event. I often find myself wondering if those people he always see are in the room with me right now? Hey, maybe he does see them, like Cole Sear in ‘The Sixth Sense.’ “I see dead people.” Maybe he’s seeing the ghosts of all of the people he’s killed already…

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Israel is establishing thirteen more new settlements. They’re strategically positioned to ensure no contiguous Palestinian state can ever exist. I suspect that also means they’re strategically positioned to ensure no peace in the region in the foreseeable future. These settlements are one of the biggest complaints of the non-Israelis living in the area.

Ever since Israel expelled the Palestinians from the area called Israel in 1948, the Palestinians have been fighting back. Badly, it’s true but they’ve tried. Israel, though, tends to encroach a little at a time. They’ve never stopped. It’s like the person sitting next to you on an airplane who slowly, but surely, pushes your elbow off the armrest by pushing their own further and further onto the armrest.

Israel just keeps encroaching. Another settlement, then another, then another, then another. The goal is clear and obvious. Israel wants ALL of that land for themselves and they’re taking it – by stealth and by force. If you happen to notice that Israel is always the aggressor in these matters, you run the risk of be called antisemitic. That’s a cheap dodge by defenders of Israel. What the government of Israel is doing has nothing to do with Judaism – and it’s just plain wrong…

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In a rare moment of sanity, the corrupt Supremely Kangaroo Court upheld the US Constitution over Donny’s whims. In this case, they supported birthright citizenship, just because it’s written in plain English in the Constitution. That’s no guarantee with these clowns, but, in this case, they did the right thing. Donny doesn’t like being told no, and he absolutely abhors when people do the right thing.

So now Team Evil is considering banning foreign pregnant women from entering the country at all. Isn’t that lovely? Now women have to promise they’re not pregnant if they want to visit. Cons think there’s such a thing as “Birth Tourism,” in which women travel to the US for no other reason than to deliver an anchor baby. Now they’re doing everything in their power to stop that.

Come to think of it, if 47 stays in power much longer, the US will become such a crappy little country to be in, nobody will want to be here. Perhaps he’s not just a terrible manager, after all. Perhaps he’s destroying the country to discourage “birth tourism.” That’s a little like setting a broken arm by killing the patient. The broken arm won’t be a problem anymore, sure, but it seems like going too far to achieve the goal…

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So, did you notice the number of events that were cancelled because it was just too effing hot? Not so much here in the west but in the east, oh, man, are they suffering. All kinds of traditional Fourth of July events were cancelled. Parades? Gone. Fireworks displays? Out. Too hot. Too dangerous.

I’m really split as to which threat wipes out humanity first, AI or climate change. I’d say this weekend, climate change has made a bold move to be in first place. AI is going to have to come from behind, like an unexpected checkmate in a game where you just didn’t see it coming until your opponent is laughing in your face.

Besides, climate change has a real advantage. We set it up to operate automatically. It’s in it’s own feedback loop so, as long as we just keep pumping more and more pollutants into the air, Donny’s goal, it will get worse and worse on it’s own. After a while – and the deadline is fast approaching now – we won’t be able to stop it. Hell, the deadline may have already passed. Please note the term: DEADline.

We were warned. Long before we started seeing the effects of climate change, we started hearing about them. We ignored them. Once the effects started, we couldn’t ignore them anymore. But we did anyway. When public awareness picked up, so did mis- and disinformation. Our very existence was reduced to a political game, and there it sits.

Now we’re starting to suffer the more severe aspects of climate change – and we ain’t seen nothin’ yet. But politics is still in charge. That’s just stupid at this point. It looks very much like humanity is going to stupid itself out of existence. That’s just embarrassing…

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…

That Which Is Foretold…

by MyBaconPress

It’s odd, isn’t it? For decades, we’ve listened to cons clamoring for “state’s rights” over Federal government. They use it, mostly, when they want to do some evil or crappy thing. But suddenly, state’s rights don’t seem as important. I wonder what happened to change the stance? I suspect it was when they discovered they could do those same evil and crappy things more effectively with the power of the Federal government.

Minnesota banned “prediction markets.” A prediction market is like any other gambling site, but often without the gambling. The person placing the “bet” might well have insider information that makes it less of a “bet” and more like a no-risk investment. Say, for example, you (somehow) knew the US government was about to set back negotiations in a trumped up war with an unexpected bombing. You could make a prediction market “bet” and clean up.

Our Inglorious Misleader has said he “was never much in favor” of prediction markets. Of course that’s what he says. Meanwhile, he and his family are involved in the industry and according to the New York Times, Dumbass Jr has ties to two top prediction market companies. (Remember how angry the right was when they just thought Hunter Biden might be trading on Daddy’s name? Hypocrisy, thy name is MAGA.)

And of course the Drumpfsters are involved. Minnesota attorney general Keith Ellison, described the markets as, “designed to be addictive and prey especially on young people and low-income folks.” He said they, “help the ultra-rich get richer and the rest of us get poorer.” I suspect the Drumpfsters are the kinds of people who would gleefully get rich with pay-day loans, too.

So, state’s rights be damned. The National Embarrassment wrote that it’s “critically important” that the federal government retain control over the multi-billion dollar prediction market industry. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has filed a lawsuit to stop Minnesota and other states from protecting their citizens from this, particular scourge.

It might just be me, but I think the Federal government should NOT have the power to FORCE states to allow their citizens to be victimized by gambling sites…

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Well, whaddaya know and who coulda guessed? 47 bombed Iran again, just as the now-infamous and obviously-better-than-Obama’s deal was just about to be set. Oh, so close. Now we don’t get the deal that was better than Obama’s after all. I wonder which markets paid off on that one – and to whom? And now he has added a new poison pill: all the Arab nations need to sign on to the so-called Abraham Accords.

The Abraham Accords created a framework for Arab nations to recognize Israel. The Arab nations that haven’t signed it, don’t sign it because Israel has never been open to the idea of creating an independent Palestine. Those nations are not going to sign the thing until that changes. So? Poison pill. He gets to claim he’s working to end his stupid war while keeping the thing going with unworkable demands. I suspect there’s profit in it – for him, anyway.

I’m thinking that next comes more threats and tough talk from a weak guy before an “unexpected announcement” of being THIS CLOSE to a deal, a great deal, the best deal, a deal like no other deal, a big deal, a strong deal, a deal with tears in it’s eyes as it says “Sir, nobody could have negotiated a better deal than this deal.”

Then? Why, more bombs and another payout. It IS a pretty sweet arrangement if you just happen to have access to all of the beautiful insider information…

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I’m writing this early Tuesday morning. Lying Donny has a physical scheduled for today at Walter Reed Hospital. It’s his regularly scheduled, quarterly, “annual physical.” The increased visits seem to support the notion that doctors are monitoring the progress of his dementia. But the announcement, I expect, will be that he’s the healthiest human being ever to walk the planet.

Update: Yep. Word is, he’s in great shape. Oh, AND, he can still identify an elephant, too…

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London in a heat dome? On Tuesday, London hit 95.2 degrees Fahrenheit, an all-time record. All of Europe is said to be sweltering. The heat is expected to hang around for the rest of the week. Lovely. London isn’t built for heat. I suspect it might want to start getting ready.

It’s a good thing all of that talk of climate change is fake news or I’d be thinking we, the species, might be in trouble…

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Where ever conservatives hold sway, life gets crappier for the working class every single day. Have you noticed that? I mean, the cons will TELL you things are great. They’ll insist on it, in fact. But metrics are metrics and it’s measurable that where ever conservatives hold sway, life gets crappier for the working class, every single day.

It’s disheartening to discover that people will ignore the mountains and mountains of evidence that the conservative way is NOT the better way. But that’s what the evidence shows…

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Chalk up yet another successful “prediction” from Mike Judge in his unintentional documentary ‘Idiocracy.’ In the movie, the President of the United States is a clown named, Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho. He’s every bit as qualified for the job as the clown we have now. He turns the White House into a spectacle.

Now Donald “Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho” Trump is building an Ultimate fighting Champion (UFC) arena – on the White House lawn. Real classy-like, you know? He’s hosting a cage fight next month to celebrate his birthday – on the White House lawn. Apparently, he likes watching fit men in short-shorts grappling with each other…

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Megyn Kelly said “I didn’t expect the corruption to be quite as widespread as it has been.” How is that NOT the same as, “Oh, I KNOW he’s corrupt. I just thought he would be more discreet about it.” The idea that they KNEW he’s corrupt and voted for him anyway fits into another point of view I’ve recently heard.

That idea suggests that MAGA doesn’t like what Lying Donny does, either, but they DO like that it irritates “Libtards” so they stay in line. Does MAGA really hate progressives SO much, they’ll celebrate 47 harming them, so long as it harms lefties, too? “Hey, Donald Trump burned your house down?”
“Nah, he burned down the house of that libtard, next door. Mine just got caught up in the blaze.”
“But your house burned down, too.”
“Did you HEAR the part about him burning down the libtard’s house?”
“But YOUR house?!?”
“Small price to pay to own a libtard!”
“Well, where are you going to live now?”
“Hey, what did Joe Biden do to my house?”

I don’t mean to be unkind, but, honestly, in many of these exchanges, MAGA – as a group – does not come off looking any too…um…intellectually sophisticated…

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…

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…

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:

*~*~*~*~*

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.

*~*~*~*~*

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…