NFL

Races…

by MyBaconPress

Sometimes, I get tired of the charade. With DeSantis out, Nikki Haley is the only other candidate trying to give Donny a run for his money. I respect what she’s trying to do. That is, offer up someone – better. But the Republican Party is dominated by MAGA, not Republicans, and MAGA only has eyes for Donny. The media is pretending that if everything breaks just right, she might have maybe a chance to possibly show something that gets MAGAs attention in New Hampshire. After that? All Donny. Everyone knows it. This “race” has never been between Donny and DeSantis or Haley. It’s a race between Donny and Jack Smith. Sadly, with each passing day, Donny seems to be pulling ahead. (Remember, he doesn’t have to beat the charges. He has only to stall long enough for MAGA and Putin to put him back into the Oval…)

Meanwhile, on the left, who cares? We get Biden, like it or not. Well, in fairness, there is a guy named Dean Phillips running (Who? Yeah, that’s my point.) One can also choose Marianne Williamson if you prefer a love and Kumbaya platform. Hey, again, they’re offering up alternatives,which I like. But they’re not strong enough alternatives to be real alternatives so…what’s the point?

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Right now, there is a flood of people coming up from south of the American border, trying to get into the United States because, ostensibly, the United States is still better than the place they’re running from. But if Donny DOES end up back in the Oval, I suspect that tide will slow, stop, and reverse as the Hispanics go back – and thinking Americans will be racing to go with them. MAGA has actually, almost succeeded in turning the United States of America into a country decent people flee…

Necesito practico mi español, ahora…

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Every accusation is a confession. The right has been trying to paint Biden as cognitively impaired due to his age. As soon as we heard it, we should have known Donny is suffering from dementia. He gave a speech in which he questioned, several times, why Nikki Haley didn’t do more to protect the Capitol from his attack on J6. That’s his standard Nancy Pelosi riff. Nancy and Nikki don’t look, act, or sound alike. How could he get the two confused?

He has also said, more than once, that he ran against and beat Barack Obama. That one is even worse. I mean, Nancy and Nikki don’t look, act, or sound alike but Barack and Hillary REALLY don’t look, act, or sound alike. There are other examples that he’s losing it. Often, he can’t even manage the English language.

I think the pace of his faltering is picking up as the criminal charges pile up. Pressure, you know. Maybe senility will make him a better President. His handlers can, perhaps, convince him he DIDN’T say to kill all his enemies – or that the deed was done, for example.

It continues to boggle my mind that the specter of Donald Trump back in the White House is a real and present danger to the United States of America…

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Well, that was a serious weekend of football. I’m okay with it because my Niners managed to pull out a victory at the end but props to Green Bay. They played very well and they nearly pulled off bumping the number one seed.

I’m a Niner fan but I also like other teams. The Bills, for instance. That poor team is very, very good but things just…go wrong for them for some reason. Decades ago, the Bills went on something of a tear. They went to four straight Stupor Bowls. They lost them all, but they’re STILL the only team to make it to the big game four straight years and that accomplishment commands respect. The FIRST one they lost, their kicker pulled a game-winning kick wide right for the miss. Yesterday, they were in a position to tie their playoff game and go into overtime. Their kicker pulled the game-tying kick wide right for the miss. Now they get to watch the rest of the post-season on TV…

It crossed my mind that the NFL might very well LIKE having Taylor Swift at their games and that in order to have Taylor at the games, TRAVIS has to play. THAT means, the Chiefs need to stay in. Yeah, I know. Conspiracy theory. People like to pretend that Bill Belichick is the greatest coach of all time. (There’s LOTS of hyperbole in football.) I’d say that honor actually belongs to Andy Reid, the coach of the Chiefs. I threw in that last part so you know I understand. The Chiefs are a VERY good team and don’t need the NFL to “help” them get in…

Chilling Effects…

by MyBaconPress

Climate change? Really?
Truth be told, I didn’t realize the cons were still out there pretending climate change isn’t happening. They fought the fight. Hell, they won, in the sense that they prevented any meaningful action for long enough to ensure we hit runaway heating. (Congratulations for bringing about our extinction?) We’re well on our way, now. But I guess it’s still a thing for people who refuse to think.

Lauren Boebert, in an effort to remain somehow relevant, posted a comment on brand X. She wrote: “You’ve got to appreciate the irony of climate protestors trudging through a foot of snow and -30 degree wind chills to yell about how the planet is warming.”

“They just don’t see it, do they?” she added.

It reminds me of when Jim Inhoff brought a snowball into Congress to “prove” global warming wasn’t happening. I might accept that they were, and are, posturing. I’d prefer to believe they know the difference between weather and climate. But I’ve got Maya Angelou ringing in my ears. ’When someone tells you who they are, believe them.’ These guys keep insisting they’re morons who don’t understand even the most basic of facts, evidence, and/or science – and I believe them…

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Attack!
So, Donny is already out there, promising more violence if he doesn’t win. (This, at a time when he is simultaneously claiming he wasn’t responsible for J6. He didn’t bring THAT violence but he absolutely WILL bring this violence…) THIS time, there can be no question. THIS time, there can be no doubt. THIS guy WILL bring as much violence and “bedlam” as he can manage if he doesn’t get his whiny way. I guess the message is, ‘Vote for me so I don’t have to mess you up.’ The fact that he threatens to mess us up if he doesn’t win should, itself, be a disqualifier.

He has already destroyed our unbroken string of peaceful transfers of power for over 200 years. Now he’s threatening to start a new American tradition, whoever is the most violent gets the office? Look, Donny is clearly a damaged and disturbed individual. The thing that continues to blow my mind (and disappoint so very deeply) is the number of Americans who think his plan is awesome. ”Yeah! We can’t win on the issues so let’s win with violence!” They love him and, as we all know, love is blind.

The United States faced this once before, with the American Civil War. The south, to this day, largely continues to deny the war was about slavery or even that they lost. 159 years of self delusion and denial. Now, it seems, the weakest thinkers in this once-great nation are starting down yet another primrose path of preferred perceptions. ”Even when Donny loses, he should win!” No, he shouldn’t. And if it takes another Civil War to smack that evil down, so be it…

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A little football stuff…
It’s going to be cold in Buffalo, NY. The game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Buffalo Bills was postponed by one day due to a blizzard. That says something about those folks who live there. One day? They can have the blizzard, clear the roads, and fill the stadium with just one extra day? And the people who want to attend the game…will! It’s going to be cold in Buffalo. Props to the people of Buffalo. They must be pretty tough to endure a football game for hours in temperatures starting around zero at game time. I’ll watch from the comfort of my living room – near the heater…

Jared Goff is the Quarterback of the Detroit Lions and he and they just won their first playoff game in something like 32 years and only the second in team history. There’s a reason. For years, the guy who owned the Lions used the team as a tax write-off and had no interest in building a winner. He’s gone now. It seems the team wants a winning season, after all. Goff was drafted into the league by the LA Rams, the team he beat yesterday. He took that team to the playoffs and all the way to the Super Bowl. Jared Goff has the distinction of being the first Quarterback to lose a Super Bowl to Bill Belichick’s cheat scheme…

Speaking of which, I’m glad Belichick is out of the league now. I don’t have to listen to how great he was anymore. The guy cheated, pure and simple. The league pretends otherwise – aggressively – because the owner of the Patriots is one of the most powerful owners in the game. In short, the guy cheated while the league turned a blind eye for as long as they could. Once they HAD to make him stop, he coasted on his reputation, attracting better players than he likely would have otherwise. Eventually, though, the “super-winner” reputation began to fade and he had to actually coach. The team has been on a steady decline ever since, getting worse and worse every year. Belichick was never a great coach. He was a great cheater…

I’m sorry to report it looks like Peacock’s stream of the Chiefs/Dolphins game set a streaming record. 23 million viewers. You just KNOW the NFL isn’t going to stop now. They tested the waters and found that people will pay extra for something they once got for free. There will be no fewer commercials, either. That’s another revenue stream the NFL simply will not surrender. Look for the NFL to start locking more and more games behind pay walls – because people wouldn’t skip even ONE game to protect their own interests…

Sports writers have to write something, right? They like these “What the teams have to do to win” columns and jot down a few things football teams try to do. Protect the ball. Get the ball into the hands of their play-makers. Keep the ball out of the hands of their opposition. Use the run to set up the pass or, alternately, use the pass to set up the run. It depends on the writer. I think I’m a bit too minimalist to do that job. The Niners will be hosting the Green Bay Packers this coming Saturday. Here’s my piece on the game.
What the Niners have to do to win: get the most points.
What the Packers have to do to win: get the most points.
It’s pretty simple, really…

Take A Stand…

by MyBaconPress

I read an article on Tuesday from ‘The Hill’ quoting Stinky Donny saying the economy is going to crash and he hopes it crashes in the next year because he doesn’t want to be Herbert Hoover. Too late, Donny. You’re already worse than Herbert Hoover. In fact, in every measurable way, you’re the worst President the United States ever suffered. Don’t you remember your woeful mishandling of the Covid crisis? Most Americans do. Most of the world does. Had YOU done better, the economy would have done better. Sadly, we had an incompetent at the wheel in that moment and you drove us into a ditch. Dumbass.

Of course and like always, he’s taking credit for the current good economy. No, really. He says the only reason there’s any good at all is because it’s “running on the fumes” of what he did. Sorry, Donny, wrong again. Those “fumes” you sense are the smell of death from all the Americans you killed. On the up side, the current economy is SO strong these days, cons are hoping for failure as the best hope of winning in November. Leave it to cons to hope for harm and failure in the United States because of how they perceive it will help them…

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Donny’s out there promising he’s going to testify in his trial. No, not that one. No, the other one. No, not that one, either. This is the civil business fraud trial, in New York. I guess he plans to try to save whatever money his loyal acolytes have left, since they so kindly pay his fines. They’re going to need whatever money they have left. Donny has a BIG loss facing him in the E. Jean Carroll trial. MAGA is going to have to rent out their children as laborers to help pay his fines.

Donny wants to present the closing arguments. This part of the trial is about – and ONLY about – disgorgement. How much does Donny have to pay? There has already been a finding that he’s only ever been smoke and mirrors and his business model is fraud, fraud, fraud so he has to dissolve ALL of his business interests in the state of New York. Now the question is, how much will he pay?

The original filing was asking for $250 Million dollars but since then, the independent monitor has “noted” (caught) a few other elements that should be included. The adjusted number now stands at $370 million.

This month, he’s still looking at his next round in the E Jean Carroll case, too. He’s been found responsible for sexual assault. He defamed Carroll over that and lost his case. He was ordered to pay $5 million as a penalty. Then he went outside and doubled down, so she re-filed. Meanwhile Rudy Giuliani was found responsible in HIS defamation case and ordered to pay $148 million dollars. THAT set the new standard. This is trump’s follow-up defamation case. The one that suggests he didn’t get the message at $5 million. Maybe $150 million more will help him understand. (I made that number up based on the Giuliani ruling. It could be less, it could be more…)

Frankly, I doubt ANY monetary damages will convince him to stand down. HE doesn’t pay them. His loyal, and oh-so-gullible followers pay them, so why should he care?

Update: I wrote that bit Wednesday morning. By Wednesday night, trump had decided (surprise!) he wasn’t going to speak, after all. The cons will pretend the evil gubmint kept him from talking but, for clarity, Engoron, in fact, said Donny could speak but he had to limit himself to the issues at hand. He couldn’t give a campaign speech and he couldn’t just attack people he doesn’t like. That left Stinky Donny with nothing to say so he demurred, then declined. What kind of life do you live if you’re stuck in “If I can’t whine and cry, ‘poor me!’ I have nothing to say?”

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I saw a story that irritated me. The Headline suggested a Catholic priest got defrocked after marrying a woman. That paints a picture that fits into a larger, already established narrative about abusive priests in the Catholic church and I was all prepared to write about it. He was 29 when they met and she was 17! They married a year later. An element of the story is that the two had “fled” to Italy. I actually DID start writing about it, but wanted some details – why did he “flee?” – so searched out other articles on the topic. Turns out, that headline was technically true, he did leave the church after marrying a women, but not accurate.

The truth is, two people dated for a year, then got married but he had to quit his job because of that choice. See, this happened in Alabama. In Alabama, the age of consent is 16. He didn’t break any laws. He didn’t “flee” to Italy. They moved there. The church didn’t defrock him – technically, called ‘Laicization’ – as punishment for marrying the woman (though they would have). The priest in question started the process and made no effort to fight it. The church defrocked him for abandoning his post at his church – with his cooperation.

Corporate media sucks in this country. One must be VERY careful when reading even the most minor of stories. They just want the clicks and they’ll say nearly anything…

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The NFL, never short on greed, has decided to air one of their playoff games on a streaming service station only. If you don’t have ‘Peacock,’ you don’t watch the game, except in the local markets where NFL rules require them to air the game on a local channel. It’s the Chiefs/Dolphins game so they can watch it in Kansas City and Miami without paying. But everyone else? Pay up, suckers. The NFL made $12 BILLION dollars in 2020, and that was DOWN from $18 Billion because of the pandemic. Now the NFL is trying to squeeze out a little bit more. The ONLY way to protect ourselves from this ever-encroaching greed is to shut our wallets.

I’m asking you to avoid THAT game. It’s for our own protection. If they make money on this move, we’ll see more and more of it until football is an entirely pay-per-view event. If the game loses money, they’ll be LESS likely to push this as quickly. (Note that they WILL keep trying. Greed is a disease that does not go away on it’s own.) We, the fans, need to ensure the game loses money, or we’d better prepare to pay out lots and lots more. ”Oh, c’mon, they’ll say, it’s only $5.00 dollars.”

Yeah, today. But if it “works,” soon we’ll have to subscribe to ALL the streaming services just to watch a game or worse, the NFL will move all of their games to their own streaming service and charge hundreds of dollars a year. (That’s not hyperbole. Have you checked the price of their ‘Season Ticket’?) Soon, after that, I wouldn’t be surprised if we had to buy ‘Personal Viewer Licenses’ ($300.00) to obtain the right to subscribe to their service ($300.00 MORE). THAT part might be hyperbole. But even that is only a ‘maybe.’ The greed of the NFL is legendary and inexorable. I say again, the ONLY way to protect ourselves from this ever-encroaching greed is to shut our wallets.

Yeah, I’d rather see the game, too. But I’ll catch the highlights later, maybe. Let’s make pay-per-view-only football a failed test…for our own protection. Please, don’t watch the game…

Not Right…

by MyBaconPress

The conservatives in congress won’t fund aid to Ukraine or Israel unless and until something is done at our southern border to stop the flow in immigrants. So, old Sleepy Joe went ahead and arranged for a weapons sale to Israel without congressional oversight. That’s supposed to be a no-no but the Biden administration is pushing the idea that it’s an emergency and that Israel has national security implications and a right to “maintain a strong and ready national defense capability.”

Obviously, the cons are whining about Biden’s congressional end-run on GOP obstruction. But then, they whine about everything, all the time. By now, it’s LOUD, but it’s boring. As it happens, there are Democrats out there complaining about the sale, too. There WILL BE some kerfuffle about it but I’m pretty sure more American bombs will be falling on Palestinian babies soon. Thanks, Joe.

Meanwhile, South Africa has asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN’s top court, to declare that Israel’s war in Gaza is a violation of the Genocide Convention of 1948. The filing accused Israel of engaging “in genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza”. I stand with South Africa on this one. Israel rejects the charge “with disgust” and as “blood libel” from South Africa. ”Blood libel.” Sounds like time for the disclaimer.

For me, and millions of people around the world, my concerns about the developments in Israel and Palestine are about governments and what governments do. I don’t give two figs about which religion these people practice or which of the nearly 3,600 gods worshiped on Earth right now, today, they think is the most super-de-duper. Trying to shut down criticism of Israeli actions with charges of “antisemitism” or “blood libel” is a dodge that comes from people who don’t seem able to otherwise defend their actions.

Look, I do not, CAN not, will not defend the incredibly stupid and violent response of Hamas in their October 7th attack that killed 1,200 Israelis. Since that day, though, the Israelis have killed nearly 22,000 Palestinians and they have no intention of stopping. Palestine is in ruins. Israel warned Palestinians to run south, then bombed the place they told the Palestinians to run to. They’ve completely destroyed any and all medical help in Gaza. If you’re Palestinian, disease is becoming more likely to kill you than Israeli (American) bombs.

I see it this way: let’s say you’re in a bar and a guy sucker-punches you from behind, then blends into the crowd so you don’t know who hit you. You do NOT have the right to kill everyone you see until you get the right guy. But that has been Israel’s strategy from the start. The world (except the US) started asking Israel to stand down. Netanyahu said he will not. Eventually, even Biden asked Netanyahu to, if he wouldn’t mind, please, take it a little easy on Gaza. Netanyahu increased bomb runs. The outcry is getting louder but the attacks just keep coming, Palestinians just keep dying. Israel keeps attacking and they’re using American bombs to do it. Yeah, because they need a strong “defense capability.”

If you ask an Israeli apologist about the war, they’ll look at you and drone, “From the river to the sea” because Hamas says they want to drive Israelis into the sea. From MY point of view, Israel says it wants everyone to get along - all the while working aggressively to push Palestinians into the sea. Hamas says they wish they could do it. Israel just does it – and they’re using American bombs. Oh, how I hate this war…

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Okay, I need something lighter. I didn’t see the game so I can’t say for sure. Yesterday, the Dallas Cowboys played the Detroit Lions. At the end, the Lions were down by one and tried a two-point conversion to win the game. This is all “in the weeds” stuff so I’ll simplify as much as possible. There’s a way for a guy normally NOT allowed to catch the ball to be allowed to for one play. He has to report to the refs that, for this play, he’s an eligible receiver and the refs tell the defense so they’re aware.

According to the LIONS, a guy named Decker reported to the official, Brad Allen, as eligible. At the same time, another player was running onto the field, number 70, a guy named, Skipper. (That’s his real last name.) So, Decker reports but Allen tells Dallas that SKIPPER has reported. The Lions run their play and it goes to Decker, just like it was supposed to. The refs called a penalty and the winning two-point play was negated. Detroit went on to lose.

The ref, Allen, may have gotten confused, listening to Decker, but watching Skipper run onto the field. Allen reported the wrong name to Dallas, then punished Detroit for Allen’s error. Allen maintains it was Skipper who reported. Uh-oh. As always, there’s video. The video shows DECKER reporting and the official nodding, then speaking to Dallas. Despite the video, Allen is sticking to his story, for now.

This game had serious ramifications on the playoff picture. The officiating “error” changed things. There’s nothing that can be done about it now. Detroit is just screwed. It’s getting easier and easier to make a case that the NFL is using it’s well-established reputation for crappy officiating to manipulate the outcome of games…

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See? Lighter. Okay, so this is the last issue of MyBaconPress for the year 2023. If you like what I’m doing, you can go to my site, https://mybaconpress.com/. Click the “Follow” button and enter your email address and they’ll come straight to your email inbox. Never miss an issue again!

2024 looks like it’s shaping up to be a BIG year in human history. WILL the US fall into the conservative fascist dream? Will Stinky Donald end up in prison or the White House? (Are we amazed that’s even a question?) Will rational, thinking Americans FINALLY push MAGA back into the shadows, where they belong? Will America solve its housing problem by passing the ‘End Hedge Fund Control of American Homes Act of 2023?’ Hell, will we solve ANY of our problems, or just keep nursing them as campaign “issues?” We all just have to wait and see. But I’ll be writing…

I’ll tell you this: I hope you have a safe and happy New Year celebration and I REALLY hope 2024 works out well – for all of us…