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Flips, Flops, Flaps, and Flubs…

by MyBaconPress

I don’t know what’s going to happen in the special election in Tennessee. It’s a heavily Republican district. The guy who just retired, Republican Rep. Mark Green, won his 2024 election by 21 points. The Drumpfster won that district – Tennessee’s 7th – by a similar margin. This election should be a walk for Republicans.

But the Republican, Matt Van Epps, is running on, “Ain’t Trump great?” at a time when NOBODY thinks Donny is doing great. Van Epps is promising to support Donny in every way. Like all of the other Republicans in Congress, he provides his own knee pads and has had his spine surgically removed to better serve his Precious.

Meanwhile, the Democrat, State Rep. Aftyn Behn, is running on the economy. The race is looking close enough that both team’s national committees are spending big money. Van Epps’ campaign asked Donny to come to Tennessee and Behn’s team got an appearance by Kamala, which may or may not be a good thing.

There’s a second conservative in this race, Jon Thorp, though he’s running as an independent. A normally Democrat-supporting PAC is pushing Republican voters to vote for Thorp, claiming Van Epps is a RINO. That’s a “Republican In Name Only.” There are also DINOS. Millions of dollars are suddenly being thrown at this campaign.

I don’t have high confidence the Democrats can flip a gerrymandered district that supported the Republicans by more than 20 points, but it says something that the district is seen as “in play.” If anyone can vaporize a 20+ point advantage in only ten short months, it’s Donny…

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Donny is suggesting he’ll send everyone a “tariff dividend” of $2,000. He won’t. He hasn’t made enough in tariffs to send everyone $2,000. Worse, now that his dinosaur-like brain is beginning to register the damage his tariffs have done to the economy, he’s going to lower some of them, reducing the amount of money available to send out. But he loves that $2,000 dollar number, doesn’t he?

It came up again with health care. Now, instead of the ACA supplements Americans need, he says he want’s to give each person $2,000 to cover their own health insurance. So, first question, is that the tariff dividend AND the health care cash? Is he promising to send everyone $4,000? Or is it the same $2,000, promised for two different things? Is that annually? No one knows, but it seems like it’s intended to be a one-time good deal. $2,000 to cover health care in the US – for the rest of your life. That seems like a workable plan. If you’re rich…

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Well, the great negotiator is offering his failed position on Ukraine again. The Drumpfster keeps offering up the same options: Ukraine gives Putin what he wants, and in return, Putin accepts it. That’s a hell of a plan, and for reasons no MAGA mind can fathom, Ukraine isn’t interested. When Ukraine rejects the surrender agreement, Donny just shuffles the talking points and re-issues it as a “new plan.”

The latest “new plan” being proposed is being described by many people as a Russian wish list. Some are saying it was written by Russia and translated by the US. The US denies that claim. Yeah, that’s convincing. Initially, Donny warned Ukraine they had to accept this plan by Thursday, but the regime have since walked that all the way back to “it’s just a proposal, at this point.” When all is said and done, it looks like there’s no “peace plan” at all…

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But speaking of Russians writing things, the latest revelation coming from Musk’s racist website, Brand X, indicates that many top MAGA accounts are actually foreigners manipulating Americans. X added a feature showing the country of origin on X accounts and people started using the feature to look up the origins of popular MAGA accounts. Russians are on the list. So is Chile, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Morocco, Eastern Europe, and Thailand.

Look, it’s possible there’s a MAGA living overseas for some reason who maintains a pro-MAGA account, but I’d bet the lion’s share of these accounts are actual foreigners who intend actual harm to the US – and they’re achieving their goal by feeding MAGA derangement and fear…

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Yeah, the NFL. Specifically, the Niners. More specifically, Brandon Aiyuk. He’s a wide receiver. (For the uninitiated, he catches passes.) He’s very good at it. In 2023, Aiyuk was ranked seventh in the NFL. He wanted to be paid accordingly. He actually wanted to be paid a little better. It turned into a conflict between him and the team. He ended up getting a four year, $120 million dollar contract. $30 million dollars a year to catch a ball? And $27 million for 2026 was guaranteed! Yeah, America’s priorities are right in order, aren’t they?

Anyway, Aiyuk came out for the next season and promptly got seriously hurt. Really seriously. He missed the rest of that season and hasn’t played a snap this season. All of this is standard stuff in the NFL. It’s a violent game. People get hurt, sometimes badly. The team, the player, and the fans all just wait until the player can return and we get back to it. But for some reason, as yet undisclosed, Aiyuk hasn’t been doing what he’s supposed to do.

This caused the Niners to void the guaranteed money in his contract, a notoriously difficult thing to do. Now it looks like Aiyuk will be leaving the Niners and it could well be sooner rather than later. Aiyuk was a great player before his knee got destroyed. He might never be the same. That, too, is common in the NFL. Whatever team picks Aiyuk up will almost certainly be desperate at the Wide Receiver position. So desperate, they’ll take a chance on Aiyuk. But it looks like the Niners won’t be on that hook, after all.

Aiyuk is ONLY a question mark at this point. He’ll want lots of money because he played one good season, but he’s been out two years and he really (I mean, really) damaged his knee. I’m kind of glad the Niners get to move forward without having to put up with any more of his rehab shenanigans. The team might be losing a very talented receiver. They’ll definitely be losing a big problem. That’s okay with me…

The Emperor’s New Clothes…

by MyBaconPress

Look, Pam Bondi and Lindsey Halligan didn’t want to lie to courts. They just wanted to please their Precious, so they had no choice. He wanted to harass someone who once irritated him so he ordered a baseless and frivolous prosecution. (Suddenly, conservatives LOVE baseless and frivolous prosecutions.) Pam likely knew there was no legal basis to do what Donny had demanded. Lindsey knows insurance law.

Neither wanted to tell Donny he couldn’t follow his whim because it was illegal. Donny effin’ HATES the truth. Instead, they did what they had to do to comply. Fake an indictment? Why not? Lie to courts? Sure, easy. Lose our licenses to practice law? Oh, crap, we hadn’t considered that!

Not being an attorney, I’m not familiar with the ins and outs of the details of the bar association and how that works. But I DO know that officers of the court are not allowed to lie to the court. Team Evil’s Rudi Guiliani lied to courts and lost HIS license. Now, Bondi lied in twice submitting affirmations to the court about the propriety of Halligan’s Grand Jury presentation – only to discover that Halligan’s Grand Jury presentation was improper enough to get HER disbarred, too.

No one knows for sure if Halligan failed so spectacularly because she’s a complete incompetent, in WAY over her head, or if she KNEW what she was doing was wrong, but couldn’t find another way to please Dim Leader, but she, too, tried to deceive the courts in an effort to harass a private citizen and for no other reason. It seems disbarment is the best, perhaps only, remaining option…

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Here’s another reason I think we should keep communicating with our MAGA counterparts: I asked a friend of mine, one who consumes MAGA media, if media on his side of the dial was showing the times Donny nods off during events. He (my friend, not Donny) looked at me kind of funny, like he was expecting a punchline, and when none was forthcoming, he told me, “No.”

I told him that he should look for them on the internet. I told him I think they’re funny and that, now that he’s falling asleep all the time, no matter where he is, he needs to give up the “Sleepy Joe” bit. I never once saw Biden fall asleep during events, although that “debate” might be arguable.

The point is, MAGA is fed a steady diet of carefully curated media to make Donny look good in the same way the left is fed a steady diet of carefully curated media to make Donny look bad. He’s a buffoon so left-leaning media has it easier. When 47 delivers a message that comes out like a word salad, MAGA media simply reports that Donny “spoke on such-and-such subject.” They don’t show the word salad. When Donny falls asleep during meetings and briefings, nobody TELLS MAGA. Those soundbites you see where someone is clearly lying? Yeah, those aren’t for you. They’re for MAGA and MAGA doesn’t know any better. They never get to see how their Precious is slipping. So if you cut off contact, and their media won’t tell them, how do they find out?

Don’t try to prove you’re right. Just point out what your “side of the dial” – and that’s how I describe it – showed you and ask if their side showed them. That’s it. It creates an opportunity to compare notes without making anyone feel defensive. It opens communication, if only a crack. Give it a try. You don’t want or need to prove you’re right and they’re wrong. You can’t do that. Just create an atmosphere in which you can compare what each side is being told. It’s rather enlightening and, who knows, maybe you’ll learn something, too…

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Donny keeps insisting he’s getting great poll numbers. I know, weird, right? I’ve seen the poll numbers. Either he thinks all the minuses are a good thing, or somebody is giving him “results” only HE can see. Honestly, I suspect that latter. The ONE THING we know about Donny is that he does NOT want to hear any bad news.

When a bad jobs report came out – you know, because he sucks at this Presidentin’ thing – he fired the person who put out the numbers and replaced her with a toady. Now the numbers, when available, are looking fine. So how long does it take a lick-spittle to figure it out? They start telling him he has great numbers. He believes them. This is exactly what ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ is about. Tell a fool something he wants to believe and he’ll believe – no matter how unbelievable the story might be…

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I don’t know why corporate media uses euphemisms to explain things. Why not call a thing what it is? Trump’s murderous attacks on boats out on the water doing whatever it is people in boats do on water are NOT “extrajudicial killings.” They’re murders, straight up. Why not CALL them murders?

I’m reading a Guardian article right now titled, ‘Supreme court blocks order that found Texas congressional map was likely racially biased.’ It’s all about how the Roberts Supremely Corrupt Court has put a hold on a lower courts ruling blocking Texas from using their new maps, as predicted in these pages when I wrote: “Texas, you will not be surprised to hear, is asking the Roberts Supremely Corrupt Kangaroo Court to overturn the lower court’s ruling, which they likely will because it’s what their Precious wants.” Why, yes. Corruption IS predictable in this regime.

The Guardian article includes this line: “Texas redrew its congressional map in the summer as part of Trump’s efforts to preserve a slim Republican majority in the House in next year’s elections, touching off a nationwide redistricting battle.” (Emphasis added.) It should read: “…Trump’s efforts to steal five more House seats through gerrymandering.” See how easy that is? And it’s FAR more accurate. I really want to see corporate media be better but, hey, it’s corporate media in a Capitalist society. Profit is all, accuracy if it’s not too inconvenient.

Still, I DO find the Guardian a pretty solid news source and in fairness to them, they also wrote: “The new redistricting map was engineered to give Republicans five additional House seats, but a panel of federal judges in El Paso ruled 2-1 on Tuesday that the civil rights groups that challenged the map on behalf of Black and Hispanic voters were likely to win their case.”

California’s new, gerrymandered maps are also facing legal challenges suggesting they were based on race as well. I don’t know how the Supremely Corrupt Court can rule in favor of Texas’ maps based on race but strike down California’s map based on race – especially if California can prove their gerrymandering is NOT based on race. It’s all a pretty big mess. Corruption does that.

My guess? The Roberts court will find a way to give their Precious what he wants AND they’ll likely find a way to stop California. Texas’ compliance makes Donny happy. California’s defiance does not. That’s all the corrupt cons on the court need to know. None of it has anything to do with the Constitution, of course, but the SCOTUS stopped attending THAT quaint and outdated document years ago and there’s no reason to suddenly start now…

Not Legal Orders…

by MyBaconPress

Well, isn’t THIS a stupid discussion? Our Fearful Misleader took to murdering boaters, mostly in the Caribbean but there are some in the Pacific, too. Naturally, HE doesn’t do the dirty work himself. He orders the military to do it, commit the murders. Keyword, here? Murders. Yes, he’s making claims. He has never shown any evidence to support his charges that his victims are drug runners.

I’m not even suggesting they’re not. Maybe they are. But we’ve seen no evidence and when he had a couple of them in custody – THAT was an embarrassing mistake – he just sent them home. NONE of that is what cops are supposed to do with drug dealers. OG America arrested drug dealers and put them on trial before carrying out sentencing. You don’t get to end someone’s life – murder them – just by saying he was moving drugs. Not in a just and proper society.

People who understand things are trying to find a way to stop the murders but nobody has any real leverage to force a stop. So, Democrats in Congress – it HAD to be Dems – made a public statement. They reminded military members they are supposed to refuse illegal orders. It kind of surprised me when I joined the service, the amount of time spent in classrooms during basic training learning about that kind of thing. But we were ALL taught we had a duty to follow lawful orders and a duty to refuse unlawful orders.

The thing is, that’s a very difficult thing to determine, what’s lawful and what isn’t. To make certain it remains a near-impossible decision, nobody can say, for sure, if an act is lawful or not until AFTER the event – during a trial. So you refuse an order, get arrested, go to trial where you offer as your defense your belief the order was illegal. If you were right, you walk. If you were wrong, you go to jail. See? That’s a lot on the line.

Still, I’d say killing people who mean the US no harm and with no warning and no due process of law seems a pretty straight up description of an illegal order. Generals order their soldiers to kill, but they can’t legally order them to murder.

Throughout my life, from time to time, I’ve heard about some guy being arrested. He was a low-level guard at Auschwitz or some other such evil place. He managed to evade authorities for 20, 30, 50 years – then he was arrested and tried for crimes against humanity. I don’t pretend it was a daily event but it has been regular and it has been my entire life, one-time Nazis still being tried and convicted.

The guards argue they were just following the law or just following orders. Some of them argue they were forced into doing the jobs they did. In many cases, the Nazis HAD created “laws” to give their evil acts the imprimatur of legality. In many cases, these guards were “following the law.” But the law, itself, was flawed, so the acts that proceeded from it were flawed, too.

So, anyway, after the Dems reminded American military members they have an obligation to refuse unlawful orders, Donny had one of his “How DARE they defy Precious ME?” moments and declared the Democrat’s words sedition – punishable by death. I’d call that pretty bold talk for a half-brain, fat man.

It gave the Dems an opening to claim Donny is calling for the “execution of elected officials,” and he kind of is. Some MAGA nutball out there might very well respond to The Felon’s prompts. The thing is, the Dems are right. Military members ARE obligated to refuse unlawful orders. The GOP response, “If the President orders it, it’s lawful,” besides being blatantly wrong, also means there’s no debate. Nobody told the military to refuse lawful orders. They reminded them to refuse UNlawful orders.

That wasn’t sedition. It was a simple, straight-forward fact. Of course, the GOP these days considers simple straight-forward facts seditious so maybe it’s a point-of-view thing. From MY point of view, someone should just say to the Drumpfster, “Quiet, Piggy…”

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Please don’t be that stupid. Please, don’t be that stupid. PLEASE, don’t be that stupid. I hear the right is all in a dither because Zohran Mamdani is going to have “Arabic numbers” in New York schools before the year is out. New York already uses Arabic numbers, just like the rest of America. In America, Arabic numbers are just numbers.

It seems like a joke but the fact that MAGA got upset about it indicates they’re in full panic mode already. I’ll say, “Democratic Socialism is a Capitalist system,” until I’m blue in the face but MAGA won’t be able to hear me. Panic mode is often quite blinding and as we know, there are none so blind as those who will not see…

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In old movies, one could hold up a cross to fend off a vampire or other evil being. These days, I watch KKKarolyin’ Leveitt up at the podium, lying and lying and lying some more – all while prominently wearing a cross. It seems the cross doesn’t burn evil after all…

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This got real weird, real fast. So long as Marjorie Taylor Greene was a MAGA nutball intent on supporting Donny no matter how outrageous his unfathomable behavior, she was a member in good standing in the House of Billionaire’s Representatives. Then the Drumpfster chose not to release the Epstein files he had promised to release during the campaign.

That’s it’s own weird thing. ‘The Epstein Files’ used to be a hammer the GOP swung at government, trying to get them released and, as I’ve mentioned, promising to do so at the earliest possible opportunity. THEN, Donny comes to power and suddenly, the Epstein files are boring with nothing in them and the whole schmear becomes a Democrat hammer. Same files. Same implications.

So, anyway, MTG stayed on the first message, the files should be released. THAT moment, that single moment of sanity, seems to have opened a floodgate of reason in her that I had heretofore dismissed as even possible. I mean, I suspect she’s just positioning herself for a Senate run but still, suddenly, I found myself agreeing with MTG more and more – and I certainly had not gone MAGA. Message-wise, she came to me.

THAT, of course, was the last straw for Donny. He ramped up the attacks against her. Now she’s actually stepping down from her job and leaving the House. She resigned, effective January 5th, 2026. That might well lead to another Democrat in the House. Georgia will replace her with a special election. Now that California is taking five extra seats for Democrats in response to Texas’ failed attempt to take five extra seats for Republicans, the House is looking like a better and better bet for the Dems in the mid-terms.

It’s going to take some serious cheating on the part of the GOP to keep control of the House, I think. The part that bothers me? These guys can – and WILL – DO “serious cheating” and never bat an eye…

Backfires…

by MyBaconPress

It’s weird, isn’t it? Donny said many times, that tariffs don’t raise prices. People who DO know what they’re talking about said the tariffs would increase prices. Donny insisted the people who know what they’re talking about don’t know what they’re talking about. He imposed his tariffs and, inconceivably, prices went up, just like the experts warned. Donny continued to insist tariffs don’t raise prices. Prices went up even more, again, just like the experts warned. People started getting mad at Donny over the ridiculously high prices and finally, Donny responded – by lowering tariffs on several, select grocery items.

I guess we’re not supposed to figure out that tariffs that never increase prices, nevertheless increased prices, and lowering the tariffs, which clearly did NOT increase prices, is hoped to bring prices back down anyway for some ethereal, unconnected reason. I write “hoped” because Donny has handed corporations a perfect excuse to raise prices and I’ve NEVER seen a corporation that could pass up such largess, so, we’ll see…

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There was a headline in Tuesday’s ‘USA Today,’ “Trump’s dominance shows signs of slipping amid Epstein saga and affordability woes.” I think it’s more about the “affordability woes.” MAGA has been able to successfully overlook every moral failing of their Precious based entirely on the idea that as a successful businessman, he – and ONLY he – could save the economy.

There are only two problems with that thinking: one, he’s not a successful businessman, and two, even if he was, governments aren’t supposed to run like businesses. I mean, do YOU want your government operating on a profitability model? I surely do not. As it becomes undeniable that he has no clue how to address the economy, though, MAGA seems to be losing tolerance for his moral failings, as well.

Still, it was pretty nifty, the way Congress finally got it all together and passed the law to release the Epstein files. 47 said he would sign it but 47 lies about everything so we had to wait and see, but he did. Then, everything not related to an ongoing investigation can be disgorged into the public for detailed and intense scrutiny as both parties try to “out-evil” each other.
“We found eight democRATS in those files!”
“We found fifteen Republicans in the files!”
“We found Larry Summers in the files!”
“We found Donald Trump in the files – 27, 246 times!”

They really DID find a prince in those files and now the cloud has consumed Sarah Ferguson. Her latest children’s book has been withdrawn and “pulped.” (Why, yes, that DOES mean destroyed.) She stayed friends with Epstein even after his crimes were discovered. Now she’s having her royal titles withdrawn as well.

Oh, but hold the phone. That part, “everything NOT related to an ongoing investigation.” Didn’t Donny just order a frivolous investigation of Democrats – and only Democrats – that might appear in the Epstein files? Wouldn’t that mean that even with the passage and signing of the law he won’t “be able” to release the FBI files? He sure is a slippery eel, isn’t he? Or perhaps it’s just a coincidence…

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Okay, so, what now? This really IS my favorite story of the week. As you may recall, Texas launched a redistricting war with a midterm redistricting intended and designed to give Republicans five more House seats through the glories of gerrymandering. California responded by temporarily changing THEIR electoral maps to create five more Democratic seats, also through the glories of gerrymandering, to offset the Republican effort.

NOW, a federal court has ruled that Texas doesn’t get to use their re-jiggered map. The court ruled that it was pretty clear the map had been based on racial considerations. Surprisingly, that’s still a no-no in this once-great nation. California was only planning to use THEIR map if Texas used theirs and a court has ruled Texas can’t use theirs. Does California then abandon their plan? CAN they?

Texas, you will not be surprised to hear, is asking the Roberts Supremely Corrupt Kangaroo Court to overturn the lower court’s ruling, which they likely will because it’s what their Precious wants. But what if they don’t? Because Texas is appealing the ruling and time is so short, California has little choice but to move forward with it’s own gerrymandered map based on the possibility Texas moves forward with theirs. The filing dates may well be passed by the time a ruling is handed down.

It’s only one way it could be, but I can see a reality in which the Corrupt court says Texas can’t use their map but California moves ahead with their map – giving California five more seats to “offset” five seats Texas DOESN’T get! That would be a jarring backfire of the GOP attempted steal, but I’m pretty sure I would laugh and laugh…

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“Quiet, Piggy.” Donny actually said that to a reporter who asked a question he didn’t like. A woman, of course. He’s really very disrespectful to women, have you noticed? My how very… juvenile. These days, Donny seems less like a master verbal fencer and more like a petulant and childish brat.

For some reason, “Quite, Piggy” seems to have hit a nerve all of the other horrible things he says to people have not. 47 uses rudeness as a defense all the time. He regularly mouths off at people. MAGA generally sees it as tough talk and they like it regardless of how boorish it shows him to be.

But this poor woman, a reporter, was simply asking a question. It wasn’t even an unreasonable question. His response was mean-spirited. That seems appropriate. He HAS a mean spirit. But for some reason, “Quite, Piggy” has started an avalanche of criticism from both sides of the aisle.

Now that he has taken to falling asleep pretty much anywhere he happens to be, he needs to drop his insult about Joe Biden being “Sleepy Joe,” and I really, really think he should take a gander at a mirror before he calls anybody else “Piggy.” Between him and Catherine Lucey, the reporter he attacked, I say he’s the piggiest piggy…

Opaque “Transparency…”

by MyBaconPress

You’ll forgive me if I’m suspicious. Donny has made a full 180 on the Epstein files? Really? Why? “Oh,” he says, “because we have nothing to hide.” Uh-huh. For someone with nothing to hide, you’ve sure been hiding it for a long time. He might be putting a supportive public face but telling MAGA Mike in the background, “No, never.” That sounds like him all over, though he’s not very good at keeping secrets. If that’s the scheme, he’ll confess it sooner or later.

I suspect what he means is, “We’ve had time to go through, page by page, and make sure my name is completely redacted.” Either way? Good. If he now supports the release of the files, it should just move forward with ease, right? For me, the fight has always been about the victims but Donny kept pushing himself into the limelight by trying to put out the limelights.

So, I guess that’s that and we’ll just move on from– what? He included weasel words? Here’s his statement, “The House Oversight Committee can have whatever they are legally entitled to, I DON’T CARE!” There’s more but that’s the important part, that “legally entitled to” bit. See, he just told Pam Bondi to open an investigation on various Democrats.

MAGA keeps asking why Biden didn’t release the files, as though that’s an important question that makes sense. The actual answer is that Ghislaine Maxwell’s legal case was still proceeding throughout most of Biden’s administration – and one doesn’t release investigative information during an investigation or the subsequent trial. And now, Donny has conveniently created an “investigation” into Democrats. So, “whatever they are legally entitled to” means there will still be a lot of information withheld because of all of those “investigations” going on.

He’s a slippery little weasel, isn’t he? MAGA will only hear that he called for the release. They will NOT hear about the “still keeping much of it private due to investigations” part…

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With all of the gerrymandering going on, the battles keep raging, going from one state to the next. Donny and Texas started it when they decided to cheat in Texas by gerrymandering to favor the Republicans and give them five more seats. California responded by redistricting California to pick up five more Democratic seats, balancing everything out. But then came all of the other states, lining up, one-by-one, to demonstrate either their love of the Constitution or their love of Donny.

Utah was dutifully trying to gerrymander their state to favor Republicans. They split the Salt Lake City area into four different districts, effectively diminishing Democratic input. Last Monday, a judge ruled against that map and reinstated one that maintains the Salt Lake City area as one district, making that district competitive – it’s about 43% Republican.

It looks like Utah’s attempt to help Republicans steal the 2026 election has backfired and will actually help the Dems pick up another seat. Lovely. Bear in mind, all of this cheating and rigging is taking place because the Republicans don’t feel good about their chances in 2026. They COULD govern in a way that pleases enough people to win fair and square but that doesn’t seem to be an option they’ve even considered. It’s un-American, if you ask me…

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“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.” (Mark Twain)

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Jack Smith was a special counsel who indicted The First Felon – twice! Once for trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election and once for mishandling of classified documents. It’s safe to say, Jack Smith knows a LOT about Donny and his trumpery. As we’ve all seen, Donny has been on a revenge tour ever since seizing the White House again and he got the Office of Special Counsel to investigate Smith. No, the investigation is purely “independent,” I’m sure.

The matter is being pursued by Republicans, led by Charles Grassley of Iowa. So Smith’s lawyers sent Grassley a letter that read, “Such political meddling in prosecutorial decision making undermines the credibility of the Justice Department and the integrity of any subsequent enforcement actions. Political meddling in prosecutorial actions also risks turning impartial law enforcement agencies into partisan tools to protect the President’s allies and punish his perceived adversaries.” That’s a kind of a swipe at Donny and what he’s doing.

Now Grassley and House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) claim they want to hear from Smith regarding new revelations that the ex-special counsel obtained the phone records of several congressional Republicans as a part of his investigation into Trump’s election interference. This is the bit that feeds that section of the latest spending bill that gives Republicans a chance for a taxpayer-funded windfall they don’t deserve.

They keep pumping Smith for answers to questions and Smith keeps avoiding the questions while the conversation is only between himself and the corrupt Republicans. He wants to testify in a public forum. In their letter, Smith’s lawyers wrote, “Mr. Smith is fully committed to providing information about the work of the Special Counsel’s Office, and we are committed to working with you to provide the public an opportunity to hear directly from Mr. Smith regarding his work.” Then they asked for guidance on what information he can share with lawmakers and for the ability to review files that supported his case to prepare his testimony.”

In short, Smith’s position is, “Sure, I’ll talk all about it – in public. Let’s share ALL of the information I have about the criminality of your Precious – in public.” For reasons I can’t quite put my finger on, the Republicans seem less interested in discussing the details in public. It’s almost as if they know that exposing the details hurts their case more than helps it. It’s an ongoing theme with these clowns.

They call themselves the most transparent administration in history but they only promise to show things, they never actually do it. That’s a con. Anytime someone tells you they have the evidence but they’re not ever going to show it, they’re lying to you…

The Brightest Lights…

by MyBaconPress

Ever since Zohran Mamdani got elected Mayor of New York City, every corporate talking head from across the dial has been required to come out loudly in favor of “Free Market” Capitalism, as though there’s some threat to it out there. The most recent I saw was Bill Maher on his show ‘Real Time’ from his November 14 broadcast. He went so far as to show a nighttime satellite photo of South Korea, brightly lit up because of all of that beautiful Capitalism it has, like this:

South Korea at night.

See? Only Capitalists can afford lights, right? THEN, he showed a nighttime satellite photo of North Korea, so dark it looked like they had to pool their resources to buy even the single light bulb they share as a nation:

North Korea at night.

Pretty convincing stuff, eh? Well, unless you know that North Korea is a Communist nation. It’s not Democratic Socialist at all. Trying to convince me that Democratic Socialism is bad by showing me the failures of Communism is a bit like me trying to convince you ice hockey sucks because that “strategic battle” between the pitcher and hitter is pretty boring. Did I convince you? HOW? Telling you something I don’t care for about baseball has nothing to do with ice hockey. If it convinces you, it’s because you know nothing of hockey or baseball.

It’s weird that Maher might have made such an error, isn’t it? Love him or hate him, I think everyone would agree that Bill Maher is not a stupid person. Still, I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and pretend he made an honest mistake because the alternative is to point out that he’s intentionally trying to deceive by knowingly presenting false information, more commonly known as “lying.” If one has to lie in order to defend their position, their position probably doesn’t deserve to be defended, right?

Do you know the happiest country on Earth, the country with the overall happiest population? Finland, a Democratic Socialist state, though they call it ‘The Nordic Model.’ (It’s technically listed as a Constitutional Monarchy.) It’s a mixed economy. But no country has included more elements of Democratic Socialism and they’re the happiest country on Earth eight years running now. Besides, NO country is perfectly whatever it claims to be.

Take the awesome and perfectly perfect US. We claim – no, we insist – that we’re a “Free Market” Capitalist nation and nothing else, ever. Well, until some corporation makes some catastrophic Capitalistic mistake and runs, hat in hand, to the US government to demand a little socialism in the form of a financial bailout. It happens here in the Greatest Country On Earth™ FAR more often than you might think. The American corporate motto seems to be ‘Socialism for me, brutal Free Market Capitalism for thee.’

Oh, and for Bill Maher, since I know he’s probably reading, here’s a nighttime photo of Finland, all lit up:

Scandinavia at night

In fact, that’s all of Scandinavia, all Democratic Socialist and all lit up. Using the Maher standard of measuring the success of a given economic system based on how brightly a country shines at night, it looks like Democratic Socialism is doing okay…

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I can’t say I feel badly, exactly, about what’s happening to Marjorie Taylor Greene. She seems to have gained access to more accurate information recently. I don’t know her source, but she has been coming out on the right side of an increasing number of issues, recently, and it’s weirding me out. She has become SO fact-oriented, the Trumpster kicked her out of MAGA. (“No facts in MAGA!”) Now she’s getting death threats and other abuse.

Nobody deserves death threats or other abuse for expressing their opinions, right or wrong. Still, it’s nice that she’s getting an opportunity to see how her team, Team Evil, treats people with whom they disagree. I’ll tell you this, though: if she wants to join Team USA, I think we should let her. I do not, can not, forget who and how she’s been, but Maya Angelou taught us, “When you know better, do better.” MTG seems to know better, now, and she seems to be trying to do better. Right thinking people ought to support that…

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“It’s not just that they’re doing things that I don’t agree with politically, it’s that there’s so much malice and vindictiveness attached to all of it….” Bill Bryson, author of ‘A Short History of Everything.’

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Here’s the thing about the MAGA anger that 47 isn’t doing what he promised. This is the first time they’ve known, known without question, that Donny is lying to them. I mean, when he says he and Xi have a great relationship, who can say? We certainly weren’t in the room while they were talking. Maybe they do. ARE fishermen off the coast of Venezuela drug runners? Donny said they were and I’ve never had the chance to talk to them. Maybe they were.

They can do that all day on a wide-ranging variety of subjects. Pretty much everything, in fact, they can’t or won’t check. But they don’t have to check to see if prices are lower or higher. It smacks them in the face every time they walk into a store. They’ve still got Donny’s whiny voice in their heads, “Prices are low, the lowest they’ve ever been. We’ve got the best prices.” Meanwhile, they’re buying off-brands or not at all because things are so expensive.

I suspect that as they internalize the reality that Donny is straight-up lying to them about the economy, they’ll start to see other areas where he may have been less than honest. How about job losses? Over the course of last month, I’ve seen many headlines about larger companies laying off workers. How many? 100 people! 1,000 people! 10,000 people! 466,000 people! 2 million people! A trillion people! (I learned that from Donny. BIG numbers are better.)

Okay, 153,000. That’s the estimated, actual number. It’s estimated because the regime isn’t offering that information any more. (We get excuses, instead.) The actual numbers make Donny look bad, so he stopped reporting them. But I’d bet some of those 153,000 people were MAGA and when Donny tells them the economy is booming, they wonder why it exploded all over them. In short, Donny’s lies aren’t distant anymore. They’re not about things MAGA doesn’t understand and may or may not be true. Donny’s lies are hitting home, THEIR homes and for the first time, they see it…

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Big day for the Niners today. Brock Purdy, their starting Quarterback who has missed a ton of games with a bum foot, is coming back. So is one of their better Wide Receivers, Ricky Pearsall. That should improve the offense. Well, at wide-out anyway. Backup Quarterback Mac Jones did a VERY good job while Brock was out. I hope Brock plays well or the QB controversy gets somewhat louder.

The Defense is still the big question mark. The team has lost their veteran leaders for the season. They’re playing with backups and rookies. The up side? They have a very good Defensive Coordinator in Robert Salah, and they have a soft stretch in their schedule. It gives them something like five weeks to tighten up and get it together. Here we go, Niners…

Failing and Flailing…

by MyBaconPress

It just makes your head want to explode sometimes, doesn’t it? The “Justice” Department is joining California Republicans in their lawsuit to stop California from doing what Texas did: gerrymander the state to favor one party, the Democrats. California ONLY did what they did a) temporarily, and b) because Texans gerrymandered Texas to favor one party, the Republicans.

Not only did the “Justice” Department NOT sue Texas, the Texas rigging was 47’s idea. He proclaimed he “deserved” five more seats in the House and Texas gerrymandered to accommodate his selfish ambitions. In joining the suit against California but not Texas, the administration made some pretty startling comments.

“California’s redistricting scheme is a brazen power grab that tramples on civil rights and mocks the democratic process,” mused Pam Bondi, the US attorney general. “Governor Newsom’s attempt to entrench one-party rule and silence millions of Californians will not stand.”

“Texas’ redistricting scheme is ALSO a brazen power grab that tramples on civil rights and mocks the democratic process,” Pam Bondi could have added, but didn’t, “but Governor Abbott’s attempt to entrench one-party rule and silence millions of Texans will be just fine.”

The thing is, this whole kerfuffle kicked off when the Roberts Supremely Corrupt, Kangaroo Court ruled that Federal courts do not have jurisdiction to hear cases regarding partisan gerrymandering. A federal court can still step in, for now, if the gerrymandering is seen as racial, though, so that’s how the GOP and the criminal regime filed their official California whine.

They claimed the new map was drawn “to favor Hispanics.” Well, they had to say something, right? The suit had to pretend the gerrymander was racial. So, that’s what they did. Evil is evil, not stupid. But “We want to cheat but we don’t want YOU to cheat,” isn’t a very inspiring message. Nor is it particularly convincing. I’d bet racial considerations were not a factor so I imagine Team Evil will lose the fight…

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I saw a headline in Friday’s ‘Guardian.’ It read, “Democrat Eric Swalwell faces federal criminal inquiry for alleged mortgage fraud.” When I read it, I laughed out loud. I guess Team Evil thinks they’re really on to something with these pretended charges. The thing is, we all KNOW the regime is just making things up in an effort to harass their political opponents.

We also know that several of the minions working in the regime could easily face the exact same charges – and, apparently, the evidence is stronger against Donny’s Dumbasses than it is against the Dems facing those charges. So far, the charges haven’t held up and I doubt this one will, either. Swalwell will start at ‘Selective Prosecution’ and move from there. I remember a time when Republicans pretended to think that frivolous lawsuits were a bad thing…

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Part of the “clean” GOP Continuing Resolution (CR) that just passed when the Dems took a dive is a provision that allows GOP Senators to give themselves up to a million dollars each if their name and phone number appeared in a legal document during one of Donny’s many, many trials. The list wasn’t released to the public. No other information was presented. They weren’t violated in any way. But they get a fistful of dollars – ’cause they want it.

Other members of the GOP are pretending the provision was a surprise. They say they’re angry about it and they’re going to remove that provision. You know, eventually. They’ll get to it, sooner or later, you betcha, cause it was bad, bad, bad. Or they won’t and the GOP will gift themselves millions.

But if you’re a working American who can’t make ends meet in our corrupt society? No, nothing for you. In fact, you’re already leeching way too much, living way too high on the hog with all of those generous SNAP benefits. Pull yourselves up by your bootstraps – assuming you have boots, of course. You don’t even get a penny, cause we don’t make those anymore…

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From time to time, I get called out by conservatives for calling them Nazis. I get that. I wouldn’t want to be called a Nazi, either. Now, for the record, I don’t actually call them Nazis. I say they’re acting like Nazis. Maybe they’re NOT Nazis but when one lives life like a Nazi, one should not be surprised when others suspect that maybe one IS a Nazi. Okay, so maybe I’ve misjudged. Let’s take a look, shall we?

When the Nazis – the actual Nazis – were sending people to prison, literally by the trainload, they stole the personal effects of their victims. They took wedding rings and gold crowns from teeth. If the victims of the Nazis had owned cell phones, they would have taken those, too. Anything of value, the Nazis stole it.

As it happens, when the ICEholes roll up one of their victims and haul them away, they steal their personal effects, too. Wedding and engagement rings, cell phones, anything of value, the ICEholes steal it. If (when) it turns out a victim was detained “in error,” you know, because they’re an American citizen or some other frivolous reason like that, they victim in question is released – but the ICEholes keep their valuables.

I say again, if people are going to do the same things the Nazis did, I’m going to continue to insist that they’re ACTING like Nazis, because they are. If you don’t like it, change the behavior…

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As the walls close in on Donny and his Epstein involvement, he has decided to focus on Democrats. He’s siccing the DOJ on various high-profile Democrats to ascertain the association between them and Jeffrey Epstein. I suspect, the idea is an attempt to frighten lefties into standing down. “Oh my God,” he thinks liberals will say, “He might implicate our hero Bill Clinton so we’d better disregard our desire to see what Trump did to those girls.”

Here’s the thing: Bill Clinton isn’t my hero. Furthermore, I’m not MAGA. I don’t make decisions about guilt based on political affiliation, like MAGA does. My determinations are based on the facts at hand. If it turns out Bill Clinton – or any other Democrat or independent, for that matter – took advantage of the “delights” Jeffrey Epstein had on offer, they should stand trial and go to jail if convicted.

I don’t know a lefty who feels differently. I don’t know a MAGA who can say the same…

At What Cost?

by MyBaconPress

Well, crap. The Dems did it again. They were holding out against the Continuing Resolution in an effort to force the GOP to fund ACA subsidies – and they were winning. The holdout was causing pain, but most people understood the reason for the fight and we were behind them. A major telling factor would obviously have been an election in which Dems got their asses handed to them. Then they could know they had lost the support of the people and alter their course accordingly.

Well, we just had special elections. The Democrats swept the special elections. That should have told the Dems that people still support their efforts. The Dems were doing the right thing. They were. So, after the left swept the special elections, telling the Dems they still have the support of the majority of Americans, how did they respond? They collapsed. Capitulated. Quit. Bent the knee. Greased up and bent over.

Tim Kaine was the only real surprise. But it only took eight traitors – and they showed up for the Republican party. With friends like those, right? So, maybe SNAP recipients will get paid, but millions are going to lose their health insurance, because eight DINOS didn’t have spine enough to do the right thing, right?

The Democrats, as a whole, are pretending it was just these eight, out-of-control rogues breaking with the party. I’m not pretending with them. The surrender was managed. These eight were carefully chosen to “break ranks” because they’re not on the ballot in 2026. Then all the others can harrumph and finger-wag appropriately, acting like they think a bad thing happened. But what happened was, the plan was carried out.

So now, millions lose health care – perhaps spelling the end of Obamacare entirely. Remember, wide-ranging participation has always been a cornerstone of the program. Ejecting millions through outrageous price hikes works against that. Welcome back, preexisting condition denials and settling for catastrophic care coverage because it’s all you can afford.

People will still come out, I suspect, and vote blue to block. Yes, the Dems suck. Of course they do. They’re on the One Percent payroll, too, remember? But they still don’t suck as badly as Republicans. Not yet, anyway. Nobody will vote FOR them, but those voting AGAINST the GOP don’t have anywhere else to go so the Dems will “win,” uh, “not lose” again, as in “Hey, we didn’t lose for a change!”

Democrats took a dive but those premium increase letters are going out. The GOP can lie about it all they want to, the letters are concrete evidence and people – human beings – WILL react. Walk into a grocery store. Go ahead, I dare you. Bring your wallet. Bring your friend’s wallet. Bring your loan application if you want coffee. Listen on your iPhone with your iBuds in your iEars to Donny telling you how cheap everything is, then pay $300 dollars for a single bag of groceries. (Slight hyperbole alert.)

Donny and the Hoods can lie all they want, but they’re not going to be able to lie about realities pummeling people in the face all day, every day. You can TELL me I’m not bleeding, but all that blood is calling you a liar. So, I expect people will keep getting madder and madder at the GOP and they’ll keep voting blue, accordingly, but it isn’t because blue is a good choice. It’s because they’re the slightly-less-crappy-but-only alternative. The future is so dark, I’ll probably need a torch…

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Trump is clearly the face of the evil we’re all suffering in the US today, but he’s certainly NOT the architect. He’s not nearly smart enough for that. Instead, the architects are a bunch of self-serving millionaires and billionaires who simply can NOT understand why everyone wasn’t born into fabulous wealth. They work for a group called ‘The Heritage Foundation,’ a conservative stink tank.

BECAUSE they’re a bunch of self-serving millionaires and billionaires, they’re completely out of touch with the reality of day-to-day living in this country they’ve corrupted. That’s why it’s so easy for them to rip away safety nets from people who live in a country that requires safety nets to give people a decent chance. ‘The Greatest Country On Earth™?’ Maybe, but only if you’re rich enough.

That’s why it didn’t bother Donny to cut off food aid to millions of hungry people and immediately spend millions of taxpayer dollars throwing a ‘Great Gatsby’ themed party and spending who knows how many more millions turning the once-respected White House into the gaudy ‘Golden House of Trumpery.’ Donny says he’s “classin’ the joint up,” but from what I’ve seen, it’s pretty vulgar…

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This is just a random thought but, Donny is out there murdering people in boats claiming they’re drug runners bringing fentanyl. He has offered no proof and that area of the world is known for cocaine, not fentanyl. Still, that’s the claim and despite the Constitution, Donny has decided they must die, on his word alone, because the drugs he claims they bring kill lots of Americans (and probably MAGA, too.)

Purdue Pharma introduced a product called OxyContin, a powerful prescription pain killer that just happened to be incredibly, incredibly addicting. But Purdue lied, and lied, and lied and insisted OxyContin was not addictive. OxyContin shattered lives and killed more than 645,000 Americans (and probably MAGA, too.) So far. Purdue Pharma gets to negotiate a settlement.

I think Donny should show a little consistency for a change. Either let the people in the boats negotiate settlements, or, first choice, put the owners and executives of Purdue Pharma into a boat on the Caribbean and tell Donny they’ve got fentanyl…

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The US Mint in Philadelphia pressed the last American penny yesterday. Donny says it will save the treasury $56 million dollars a year. That’s not nothing, but I’ll bet that small change and small savings will cost Americans (and MAGA, too) a LOT more money in their day-to-day lives. What, you think businesses are going to round DOWN? SO… in one fell swoop and with a single stroke of a pen, Donny just made everybody’s life more expensive…

BIG Lies…

by MyBaconPress

Dr Ooze, said in a speech that Americans were on track to lose 135 BILLION pounds before the midterms. 135 billion pounds? Wonderful! We’re EACH going to give up around 400 pounds. Actually, I’m a little concerned. I confess, I carry a little extra wight – but not 400 pounds! For most of us, losing 400 pounds is like the Dumbass insisting he can lower drug prices by 1,500%. First you get to zero, then you keep going.

This regime just LOVES to make up numbers and they MEAN for the made-up numbers to be as impressive as they can be. THAT means BIG. The numbers have got to be BIG. If the numbers are BIG, the achievements are big, too, right? So Donny can’t just lower drug prices by 100%. Anybody could do that. (They can’t.)

It’s GOT TO BE 1,500% to impress MAGA, and Dr. Ooze isn’t impressing anybody by claiming Americans will merely lose 40 pounds each. Who could be impressed by THAT? No, it has to be 400 pounds because that’s a bigger number. Idiocracy, thy name is America…

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Well, there’s talk of a plan to end the shutdown. It comes out of the Senate. It would have to since the House has gone walkabout. It appears to have support from enough turncoat Dems to pass the Senate. It does not include the health insurance subsidies the Dems have been holding out for. The Senate’s Republican leader, John Thune, has promised he would allow a vote on a bill to deal with the credits by the second week of December.

He won’t. The GOP has gone so far as to withhold food from hungry people in an effort to put pressure on Democrats to surrender their demands. “You want health care? STARVE, peasants!” Now, all of a sudden, they’re going to just get reasonable and do the right thing? Uh-huh. You bet our lives!

Even if Thune does do the right thing, MAGA Mike the Johnson has said he won’t bring such a measure to the House floor. Besides, how can he bring anything to the House floor when the House Republicans are out quivering in their hidey-holes, fearful of having to address the problem of Donny’s very close friend Jeffrey Epstein in public and on the record.

My feelings on the topic were best summed up by Greg Casar, chair of the congressional Progressive Caucus. He said: “A deal that doesn’t reduce health care costs is a betrayal of millions of Americans counting on Democrats to fight for them. Republicans want health care cuts. Accepting nothing but a pinky promise from Republicans isn’t a compromise – it’s capitulation.”

I guess it’s back to desperation catastrophic coverage and preexisting condition denials for “The Land of Opportunity™!” A citizen of ‘The Greatest Country On Earth™?’ These days, I feel more like a victim…

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Have you SEEN the ramping up of disdain from all corners when it comes to Democratic Socialism? If you’re a talking head on American television, left or right, you MUST come out against Democratic Socialism. It’s BEST if you also mischaracterize Democratic Socialism. Call it Communism, that scares ’em!

I heard Bill Maher talking about how it never works, socialism. That’s wrong. He MEANS communism. Right now, the happiest, the freest, the most successful (if you measure success by best-serving the largest number of people) countries on Earth are Democratic Socialist. The act that made America great in the first place was FDR sprinkling in elements of Democratic Socialism to the US as a way to stabilize normally erratic so-called “Free-Market” Capitalism. He called it the New Deal.

This latest round of pearl-clutching started because Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist, just became the mayor of New York City. The so-called “Free-Market” Capitalists run scared every time socialism rears it’s head. The thing is, socialism rears it’s head from time to time because it seems to be a better system and the masses keep figuring it out, then figuring it out again.

Mamdani once said in passing during a speech in 2021, “But then there are also other issues that we firmly believe in, whether it’s BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions of Israel), right, or whether it’s the end goal of seizing the means of production, where we do not have the same level of support at this very moment.”

“Ooh, he said, ‘…seizing the means of production,'” terrified Capitalists cry, “He MUST be a commie! If seizing the means of production means one MUST be a commie, look to Donny, who just strong-armed his way into a deal giving the US government a stake in Intel. And MP Materials. And Lithium Americas. And Trilogy Metals. Not to mention the US government’s “golden share” of US Steel Corporation. Apparently, we’re communists already, da comrade?

Here’s what all the naysayers have in common: they’re all rich. Okay, maybe not rich rich but they’re doing very, very well, compared to most of the regular working stiffs. Pick a system, any system. The people who are doing well in that system probably like it very much. Why would they see problems? The very BEST one could hope for is a flaccid acknowledgement that it could use some “tweaks” here and there.

The thing people have to understand is this: Democratic Socialism is a capitalist system. It’s just controlled Capitalism. Those of us being crushed under the weight of so-called “Free-Market” Capitalism think it could use a little control…

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The Niners had a football game yesterday. Somebody should have told them. It looked like the team failed to show up so the coaches went into the streets and grabbed up anybody they could find who might fit the uniforms and put them out on the field. They played accordingly. If the game HAD been played by amateurs, well, they did a fine job. Hats off!

But if the people who showed up for the Niners identify as professional football players in the NFL? They might not want to tell anybody for the next couple of days. Maybe, let the memory of that stinker fade a bit. The Rams were firing on all cylinders and the Niners were still looking for their keys.

It seems strange, but that loss put the once-first-place Niner’s playoff hopes in jeopardy. They still have a winning record. They’ll still show on the “in the hunt” sections of playoff predictions. But the NFC is very competitive and the Niners are trending in the wrong direction. With their defense collectively in the Intensive Care Unit, they don’t have much hope of turning things around. RATS! Oh well. There’s always next season. Always. Next season…

On Morality…

by MyBaconPress

I may not be able to provide you with an accurate description of what ‘obscene’ looks like, but – in the words of Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart – “I know it when I see it.”

Elon Musk’s $1 TRILLION dollar pay package? Yeah, that’s effing obscene…

Meanwhile, Joe Six-pack struggles desperately. We have two fights currently going on here in this once-great nation: the GOP is working to kill Obamacare by taking away the premium subsidies so many Americans rely upon to make ends meet. If Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act, ends, so do prohibitions against discrimination for preexisting conditions.

Look, the ACA isn’t great. It was, after all, conceived by conservatives as an alternative – a crappy, still-profitable alternative – to universal health care. But it’s better than, “Screw you, die.” Still, despite the fact that so many MAGA rely on those subsidies, they remain loyal.

THAT fight (over the ACA) led to a second fight, the funding of the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, or SNAP. In order to pressure the Democrats into allowing the end of ACA subsidies, the GOP has opted to NOT help desperate Americans get their hands on some food. A court pointed out that, by law, they are required to help. They STILL said, “No.” MAGA is going without, but they remain loyal.

By the way, both of these fights put the lie to the slogan, “Richest Country On Earth™,” don’t they? Millions and millions of people here in “The Richest Country On Earth™” can’t see a doctor without financial help and millions of people can’t even eat without financial help. But Elon Musk gets a $1 trillion dollar pay package, and MAGA cheers.

As the First Speaker of the Doctrine of Universal Harmony, I can’t really blame rank and file MAGA for their moral collapse. After all, they were led to it by other people – people who consider morality nothing more than an impediment, an obstacle to be overcome on one’s way to fabulous wealth. I DO, however – I must – hold them at least partially responsible. After all, they did let it happen.

They didn’t bother to question actions that ran directly against everything they had been taught growing up. They may not know that the reference comes from Matthew, Chapter 7, verse 16, but they know, we all know, the phrase, “You will know them by their fruits.” It’s a common phrase in the lexicon. It means, “Watch what they do, ignore what they say.” Because people can SAY anything. But every harmful action the GOP commits and MAGA supports, qualifies as a “fruit,” what someone did.

Early on, MAGA was told that “spin” was just a lie – making it okay to lie in defense of one’s political talking points of the day. They didn’t know what spin actually was, so they believed it. They’ve been lying in defense of political talking points of the day ever since – and many of them don’t KNOW they’re “bearing false witness.” THEY think it’s just “spin.”

I can’t trace the entire decline, here. It has taken over forty years. It’s been a slow drip of a process. One cannot, overnight, get a normally moral person to kill, for example. That takes time. But MAGA media has put in the time and modern MAGA is there, now. They’ve been there since Covid-19, when they were convinced to fight science (coincidentally killing people) because it served a handful of rich people, politically. “Oh, grandma died because I went to a Covid party? No matter. At least my Precious didn’t look like he made a mistake.”

Does it strike anyone else as ironic that the two things so-called Christian Nationalists hate most is true religion and actual patriotism? So, as is common, I’m here to help. Today, MAGA supports and defends the physical embodiment of the seven deadly sins, Donald “Felon 47” Trump, and he actually embodies ALL of them: Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Lust, Avarice, Wrath, and Sloth. He’s heavy on the sloth. But those are attitudes, the kind of attitudes that lead to the crimes he has committed.

When he confessed on the Access Hollywood recording to groping women, many thought it was just talk, he was just bragging. Bragging is an action that results from the sin of Pride. When he was found responsible for groping E. Jean Carroll in the exact way he had described on the Access Hollywood recording, we knew he wasn’t just bragging. It’s Pride, but it’s also Lust. He commits sexual assaults against women because he believes he’s entitled to do so. I suspect there’s an element of Wrath in there, too, but MAGA stays loyal.

When he was convicted of cooking his business books to hide a tryst with a porn star that he engaged in while married to his third wife, that was Avarice. Greed. I suppose one of the problems with that list of sins is that people don’t know what ‘avarice’ is so it’s easy to overlook. Avarice is greed. MAGA stayed loyal.

But those were apparently gateway crimes. Now he has moved on – to murder. People are calling the murders “extrajudicial killings.” THAT is “spin.” They’ve offered an easy-to-digest name for the action, but these are murders, pure and simple. There’s no evidence those boats he’s blowing up are carrying drugs, but we know for certain, they’re carrying human beings. When two of those human beings were caught, they were simply “repatriated.” Sent home with no thought of a trial. There’s only ONE reason that might happen: no evidence. The “drugs” part is only a story. The “killings” part is very, very real, the fruit. So far, MAGA has stayed loyal.

They’re ignoring another phrase we’ve all heard, “If you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.” One cannot support an immoral act without becoming part of that immoral act. Silence is consent. MAGA doesn’t like being judged for their actions and I don’t blame them. It’s not like they’re being judged for heroic deeds. Actions speak louder than words and MAGA has been judged for their actions. They are currently being judged for their actions. They will be judged in the future for the actions.

There’s always an aspect of “We didn’t know” that must be considered. After all, often, they didn’t know. But they should have. At some point, they’ve all had the opportunity to look more deeply into things. They’ve all be encouraged by some “libtard” to review their information. They simply refuse. That’s not passive or accidental involvement. It a choice, a fruit. One can only hope that, sooner or later, MAGA realizes their actions – not their words – will always represent their true hearts, because the rest of the world knows them by those actions…