NFL

Attacking The Defenseless…

by MyBaconPress

Do you remember the beginning of this century, when greedy corporate interests crashed the economy through corruption and fraud but managed to blame field workers? One of the results of that crime was a new agency in government, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a federal watchdog that helps protect consumers from predatory financial practices. Keywords? “…helps protect consumers from predatory financial practices.”

So, naturally, that’s one of the areas Elon sees as the place to cut. He wants to just “delete” the CFPB. It turns out, predatory lenders don’t LIKE an agency that protects consumers from predatory financial practices. Go figure. Fortunately, they have totally-in-touch-with-the-common-man, extremely weird Elon Musk in their corner to help protect them from the dangers the victims pose to the predators.

I suspect this will be the most successful and repeated pattern of the incoming chaos; harm to the most vulnerable…

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Speaking of which, Mike Rounds (R – of course) has introduced a bill to eliminate the Department of Education. The thing is, he introduced it to the current congress, not the GOP fevered congress coming in January. I wonder why he did that. Cons don’t even have a majority in this congress. Why not wait until the next?

Either way, apparently, he needs a super-majority in congress to get that bill through, whether this congress or the next. He says he thinks he can do it through reconciliation, meaning he would only need 51 votes but others say he can’t do it that way. We’ll all find out together.

The Department of Education is just one of the departments Trump has attacked. Shortly after taking this “election,” he said the education department was staffed by many people who “in many cases, hate our children.” He’ll have a briefing, soon, explaining to him what the Department of Education does. Then he said, “we want states to run the education of our children, because they’ll do a much better job of it.”

Some of them will, sure. Some won’t. Kids in Massachusetts will do just fine. Kids from West Virginia? Well, thay stil wont no howe to spel. But, in fairness, they don’t now. Still, just in case he can’t eliminate the DOE that way, Trump is all set to attack on another front: he put Linda McMahon in charge of the department.
“Who?”
“You know. That super-qualified wife of the guy who ran big-time wrestling. She doesn’t like the DOE because it makes ‘some people think they’re so smart.'” Much of what the DOE does can be shuffled to other departments but some of it will fall through the cracks.

In my opinion, one of the more important functions of the Department of Education is ensuring and enforcing fair access to education for disable students. That part will likely disappear. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that one of the first groups the cons have chosen to attack is disabled kids. Who, after all, is more vulnerable than that?

I’m not sure WHY this next bit suddenly popped into my head. Do you think there’s some sort of message, here?

“For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’” (Matthew 25:42)

I’ll tell you this: you’d think the “let’s put the Bible everywhere” crowd would have SOME idea of what’s in the book they pretend to love so much…

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The lowly Raiders were in a good position to knock off the top-seeded Kansas City Chiefs with a field goal. On a critical third down to position the ball for the kick, the Raiders center snapped the ball early. The QB wasn’t ready for it. The ball fell, uncontrolled, to the ground and a Chiefs player fell on it. Bummer for the Raider fans. But, no. An official had blown a whistle, ending the play. He ran onto the field indicating a false start. A false start is an automatic penalty. The opposing team doesn’t get to accept or decline. In effect, the play just “didn’t count.” The ball just gets moved and the team gets the attempt again.

We all saw the indicator from the official. It was clearly a false start signal. But a false start call would have meant the fumble never happened and would have left the ball in the hands of the Raiders. A false start call would have allowed the Raiders to attempt the game-winning field goal, after all, and, perhaps, hand the Chiefs their second loss of the season. A false start, in this case, would certainly have messed up the betting by having a deep underdog unexpectedly defeat the super-favorite.

That’s no problem for the NFL. They just had the officials huddle up and “discuss” the penalty. The zebras came up with an effective workaround: they called an illegal shift. That little “adjustment” allowed the Chiefs to decide if the penalty was accepted or not. They declined the penalty (meaning the play counted) because one of their players had fallen on the ball. In short, the NFL just…took the ball from the Raiders and gave it to the Chiefs, sealing the Chiefs “victory.”

People are STILL waiting for some explanation from the NFL. I suspect no explanation will be forthcoming. How do they “explain” controlling the outcome of games in order to maximize gains from their ‘Fanduel’ partnership?

I’ll tell you this: It’s not “betting” when the outcome is a foregone conclusion…

Corruption Plus Greed…

by MyBaconPress

Wow, it looks like people in the Trump orbit plan to enrich themselves in their positions. Who could have guessed? We’ve already seen Boris Epshteyn, who wants people to pay him – substantially – to put in a good word with Trump for a job. Now we get Elon, who, let’s face it, needs an infusion of cash in order to make it through the week. Sometimes, he’s the richest man in the world. ALWAYS, he “needs” a little more. To my mind, that’s the same mental illness that makes a person weigh in at 600 pounds…

You see, thanks to conservative deregulation, the larger internet providers have been buying up many of the smaller providers and making decisions about where profits can be mined and where there just aren’t enough people to justify certain expenditures. It’s the corporate way. Because of those calculations, the large internet providers won’t lay fiber optic cable in some areas. Not enough return on their investment.

So, the Biden administration put together $42.4 billion dollars to help rural communities hook up to various high speed internet systems through smaller, local services the large services haven’t swallowed – yet. Elon’s Starlink program didn’t qualify. It’s too slow. So, naturally, Elon thinks the program should be shelved. I mean, he doesn’t qualify, why should anyone qualify, right? Sure, he could have tried to speed up his system to meet the requirement but that would be hard so, better to just eliminate the requirement.

Fortunately, the areas that won’t have that zippy broadband because Elon sees a great place to cut funding will still have access to Elon’s crappier Starlink service. Oh, and it should be noted that as people sign up, the service is getting even crappier…er…slower. Do you see any problems with the idea of a richie-rich guy – a guy who can never be satisfied, a guy who only understands ‘more, more, more’ – having control over the fortunes of his competitors?

Ah hell, who knows, maybe he’ll be visited by three ghosts, here, pretty soon…

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Trump ran on, among other things, a promise to impose backbreaking, VERY destructive tariffs on pretty much everybody. Some of the countries he has mentioned specifically, have pushed back, announcing that if Trump DOES invoke his ill-advised tariffs, they would do the same. Let the trade war begin, right? Fortunately, Trump has been having phone calls with these countries and now has an excuse to NOT impose those crippling tariffs.

He can just tell MAGA that he got on the phone with these people, talked real tough to them, and they collapsed in the face of his awesomeness so now the tariffs won’t be necessary. The truth, of course, is that his entire campaign was a lie and no tariffs were ever necessary so what he needed was an excuse. Now he pretends his phone calls have solved the problem even before he took office and conservative media will support that story like it’s true and MAGA will eat it up with a spoon.

But at least he may not impose those tariffs, aggravating inflation and sending the economy into the tail-spin he managed during his last maladministration. He’ll find another way to crash the economy, you just watch…

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I haven’t been writing about the NFL as much as I expected to this season. That’s mostly because my Niners suck…er…I mean, ‘are struggling…’ this season. But the thing that is making the game almost unwatchable? Effing penalty flags! Oh! Em! Gee! It’s gotten SO bad, if two plays happen consecutively without a flag, it’s astounding. (I’m not sure it has happened even once this season, two consecutive plays without a flag…) Sometimes the broadcaster goes back and shows the violation and it’s clearly a good call. Sometimes the broadcaster goes back and shows the “violation” and it’s clearly NOT a good call. Sometimes, they don’t even show the problem. The game just moves on. Slowly. Oh, my gods, so slowly…

I continue to believe the NFL is manipulating the outcomes of games via their officiating crews. It’s likely more a matter of point shaving and beating the spread than dictating winners and losers but it STILL helps fortify their “investment” into ‘FanDuel,’ the online gambling site with which the NFL has “partnered” to take your money.

Not to put too fine of a point on it, if you think you’re “betting” on NFL game outcomes, you’re not. You’re really just posting how much money you intend to gift the NFL today. Don’t be an idiot. NEVER “bet” in a situation where your “bet” is controlled by the group who stands to profit if you lose.

But, hey, at least the Niners don’t have to contend with Head Coach Matt Eberflus, the Head Coach of the Chicago Bears. No. Strike that. The EX Head Coach of the Chicago Bears. That guy. The other day, I watched, perhaps, the greatest single failure of coaching I think I’ve ever seen -hyperbole is very big in sports – and it was all on Coach Eberflus.

All he had to do was line his team up for a field goal attempt to tie the game and send it to overtime, giving his Bears a reasonable chance to win. His Quarterback got sacked, making the field goal a greater challenge, but there was still time on the clock and he still had a timeout. ANY other team would have tried to position the ball a little closer then taken their shot at the field goal. Eberflus…did something else.

He very carefully used up the time left on the clock and then ran a desperation play that failed as time ran out, losing the game by three points. You can read that sentence over and over and, if you know the game, it will never make any more sense than it did the first time you read it. But that IS what he did. The team ran back to the locker room after losing with that timeout in their pocket. It was one of the most amazingly bad clock management moments in the history of the game. And the Bears agreed, parting company with Eberflus the next day.

Some guys just never make it as Head Coaches and I believe Eberflus is one of those. I wonder how many people in Chicago will forever refer to him as “Everflub…”

Hogwash…

by MyBaconPress

I think it’s hilarious that cons can’t accept the idea that both Kamala and Walz are gun owners. We’ve fallen DEEPLY into a false narrative in this country, one that teaches that righties own all the guns and lefties would never, ever, in a million years, own a gun. Turns out? Nope. I know LOTS of lefty gun owners. Turns out, owning a gun is NOT a righty thing.

The reason it’s important is this: cons have come to the conclusion that, should shooting be “required,” they have all the advantage because they’re the only ones with guns. I’m pretty sure there are some surprises in store for the cons, should they choose that course…

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Okay, so here’s something I’ve been wondering. Recently, Trump started naming names of cities where atrocities are definitely occurring and “everybody knows it.” For example, Haitians are eating people’s pets in Springfield, Ohio. Gangs have completely taken over and sacked Aurora, Colorado. MAGA buys these stories and laps them up – even MAGA in Springfield and Aurora.

Are these people SO self-deluded that they go outside into their own cities every day and never lose a pet to a Haitian, or they go about their business freely in Aurora without suffering gang violence, and then convince themselves that Trump is speaking truth anyway? HOW, fercrissakes? What does it take to convince oneself that their own, lived experience should, properly, be set aside in favor of Trump’s deranged rantings?

And yet? Here we are and that, they do. As it happens, Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) is real. It’s just that it’s MAGA who suffers from it…

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The polls just don’t make sense, to me. One minute, Kamala is up by four points, the next, she’s down a point. How? Why? What changes from day to day that causes such wide swings? Who in the HELL is Trump picking up? I mean, look, MAGA is forever faithful (for a while, anyway). We all know that. But outside of MAGA? Not so much. How does one GAIN voters with obvious, insane lies like Trump (and Vance) spew? What might Kamala have done to turn people off?

What I know is that since Kamala signed on as the nominee, voter registration has been through the roof. When Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala (because Trump forced her to), 400,000 new registrations were reported by Vote.org, a voter registration site. We’ve also heard from that site that, besides the Swift surge, nearly 200,000 OTHER registrations have occurred since Kamala’s entry. That seems like 600,000 new voters, likely inspired to vote FOR Kamala.

So where did she lose and, more importantly, where did he gain? It’s like we’re getting “Dueling Polls.” Pollsters aren’t supposed to be partisan. Nonetheless, some are. It turns out there are several polls out there “affiliated” with Republicans and several non-affiliated polls but only one affiliated with Democrats. Do you know what that is? That’s the Republicans, gaming the polls to make Trump look like he’s doing better than he actually is.

I suppose different results could reflect different polling techniques or different questions. I KNOW polls can be affected by the questions asked and I KNOW some of those techniques aren’t considered ethical, but they happen anyway. It turns out, one can’t trust polls too much unless one has access to the details of the poll. What questions were asked and HOW were they asked?

During one election, potential voters were asked, “If you knew John McCain had a black child, would it change the way you think about him?” As it happened, McCain DID have an adopted, black child. But the question was intentionally vague and it left the impression that McCain had fathered a child out of wedlock and with a black woman.

That’s called a ‘Push Poll.’ The pollster is actually “pushing” false information to the subject, while pretending to be simply asking a question. Their weasel words when they get caught? “We didn’t say that. We simply asked a question.” “If you knew…”

I’m not a polling expert. That’s just one, unprofessional technique I know about that gets used on a fairly regular basis. Is that, or something like it, why the polls swing so wildly? That kind of thing is the only thing that makes sense to me as an explanation of Trump’s success. HIS numbers shouldn’t change. You’re either MAGA, and therefore impervious to accurate information and loyal to the core, or you’re not. If you’re not MAGA, you’re not impressed by Trump. In fact, he looks the fool most of the time.

So, where are his new supporters coming from? In Pennsylvania, ballots are already coming in and being counted. Of the ballots that have come in, 285,072 have come in from Democrats, 95,666 have come in from Republicans, and 35,914 have come in from Independents based on recent reports. (The numbers have likely changed a little since.) That looks like advantage Kamala, even if one assigns ALL the independent ballots to Trump, which would be a huge mistake since I’m an independent voter and WILL BE voting Kamala. (Today or tomorrow, in fact.)

Those aren’t polls. Those are actual ballots, actually counted so far. I know, Trump has been pushing voting machines again instead of mail-in, but the Democrats have a huge lead so far, and I just don’t see where normal people are going to walk into a voting booth and pull the lever for “insane.” MAGA, sure. Rational Americans? Absolutely not. I guess I’m praying there are STILL more rational Americans than MAGA…

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If you bet on the NFL, you’re…well, for now, I’ll go with “not smart.” There’s a rule of thumb many people know, ‘The simplest answer tends to be correct.’ Oh, there’s another one, too, ‘Once you’ve eliminated all other possibilities, whatever is left, however unlikely, must be the answer.’

On Thursday night, the Forty-Niners played the Seattle Seahawks. At one point, a Seahawks player touched the ball on a kick return after letting it bounce, and the Niners fell on it. It SHOULD have been Niners ball but the “officials” gave the ball to the Seahawks. The Niners challenged the call and replay clearly showed the Seahawks player touching the ball. But the final word comes from New York and THEY said, no, give it to the Seahawks. (Seattle lost anyway, despite the assist.)

EVERYONE watching saw the player touch the ball and KNEW it should have gone to the Niners. The NFL finally claimed, “Oh, we didn’t have the enhanced image the viewers had. We used what we had and made our call from that.” THAT, to me, is some first-class bullshit. How does the NFL, a multi-BILLION dollar corporation, NOT have a feed the rest of the world has? Specifically, how does the team expected to make final calls on controversial plays not have the best possible image to work with? No, I don’t believe them.

I started noticing “hinky” calls from NFL officials a couple of years ago. Since then, the NFL has “partnered” with FanDuel, a sports betting site. Now we see calls all the time that just don’t make sense. Currently, the broadcasters will go back and show a replay to find the offense being called and show the viewers. Commonly, the calls don’t make sense. What they DO, is boost one team.

Sports betting by the leagues has been against the rules since the 1919 Black Sox Scandal, in which the Chicago White Sox were accused of accepting bribes to throw the World Series. The scandal hurt the popularity of the leagues, so they took action. The leagues wanted to ensure there wasn’t even a suggestion of impropriety. It worked for decades. But then, the rules changed. (Hey, there was money to be made.)

Now, the NFL has “partnered” with a betting web site, FanDuel. “Partnered” means the NFL makes money when the web site makes money. The NFL has control over the outcome of games via the calls the officials make. They don’t need upsets in every game but they can still profit by point shaving. Based on everything I’ve seen from the NFL over the last twenty years, if they CAN profit, they WILL profit.

So why would anybody believe the NFL isn’t working in the background to make sure they make money by manipulating the outcomes of games? So, here’s my advice. Don’t bet on the NFL. But if you’re…um…”not smart,” and you DO bet on those games, try to determine what outcome you think the NFL wants and bet on that. Don’t bother with which team is best and which is worst and who has the best whatever against the other team’s whatsits or whatever. What does the NFL want? THAT is the only question you need to answer.

And it says terrible things about the state of the NFL – and sports betting in general – these days…

Cat Trouble…

by MyBaconPress

There’s a woman, Erika Lee, who is credited with starting the ‘Haitians-eating-pets’ rumor that remains untrue, no matter how badly MAGA wishes it were otherwise. She says she feels badly about kicking off such a kerfuffle. It seems a neighbor told her about a missing cat. Lee posted the story to Facebook, adding that the neighbor had told Lee she thought the cat had been attacked by Haitians.

The neighbor, Kimberly Newton, says SHE heard about the attack from a third party and Lee’s Facebook post misstated Newton’s story. Newton says the cat belonged to an “acquaintance of a friend” and not her daughter. If one wishes to be gracious, at best, this was a miscommunication, a misunderstanding. It strikes me as more likely Newton intended a smear on the local Haitian population – just not one that ended up going viral.

SO…we know the City Manager of Springfield has insisted no such event occurred, nor is there any problem with Haitians eating people’s pets. No other authority can confirm the pet-eating story, either. We ALSO know exactly who started the rumor and how it got started. The person who made it public, Lee, has now disavowed her claim and removed her post and the person who told her about the incident, Newton, suddenly can’t be reached for comment.

In short, there was never any realistic basis for this story, outside of that one crazy woman who ate one cat, isn’t Haitian, is a US citizen, doesn’t live in Springfield, and has been arrested for the crime. EVERYBODY associated with the story in a position to know has denied any truth to the story whatsoever. So, of course, MAGA is all in.

Now, in fairness, Trump was flummoxed. He had been beaten all over the stage in the debate. Kamala had baited him and he took it. A couple of his scariest scare stories had been fact-checked, real time, and proven false. He was frustrated, confused, and angry. He needed something to try to take back control of the evening and in a moment of confused, angry, frustration blurted out the story he had “seen on TV.” (More likely, he saw it one the internet, from a racist, Neo-Nazi hate-group called ‘Blood Tribe.’)

So now we have a story that’s JUST a story but Trump said it out loud so MAGA has to make it “true” and insists it is and follows up just exactly the way one would expect these deep thinkers to react: bomb threats. Each time a bomb threat occurs, officials have to shut down the building, sweep it with bomb-sniffing dogs, clear it, and then open it up again. It clogs up city business and schools. It costs a LOT of money.

I’ll tell you this: the very least Springfield should do is send the bill for the lost revenue and the cop’s time to Lee. Stupid should hurt the stupid person more than it hurts everyone around them…

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The truth is, I get it. The cons don’t have anything real to run on. If they don’t make stuff up, they might have to expose their true agenda – and even MAGA wouldn’t like that. So, they lie, instead. After Trump sicced his loyalists on Congress and THAT whole thing blew up in his face, there has been a concerted effort on the right to re-write those events. Obviously, the re-writes always somehow exonerate Trump.

It wasn’t his fault he sent all those worshipers to the Capitol that day to interfere with a Congressional function and “Stop the Steal” he KNOWS wasn’t a “steal.” There was no violence despite the violence. Nobody died, despite the deaths. It was a peaceful day, despite the riot. It was Pelosi’s fault, despite the fact she had no responsibility to it at all. Who are you going to believe, Trump’s lying mouth or your lying eyes? The perps are “warriors,” “hostages,” and “political prisoners,” victims all. But it’s all bullshit.

Now, most Republicans would prefer to distance themselves from Trump’s January 6th violence. They’ve installed the re-write into MAGA land and MAGA has ingested the false story completely. There’s not much more they can do so it would be best to just try to let it fade into distant memory. But, of course, Trump can’t keep control over his mouth and he keeps it in the spotlight.

He seems to feel that it’s very unfair, being held responsible for that thing he did and since he can’t convince anybody who doesn’t prefer to be deceived, it keeps nagging at him. He keeps trying. Meanwhile, his campaign keeps trying to eliminate references to J6. There is still a sliver of rationality in the GOP. THAT group knows J6 should go away as much as possible. But Trump is still courting the far-right racist vote – which is stupid because he already has the far-right racist vote. They LOVE that guy. They recognize him as one of their own.

Every day, I grow more concerned that Trump has given up on the election and plans to attain power in his January 3rd coup. At this point, for Trump, the coup is the simplest answer. All of the rest of this is just stage-setting. They need to go through the election so they can claim it was “rigged.” THAT’S the key to the coup…

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Boy, the Miami Dolphins are going through it, aren’t they? Their star receiver, Tyreek Hill, gave a cop some lip, got “handled” over it, and tried to get the cop fired. He has since admitted he behaved badly – but STILL thinks the cop should be fired.

I had an uncle who was a judge. He once told me that more people go to jail for ‘contempt of cop’ than any other “offense.” I suspect Hill doesn’t realize how lucky he is to have BEEN superstar receiver Tyreek Hill and smart-mouthing a cop. Yeah, he got cuffed for not cooperating. But then, they just wrote him a ticket and let him go. I suspect that most other black men smart-mouthing the cop would have received an opportunity to see the jail – from the inside.

Now, of course, we’re going to hear about every disciplinary action taken against that cop, valid or not, in an attempt to “fix” Hill’s reputation, such as it is. Hill shouldn’t have smart mouthed the cop. Even HE knows it. His original story was that he knows to cooperate. He initially claimed he had cooperated. Body camera footage proved otherwise. It took him three days to confess the truth. I think the final score on that one is cops – 1, Hill – 0…

But that’s not the end of Miami’s problems. Their Quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa (I can’t pronounce it, either) took a hit to the head that gave him a concussion. This is his third major concussion since he came into the league. There was at least one other incident that ended up not being officially classified a concussion but the dude was stumbling badly after the hit. MANY of his contemporaries are suggesting he retire to protect his health.

The guy is 26 years old. He spent his entire life trying to get to where he is. Walking away at this point would be very hard. But he should. He has much more life AFTER football and it would be better, for him, to live without the neurological damage he’s taking with every concussion…

Speaking of injuries, the Niners have lost Christian McCaffrey (CMC) for at least four more games. He missed the first one already. He’s a workhorse running back for them. His legs aren’t holding up. He came to the Niners from the Panthers, where he was kind of known for injury. The guy really IS an amazing running back. He just gets hurt a lot. He’s been solid for the last two seasons. I guess it was asking too much.

It doesn’t help that his head coach won’t do anything to protect him, either. Ask anybody who knows the game about how Kyle Shanahan uses his players. It’s almost universal. People wonder why he runs certain players nearly to death when he doesn’t have to. CMC has a VERY good backup in Jordan Mason. Most other coaches use both backs to protect both backs. Shanahan just runs one and sits the other. It’s kind of dumb. Long-term, it costs his team. But Shanahan isn’t a dumb coach so I presume he does it because players have incentives in their contract and he doesn’t want to be seen as trying to prevent them from getting their paydays.

But that’s just me, trying to give him the benefit of the doubt…

Trying…

by MyBaconPress

Well, I’m glad to see some mainstream media finally shining a light on Trump’s intentions. The Guardian on Tuesday had a story called, ‘Trump and allies plant seeds for ‘chaos and discord’ if he loses, experts warn.’ It’s all about how the right is ALREADY whining about how unfair the election is going to be if Trump doesn’t win. In short, they’re already setting up their January coup. Note to MAGA: the fact that your guy loses doesn’t mean the election was rigged. Your guy sucks…

Do you think Trump knows he shouldn’t sit home on Labor Day and not campaign at some union hall or the like? Of course he knows. He’s just not bothering anymore. Now that the polls have swung in Kamala’s direction, he knows his last chance is the January coup, in which he’s simply installed by the House of Representatives after the election is fraudulently declared invalid due to unprovable errors and actions.

That’s why he’s not making efforts to pick up new voters any more. For one thing, he knows he can’t. For the other, he really needs to focus on keeping current MAGA confused and in a frenzy so when he says, “Lie!” they will. So HIS campaign stops are, increasingly, in areas he’s already expected to do well in.

At this point, virtually the ONLY way I can think of to stop them from doing this is if enough Republicans who still love America resign their seats in the House with immediate effect, but do so only when there’s not enough time to be replaced by other, more “loyal” MAGA. Such a move would give control of the House to Democrats and remove Mike Johnson as Speaker, eliminating the threat.

There may be some other route Americans can take to protect America but I don’t know what it might be and, try as I might, I haven’t heard a peep from officials about what they might do to stop it. You see, technically, the way their plan is drawn up, everything they do will be consistent with the Constitution and law. The only problem with it will be that it’s all based on a lie. The election will be fine. In fact, since they’ve been whining and crying about how unfair the election was in 2020, I suspect this will be the most scrutinized election in American history. But that won’t stop MAGA from lying. NOTHING stops MAGA from lying…

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I’m glad Unions are back in the conversation. They proved themselves to be important components of a healthy economy. Unions found themselves under serious attack back in the 1980’s. Reagan busting the Air Traffic Controllers Union set the stage for how to bust unions in general and companies have been attacking ever since, to the obvious detriment of the workers and society as a whole.

It will be tough, restoring Unions, to be sure. The One Percent don’t like unions because unions have bargaining power. FAR too many Americans have been convinced that unions are somehow bad for them and they should oppose them. It’s true, these are the same people who think Climate Change is fake and Trump is awesome, but there are a LOT of them and wrongheadedness in large numbers is difficult to overcome.

But at least the conversation is back. At last it seems like people are starting to know, again, things we knew before…

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Well, the NFL season is kicking off. Tonight, I mean. I’m looking forward to it. You’ll probably read about it here. For instance, the Kansas City Chiefs have won the last two Stupor Bowls. If they win it again this year, it’s called a “three-peat.” It’s a term I believe that was originally coined by Roger Craig of the San Francisco Forty-Niners when THAT team was playing to win a possible third straight. Spoiler alert: the Niners never got their chance. Ironically, Craig fumbled the football on the Niners last play and the NY Giants beat them with a field goal in the NFC Championship game.

I mention it because I’m not looking forward to a full season of “Ooh, can they do it?” It MUST be a through-line the networks will follow, though. Those guys have to talk for hours each week about football. Sure the game is complex but it still comes down to “get the most points.” So, they look for story lines they can carry through the season, and a Chiefs three-peat is definitely on that list. We’ll hear about it every time the Chiefs are on television – in between gratuitous shots of Taylor Swift – and we’ll hear about it during other games, too.

There’s a risk that every time I turn on a game this year, I’ll be reminded that the Chiefs beat the Forty-Niners in the last Stupid Bowel. Yeah, I remember. Thanks…

Busy Friday, Part 2…

by MyBaconPress

Okay, a couple of quick followups from yesterday. It’s important to remember that this $355 million dollar judgement against Donny only covered a few years of his criminal enterprise. He likes to tell the deceived that he “won the appeal,” but that’s all he says. He DID win the appeal. But the appeal only limited the scope of the trial because the Statute of Limitations had run on the older crimes. That’s what got Ivanka removed. Her participation, if any, ended before the time period in question. It could have been much, much worse if they could have considered his entire life of crime.

Also, Donny announced, yesterday, he’s launched a line of shoes. They sell for as high as $300/pair. That will help him pay his judgements. I’m guessing that – like his hats – they’re NOT made in America and I’m guessing the unpaid penalty will survive longer than the shoes will. He’s STILL managing to find some financial support from some GOP mega-donors, too. I suspect these were legacy babies, born to wealth. Which person in their right mind, who somehow acquired their own money, would give any of it to a known, proven, grafter and thief? And, yes, the word is grafter, a person who engages in financial chicanery or corruption. That’s Donny all over…

The other follow up thing? The Russians won’t turn over Navalny’s body. Nothing says “it was an honest accident” like hiding the evidence, eh? They HAVE, however, “detained” over 400 people mourning the passing of Navalny. And STILL…MAGA loves a dictator. I continue to be stunned by just how stupid stupid can be…

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But, ALSO on Friday, we all found out that James Comer’s hard-hitting (maybe), can’t be beaten (we think), absolutely definite (probably), open and shut case (if Biden was involved), with a “smoking gun,” FBI informant named Alexander Smirnof they couldn’t find for awhile hasn’t just fizzled. Their “smoking gun informant” couldn’t be found because he was on the run from the FBI. That’s because he lied, lied, lied!

All of the parenthetical asides are because Comer went on shows all over the conservative bubble, over and over again to say they were going to get Biden but was just smart enough to never once commit himself to any of his own actions. The ‘probably’ and ‘maybes’ came from Comer. To me, that suggests that Comer knew better than to commit to his story because he knew the story was false. Weasel words. He promoted it anyway. Hell, it was the linchpin of their entire impeachment against Joe. Oh, AND it laid bare (literally) Hunter’s life and smeared the heck out of Hunter’s name. (Hard to do, considering Hunter’s reality.)

MAGA lies are boring and predictable, these days, so I can tell you what Comer’s going to say in response: Biden had the FBI arrest the informant as a political move. It has probably, maybe already started – you know, if Comer knew the whole story was fiction to begin with. These guys always pretend the Democrats corrupt the DOJ like the Republicans corrupt the DOJ and simply CAN NOT wrap their arms around the idea that the Dems don’t. In fairness, though, the Dems don’t NEED to. The Republicans commit really stupid crimes and they’re not very good at covering them up. The DOJ just has to do their job. And the DOJ is VERY good at what they do.

The actual story is that Burisma paid Hunter AND Joe $5 million each to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems.” Smirnof amended his story after “meeting with the Russians” but it only got worse. As is always the case when MAGA is involved, there was never any evidence. Lots of promises of evidence. Never any actual evidence. Effing MAGA falls for this exact same shtick over and over. MAGAGOPCORP has been screaming for three years about having all the evidence in the world of all the cases they try to make. But they never, EVER produce one shred, not one scintilla to prove it. Still, MAGA deceived are forever telling me the evidence is there. Usually with an attitude. Hey, MAGA, school’s out. Grow up.

You know one of the people who helped him? Sean Hannity. Old Sean had Comer on his show to present the fraudulent case over and over and over again. One might have thought that after the $750 million judgement for promoting lies, Fox Not-News would have been more careful about helping spread MORE lies. One might also think that Hunter is probably gearing up the attorneys right now over the defamation. One certainly hopes, anyway.

I’ll tell you this: I suddenly find myself wondering how many three-quarters of a billion dollar defamation lawsuits Fox Not-News can absorb…

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It looks, to me, like the frivolous case trying to protect the Dumbass from his crimes by removing Fani Willis as the prosecutor in Donny’s Georgia trail took a pretty big hit on Friday. The suggestion is that Fani Willis hired Nathan Wade to be a special prosecutor so SHE could benefit, financially, since the two were dating. The two maintain the relationship started and ended after Wade was hired.

One of the key witnesses against Fani, Terrance Bradley, was once Wade’s law partner and, for a time, represented Wade in Wade’s divorce. He suddenly refused to answer questions, claiming attorney-client privilege. We ALSO found out that Bradley left his firm with Wade after an undisclosed “dispute,” protected by the privilege. Oh, we also found that this star witness was once the focus of a sexual assault claim by someone he worked with. He acknowledged the charge but denied it’s veracity.

The thing is, Wade got paid for his work. Wade and Willis got involved. Wade and Willis, as lovers, took a couple of trips together. Wade paid for them on his credit card. The total amount of money the trips cost came to something less than $5,000. THAT’S the big kickback scheme being alleged? Willis set the whole thing up for less than one month’s salary?

Oh, and Wade and Willis have both testified, under oath, that Willis paid Wade back in cash. No, she didn’t ask for receipts. Willis’ father testified he didn’t know Wade and Willis ever even had a relationship. Sounds pretty serious to me, when your family doesn’t even know about it. He also testified that it doesn’t surprise him to find out his daughter had cash on hand in her house. He called it a “black thing.”

There are a few details to be cleared up but it looks to me like the whole thing is a nothing-burger. Mostly, it seems a salacious effort to undermine Willis’ credibility and very little else. I mean, a couple of grown adults got hot for each other and worked each other’s fun bits for a short time. People do that. It happens. That seems more about the fun bits that Donny’s crimes.

I’ll tell you this: the case is still playing out, but it seems that Donny is STILL going to have his date with destiny in Georgia. And Fani, now EXTRA pissed off, is going to be leading the charge…

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Finally, I just want to note that the shooters at the Kansas City celebration were NOT Niner fans who couldn’t handle the loss. They were just a couple of average, run-of-the-mill “responsible gun owners” who decided to open fire on each other in the middle of a huge crowd over some personal disagreement and hit lots of people – just not the person they were shooting at…

Ousters…

by MyBaconPress

Well, it looks like the Hamas genocide effort- from the river to the sea – isn’t going all that well for them. Meanwhile, Israel’s genocide effort – every Palestinian is probably Hamas – is moving forward at a steady pace.

Anybody not wearing blinders has seen Israel’s answer to the October 7 attack progress from ‘proper response’ to ‘over-reaction’ to ‘brutal response’ to straight up ‘brutality’ before becoming ‘war crimes’ and very obviously working toward genocide.

Biden is in a tough spot. The US is obligated to support Israel no matter what. We get a lot of intel on the Middle East from Israel. But Israel is wrong in this fight. They’ve surrendered the moral high ground by continuing, and amplifying, their brutal campaign and they’re using American-made weaponry to do it.

Biden wants Netanyahu to stop. Netanyahu isn’t going to stop until every Palestinian is dead – unless someone makes him stop. And who the hell can make him stop?

I’ll tell you this: I don’t WANT to be a part of a genocide. I don’t want my tax dollars used to kill innocent people just so Netanyahu can achieve his personal dreams. I don’t want the US to provide any more weapons until Israel stands down. They can make their own, genocidal weaponry. Oh, crap, you don’t suppose they’ll be building ovens soon, do you?

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Ah, ha, ha, ha! The cons in the House have voted to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas – over the border, no less. All they had to do was disregard their own decision to scuttle the bipartisan border bill because Donny needed something to run on. That’s kind of stupid, in and of itself.

For one thing, cons don’t give two figs about evidence. They could have passed the border bill and STILL pretended that nothing was being done – in the same way they continue to pretend the economy is, secretly, still struggling. For another thing, though, Donny is only going to whine about how everybody is picking on him and what a poor baby snowflake he is anyway. Why the hell does he need an issue?

It turns out, MAGA HAD to move forward with their, um, trumped up impeachment if they wanted to get someone impeached. And they WANTED to get someone impeached. They needed it. They needed it bad… They apparently feel like they need to impeach somebody in order to try to make the case that Dems are as bad as their criminal, rapist, con-man, ex-president. They’re SO desperate to impeach somebody, anybody, they’ll even make things up. So, when their plans for Joe fell apart, they turned to Mayorkas. The thing is, there was a timing issue they were facing.

They were tracking the special election being held in New York. You know the one. One of theirs, George Santos, got so deeply into his criminal activity, they booted him from Congress. Think about that. The cons will put up with TONS of stuff. Almost anything, really. Criminal activity isn’t just part of the conservative mantra, it’s a requirement. How badly did George have to mess up to get cons to kick them out over his criminal behavior? I guess it’s just too bad, for him, that he isn’t Donny. Anyway, dumping Santos meant that a special election had to be held to fill his seat and the Democrat in the race won!

So, late Tuesday night, they had the vote. It passed, 214-213. One vote. On Wednesday, the vote would have failed because the new Democratic Congress critter takes his seat immediately when filling a vacated seat. That’s some pretty weasel stuff, right there. They don’t even have a case (the same vote lost just last week), they don’t have any evidence of a crime because they don’t have a crime. Oh, but they got their impeachment.

Do you suppose MAGA is dumb enough to believe this, even after watching the whole thing play out, in public, on national television, seeing the machinations of the GOP to create out of whole cloth some cockamamie story and then act on it? Yeah, of course they are. Being that stupid should be painful…

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Putin told a Russian state journalist he prefers Biden to Trump because Biden is a better politician. Putin likes Biden better than Trump! I wonder, NOW will the Putin-loving cons help Ukraine? Of course, the cons will say it’s because Putin can push Biden around easier but the whole world watched as Putin got his way with Trump over and over and over again, though it’s true he didn’t “push him around.” He didn’t need to. Trump was totally complicit…

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Well, the Kansas City Chiefs got their big parade to celebrate their big win in the NFL’s Big Game – and shooting ensued. 1 dead, 10 injured. What the hell is wrong with people? Two shooters have been arrested. (Please, gods, don’t let them be Niner fans who couldn’t take the loss. Don’t let them be Niner fans who couldn’t take the loss. Please don’t let them be Niner fans who couldn’t take the loss…)

In other after-the-game action, the Niners have parted ways with Steve Wilkes. I’ve had heartburn with the guy most of the season. I challenged myself to come up with a one-sentence summary of the Stupid Bowel and came up with this: If DeMeco Ryans is still the Defensive Coordinator, the Niners win that game. Yes, simplistic. I had one sentence to work with. But, I suspect, quite correct.

It’s not that Wilkes’ defense was bad, exactly. It’s just that it wasn’t good anymore. The team tried to work with the guy. They brought him down to the sidelines so people around him could help him. They got him an assistant. I’m sure they worked with him in the background as much as possible. The defense remained real average.

When writers wrote about it, they said things like, “Wilkes defense has struggled as he tried to put his own spin on it.” He did, too, try to put his own spin on it. And the defense struggled. I think his job was in serious jeopardy after the playoff games with the nearly non-existent defense in the first half of both games. I suspect he got help at the half in both games. The point at which I suspect he reached serious jeopardy? Wilkes said the problem was “lack of effort” on the player’s part.

But we all know: it’s a poor craftsman who blames his tools. It’s also a great way to lose a locker room overnight. The main thing that changed between 2022 and 2023 is the DC. The rest of the team was pretty much the same. I suspect the organization thought Steve was out when that became so clear. But, obviously, one doesn’t fire their Defensive Coordinator going into the Putrid Brawl. The thing is, do you know who else I suspect noticed that old Steve was likely getting coached at the half? Why, that would be Andy Reid, the very savvy Head Coach of the Kansas City Chiefs. And Andy made a plan.

I suspect Andy decided to play a simple and straight-forward offense in the first half. Steve looked good. Steve can handle simple. THEN Andy brought the “good stuff” in the second half, when it was too late for someone to help poor, lost Steve, who clearly didn’t have a clue. But even if there was some question as to whether Wilkes could be salvaged or not, I feel CERTAIN he lost his job when his head coach had to burn a timeout because the Defensive Coordinator had called SUCH a wrong defense, even the announcers commented on what a poor call that was.

I know. That was a lot on Steve Wilkes. But I think it was cathartic for me so thank you for your patience…

The Games People Play…

by MyBaconPress

Well, that was a very good football game with an ending I’d rather had gone differently. Congratulations to the Chiefs. They’re an amazing football team and beat the Niners pretty much the way I feared they would. I’ve got the Niner loss down to Moody missing that Point After Touchdown and Wilkes’ defense in the second half and overtime.

The missed kick changed the entire strategy of the game. KC only needed a Field Goal to stay in the game instead of a touchdown. Losing Greenlaw was huge – and heartbreaking. The guy tore his Achilles tendon running back onto the field. This meant his backup came in. A coach like Reid is going to target a backup player and Coach Reid certainly did. Wilkes called a pretty good game at the start but there’s something about the guy. He seems to revert to less-than play-calling in some situations.

At one point, Defensive Coordinator Wilkes called SUCH a poor play, Head Coach Shanahan was forced to use a timeout to tell him to call something else. Even the commentators were saying it was a seriously bad play call in the moment. It’s possible Shanahan would have done that again but he only gets three timeouts per half. I’m guessing he was irritated he had to do it once, let alone use all his timeouts trying to help his DC.

Look, I don’t mean to lay this all off on Moody and Wilkes. Mostly, KC is a great football team and all of Niner nation knew this was a possibility going into the game. We also knew the weak points. In what turned out to be something of a metaphor for the game, Moody set a Putrid Bowel record with a long field goal. Yay! Then, he lost the record to KC’s kicker, Butker, in the same game. Rats!

Moody’s challenge is playing in the shadow of Robbie Gould, one of the great kickers to have played the game. He might get more consistent. But Wilkes has a long history of real average coaching. There was no reason to think he was the guy to suddenly step up to that level and it turned out he wasn’t. I suspect the Niners will give a presser and say Wilkes did a fine job and it wasn’t him and yadda, yadda. Then, I suspect, the Niners will seek out a stronger candidate.

On the up side, this was Brock Purdy’s FIRST full season and he took the team to, and had a chance to win, the biggest game of the big games. Because Brock is stuck in a rookie contract, the Niners have a LOT of salary cap space, so they may, well, be able to keep the core of the team together. What THAT means is that it’s more than just blather when the Niners say, “We’ll see you next season!”

Also on the up side? We get to leave all the hype about the big game behind us for awhile. Now all we have to endure is hours and hours of political commercials and that’s…ah, crap! When does football start, again?

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Today is Donny’s deadline to ask the Kangaroo Court to rule on whether or not Joe Biden has perfect immunity. Okay, no, that’s not his question. He wants perfect immunity for himself. The DC Court of Appeals has said, rightly, that no American president has perfect immunity. Donny knew he was going to lose this fight going into it. He didn’t care. The point was about stalling. The court sniffed that out and ruled that a) he doesn’t have perfect immunity, b) he could appeal to the entire panel but the case was going back to Chutkin and would be active again even if he did, and c) they gave him until today to file his appeal with the ideological kangaroos.

The kangaroos, I’m sure, would love to help him. They help him every chance they get. But in this case, how do they give Donny perfect immunity without giving it to Joe, too? The only real risk is that the court takes up the case and then waits until it’s slinking out the back door late at night in June to issue their ruling. That would buy Donny LOTS of time…

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Did you see that weasel crap about Robert Kennedy, Jr during the Scooper Brawl? A Super PAC that supports him used an ad that looked exactly like something John F. Kennedy used in the 1960 campaign, complete with vintage look and soundtrack, and just stuck ‘Robert’ in where it would have said ‘John’ originally. In fact, it WAS something John Kennedy used. I wonder if the PAC can be sued for plagiarism? The thing is, THIS Kennedy is no John Kennedy. He’s a righty, in fact. He’s trading on his father’s and uncle’s name but he’s not in their league by like, light-years.

The dude even pretended to be a Democrat until 2023, when he switched to ‘Independent.’ The subterfuge, pretending to be a Democratic Kennedy, helped to get him elected in the first place. Now he’s running for President. I don’t know. Pretending to be something you absolutely are not in order to trick the electorate into supporting you? That seems…sneaky. Then again, it really is the American way…

Positioning…

by MyBaconPress

I think Nikki Haley is making a smart play by staying in the GOP primary. She doesn’t NEED a win. She only needs to stay. As Donny’s troubles pile up, she’ll be in the best position to stand up, should he fall down…

His recent mental lapses (yes, he can still recognize an elephant!) are an excellent opportunity for her, as well. She can attack HIM and his current failings without ever attacking MAGA or his pretend record. She can say, “Yeah, he WAS great, but he’s failing now.” Hang in there, Nikki. Stay in his head. Highlight his decline…

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Have you heard? I’m sure you have by now. Taylor Swift is not a young woman superstar pop singer in love with a young man rising star (and not bad actor) football player. Not at all. She’s a “Psyop!” Which, I guess, makes him her “Psyde kick.” MAGA just loves using words they think make them sound smart and “Psyop” fits the bill while also sounding like they’ve got some super-de-duper inside information, so they MUST be in the know. See? Secretly, they’re the smart ones. (It’s a VERY well-kept secret…)

Hey, maybe you’re a normal person so…a “Psyop” is a ‘Psychological Operation’ used to disseminate information the government wants spread and/or suppress information the government does NOT want spread. MAGA thinks rational Americans need the government to tell them Donald Trump is a bad man, a threat to the nation, and that people shouldn’t vote for him. Funny, I figured it out all by myself.

So, to that end, if you’re MAGA, the Stupor Bowl is already rigged for the Chiefs to win – I guess because Taylor Swift doesn’t already have a large enough stage from which to spread her message. AFTER the Chiefs rigged win, see, THEN ‘Tay/Trav’ (okay, that mashup needs a bit of work) can announce that Donny’s a dumbass and people should vote for Biden. (No word on why they couldn’t make that announcement if the Chiefs lose.)

That’s some elaborate insanity, right there…

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In court, where facts matter, Donny isn’t even trying to make a case that he might be innocent of any of the charges brought against him. Instead, he’s looking for technicalities and loopholes. He stalls, disrupts the court, and tries to aggravate judges into over-reactions that can lead to mistrials or work as a basis for an appeal. He never even tries to introduce evidence that might indicate innocence. That part, at least, makes sense. He’s guilty (allegedly). How could he show innocence? He has no choice but to rely on “work-arounds.”

So now he’s filing anything and everything he can think of. Some of it is way out there. So far out there, other lawyers laugh at him and his “team” for even making the filing. His primary “lawyer” is taking a lot of mockery from her fellows. ”Why would she even file that?” ”Doesn’t she know better?” With her, I couldn’t possibly say if she knows better BUT…

Each of those filings gets ruled on. Each one causes a delay. Each one buys Donny a little bit of time. As an example, Donny doesn’t have to part with the $83 million dollar judgement until the case is settled. He even has to put the money up if he wants to appeal so he needs this case to not close yet. The only tool he has to that end is insane filings. ”I can’t be tried by someone with blue eyes!” or whatever. Yeah, he’s going to lose those, too, but he wins a bit of time. And what does he want to DO with that time?

He’s actively looking, right now, for somebody rich enough to help him pay off the judgement. They’re called “mega-donors.” They’re the super rich people now allowed to buy our government thanks to the High Kangaroo Court’s corrupt Citizen United decision. But I’ll tell you this: I find myself wondering why the stable genius billionaire needs help paying what, to him, should be a mere $83.3 million dollar tab. I mean, if you’re a billionaire, isn’t $83 million dollars pocket change?

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Hey, it cuts both ways, though, yes? He filed a defamation case in the England about the Steele Dossier. In keeping with his true calling and maintaining his seemingly endless string, he lost. BUT – and this is kind of fun – the court there never even considered the merits of the case. He lost because he brought it too late. He lost on a technicality…

Fights, Good and Bad…

by MyBaconPress

Wow, what a game. TWICE, now, the Niners have come out and started slow, to say the least. I doubt they’re intentionally spotting their opponents points but it sure looks like they’re spotting their opponents points. Can we please put the “Purdy is a pretender” talk to bed, now? The naysayers can still have “Purdy is less accurate in the rain.” That one, at least, seems to be true. But all the rest? You’re just being stubborn. He’s a very good player. That whole team is loaded but there’s no negative narrative going on about any of the other players. Just Purdy. So just stop, okay?

Detroit played very well. After all these years, it was nice to see Detroit enjoying a bit of success. Not so nice I wanted them to enjoy success over my Niners but still… That’s a team that has suffered for a long, long time. At this rate, I have little doubt they’ll make the leap, here, soon. They played some very good football. In truth, they, THEN played some not so good football but they deserve props. They’ve come a long way in a short time…

I’m not sure what happened to the Ravens. Well, yes, I know the Chiefs happened to the Ravens but the Ravens played badly, all on their own. They started flat, like the Niners did, but never managed to turn things around. Lamar Jackson is something else. This was a very good team, all season long. To fall apart like that in the Championship? There’s going to be some disappointment in the clubhouse for a while.

For the Chiefs it just seemed like business as usual, just another game to be played. Mahomes is still Mahomes, which means a very good football player. Andy Reid is still among the best coaches coaching, these days, and still a better bet than Belichick for GOAT. Of course, one can never overstate the contributions of the vaunted Taylor Swift, either. Normally, when a player on the field does something wonderful/amazing/glorious (or even bad/embarrassing/disastrous), the camera focuses on the player, who gets an extra moment of screen time. When poor Travis Kelce does something great, the camera pans straight to Taylor Swift, for her reaction shot. (Spoiler alert: she’s happy for her boyfriend.)

Hopefully, we’ll all get to see how Taylor looks when she’s sad because her boyfriend is about to lose the Stupor Bowl on February 11. The camera will absolutely grab that screenshot, just like they do when she’s celebrating. She has asked them to tone it down, a bit – they just don’t comply. Why would they? They get free celebrity endorsement from Swift every game and they don’t even have to pay her.

I expect a heck of a game. I HOPE the Niners win but I wouldn’t BET the Niners will win. These are two very good teams. Sadly, I think one of the most glaring problems for either team is the Niners Defensive Coordinator, Steve Wilkes. That guy just doesn’t understand the Niner defense. Last year the Niners defense was top-of-the-charts under DeMeco Ryans, as it was the year before that under Robert Saleh. They’re pretty porous with Wilkes at the helm. That could prove to be the difference in the big, dumb game this year…

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Can somebody help me out, here, please? I’ve been looking for information about how HAMAS is fighting back against Israel. I can’t find anything. Whenever I go looking, all is get is references to the oh-so-stupid HAMAS attack on Oct 7. I DID see a story about how some HAMAS fighters used a rocket to kill three Israeli soldiers preparing to blow up a building but there’s precious little else.

Netanyahu says he isn’t stopping until all of HAMAS is wiped out. It’s hard to blame him for feeling that way, but he ALSO seems to think that every Palestinian is HAMAS. He also seems to be trying to expand the fight from just Gaza to the West Bank. To me? He seems to think this is his chance, once and for all, to get rid of the Palestinians. ALL of the Palestinians. The whole world has asked him to stand down. He just thumbs his nose.

I’ll tell you this: Netanyahu may not be saying ‘from the river to the sea’ but he sure seems to be doing ‘from the river to the sea.’

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There’s a guy running against Putin in the upcoming Russian “elections.” That’s some guts. He will either end up in some Russian prison (“Say ‘hello’ to Nalvany for me…”) or dead, having committed suicide by drinking poison, chopping off his own head, and then throwing his own body out one window and the head out another. And THIS is the system MAGA wants to see in America?

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There’s a weird “analysis” of dissolving Donny’s businesses in AP, this morning. It takes the position that shutting down Donny’s fraudulent business will only empower the state to shut down other fraudulent businesses, and, after all, how fraudulent WAS Donny’s fraud? Oh, and he stopped some of his fraud – right after he got sued for providing fraudulent statements, so, what’s the problem? The “analysis” suggests that most of the time, when a business DID get shut down, the case was able to demonstrate who got hurt.

But THEN, it acknowledges that NY law doesn’t require showing damages, only an ongoing pattern of fraud. It acknowledges that not every business shut down showed damages. Despite the fact that the “analysis” seems to arguing against shutting down trump businesses, the article points out these things have been going on for at least eleven years and says, “Trump exaggerated the size of his Manhattan penthouse apartment by three times. He listed unfinished buildings as if they were complete, and apartments under rent-control as if they were free of such rules. He showed restricted funds as if they were liquid cash. And he portrayed Mar-a-Lago as if it could be converted to a residence even though that is prohibited in its deed.”

I’ll tell you this: When the “analysis” says, “Yeah he did all those things but we should just give the guy a break?” I suspect it was written by MAGA…