politics

The Defame Game…

by MyBaconPress

It’s always his mouth, isn’t it? Well, no. Apparently, sometimes it’s his fingers but MOST of the time, it’s his own, awful mouth that gets him in trouble. This one has a ‘coming-home-to-roost’ feel, though. In the NY fraud case in which Donny inflates and deflates values depending on how his answers affect him financially, one of the things that seems to bother him the most (weirdly, really) is that, officially, his Florida not-a-home-because-he-swore-it-wouldn’t-be is worth $18- to $21-million dollars. That’s in the record.

He is SO obsessed with that one point, it caused him to write one of his biggest hits, the classic, ‘Mar-a-Lago Worth A Lot!’ He does it at every show, without fail. Of course, like many of his standards, it’s an epic and wandering bit. By now, we all know the chorus:
  ’Mar-a-Lago, worth ten times!
  I be hassled by those Slimes!
  It sell fast, 1 point 8 billion!
  Who knows? Maybe more, a trillion?’

Yeah, catchy. The thing is, the value of Mar-a-Lago is set by the county assessor’s office based on, you know, an assessment… and, apparently, a bit of negotiation between the county and the property owner – Donny – who actually got the county to lower their original assessment. It lowered his property tax, you see. EXACTLY what he’s being charged with in New York. The point is, Mar-a-Lago is officially valued at $18 – $21 million dollars but he keeps insisting, based on his muse, I guess, that it’s worth $1.8 Billion, minimum.

But that’s not the story I wanted to tell you…

The story I wanted to tell you involves his OTHER New York civil trial, in which he’s already been found responsible for raping Ms. Carroll. THAT one inspired an entire concept album that gave us a string of hits, including ‘E. Jean is Not My Lover,’ ‘I Never Even Knew Her’, ‘Not My Type,’ and ‘Isn’t That Marla?’ Of course, ‘Isn’t That Marla?’ isn’t as well known outside certain circles. For MY money, though, it was the ‘B’ side, ‘Unfortunately…or Fortunately,’ that sold that record. But I digress.

As you no doubt recall, the ruling in the E. Jean Carroll defamation trial was made a long, long time ago. He was ordered to pay $5 million dollars in damages. His minions coughed that up in about 20 minutes, though, so he didn’t give two figs. ”Please support Trump. He needs your help to win back the White House. Stop Joe Biden! MAGA! (Please make your checks out to the New York State Unified Court System, Attn: E. Jean Carroll.”)

Of course, he ran right out and started in on her again. So, she sued him again. Now the court is trying to decide how much is enough to shut this guy’s vicious, flapping maw once and for all. Donny’s team tried to downplay the damages and pretend she wasn’t harmed, so everybody should just forget the whole thing and go home. E. Jean Carroll’s team made their case that this guy is worth a LOT so the disgorgement needed to be substantial or he won’t even feel it and, therefore, won’t stop. TO that end, they presented, to the jury, Donny’s claims that Mar-a-Lago is worth $1.8 billion dollars. This is for deciding punitive damages, the “punishment” part.

Frankly I enjoyed watching Carroll’s team use Donny’s own lying words against him. I enjoyed seeing his braggadocio come back to bite him, rather than impressing everyone with how rich he is. I once wrote in these pages that I would like to see the county assessor’s office send him a letter telling him they’ve decided to use HIS valuation so here is the new property tax amount along with the back taxes he owes for shortfalls in the past. Mine was just a fantasy. Carroll’s team made it real. I laughed out loud.

When all is said and done, Donny has been ordered to pay $83.3 million dollars in damages. No, that’s wrong. The minions need to cough up $83.3 million dollars. Donny can’t be expected to pay. He’s got a writer to defame…

Cognition…

by MyBaconPress

I read this in a Huffpost article called ‘Donald Trump Challenged Nikki Haley To An ‘Aptitude Test’ And You Know What Happened.’ Donny had this quote: “In fact, when I heard the word ‘cognitive,’ you know, I’ve taken two of them now,” Trump continued. “I took one with Doc Ronnie, who’s now a fantastic, you know, White House doctor and a fantastic congressman from Texas. Admiral. The White House doctor. Jackson. Ronny Jackson. And he’s now a great congressman from Texas. I took one then, and I took one recently. I think the result was announced and it was, I aced it twice. I aced it.”

Trump added, “But I would say that, you know, I’ve actually called for a cognitive test for anybody running for president because I actually think that’s a good idea. It’d be nice to have an intelligent person be president.”

The first paragraph shows Donny’s ‘wander around’ technique of managing words he can’t say or sometimes an idea he can’t quite connect. It happens in nearly every public speech I’ve ever heard him give. He gets to a word and, for whatever reason, he can’t say the word. He keeps talking, though. He kind of verbally wanders around the word he’s trying to say, all the while riffing, freestyle, on what he meant to say, until he gets the word down or finds a replacement word, then goes back to his speech like it never happened.

You can see it in that first paragraph as he tries to recollect who he took the test from and who that guy is. It’s one of those, “Whose that actor? He was in… It was a wolf thing… He did… Uh, Jackman, Hugh Jackman!” In Donny’s case, though, it was more like, “I took it from a doctor. Who’s that doctor? He was the White House Doctor, what’s his name? He’s an admiral. Oh, Jackson, that’s it! Ronnie Jackson.”

Coupla things. 1 – Someone in his inner circle needs to try to make him understand, one does not “ace” a cognitive test. It’s more pass/fail. 2 – The last line of the second quoted paragraph suggests that Donny thinks he’s taking an IQ test when he takes a cognitive test. Which means he thinks the fact that he can still identify an elephant makes him a genius. 3 – Finally, he might want to STOP bragging that, twice now, someone has felt the need to have him take a cognitive test. TWICE!

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There’s a possibility that Alina Habba may have lied to a Federal judge. Nice, eh? One of the jurors in the E. Jean Carroll case wasn’t feeling well and there was some Covid concern. The judge, most likely, would have just replaced that member with an alternate and Donny would have been free to give his promised testimony the day before the New Hampshire primary.

But then Habba, Donny’s “lawyer,” said SHE wasn’t feeling well, either, and may have been exposed to Covid, so the trial was delayed. The thing is, she was later photographed out in public and at campaign events with Donny. She didn’t look sick at all.

Donny’s testimony, if he makes it at all, is most likely to be more of his current hit, “Oh, poor, poor me,” (assuming he can remember who he is long enough to get his self-pity into the record). I would GUESS it won’t amount to a hill of beans. It certainly is not going to off-set all the new evidence he keeps generating in the case. But here’s the thing; one does not get to “call in sick” as a “mental health day” when one is an attorney and a trial is happening. If she told the judge she was sick and she wasn’t? Federal judges tend to take ‘lying to a Federal judge’ seriously. Stay tuned…

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Okay, here’s exactly how badly MAGAGOP wants to stop immigrants from coming to America. Cons in Congress have been negotiating with the Biden administration. They’re holding hostage the funding for Ukraine and Israel until a deal gets hammered out on the southern border. It was a pretty “asshole” move but I already indicated it’s MAGA. The “asshole” part is implied and expected.

But now? With Donny’s win in New Hampshire, MAGAGOP has decided he’s got a lock on the nomination (duh…) and – get this – Donny wants to use the immigration “issue” in his campaign. If the two sides reach an agreement, he has less he can say. So MAGAGOP is turning sour on the deal. Moscow Mitch “the bitch” McConnell cleverly said, out loud where people could hear, “We don’t want to do anything to undermine him.” Like…make an agreement on immigration policy?

So, when one can simply set aside their oh-so-urgent, absolutely imperative, gotta do it NOW, issue for a little while in order to boost their preferred candidate’s campaign? I’ll tell you this: I really had believed the immigration issue was important to them. Now that it, too, has been revealed to be nothing more than a campaign wedge issue, I’m not going to worry about it too much any more.

(Shakes head) Effin’ cons…

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…

Corporations United, Citizens Disregarded…

by MyBaconPress

On January 21, 2010, the Roberts Supremely Kangaroo Court of the United States (SKCOTUS) issued their ill-fated Citizens United ruling. The court was bitterly divided, smart people vs conservatives. The thinking justices opposed the ruling. So, guess who was for it? Of course, it was the always-wrong cons – all the usual suspects. John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Samuel “pay to play” Alito, Clarence “give me money” Thomas, and Anthony Kennedy all ruled against America that day – and we, the people, have been paying the price ever since.

There used to be limits imposed on how much people could donate to politicians by the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) and, specifically, against corporations and unions from using their general treasuries to fund “electioneering communications” or radio, TV, or satellite broadcasts that refer to a candidate for federal office within 60 days before a general election and within 30 days of a primary election. (Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, or BCRA, Section 203) The thinking was that political donations should, properly, be viewed as political speech, but that some people can donate more than others, and if they donate enough, they can literally buy a candidate, so there was a cap. Everybody could donate if they wanted to, but nobody could donate over a certain amount. It leveled the donations playing field. It protected the little guy’s free speech.

Then a non-profit group of conservatives called Citizens United made a movie about Hillary Clinton. It was called ‘Hillary: the Movie.’ (You’ve got to keep it simple for a con.) It was a smear job on Hillary that basically said she was unqualified to be President. They wanted to show the movie just before the primaries in 2008 but the FEC said it violated Section 203 of the BCRA. Citizens United sued the FEC. They argued that Section 203 violated their First Amendment rights.

I never saw the movie. I doubt there was ever any intention of showing the movie or if anyone ever really cared. I suspect the movie was the vehicle necessary to get the case before the Kangaroo Court. ALL of the lower courts that heard the case had ruled against Citizens United. But the five aforementioned morons pretended that (they said this) independent spending cannot be corrupt and that said spending would be transparent. THAT, right there, is the danger to responding to one’s delusions instead of logic and reason. BOTH of those assumptions have proven (<–see? evidence!) false.

The very concerns the FEC had voiced about rich people buying politicians and elections have proven to be absolutely true and the delusional claims to the contrary have proven, not just false, but ridiculously, should-be-embarrassed stupid. They’re not, though. Embarrassed, that is. I suspect they knew they were lying when they dropped their “explanation.” They just had to offer some kind of cover story. The bribes had been paid, the ruling had to be made.

So, now, corporations have more “free speech” than I do…you know, being people as they obviously are not. In fact, corporations have SO much more “free speech” than I do, MY free speech simply cannot be heard over the din. (Yours, either.) So, do you know where the fraudulent “corporations are people” idea came from? It’s really irritating.

These days, Americans are all in a dither about whether a known traitor should be allowed to be President again. Is it possible to protect this once-great nation using the 14th Amendment, section 3? Well, it’s the self-same 14th Amendment that people point to in support of that stupid, stupid “corporations are people” idea. Well, not the 14th Amendment, itself. The 14th was just the law used to reinforce the idea that different people deserve equal protection.

The Equal Protection Clause has played a crucial role in major Supreme Court rulings involving interracial marriage (1967’s Loving v. Virginia), affirmative action (1978’s Regents of the University of California v. Bakke) and same-sex marriage (2015’s Obergefell v. Hodges). It was also the thinking behind Roe v Wade (1973), when the Court found that a woman’s right to an abortion fell within the zone of privacy protected under the 14th Amendment. (See? There WAS a time the high court worked to protect Americans…)

But it wasn’t really even the 14th! There was a case in 1886 called ‘Santa Clara County vs Southern Pacific Railroad.’ It was a tax assessment case (boring!) that has no real bearing on this subject, except that the final ruling was based on the 14th. BUT, the court reporter in that case added a hand-written headnote. It ostensibly quoted Chief Justice Morrison Waite as saying: “The Court does not wish to hear argument on the question whether the provision in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution which forbids a state to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws applies to these corporations. We are all of opinion that it does.”

So there it is, the thing that made corporations “people.” A hand-written headnote that MIGHT quote the Chief Justice but was never a formal part of the ruling. Oh, but it’s been TREATED as an official part of the verdict ever since and in 2010, the Roberts SKCOTUS used it – or misused it – to usurp individual American’s rights once and for all.

There have been plenty of people who tried to warn against the ‘people are corporations’ idea. Justice William H. Rehnquist wrote that corporations were “artificial” persons rather than “natural” persons, and that granting them the right to political expression could “pose special dangers in the political sphere.” He was right. Justice John Paul Stevens argued in his dissent to Citizens United that “Corporations…are not themselves members of ‘We the People’ by whom and for whom our Constitution was established.” He was right.

Soon after the ruling, then-President Barack Obama said in his State of the Union address that the decision would “open the floodgates for special interests—including foreign corporations—to spend without limit in our elections.” He was right, too. Please note, no effort was ever made by Congress, among the recipients of this beautiful and endless bounty, to correct the “error.” Go figure…

I’m getting ready to post my revised Constitution for your perusal. (I’m having trouble with WordPress making the jump points back and forth work properly.) One of the changes I recommend is found in my moving the Ninth Amendment to a kind of umbrella statement at the beginning of the Bill of Rights. It says, “Section 1:  – The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people, nor shall they be construed to apply to any entity other than individuals.

One sentence. A clause, really. But I’ll tell you this: it fixes a problem that threatens the very existence of the United States as we know it. Or, rather, as it once was and could be again – but isn’t now. Corporations own the country now. And we, the people, are just an afterthought…

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…

More MAGA Mania…

by MyBaconPress

I’m hearing a lot of talk about how Donny is going to dominate the Republican primary process. It seems true, to me. Then again, it’s true because the Republican party has been, essentially, taken over by MAGA. Sane Republicans left the party. Not all of them, but lots of them. When the party started bending the knee to Stinky Don, many people saw the extremism and didn’t want to be associated with it. Of course, they didn’t become Democrats. They’re still conservatives. They’re just not “burn the country down” conservatives, like MAGA.

But the Republican party tends to let ONLY registered Republicans vote in their primaries, and THAT’S the problem with conservatives leaving the Republican party. Of COURSE Stinky Don is best-positioned to win the nomination. He’s not being supported by the majority of conservatives, only the MAGA wing, the only segment that can cast votes in the primaries.

To me, that’s the real question. Will the conservatives who left the party and, therefore, were not allowed to voice their preference for someone other than trump, come out and vote for him, anyway? If you’re not MAGA, even if you ARE conservative, you can see that Donny is a criminal, a traitor, and an incompetent. I know the cons like to say it about Biden, but Donny seems to losing command of his faculties. MAGA can’t (won’t) see that, either. Will not-so-MAGA conservatives vote to return him to the White House even after knowing his intention to not leave again, ever? I’m not so sure. I hope not.

But I’ll tell you this: having to rely on conservatives for sanity is an increasingly lengthening long-shot…

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This is really key: MAGA will not compromise. Pretty much everything they want to do, they want in a “my way or no way” approach. Case in point? MAGA Mike, the Speaker of the House that managed to sneak into the job after the ousting of Mike McCarthy for making a deal with the Democrats, is on the verge of making a deal with the Democrats – and MTG is publicly calling for his removal from the Speakership. Why? Well, the deal isn’t her perfect dream. (It, simply, does not harm enough people…)

The thing is, politics is the art of compromise. Sure, it’s frustrating. There’s always something I’d like to see that gets left on the table at the end of the bargaining. But that’s usually true for both sides. That’s a compromise. MAGA sees compromise as weakness. They’ve decided to take a stand.

MAGA ALWAYS decides to “take a stand” when Democrats are in power. When Stinky Don was infesting the Oval, conservatives increased the national debt by $8 TRILLION dollars. They didn’t even bat an eye. You can look this up. The Republican party raises the national debt the most, not the Dems. Going back to Reagan, it goes up record amounts under Republicans, almost always.

In fairness, there was Obama. Bush 43 had left him quite the economic mess, what with two wrong wars caused by conservative panic and a crashed economy caused by conservative deregulation. Bush 43 had raised the debt a LOT but he did it “off books,” trying to hide the increases. One of the first actions of the incoming Obama administration was to count all the money 43 had tried to hide and it sent the debt soaring. Then Obama had to stimulate the economy Bush 43 had crashed and that cost a lot, too.

But that’s the thing, isn’t it? When Democrats raise the national debt, it tends to be because they’re trying to recover from the economic damage caused by Republicans. When Republicans raise the national debt, it’s almost always because of their precious tax cuts for the wealthy.

In THIS case, though, the cons just don’t want to fund the government because there’s not enough stuff in there to attack people coming in at the southern border. MAGA is perfectly happy to let Americans suffer (not themselves, of course) in an effort to make sure desperate people running for their lives suffer even more. And if “MAGA Mike” makes any kind of deal, any kind of compromise, with Democrats? He’ll go from being “MAGA Mike” to being a RINO in a heartbeat – and he’ll be out as Speaker. Lovely…

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MAGA reminds me of a LOT of things but I realized the other day, it’s NEVER anything good. Ever. Sometimes, they remind me of carnival hucksters. Sometimes, they remind me of Nazis. Sometimes, they remind me of whining little babies. Sometimes they grow up, but never more than, say, second grade. These people are paranoid, delusional, and LOUD. They remind me of the homeless guy walking down the street SHOUTING at his demons.

I’m often stunned at how deeply MAGA has penetrated our society. We wouldn’t (I hope) knowingly allow that homeless guy into the halls of Congress but he managed to get there anyway, in the form of MAGA. And there are several million people out there who want to be just like him. I really don’t get it…

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As every rational person knows, abortion and the overturning of Roe has been a deal-killer for voters from sea to shining sea. Republicans have been trying to run campaigns without talking about it. ”Hey, let’s all pretend we didn’t do that, okay?” Um, no. Thinking Americans KNOW you did it. Trying to downplay it, isn’t going to work.

Especially with Stinky Don out there taking bows for it. “For 54 years they were trying to get Roe v. Wade terminated, and I did it. And I’m proud to have done it.” Well, yes and no. Roe was one of those wedge issues politicians like to keep around but never solve. They’re great campaign tools but once they’re addressed and solved, what do they run on after? So they don’t. They just leave the issue out there. That’s why we have so many problems with obvious solutions that just never get resolved – candidates want to run on those “issues” again.. (I wrote a song about it. You can hear it, here…)

So, Republicans campaigned against Roe but never took the steps to actually remove it and Democrats campaigned in support of Roe but never took the steps to actually protect it. Until Donny. He just doesn’t understand subtlety. In his “culture war” he actually packed the High Court with enough ideologues to get the job done. They overturned Roe, and the cons have suffered ever since. People, even many conservative people, liked having the choice or, at the very least, understood the importance of access to medical care for such things. If you’ve been around the sun enough times, you remember, before Roe, the regular, heartbreaking news stories of so-called “back-alley” abortions – and the often horrifying consequences that came with them.

I think, Republicans haven’t won an election since (except where gerrymandering protects them, of course). So, the Republicans are all trying to ignore the abortion issue, acting like they don’t know HOW that happened, the overturning of Roe. Then comes Donny, ever the dumbass. ”I did it. I did it. Women across the country are going to suffer because of me for years to come. That was all me. I’m so proud of myself. Suffer, bitches…”

Yeah, Don, we know you did. We’ve been voting accordingly and I suspect we’re going to KEEP voting accordingly. So you just keep wagging your tongue on the subject. Do everything you can to remind people, it was Republicans who took rights from the American people, not the Democrats. Make sure they know you’d do it again and that you intend to strip MORE rights from Americans. Just keep talking…

MAGA Kneels…

by MyBaconPress

Okay, I kind of love this. Donny sued the NY Times over a story they did that he didn’t like. He thought he’d hit them hard in order to show what a brilliant tough guy he is. The Times published a story about the trumpster “wealth” and tax practices. Donny didn’t like it. So, he sued the NY Times, the reporters who wrote the story, and the story’s source, estranged niece Mary Trump for $100 million dollars. (Hey, a guy has to get money somehow…and he certainly isn’t going to earn it honestly…)

First the reporters, then the paper itself, were dismissed from the case. Of course, it was a complex case and, again, he was asking for $100 million. The problem? The story was essentially correct and laws protecting the free press kicked in. Now DONNY has to pay the NY Times and the reporters $400,000 in restitution over his frivolous lawsuit! (They’re still pursuing Mary – for now…) File a frivolous lawsuit in an attempt to get $100 million dollars and end up having to PAY $400,000? Priceless!

At this point, MAGA is going to have to start selling their cars to pay Donny’s penalties. He seems to be racking up punishments faster than MAGA can refill his coffers. If they don’t get busy, he might have to pay out some of his own money. (Heaven forfend!) Then, MAGA can sit around complaining that they don’t have any money and blaming Joe Biden for it. That’s not right, MAGA. You voluntarily gave your money to a con man and you keep doing it. You know what they say, ‘A fool and his money are soon parted.’ Excellent demonstration of the concept, I’ll give you that.

So, that’s $400,000 to the NY Times, $370 million to the state of New York, and maybe $150 million more to E. Jean Carroll. Remember, that’s just January. MAGA keeps whining about what the national debt will do to our kids. I think they’d better start paying attention to what their god-on-earth is doing to THEM…

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They won’t, though, pay attention to what he’s doing to them, I mean. The Iowa Caucus is coming up. Stinky Donny has a huge lead, despite the fact that he hasn’t campaigned as much as the others because he’s been choosing to go to court, trying to defend his indefensible criminal activities.

MAGA knows they’re voting for a criminal. They just don’t care. MAGA is in full-on delusional mode these days and the more evidence that comes out showing what a useless puke Donny is, the harder they fight to defend him. That’s some serious “irrational,” right there…

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In the hearing in the ‘House Committee to Harass Hunter Biden,’ Democrat Jared Moskowitz said, “You come up here and talk about Hunter Biden’s behavior, and you’re so disgusted, but the guy that you all kneel to associates himself with a pedophile.” (He’s talking about trump’s loyalty and devotion to Jeffery Epstein.) MAGA pretended to get angry at the suggestion that they “kneel” to trump. Snowflake Clay Higgins interrupted, “I kneel to Christ!” Uh-huh. Somehow, I doubt that. What I do NOT doubt, is that if Donny told you to kneel before him, you would.

And you might as well. You ALL kneel before him, metaphorically, all day, every day. Why pretend to be offended by something we all watch you do on a daily basis?

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I got scolded in social media for the way I think of MAGA. The person wrote, “…thank you for characterizing me and all MAGA the way you’ve been taught.” It’s true. I HAVE been taught how to think about MAGA – by MAGA!

MAGA pays Donny’s bills – because, they insist, the courts, and not the criminal, are corrupt. MAGA stays loyal to Donny despite his absolute, complete, and easily proven failures as President and the piles of evidence and charges against the guy. They insist upon their delusions and pretend to get furious with those who refuse to delude themselves along with them. I see them as abused wives explaining why they shouldn’t have “made him to do that.” NOBODY questions the idea that MAGA, any MAGA, any time, would kneel before Donny upon command, but to be outside MAGA and say so out loud? Oh, the huMANity!

Dear MAGA: if you don’t want to be lumped in with MAGA, don’t be such an effing MAGA. 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…

Suits and Laws…

by MyBaconPress

Here’s a name you likely wish you could forget: Ashli Babbitt. She’s the trump victim that got shot and killed during the J6 riot. She was trying to climb through a smashed out window into the House chamber. She was warned from the guy with the gun inside that he was going to shoot if they tried to climb through. She tried to climb through. He took the shot. On the up side, she won’t be charged with anything. (I should say, right up front, I’m extra irritated by Babbitt’s stupidity. She had been in the Air Force, my old service, and she made the AF look bad.) All she had to do to not be dead today, was what cons are always saying about black and brown people, “Why didn’t she just comply?”

MAGA tried to rehabilitate her reputation. They’re still trying. In their fantasized story telling about J6, she was just trying to direct the traffic of people. Aside from being in the building, she wasn’t doing anything anybody else wasn’t doing. The only problem with their story (and there’s ALWAYS a problem with their stories. ALWAYS.) is that video exists of the moment she was shot. I’ve seen it. She was clearly trying to climb through the window into the chamber.

So who are you going to believe, MAGA or your lying eyes? The reason I mention her is that her parents have filed a lawsuit against the US Government for defending itself from a violent insurrectionist. $30 Million dollars for Wrongful Death. Uh-huh. As it happens, one can file a lawsuit over just about anything if one can find a “lawyer” willing to do the work. What the suit tells me is that Babbitt’s family has bought into the whole reputation repair story and filed their suit based on MAGA lies, not the video. It also suggests the whole family was/is Q-Anon polluted and MAGA to the end. They must have been so proud of their traitorous daughter.

I’ll tell you this: I suspect, the government will simply show the video in court and, voila!, case dismissed…

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Doubled down? Tripled down? Quadrupled down? I had never heard of tripled down or quadrupled down but I’m watching the cons do exactly that right now. Idaho passed an anti-abortion law. It’s pretty complete. There are, technically, some exceptions but, apparently, you have to be carried in by angels (not “nice people,” actual angels. They have to show their wings as proof) on any day with a name that does NOT end in ‘Y’ to qualify. So, in effect, it’s a complete abortion ban. As you can imagine, people who prefer freedom have challenged the law and, no surprise, it has made it’s way to the SKCOTUS.

We all know, of course, how the kangaroos will rule. When it comes to enforcing the pretended dictates of their invisible super-friend, there’s no mystery left from this court. So, Idaho’s law will stand. THEN, other MAGA states will follow suit. All of this was the very predictable – and predicted – result of the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v Wade. These bans are already having disastrous results in people’s actual lives. Now Idaho has gone all-in. Why pretend? Cons LOVE ruining lives and this whole abortion question has been an absolute “God-send” (see what I did, there?) to them. At least, in their puny little “minds.”

I’m sorry for the troubles conservatives will cause women in the near future. These laws are going to rain trouble into people’s lives for years to come. Still, on balance? I think these laws, passed in individual states, are working against the Republicans more than helping them. In a very real sense, these evil laws will prove to be a good thing in the long-run. I’ll explain.

People are pissed off. Women, in particular, are really pissed off. As a group, that is. I’m sure one can find women who hate women as much as these men seem to hate women. Fortunately, the group of women who prefer freedom WAY outnumbers the group of women who want to punish other women. You know, for being sluts. Even if they’re raped.

The result of these rulings and laws is that women are coming out in droves to vote. Largely, they’re voting against the Republicans as a direct response to conservative restrictions. Ain’t that cute? Those little ladies want control over their own bodies. Republicans have lost election after election after election over the issue.

This horrifying development, of course, has been brought to you by Republicans and worse, MAGA. Stinky Don regularly brags – or he used to – about being the guy who packed the High Court with ideologues who hate women more than they love the law. Some of the higher functioning conservatives have realized the whole abortion thing is a loser for them but they’re not trying to stop the damage. They just think they shouldn’t talk about it. ”Hey, let’s not focus on that.”
“To hell with you, pal! We’re VERY focused.”

The thing is, since the SKCOTUS made their ill-fated ruling, the only way to put the lid back onto Pandora’s box (There’s a joke there, I just KNOW there is.) is with a Federal law mandating women’s privacy and freedom to make their own medical decisions and maintain absolute bodily autonomy. This, of course, is the law the Dems SHOULD have passed decades ago, instead of relying on a Supreme Court interpretation that could be, and now has been, overturned on a whim. Hopefully, maybe the Dems have learned their lesson and they’re now ready to step up for women. (Just like they did in de-scheduling cannabis. Oh. Wait…)

The thing is, Americans can’t pass such a law with cons controlling the House OR the Senate. We absolutely, positively have to vote out the cons in order to restore sanity. We’re going to have to stay engaged long enough to get it done. THEN, we’re going to watch the Dems very, very carefully. Nobody wants excuses. Americans from sea to shining sea want these cruel laws eliminated. But we HAVE to keep MAGA (and all other cons) out of government if we’re going to have a chance in the first place.

I doubt anyone has to explain the stakes to child-bearing women of voting age but do it anyway. Be like Taylor Swift and encourage young people to vote – for their own good. We, the people, of these United States can still fix this but we have GOT to get the Republicans out of Congress to do it. This is the year. Now is the time. Cast your vote (on paper). Vote for the Democrat of your choice but VOTE!

Not Working…

by MyBaconPress

Conservatives, even some MAGA, are starting to realize that this Congress, specifically, this House of Representatives has accomplished precious little during their recent period of control. I hear them talking in their media from time to time. They know it. Their only real concern is how the voters might perceive their do-nothing time in Congress. But they’re trying to do something now.

Help the poor? Educate the young? Address the homeless issue? Fund Ukraine? Why, don’t be ridiculous! They’re not going to get involved in any of those things. Instead, they want a pay raise. Yeah, you might want to read that again. The cons in Congress want more money for all that nothing they’re accomplishing. These lifeless pricks make $174,000 a year. That’s about $100,000 a year MORE than most Americans make. I’m referring, here, to Americans who work. Oh, and this is important. The Americans who DO work, are expected to accomplish things WHILE they work, or they are granted the “opportunity” to NOT work – permanently. Of course, the pay stops, as well.

Cons started the radical pay escalations of Congress a long, long time ago. They came up with a story: if you want the best people in Congress, you have to pay them accordingly. The money started going up, the quality of our Congress critters started going down. Turns out, maybe quality people go where the money is, but scoundrels ALWAYS go where the money is, and I think we can all agree, Congress sure has a LOT of scoundrels in it, these days.

That’s still their story, though. Better pay equals better people. The FIRST Congress of this once-great nation, the one that worked for Per Diem only (that is, no salary), set up the country and the economy. That was quite the accomplishment and, I’m guessing, a lot of work. THIS Congress, the highest paid in American history, does nothing useful. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zero. Zip. Diddly-squat.

Okay, in fairness, the Senate WOULD do things if the House would, but the House is focused on harassing a private citizen for political reasons as “retribution” for the legal troubles of their most recent and most criminal President. (Dear MAGA minds: The Democrats didn’t “do this” to Trump. Trump did this to Trump. You guys are (mostly) old. You remember Sammy Davis Jr singing, “Don’t do the crime, if you can’t do the time.” (You even filled in the rest in your minds, didn’t you?) All Donny had to do was run an honest business, not sexually assault women, not steal from charities, not steal government documents, accept electoral reality, and NOT try to overthrow the government, and he’d be fine…)

Anyway, that’s the same story they’re trying to float in order to get THIS raise as well. It’s the story they’ll tell. Nobody will buy it. They’ll vote for their own raise anyway. One of the things I changed when I re-wrote the Constitution was that Congress’ salary should be tied directly to the fortunes of the American people. First, they shouldn’t get to set their own pay. It should be tied to the median American income. If THEY want more money, they have to do better by the American people. Pretty simple really.

I’ll tell you this: if there was some way to stop them, I’d suggest it, but once they decide they want more and feel they can get away with it, politically, nothing can stop them…

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All right, I guess I’m obligated to note that this is the anniversary of Donny’s attempted coup, January 6th. I think we might want to mark this day on an annual basis, like the Brits do with Guy Fawkes Day. Fawkes was part of a crew that tried to assassinate King James I. The Brits celebrate the survival of the monarchy and we should celebrate the survival of the Constitution.

Meanwhile, MAGA is out there, trying to turn January 6th into their version of July 4th and they’ve done everything they can to downplay the assault on Congress. (That means they’ve lied about it a LOT!) Oh, it never happened. It was just an unauthorized tour of the Capitol building. It was just a peaceful gathering. Nobody died. The people who died killed themselves. There wasn’t a riot. The rioters were Antifa/BLM/crisis actors. But mostly, it never happened.

So…it never happened but when it did, it was somebody else? It was totally peaceful but the violence was caused by somebody else? Nice work, there, ‘party of personal responsibility…’

We, the people, absolutely have to remember January 6th, the day an underdeveloped megalomaniac tried to overthrow our government and install himself as dictator – and the evil weasel came FAR too close to succeeding…

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Here’s something to remember:

Talking to a baby is the same as walking into a spider web in this way: anyone who catches you doing it immediately knows what’s happening, and anyone who catches you doing it understands…