MAGA

Masks, Shadows, and Shutdowns…

by MyBaconPress

I like that California has passed a law prohibiting law enforcement – including federal agents – from wearing masks to hide their identity while performing official duties. I’m not sure how California will enforce such a law, but the law is the right thing. Cops should NOT hide their faces while doing honorable work. If they DO have to hide their faces, they must not be doing honorable work, right?

See, it turns out the ICEholes fear being harassed for all of that harassment they’re inflicting on other people. They’re not on board with the idea of others doing unto them as they do unto others. While the regime encourages the harassment of the population, it really doesn’t want it’s secret police force harassed. What’s good for me is different for thee, right?

The regime pretends they’re only arresting the worst of the worst, murderers and rapers and such. They just don’t tell MAGA about all of the “legals” their arresting, too, but it turns out, there are large numbers of people being swept up who were moving through the process the “right way.” The ICEholes are actually manipulating the system in order to create new victims, people working within the law, people following the process.

Before signing the legislation, Newsom tweeted that puppy killer Kristi Noem is going to have a “bad day.” HE meant, she would be irritated by the new legislation. Some Team Evil moron – specifically, Bill Essayli, the acting U.S. attorney for the Central District of California – decided to turn the statement over to the Secret Service for a “threat assessment.” I expect the “assessment” to come back that Mr. Essayli is dangerously stupid. It SHOULD BE funny, but not with these clowns…

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Recently, a clip from the Twilight Zone went around. It was from an episode called ‘He’s Alive.’ It tells the story of how a “shadow Hitler” teaches a young new scoundrel how to be a Fascist leader. Shadow Hitler tells the young man there’s something he must do. He calls it “a ‘Cause Célèbre,’ something to cement the organization together.”

He says the movement needs a martyr to rally around. “A martyr. The organization needs a martyr.” When the young man asks how one finds a martyr, Shadow Hitler tells him, “You do not find one, Mr. Vollmer. You choose one. You take one of no value and you make him into a symbol. You wrap him in a flag and you make his death work for you. Find a man who is of no value while he’s alive but who can serve you when he’s dead.” Shadow Hitler knew how to make a movement.

I mention it, casually, for absolutely and positively no reason other than that I like ‘The Twilight Zone’ and ‘He’s Alive’ is one of the better episodes. It’s one I recommend, heartily. It was nice to be reminded how well the show was made but, obviously, it’s not really relevant to anything going on today…

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Charlie Kirk absolutely did NOT deserve to die. He didn’t deserve to be deified, either. But for whatever mysterious, unknowable, let’s call it a “shadow” reason, Kirk is being martyred on the right. When a Democratic Minnesota state legislator and her family, including the dog, were murdered, 47 said, “Who?” But when Kirk was murdered, flags were lowered to half-staff, garments were rended, and praises were sang.

Then, they held an event to honor the passing of Charlie Kirk. It was a large affair, held in a stadium. They really lifted him up. Thousands of people attended. Bigwigs from the regime made an appearance. The memorial was described as starting “with the feel of a megachurch service before veering into something more akin to a political rally.”

The First Felon spoke and even managed to not talk about himself and what a victim he is long enough mention Kirk – at least for a sentence or two. “He’s a martyr, now, for America’s freedom. I know I speak for everyone here today when I say that none of us will ever forget Charlie.” Then he promptly forgot about Charlie and launched into his standard tirade about how everybody is always picking on him and he’s such a victim but he’ll fight the good fight, apparently from the golf course.

He did tease a big announcement later today. Apparently, the insane misleader of the HHS and national embarrassment, RFK jr, has randomly decided that Tylenol causes autism, despite all of the medical information to the contrary. I mean, who needs science when you have wild guesses, right? But then 47 brought the whole thing home and returned to Kirk. He said Charlie did not hate his opponents and wanted the best for them. Then he added, “That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponents, and I don’t want the best for them.”

We know, Donny. We know…

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Did you know the US government is facing a shutdown? Yes, again. Every few months, these days, our government faces a “shutdown.” The GOP gutted heath care in this once-great nation in their Big Ugly Bill. The Dems are trying to reinstate some of the things the GOP took away. The Dems are refusing to cooperate with the GOP until something is done to help Americans in general, a position to which the GOP is aggressively opposed.

See, Americans know the GOP cut $880 billion dollars from the budget for Medicaid, the program that pays for the Affordable Care Act subsidies. Without it, thousands or millions of people will lose their health insurance. MAGA thinks the GOP only cut $880 billion dollars in fraud, waste, and abuse. As you can imagine, that sets the stage for yet another political fight.

Although MAGA is wrong about what’s going to happen, the cuts don’t hit too hard until later, so we’re all arguing over future events, notoriously hard to prove. By the time MAGA realizes they’ve been played, yet again, and now they’ve lost their health insurance, it will be too late. So, the Dems are trying to help everyone, even MAGA, and MAGA is working as hard as they can to reject that help. Welcome to the shutdown.

A government shutdown means the US government will stop paying it’s bills and our credibility will be in the toilet. The US credit rating has already been downgraded as a direct result of this bull… um, hockey and I presume it will be again after THIS one. It’s probably a serious problem, so Congress went ahead and left for a short vacation. After all, they don’t need much prep time. MAGA blames the Dems. The Dems blame MAGA. The claims and charges of both parties will go back and forth and – voila! – shutdown.

Politicians never seem to worry too much about the effects and impacts their little political games have on the lives of real people, so you’d better buckle up. It’s going to be a rough ride…

Ron White Is Right…

by MyBaconPress

“You can’t fix stupid. There’s not a pill you can take. There’s not a class you can go to. Stupid is forever.” That’s sage advice from the comedian Ron White. You can’t fix stupid. Really, it’s a law of nature. Sadly, through a series of unfortunate and nefarious events, stupid has been elevated to the highest levels of government, these days, and it infests every level below it. But there’s a second, stupid-related law of nature, too. It goes like this: ‘Stupid hurts.’

As an example, Floriduh. Floriduh Surgeon General, “Dr.” Joseph Ladapo, has declared that Floriduh will henceforth eliminate vaccine mandates for children before they start school. The stupid Surgeon General says that stupid parents should be allowed to pick and choose which vaccines their children get. This, of course, leaves stupid parents ACTUALLY choosing which preventable, possibly fatal, often crippling illnesses and diseases their precious children should get. They just don’t understand that.

Smart parents will continue to get their children vaccinated, if they can. Those kids will be better off. But now there will also be a group of children – possibly a large number of children – catching and spreading things like hepatitis B, chickenpox, haemophilus influenza type b (Hib), Pneumonia, and Meningitis. That’s just a short list. Floriduh’s legislation has to act to remove the requirement for other vaccines, but stupid rules the day and I’m sure they will, and soon.

THAT will leave the population of Floriduh vulnerable to poliomyelitis (that’s polio), diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, measles, mumps, and rubella. Oh, but not JUST Floriduh. Illnesses have a way of ignoring borders and boundaries. It’s almost as if they don’t even care. So what starts in Floriduh WILL leak out to other states. Thanks, Floriduh.

But stupid hurts. A stupid parent opts to avoid vaccines for stupid political reasons. Their kid gets polio. Young parents, these days, have possibly never seen – nor even heard of – an iron lung. Imagine the joy they’ll feel when their precious child, the one they chose not to protect for stupid political reasons, contracts polio and gets to live their lives in an iron lung. No, you won’t have to imagine. All you have to do is wait.

That could be over the top. I’ve known polio victims that could manage to get around using crutches. Maybe it will “only” be that. (That’s a key phrase: “I’ve known polio victims…” I’m an old. Many younger people today never have known a polio victim.) The point is, these diseases are out there. They don’t CARE, even a little bit, about your politics. YOU score political points on the right, your CHILD dies of Meningitis – because stupid insisted it should be so.

There’s a whole group of Americans out there trying to get MAGA to see dangers of this path they’ve chosen. That’s not going to work, because Ron White is right. You can’t fix stupid. All you can really do is protect your own child – they haven’t outlawed vaccines, yet – and keep them away from the victims of MAGA stupidity.

We’ve already had a preview. Texas suffered a measles outbreak in an area where vaccination rates were low and exemptions were high. 762 people got sick, 2 in Texas died. Ultimately, the state turned to vaccines to get the outbreak under control. Floriduh will do the same, but, likely not until a large number of people contract some of the more heinous and horrifying illnesses. The worst part about it? It’s the stupid parents who should get the illness. The kid doesn’t know right from wrong. The kid can’t make the choice. But it’s the KID who pays the highest price.

If you know someone who has decided against vaccines and you’ve tried talking some sense into their heads but they’ll have none of it – because Ron White is right – you’ve done what you can do. In other words, you’ve satisfied any possible moral obligation you might have had to that person. You can lead a horse to water, right? Now? All you can do is wait. They won’t talk to you, you libtard. What do YOU know? Well, what DO you know? If you believe what science tells you, you don’t have to convince them. Living will convince them.

It’s easy to pretend vaccines are stupid and we should go without so long as things are stable. But as vaccination rates drop and infections increase, panic will set in and, just like they did in Texas, people will rush to the doctor to get vaccines. It’s not just vaccines. It’s climate change. It’s the economy. It’s every debate you’ve ever had with a con in which they’ve adopted some new, stupid position just to be politically contrarian – and those positions are legion. Endless.

Americans know that insisting the vaccine is more dangerous than the disease it prevents is a losing proposition. We’ve tried to explain it. We were trying to help. We’ve been told we’re stupid and called names for our efforts, but we tried anyway. We’ve lost the “debate,” so all we can do now is wait. The illnesses will explain it to them.

Denying climate change doesn’t make one immune from the disasters and destruction of climate change. Instead, it will leave them less prepared. We’ve tried to explain it. We were trying to help. We’ve been told we’re stupid and called names for our efforts, but we tried anyway. We’ve lost the “debate,” so all we can do now is wait. Climate change will explain it to them.

HAS Dim Leader fixed the economy? They walk into grocery stores just like you do. It doesn’t matter what they might be willing to confess to you. THEIR bacon got twice as expensive, too. It turns out, tariffs ARE a tax on the American people and prices ARE rising – just as some people projected. We tried to explain it. We were trying to help. We’ve been told we’re stupid and called names for our efforts, but we tried anyway. We’ve lost that “debate,” too. So all we can do now is wait. Poverty will explain it to them.

I saw Bill Maher this week sort of scolding everyone, left and right, on the fact that people don’t talk to each other anymore. He took the philosophical position that we should all talk to each other instead of, say, a more Charlie Kirk “solution.” He’s right. It’s a solid philosophical position but it lacks practical application. One side won’t talk in any effective way. I mean, some of them will engage, but it’s usually to deny science and proven facts and inject false assertions into the conversation.

So what we can do now, is wait. We tried to help. Our moral obligation has been satisfied. We did what we could, to the extent that we could. Our help has been refused and flatly rejected – so we wait. It turns out, one CAN manipulate perceptions with lies and misinformation. But one can NOT lie their way out of illness and disease, climate change, or a crashing economy. Those things are going to happen. We’ll just have to pick up the conversation again once MAGA has had enough…

Wrath, Punishment, and An Upside Down World…

by MyBaconPress

The world is upside down. By now we all know that Jimmy Kimmel was pulled from television because the White House pressured the network to pull him off of the air, right? When I write, ‘the White House,’ I mean the FCC (on behalf of the White House). See, despite Dim Leader’s claims that Kimmel was pulled because he wasn’t talented, we all know that Team Evil’s FCC Chair, Brendan Carr, got a broadcast executive on the phone and threatened to pull ABC’s broadcast license if they didn’t “do something” about Kimmel.

It turns out, not everything Kimmel says about Dim Leader is as nice as it can possibly be, from Dim Leader’s point of view. From the point of view of rational people, I think Kimmel IS as nice as a person could possibly be, in view of the qualities of the “person” in question. But that’s a different conversation for another time, since Kimmel’s talent was never the issue. Dim Leader’s snowflake sensibilities are the issue.

Look, dictators consolidating power and suppressing media is just kind of standard dictator stuff. The fact that we’re suffering “standard dictator stuff” here, in the United States of America is one measure of how the world has turned upside down. But another measure? I keep finding myself on the same side as people who have traditionally been political opponents. It’s very confusing.

For example, I’m aligned with MTG, Lauren Boebert, and Nancy Mace on releasing the Epstein Files and trying to do SOMETHING to right the wrongs done to the victims. Did I ever think I would be aligned with MTG, Lauren Boebert, and Nancy Mace on ANYTHING? HELL NO! But here are. More, those three didn’t accidentally speak their minds one day, only to walk back (and ultimately reverse) their positions later. They’re actually standing on principle on this one. I didn’t even know they HAD principles.

NOW I find myself in agreement with Ted Cruz, of all people. We all know Cruz has a spine of cooked spaghetti so I expect a full retraction, a public apology to Dim Leader, and a round on the talk circuit to “correct the record,” but for today – perhaps JUST for today – Cruz and I are on the same page regarding the strong-arm tactics of the FCC and the damage such tactics inflict.

Here’s what Ted said on his podcast. Yes, of course he has a podcast. Who the hell doesn’t have a podcast these days? Um… besides me, of course. Anyway, Ted said of Carr, “He threatens explicitly: ‘We’re going to cancel ABC’s license. We’re going to take him off the air so ABC cannot broadcast any more’ … He says: ‘We can do this the easy way, but we can do this the hard way.’ And I got to say, that’s right out of Goodfellas. That’s right out of a mafioso coming into a bar going, ‘Nice bar you have here. It’d be a shame if something happened to it,’” Cruz said.

“I hate what Jimmy Kimmel said. I am thrilled that he was fired,” Cruz also said. “But let me tell you: if the government gets in the business of saying, ‘We don’t like what you, the media, have said. We’re going to ban you from the airwaves if you don’t say what we like,’ that will end up bad for conservatives.”

Here’s a sentence I never thought I would write: Ted Cruz is right. Mostly right. You know, in a Ted Cruz kind of way. The FCC was/is absolutely wrong to threaten broadcast licenses for any political reason and that’s where Cruz and I agree. But Kimmel didn’t say anything wrong. He didn’t deserve to be fired. Punishing broadcasters for unpleasant speech isn’t just “bad for conservatives.” It’s bad for Americans, too.

But dictators gonna dic, right? Right and wrong, good and bad, none of these things are relevant in the US anymore. It’s all about pleasing Dim Leader. If you do? You get a reward, a treat, just like a dog. “Roll over, boy. Good boy…” If you don’t? Wrath, punishment and an upside down world…

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48. That’s how many of Donny’s nominees were confirmed in one shot on Thursday. We’ll all find out who was in the group together – even the cons in Congress. It was just a batch process. Advise and consent has devolved into acquiesce and consent.

Like everybody else, I’d like to call them spineless cowards but they’re not. They’re traitors. They know exactly what they’re doing – or not doing as the case may be – and their surrender isn’t defeat. It’s a voluntary “surrender,” the kind the means “complicit.” I’ve never really understood why so many people would work so hard to make or keep someone else dictator. I guess the crumbs from the king’s plate is better than no crumbs at all…

By the way, that’s the SAME position as the corporate broadcasters. People keep slamming them for “bending the knee” to the regime. Corporate television broadcasters aren’t being beaten by Team Evil. Corporate television broadcasters are full-fledged members of Team Evil. It’s still more proof that this has never been a culture war or a battle between left and right. It’s a class war and the money has just about consolidated their win…

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“Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” That’s Matthew, 12:34. Basically, it means that people say things – commonly in jokes – that reflect their true attitude, whether they mean to or not. It happens because it’s the way they truly feel, deep down.

I mention it because 47 cracked a “joke” with reporters on Air Force One when they were returning to the US from Great Britain. He said to the press pool, “Fly safely. You know why I say that? Because I’m on the flight. Otherwise I wouldn’t care.” Ha, ha! Jolly joke. But out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. And MAGA thinks he gives two figs about them…

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Donny says he’s going to declare Antifa a “major terrorist organization.” The only problem I can see, there, is that Antifa isn’t an organization, it’s an idea. It means “against fascism.” See, the ‘Anti’ part means against. The ‘fa’ part is short for fascism. ‘Antifa’ equals ‘Against fascism.’

If you oppose Antifa, as 47 does, then, by definition, you’re FOR fascism, see? And, hell, maybe you are. Maybe you think fascism is a great idea. You wouldn’t be the first. I preferred the Constitutional Republic of our founders, but that’s just me…

Take It Up With 47…

by MyBaconPress

Donny was blathering at one of his golf clubs and he finally said an honest thing: “Smart people don’t like me.” That’s true. But what does it say about people who DO like him? HE knows smart people don’t like him. HE knows YOU like him. What is HE saying about his opinion of YOU? Hey, don’t blame me. Take it up with 47, the guy who said it…

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I suppose it just makes sense that 47 – the one-time, long-term friend of Jeffrey Epstein, a person who sex-trafficked kids – would reduce resources dedicated to human trafficking. “Oh,” the regime promises, “we’re still addressing human trafficking. We’re just repurposing the vast majority of the resources once used for that to, instead, deport and harass as many brown people as we can find.”

Donny’s people have declared human trafficking “solved” in America. That’s kind of their shtick. Donny sees a problem. Obviously, he has no idea how to address the problem. So, instead, he simply declares he has “solved” the problem. Perfect. That fact that the problem persists and now no one is allowed to follow up or even mention it because it has been declared officially “solved” isn’t relevant. It’s moronically stupid, but that’s not relevant.

As always, though, it isn’t what they say, it’s what they do. They’ve repurposed people who used to work against human trafficking. Now those people are chasing brown people, legal or otherwise. Yes, there WILL be fewer brown people here. But there will be fewer people working against human trafficking! For MY money, I’d rather have cops work to stop human trafficking before they arrest someone over a piece of paper, but that’s just smart, and stupid is on the ascension in this once-great nation and around the world…

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There are videos out there of Charlie Kirk’s bodyguards using hand signals for… something. The suggestion is that the hand signals were directing the shooter on behalf of… someone. The idea that Charlie Kirk’s own bodyguards were directing the shooter for some reason is… stupid.

Look, I believe the bodyguards were using hand signals to communicate. They might well do that for the same reason baseball managers do it. You can communicate quietly, but effectively, in loud environments. As one example, Nick Fuentes’ group, the Groypers – the group the shooter has been tied to – had been harassing and heckling Kirk’s campus challenges for years. The group had been banned, but banned groups don’t necessarily stand down just because they’ve been banned.

So maybe one of the hand signals means, ‘Groyper at three o’clock.’ Maybe one of them means, ‘Sound problem from speaker on the left.’ Maybe one of them means, ‘Hey, check out that brunette in row three.’ But I doubt Charlie Kirk’s bodyguards were signaling, ‘Take your shot.’ It makes more sense to me that his bodyguards were using hand signals to communicate crowd concerns…

In the wake of the Charlie Kirk murder, the regime is pushing the message that they have to stop all the violence from the left. Now, any realistic review of history demonstrates quite clearly that most of the political violence in this once-great nation comes from the right. Worse, for them, even the DOJ reports that most political violence in this country comes from the right. Well, it did. Donny “solved” that problem the way he “solves” most of his problems – he had the report deleted. Because it’s best to attack problems with all of the wrong information, right?

I guess the shooter “got” Jimmy Kimmel, too. Kimmel said that the right is falling all over themselves to prove the shooter wasn’t one of them, meaning from the right. That’s all he said. Now his show has been “suspended indefinitely.” The regime threatened to pull ABC’s broadcast license if they didn’t do something about Kimmel’s comment. That’s exactly the kind of thing Charlie Kirk would have wanted, right? In order to honor the memory of their free speech champion, they’re celebrating the squelching of free speech. I honestly don’t think they see it, though…

While we’re on the topic of Charlie Kirk, have you noticed – of course you’ve noticed – the effort by MAGA to sanctify the guy? They’re working overtime to fluff him into sainthood. The left keeps responding with little more than the actual words Charlie Kirk actually used and the right is furious the left is trying “smear” Charlie Kirk.

Using actual quotes from a person isn’t a “smear.” If quoting the words one actually uses even appears as a smear, that has more to do with the speaker than the person who reports it. The right won’t accept any of that, of course. They want to martyr the guy and by GOD, they’re going to martyr the guy.

Donny looks, more than anything, like he wants to use the Charlie Kirk murder as his Reichstag Fire. I know MAGA gets all butthurt every time someone notices yet another parallel to the rise of the Nazis in 1930’s Germany, but the “fix” for that is to stop following the Nazi playbook, not acting like a snowflake, so take it up with 47. Because he’s going to use this as a pretext to consolidate power and suppress civil liberties, soon allowing the government to arrest political opponents and abolish constitutional protections. Just like Hitler did with the Reichstag Fire.

Oh, you think I’m being hyperbolic? Look back, what, four paragraphs. Jimmy Kimmel has been taken off the air in response to a threat from the government over something Kimmel said. The pretense is that it’s to honor Charlie Kirk but Charlie Kirk was into free speech. He would not approve. The regime doesn’t care. They have their excuse – their Reichstag Fire – and they’re using it…

Cut Flowers Die…

by MyBaconPress

I’ve been thinking of it like a ball that has been tossed straight up. It goes up for a while, then begins to slow. It reaches it’s peak and for a moment, a fraction of a moment, it hangs in space, no longer rising, not yet falling. But inevitably, it falls. 51 words. Then I saw Ben Shapiro on ‘Real Time with Bill Maher.’ He put my ball analogy more succinctly. “Cut flowers die,” he said. 3 words.

You go out to the garden and you cut a pretty bloom. You put it with others you’ve cut and set the arrangement in your house. The flowers are beautiful – for a time. But then? They begin to wilt. They sag. Shortly, you can see that the flowers aren’t viable anymore. They began to fail the moment they were cut even though they didn’t look that way at the time.

I think right now in America – this moment in time – we’re at the ‘ball-at-it’s-peak’ moment. The flowers still LOOK beautiful, but cut flowers die. Who did the cutting? Donald J. Trump. Look around you. The world as you know it still looks the same but the underpinnings are all suffering. Donny’s not paying for anything. Without maintenance, things fall apart. I’m expecting things to get shabby.

The cons have been getting away with this kind of thing for decades, now, because the effects of their actions are removed in time from the action itself. In other words, the nation won’t decline overnight. It takes time. We were once a very strong nation with a very strong economy. Donny is attacking that at every turn and he’s winning. That is to say, we won’t be strong much longer.

The copper was being polished until 47. It still gleams, for now, but it WILL tarnish. The Trump economy is hitting in full force. With apologies to Dr. King, we aren’t landing on the Trump economy, the Trump economy is landing on us. Average Joes are certain to be crushed under the weight. Increasingly, that looks like the goal.

Obviously, the cons will simply find a way to blame Joe Biden but in fact, Biden had fixed the various failures of Donny’s first failed attempt and the economy was on the upswing. Yes, I know MAGA media says otherwise. Why would anybody trust MAGA media? The economy KEPT chugging along until 47 started “tinkering.” Old tariff boy is doing serious damage, but there’s a time lag between getting stabbed and bleeding out.

Yes, I DO know the Dow keeps hitting record numbers. So what? In fact, I see that reality as a BAD thing. The vast majority of stocks in this once-great nation are owned by a very small number of people. Very rich people. The Dow hitting record high after record high means the very rich are doing very well. Meanwhile, nearly everyone else is suffering. In real life, suffering trickles down, even if money never does.

I pay less attention to the formal numbers some pencil-pusher gives me and more attention to storefronts and how empty they are. And they are. People are closing their wallets. They have to save their pennies for the grocery store, what with coffee up $10.00 dollars and the price of bacon doubled.

Pay attention to the world around you. You’ll see more business space with ‘Available’ signs and more stores, devoid of shoppers, clinging to life, hoping for… something. And all of it is the direct effect of conservative economic choices. Sure, they’ll blame everyone else but it’s their own doing. It was Donny and MAGA that cut the flower from the root of the funding it needed to survive. The flower is just beginning to wilt but keep watch and remember, cut flowers die…

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When that shooter murdered Charlie Kirk, the whole country held it’s collective breath until we could find out if the shooter was a lefty or a rightie. The first report I heard one way or the other was a radio news report of a Guardian article saying an old high school friend of the shooter had said the shooter had been raised in a conservative household but was to the left of his family. The high school friend went on to note that he hadn’t seen the shooter since high school some three or four years earlier, so he didn’t know his politics today.

By the end of that same day, I had learned about all of the shooter’s ties to the Groyper movement and his loyalty to Nick Fuentes. I learned that the inscriptions on the bullet casings were each Groyper tropes. It looked FAR more like the shooter was an acolyte of Fuentes. It seems clear, the shooter was to the right of Kirk, not the left.

The Guardian article about the high school friend had, itself, cited an original story in the Wall Street Journal. That’s what gave the story credibility in the first place. Now I’ve learned that both the Guardian AND the Wall Street Journal have retracted the high school friend story. The publications were unable to verify any connection between the so-called “friend” and the shooter. It seems as though the “high school friend” story was a plant, attempting to manipulate the story.

Now there’s a story floating about that the shooter lived with a “trans” person in a “romantic relationship.” It should be noted, the story originated from Fox Not-News and the NY Post. Also, according to the Daily Mail, the shooter and his roommate had a third roommate for a time – suggesting a simple living arrangement – and at least one neighbor has said they saw no sign of either roommates being trans…

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So, does Donny really expect us to believe that someone 22 years ago – LONG before he ever became a politician – nevertheless knew to set him up with an incriminating drawing for Jeffrey Epstein of a child, with a message about “secrets” so they could use it against him later? NOT, mind you, when he was running but, instead, waiting until after the “election” to pull out the incriminating evidence?

He claims it’s a fake without ever explaining WHY anyone would want or need to fake something like that way back then. His story beggars belief…

More ‘Erosion…’

by MyBaconPress

“He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.”

That’s from the Constitution. Article II, Section 2. Generally speaking, it’s referred to as the Advice and Consent Clause. The idea is to keep an out-of-control President from naming his horse to some position of importance. If the President nominates his horse, the Senate takes a look at the qualifications of the nominee and votes accordingly.

In OG America, that was how we did it. It was a one-at-a-time process. The Senate had a little time to look into each new nominee. If a Senator happened to notice the nominee was a horse, he had a chance to vote against the horse. Oh, but this isn’t OG America anymore, is it? This is MAGAmerica and in MAGAmerica, there’s no real need to vet nominees. 47 declares he wants his horse? He gets his horse.

The “opposition party” (really, I mean the Dems) stood in the way of several of Donny’s appointments. He DOES, after all, keep appointing podcasters, talking heads he’s seen on TV, and other such highly unqualified people to high-ranking posts. In a functional democracy, these Bozos wouldn’t get past the door. But this isn’t a functional democracy. It’s MAGAmerica, where the Congress does as it’s told by the Executive Branch, no questions asked.

So, when faced with fierce opposition – or even just mild obstinance – from the timid Dems, the GOP got tired of the process with each and every new unqualified nominee. And, as always, whenever the GOP faces opposition, they shift to their go-to behavior – they cheat. In THIS case, they’ve changed the rules for themselves and are NOW allowed to “batch process” nominees.

Donny won’t send one name. He’ll send, oh, say, 250 names, in a group. The Senate will pretend to advise and will rubber-stamp the consent on the entire group, all at once. If one of those names happens to be that of Donny’s horse, well, the horse is now Ambassador to Nauru or whatever. But you can see what gets lost, right? The review process. There’s no chance to vet the group, especially the horse. The horse just slips on by, the 197th name on the list.

As of this writing, the GOP has promised – now would be a good time to reflect on other GOP promises and how well they’ve been kept – that this ‘nuclear option,’ as they’ve termed it, will not be used on judicial nominees under any circumstances. It just won’t. No way. Not at all. Not judges. We wouldn’t DO that. Because we said so, that’s why. We pinkie-swear and, this time, we really, really mean it.

So expect the next package of nominees from the White House to be judicial nominees. Also, expect the next package of judicial nominees from the White House to receive it’s rubber stamp and move forward. We can all find out which television show the new judges came from later. Lovely.

Make no mistake, this is a bad thing. Imagine not interviewing each candidate for a job and, instead, just hiring every person who put in a resume with no review. You might get lucky. You might find a qualified person in there. But you’re also going to find a large number of people who should not be doing the job they’re doing, and you’ll likely find them as they fail.

And really, this is a bad analogy. In my example, at least, the quality of the candidates is random, based on who applied. In this real-life nightmare, we can take comfort that each of these hand-picked candidates will be unqualified but loyal toadies willing to do as they’re told, when they’re told, so long as it’s Donny doing the telling.

People might call it ‘eroding’ the Constitution but really it’s ‘corrupting’ the Constitution. The President was never intended to have this much power. The complete surrender of Congress by the cons – along with the compliant servitude of the Robert’s Supremely Corrupt Kangaroo Court, of course – has overturned our once-great nation and reduced it to a banana republic. There’s no fight, anymore, to “save” our democracy. Now the fight is to “recover” our democracy – and it ain’t looking any too good…

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I thought it was funny when Jesse Watters, a Fox Not-News spokesliar, tried to list examples of violence from the left after the Charlie Kirk murder. When it came to violence against people, he got exactly one example, the shooting of Steve Scalise. Other than that, though, he had to count burning Teslas and/or calling someone names as “violence.”

“The very first essential for success is a perpetually constant and regular employment of violence.” That’s a quote from Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf.’ Perhaps it explains WHY the GOP adamantly refuses to do anything about all the gun violence in this fast-failing nation. It’s part of their plan. (And, yes, that’s one of the names they were called as an act of “violence:” Nazis. But I stand by the obvious – if you don’t want to be called Nazis, don’t act like Nazis…)

The cons, of course, like to pretend the violence comes from the left. It remains true that every GOP accusation is an admission, though, so when they say violence comes from the left, they’re acknowledging that the violence – FAR more often than not – comes from the right.

So, I came up with a betting game. It goes like this: You name a violent act against a person committed by a known lefty. I give you a dollar. Then, I name a violent act against a person committed by a known rightie, and you give me a dollar. We’re even, right?

Round two, values are doubled. You name a person, I give you two dollars. I name a person, you give me two dollars. Still even. We keep going that way, each round doubled in the amount, until neither side can come up with anymore names. If one side does but the other side can’t, the one who did gets paid and the game moves to the next round – and remember, each round doubles. Round 1 was one dollar. Round 2 was two dollars. Round 3 is four dollars, round 4 is eight dollars, and so on and so forth until both sides are out of names (and, I confess, I suspect the MAGA would be out of money).

Do you think any MAGA would play my game with me? My guess is, they would not. I suspect they KNOW which side perpetuates violence the most, denials notwithstanding. It’s one thing to shout it at people with nothing on the line. It would be VERY costly to bet on it on a doubled-each-round basis…

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Oh, hey, just in case you forgot, a helpful reminder: Donald Trump was best friends with an accused and convicted child sex trafficker named Jeffrey Epstein for fifteen years. Trump wrote Epstein a letter in which he drew a picture of (possibly) a nude child and wrote, “may each day be another wonderful secret.” Supporters of Trump are supporters of an alleged pedophile…

Well, Well, Well…

by MyBaconPress

I’ve got to tell you, I’m tired of all of this viscous, white-on-white, “christian” Nationalist violence and I want it to stop. This white-on-white crime is out of control! Because Charlie Kirk was an icon of conservative hatred, MAGA-land jumped straight to the conclusion the shooter MUST be a lefty. I can’t say that was a completely unreasonable conclusion, but they should have waited to bring out the venom until everyone knew for sure.

But, oh, no. It’s important to get out in front of it and get your hate-fueled rant in front of people’s eyes as quickly as possible, so the right sprang into action.
“No more mercy for leftists,” wrote the Malaysian MAGA influencer Ian Miles Cheong. “They want you dead. They truly want to kill you and desecrate your body and erase your memory.” (If we could erase their memory and reprogram them as decent people, why would we need to kill them?)
“THIS IS WAR,” wrote Chaya Raichik, the person behind the Libs of TikTok account. (It wasn’t…)
“The Left is the party of murder,” Elon Musk wrote. (As usual, the exact opposite of the truth…)

“The Left wants us dead,” wrote C.J. Pearson, a Gen Z conservative influencer. “This is not hyperbole.” (It was…) “This is now the ONLY logical conclusion that any sane human being can reach after a repeated pattern of demonstrated behavior and violence.” (I take issue with the self-proclaimed ‘sane human being’ part…)
Former congressional candidate Blake Masters wrote: “Left-wing violence is out of control, and it’s not random.” (Worse for them, it’s not even real…)
Scott Presler, a conservative organizer, wondered aloud: “How do you coexist with people that want to murder you?” (I’ve wondered the same about MAGA for a long time.) “In response, the anti-transgender activist Riley Gaines responded: “And they’ll kill you in the name of ‘tolerance.’” (In truth, the right is the source of most political violence and they actually DO kill in the name of intolerance on a fairly regular basis…)

None of that aged well because it turns out, the guy who murdered Kirk, Tyler Robinson, was far to the right of Kirk. Robinson was a white guy. A Mormon. Cis, not trans. A gun-totin’ conservative from a Republican family. When THAT piece of information came out, watching the right back-peddle on their hateful screeds was almost comical. Nancy Mace, the woman who fled testimony from Epstein victims in tears because of her own sexual assault, but continues to protect the attacker anyway, wrote, “Some crimes are so evil, the only just punishment is the death penalty.”

Then, after discovering the shooter was a far right, white nutball pivoted to, “We know Charlie Kirk would want us to pray for such an evil, and lost individual like Tyler Robinson to find Jesus Christ.” The death penalty for a “leftist”, prayers for “lost individual” from the nutball far right. Slick. And, probably, nobody even noticed the flip-flop.

Shooter Robinson was a disciple of Nick Fuentes. You may know the name. Fuentes is a far, FAR right nutball. Too racist and hateful for Charlie Kirk’s ‘Turning Point USA (TPUSA)?’ Then join Nick Fuentes’ ‘Groypers.’ Fuentes is a guy who thinks the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is just not quite hate-filled enough so he formed a competing hate-fest, ‘America First Political Action Conference.’ (Quick question: Why does ‘America First’ ALWAYS mean either overt racism or all praise to the rich?)

Fuentes was one of trump’s “very fine people” at the Charlottesville rally. He was also one of the fabulous people participating in Donny’s January 6th “day of love,” in which only a handful of people were killed, as is common at days of love. While we know Fuentes was at the Capitol that day, there’s no evidence he went inside, so he wasn’t charged. He just encouraged others to invade the building and kill cops.

Feel free to look up more horrifying information about Fuentes if you want to but… you don’t want to. All you really need to know is that Charlie Kirk hated just about everybody and Nick Fuentes thought Kirk didn’t go far enough. The young Robinson got radicalized by Fuentes and took it from there.

Fuentes didn’t like Charlie Kirk at all. No matter how much hate Fuentes foments and feeds into the world, he just can’t seem to get in good with 47. (It’s probably his name. ‘Fuentes’ sounds so… Mexican.) But Charlie Kirk did get in good with The First Felon and it seemed to make Fuentes jealous. So, Fuentes had his ‘Groypers’ heckle Kirk’s TPUSA events as often as possible. To the best of my knowledge, hate-filled though he is, he never called for Kirk’s death. Harassment? Sure. Death? Not so much.

The lesson, here, is to not jump to conclusions. Being the fastest doesn’t mean you’re correct. But I’d bet a dollar that the NEXT conservative nutball white guy with a gun will spawn a whole new raft of wrong-headed accusations and indictments from the right, blaming the left. Then we’ll get to watch them eat crow and back-peddle again. Lather, rinse, repeat – ad infinitum…

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Something more and more people seem to agree on, the implied breasts on the drawing Donny didn’t but definitely DID draw for Jeffrey Epstein appear more petite than large. I suspect that when Donny says he didn’t draw a woman for Epstein, he’s speaking a technical truth. He didn’t draw a woman. He drew a girl.

“May every day be another wonderful secret,” indeed…

Charlie Kirk…

by MyBaconPress

Fair warning: if you’re MAGA, you WON’T like this and you won’t agree with a word of it…
Charlie Kirk is dead. He was 31. I wasn’t a fan of Kirk. He pretty much stood for everything I oppose. Kirk was co-founder of a group called ‘Turning Point USA’ that used to hit high school and college campus’s in an attempt to radicalize young people to the MAGA way. He had this shtick he did, where he would take a booth to a campus and challenge students to debates. The booth was emblazoned with the words, ‘Prove Me Wrong,’ which, of course, is impossible if a person is stubborn enough, and Kirk absolutely was.

Here are a couple of paragraphs from the Guardian’s piece about Kirk, ‘Kirk was unashamedly far to the right of the US political spectrum and had expressed openly bigoted views and engaged in homophobic and Islamophobic rhetoric. He recently tweeted: “Islam is the sword the left is using to slit the throat of America.”

He mixed evangelical Christian beliefs with right-wing politics into a combustible brew. During an appearance with Trump in Georgia last fall, he claimed that Democrats “stand for everything God hates”, adding: “This is a Christian state. I’d like to see it stay that way.”’ I should add, MAGA loved this guy.

Kirk was gunned down during one of his campus challenges. Ironically, he was speaking on the topic of mass shootings (he was pro) when the shot rang out. Voices from across the political spectrum hit the airwaves in an attempt to tamp down the rhetoric and, hopefully, slow ongoing political violence. Well, except Donny, of course. Donny just stirred the pot – exactly what one would expect from the anti-Christ. He immediately blamed the “radical left [who] have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis.” As of this writing, no shooter has been identified, so no motivation has been identified.

Does it make sense that a radical right-wing voice may have been stilled by a radical left-wing shooter? Yes, it does, I’m not saying otherwise. But Kirk may have had other enemies, who knows? Maybe the shooter just wanted his (or her – let’s just pretend it might be a her) name permanently tied to a high profile victim, the way that asshole who shot Lennon did. We’ll find out more when cops find the shooter.

Am I happy violence has, once again, visited this once-great nation? No. I’m a supporter of common sense gun regulation. I oppose political violence and I don’t see it as a “solution,” ever. But ours is a blood-thirsty nation. One can hardly claim violence is unexpected. I do not like it, but I’m never surprised by it, either, and it must be acknowledged, Kirk was a leading voice for maintaining gun violence in this country. (He used the euphemism “Second Amendment Freedumb.”)

Am I okay with the fact that a man who spent so much time sowing the seeds of discord and supporting gun violence died by gun violence? Yes, I am. Am I wrong to feel that way? Maybe. What goes around, comes around. Kirk was okay with people being killed by guns, though I understand the possibility he, likely, didn’t include himself in that crowd. He thought of them as the unfortunate collateral damage that comes with Second Amendment rights.

Do you think I’m being hyperbolic? Here’s a quote from Kirk: “I think it’s worth it. I think it’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights.” According to his own words, Kirk, himself, thinks his death was “worth it” so why should I feel badly about it? His dream came true. Way to put your money where your mouth is, Charlie.

About here is where MAGA starts whining, “But he left behind a family!” Yeah. Pretty much every person gunned down in the US left behind a family. Suddenly we’re supposed to be outraged that a common, daily event in the US has come home to one of your heroes? I don’t think it works that way. We should have taken action to protect the population LONG before your boy was murdered. Maybe your boy wouldn’t have been murdered if we had.

We’re ALL suffering from the intentional MAGA misinterpretation of the Second Amendment. As far as I’m concerned, since someone, somewhere is going to die as a direct result of conservative refusal to regulate guns, the person who dies should be, by rights, the person who insisted everyone should be armed – and Kirk was exactly that guy.

Sure, he’s dead and he left behind a wife and kids, but someone’s right to bear arms remains sacrosanct and nothing can be more important to someone like him. Am I really supposed to feel badly that a person who passionately defended shooters killing innocents was killed by a shooter? I guess it seems harsh, but I don’t. What he wished for others, he got for himself.

I wonder if his widow will have a funeral, mourning the loss of her husband, or a celebration recognizing that the Second Amendment has not been infringed…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So… maybe the First Felon doesn’t understand what the word ‘hoax’ means. He keeps calling the pursuit of the Epstein Files he once promised to release a ‘hoax.’ “It keeps coming up,” he says. He seems to be complaining that people keep bringing the thing up, not so much that the details are false.

A hoax, by definition, is an act intended to deceive or trick. It’s a deception for mockery or mischief. It’s not ongoing talk on a given topic. This is simple (unless you’re MAGA). If you’re saying that someone went back in time and planted all of the evidence that includes trump, just so they could use it against him later, AFTER he became “President,” you’re wrong. The Dems don’t have that kind of power.

If the information in the files is true and correct to the point where one dare not release it for public consumption lest one risk the ire of one’s supporters, despite the fact that people keep talking about it, that’s not a ‘hoax.’ That’s a ‘cover-up…’

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So, if you’re the CEO of a large company that sends goods all over the world, and some unnamed orange moron starts slapping tariffs on everybody, meaning you can’t get raw materials in the US at decent prices anymore, wouldn’t you, at some point, simply surrender the US market and move your operations out of the country?

I mean, if you can’t get the raw materials you need at a decent price and you can’t move out of the country then ship your product back in without running into the tariffs, it just makes sense. Leave the US and don’t even try to ship your product in. In short, eff ’em.

Your production costs stabilize. You can still ship goods to every country but one. You can make up the loss of the US market by getting into China and/or India. Donny says he’s trying to force companies to come to the US but after arresting the workforce of a South Korean company, I’m guessing companies are re-thinking that idea. I’m thinking that, long term, companies will be folding up shop in the US and moving elsewhere…

Closing In?

by MyBaconPress

Ro Khanna (D) says he and Thomas Massie (R) have the votes they need to try and force the release of the Epstein files. Well, okay, WILL have the votes they need by the end of September. There are special elections coming up. There are currently four vacant seats in the House, three of them from deep blue districts. Two of THOSE have already committed to signing the petition so Khanna and Massie have the 218 they need – or they will.

This is just a first step. A discharge petition is a tool to bypass a committee report that might be held up for political reasons, thereby holding up a floor vote. The petition forces the floor vote. Donny and MAGA Mike the Johnson are working overtime trying to keep the Epstein files secret – as one does when one knows how innocent one is. Like, exactly how “innocent” one is.

47, of course, is pretending the whole thing is a democrat hoax and is willing to prove that by keeping the files completely secret (except the parts that were previously known anyway) and shoving them down into a deep, dark vault. Everyone knows, the best disinfectant is deep darkness and further coverup. That never elicits questions. No wonder it’s working so predictably for Donny, et al.

Sometimes, I wonder what he’s worried about. MAGA morality is SO disrupted, Donny could show Polaroids of himself with young girls and MAGA would find a way to justify the photos. Would he lose any support? I doubt it. Those of us who oppose pedophilia would continue to oppose pedophilia and those who defend pedophiles would continue to defend pedophiles – just like what’s happening now – so why all the concern?

In the past, he has embraced whichever of the seven deadly sins he stands accused of committing and MAGA just admires his “honesty.” I’m pretty sure they would extend the same grace to him raping kids…

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Judges are pushing back against the regime’s illegal agenda. Many of the things the First Felon have done are, not surprisingly, crimes. Judges keep saying so. The White House blasts the judges in conservative media as “judicial activists.” MAGA knows to hate “judicial activists” – except when the judicial activism benefits conservatives.

The reason MAGA is so easily deceived by the details? MAGA media isn’t reporting on the lower court rulings at all. That means the faithful don’t get the details. They only get the bluster from the White House and that’s bluster they WANT to believe, so they do.

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As this redistricting battle heats up and degrades the US, it remains possible that Republicans who still love OG America might turn on the party. Just because a district has been gerrymandered to benefit one party or the other doesn’t mean the district will necessarily go in that direction. The benefited party has to come out for the election. If they’re unhappy and they don’t come out? The other party can win – even in a gerrymandered district.

I know that every single downturn of the economy or the society or the law in this bizarro America will be met with excuses by MAGA media. Somehow, everything bad that happens will trace back to Joe Biden or even Barack Obama. All they have to do is ignore the actions Donny took to bring about each day’s new disaster – and ignorance is easy for a MAGA.

But a year from now, even a MAGA might figure out that Donny has been playing them for gullible fools. He has lied to them, tricked them, and stolen from them. If they figure it out, they might just sit out an election. Key phrase? “IF they figure it out.” Odds are long…

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Well, the Niners won. It wasn’t pretty. In fact, it was just lucky – but they won, and a W is a W. They started off with a bunch of injuries, then TE George Kittle got injured during the game. The team held together. The defense looked good. The offense has looked better. Special Teams? The headline this morning should have been about Jake Moody looking for work. Apparently, the guy was money in college. Apparently, he hits like a machine in practice. Clearly, he is – at best – “undependable” during an actual game.

He doesn’t have a preference. He pulls them left and he pulls them right. He has demonstrated a rather remarkable collection of ways to miss, in fact. He can miss Field Goals. He can miss Extra Points. He can miss from any distance. But when Moody takes the field to add points, one expects the score to remain the same.

I’ve seen this before, a coach who takes on a ‘less-than’ player as a project. Head Coach Kyle Shanahan seems to have done exactly that with Moody. I can NOT figure out why Shanahan stays so loyal to that guy. Moody’s job is to kick the ball through the uprights. Moody kicks the ball everywhere BUT through the uprights. Moody keeps his job anyway. Moody cost the Niners games last season and he’ll cost the Niners games again THIS season if he sticks around…

One Fraud After Another…

by MyBaconPress

Wow, the latest report is that job growth is VERY low and unemployment is up. Whaddaya know? And remember, he fired the last person who put together that report and replaced her with a toady yes-man who would massage the numbers. So AFTER massaging the numbers, the best he could do was 22,000 jobs?!? My gods, I wonder what the real number is…

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Yeah, yeah, there’s crime everywhere. But the oh-so-clever trick that seems to be deceiving so many MAGA out there? He finds a city he doesn’t like (Democrat run, preferably black mayor) and announces it’s the worst, crime-riddled city in the world. (It isn’t.) He sends in a bunch of troops who do some gardening and stand around a while. Meanwhile, whatever work those troops were supposed to be doing goes undone. THEN Donny declares the city “cleaned up” and withdraws the troops.

Then he, wait, I hear a noise. Hang on. OH MY GOD, there are space aliens out in the yard. They’re killing all of my neighbors. It’s a horrifying bloodbath. We need a hero! Wait, I’ll get my pea-shooter. That’ll do it. BAM! POW! ARGHH! OOF! Oh, thank the gods, I got them all. They’re all dead. I, Mark Bacon, just saved the entire planet from a space alien attack with my trusty pea-shooter! You’re welcome. Gimmie my noble prize now.

See how easy that was? All I had to do was describe it. Now I expect adulation. MY story, after all, is every bit as true and accurate as all that “crime fighting” the First Felon is doing in target cities. And I didn’t only save a city from “crime.” I saved the entire planet from space invaders…

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I sure hope the video of that boat being blown up by the US off the coast of Venezuela is AI because if the video isn’t faked, the act is straight up murder, isn’t it? CAN you just blast a boat out of the water and declare it was full of drugs later? Quick question: what if it was a boatload of drug enforcement agents taking a load of seized drugs out to the deep ocean for disposal? What if it was Gilligan? The Skipper, too? A millionaire and his wife? What if it was a movie star? Or the Professor and Mary Ann?

The maladministration can’t describe the people on the boat. No info on the pretended drugs. How many people were aboard? Genders? Ages? How did they know it was a drug run? It was off the coast of Venezuela. How did they know it was going to the US?

I guess he’s STILL trying to look tough and I readily acknowledge my lack of a JD but I don’t know of any authority anywhere that allows the US to go blow up private boats for the “sin” of simply being in the water hundreds of miles to the south of the US. ‘Will murder to distract from Epstein,’ I guess…

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His lie during the campaign was that he would fix the economy on day one. HIS words, not mine. Of course, that lie blew up in his face and the economy started tanking. So he did what he always does, he lied about it. The worse it gets, the greater he declares it. Oh, and he updated his timeline. First the economy would boom later this year, then it became next year. Most recently, he has move the timeline to 2027 before the economy responds.

All he has to do is keep pushing off the timeline and MAGA will stay loyal and enthralled, so that’s what he’ll do. That boy NEVER delivers. He just pushes off the deadline and the deadline never comes. So by 2027, we should ONLY expect he’ll be promising happier days by 2028. But even at 2027? At the rate he’s going, at the rate prices are going up because of him, at the rate jobs are being lost because of him, businesses are being hurt because of him, income is down because of him do you think you’re going to be able to survive until 2027? I think it’s a fair question…

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Wealth taxes in Norway are under fire. In an effort to enlist the support of people who will NEVER pay the wealth tax, rich people have put out an advertisement with a little song. The message of the song is, “Don’t come to Norway, we will tax you till you’re poor, and when you have nothing left, we will tax you a little more.” Does that sound like anything you may have heard before?

“Tax the rich. Feed the poor. Til there are no rich no more.” That’s from ‘I’d Love to Change The World’ by Ten Years After. It’s not a risk. No one is talking about taxing rich people into poverty. But it’s a common lament from rich people – and people who pretend they might become rich like that some day soon. It’s ALWAYS a lie, but it gets sold to low information voters over and over and over again.

A wealth tax is a tax paid on the value of an asset. People pay taxes on the income from an asset but in most countries they don’t pay a tax on the value of the asset itself. So if you have a million dollars in stocks, you pay a tax on the dividends you receive but not the value of the stock themselves. A wealth tax fixes that.

It’s calculated by adding up the value of properties, savings, investments and shares, and deducting any debt. Private companies count as part of their owners’ wealth. There are discounts – for example, only 25% of the value of citizens’ primary residence is taxable. In countries where a wealth tax exists – and there are only three in Europe – it’s often the only tax the richest people pay – so it ensures they pay something.

Rich people like to pretend they’re “self-made.” They’re not. The closest you could get to an actual self-made millionaire would be an entertainer but even they have teams of people who help them. NO ONE is “self-made.” Rich people benefit from the societies in which they live. They get educated employees from the schools they don’t want to pay for, they move their goods on roads they don’t want to pay for, they get a stable society in which to conduct their business they don’t want to pay for, they’re protected by police and firefighters they don’t want to pay for.

We should have a wealth tax here in the US. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have each proposed such a thing but, of course, the rich have many minions in this once-great nation. And as we’ve all seen a million times, what we SHOULD do, we rarely actually do. It’s really rather embarrassing…