NFL

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…

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…

Is Team Evil ALWAYS Wrong? So Far…

by MyBaconPress

Okay, help me out, here. I mean, make this make sense. By now, we all know about Donny’s murder spree on so-called “Venezuelan drug runners,” likely really just fishermen. Team Evil sees a boat in the Caribbean and they blow it up, insisting the boat was full of drugs and drug runners from Venezuela. Normally, those attacks kill everyone aboard, but not the most recent attack, as of this writing.

In the most recent attack, two of the four people aboard survived. I see, this morning, that the US is going to “repatriate” the two “to their home countries of Columbia and Ecuador for prosecution and punishment.” Great. He randomly attacks boats out fishing or on a pleasure trip, killing everyone aboard because he wants to pretend he’s being tough on drugs, then finds out he accidentally killed people from Columbia and Ecuador? Now Columbia and Ecuador have to be dragged into this just because the Drumpfster can’t confess error?

He has yet to offer any evidence of his claims beyond his well-known prevaricating mouth, but this has been an effort to ramp up MAGA anger at Venezuela, for some reason. Discovering his most recent victims were from Columbia and Ecuador just adds to the confusion. I don’t know why he’s not going to prosecute them here, but I guess it’s because there’s no evidence. Even if there had been, he blew it up.

So let’s sum up, shall we? He kills a bunch of people on boats, insisting they’re dangerous and evil drug runners. He actually captures two of the dangerous and evil drug runners. Now he’s sending those same dangerous and evil drug runners back to their home countries – specifically, NOT Venezuela – and just… setting them free? That doesn’t seem like a very effective drug-battling strategy, if you ask me…

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Remember all the way back to, um, Saturday? When Americans held their ‘No Kings’ protest and the President of the United States decided to bomb the US in an attempt to intimidate protestors that didn’t intimidate protestors at all? Yeah, that time. The US fired artillery shells across I-5, claiming they were celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Marines, which occurs on November 10 so why wouldn’t you recognize it on October 18?

The military insisted it would be perfectly safe. GOP Representative Darrell Issa, who represents a district east of the base, called it “a spiteful publicity stunt” by Newsom. In a statement to the New York Times on Saturday, a spokesperson for Just Dumb Vance, William Martin, said Newsom misled the public about the safety risk.

That seems… less than supportive of Gavin Newsom’s call to close the highway for awhile during the live-firing-across-a-highway exercise. Newsom said it wasn’t just wrong – it was dangerous. He added that the President – or in this case, trump – “…using our military to intimidate people you disagree with isn’t strength – it’s reckless, it’s disrespectful, and it’s beneath the office he holds.” So who was right?

Well, this morning, there’s a report that one of the oh-so-safe artillery shells exploded early – right over the highway, in fact. Shrapnel rained down on a Highway Patrol car and a motorcycle that were part of JD Vance’s detail. Fortunately, nobody was hurt – because Newsom had closed the highway. It WAS a stupid and dangerous stunt and there WAS a problem that could have hurt or killed people. Gavin was right. Team Evil was wrong – again!

And STILL, ‘No Kings’ came off without a hitch, supported by millions of Americans nationwide…

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Well, the Niners sure served up a game yesterday, didn’t they? They’re not exactly inspiring confidence during the week as we hear report after report about injuries. This guy’s hurt. That guy’s out. What happened? Who’s next? The reports leave the fans feeling like the team will hobble out on walkers and do the best they can. Then they come out and beat the Atlanta Falcons 20-10. It was… convincing…

Christian McCaffrey came out and played so well he looked like, well, like Christian McCaffrey in his prime. McCaffrey has been struggling this season. Apparently, the Niners finally changed their run scheme and McCaffrey, um… ran with it. My first thought was, “Why didn’t they do that sooner?” But the reality is, you get it when you get it and I’m glad they got it now.

On the other side of the ball, we all thought the defense was going to collapse after the loss of Fred Warner and Nick Bosa. Well, that’s what we get for thinking, isn’t it? The defense looked sharp and tight and played very well. Very well, indeed. No, they weren’t perfect but they were very good. As I watched the replacements command the field, I thought, “Hey, Bosa and Warner once played their first down in the NFL, too.” Maybe the replacements are just as good. We’ll see.

Last season, we Niner fans were burned so often by our kicker, we seem to have PTSD. The kicker comes on to the field, Niner fans groan, “Oh, no.” But that was our LAST kicker, whose name I will not mention. Our current kicker, Eddy Piñeiro, has been perfect on field goals and only missed one kick all season. We fans need to get over ourselves.

And, listen. I’m a Brock Purdy fan. I’ve been a Brock Purdy fan since he exploded onto the scene. He’s a very good player. But Mac Jones is better. He’s making better reads. He makes them faster. He’s got very good accuracy and zip on the ball. He has a deep ball Purdy lacks. In fact, the only thing I think Purdy has on Jones is his ability to move. Jones isn’t a statue, but he’s not as mobile as Purdy.

It’s still Purdy’s job, of course. He JUST got the fat payday. The Niners are on the hook for that money now and they’re not going to let Purdy go and absorb that loss. But it says something that the deciding factor is the money and not the on-field performance. If it was strictly on-field performance, I’d say Mac Jones has the edge.

I say again, Purdy doesn’t suck. I’m not going be too upset that we end up with him under center. But I’m going to be sad to see Jones take his talents to another team next season. I actually and honestly think he’s the better Quarterback…

Pretending Success…

by MyBaconPress

Jeffrey Epstein’s very good friend, Donald Trump, is getting people killed with his cruel ICE raids. This clever trick ICE is using? The one where they raid Home Depot parking lots from Penske trucks looking for day laborers who ALSO happen to be murderers and rapers, even though they’re fresh out of murderers and rapers? Yeah, that one. Now a man fleeing such a raid has been killed. He was trying to escape the ICEholes when he ran into traffic and was hit by a car.

That same article included the tidbit that the US is currently holding 60,000 people in detention for deportation. If you actually believe they’ve managed to round up 60,000 murderers and rapers who were just wandering around free, I’ve got a bridge I’d like to sell you. The same bridge, over and over. And if you believe – actually believe – they’ve rounded up 60,000 murderers and rapers, well, you’re just stupid enough to buy that bridge every time I sell it to you.

I’m okay writing that last sentence because I know they don’t actually believe the ICEholes are only holding murderers and rapers. MAGA knows the vast majority of people being detained have no criminal record beyond a lack of proper paperwork. They don’t much care. They just like the idea that the government is inflicting pain and suffering on someone they don’t like.

Yeah, yeah, other countries enforce their immigration laws. I’ve heard that one. But that’s not all they’re doing, is it? It’s one thing to grab Jose Garcia as he sneaks across the border and send him back to where ever he came from, it’s another to revoke otherwise proper permission to be here for the sole purpose of rounding people up and sending them away. And there’s no reason on Earth for them to be so effing cruel. THAT part they’re throwing in for the fun of it.

Like everything else in MAGA world, most of the details of the deportation story are fraudulent. Most of the people detained are NOT violent criminals, the group he promised to target. Large numbers of them were immigrating “the right way.” That is, they were following the law and going through the process. The DOJ is interrupting the process for the sole purpose of declaring the people caught in the middle “illegals” and hauling them off to detention camps.

Oh, and the camps. Why does the regime have to be so effing cruel to the people they’re taking into custody? The main “crime” of the vast majority of those people is that they wanted (or needed) to live somewhere other than where they were born. Most of them were contributing to our society in some way, not taking from it. That is to say, the US benefited from their presence. Their reward? They’re ripped from their families, “detained” in sub-human, cruel conditions, and then often deported to countries they are not from, they know nothing about, they have no business being in…

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I read this sentence from ‘The Niners Wire:’ “Through the first few weeks of training camp, the San Francisco 49ers have been one of the unluckiest teams in the league when it comes to injuries.” I’m not sure I can agree with “unlucky.” The Niners have a long history of injuries on the team. Last season, it was so bad, they were lucky to be able to field a full team and the team they fielded… well, wasn’t very good.

Kyle Shanahan is certainly a better coach than I’ll ever be, but there’s something about the training camp that needs to be addressed. It seems like every year, injuries are the lead story. Some of it comes from signing injury-prone players. Some of it happens in practice. During actual games, Shanahan is infamous for running one player to death, even though he has another player on the sideline who might give the first player a breather.

Letting player one sit out a play or two protects him. Letting his backup take a snap or two gives him experience. It’s a win-win, but it’s a win-win Shanahan never uses. I’m becoming concerned we’re about to endure another season of a team packed with superstars who are all hobbled on the sidelines, watching their team fall to 6-11. I wish someone could help Shanahan manage his team’s health a little better…

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So… this is weird. Why did the Drumpfster waddle left and right when he was on the red carpet, waiting to meet his Russian handler? He was just walking. You know, as one does. But he veered. First he veered right. He almost walked off the carpet, so he veered left. When he reached the left side, he had to try to straighten it out again. If we had been driving, I would have called the cops on a likely drunk-driver. He finally managed to move back to the center of the carpet before coming to a stop and standing out in the middle of the airport waiting for Putin.

But then, as Putin rolled up, Donny started clapping. I suspect if he was capable of jumping up and down, he would have jumped up and down. He looked like a little boy who gets to see the “big truck” when it comes to collect the trash and can barely contain his excitement.

One thing that offered comfort to those of us wishing on a daily basis for natural events to end our national nightmare, Donny’s cankles look pretty bad. ‘Cankles’ is a slang term that describes a lack of definition between the calves and the ankles. It’s common in fat, out-of-shape people and Donny is definitely that – fat and out-of-shape. He’s very old. He’s in terrible shape. He could come to a natural end at any moment and in my book, it wouldn’t be a moment too soon.

Oh, yeah. Almost as an afterthought, no deal. Donny always thinks he’s going to walk into any room and make any deal he wants. He nearly always walks out with egg on his face (and ketchup on his tie) and no deals. Sometimes, people TELL him they’ll do this or that but because nothing is in writing, it’s just talk. They can string him along for months, maybe years, just telling him what he wants to hear. So they do. I’ll tell you this: Jeffrey Epstein’s very good friend, Donald Trump, just isn’t the deal-maker he pretends to be…

More Dumb Things…

by MyBaconPress

You see? This is what’s wrong with such a large swath of our media lying about, well, everything, all the time. This nutball shooter in Atlanta? The guy who murdered a cop while trying to murder other people? He was shooting at a CDC office – because he believed the Covid vaccine made him depressed and suicidal. When he found he couldn’t get in there, he went over and started shooting at a CVS drugstore, instead.

Oh, he was upset at the recent passing of a dog, too. That part I get. The belief that a Covid vaccine might do anything but vaccinate one against Covid-19? That’s the direct result of a now years long campaign of lies. Now we’ll suffer the effects of our moronic “health” secretary blocking the use of mRNA vaccines because he claims they don’t work.

People who rely on science say the mRNA vaccine saved millions of lives and shutting down work on new channels for it’s use will harm millions who didn’t have to be harmed. And that doesn’t even get into the area of economic leadership. If we abandon research into this new and exciting arena – like we have so many other advanced technologies because Donny prefers coal – we’re surrendering any possibility of leadership in the area. If we’re not leading the way, we’re not profiting from innovation. We WILL fall behind.

So in one move, Team Evil took us backwards in two different ways: We’re going to be sicker and we’re going to be behind in the technology. After hearing about this story, the guy was angry the vaccine made him depressed and suicidal so he shot up a CVS drugstore, I can see we’re already WAY behind in intelligence…

In what can only be described as an amazing coincidence – because in MAGAmerica, we have to pretend actions don’t have consequences – there’s a surge in Covid-19 cases! Here we go again. I guess some people just think it’s bad luck. Why does Covid-19 get so bad when Donny’s in charge? It must be the Dems, right? Biden! It couldn’t POSSIBLY be because Moron 47 insists on stupid over science. It’s like, everything he touches, he destroys…

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According to the Guardian, evil Scott Bessent is going to take over control of the IRS. This will make him the (are you ready for this?) SEVENTH leader the IRS has had this year. Bessent replaces a guy named Billy Long, who held the post for an entire TWO months!

All of this is because of a large group of people who believe some of the most amazingly stupid stuff you’ve ever seen in your life. MAGA STILL believes ICE is only rounding up the worst of the worst, rapists and murderers. Nobody’s telling them the ICEholes are just picking up brown people and being as mean as they can about it. MAGA STILL believes undocumented brown people are living the good life on all of that sweet government money they get. They don’t. Mostly, they pay taxes into a system they can’t collect from. But just try to tell a MAGA. These guys are convinced brown people just wander into the country, into a welfare office, and walk out with thousands of dollars in monthly aid.

See, the ICEholes want to use IRS filings to cross-check addresses of brown people for deportation. The unofficial story is that Long, for some reason, declined to use the IRS database to help the ICEholes so he’s out. Of course, the official story is that he was only ever intended to serve in the role for two months because the White House sees IRS Commissioner as a kind of work-study, exploratory thing.

Now Long gets to go be Ambassador to Iceland and Bessent takes the helm of the IRS where he’ll have zero qualms about crosschecking Privacy Act information against ICE target sheets in an effort to help ICE fill their quotas. MAGAmerica sucks. That’s just all there is to it…

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NFL football is coming. In fact, it has started. Well, the preseason, anyway. A kicker on the Jacksonville Jaguars made a field goal. A 70-yard field goal! That’s an NFL record. Nobody has ever made a 70-yarder before so you just KNOW that kick, a kick the entire viewing audience watched happen, MUST make the record books for all time and–
Wait, what? What do you mean, “doesn’t count?” Because it’s a preseason game? Records set in the preseason don’t count? Who knew?

I don’t normally watch the preseason. It’s generally more important to the players and coaches than to me. The games tend to be boring. Nobody is running the complex plays they’ll use in the regular season. It’s all about evaluating talent. Most of the time, nobody cares who wins and who loses. But I watched the Niners preseason opener last night. They lost. Who cares? What I wanted to see was Robert Saleh’s defense coming together.

He’s trying to put a new scheme into effect. He can use these games to test ideas while he tests players. He showed some of it last night. Not all of the players were up to snuff on all of the plays but it’s early, yet. I’m glad Saleh is back. There are a LOT of questions about this team going into the season but the skills of the Defensive Coordinator are not among them…

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It looks like the MAGA strategy to protect President Pedophile is working. I’m seeing fewer and fewer stories about Trump’s many, many ties to child sex trafficker Jeffery Epstein and his moll Ghislaine Maxwell. The stone wall seems to have held. The files will not be released.

So, I’ll just post this bit here. Remember, Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein were very good friends who seem to have engaged in sex trafficking children together. Epstein is dead and Donny insists it never happened – and who has EVER heard of a criminal who lied about committing the crime? Remember, there are extensive files collected by the FBI on the topic that could well shine a very bright light on who did what to whom.

All the proof he might need to clear his own name but, for some reason, reasons no MAGA could ever fathom, he won’t release it. Oh, well, I guess we’re just going to have to listen to, and believe, the victims…

Fakes and Frauds…

by MyBaconPress

This is weird. Some of the people who call themselves MAGA, ALSO call themselves Christians. Now, as we all know, MAGA is a group that thrives on other people’s tears, just like Jesus taught, right? Apparently, MAGA has a new definition of Christian, the kind where nobody has to follow any of the teachings of Christ, but they STILL get to call themselves Christian and they STILL think they’re going to Heaven.

Trump, though, has a personal pastor he prefers. She’s a “prosperity theology” minister. The First Felon signed an executive order establishing a White House Faith Office and chose Pastor Paula White-Cain, his personal spiritual advisor, to lead it. Just look at this woman.

Possible woman, possible mannequin.

When I first saw that photograph, I thought someone had set up a sex doll in the White House as a joke. Then I realized the mouth is wrong for that so I suspected a mannequin. But, no. This is an actual person. She’s SO heavily reconstructed, she doesn’t look real anymore. No wonder she advocates prosperity theology. I’m guessing she needs a LOT of money for all that plastic surgery and hair dye and those dead, distant eyes.

“Prosperity theology” is pretty much the exact opposite of every word attributed to Jesus. It teaches that the most faithful people are rewarded with great Earthly wealth and power. Can you see why rich people cling to the concept? It justifies all that selfish evil they commit in order to become rich in the first place. As a bonus, it also blames poor people for being poor. If they only had more faith… Uh-huh…

But SOME of the MAGA so-called Christians, hate-filled though they are, correctly reject the idea of prosperity theology. They’re very unhappy 47 chose this particular person for the role. They wanted someone THEY count as Christian. They’re surprised Mr. ‘Two Corinthians’ has a distorted view of the Bible.

Some guy named Scott Ross posted that, “Arguably, this is the worst and most dangerous thing President Trump has done—putting a false teacher at the helm of faith outreach. Lord, have mercy on our country and this administration.” Mr. Ross has no concerns about the people Trump has already killed or the people he’s setting up to die in the very near future. THIS is “the worst and most dangerous thing President Trump has done…”

Do you know what she isn’t, though? A white male. 47 didn’t hire the best person for the job, right? She’s clearly DEI, right? I really wish that, for once, MAGA would pick a position and stay on it…

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

During the campaign, Trump was invited to an interview with ’60 Minutes.’ He declined, knowing he can’t sit for a real interview with a real reporter. Kamala Harris was also invited. She CAN do real interviews. So she did. That really irritated The Felon. She came off looking good. He really hated that. So, of course, he sued CBS. He’s pretending CBS carefully edited Harris’ interview to make her look good. When he filed the suit, he claimed $10 BILLION dollars in damages. IS being exposed as too scared to sit for an interview really worth $10 Billion dollars, particularly since HE was the one, um… exposing himself?

CBS is battling the suit. Trump’s team demanded the full, uncut recording of the interview. I presume they were expecting to find the edited out parts where she drooled and stumbled over her words. CBS complied. They handed the footage over. Oh, THEN they released the footage to the public, both the raw video and transcripts. NOW how can Trump lie about it? Fear not, he will anyway.

Wait, what’s this? Oh, he has filed an amended petition, doubling the amount of damages he suffered to $20 Billion dollars. He has added completely impartial Ronnie Johnson, er, Jackson to the suit as a Texas consumer who was defrauded by the interview. Trump needed a Texan on the suit in order to justify having the case judge-shopped IN Texas.

When lying ‘Fox Not-News’ lost their defamation case against Dominion voting machines, it cost them nearly ONE billion dollars and they have, well, not straightened up, exactly, but they DO make more of an effort not to get caught just making things up these days. It hurt ‘Fox Not-News.’ So, obviously, Trump is filing for $10 Billion, no $20 Billion to make sure he hurts CBS and ’60 Minutes.’ It’s just an intimidation tactic.

I’ll tell you this: I remember when Republicans HATED frivolous lawsuits…

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

Apparently, President Musk is coming after the VA, now, and Pseudo-President Trump seems on board. That’s certainly unexpected. It’s clear ONE of them expects to be dictator, here, in the very near future. They’ll have to fight it out between themselves to determine which one gets the nod, but either way, it’s unusual for dictators to anger the military. Dictators often rely on the military to protect their evil selves…

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

Okay, so I watched. It became clear to me I was going to by Sunday morning but I never did get any too excited about it. Well, until the game started and Philadelphia dismantled Kansas City. That was something. Kansas City looked lost from the start. They couldn’t even score until late in the game when Philly started protecting players.

There was one odd call, early in the first quarter, followed by another odd call that kind of made up for the first one. After that, the officiating seemed pretty good. Mahomes got hit the way other football players get hit and didn’t draw any special flags. That really seemed to rattle him. Apparently, the special flags during the regular season really did help – a LOT.

In truth, a lot of Supper Bowls are one-sided blowouts and this game was no different. It’s weird to see a team that successful play like a cellar-dweller in the biggest game of the season, but it happens a lot. So, one starts paying attention to other things.

Apparently, MAGA booed Taylor Swift. That’s got to be weird for her. Who the hell boos Taylor Swift? MAGA, that’s who. Swift committed the unforgivable sin of supporting Biden in the last “election.” Oh, sure, they’ll still buy her music, but in public, when they want to make a show? Just consider the source, Taylor, and Shake It Off…

The LAST time 47 infested the White House, the Eagles won the Stupor Brawl. As is/was tradition, the winning team received an invitation to the White House. So many of the Eagles refused to go, the White House cancelled the event. So, naturally, when THIS game came up, The First Felon used his awesome powers of perception to pick the winner and, obviously, he’s going to choose Kansas City, whose Quarterback has a publicly MAGA wife. (That team might even have gone to the White House, had they won, and been invited.)

The game didn’t work out well for Trump (or Brittany Mahomes, for that matter) so he left early. The team that stood him up was throttling the team Trump had picked to win. I wonder if the Eagles will get an invitation to the White House. I wonder if they’ll go…

Paths of Destruction…

by MyBaconPress

Oh, the damage he does…
47 shows up and one of the first things he does is attack the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The NEXT thing that happens? Planes start falling from the sky (or crashing into each other) at a startling rate. Sure, MAGA will blame Biden… or Obama… or China or some other unrelated person, place, or thing. BUT…

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

A new gold standard of evil?
Since 1945, Adolph Hitler has been the gold standard of evil for most of the world. Whenever anyone wanted to point to peak evil, they pointed to Hitler. I suspect, by the time he’s through, the world will point to Donald TRUMP as the new exemplar of pure evil.

Remember, you have to compare Trump to Hitler at the rise of Hitler’s power, not the end. BY the end, Hitler was responsible for 60 million deaths, but he didn’t start that way. Trump only has one million, so far. His move to compete for the title has seen him remove every environmental regulation he could get away with. And as soon as he can, he’ll remove the rest. Yet another move that’s great for corporations, terrible for humanity.

I suspect the ONLY thing that will prevent 47 from formally taking the title will be in rendering the planet completely unfit to support human life at all. I mean, killing off billions of people will easily grant him the title of “most evil,” but nobody will be around to say so…

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

Let’s hold a different image…
I believe that people are composed of energy and that the energy of people can intertwine. The simplest example of what I mean is that thing where you get to thinking about someone you once knew and saw often, but you’ve lost touch with through the years. Suddenly, your phone rings and on the other end is the very person in question. If you’ve been alive for very long, you’ve experienced the phenomenon.

Mary Kay cosmetics (stay with me, here) has a message they teach their sales consultants: ‘What you think about, you bring about.’ They MEAN, picture yourself getting the sale. But the idea works with a lot of things. People write books about it from time to time. ‘The Power of Positive Thinking,’ that kind of thing. The catch is, the thoughts don’t HAVE to be positive to bring about results. Negative thoughts can yield negative results.

Right now, around the world, people are envisioning Trump succeeding in his efforts to destroy the US – even if they don’t mean to be doing so. MAGA, of course, is so happy as to be barely containable. Ecstatic, in fact. MAGA is wishing and hoping and hoping and wishing for him to burn the whole place to the ground. They can’t WAIT for him to start hurting people – the more harm, the better – and they don’t even care that they’re going to be among the harmed. They just want him to fuck things up and they keep a clear image of his “successes” in their minds. “Ooh, look what he’s destroying today.” (Can you imagine, living a life of cheering the Four Horsemen?)

On the other hand, sane people are living in day-to-day dread, anger, and sadness that he’s burning the whole place to the ground. We’re focused on it. We think about it. We worry about it. We fret the details. Yes, it’s for different reasons, but the end result is, WE keep a clear image of his “successes” in OUR minds, too. My concern is, what we’re worrying about, we’re bringing about.

The thing is, that means everybody, MAGA or otherwise, is maintaining a clear image of his “successes.” If you oppose what The First Felon is doing, you have to stop doing that. You don’t mean to be, obviously, but you might be helping him. You have to change the image you’re holding so you can change the energy you’re enabling.

When I realized all of this, I developed a different, random mental image of him. He’s just laying there, looks like he’s asleep. He even has a trace of that moronic smirk of his. He looks peaceful and serene and he’s cradled in a well-padded, well-appointed box. I make NO effort to determine HOW he got there. That’s not important. I’m going to let the universe take care of that part. What IS important, is that I’m no longer focused on his “successes,” either through happiness nor fear.

If I’m watching him on TV or something, of course, I see him, moving, talking, breathing, just fine (for him, I mean). But in my mind’s eye, when I think about him, the picture is different and I hold THAT image instead of fearing his success. If you oppose him, YOU need to change the picture, too. If we all use the same, basic, image, THAT will be the energy we’re putting forward.

I don’t know if it will work. Even if it does, I can’t say how long it might take. But I CAN tell you that since I took up the practice, it has gotten easier to do. It wasn’t difficult to learn to switch to my replacement image, and it’s only been about a week that I’ve been trying. Oh, and I’m very much happier, not adding energy to his destructive path. Try it yourself. You’ll be much happier, too…

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

I really need to lighten the mood…
I know it can be hard to tell, but I DO try to be fair. I’m definitely in the camp of those who suspect the NFL has “managed” the outcome of games in an effort to sell tickets. I think the fact that they’re legally registered as a ‘Sports Entertainment League’ puts them roughly, on par with ‘Big Time Wrestling,’ a “league” famous for fixing outcomes. But nobody was betting on the wrestlers. Most people KNEW it was fixed and wouldn’t be so stupid. I doubt it was even possible.

Now, though, the NFL has “partnered” with sports betting site ‘FanDuel.’ They’re expecting over a BILLION dollars to be bet on the Stupid Bowel, alone. “Managing” the outcome of games would also qualify as bet-rigging, wouldn’t it? Fixing games might be okay under their legal makeup but would definitely open the NFL up to civil lawsuits over rigging the games and affecting bets.

I wanted to mention it because I think it’s the best argument against those (of us) concerned that some unnamed players (rhymes with ‘catacombs’) have been receiving helpful calls all season. It IS possible the NFL is just trying to take extra-special care of their extra-special star. They didn’t used to do that. Quarterbacks used to be football players, too.

Is It Worth It?

by MyBaconPress

Okay, so, tell the truth. Don’t you find it ironic that Trump’s plane crash happened at Reagan National Airport? The tower at Reagan National was understaffed by Air Traffic Controllers that night. Reagan was the one who attacked Air Traffic Controllers in the first place. It was an ideological position. (He wanted to bust their union and didn’t give two figs about safety.) Control towers in the US have been undermanned ever since and air travel in the US has NEVER been the same.

After the crash, The First Felon blamed, well, everyone but himself. He pointed the finger at most every Democrat and delusion currently in play in MAGA ethos. Obama? That one might have been a mistake. We’ve had two Presidents since Obama, Donny. One of them was YOU. If Obama had a bad policy and you didn’t change it, it was your policy, too.

He also blamed current MAGA boogie man, “DEI.” (I don’t think he meant ‘Don, Jr, Eric, and Ivanka, the unqualified nepo-hires of his first mess.) He said he knows it could have been DEI because he has common sense. I think he meant NONsense. He said the last administration put so many DEI hires in place, like dwarfs – he blamed dwarfs – as to set up this very dangerous situation. He blamed dwarfs!

Then, when he was asked if it was safe to fly, he reassured everyone that indeed, it is. I don’t mean to put too fine of a point on this but if the DEI hires are so prevalent as to make flying dangerous, then it can’t be safe to fly, too. Which is it, Donny?

What Trump won’t tell MAGA is that he allowed the director of the FAA, Michael Whitaker, to resign the day The Felon was sworn in, leaving the department without a leader. Whitaker was effectively pushed out by co-president Musk because Whitaker wanted to impose some $600,000 in fines against SpaceX. Oh, he also disbanded the Aviation Security Advisory Committee.

So far, one of the few things people agree on is that the control towers at airports are dangerously understaffed. One element of this crash being investigated was that ONE person was managing both incoming fixed wing craft and helicopters, even though those jobs are normally separated. So, naturally, the day before the crash, according to ABC News, the maladministration sent buyout offers to Air Traffic Controllers. Leave your job with eight months pay! Excellence in action, I guess. Then the crash happened.

So on Friday, the maladministration “clarified” that Air Traffic Controllers weren’t subject to the hiring freeze nor eligible for the buyout. They were just sent the offer, um, randomly, for no real reason. MAGA is a defect of morality. Republican ideology is dangerous and the world has a body count to prove it…

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

I guess one could make this up, but we’re stuck with Trump so we don’t have to. He sued ABC for saying he’s a rapist. The judge in the case said he’s a rapist. Legal experts said ABC would have won their case. They buckled anyway.

He sued CBS for interviewing Kamala but not him. They invited him. He turned it down. So then, when he saw the Kamala interview, he randomly decided they had carefully edited the interview to make her seem better than she is. Get THIS: In his suit, he accused CBS of, “malicious, deceptive and substantial news distortion calculated to confuse, deceive and mislead the public.”

Every accusation is an admission with this guy. Every one. Nearly every word this guy vomits is a malicious, deceptive and substantial distortion calculated to confuse, deceive and mislead the public. Still, CBS is considering settling. They want to merge with another company and The Felon has control over the FCC. They anticipate he’ll make life tougher for them if they don’t bend the knee, so it looks like they might do it.

47 controls the FCC and the stations need broadcast licenses to do their job. You’d better get used to British accents when you’re getting your news because very, very soon, all we’ll get from the American networks is “truthiness.”

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

Speaking of fictions standing in for facts, I’m seriously considering giving the Stupid Bowl a pass this year. I can’t say, for sure, I won’t watch. I’m a huge football fan and there is some aspect of FOMO, ‘Fear Of Missing Out.’ I have personal identity tied up with being a football fan and that makes it harder to turn away. But it’s possible. Right now, I don’t WANT to watch.

I made a mistake, once. (I’ve made LOTS of mistakes but this one specifically applies.) I took the average time of a football play and multiplied it by the number of plays in a game. When you sit down to watch a football game, you’re committing three and a half hours of your life to the viewing experience. My calculation showed me I was getting right around eleven minutes of actual action for my three and a half hour investment. (That’s when I took to recording the game, then coming in late and skipping all the crap. If you time it just right, you can even catch the live ending of the game.)

The Stupid Bowl won’t be asking for three and a half hours. No, it will be FOUR and a half hours of your life – for the SAME eleven minutes of football. My reward for that time investment? I get to watch a team I don’t much care for, the Eagles, win the game, or a team I REALLY don’t like, the Chiefs, win the game. (Both teams are very good. I’m just not a fan.)

Okay, so there IS the halftime show and the commercials have a reputation. It turns out, when I sit down to watch football, I don’t WANT to see a concert. I want to watch football. So, for the last several years, I actively avoid the halftime show. Also, the commercials have become seriously over-rated. There were, like, two Stupor Bowls with really good commercials. The rest has been hype – and if there IS a good one, you can probably catch it in “previews” these days. And not one word of that has anything to do with the Chiefs getting the “boosts” they’ve received to get there in the first place.

See, the Chiefs went into this season with a chance to do something no team has ever done and only two teams in the history of Super Bowels have ever even had a CHANCE to do, win three in a row. The league knows the possibility of a “three-peat” is a great ticket seller. So, throughout this season, the officials have given the Chiefs the occasional…boost, just a little help, here and there. The Chiefs are a very good team so they didn’t need a LOT of help, just that little boost, here and there.

I should add, the NFL strongly objects to the charge they’ve been helping the Chiefs. It hurts their product if people realize it isn’t on the up-and-up. Chiefs fans deny it, too. But everyone else? If you’re a football fan and know the game, I have only to mention the First Down that wasn’t and the catch that bounced and you KNOW exactly which plays I’m referring to with no further explanation needed. And, yes, those things are debatable. That’s part of the fun of being a sports fan.

But tell the truth. As they broke away to commercial while the officials “reviewed the play,” you KNEW in your heart of hearts, how those calls were going to go, right? Benefit, Chiefs. “Bad calls happen.” That’s the official explanation – AFTER the Chiefs have been named the winner and are on their way to the big game. It’s true, too. That’s what makes it a plausible explanation. But “plausible” doesn’t make it “true.” When the so-called “bad call” advances the NFL’s goal – selling more tickets – was it a “bad call?”

I can’t say if the NFL will continue to help the Chiefs. It seems the goal of just getting them there for the possibility would sell all the tickets they need. They can let the game play out properly and not really care about the outcome. In fact, if the Chiefs lose, the NFL would be in a good position to use that tactic again, down the road.

Bear in mind, at some point, the NFL redefined itself as an “Entertainment League,” not a “sports league.” Just like Big Time Wrestling…

Fixed…

by MyBaconPress

In fairness, it CAN be difficult to understand, the idea of an economic system that prevents people from amassing too much wealth. But even if we can’t understand it, we can see the value of it, now, right before our eyes.
“Well, yeah, but how do you define ‘too much wealth?'” some ask.
“Fair question. Difficult answer. But I’ll say that having enough to buy the government is WAY too much. Having enough to buy more than one government? Well, that’s excessive beyond the wildest dreams of avarice.”

Among the fixes FDR initiated that the One Percent have now successfully eliminated was to limit the abuses owners can inflict upon workers but more importantly, he limited how much people could take out of society by taxing wealth increasingly as it went up. It’s literally true that once a person reached a certain point in wealth, they couldn’t keep most of the rest, anyway, so… they re-invested. Not, “might someday.” They actually did.

The combination of worker protections and the prevention of wealth hoarding made America great in the first place. Check you history. The United States was a struggling place, economically, until FDR introduced the New Deal, now known as Democratic Socialism. Then we became the economic powerhouse of the world – by limiting how much a small handful of self-serving people could stuff into their own pockets. Now we’re back to the corrupt Robber Barons of old – and one should properly expect the economy to struggle again, just like it did before.

To be sure, people still got rich. They just didn’t get SO rich they could use their money to undermine government of the people, by the people, and for the people. It was a better system and I hope we go back to it, or something like it, after the revolution…

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

It looks like Michele Obama is going to skip the inauguration. I think that’s a good move. In this moment, I think ALL Dems should skip the inauguration. I know, I know, the left puts on the good show. The left makes nice. The left shows decorum. But we shouldn’t.

I don’t call for all-out war and I certainly wouldn’t want to see the left acting like the right in most cases. But I’d be okay with overt shows of displeasure, at the very least…

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

Have you seen how much those oligarchs gave to Trump for the inauguration? Millions and millions of dollars flowed in – all in hopes of currying favor with The Felon. The final numbers aren’t available, yet, but, so far, it looks like they gave him $250 million dollars. He CAN spend that on inaugural parties and such, but he doesn’t have to. He CAN just slip it into his pocket and, officially, it isn’t even a bribe. Sweet deal, if you’re able to buy him. Kinda crappy for the rest of us, though.

Speaking of which, Steve Bannon, who did NOT get Musk removed “before the inauguration” as promised, is claiming that the “tech bros” showing up to the event should be viewed as total surrender to Trump. Bannon couldn’t get them out, but he could CLAIM success anyway. Still, I’d bet they’re there to check out what they’ve bought.

Now the inauguration has been moved indoors. “It’s too cold,” said the tough-talker. For him, it might be too cold. He IS very old. Of course, it might ALSO be that he’s afraid people will see his, um, crowd size and laugh at him again. I haven’t heard much about this aspect, but it’s ALSO possible he’s afraid to be out in public in crowds. Many people DO seem to want him dead, and we’re a heavily armed nation. Someone could make it happen, if they were of a mind to.

Mostly, though, I remember that he IS the anti-Christ and worries, first and foremost, about himself. I’d say he just wants to be comfortable and warm, so he’s staying inside. MAGA spent money to come to Washington DC to attend the inauguration. Now they get to watch it on television. They could have done that from home and saved a bunch of money.

So The Felon will be comfortable and warm, sitting inside, surrounded by all his oh-so-wealthy donors. MAGA? No, MAGA is left out in the cold. It’s an apt metaphor – and they’d better get used to it…

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

Did you see the games yesterday? NFL football, I mean. I suspect if I had to explain that to you, YOU didn’t pay attention to the games. Sorry, this bit isn’t for you. I went 1 for 2 on my expectations. I WANTED the Houston Texans to beat the Kansas City Chiefs but expected the Chiefs to win. I expected the Detroit Lions to beat the Washington Commanders, too.

The Chiefs DID “win,” but not without TWO separate assists from the officials. TWICE, officials called ‘roughing the passer’ on the Texans even though replay clearly showed no such offense. In both cases, the called penalty gave the Chiefs new life after the Texans had stopped them. Apparently, the rule is, no touching Patrick Mahomes under any circumstances. That’s hardly fair and it gives the Chiefs a tremendous advantage. Nobody else gets the kind of consideration Mahomes enjoys.

There’s big money shaping up, here. With some very generous assists from the league all season long, the Chiefs have the opportunity to win a third straight Stupid Bowl. It’s referred to as a “three-peat.” The term was coined by Roger Craig of the SF Forty-Niners back in the 1990s, when the Niners had a chance to do it. They didn’t make it. Nobody has ever done it. The Chiefs have a chance.

I’ve been warning from time to time, NOT to bet on the NFL. The games are clearly rigged. People tell me that one can still bet. You just need to figure out what the NFL wants and bet accordingly. But what does the NFL want, in this case? Do they WANT a team to finally achieve the three-peat? Then bet on the Chiefs. BUT… maybe, they want everyone to bet on the Chiefs, boosting the odds against the opponent, then have the Chiefs fall short. HUGE money for the NFL “partner,” Fanduel.

Did you notice that according to this bit, I’m expecting the Chiefs to go all the way again? Why even wait for the games, if the NFL has already determined the outcome, at least for the Chiefs? And with those kinds of calls, it looks very much like the NFL has already determined the outcome…

After Upheaval…

by MyBaconPress

I have to say, I didn’t really expect it. The Assad government in Syria seems to have fallen. This latest insurgence was fast and effective. Nobody is sure if Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian “President” (read: dictator) has actually fled the country or simply relocated to keep the fight going after Damascus fell.

On the one hand, Syrian army command informed officers on Sunday night the Assad regime had fallen. But the Syrian army ALSO said operations continue in certain areas of the country. Confusing.

Syria was seized by Hafez al-Assad in 1971 and he ruled through a vast “security” network. He used a broad network of detention centers and government surveillance. Apparently, most people in Syria know of someone who was “disappeared” by the government. Hafez then gave the government to his son in 2000 and he kept doing things people didn’t like until now. 24 years under Bashar, 53 years overall.

I hope the new government has a plan for the peace after the fighting. That seems to be the tricky part in running a revolution. How does one manage the peace after? The people there seem pretty happy about the fall, today. Here’s hoping it works out well for them…

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

Speaking of dictators, I’m not sure why Trump went to the meeting with Presidents Macron of France and Zelenskyy of Ukraine in Paris. Is he trying to learn more about the conflict so he can make better decisions? How does that square with his obligation to Putin to do as he’s told, when he’s told?

Hope springs eternal, I guess. Zelenskyy is hoping he can penetrate a dull and closed mind a little bit and Trump wants to look “engaged” so he attends the meeting. But after the inauguration? My projection is that Trump will be parroting Putin and Ukraine will be in deep trouble.

Time will tell…

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

I have a quick question about the Ethics Committee report on Matt Gaetz and his oh-so-perverted ways. Is it really necessary for anyone to see that report, now that the GOP has closed ranks and refused to release it? I mean, Gaetz stepped down from his cushy, phony-baloney job to keep that report from coming out, just as one would expect from someone who expected to be exonerated.
“Hey, we investigated whether or not one of ours was engaged in human trafficking by taking underage women across state lines for drug-fueled sex parties and then showed off photos of his “conquests” around on the House floor. We made a report.”
“Can we see the report?”
(If the report had cleared Gaetz:) “Sure. Here it is. It clears his name entirely!”
(Since it didn’t:) “Oh, we don’t release those reports. We keep all that stuff in a super-secret hidey-hole and there’s really no reason for anybody to see anything about it at all.”

There’s a reason the GOP always operates without evidence. Evidence always works against them. House members were complaining about Gaetz showing those photos before the investigation even began. We KNOW that part is true. So, if they were complaining about the photos Gaetz was showing off, is it so far of a leap to infer what the photos showed?

Their love of Trump has them actively protecting sexual predators. Gaetz wants to be Governor of Florida and he parrots the One Percent’s talking points perfectly. Why should a little sexual assault interfere with that? God, they must be so proud…

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

If you’re looking at the NFC playoff picture, my Niners are listed as “on the bubble.” That means they have a far, FAR outside chance of making the playoffs. I doubt they’ll be making the playoffs. Practically speaking, the entire NFC West division would have to retire from football, en masse, for the Niners to have a realistic chance. They’ve had a tough season.

What can I say, we fans expected more. Hell, they were in the Super Bowl last year and they’ve been competitive most years since Kyle Shanahan got there. But this season, too many injuries to too many key players, combined with some really unimaginative coaching, terrible kicking, and team/player turnover proved too much. The team, essentially, collapsed.

They might beat the Bears today. The Bears are also a struggling team so it’s possible. But the rest of their schedule? I’m thinking, this season, the Niners go 6-11. That’s not good. I respect the way they’ve played through the adversity. I presume the team will be looking at the problems and addressing them in the off-season. The Niners are a good team. They’ve just had an unforgiving year with too many obstacles to overcome. I’m already looking forward to next season…