MAGA

Terrible is Still Terrible…

by MyBaconPress

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Republican Shot At Trump…

by MyBaconPress

I just finished a book called ‘Blink’ by Malcolm Gladwell. It takes the position that sometimes one’s first impression is far stronger, and more correct, than in-depth analysis and study. As strange as it is to say, based on that thinking, I feel like there is something amiss in yesterday’s “assassination attempt.” I can’t put my finger on it. It just doesn’t feel right.

There’s something about the angle that confuses me. As the shooting started, Trump’s head was turned nearly 90 degrees. That means the shooter had to be on the sides of event for the bullet to whizz past (or through) his ear. Otherwise, it would have gone into his head. The thing is, I didn’t see any buildings to the side of the rally in any of the photos. I’d like to see a better map of the area. I also thought the blood looked wrong – too red. But what the hell do I know about blood? Note: I’ve since seen a better map. The shooter was, in fact, to the side of event…

Like I say, it’s just a feeling and a bit of a paranoid one, at that. Did they stage a rally shooting that actually killed someone and seriously injured others just to boost Trump’s standing in the polls? No. That’s too cynical, even for me. I still can’t shake the feeling, though, that Trump wouldn’t hesitate to kill some “little person” he doesn’t even know if he thought it would win him the White House.

I know. It’s insane thinking. Then again, look at who this is about. Insanity, personified. Honestly, do you really think Trump is beyond staging a shooting and cutting his own ear for political advantage? I wish I could say, for sure, that he would never – but I can’t.

Then again, Trump likely won the election the night of that disastrous debate. He didn’t NEED to stage anything like this. Besides, will anybody vote for Trump just because someone tried to shoot him? I don’t think so. Trump is STILL an existential threat to the United States and everybody who lives there, let alone the world, and thinking people still know that and MAGA still doesn’t care. I doubt even a stunt like this would win him any new supporters.

Maybe all of that is just me, expressing my ongoing inability to grasp the death of our once-great nation. I’ve been writing and trying to warn people about what I see coming for a long time. I’ve had very little success convincing anybody of anything. These days, with the end in sight, I find myself walking around in a kind of a fugue state, operating but not fully in charge, you know? It’s a kind of low-grade shock. I would never have believed Americans would let this happen at all, let alone that so many Americans would so gleefully cheer it along.

Trump took to holding rallies outdoors, I suspect, because it was cheaper than lining up indoor venues and his campaign is trying to save money for his many criminal trials. They even held some in Arizona (rallies, not trials) and it was so hot several of his devotees passed out in the heat. (Old people just don’t tolerate heat like younger people.) Having the rallies outside, though, is what allowed this shooter to get into position in the first place. I’d guess, going forward, future rallies will be strictly indoor events…

It’s also possible this was just some random, nut-ball shooting. We’ve seen them at all kinds of events from schools to concerts. Why NOT a political rally? He’s dead, now, so we’ll never get to ask him why he did it or what he was thinking, but the shooter was a 20 year old boy. He used an AR-15, the preferred gun of mass murderers around the nation, thanks, ironically, to the MAGAGOP and the NRA. He didn’t get a lot of shots in before he was “eliminated” himself.

He was a registered Republican but gave $15 bucks to a progressive political group in 2021. Those two events likely happened in the reverse order, though. Based on his age and the timeline, he would have given the money when he was 17. Then he turned 18 and registered Republican. Law enforcement and the media will be tearing into this guy’s life for the next few weeks so we’ll know everything about him that it’s possible to know in a short time.

I don’t want violence. I have to condemn this shooting in the strongest possible terms. You may have noticed, I don’t like Trump, even a little bit. I don’t support violence against him or anyone else. Maybe the shooter was trying to kick off the “culture war,” once and for all. You know, make it look like some “libtard” tried to kill Trump so the right would pick up their guns and start shooting, too. They still might.

Trump and his MAGA followers have been advocating violence for a long time, now. Their voices have been calling for another civil war. They are the people advocating retribution and revenge on their “enemies.” (Read: fellow Americans) It can’t be a total surprise that it’s coming out and it shouldn’t be surprising that it is, perhaps, coming home to roost. Violence is rarely a one-way street…

I’ll tell you this: I fear this will not be a one-time thing. I think those shots were just the first shots. JFK’s words are screaming in my ears, now. “When you make peaceful revolution impossible, you make violent revolution inevitable.” We the people still have a choice about which way this whole thing plays out. Here’s hoping we choose more wisely than that 20 year old boy…

The Irony of the MAGA Mind…

by MyBaconPress

Sometimes, when I write about someone passing away, it’s with sadness because the person was good and did good things in the world. Willie Mays was like that. But sometimes, when I write about someone passing away, it’s with happiness because the person was an evil blight on humanity and did damage for money. People like Jim Inhofe.

Inhofe was definitely in the second camp. He was a Senator, a Republican (of course), and a staunch defender of the oil companies’ battle to boost climate change. Inhofe helped win that fight. Now the world will suffer increasingly hotter winters, more violent tropical storms and hurricanes, more floods, droughts, crop failures, and all the other horrible things science has been trying to warn us about since the 1950’s – only to be ignored. Or, more accurately, shouted down by people who refused to understand.

Inhofe was the moron who brought a snowball, a weather event, into the Senate chambers to show that climate change, a climate event, wasn’t real – because snow still happened. 89 years the planet suffered under the weight of this man’s stupidity. Thanks, in part, to him, we STILL get to suffer but HE shuffled off and avoided the worst of his actions. Classic con move.

Oh, well, at least I can take comfort that where he went is (reportedly) much hotter than where we are…

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Do you know what I find ironic? With the help of compliant conservatives, the one percent is right on the precipice of winning their class war. I know, it’s been presented (by the one percent, remember) as a “culture war” but it’s been a class war since the start. They want to be an official aristocracy and FDR made that difficult. Sure, FDR also made the country the financial envy of the world and created the largest and strongest middle class the world had ever known but rich people couldn’t get AS rich AS fast under his rules so those rules had to go.

But they couldn’t have done it alone. They needed a mob. They found one in conservatives and they led the cons around by the nose through fraudulent (and very scary) broadcasts that looked real enough to fool people not paying too much attention. The one percent seduced the cons with easy answers. Trump’s main gift is his constant promises of easy answers to complex problems. That’s why they love him. Easy answers.

No, none of that is the ironic part. That’s just background. One of Trump’s easy answers is yet another tax cut or worse. He has actually floated the idea of eliminating income taxes altogether and replacing them with tariffs on goods. Every competent economist has blasted the proposal but “smart” and “MAGA” simply do not go together.

All of these tax cuts are a one percent wet dream as well. They just get richer and richer but, have you noticed? The country keeps having to cut services and opportunities because we can’t afford them. “Cut more!” is all we ever hear. They don’t talk about it like they used to. These days, they pretend it’s all about stimulating investment but there was a time they said the quiet part out loud.

There was this conservative Bozo known as Grover Norquist. He once held the Republican Party in his grip with nearly perfect control. He had them sign a pledge that they would never, ever raise taxes nor allow them to be raised. If they didn’t sign, they didn’t get any support from the GOP. If they DID sign, he could wave that promise around at them any time one of them seemed about to act for the good of the country instead of rich people.

Old Grover said a lot of things over the course of his career but, to me, his most famous quote is “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.” The “reduce it to the size” part is the tax cuts. They seem designed to bankrupt the nation.
“Hey, it feels like we might be getting to the ironic part, here, pretty soon.”
“Yeah, it does.”
And so we are…

I became curious about how all of these tax cuts would affect people when the government is, finally, bankrupt. Do you know who it looks like is going to suffer the most as a result of conservative mantras? Why, mostly, that would be conservative states! Isn’t THAT ironic?

The cons only think about welfare recipients (the easy answer) and except for themselves, think ALL welfare recipients should be cut off immediately since the other ones are “only committing fraud.” But the government does a LOT more than just welfare. When one bundles all the money the Federal government gives to states that need help, the most Federally dependent states are mostly red.

Okay, there ARE a couple of blue states in there but it seems likely that, as blue states, they’ll vote against red for the good of the nation and, frankly, themselves. There’s nothing ironic about that. But if we look at the top fifteen states that are Federally dependent, we find Alaska (1), Louisiana (2), Montana (3), Arizona (5), Wyoming (6), Kentucky (8), Mississippi (9), Texas (10), West Virginia (12), and Tennessee (14).

That’s ten of the top fifteen Federally dependent states that can be counted on to do serious damage to themselves in support of the richest people in this once-great nation. Even more ironic? They’ll do that financial harm to themselves, chanting their mantra about voting their own interest – all while voting against their own interest and in rich people’s interest, instead…

Hold on to your hats, folks. It’s going to be quite a (terrifying) ride…

Tacking Left…

by MyBaconPress

Trump seems to be tacking left a bit. He has, of course, sewn up the votes from the dangerously extremist far right. Now he has to try to convince some rational, non-cult members to vote for him, too, so he’s starting to pretend all that “pander to the crazies” was just something special he did for them. He’s really a centered, down-to-Earth guy, right? To that end, he came out disavowing Project 2025. He claims he knows nothing about it. HE didn’t write it. He has no idea who is behind it. (Like he’s never even heard of the Heritage Foundation.) He even said that some of the stuff in Project 2025 is “ridiculous and abysmal.”

I’ve written about Project 2025 a couple of times before. Essentially, it’s a 922-page plan created by the Heritage Foundation and many of Trump’s own former senior administration officials to create a government loyal NOT to America, but to Donald J. Trump. It’s sweeping, and it’s evil. So, Trump is pretending he doesn’t know the plan, never heard of the Heritage Foundation, and doesn’t know any of his former senior administration officials. Yeah, plausible…

Nope. Remember, this is Donald Trump. He’s LYING! He has publicly praised the President of the Heritage Foundation, Kevin Roberts, twice and his website actually links to the Heritage Foundation under his Section on ‘Agenda 47,’ his own, horrible plan to do terrible things to people, the nation, and the world. Remember, if Trump is speaking, he’s lying…

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I have a friend who is MAGA. That’s true. How do we do it? Mostly, we don’t talk politics. But the recent ‘make the president a king’ ruling from the SKCOTUS was a momentary exception. I started it, I confess. I didn’t mean to. It was just an off-handed quip I made. “No,” I was assured, “the ruling did NOT make the President a king.” Then I heard something I’ve heard before. “Read the decision.” So I did.

No, that’s not true. I looked up the decision. I found a copy in the Guardian. The first thing I noticed? It’s a 119-page decision. My friend is a VERY busy guy. I’m certain HE didn’t read the 119-page decision. But, hey, that seemed an unfair conclusion, based on nothing but the total number of pages, so I started digging in. I didn’t have to go too far. The details of the ‘make the president a king’ thinking are in the summary – on page one, fercrissakes.

Here, for your edification: “Held: Under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of Presidential power entitles a former President to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority. And he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts. There is no
immunity for unofficial acts.”

Based on that ONE short exchange I had with my friend, I suspect MAGA is being told the left is just pearl-clutching and that there’s no such provision in the ruling. I suspect the MAGA deceivers are telling the MAGA deceived to tell people to ‘read the decision’ because the word “king” doesn’t appear anywhere in it. I’m going to stipulate to that. Yeah, they didn’t use the word.

Interesting sidebar: when one is learning to write fiction (like that SKCOTUS decision), one of the lessons taught is that one should not tell the reader a thing. They should use their words to show the reader the thing. As an example, “It was a dark and stormy night” tells the reader it was a dark and stormy night. But better writing is to describe a dark and stormy night – no lights, no moonlight because of the cloud cover, the effects of the wind and the rain. The reader then takes those pieces and puts together the idea, it was a dark and stormy night.
“What the hell is he talking about?”
“Hang on, he’ll tie it together…”

The SKCOTUS didn’t tell us they were making a king. They showed us the power of a king and claimed said power is inherent to the American Presidency. (It very specifically is not.) One had to be able (or willing) to infer and understand. MAGA most definitely, is not. If one reads about lack of light and wind and rain and comes away thinking it’s a bright and sunny day, they missed the point entirely. They clearly weren’t reading too closely. Most likely, they didn’t read the thing at all.

So, if you try to debate with your favorite MAGA on the topic, don’t be too surprised to find they know nothing of the reality of the situation. The Deceived are merely parroting what they’ve been told by the Deceivers…

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Hey, it doesn’t seem like much but maybe, just maybe, it’s a harbinger of better things. We’ve all watched MAGA rise in this nation. We may NOT have noticed the rise of conservatism around Europe in general but, OMG, is it happening. Conservatism has taken hold wherever one finds an internet outlet cons can lie through. The cons aren’t just doing it to the US. They’re doing it to all of Europe, as well. The US is just their biggest prize.

But in the UK, cons have been running things for quite awhile – and running them into the ground. It’s the conservative way. So, finally, after more than a decade of failure, the cons have been replaced by thinking people in the UK. That’s a good thing. I suspect Britain’s future is looking up.

I know. It’s one election. Right across the Channel, in France, the cons are making great strides and claiming a huge segment of the French government. So expect a campaign of cruelty and failure in France coming soon. It’s the conservative way. But maybe the victory for rationalism in the UK can spread in the same way con misinformation spreads.

Hope springs eternal, I guess…

How The Dems Win…

by MyBaconPress

Three. That’s the number of excuses, I’m sorry, “explanations” regarding Joe’s terrible, horrible performance at the debate. Three. The first was that he had a cold. The second was that his prep team overworked him. The most recent was that he had just flown around the world. Twice. He was tired.

The thing is, when Trump ran against Joe and lost in the fair and honest election of 2020, most of us were NOT voting FOR Joe. We were voting against Trump. Most of us had the attitude that we would have voted for a cold ham sandwich over Trump. We need to remember that – and do it again. The threat that is Trump still exists and, in fact, has become FAR more threatening than he was in his first term.

It’s a little funny that MAGA does exactly the same thing for Trump. That is, I’m reminding people to overlook Biden’s shortcomings and vote for him anyway, to block Trump. MAGA, too, will overlook Trump’s shortcomings and vote for him. The difference? Thinking Americans will be voting for a guy who has been a pretty good President and MAY be having “Senior Moments.” MAGA will be supporting a serial criminal – “a one man crime spree,” Biden called him, an adjudicated rapist, a person who lies like nobody has ever seen, the personification of the Seven Deadly Sins, AND the person who experts have agreed was the worst President in the history of this once-great nation.

You remember his first term, right? Those were the years the economy was destroyed, more people lost jobs and more Americans died than any time in our history – including the American Civil War. Yeah, that was great.

Trump inherited an economy that was humming along. He managed to kill it – and over a million Americans – in only four years. “That was Covid-19!” screams MAGA. Yep. His pathetic handling of Covid-19, you mean. Covid-19 was a pandemic, meaning it hit worldwide. NO other nation suffered the number of deaths America suffered.

Then we put Biden in office and no other country recovered from the damage of Covid-19 as fast at the US, either. Biden is better than Trump. Here’s the thing. Biden is better than Trump, even if Biden has full-blown Alzheimer’s. (He doesn’t.) But the point here is, it doesn’t matter what condition Biden is in.

Rational Americans were willing to vote for a cold ham sandwich against Trump last time. We MUST keep the mindset. Every American who loves this country, despite her issues, needs to get out and vote against Trump again. We weren’t enthusiastic about Biden last time and we don’t have to be this time. He was the anti-Trump and THAT, more than any other thing, is what we need to stay focused on. Biden is the Anti-Trump.

You won’t be voting FOR Biden. You’ll be voting against the Destroyer of Worlds, and that’s pretty important…

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But the election is just the first hurdle. MAGA has a plan to simply install Trump if he loses at the ballot box. In my last column, I asked for input. If you have any ideas how we might save this country, I’d love to hear it. Then, I had one! Sure, it’s a long-shot. Long shots are pretty much the option left so tell me what you think of this: Right now, today, Biden needs to appoint four more Justices to the Supreme Court. The Democratic controlled Senate could, should, have them all confirmed and ready to go by the time the next Court sits.

The now-rational 7-6 majority would be in charge of overseeing future legal challenges, not the insane, ideological 6-3 bullshit that has done so much harm and is just itching to do more. There would be nothing the cons could do to stop it. The now-rational majority might even be able to bring some past rulings back for review. I don’t know about that one. I’d need to ask a lawyer and I haven’t seen any since I got the idea. It doesn’t matter, though.

It’s no joke about MAGA trying to simply install Trump in the House if he loses at the ballot box. It’s an actual plan and they have all the pieces they need in place to make that happen, should they execute that evil, unamerican plan. And why wouldn’t they? Any legal challenges will, obviously, be taken to the SCOTUS to be settled. If the SCOTUS is still the SKCOTUS (meaning infested by Kangaroos), the decision is a foregone conclusion. “Who cares what the Constitution says? We love our guy!” If rationality has been returned to the court, America has a chance. Otherwise?

Yeah, yeah, MAGA would scream about how unfair it is – exactly the same way the left screamed when Moscow Mitch stole that seat to pack the court with crazies. The difference? Biden would be working to save the country, where MAGA is hell-bent on destroying her. Besides, MAGA is wrong about everything. Everything! Why the hell would any rational person listen to any MAGA about anything political, ever?

Biden has promised not to abuse his new powers as king. I appreciate that, but if USING those powers to save the nation would, well, save the fucking nation, I’d say do what you have to do. In fact, the ONLY way to get enough time to fix what the corrupt court has wrought is to change the structure of the SCOTUS. Not doing so only sets us up for evil king Trump, who will most definitely abuse his power.

But Biden wouldn’t BE abusing his power. Appointing Supreme Court Justices is a core power of the President, defined in the Constitution. He would just be doing his job. Expanding the court might be the only way to save the country. It would likely save his Presidency, too.

I often feel like the left plays the “Washington Generals” against the right’s “Harlem Globetrotters” which is a bit ironic since the Globetrotters are mostly black and MAGA is mostly racist but that’s a different column. (For the uninitiated, the Generals are the “team” the Globetrotters play against in their “games.” The Generals are expected to lose to the Globetrotters…)

I hold that actions speak louder than words. When the Dems could win a fight but don’t? I can’t explain that any other way than they didn’t WANT to win the fight and I honestly believe the left has been throwing the game to the right for decades. They LOOK like they’re putting up a fight but their job is to lose, so lose they do. But I’m STILL suggesting this because it gives America a fighting chance.

In the best tradition of Six Degrees of Separation, if you know a way to get this idea in front of the President, please use it. NOW IS the time.

Expanding the court by adding four more rational people is perfectly legal, and even if some think otherwise, it’s a core power and not to be questioned – according to the very court Biden would be expanding. Such a bold move would, I believe, re-energize the Biden campaign, too. He could save the country AND himself as President. It’s a win-win. The only question is, do the Dems WANT to win?

Inexplicable…

by MyBaconPress

Bill Maher’s show, ‘Real Time’ is broadcast on Friday nights. I usually don’t watch until Saturday sometime. That was true again this week. He had Tulsi Gabbard on as a guest. It was the second time in a week I watched cons come out and lie (no surprise there) with absolutely NO pushback. The first was the debate, itself. Trump just stood there and lied. Nobody fact-checked him at the time.

With one exception, that includes Biden, which was one of Biden’s problems. The one exception? Trump said there was no inflation under him. Biden pointed out that was because the entire economy had flat-lined and there is no inflation where there is, essentially, no functioning economy. But other than that, Trump just lied and Biden just couldn’t hit those easy pitches at all, let alone out of the park.

But, then, on ‘Real Time,’ Maher let Gabbard get away with it, as well. She spewed the lies. Maher, mostly, sat there and let her. Very little pushback, very little correction of the record. I’m curious why Democrats aren’t calling out MAGA lies. It’s not that hard. The lies are obvious and have been debunked completely. When MAGA tries to repeat them to me, I respond with, you know, facts. MAGA doesn’t like facts, but I still think they’re important. Apparently, that’s quaint, these days.

The Dems are going to foist Biden on us, like it or not. The very LEAST they could do is try to look like they’re putting up a fight. When you just sit there and let the liars lie, you’re NOT putting up a fight of any kind. In a very real sense, you’re enabling the liars. Hell, you might as well be Fox Not-News!

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But not every false statement is provably false. Some are more… opinion oriented. For example, in the debate, Trump pointed out (correctly) that Putin took land under Obama and Putin has taken land under Biden but never even tried when Trump was in the Oval. That makes perfect sense to me. I believe (but can’t prove) Putin went to a LOT of trouble to get his mole into the White House and he wasn’t going to do ANYTHING to mess with that coup. In my opinion, Trump had FAR more value to Putin in other ways, like complete access to American intelligence. What, you think Trump stole all of those classified documents because he likes paper?

I also suspect Trump is playing word games when he insists he didn’t have sex with a porn star. I mean, he had sex with her but if he doesn’t count her a “star,” then he didn’t have sex with a porn star. Yeah, weasel words but that kind of parsing is right up Trump’s alley. I DO, however, feel obligated to point something out. Trump didn’t have sex with Daniels while Melania was pregnant. He was having sex with Karen McDougal while Melania was pregnant. (That would be the whole time. It was an ongoing affair.) He had sex with Daniels AFTER Barron was born…

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I don’t really expect tired old Sleepy Joe to just step down quickly. There’s a process to this. Acceptance can be hard to achieve. Meanwhile, people are doing what they can to try and prop him up. Some call the debate “just a bad performance,” a one-off. Some point out how hard it would be to get someone to replace Biden.

They have a point. Replacing Biden at this point would be difficult. But NOT replacing Biden is suicide. So which do you want, difficult or suicide? Some lovely choice there, eh? Bill Maher once referred to Biden as Ruth Bader Biden. It’s a reference to Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s decision to stay on the court rather than step down just because she was old and dying of cancer. That selfish, short-sighted decision set the stage for the end of Roe (and, apparently, the United States as a whole) and now Biden is making the same, selfish, short-sighted decision…

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Recently, in an effort to show everyone just how awesomely Christian the state is, Louisiana required every classroom in the state to post Jewish Law on the walls, for some reason. Not to be outdone, in an effort to show everyone just how awesomely Christian that state is, Oklahoma is going to require teachers to teach the Bible in their classrooms.

Do you think they’ll focus on that story about the time the daughters get their father drunk so they can have sex with him? You know, for the benefit of the children. No? Maybe it will include the OTHER time the daughters got their fathers drunk and had sex with him. Yeah, that IS an uplifting book of purity, isn’t it? No? How about the story where a man orders his slave to perform a task, which she does, and afterwards, he has her put to death and her body cut into pieces and spread to the four corners of his kingdom, do you think they’ll cover that one?

I guess it doesn’t matter. It’s all a show. A kind of competition. How Christian can WE appear? Here’s how dumb I am: when I think about Christianity, I like to look to Jesus and the words he taught. I don’t much care about some televangelist’s interpretation (that somehow always puts money into the televangelist’s pockets). So, since this is Sunday, let’s just take a look at what Jesus thought of these ostentatious displays of pseudo-Christianity.

Please open your Bibles to Matthew 6:5. 5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

That’s the New International Version. I still like the King James, which includes the line “Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” Jesus really thought one’s Christian works should be handled privately…

Dear Wonder Christians,
You REALLY should be embarrassed that I’m an Atheist and I know – and live – your favorite story book FAR better than you… (Apparently, I’m still working on the ego thing…)

Trump Was Bad, Too…

by MyBaconPress

There was an aspect of the debate I didn’t put focus on too much. It seemed like damage control from the Dems when I heard it, but it’s true. Donald Trump comported himself well, for a while. But he lied. I mean, he ONLY lied. And the longer the debate went on, the more he started getting agitated and showing more, well, Trump. I’m sure MAGA loved it.

It’s hard to blame them. Had Biden won, I would have been happy, too. Trump played the tough guy and he lied about everything. He had the best lies, the biggest lies, the easiest lies. It’s all hyperbole, all the time with him. Everything he did was the biggest, the best ever, the “super-de-duperist.” (You can imagine what “duperist” is doing to my spellcheck.) Meanwhile, Biden was the worst, the least, and the failed. Every word of that, especially in hyperbole, is exactly backwards.

Trump’s presidency was a train wreck. He inherited an economy humming along from the Obama administration. His tariffs started damaging that economy very quickly. He severely damaged American Soy farmers, like, the entire group, with his tariffs. People who once bought from American farmers just started buying elsewhere and the American farmers were reduced to receiving government checks to stay afloat.

There’s no telling where the damage would have ended except his dismantling of the pandemic response team – another moronic move – left the country vulnerable just as Covid-19 was rearing it’s ugly head. Every President faces challenges. I don’t blame Trump for the existence of Covid-19 in the first place. I can’t see him wearing a white lab coat and splicing genes. But he bears FULL responsibility for the miserable handling of the pandemic. Over a million Americans died – more than the American Civil War – and the economy basically flat-lined.

Trump said during the debate that when he left office, there was no inflation, a near-truth but a misrepresentation nonetheless. Biden had a great line for him. Of course there was no inflation. The economy Biden inherited was on it’s back. Trump’s actual record is one of failure and destruction and damage to Americans.

MAGA would challenge all of that, by the way. They’ve been told something different by their media and they believe what they’re told. To hear them tell it, the US was a dystopian hellscape under Obama. Then, on January 21, 2017, the US suddenly and magically became a utopian paradise with everybody happy, the economy buzzing along, success at every turn. Quite simply, life was perfect in every way for every person. Then, sadly, on January 21, 2021, right back to the hellscape. It’s stupid, but they believe it.

The Biden I wish had been present for the debate, instead showed up in North Carolina the next day at a rally where he knocked it out of the park. The Dems, as predicted, are going with their guy, absolutely gutting any enthusiasm anyone might have for getting out there and voting. They have excused the poor debate performance and continue to insist Biden is the guy. The thing about that poor debate performance is that Biden really DID seem to be having “old man” problems. At BEST, one can suggest that he does okay most of the time but occasionally gets stuck in senior moments.

But Trump is Trump is Trump. Trump cares about Trump. Period. Based on things I’ve heard, Trump absolutely despises his base but he tells them he loves them (“I love the poorly educated!”) and that’s what they want to hear. Well, that and easy answers. That seems to be a key element in the MAGA “mind,” easy answers. And Trump gives them that in spades.

As far as MAGA is concerned, there ARE no complex problems. Everything can be fixed to their liking easily. They just need the right tough-talking blowhard in there to do it. A guy so sure of himself, he’ll fix the problems without even thinking about the problems. Of course, one rarely fixes complex problems with easy answers but Trump tells them he can do it and they want to believe he can do it so they continue to support him, even after he proved he CAN’T do it. (MAGA just ignores that part…)

That’s an advantage for Trump. He knows he never has to actually DO anything. He needs to be returned to the Oval to avoid prosecution for his crimes, so he tells MAGA anything they want to hear. The lies are lies MAGA likes so they believe him. But his goal is only to get elected, not to serve America. Once in office, MAGA will be yesterday’s news and Trump will be free to serve himself.

Despite all the blather, blather, whining and blather we hear from Trump at his rallies, he HAS laid out policy positions and by every credible account, he is going to be a disaster for the US like nothing we’ve ever seen before, not even from his previous vile and failed maladministration. Trump plans to out-Trump Trump. If he gets the chance, everyone not rich suffers. Everyone. EVEN MAGA.

I’m not particularly surprised by the extremes of the right anymore but I’m quite disappointed by the Dems and their detachment from reality in their loyalty to such an old, possibly senile candidate. The ONE LINE I hear from everyone I talk to on the subject is, “Is this REALLY the best America has to offer?” But listen, we KNOW a president can be effective with dementia. We’ve already seen that movie in Ronald Reagan. If the worst that can be said (truthfully) about Biden is that he MAY be in decline, I’m STILL going with him. Because the BEST that can be said about Trump is that he will destroy this once-great nation, once and for all.

Donald J. Trump is a direct threat to the United States of America and the agenda these guys have in place promises to be cruel and destructive to the vast majority of Americans. Yes, even MAGA. (Possibly, especially MAGA, when one considers the niche they occupy.) The Dems could do better, should do better. But the MAGAGOP could NOT do any worse.

So my advice for Americans? Don’t compare Biden to some perfect candidate. Compare Biden to the alternative. Even if it’s true Biden has senior moments, he has things going quite well, considering what he inherited from the failures of the previous guy. He’s been working to make life better for all Americans. The alternative? All HE can think of is revenge and destruction and he’s excited about the possibility of being able to carry it out…

Dying of Stupidity…

by MyBaconPress

Those of us not in the cult often shake our heads in wonderment at how easily the Deceived are manipulated. First, Biden is a doddering old fool, overwhelmed by senility. But then, he gives a great State of the Union address, clearly in command of his faculties in ways the Deceived had been convinced not possible.

So? Oh, he must have been “jacked up” on something. Some performance enhancing drug that put him back to right just long enough to get through that speech. Then, right back to the doddering old fool story. The Deceived just go with the flow. Biden is mentally infirm, sure, but he’s also the mastermind of the greatest criminal frame job in history – but mostly the infirm thing.

So, going into tonight’s debate, MAGA is all set to believe Trump is going to wipe the floor with poor, mentally confused Joe Biden. Except Trump knows that Biden is likely to eat Trump’s lunch in this debate. So, he and his lapdog media start lowering expectations. First, Trump tries to pretend he’ll lose the debate on purpose but even MAGA wasn’t dumb enough to go along with that idea, so it was pretty quickly scrapped.

They moved into “Biden will be jacked up again” mode. They even topped it off with complementary things about Biden’s experience and skill as a debater. Now MAGA media has the Deceived convinced there’s some drug out there that reverses senility just long enough to make a public appearance. This miracle drug nobody has ever heard of anywhere on Earth just… sets a person to right, eliminating all effects of aging.

But, nobody has told the Deceived what that drug might be. So MAGA started guessing. Their best guess to date – at least from MY point of view – is (drum roll, please) Mountain Dew! No, I’m not kidding. That’s one of the guesses. It’s a stunning development. Mountain Dew cures senility, but, apparently, only for a couple of hours. Of course, disgraced and demoted “Dr.” Ronnie Johnson (whose name is ‘Jackson,’ but Trump is always right so I guess he’s legally changing his name) can’t claim Mountain Dew temporarily cures senility so he’s suggesting some drug or elixir out there. No, he has NOT named it.

Quick question for the Deceived: if there’s a drug out there that reverses senility and demented Joe takes it, what’s the problem? It’s like controlling blood pressure with pills. The high blood pressure doesn’t go away, it’s just managed. Why wouldn’t old Joe just take his magic pills all the time, thereby eliminating the effects of his dementia and remaining the effective President he’s been since taking office?

Also, name the drug. Tell me what it is. There are millions of people around the world, struggling with dementia who would LOVE a pill or elixir that “fixed” them – even for a short time. Stop pretending it’s a magic pill and name it. Hydroxychloroquine, anyone?

I’ll tell you this: I honestly can not believe that this once-great nation is going to win a Darwin Award for dying of stupidity…

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Truthfully, I thought he’d drop out by now, citing some b.s. excuse. But then I read that his team is encouraging him to show up and act like an adult. It would be…unexpected. As of this writing, it looks as though Trump has NOT backed out of the debate. I’m planning to watch but in a morbid curiosity kind of way.

I doubt Trump is capable of acting like an adult for a couple of hours so I’m curious what kind of shenanigans he’ll get up to. The rules rather limit the kinds of interruptions and distractions he likes to create, short of leaving his podium and going to Biden’s mic or just standing in his spot shouting like a madman.

Even if he tries to act like a grown-up, Trump is FAR too easily baited into bad behavior. I hope the first question from the moderators is, “Who won the 2020 election?” Simple question with a clear, simple answer. But it would break any pretense Trump had that he might be able to behave. His mind would spin and his mouth would fly and that would be that.

There’s still an entire day for him to slither out of it. We’ll see…

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Well, that was clever. The SKCOTUS is under fire over all of those bribes they keep taking and taking and taking. They REALLY don’t like having to explain their corrupt selves so… they’ve legalized bribery! They handed down a 6-3 ruling on Wednesday (Snyder vs the United States) that says that, so long as the “gift” is given AFTER the preferred act, it’s more of a “thank-you” than a bribe, so it’s okay. That’s called “a distinction without a difference.” It seems to me this entire, corrupt court should have recused themselves, all of them seeming to have accepted various “gifts” at various times…

This ruling, along with their egregious Citizens United opinion, make the United States a pay-to-play system. If you can’t pay, you can’t play. And, unless you can send the Kangaroos to Fiji on an annual basis, you can’t pay. The conservatives are turning (have turned?) this country into a for-the-wealthy paradise that just happens to suck for everyone else. I wonder what their “thank you gift” is going to be?

I’ll tell you this: I wish the cons had paid better attention in history class…

Insupportable…

by MyBaconPress

So, not for nothing, but I’ve noticed that every time some natural disaster or other bad thing happens to a city with a reputation for tolerance, the pseudo-Christians slither out of the woodwork to claim the disaster was “God’s wrath” for their sins.

But there’s this town called Ayetoro in Nigeria. It was founded specifically to be a “Christian community.” It’s being consumed by the ocean as climate change advances. I haven’t heard even ONE pseudo-Christian “leader” insist it might be God’s wrath. But I’ve noticed God isn’t doing anything to protect them, either. It looks, to me, more like science is going to science and denying science doesn’t change that one iota.

The numbers in the weather reports aren’t looking any better, either. It’s already hot this summer. Yeah, I know, keyword: summer. But this is shaping up to be one of the hottest summers on record and then? I hear experts (because I still listen to experts) saying to get used to it. Future summers promise to be even hotter.

Hey, we had our chance to intervene. We COULD have taken steps to avert the disaster. We still could, although at this point the effort would have to be huge and painful – and when have humans ever signed up for that voluntarily? But conservatives would have to confess to being wrong (or lying) about science and, more importantly to the power people, it would have been bad for business.

Humanity has done this more than once, make a harmful decision in deference to some greedy power. In the 5th century, after the fall of Rome, the church took over as the primary source of power and, in an effort to maintain that power, plunged the western world into a knowledge vacuum that came to be known as ‘The Dark Ages,’ a term currently being downplayed.

The church held absolute sway for something like 700 years. It was good for the church – they got fabulously wealthy – but very bad for humanity. We just…stalled. For 700 years! Now we’ve done something similar, this time for political and financial reasons. Denying climate change was very good for business, but very bad for humanity.

Evil people doing evil things with the help of the ignorant and stupid? It seems to be the human way. I suspect it’s going to cost us dearly…

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In what will certainly be recognized as no surprise at all, both Hamas and Israel have rejected the peace plan the US put forth. Hamas said no because giving up the hostages leaves them vulnerable to Israeli aggression, so they refused unless a permanent cease fire was in place. Israel said no because if they cease their fire, they can’t very well drive all the Palestinians into the ocean, now, can they? So, the fight continues.

Wait, did I say continues? No, I mean “expands.” Israel and Hezbollah are squaring off, too. Apparently, Palestinians in the West Bank aren’t comfortable just watching Israel wipe out all of the Palestinians in Gaza. Go figure.

At this point, I’m pretty sure Israel and the Palestinians are going to fight to their own destruction regardless of what anyone else does. If you want to see how it plays out, just watch the episode of Star Trek, the Original Series called, ‘Let That Be Your Last Battlefield.’ I just wish Israel wasn’t using American weapons to do it…

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I’ve seen the video. I don’t think Biden “froze up” during the LA event hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and attended by Barack Obama. It looked, to me, like Biden was doing what politicians do, standing there for a moment so photographers could get a clear photo. We’ve all seen it, two politicians shaking hands and standing still and smiling for the cameras for a moment or two. It looks weird, but there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for it and everybody understands what is going on.

But I’ll tell you the truth, I think Biden made it easy for the right to mischaracterize his actions (0r lack thereof) in that moment.

Both sides are trying to show that the other guy is unfit. Biden is old. He LOOKS old. He acts old. But he’s still competent. Trump is ALSO old. HE looks old, too, though not quite as old as Biden. Trump really does lose control of his speech from time to time and the dude rambles. But let’s call it a tie on “old, with the occasional senior moment” and move on to the next categories.

On the economy? Trump crashed the economy with his fecklessness. Biden brought the recovery. That’s a clear Biden win. NEITHER Trump nor Biden have any good answers for the border. I’m calling that one a tie, though it was brought about that way by Republican obstruction. Biden is being hurt in 2024 by the Israeli/Palestinian conflict that started in 1948 while Trump has the luxury of sitting on the sidelines sniping. That’s a Trump win, even though he didn’t have to do anything for it but run his mouth.

Biden wants to preside over a constitutional government that tries to bring the best to everyone. Trump wants a dictatorship that serves himself first and other wealthy people second, all at the expense of the masses. Biden clearly wins that one. Trump has more convictions that Biden. LOTS more.

Trump has lost in civil courts AND criminal courts. Trump is currently on his bicycle, trying to stay out of any MORE criminal courts because he KNOWS he’ll be convicted, even if MAGA doesn’t. I think “most criminal convictions” works against a person, though MAGA thinks it’s his badge of honor.

On balance, Biden has been a better, if not perfect, President. But Biden is clearly, far and away, the better MAN. He has better morals, better understanding of the issues, and better ability to work with the world to solve problems. Trump is just…a problem all by himself.

Here’s the test: One doesn’t have to lie about Biden to present him as competent and decent. MAGA cannot tell the truth about Trump, even to themselves. Here’s the rule: Any position that depends on lies for support doesn’t deserve to be supported…

Cheap…and Fake…

by MyBaconPress

Cheap Fakes…they’re the talk of the town, right now. It seems the right is carefully editing video of Biden in ways intended to make him look like a doddering old fool. They’re not AI generated, so they’re not ‘Deep Fakes.’ They’re just actual video, edited in a way that takes away context and leaves Biden appearing clueless.

For example, in one video, Biden wanders over to the edge of a stage and seems to just stand there. Oh, the old guy! But he was really trying to talk to a guy who parachuted into the event as a part of it. Edit out the parachutist, leave Biden, he looks like he’s staring into space. Clever.

Of course, this is MAGAGOP’s response to all the video out there of Trump just…locking up or forgetting names and rambling incoherently for minutes at a time. The difference? Nobody on our side has to carefully edit anything. Trump glitches. Video catches it. The left highlights it. Nobody on our side is “faking” anything…

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I hear that Trump’s PAC, ‘Pay My Legal Bills, Rubes,’ no, wait… that’s not it. It’s really called, ‘Save America.’ (He means, ‘Save ME!’) I may have whiffed on the name but that IS what he uses that particular Political Action Committee for, to pay his legal bills. Anyway, it’s running out of money.

The estimate is that he (I mean MAGA) spends $5 million a month in legal bills and his lifestyle…and Melania’s hair. But he has less than $4 million left in his PAC. Since he doesn’t use his own money for anything, MAGA will simply have to give more and the RNC will have to pony up and shift some money his way. They will, too. They already have a plan in place to skim $5000 off the top of large donations and shift it to the legal fund.

All of that will cut into his campaign funds, which might explain why he’s holding rallies outdoors in searing heat. Cheaper venues. MAGA IS sending more money but it looks like it’s becoming a question of trying to keep up with his profligate spending of their money…

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I recently mentioned that Trump is claiming Biden will be amped up on drugs for the debate. Remember, every conservative accusation is a confession. It was the Trump White House that was awash in drugs. We know it. We have the paperwork that shows the pharmacy there was constantly filling orders for unknown people and setting up drug packages for overseas trips and other little “get ’em the drugs” things.

So, of course Trump accuses Biden of using drugs. It’s how he confesses…

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Louisiana is moving forward with it’s plan to put the 10 Commandments into every classroom. I hope their intent is to demonstrate hypocrisy, because they’re demonstrating hypocrisy in a spotlight and in full view of everyone. Thou shalt not kill, lie, steal, or commit adultery? To the best of my knowledge, Trump has broken all but one. I have no information that he has ever killed anyone.

But the entire GOP is one big lie, these days, stealing money from donors who believe the stories, and their poster boy seems to love adultery, considering he commits it every chance he gets.

Still no word on why the so-called “Christian” community so fervently embraces the Jewish law and not the Grace of Jesus in the Beatitudes. It just doesn’t make sense to me. Why would they reject ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the Earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the Sons of God?’

Wait a minute. I think I see the problem. THOSE morals – the ones Jesus advocated – teach people to treat others with respect and dignity. MAGA likes the punishing rules better…