politics

Shameless…

by MyBaconPress

It’s shameless, is what it is. Can you imagine getting all geared up to complain about how unfair the election “was” – before the election even takes place? THEN, should your defective candidate actually win, they just…what? Drop it? Who can’t do that? I can take the same position. Watch. ‘If Trump wins, it’s because the cons cheated. The election is only fair if Kamala wins.’ There, see? The only difference between their pretend position and MY pretend position is that MY pretend position is probably correct. No sane person wants Trump to win this election and no decent American would allow that to happen. (Why, yes, I HAVE noticed that Putin and MAGA are all-in for Trump. I stand by my statement…)

But there they are, insisting on stupid. Their voices are hoarse from shouting about the “rigged election” (which, remember, ONLY the cons are trying to rig) and then, suddenly, the Russians flip a few key votes in a few key districts and your guy is handed power again and then everything is a-okay? They have no shame. At long last, they have no shame…

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Speaking of shameless, Trump tried another political stunt. He went and worked at a McDonald’s for a short time. No, that’s wrong. He went and pretended to work at a closed McDonald’s for a short time. A few staged photos of him handing out some french fries and MAGA is happy. My guess? I’d guess there was an actual employee there, doing the actual work. Trump was just taking credit for someone else’s work – as usual.

BTW, he sometimes handed the fries out the drive-through window to customers on foot for the photo op. Actual workers aren’t allowed to DO that. Under normal conditions, it’s dangerous because on-foot customers have to stand in, essentially, a driving lane to make or receive an order. ‘Car vs person’ rarely goes well for the ‘person.’

He keeps cancelling one-on-one events saying he’s “exhausted,” but he was able to muster up the strength to pretend to be a worker (one might say mock workers) which we know he is not and never has been…

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He STILL will not let the “eating the pets” lie go. As you recall, the very old man, whose faculties seem to be failing at an alarming rate, saw a “story” on some chat board on the web that suggested Haitian migrants were killing and eating their neighbor’s pets, and he repeated that story – without verifying it and during a presidential debate, no less. Since then, he has continued to insist the story is true because he saw it on the internet.

To be clear, the story is NOT true. No, that’s not just me taking a political position. Law enforcement in Springfield, Ohio, where the story is said to have happened, said it didn’t happen. The City Manager of Springfield, also said it didn’t happen. Yeah, okay, maybe a Harris supporter, right? How about this? The woman who originally posted the story said it never happened and the woman the O.P. was citing ALSO said the story never happened. That is to say, the two sources of the story have both insisted the story isn’t true.

Now, any normal human being knows they have an “out” on that story. He could easily have repeated he saw it on the web and it turned out to be false. He wouldn’t be admitting that HE made a mistake – something he’s absolutely incapable of confessing – only that he saw and repeated a story that turned out to be false. But he can’t even bring himself to do THAT, either.

Rule 1: Donald Trump never makes a mistake.
Rule 2: WHEN Donald Trump makes a mistake, see Rule 1.
How obnoxious.

There IS a caveat, here. Some guy DID kill a couple of geese at a golf course. He is an employee of the golf course. He didn’t have any permits to hunt or kill the migratory birds. He said after his arrest that he thought killing the birds was legal because he thought the golf course had a nuisance permit. But even at that, he wasn’t eating the geese.

But Trump has taken to insisting that his story about eating the pets MUST be true because “someone” killed a couple of geese, too. We know the “someone” in question – a 64 year old white guy named Brian Comer. He is decidedly NOT Haitian. But Trump can not admit an error under any conditions, at any time.

That’s a very dangerous trait. It does NOT make him “strong” or “decisive.” It makes him wrong to dangerously wrong. His horrific handling of Covid-19, based on the idea that he couldn’t accept that a problem happened during his term and could only wish it away, killed thousands of Americans needlessly. That happened, specifically, because he couldn’t admit error and since he had taken a (wrong) position, he insisted the wrong position become right.

Too bad it doesn’t work like that…

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Elon Musk is giving away a million dollars a day to some random person for registering to vote, a move which is probably illegal. Worse? Trump has promised Musk a position in the new Cabinet should Trump return to power. How is that NOT Musk trying to buy a political appointment? Why aren’t Musk’s “prizes” considered illegal campaign contributions?

I’ll tell you this: Trump and Musk should NOT be working together in the next administration. They should be cellmates while they serve time for their various and sundry crimes. It’s a weird world we’re suffering through right now…

Failed Strategies…

by MyBaconPress

If one’s goal is to eliminate Hamas, one does NOT achieve that goal by thoughtless, random killing. The “terrorist” of tomorrow is the victim of an indiscriminate attack today. The next group may have a different name, but it will be a continuation of Hamas. Israel brought Hezbollah into the conflict, as well. Now, Israel is suffering attacks. That seems like it backfired.

Israel thinks it solved a problem by killing Sinwar, but now, he’s going to be martyred. Palestinians are making a hero of him. I suspect Israel has added to their problems. I sure do wish these people would stop killing each other…

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When I look at the news, I see story after story that Kamala is having trouble convincing this group or that group that she can do the job. Every time I see a story like that, said group is insisting Kamala has to “earn their vote.” Palestinians in the US are pissed off at the US government for helping Israel, so they think maybe they’ll withhold their vote from Harris, giving it to (or at least helping) Trump, instead. Trump is on record saying Israel is being TOO tolerant and should just unleash their worst.

Being so angry with the Biden administration for not having greater success at negotiating a cease fire that you support the guy who thinks just like Netanyahu isn’t going to make the Palestinian plight any better. I give Biden low marks on Israel but I KNOW Trump will make the situation far, far worse for Palestinians. One does not, should not, jump from the frying pan into the fire. Harris is STILL the best option.

Black men don’t want a black woman in office? Why not? Misogyny? Maybe. I guess we’re finally getting the answer, which is more important, misogyny or racism? Because Trump is a proven racist. This isn’t a gut feeling thing. He has intentionally and knowingly engaged in discriminatory housing practices in the past, for example. You don’t want a woman, so you’ll support the man who seems to think, not-so-secretly in his shriveled little heart, that black people would just be better off, in general, if they “went back” to Africa (even if they’re from, say, Seattle) or, even better from the corporate point of view, still in chains? Yeah, that’s a quality position.

Trump went to a rally filled with working people and explained to them that he just hates to pay overtime – so he doesn’t. He’ll bring in other people to finish a job, just to avoid paying overtime. That working class group of people who may have depended on overtime during their lives, just cheered the guy. “Yeah, he LIVES to screw us! Four more years!”

But maybe, just maybe, these stories are narratives from the media and not as true as the stories make them seem. The press wants to sell papers (metaphorically, these days) and creating a close-race narrative where one group or the other is still “undecided” makes it seem like a tight race.

But then I see that Georgia is experiencing record voter turnout. They had over 300,000 voters on the first day of early voting, alone. As of today, they’ve had over a million ballots returned. People seem to be flocking to the polls to vote. Now, bear in mind, these are ballots, not votes. I can’t tell you Kamala has over a million votes in Georgia. That wouldn’t be true (necessarily).

I CAN tell you that it tends to be Democrats who vote early. The GOP decided (wrongly, as usual) that mail-in ballots are a bad thing. They have a few different reasons, none of which are correct, but because they randomly decided that mail-in ballots are bad, they tend to avoid them. At this point, it’s safe to say the vast majority of the ballots being cast are coming from Harris supporters. (I presume Democrats, in general, are NOT casting their ballots for Trump.)

The general trend is this: early voting builds up strength for the Democrats, who then need to stand firm against the “red wave” of election day. (Considering how much manipulation we can expect from Russians, “Red wave” seems a particularly apt name for the phenomenon, eh?) Cons WILL come out to vote. They are an obnoxiously dependable group. The ONE thing you can count on from MAGA, they are dedicated to doing the wrong thing, like putting the Anti-Christ into the Oval Office. Still, it’s an encouraging start. Lefties ARE coming out.

So maybe the stories about who might be cutting off their noses to spite their faces, or polls being skewed by politically affiliated “polling” groups who seek to distort national polling outcomes, are, um, less than accurate.

I’m looking at ballots being cast – and WHEN those ballots are cast. If record turnout is any indicator, it seems things are going well for blue these days. At least, they seem to be going well for blue in Georgia…

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Trump went to a rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania and started bragging. Hey, no surprise there, Trump brags. That’s what he does. The weird part? He was bragging about Arnold Palmer having a big…um…”unit.” And, of course, because Palmer had a big unit, he must have been “all man.” It was quite high praise. It’s especially curious to imply that only men with big units are really men, considering how small Trump’s hands are.

I wonder if MAGA realized, Trump was telling them he’s really into men with big units…

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Elon Musk is paying people to register. Paying people to register is a felony. So, Musk is paying people to sign a petition – and register. Apparently, there’s some “question” as to the legality of that, particular, ploy. Wait, let me guess. MAGA “lawyers” see no problem, whatsoever, with the practice, so long as it’s only a rich MAGA in support of Trump, right? Yeah, who could have seen THAT coming? I hope the law gets involved with this soon…

Beware The Corrupt Media…

by MyBaconPress

Right after the Brett Baier/Kamala Harris interview, I started seeing stories from right-leaning sources claiming Baier had beat her up (metaphorically) and dragged her around the stage. I’m not sure I’m buying. Baier has had to come out and make excuses for his performance throughout the thing. She wasn’t easy to re-direct, he said. He showed the wrong clip. Baier screwed up, not Kamala.

Meanwhile, people are saying on the left that Trump is cancelling one event after another for some reason. Is that true? I don’t know. I heard that Monday, but then, on Monday night, Trump did a rally. That doesn’t sound like cancelling, to me. As the election looms, the claims from BOTH are becoming increasingly charged – and decreasingly accurate. That’s a bit of a bummer.

Apparently, Trump went back to Detroit. You remember, Detroit is the city that Trump went to and told them that if Harris gets elected, the whole country will be in the same terrible shape as Detroit! People who live in Detroit probably didn’t care for the reference – especially since Detroit has done such an amazing job re-inventing itself. So now he has gone back. The way he’s been doing things recently, I imagine he went back to tell them he thinks they’re stupid, too. It’s an odd campaign strategy, if you ask me…

The only thing Trump seems to be cancelling is one-on-one interviews. He has backed out of several. He’s still on the rally trail, though. The obvious difference is that he gets to just stand up in front of a crowd of adoring sycophants and blather at his rallies – or maybe just sway back and forth to some of his preferred music – but in one-on-one interviews, he has to respond to questions (which he can’t do) and sound rational (which he ALSO can’t do). Simple enough solution: avoid them.

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Most of the time, not always, but most of the time, I don’t find conservative humor funny. There’s a specific reason. Their “jokes” rely heavily on their dishonest talking points. Humor often depends upon unexpected viewpoints on otherwise shared and common experiences for their punch. When the experience being referenced is made up out of whole cloth (therefore, not “shared”) the joke that relies upon it isn’t funny.

Trump went to this Alfred E. Smith Memorial Dinner, a political tradition. It’s important to understand that the Al Smith Dinner is an annual Catholic Charities event. The candidates are supposed to make some humorous, and even self-deprecating comments. Kamala just sent a greeting video so she could attend a campaign event, but Trump actually showed up, which doesn’t sound like cancelling to me, at all.

To his credit, he DID try. He tried to make some jokes but he’s trapped inside the conservative bubble. His jokes relied on fraudulent talking points and they were just not funny. MOST of his comments, were really just more whining and crying about how unfair life has been to the pampered and rich bully. He mentioned he was supposed to make a couple of self-deprecating comments but just…couldn’t do it. He’s SO insecure, he can’t even make a few lighthearted jokes about himself.

The very first thing the guy who brags about never using a teleprompter noted was the presence of the teleprompter he had wanted to use. Weirdly, he’s STILL trying to convince people he’s NOT weird. That really got under his oh-so-thin skin, didn’t it? I actually think he started off okay but, it’s Trump, so it didn’t last long. He had only been speaking a few minutes when he earned his first “boos.” He riffed, a bit, on ‘The Democrat Party.’ It’s petty and most people think it’s stupid. What, you’re running for President and you don’t even know the name of one of the two major political parties? (He does…)

Left-leaning media portrayed his speech as “profanity-laced.” It wasn’t. He DID drop one scatological reference. One. Yeah, yeah, it was in front of priests. It’s my understanding priests don’t have much moral ground to stand on, so I’m guessing they can put up with a single utterance of a “bad” word. That description bothered me a lot. Whoever wrote that piece is counting on the fact that most people on the left can’t stand to see Trump’s face or hear his voice and just DO NOT want to endure one more second of his blather. That is to say, they count on the fact that lefties probably didn’t watch the speech. So they lie about it. It WAS boring, but not “profanity-laced.”

For me, the most ridiculous whine in Trump’s arsenal is when he quips that “There’s never been a president that has been treated so badly as me.” Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy might disagree. They were all assassinated. I think being murdered is worse treatment than being asked a tough question by a journalist. Apparently, Trump can’t tell the difference…

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There has been another document dump regarding Trump’s criminal trials, as well. Trump tried to stop it and has characterized the dump as “election interference.” The Judge in the case, Tanya Chutkan, ruled that NOT releasing information relevant to the candidate could, itself, be election interference and allowed the release.

The documents show about $3 million dollars being budgeted for the January 6th rally and coup attempt and some promotion of the event. Other than those details, though, there didn’t seem to be much new stuff in the release so I’m not sure why Trump worried so much about it. Who is it going to affect? Rational Americans all KNOW Trump lost the 2020 election and the details of his coup attempt. MAGA doesn’t know, doesn’t WANT to know, and doesn’t care. Trump focuses on the weirdest things…

Abandoned In Darkness…

by MyBaconPress

Trump decided to hold a rally in Coachella, California. Get this, he BUSSED attendees in from nearly five miles away. One of his big jabs against Kamala is a constant claim that SHE buses in attendees. He insists the people being bussed MUST be illegals, brought in to fatten her crowd. But then HE buses in attendees? So, HE’S bringing in ringers to fatten HIS crowd? Who knew? Okay, admittedly, most of us know…

It turns out, they BOTH use buses to shuttle people in from parking areas too distant to walk. Trump definitely knows that – he does it himself – but he STILL tries to use it as a weapon against her. It’s yet another tool in the ‘Arsenal of Artifice’ he uses to deceive MAGA.

But do you know what SHE does that he, apparently, does NOT? She brings the buses back to take the supporters back to their cars after the rally. Trump? Not so much. After his Coachella rally, the attendees who had been bused in were simply abandoned. The people came over in several buses. The return trip used only one bus. The supporters had to wait for hours and hours and, if I understand correctly, that one bus finally stopped running, too, leaving the rest stranded.

Trump was probably just saving the expense, right? After all, he needed them there so he covered that. But after the rally, he was done with them. He didn’t need them anymore. (The cameras had stopped rolling.) He didn’t care if they got back to their cars or not – so he DIDN’T cover that. He abandons them in the darkness because he doesn’t need them anymore.

Come to think of it, ‘Abandoned in Darkness’ is a perfect metaphor for MAGA…

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Really? Another one? A third guy has been arrested for having a gun too close to the former and disgraced ex-president. Oh, I’m sorry. I meant, another Republican has been arrested. And he says he’s a Trump supporter who never meant Trump any harm. The last guy was a disgruntled Trump supporter and the guy before that? Nobody knows for sure but he WAS registered GOP.

Either one-time Trump supporters are trying to kill him for some reason, or these “assassination attempts” are fake, staged events to give Trump something else to whine about AND look tough over. Officials keep “catching” people but two of the three never got anywhere near Trump and were never a threat.

At this point, the only thing that’s going to convince me that someone is ACTUALLY trying to kill Trump is if someone successfully kills Trump. (NOTE: Please don’t do that. Political violence is never the right answer…) I’m just saying, he’s leaning in to these “assassination attempts.” That, combined with the fact that there’s never any harm (to him), causes me to suspect they are staged set-ups, not actual attempts.

Yes, three people were shot the first time and one of them died. But, to Trump, those were “only” small folk and he doesn’t give two figs about the small-folk beyond the fact that he needs their vote, apparently on January 5th, and he certainly is going to need that mob AFTER the election if his coup is to have any chance, whatsoever…

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I think Trump’s ‘don’t-answer-questions’ dance party was one of the strangest things I’ve seen in a long time. He had clearly agreed to attend Kristi Noem’s “town hall” for a specific period of time. He DID stay. He even answered a few questions. But if people ask questions, he’s supposed to have answers and he absolutely does not. So, he just pivoted. “Hey, let’s listen to music.” 38 minutes worth.

Noem TRIED to get him back on track, she did. But Trump is a VERY talented, extremely practiced malingerer. NOBODY can get that old man working if he doesn’t want to – and he didn’t want to. So he just stood on stage and made a fool of himself. MAGA thinks he’s beautiful. The rest of the world is literally laughing at him.

Do you think those people made the effort to get to that town hall, stood in line, endured the heat, and then waited through the late arrival in an effort to ask Trump a question, only to be put off and watch him sway back and forth to ‘Ave Maria’ for 38 minutes? It was their chance to talk to their candidate, their dream date, their latest god-on-Earth.

I’m surprised people didn’t leave, but it seems as though he kept suggesting they’d get back to questions after a few songs so they sat it out only to discover that, once again, like all things Trump, the promises flowed freely, but the follow-through never happened…

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If you’ve been paying attention, you know that most red states are doing everything they can to rig the election in favor of their guy. (All the while, SCREAMING about how the left is trying to rig the election. See how that works? EVERY Republican accusation is an admission.) In Georgia’s case, Trump toadies have gone to great lengths. They made a rule requiring all ballots be HAND-counted starting on election day. THAT would have been slow. Very slow. Slow enough to feed disinformation into the system and create an illusion of issues. But it would only be an illusion.

Georgia also recently made a rule that said they didn’t have to certify the outcome of the election if they didn’t want to. Well, they dressed it up prettier than that, but that’s what it boiled down to. If Harris wins, we don’t have to certify. We’ll cite “anolo… amonlo… alamos… irregularities.”

Fortunately, Trump hasn’t destroyed EVERYTHING, yet, and an honest judge has blocked BOTH of those new rules. The judge didn’t toss the rules. He just said they had been put in place too closely to this election so they MAY apply later – he is still going to rule on that part – but they can’t be used this election. According to Georgia state law, the election board MUST certify by a given date and time. Hand counting would take too long and they can’t dawdle on certification.

It’s funny, Georgia Republicans seem to know that if they can’t cheat, they can’t win…

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“Oh, hey, do you want dramatic?”
“No, not really.”
“You sure? This is pretty good.”
“I’m pretty sure I’m going to regret this but, okay.”
“Have you followed the thought-thread?”
“Oh, God…”
“No, really. Consider this: Most Americans know that if Trump ends up in the White House, it will mean the end of the country as he dismantles the Constitution, right?”
“Right…”
“But most of us end it there.”
“Isn’t that bad enough?”
“Yeah, it is, but think about this. Trump is planning to enact a program called ‘Project 2025,’ right?”
“He denies that.”
“Yeah, he says people are eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, too. His words don’t mean Jack Spritz. But when someone takes the time to make up a playbook, they intend to use it.”
“Didn’t Walz say that?”
“Yeah, he did, and he’s right. Part of that playbook involves rolling back environmental protections across the board. This, at a time when humanity is sitting precariously on a tipping point in the climate change battle. At the EXACT time we desperately NEED to be doing more, Project 2025 insists it’s time to do far, far less – in the name of profits, of course.”
“But that would be insane. It could wipe out humanity.”
“Ah, so you ARE following the thought-thread.”
“Yeah, just now. You’re saying that if Trump gets elected, it’s not only the end of a once-great nation, it will, very likely, actually be the end of humanity as corporations are free to pursue profit at any cost with no controls?”
“I told you it was dramatic…”
“Yeah, thanks. I don’t think I’m going to be able to sleep between now and the inauguration…”

Puzzlement…

by MyBaconPress

He goes to Springfield Ohio and tells them about the pet eating. It’s not true, but Springfield MAGA will vote for him anyway.
He goes to Aurora Colorado and tells them about the gangland takeover. It’s not true, but Aurora MAGA will vote for him anyway.
He goes to California and tells them California sucks. That’s not true, either, but California MAGA will vote for him anyway.
He claims schools are helping kids get sex change operations without parental permission and, amazingly, in ONE DAY! That’s absolutely not true, but MAGA will vote for him anyway.
Did you hear that Trump tried to withhold disaster relief aid for states that didn’t vote for him? What a petty piece of…um, work. White House staffers had to show him that he was harming RED voters before he agreed to send aid. That one IS true, but no matter. MAGA will vote for him anyway.

As it happens, Trump has a real advantage in this election. He’s not constrained by anything restricting – like truth. He gets to say anything he wants to say, at any time, about anybody and it just never matters to MAGA. They dismiss his lies as “just Trump.” And it IS “just Trump.” Trump never tells the truth (unless it somehow serves him), but instead of counting that against him, they just dismiss the lies and overlay the Trump they’d prefer to see. That might be anything, and, often, it is.

That means Kamala is actually running against a specter, a phantom, an illusion. She sticks to the truth and runs a traditional campaign while he blathers whatever pops into his head in the moment and pretends to be whatever they want him to be – and they LOVE him for it. No, they LOVE the qualities they make up and assign to him. They simply DO NOT see the difference. There really ARE none so blind as those who WILL not see.

When I listen to MAGA describe the utopia that was under Trump, I throw up in my mouth, a little. There’s not one piece of legitimate information out there, not ONE, that backs up the claim that all was well under Trump. But don’t try to tell MAGA. They know what they know and they’re not going to let facts get in their way.

Trump benefited from Obama’s economy for a long while after taking office. Failings started creeping in as he started taking action. (He single-handedly decimated the American Soy bean trade.) Then he let Covid run rampant for political reasons and killed over a million Americans. Do you know which segment of the economy thrived while Trump was in office? The segment the provided the refrigerated trailers hospitals used to stack all the bodies that were piling up. Remember that?

After his attempted coup, when he finally left office, the economy was flat-lined. Only the most important workers, mostly the lowest-paid, menial workers, were still working. As a direct result of Trump’s failures, this country was literally in the worst shape she’s been in since the Great Depression. That’s HARDLY Utopia – and those are just the facts.

The current polling says Trump is not only even with Harris, he’s pulling ahead in some places. How? How does that happen? Look, I know MAGA glorifies his name and his deeds but the rest of us? We know better. So how is he gaining on Kamala? One answer I know is that there are always some “Never Trumpers’ who manage to find their way back to Trump, after all, so there’s going to be some gain from that.

But those were fringe MAGA to begin with. They buy the stories to a degree but they’re not all in. Trump’s antics seriously turn them off – but they just can’t quite bring themselves to vote Kamala and they DO intend to vote. So, they’ll hold their noses and pull the lever for Trump. They figure a lying incompetent is better than a Democrat. How dumb is that?

But many of us on the left were planning to do the same thing for Biden. The difference? I submit that, despite MAGA lies, Biden has had a pretty successful Presidency. Perfect? No, of course not. But there aren’t 18-wheeler trailers stacked high with dead Americans parked outside of every hospital in the nation, so there’s some improvement shown there.

Yesterday, I posted a bit about all the various and sundry ways Trump fits the Biblical description of the Anti-Christ. Maybe THAT explains why people continue to support him. Nothing else does. Of course, if he IS the Anti-Christ, he’s bringing cheating metaphysical energy with him and, theoretically, he can’t lose. If you think about it, MAGA is literally about to unleash hell on Earth…

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“Hey, did he leave office or not?” I get that argument from MAGA whenever the topic of January 6th comes up. Americans who know, suggest from time to time that Trump tried to stay in power illegally through a coup. MAGA responds by pointing out that he DID, in fact, leave office on January 20, 2021, which is true.

But their meaning is that leaving office is proof that Trump never even tried to steal the office. It isn’t, and the position is just stupid. Here, let me blow that one up for you. DID Hitler try to take over all of Europe and wipe out all the Jews? I say he did. For their argument to hold water, MAGA has to hold that, because he failed, he didn’t even try. You’d have to ask the 6 million murdered Jews or any one of the 60 million people killed during WWII to know for sure, I guess.

Failure is NOT proof there was no attempt…

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Rejecting Israel’s position doesn’t mean I automatically support Hamas or Hezbollah. Put THIS in your pipe and smoke it: I think BOTH sides are wrong. There, how’s that? I don’t approve of the Hamas attack on October 7th. I don’t approve of Israel’s “response.” I understand Hamas started the current shooting. I also understand Israel has extended and now expanded this damned little war for their own purposes.

How far back do you want to go? I know that Jews and Arabs lived side by side on that land for centuries. (The Arabs weren’t yet Islamic. It didn’t exist.) I accept and hold to this day, the Jews NEED a state of their own. When Israel was created, Arabs were forcibly removed from land that had been owned by Arabs for generations. The Arabs in question were “relocated.” Just…forced out. The Palestinians have NEVER accepted that situation. I’m not sure they hate Israel. I’m pretty sure they hate what Israel has done to them.

So who “started it?” The Palestinians who fought back after being forcibly removed, or the Israelis who did the forcible removal in an effort to create their home state? I mean, really, this region is a mess and has been since Britain decided to stick their noses in. I’m not sure one could make a final, certain case that one side is wrong and one side is right.

But I’ll tell you this; I think BOTH sides are wrong to keep turning to guns, rockets, and bombs to try and make their point. The ongoing killing isn’t going to get anybody anywhere…

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…

The Pampered Progeny of Privilege…

by MyBaconPress

Kamala went on Stephen Colbert’s ‘The Late Show’ and had a beer with Stephen. Trump’s campaign went nuts. A Trump campaign spokesperson, Steven Chung, said, “Kamala drinks a beer to show Americans how relatable she is, but she ends up looking like an out-of-touch elitist trying to gaslight everyone into thinking she’s one of them.”

Kamala, who was raised middle class, is “trying to gaslight everyone into thinking she’s one of them” but the pampered progeny of privilege, the guy raised in wealth and luxury and who was given huge piles of money before his third birthday, that guy, is the REAL “down-to-Earth” guy to whom every working man should relate? Yeah, that makes sense…

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Can we all just agree, please, that Marjorie Taylor Greene is NOT a smart person? I mean, falling for standard MAGA mumbo-jumbo is one thing, but MTG falls for some of the weirdest conspiracy theories one can imagine. Jewish space lasers, anyone?

And now, she’s certain that “they” can control the weather. No word on who this mysterious “they” might be, but take her word for it, “they” are probably Democrats. She’s pretending Hurricane Helene hit the area it hit because Democrats wanted the storm to hit there to make it harder for Republicans to vote. Please do NOT inquire as to how Democrats in the area remain unaffected and free to vote as they wish. That would be VERY inconvenient. Otherwise, that storm makes it harder for EVERYONE to vote and it really loses steam as “an attack on cons.”

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Even when I want to, it’s just impossible to NOT write about Trump. That guy is just unbelievable. He’s out on the campaign trail, pretending that FEMA money has been commandeered by the Biden administration and is being misused to house illegal immigrants.

As it happens? That’s not true, BUT…he didn’t just make it up. What he DID, was…remember. He remembered when HIS maladministration stole FEMA money to house undocumented immigrants. Then, as is standard in MAGA land, he simply accuses the other side of doing the thing HE actually did.

Dear MAGA: If you think stealing FEMA money and using it to house illegal immigrants is a terrible thing that warrants withholding one’s vote from the offending candidate, remember that it was TRUMP who did that, not Kamala. If you were willing to not vote for Kamala because you thought she did that, then you shouldn’t vote for Trump because we all KNOW he did that…

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Trump spends a lot of time on the campaign trail pretending he gives a rats tail about the American people. He commonly says that he always puts the American people first. Does he, though? Let’s take a closer look at just one opportunity to put the American people first and how Trump chose to address that opportunity.

“I don’t want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you.” That’s a quote from Russia’s Putin to Trump, AFTER the traitor Trump gave him several Covid-19 testing machines, according to Bob Woodward’s new book. These aren’t just the test kits the government sent to everybody for free. These were special machines that could detect Covid in a matter of minutes.

At the time, the US was struggling to meet demands for equipment to battle the illness. Trump sent a bunch to Russia, to Putin. Hey, what are friends for? So, yet another example of Trump saying he puts America first, then actually putting America second, prioritizing the needs of Americans AFTER the needs of his buddy Putin. As it happens, actions speak louder than words. And MAGA wants to send this guy back to the White House? I wonder what favors he’ll do for Putin in the second round?

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Trump gets invited to participate in an interview on ’60 Minutes’ and, initially, agrees. Then he finds out the interviewer, Leslie Stahl, intends to ask real questions that require real answers. Of course, that’s unacceptable to him, so he leaves. No ’60 Minutes’ interview if the questions are going to be hard – or fact-checked. I ask again, what does it say about a person who complains about being fact-checked? If one is dealing in facts, checking shouldn’t be an issue.

As it happens, Kamala was also invited to participate in an interview on ’60 Minutes’ and, being braver, smarter, and stronger than Trump, agrees – and then sits through the thing, answering the questions about the border, her economic plan, and charges that she has changed some positions.

So…quick review: Trump agreed, then chickened out and walked away, mostly because the interviewer was focused on the truth. Harris agreed and sat through the whole thing. So, of course, Trump attacked her for the worst interview ever. He insisted she didn’t know what she was talking about. He thinks his lies about the administration not helping victims of Helene will cause voters to vote against her but I suspect the reality of the help that has actually arrived, despite Trump’s claims to the contrary, might even HELP her in the campaign.

Kamala did what Trump couldn’t do. She sat for an interview that was NOT made up of softball questions and stayed through the whole thing. Trump cowered and ran – so naturally, he has to attack her. It’s just his way. He doesn’t DO anything. He just pretends. And MAGA, dutifully, pretends with him. It’s really weird…

The Long Run…

by MyBaconPress

This is just a feeling. I haven’t done a deep dive. I keep seeing moves Gavin Newsom makes and thinking, “He’s moving right.” It kind of makes sense. With Kamala’s rise in fortunes, Gavin has been moved to the back burner in the Democratic Party. He clearly had his eye on the White House in 2028. But with Kamala suddenly becoming the nominee, she would likely run in 2028 as well, and the Democrats won’t back anybody against her. In fact, other Democrats will specifically be told to stand down if they try.

Newsom is 56 years old. He’ll be 64 at the end of two Harris terms (should that be the way it works out.) That might be seen as getting up there, a bit, in years. If he stays a Democrat, he has to wait until 2032 to mount a run at the White House. Maybe he needs to move right and try to run as a Republican? (I don’t really think so. I just don’t know what he’s doing.)

As I indicated, it’s only a feeling. He still says all the right things about Democratic governance and, realistically, the cons have spent years vilifying Gavin Newsom. The idea that he could gain their good graces seems like a stretch to credibility. But I continue to be an “actions speak louder than words” kind of guy and the things Newsom is DOING are speaking more loudly, to me, than the words he’s saying.

Let’s just call it a…concern…

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Recently, the NFL changed it’s kickoff rules. They had a combined goal: they wanted to see more returns but they want to reduce impact of collisions during kickoffs. I support the new rule for it’s protection efforts and it DOES seem to be increasing the number of returns as well.

But it’s weird seeing all those players just standing there waiting for the ball to hit the ground or be fielded by the returner. I feel like the rule needs one, final tweak. The NFL should require all the players on the lines, both lines, in unison, to shout “One Mississippi, Two Mississippi, Three Mississippi” before moving. Call it an homage to three-on-three street football played by kids everywhere. (At least, it used to be…)

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How frustrating it must be to be Trump/Vance. JUST when they thought they were going to enjoy a little economic upheaval, thereby giving a boost to their flagging campaign, the Dockworkers suspended their strike. Work will continue, goods will continue to flow. No economic upheaval to tout on the campaign trail.

No biggie, really. They’ll just keep making things up and MAGA will just keep drinking it down. Apparently, lying can be a BIG advantage – but it also has consequences…

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I know this is unkind and I don’t mean to be unkind but I find myself wondering how all of those red folks I spent years arguing about climate change with feel, now that “climate change” is smashing right through their doors, destroying their towns, and killing them? When a natural disaster occurs in a blue state, you can bet your bottom dollar some televangelist will come on television and claim it’s ‘God’s wrath’ for their sins. (‘Wrath’ actually being one of the Seven Deadly Sins…)

So, are the states in the southeast corner of our once-great nation now experiencing a little of ‘God’s wrath’ of their own from the hurricanes? Would I STILL get arguments that climate change is a hoax from people who live in Florida or the Carolinas? Sadly, I suspect I would. Some people simply refuse to learn.

But we were warned. Experts – people who study these things their entire lives – told us this is what we should expect if we do nothing. Because a certain crowd could form fraudulent sentences, we did nothing. Or, at least, we didn’t do enough. Now, we’re reaping the whirlwind. Literally. Why, it’s almost as if experts DO know more than web-surfers.

I’m sorry. I understand that, above all, these are human beings (and animals and other living things). They need help and I support doing all we can. It’s one of the benefits of our large, powerful government. You know, the one those very self-same people are always saying should be dismantled? Yeah, that one. I guess they’ll get back to dismantling it after they’ve received their bailout checks – and they ARE getting help, despite the continuing lies from the right.

Florida is about to be hit by a Category 3 hurricane. This, right after Hurricane Helene swept up the coast, killing and destroying as a Category 4 hurricane. You’d think those folks would have had more concerns about climate change, in view of the fact that they’re in the crosshairs of hurricane after hurricane. But no. They wanted to win a political battle – and they did.

Hey, congratulations on your “victory!”

I apologize again. I know it’s wrong and I’m working on it. The schadenfreude I’m feeling isn’t really overpowering my humanity, but it’s very definitely there. As it happens, one can lie all they want to, but they can’t ignore the consequences of their lies, nor the reality they denied. My heart goes out to every person who lost something or someone in these storms – or will lose out yet. But I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t noticed how their lies have “served” them in the long run…

Nobody Lies Like A Conman…

by MyBaconPress

“The rules were, you guys weren’t going to fact-check.” Oops. That was a Vance misstep in the debate. Not to think it, but to say it out loud. How does “you guys weren’t going to fact-check” NOT translate to “I need to lie to get anywhere?”

Of course, he doesn’t care about lying. He said in an interview that if he has to lie to get people talking, then he’ll lie. Except, won’t that have people talking about the lie or what an effing liar you are? How is that beneficial to the political discourse? I mean, I can see how it benefits YOU, personally, but how does it…?

Oh, I see. Never mind…

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Trump is STILL obsessed with trying to prove nobody leaves his rallies, even as video floats around of people leaving his rallies and reporters interview people leaving the rallies to find out WHY they’re leaving the rallies early. Primarily, the interviews suggest people leave because Trump is usually late to take the stage, they don’t like the length of his speeches, and they don’t like his rhetoric. (That’s from the interviews.)

One of Trump’s spokespeople, Karoline Leavitt, claimed it’s not true that people leave and that Trump’s rallies are the “biggest political events in history!” That’s yet another example of MAGA not knowing their history. Hitler’s Nuremberg rallies, anyone? Anyone?

Isn’t it interesting that the two most reviled people in history, Hitler and now Trump, are BOTH so obsessed with having the biggest rallies? They BOTH insist that nobody should love anybody more. “Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” indeed…

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Trump says the GOP is now the party of the working man and unions? Trump’s plan includes tax cuts for the rich and higher cost of living for the working man. How is that the “party of the working man?” Trump was giving a speech at one of his rallies and he said, out loud, to working people, that he hated to pay overtime, so he just didn’t pay it. Sure, he owed it according to the law. He just didn’t pay it – because he didn’t WANT to. HE said it, not me.

He was also quite specific that he doesn’t use union workers if he can avoid it. How is that the party of unions? That STILL seems anti-union, to me. You know what? I think I’m going to believe the plans they have written down (Project 2025 and Agenda 47) and not the words (or other sounds) coming out of his mouth. He’s a known liar. But he has a playbook and, like Tim Walz pointed out, one doesn’t make a playbook if they don’t plan to use it.

He’s just trying to tell you what he thinks you want to hear. He’s been doing that a lot recently. He’s promising anything, everything to everybody in an effort to convince them he’s on their side. He’s not on anybody’s “side” but his own. He’s not trying to help, he’s trying to deceive…

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Okay, I have a question. How come Israel is the only group involved who “has a right to defend themselves?” Israel was attacked on October 7, but they weren’t “innocent victims.” Israel has been engaging in Micro-aggression since it’s founding, what with all the settlements, legal and otherwise being quickly built and occupied.

But still, the logic just doesn’t track. Hamas attacks Israel, Israel has the “right to defend itself.” Israel attacked Syria but the warning was, don’t strike back because Israel has the right to defend itself. Israel attacked Iran but the warning was, don’t strike back because Israel has the right to defend itself.

If Israel has the right to defend itself because Hamas turned to weaponry, doesn’t Syria have the right to defend itself because Israel turned to weaponry? Doesn’t Iran have the right to defend itself after Israel turned to weaponry? Israel seems to be the only group with a right to defend itself because it has a big, bad bully of a bodyguard in the US.

Israel and the US are NOT on solid moral ground in this whole thing. Setting up an obvious double-standard isn’t going to convince me of the righteousness of their cause. What a freakin’ mess…

Joffrey Knows No Bounds…

by MyBaconPress

I realized last night that I’m watching the battle between Donald Trump and Jack Smith play out like I watched ‘Game of Thrones.’ Two great houses, each working to bring down the other. One makes a move, the other makes a counter-move. Each week, we, the viewers, tune in to see this week’s plot twists. This version doesn’t have nearly as much nudity but, having seen the cast fully dressed, I think that’s probably preferable in the vast majority of cases.

House Trump is known to be scoundrels, criminals and layabouts, wreaking havoc on the world around them and they command a huge army. They represent Pride, Envy, Greed, Lust, Avarice, Wrath, and Sloth. The patriarch of House Trump has committed numerous egregious crimes and must be held accountable. In an effort to avoid the dungeon, the patriarch of House Trump is attempting to usurp the throne.

House Smith is honorable, faithful, and true. They enforce laws of the king by chasing and prosecuting wrong-doers, and they command a huge army of their own. The patriarch of House Smith is a MASTER of the law. He and his house understand the details on a level most houses can simply wonder at. It has been the responsibility of House Smith to protect the realm since it’s founding.

When the story opened, House Trump was caught, red-handed, committing a wide variety of crimes. House Smith stood up to pursue justice, but House Trump was in a strong position. With so much power under their control, House Trump had quietly slipped loyalists into positions expected to help the House repel any efforts of the forces of good. Now, House Trump has loyal followers everywhere. Many are in disguise and one doesn’t know from where they’ll jump out until they jump out.

House Smith relies on the processes and procedures they know, but find themselves constantly thwarted by House Trump allies. House Smith is unaware of the depth of corruption House Trump has already installed and finds themselves being stalled by the very people who are supposed to be supporting them. Many of the lower houses sworn and expected to support House Smith attack House Smith from the shadows. House Trump benefits. House Smith must constantly watch their backs.

Early in the season, House Trump had all of the advantages. House Smith made moves to bring House Trump to justice but House Trump called in favors and turned to lackeys who stood up for House Trump. Several skirmishes have taken place but none have been decisive. The action has been the behind the scenes stuff, the plotting of the primary characters.

In a recent episode, with the help of a flagrant betrayal of House Smith from another great House, House Roberts, House Trump had thought they had secured a victory that would lead them to their goal, the throne. It appeared as if, after a stunningly unexpected flanking move by House Roberts, House Smith had no army left. The attack had seemed devastating. (Hell, I thought the show was over.)

If the patriarch of House Trump can make it to the throne, he can eliminate House Smith once and for all. As king, the risk to his house will be behind him and nothing can stop him from his rampage of destruction and pillaging. Wildfire for all. The damage to the realm will be unimaginable. But first, he has to win the conclave to reach the coronation and there is a FAR more popular claimant to the throne, House Harris. There are rumors the current king, House Biden is directing House Smith from the shadows in support of House Harris but there’s no evidence to support that specious claim.

The House Trump patriarch CAN achieve his goal through legal means, but he needs to convince people he will be a king of the people, despite all of the evidence to the contrary. Many have flocked to his banner, taken in by stories he tells them. He promises every house will have a dragon and a barrel of gold, and all things will be perfect – and a huge number of the small folk actually believe him. They simply ignore his penchant for flaying people alive. His stories make them feel good.

Already, he has a coup built in, just in case the first, legal way fails. Some of his henchmen have already cleared the way for him, should it become necessary, and House Roberts had managed to put his legal troubles on hold, making it easier to deceive the people who believe in House Trump. Can House Trump get to the conclave and, through deception and machinations, win it?

Meanwhile, House Smith has been working behind the scenes trying to get some upper hand. Everywhere they turn, they find House Trump loyalists standing in their way. People who SHOULD BE supporting House Smith are inexplicably supporting House Trump, often covertly. House Smith has been scattered to the winds and nobody knows for sure who’s still alive and who has been killed. For much of the season, House Smith has seemed in disarray. The House Trump loyalists will do anything, sacrifice anything, to help House Trump in every way they can. Nevertheless, the law persists and House Smith has mastery House Trump lacks.

In this week’s episode, we saw House Smith make a masterful move in the battle. Nobody saw it coming. As the conclave approaches, House Trump was smugly ignoring potential legal hurdles because well-placed loyalists (House Roberts) had interfered with House Smith efforts. But House Smith doesn’t give up. Even as House Smith faces ruin, they keep their honor and they have been working behind the scenes to come up with a new challenge to the legitimacy of House Trump’s claim to the throne.

This week, House Smith unveiled their new challenge, a new indictment, free of the details House Trump’s Special Court had tried to kill. House Smith can still go after House Trump because the rules the Special Court set weren’t as strong as they had hoped and House Smith is very, very good at what they do. It was a major blow to House Trump but only moves forward if House Trump loses the conclave.

House Trump was very upset this information has been revealed. House Trump fears that if people realize the truth about who and how they are, some of that support may abandon them. They won’t. The lower houses supporting House Trump are there out of fear or obligation, not loyalty. Knowing their liege is a deceitful troll won’t move them because it can’t. If they take their banners elsewhere and then House Trump wins, House Trump will seek revenge and those lower Houses fear destruction.

Meanwhile, House Smith suspects that SOME House Trump supporters are being forced to bend the knee to House Trump against their will. They believe that if House Smith can make one decisive move, some of those supporters will fall away, happy for the opportunity to be free of House Trump. If it looks like House Smith has a fighting chance after all, some of those Houses might even return to the banner of House Smith.

We’re waiting for next week’s episode to find out how House Trump responds to House Smith’s latest move, but we know the show is set up as a limited series set to run through January so whatever plot twist is introduced, it won’t be a final move. It can’t be. They’ve got to fill hours between now and January. This season ends with the conclave and they go straight into the next season right away, the after battle. The conclave is important but the after battle is where the action is expected to be.

So far, it’s been very exciting, even stressful. EVERYBODY is talking about it. Everybody has an opinion. SO MUCH is riding on the outcome. The viewers know, House Smith isn’t guaranteed to win this thing. The writers seem to take an almost gleeful joy in NOT giving the audience anything they expect at any time. The situation is rigged against House Smith but not completely overwhelming. House Trump got a head-start, giving them an early advantage.

House Smith has appeared on it’s heals more than once, but keeps battling back. House Trump has tremendous advantages right now, but neither side can get a true upper hand. If House Smith wins, the land is saved. If House Trump wins, we can only hope for mercy from the Old Gods and the New. Most of the nation is pulling for House Smith, but House Trump commands a huge army.

If House Trump wins, the nation falls into crime and disrepair. Our status as a world leader is over and we become a world pariah and laughing stock. The patriarch of House Trump assumes the throne, and like King Joffrey before him, will be free to do anything he wants. The patriarch of House Smith ends with his head on a pike but it’s not just House Smith that loses. It’s everybody. EVERY House, even those who have bent the knee. Joffrey knows no bounds and believes loyalty is a one-way street. It’s really that simple.