politics

Troubles With Conservatives…

by MyBaconPress

I saw a woman I like very much the other day. I hadn’t seen her in awhile and I don’t expect to see her again before December 25. I know she’s a conservative. As I hugged her, I wished her a Merry Christmas.

Look, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Joyous Kwanzaa, Super Saturnalia, Awesome Athiestica, I don’t care. But if YOU do, and I know your preference, I’ll tailor my well-wishes to you. Generally, I use ‘Happy Holidays’ because I don’t know who does what at any given moment and I intend to wish people the best of the season. Secretly, I think we should all use the real message, “Holy crap, we survived another one!” but I doubt it will catch on anytime soon.

When conservatives launched their war on the non-existent war on Christmas, insisting everybody say ‘Merry Christmas,’ lefties responded that ‘Happy Holidays’ covers them all. This seems to have set up a two-side thing but I don’t have loyalty to any of them. If I see you wearing a sweater with Santa, Rudolph, Frosty, trimmed trees, and snow – you know, to capture the glory of Christ’s spring birth – I’ll wish you ‘Merry Christmas.’ Your yarmulke is definitely going to inspire a ‘Happy Hanukah.’ Honestly? I’m not familiar with the symbols of other religions, so you’re going to get a ‘Happy Holidays’ but that’s lack of information, not aggressive anti-Christmas.

I’ll tell you this: Looks like it’s going to be another year with zero casualties in the Season’s Greetings War…

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Hunter got into more trouble. Tax troubles in California. Cons are certain Joe Biden is running interference for Hunter in his various cases and they think Joe should suffer because of Hunter’s misdeeds. They believe Joe is covering for Hunter because they KNOW that, given the chance, THEY would interfere to protect 45. They already have! It’s called projection. They know they would cheat, so they assume everyone cheats.

In a completely unrelated note (but is it?) rational people the world over are currently freaking out about the possibility that 45 might end up back in the Oval Room. (Apparently, it’s not an Office.) One main reason is the power of the President to issue pardons. Everyone knows (even the cons know) that if he gets back, Trump will pardon his henchmen and try to pardon himself for his and their crimes.

But wait! That means that if Joe wanted to run interference for his son, he could easily PARDON Hunter. But he hasn’t done that. Why, pray tell, would he tinker around the edges and never just solve Hunter’s problem? Nope, he’s letting it play out properly.

Another always-wrong conservative hypothesis bites the dust…

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This is your world on conservatism. A Texas woman got pregnant and, sadly, the fetus is not viable. It has a fatal chromosomal condition called Trisomy 18 and cannot survive. Doctors have warned that continuing the pregnancy could endanger the life of the mother and/or her future fertility. Texas, of course, is one of those “Suffer, Bitches” states and she had to sue to get permission to obtain an abortion. The judge in the case, Maya Guerra Gamble, has given official permission for the procedure.

It’s obnoxious enough that the conservatives inserted the extra (costly) step to the only viable choice this woman has but, hey, it worked out, right? Well, no. Of course not right. Because of the right. The Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, (go ahead, guess which party. I’ll wait.) has warned every doctor he can think of that he plans to take legal action against any/every medical professional who dares to help that woman.

Oh, for good measure, he has also threatened medical facilities in the area – just in case she finds a doctor who cares more about good medicine than partisan politics. In his letter to the facilities, Attorney General Paxton actually wrote (I’m not making this up) that Gamble was “not medically qualified to make this determination.” Ostensibly, AG Paxton studied law, not medicine. How is HE medically qualified to deny the judge’s motion? Oh, and wouldn’t Judge Gamble’s original decision have been based on input from medical professionals, specifically, doctors? I’m going to go out on a limb, here, and suggest that doctors are FAR more “medically qualified” than the AG. Oh, but evil never rests.

You see, the State of Texas appealed the ruling, asking the State Supreme Court to put an immediate hold on Judge Gamble’s ruling – which it did “without regard to the merits.” This is just cruelty writ large. This is no party girl who just wants an easy way out. This woman wants to be a mother. This is a tragedy in her world. There is no “baby” to protect. The fetus is not viable. Continuing the pregnancy puts the mother’s life and future fertility at risk. There is NO reasonable explanation for why these men – and you KNOW it’s men – are fighting this, except for their real reason for being anti-abortion in the first place, “That slut had sex and needs to be punished for it.”

I’ll tell you this: This is the world conservatives want for everybody, Americans first. If this kind of horrific nightmare is what you crave, you really should vote Republican. But if you prefer a better world for FAR more people, never, ever vote for any conservative. Those people have “issues” and they want to inflict as much damage as possible, as far and wide as possible, because of them.

Pointless Failures and Horrific Success…

by MyBaconPress

The Republicans wanted to make absolutely, definitely, for positively sure that anybody and everybody knew that THEY are the party of not trusting women to make their own reproductive choices. (Some of that “Freedumb” they’re always on about.) So they put up a GREAT BIG TENT, with a great big neon sign that read ‘Suffer, bitches!,’ and set Senator Tommy Tumorville outside as the barker.
“Um…It’s Tuberville.”
“Are you sure? He sure seems like a cancer. ‘Tumorville’ is FAR more accurate.”
“Don’t be a baby. It’s Tuberville. And it’s pronounced like a bath tub. Tuberville.”
“Oh, all right.”

Tuberville used his b.s. filibuster to block over 400 military promotions. Why? Well, because he’s a self-important blowhard who believes that he, and he alone should decide how the military works AND what women do with their bodies. When the Roberts Supremely Kangaroo Court took away a woman’s right to choose – after swearing under oath such a thing was Stare Decisis, legal gobbledygook for “settled law” they would never, ever touch, oh, nosiree – the military said they would reimburse any member who had to travel to another state for an abortion or for other reproductive services.

Tommy didn’t like that, so he attacked the military by holding up hundreds of promotions in the highest ranks, interfering with operations across the land. Even Republicans pointed out that none of the officers in question had anything to do with that reimbursement decision and none of the officers in question had or would have the power to change the policy. Nothing like taking the fight right to where it isn’t. (It is the way of the moron, Grasshopper…)

This went on for a long time. Cut to the end. On Tuesday, Tuberville finally, magnanimously “relented” – since he was about to be beaten, anyway, with a legislative maneuver – and lifted his blockade of promotions and almost immediately, 425 promotions were approved by the Senate. Because he’s still a petulant asshole, Tuberville is still holding up around 10 more, for four star generals.

There was a time in this once-great nation when left and right argued about government spending and came to some compromise. Now the Republicans have devolved to a point where they want to throw women and doctors in jail over medical procedures and that’s not even the worst thing they’re proposing and swearing to do to Americans. Never vote Republican!

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I guess if Kevin McCarthy doesn’t get to be Speaker of the House, he doesn’t want to be anything. Finally, something McCarthy and I can agree on. He shouldn’t be in Congress. Thankfully, he’s leaving. Despite our reputation, California has some areas that are BRIGHT, one might say blood-red (being conservatives) and McCarthy represents one of them, the Bakersfield area. That means his replacement will almost certainly be a Republican, but not until a special election so his seat might be vacant for awhile.

What with the ostensible George Santos “quitting” Congress in a huff immediately after being fired by Congress, the nutball contingent is getting smaller and smaller. If they’re not careful, they might accidentally allow Congress to get something helpful done.

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I’d like to take a moment, here, to congratulate the NRA, the conservatives, and the murderous mass shooters out there. Your efforts have paid off handsomely. It took TWO on Sunday, December 3, to get ‘er done but you rose to the challenge and worked it out, propelling the United States to a new, world record when it comes to the number of mass shootings in which at least four people died (not including the shooter) in a single year.

From now until the 31st, any more mass shootings will just be padding the stats. You’ve already set the new bar for next year, but raising it a bit means your record might stand for awhile. Meanwhile, all you cons better get to cleaning your weapons and stockpiling ammo. You’ve got a LOT of murdering to do to catch up to your fellows next year.

Sadly, I’m sure you’re up to it…

“They Ain’t Honest…”

by MyBaconPress

Have you heard about Georgia Republicans? They’re trying to create a “commission,” whose job it would be to “discipline and remove state prosecutors.” In the U.S., laws are written to apply to everybody, even a law aimed at a single person or group. The “state prosecutor” Republicans want to “discipline and remove?” Why, that would be Fani Willis, the Fulton County D.A. who brought charges against Donny for his alleged crimes against the United States (or in this specific case, Georgia).

Georgia Republicans don’t care that Donny’s a traitor. They love the guy. The Georgia State Supreme Court, basically, refused to issue a ruling, saying the work of District Attorneys is outside of their purview, which has stopped the commission for now. SO, the Georgia Republicans are trying to remove judicial oversight of their actions so they can proceed with their nasty, whiny commission anyway.

I’ll tell you this: NOTHING says, “We know he’s guilty” more loudly that trying to keep him from even being tried because you know in your shriveled little heart of hearts that he did what he’s accused of doing and if he goes to trial, he’s also going to jail…

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Well, sanity is available for the world’s viewing pleasure in the Middle East for the next four days. (Hurry! Only three days left!) They’ve taken a pause in the killing and dying to release hostages and bring in some humanitarian aid.

Not to worry, though. Even as the pause was being announced, Netanyahu made an appearance to assure the world this was just a pause and ONLY a pause and as soon as the agreed pause time was over, Israel would get right back to killing and bombing.

It’s like paying off an over-charged credit card. You pay it down and pay it down until you reach a point where, with one mighty push, you can pay it off! That’s how Netanyahu seems to me. He can see the end of Gaza, once and for all, with just one mighty push – and he’s planning to push hard.

But yeah, let’s focus only on Hamas rhetoric about pushing Israelis into the sea…

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I’ve decided I want to start a GoFundMe page. I’m trying to raise money to purchase guide dogs for the officials in the NFL. Normally, I’m a big fan of putting disabled people to work, if possible, but I think hiring blind people to officiate games may have been a poor execution of the concept. If it happens they’re not blind, there’s no rational explanation for the calls they’re making, week in and week out. At least, there’s no honorable, rational explanation.

You know what you can find on YouTube every week now? A summary of that week’s bad and questionable calls in the NFL. Every week. It wouldn’t be so bad if it was like, two or three plays but these videos are often as long as twenty minutes. Twenty minutes of bad calls, every week? And it’s not just me and the guy making the videos. The videos, themselves, offer no additional commentary but the broadcasters usually offer their own – and they tend to agree the calls make no sense and are clearly just…bad. Twenty minutes of “What the heck was that?” Every week. (As a sidebar: I’m expecting the NFL to crack down on broadcaster commentary any moment now. It doesn’t help when even the broadcasters are publicly questioning the questionable calls…)

It’s a very subjective area, though, exactly what the NFL counts on to get away with it. Sometimes, the videos show a call in one game that officials handle differently in another game. To me, that’s just a different set of officials, demonstrating that this is a tough thing to quantify. Bad calls have existed in every sport for as long as sporting has included officials. They are, after all, only human and mistakes happen. But I wrote at the beginning of this season that I suspected they would increase, now that the NFL has announced it’s “partnership” with Fan Duel, the sports betting web site. It seemed like tin-foil hat stuff, at the time, but just prescient now.

Gambling was removed from ALL sports in America (theoretically) when the 1918 Chicago White Sox got busted accepting bribes to throw the World Series. Yeah, the whole team, except for one player. The powers that be in the sporting world at the time worried that an association with gambling would hurt the integrity of their “product,” the games. Of course it does. Who cares who’s playing whom if the outcome is a foregone conclusion, decided in secret by a small handful of people?

I watch football to see the games unfold. Imagine the damage done to the overall game if it comes out that the games “unfold” in New York before they ever even start. It’s not like the bad calls have to change the outcome of the game, either, although they do that, too. Sometimes, in betting, all they have to do is control the spread and they control who pays whom and how much.

Okay, still tin-foil hat stuff. I have no evidence to prove the NFL is rigging games. All I can point to is the huge number of inexplicable bad calls that do, actually, change the games, an admittedly subjective measure, and how often those calls are happening. Combine that with the NFL’s now well-established, easily demonstrated, and sadly infamous greed, and the idea that the NFL might rig games to increase their own revenues cannot be dismissed as paranoia.

I’ll tell you this: I’d rather just watch the games play out naturally leading to an honest and fair outcome. But in this day and age, in this once-great nation, what chance does honest and fair have against a little more money in someone’s already overstuffed pocket?

Doing the Wrong Thing…

by MyBaconPress

Mega MAGA Mike the Johnson has started releasing video from January 6th. Lovely. The estimate is something like 44,000 hours of video. That’s a LOT, something like five years worth of time. The violent part of the insurrection Donny started lasted just over three hours. If you count the whole day, video could show up to seven hours including the violent rhetoric during the speeches in the ellipse, but I think they’re just video from the Capitol. So let’s think about this a moment.

How does one get 44,000 hours of video from a three hour event? Hell, Gilligan didn’t get 44,000 hours from his “three hour tour” and it went on for years. The answer is, it’s ALL the video from every camera in the Capitol, likely for most of the day. THAT means, in turn, the vast majority of what they have on video is empty hallways and normal, work-a-day stuff. I suspect it ALSO means that some clever sod could put together a map of the Capitol building based on the various camera angles. That seems like a bit of a security breech, to me, but it’s kind of off-topic from where I’m going with this.

The last time MAGA released some of the footage, we started seeing video of quiet hallways and normal business functions released by cons under headlines like, “What insurrection?” It’s easy, really. All you have to do is show the video where a crazy mob is NOT trying to break windows, smash doors, attack police officers, or anything else and pretend that’s all there ever was to see. A nothing-burger. Move along, Johnny, nothing to see here…

I’m very aware that there have been FAR more hours of video in the Capitol in which there is not an aggressively violent mob trying to murder the Vice-President of the United States and steal the election for dystopian Donny. The idea that one can show the normal stuff is in no way going to convince me that what I saw didn’t happen. But it WILL convince MAGA. But MAGA already works 25 hours a day to maintain their pretended beliefs so they don’t need no stinkin’ convincing.

So, in essence, nothing changes. Thinking Americans will continue to understand what actually happened in the Capitol that day and America-hating MAGA will continue to pretend it was just an unauthorized tour, reinforced by very selective showings from those videos. But I’ll tell you this: Any position one has to lie about to defend, doesn’t deserve to be defended…

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If you are, like I am, a victim of Pacific Gas and Electric (aka PG&E), you might be torch-and-pitchfork pissed off at their management (please leave the rank-and-file workers out of it), the PUC, and Governor Newsom right about now. This whole thing flows from conservative wrongheadedness about…well, everything, really, but in this case, business operations. In a nutshell, at some point, CEO’s began to be compensated with company stock, a practice once prohibited. The “thinking” was, if the CEO’s net-worth is tied to the stock value, he’ll do everything he can to increase the stock value. End of “thinking.”

That turned out to be true, in a horrifying way. See, CEO’s across the land realized that ANY stock increase made them richer, no matter how the increase came about. CEOs started decimating their companies, the content and quality of the services they provide, and the number of employees available to do the work. Most large corporations are trying for the ‘top-prices-for-as-little-as-possible’ model for the same reason: enhancing the CEOs take-home pay.

In the case of PG&E, they cleverly realized they could increase their bottom line – and, in turn, the stock price – by not maintaining their system. But PG&E’s “product” can be very, very dangerous, if not handled correctly. PG&E started deferring maintenance. It sounds very professional, doesn’t it, “deferred maintenance?” It means “we’re not doing the necessary maintenance anymore.”

The results were impressive. PG&E’s CEO made a killing, metaphorically. But then, PG&E’s “deferred maintenance” blew up a portion of San Bruno. PG&E deferred maintenance started the 2017 Tubbs fire that burned down a large portion of Santa Rosa, CA. PG&E deferred maintenance burned down Paradise, CA. PG&E deferred maintenance caused one fire after another. PG&E deferred maintenance killed many Californians, literally. PG&E deferred maintenance eventually got them sued, sued, and sued again. They lost in court, over and over. Now they owe billions of dollars in pay-outs to their victims. (California.) They’re not paying them, but they owe them. (It’s good to have connections and those connections are VERY well maintained…)

In an effort to stop the lawsuits, PG&E started “undergrounding” their electric lines. My whole life, I’ve wondered why they didn’t do that in the first place. The story was always the same: too expensive. Now? Not too expensive and a great opportunity to run a PR campaign showing how dedicated PG&E is to doing the right thing. “We’re undergrounding our lines – because it’s the right thing to do.” Fuck you, PG&E. You’re undergrounding your lines because you hope it will prevent future lawsuits and everybody knows it.

When the fines started getting handed down, we the rate-payers were assured (uh-huh) that we would not be on the hook for charges. The costs were to borne by PG&E and PG&E shareholders. The undergrounding of the lines PG&E should have been doing all along? That cost, too, was to be borne by PG&E and PG&E shareholders. But how does a company absorb all those payments without the CEO’s share price going down? I mean, if you actually hold the company responsible for their chosen actions, it risks a downturn in profits and, obviously, stock price. Can’t have that.

Each of those fires happened fast. People lost everything they owned fast. People lost their lives in fast-moving firestorms. But the payment? No, those are coming out slow. The repairs to the system we’ve all been paying to maintain for all of these years? “Hey, it takes time, we’re working on it. We’ve got PR commercials to make, you know.” Still, having to correct these horrendous choices (they call them “errors”) is costing the company money, as it should, but the company – and the shareholders – don’t like it. They’re trying to maintain shareholder value they created artificially by NOT maintaining their equipment in the first place – and they’re getting away with it.

This all gets very complicated but the short version is, PG&E is supposedly regulated by a group called the PUC, the Public Utilities commission. The PUC is presented as an independent body that oversees PG&Es operations but in reality, the PUC is owned and operated by PG&E to put a nice, clean face on PG&E’s crimes and deadly greed. What that means is that whenever PG&E wants a rate increase, they “ask” the PUC. The PUC pretends to hmm and haw over the thing for a little while and then? “Well, we’ve decided to grant the request.”

Governor Newsom could – and should – step in. But ole Gavin is running for President. (I know. He says he’s not but actions speak louder than words.) When one is running for President, one must curry favor with big bucks bankrolls. It’s the Capitalist way. PG&E falls into that category, perfectly. So Gavin protects PG&E over the citizens of the state he runs because it’s in his financial interest to do so.

California citizens paid PG&E to maintain their system all along.
California citizens paid the price when PG&E chose to disregard their responsibilities for profit.
California citizens are paying the fines and penalties for PG&E’s reckless operations.
California citizens are paying still more to maintain PG&E’s network.
California citizens pay…and pay…and pay…and pay some more.
And STILL, I get to wake up to condensation on my counters because I dare NOT turn up my heater to keep my house even slightly warm and liveable like I might do if I lived in a first world nation…

I’ll tell you this: I feel like a prisoner in this so-called “free market…”

Good for Trump, Bad for America…

by MyBaconPress

Well, I was certainly surprised to hear that the President of the United States of America is NOT an officer of the United States of America. Are YOU surprised? Is the CEO of a company NOT an officer of the corporation? What IS the President’s classification, if NOT an officer of the country? But, apparently, that’s the case.

People in three states that I know of (Michigan, Minnesota, and Colorado) have filed suit trying to keep Donny off the ballot via the 14th amendment, section 3. It says, “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”

So, then I looked up ‘Officer of the United States.’ Admittedly, I used Wikipedia. This is what it says; “An officer of the United States is a functionary of the executive or judicial branches of the federal government of the United States to whom is delegated some part of the country’s sovereign power. The term officer of the United States is not a title, but a term of classification for a certain type of official.”

So, this Judge, Sarah Wallace, has ruled in the Colorado case that Donny did, indeed, engage in insurrection but said the 14th amendment does not apply to the President of the United States because the President of the United States is not an officer of the United States. Sure, he’s a functionary of the executive branch and he certainly has been delegated some part of the country’s sovereign power – more than anybody else in the country at any given moment – but he doesn’t fit the description. Both Michigan and Minnesota have also ruled that he can stay on the ballot but they limited their decisions to the Primaries and not the General election.

It should be noted that the judge was appointed by a Democratic governor, but conservative brain-rot can hit anybody, at any time. It should ALSO be noted that the Chief Kangaroo in our corrupt Supremely Kangaroo Court, the dishonorable John Roberts, has already gone on record saying people don’t vote for Officers of the United States. Officers are merely hired workers. That’s why Senators and Representatives are named specifically. All of this means we already know how the corrupt court will rule once the case gets there. The traitor Trump gets to stay on the ballot.

So, because the Congress Critters of the day failed to write the word “President” in their Amendment, likely because they considered the President of the United States a natural officer of the United States, being the main representative of the United States and all, the tools Americans were given to try to stop known traitors from becoming President of the United States…simply don’t apply. Isn’t THAT lovely? Our once-great nation is going to become a Fascist authoritarian…um…”Shithole,” I believe is the term Donny used, because of a stupid loophole. I don’t like it any more than you do but the 14th isn’t going to keep Donny off the ballot in any state.

I’ll tell you this: The words of John F. Kennedy just keep ringing in my ears: “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”

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It’s called ‘Stochastic Terrorism.’ Again, from Wikipedia, “Stochastic terrorism refers to political or media figures publicly demonizing a person or group in such a way that it inspires supporters of the figures to commit a violent act against the target of the speech. Unlike incitement to terrorism, this is accomplished by using indirect, vague, or coded language that allows the instigator to plausibly disclaim responsibility for the resulting violence.”

It’s how Donny worked his self-blinded acolytes into a frenzy enough to attack Congress, assault people, and go to prison for him. After his New York fraud trial got going, he started in on a law clerk, Alison Greenfield. The presiding judge in the case, Arthur Engoron, issued a gag order tying to protect his staff.

The gag order was temporarily stayed on Thursday by one Judge David Friedman of the state’s intermediate appeals court, pending appeal. Judge Friedman is apparently more concerned about Donny’s freedom of speech than he is Mrs. Greenfield’s freedom to not be murdered by a nutball. I presume Friedman would have a different understanding if the threats were aimed at him or his family. He could have left the gag order in place while the appeal processed. That was an option. But he didn’t.

Donny didn’t waste one minute. In exercising his “free speech,” he immediately began posting new threats to Ms. Greenfield. Cue the crazies. I wonder if Mrs. Greenfield’s family can sue Judge Friedman if/when some trump-loyal nutball harms her because Donny wants them to. Small comforts, I guess…

Two big wins for Donny this week. Two BIG loses for the United States of America. Rational Americans thought (hoped?) we could resolve this nightmare peacefully, but it’s looking more and more like lawyers are going to keep that from happening…

MAGA Fallout…

by MyBaconPress

Ever since J6, Fascist MAGA has largely taken one of two tacks: the first one they tried was stupid, “What?!? Nothing happened! It was just an unauthorized tour. A peaceful unauthorized tour!” You’ll still hear it, from time to time, but it never did play well. We had all seen the events of the day with our own eyes and we weren’t about to believe MAGA’s lies over our own eyes.

The second story rolled out a bit more slowly but one could see it coming: blame it on Democrats. It was Pelosi who failed to properly secure the building. No mention of why the Congress suddenly needed extra protection, of course. MAGA likes to pretend they’re a bunch of tough guys so MAGA maniac Marjorie Taylor Greene has a new book out that takes tack two. Look for it in the remaindered bins in a week or so. She claims that when a number of House members were trapped in the gallery during the MAGA attack, she saw Republicans stay behind to “defend the chamber” but didn’t see one Democrat.

Fortunately for the Republicans, several Democrats DID stay and help. I say “fortunately,” because the Dems that stayed noticed that many of the members didn’t know how to put on their gas masks – so they helped. AFTER claiming she didn’t see one Democrat left in the gallery, she THEN claimed she saw Democrats “lying on the floor, hysterical.” (It’s part of MAGA de-humanizing efforts. Conservatives are strong, Liberals are weak. The idea is to show how easy it’s going to be to fight and beat Liberals. They did the same thing just before they started their losing effort in the American Civil War, too. Wrong then, wrong now…)

It’s really the bigger picture I’m concerned with here, though. When you first deny an event even occurred, then try to pin blame on someone else, you know what you’re doing? You’re confessing you know what happened. You know it was bad. You know it was wrong, and you know who did it.

Dear MAGA, you want to prove how manly and tough you are? Take responsibility for your actions. WE know what you did, YOU know what you did. Stand up and say so…

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With the help of Democrats, Kevin McCarthy passed a stop-gap spending bill to keep government open while he was still Speaker. So, MAGA fired McCarthy. (How DARE he do anything to help the country?) It was stupid and put them on full display as morons, so they (wait for it) blamed the Democrats. Yes, of course they did. Republicans try to blame Democrats for every stupid thing Republicans do. Then, they finally came together around someone I guess nobody really knew, Mike Johnson.

Now we all know a LOT about Mike Johnson and most of us wish we didn’t. Increasingly, most of us want to know what the hell he’s doing with his money, too. He claims he has no assets and no bank accounts. Nor does his wife. No assets, no bank accounts. How does he cash his House Check? Where does he put the cash? He makes, like $205,000/year, before taxes. That’s $17, 083.33/per month, paid in two monthly checks of $8,541.67. Is the Speaker of the House walking around with $8,500 dollars in his pocket every payday until he can get home and shove it under his mattress? But I digress…

It seems Johnson may have taken the Speaker job essentially just so he could get an investigation started on himself by authorities. Now, he passed a stop-gap spending bill to keep the government open through the holidays. MAGA hates the idea and Johnson got it done with the help of Democrats (obviously, their fault) and some of the moderate Republicans still occasionally found in Congress. If MAGA follows their previous behavior, Johnson now has to be removed. After all, he worked with Democrats for the benefit of the nation. MAGA will not have that. It flies in the face of their motto: “F*ck this country!” (Yeah, not very inspiring. Take it up with them…)

I don’t guess it’s particularly surprising MAGA is made up of people who know little to nothing about nearly everything. There’s a reason Trump “loves the uneducated.” Anybody who had any actual knowledge of the workings and realities of authoritarian states knows it’s a very bad idea and people pushing for it have their ignorance on full, neon display. But make no mistake: these people are dangerous and they don’t have enough information to know just how dangerous their ideas are.

Media’s Messages…

by MyBaconPress

I don’t like clickbait headlines. In trying to get clicks it’s often true that at some point, the highlight of the headline becomes… “less than true.” I saw an article in the AP this morning. The headline? “Secret Service agents protecting Biden’s granddaughter open fire when 3 people try to break into SUV.” Sounds ominous, right? Holy gods, they’re going directly after Biden’s granddaughter?

Um, no. Turns out, Biden’s granddaughter wasn’t even in the van. Neither were the Secret Service agents. Turns out, it was just three car thieves working a potential score. They likely didn’t even know it WAS the President’s granddaughter’s van. To them, it was just another van they could break into and steal or steal from. A Secret Service agent opened fire. Bad guys skedaddled. No one was hit and the Metro Police are looking for the perpetrators. Oh, and AP is left with a credibility hit…for clicks…

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I just finished watching, “All The Light We Cannot See” on Netflix. It’s very good and I heartily recommend it. Here’s how it ends. No, that’s a joke. I won’t do that to you. Just watch it. The reason I mention it is because it’s set in Europe (France, to be exact) in 1944, when the Nazis were in charge. As I watched, I could not stop thinking of the parallels between Nazi and MAGA. It’s really quite frightening.

Handing a bunch of small-minded, little people tremendous power and authority was devastating to the world, then and ever since. Doing it again seems like the dumbest thing in the world people could do do themselves, their loved ones, and their progeny.

MAGA would pretend to be outraged by the comparison, of course. THEY haven’t killed 6 million Jews so they COULDN’T be the same. They’re unable to grasp that while the Nazi’s were rising to power, THEY hadn’t killed anybody, either. One CANNOT compare the end of the Nazi’s with the beginnings of MAGA and declare them different based on outcome so far. ALL of the seeds of “same” are there.

The show is built around radios and at one point of of the Nazis says, plainly, that the Nazis could not have come to power without radio. That character is right. In history, once they gained control of the airwaves, they had control of the narrative and spread misinformation and fear that helped propel Hitler to power. As Mark Twain is sometimes credited with saying, “A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can get it’s shoes on.”

Now we’re watching MAGA come to power through control of their narrative and the spread of misinformation and fear that helped propel trump to power – and threatens to do so again – via the internet. All of it, based on a raft of lies. The truth finally has it’s shoes on, though, so…

I’ll tell you this: the MAGA/Nazi similarities are too scary to ignore. We, the people who still love the actual United States of America, CANNOT let this happen…

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Speaking of tools of evil, Trump! He’s out saying he wants to allow cameras in his Federal trial. No, not that one. No, not that one, either. No, that one’s State. The DC trial. News outlets have already sued to allow cameras in the courtroom. In Federal court, cameras are not usually allowed. Usually. It DOES happen sometimes and, I think, it should happen this time.

I’ve been paying attention to his current NY fraud trial. He’s done everything he can to turn it into a circus. Then, he comes out and lies about everything that happens inside the courtroom. Yes, he knows there are reporters in there who will report the truth but he ALSO knows MAGA will never see those reports. The conservative media bubble will focus on his “statements” (read: lies), instead. MAGA will continue to walk around terrified, furious, and completely oblivious to the truth.

I suspect 45 might be bluffing but it could be true he just doesn’t understand how much harder it is to support his lies when the whole world (except MAGA, of course) watches the trial as it unfolds. In the NY trial, he and his “lawyers” have been as disruptive as they can possibly manage. They’re planning a “defense” of tedium, trying to bring in over 100 witnesses, NONE of whom can change the facts but, likely, ALL of whom will likely try to “testify” that Donny is an innocent angel and won in 2020. The court is busily trying to sift through the “witness” list to see who has something relevant to add and who just wants to posture for their public. All of that without cameras.

So if he gets his cameras, HE thinks he’s going to walk into the DC courtroom and take it over, Chutkin being “only” a woman, as she is. I suspect Judge Chutkin will control her courtroom, and herself, just as professionally as Judge Engoron has done. But what THAT means is that the cameras he’s asking for will simply show him being slapped down time after time after time.

45 isn’t smart but he is clever, in an evil way, and he knows his audience. He sells shirts to these people that show his mug shot taken immediately after his surrender to authorities with the words ‘Never Surrender’ emblazoned on them and his supporter never catch the irony. Perhaps he can find a way to convince those same people – who desperately want to be convinced – that when he’s getting slapped down he’s actually “winning.”

I’ll tell you this: now that she has his “permission” as well as the lawsuit from news agencies that want to broadcast the trial, I hope Judge Chutkin allows the cameras. I suspect they won’t work for 45 the way he hopes they will and it’s better for ALL of America (and the world, for that matter) to watch this thing play out in real time…

Republican Morals…

by MyBaconPress

This being Sunday, and me being the First Speaker of the Doctrine of Universal Harmony, I thought I’d give a sermon today on morals, focused on those as displayed by conservatives in general and the Republican Party as a whole. I’ve heard a LOT about Republican morals. I mean, they talk and talk and talk about how moral they are and conversely, how IMMORAL the Democrats are. I’d like to check that. I’m not going to pay much attention to the words they use. People can – and commonly will – lie. But people also tend to live their morals, right? So, let’s pay less attention to the words they can string together and pay more attention to what they do, positions they support, shall we?

To start with, it has long-since become crystal clear that conservatives abandoned the values of Jesus years ago. They have absolutely NO use for the teachings nor examples brought by Jesus. Apparently, He’s kind of a bleeding heart snowflake. They keep pretending He’s important to them so it’s hard to say exactly how long ago they turned their backs on him, but think back to when they all decided the Ten Commandments should be in every courtroom in the country. Right around then, they began embracing more eye-for-an-eye, Jewish law stuff. But the Ten Commandments are still pretty good moral guidance, right? Don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t kill. Good rules, all. So let’s use the Ten Commandments.

Well, five. The Five Commandments. I mean, let’s face it, the first five are really just kind of a whiny, insecure God commanding that you can’t like anybody better, ever. He should probably get some counseling. That kind of insecurity can really eat at you, you know? Put you in a real smiting mood. And it could be dangerous. What if, say, the self-described “jealous God” got all upset about something and, in an uncontrollable emotional outburst, wiped out all of human kin—? Oh. Sorry, that’s really a different topic. I didn’t mean to digress…

Back to the subject at hand, Republican morals. Okay, so people are people and some are going to commit adultery but I’m not focused on individual actions so much as what the larger group does and so far, I haven’t seen ALL Republicans endorse…Oh, crap. I forgot about cheatin’ Donny. Cheated on his first wife. They don’t care. Cheated on his second wife. They don’t care. Cheated on his third wife. They don’t care. Based on their actions, I’d say Republicans are a-okay with adultery. One Commandment gone. (I thought I was starting with an easy one…)

How about Thou shalt not bear false witness, also called lying. We’re considering their actions, here, and not their words because lying is all they know how to do. They lie about everything, all the time. They CAN’T win on fact so they try to win on fiction. It doesn’t work but they lie about that, too. THEN they lie about lying about the lie. I can’t even give them half-credit for that one so now we’re at two of the five in the dust bin.

Thou shalt not steal? Sure, I hear them scream (see the previous paragraph) but at every turn, it’s Republicans trying to steal elections. THEY rig them. THEY make rules barring people they don’t want voting (because they’ll vote Democrat). THEY gerrymander. THEY want and make rules in which Republicans and Republicans, alone, get to decide which votes “count.” I see THAT as stealing and NOBODY does it better – or more aggressively. But if you can’t make the leap to a metaphorical theft, they’re in full-throat support of letting Donny get away with his fraud, for which he has ALREADY been convicted. Fraud is direct theft AND lying, so they get a two-fer on that one. Three down.

There are only five of these things and they’re 0-3, so far. At best, they might make 40% of the Five Commandments if they can just keep the last two. Let’s find out.

Not covet? Are you kidding? Conservatives are driven by coveting. Money, mostly, but coveting is coveting and they fail that one, too. They want what Donny pretends to have. They want it bad. They also, always, covet bigger guns. Zero for four. That’s pretty embarrassing, yes? At this point, the best they can do will be supporting only 20% of the Five Commandments. I shouldn’t do this, but if they only embrace one Commandment, I’ll still give them credit – and they’ve still got the biggie; no killing.

No, no they don’t. They go back a LONG way with their willingness to kill if they don’t get what they want. The American Civil War was all about slavery, of course, but it only happened because conservatives were angry at not getting their way. They killed over 600,000 Americans over it.

But more recently, remember back when someone was mailing military-grade Anthrax to various Democrats? That guy (the chief suspect, anyway), Bruce Ivans, turned out be a conservative. He took personal responsibility for his actions by committing suicide with, of all things, Tylenol. Why he didn’t use Anthrax, like he chose for others, I’ll never know…

During Covid, cons killed their aging parents and grand-parents by the thousands in order to make a political point. When thinking people tried to get them to consider someone besides themselves, they actually laughed out loud and dismissed such concerns with words like “co-morbidities.” “Oh, those old people shouldn’t have been old. It’s their own fault!” Then, they refused to cooperate and killed tens of thousands of people. They continue to make jokes about Covid defenses to this day.

Now they’re back to mailing stuff, in this case, Fentanyl-laced envelopes to election workers, hoping to maybe, God willing, kill a few of them. There is a belief out there the actual phrasing of the Commandment was ‘Thou shalt not murder’ as opposed to kill. Based on the number of hits God orders in the Bible, I’d guess the word was actually murder, not just kill. But the cons have murdered and would be murdering more people if they could just make it work. Hammer to the head, anyone?

So there are five relevant Commandments they pretend to believe and they don’t live any of them. They praise adultery and covet wealth. They lie – ALL the time. They certainly steal and, God help us, they’ll kill, for real, just to make a political point. I should add, I know they say the exact same things about Democrats and progressives. The difference is, I can point to very specific, well-known examples as evidence. They can only report pretend events – that cannot be verified – they heard about from their third cousin’s, ex-wife’s, brother-in-law’s uncle’s friend.

I’ll tell you this: It seems pretty clear to me that the words ‘Republican’ and ‘Morals’ have no place in the same sentence…amen.

Kill or…No, Just Kill…

by MyBaconPress

MAGA gonna murder, I guess…
Cons are out with their message that the left is out-of-control dangerous. CRAZY! Unpredictable and unhinged.

Meanwhile, cons have taken to mailing powdered Fentanyl to people associated with the voting processes in various places. Yeah, the left is out-of-control dangerous…

As a side note: cops have made videos in which one of their deputies just touches Fentanyl and the deputy falls to the ground and goes into seizures. The videos are an attempt to scare the daylights out of people who might use Fentanyl. (“See how dangerous it is?”) Fentanyl IS dangerous. Just not touch-it-and-die dangerous. But MAGA, apparently, believes these videos are gospel so they’re lacing envelopes with Fentanyl and mailing ’em out.

I should add that at least one of the envelopes also contained a couple of symbols often associated with the left. The problem is, the same envelope also included a pentagram, often associated with devil worship. That’s because MAGA cons think all lefties are immoral devil worshipers so, naturally, we would include a pentagram on pretty much all of our communications. It’s a wonder they didn’t sign it, “Don’t blame conservatives for this. It’s from some libtard!” Smooth. Now we’ll never know which side it came from…

Fortunately, the envelopes not likely to kill anyone.
Unfortunately, the cons are perfectly willing to try…

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If not murder, might as well cheat…
The cons have realized Donny is going to lose his case in the NY fraud trial. I say, “…going to lose,” he has already lost. The judge has already ruled that the Trump Organization lied, lied, and then lied again. These days, it seems as if his entire so-called “fortune” may have been a lie from the start. It didn’t take a math genius to figure it out. A building appraised at, say, $18 million dollars is claimed to be worth say, $1.8 BILLION when he wants a loan against it and the SAME building is claimed to be worth say, $1.08 when it’s time to pay taxes. Pretty clear fraud, so even the cons KNOW this one is bad for Donny.

Enter Rep. Elise Stefanik, (R, of course). She’s decided to try to save the day by filing a letter accusing judge Engoron of bias and calling on the judge to recuse himself. Please note: that’s a United States Representative, a Federal position, sticking her nose into a NY State issue. Yes, she’s from the state but she has no business in a state court issue.

I’m pretty sure Engoron will line his bird cage with the letter and keep doing his job. He’s very good at it. He’s SO good, the cons are terrified of him. I kind of like it that way. I’ll be watching for the recusal letter for bias that comes from the cons when Aileen “Loose” Cannon presides over the stolen documents case in Florida and visibly loves Donny so much she publicly offers to hold him in a supportive embrace…

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Okay, so now, even Israeli apologists are starting to get uncomfortable with the decisions being made in this latest hot fight. The last number I know of Palestinian civilians killed (so far) is 10,000 with at least 4,000 of them being children. (Did you know? Most of the Palestinian middle generation has been wiped out completely. Gaza is mostly populated by older people and young children.) Israel has announced (you heard it here, first) they won’t be leaving Gaza anytime soon (read: ever).

One of the attackers, a guy who DID, in fact, participate in a drive-by shooting that killed someone, was arrested and is in Israeli custody. Do the crime, do the time, I’m okay with that. But then Israel went to the family home, where the guy hadn’t been for years (except occasional visits to see his children) and where the family knew nothing of his plans (that anybody can prove), and blew it up, leaving a woman and three children homeless. That’s called collective punishment. It’s a war crime. It’s immoral as hell. It’s very likely a tremendously successful recruitment tool for Hamas or whatever the next group calls themselves. And make no mistake, there will be a next group. One man’s “terrorist” is another man’s “freedom fighter.” Minutemen, anyone?

Also, it drew a public rebuke from the United States. Israel basically – I’m paraphrasing, here – told the U.S. to pound sand. Their ongoing attempt at genocide hides behind the line, “Israel has the right to protect itself.” Agreed. But they’ve gone WAY beyond that, at this point. If a guy punches you in the face, you have the right to defend yourself to the extent necessary to ensure your safety. Perfectly reasonable. You do NOT have the right to beat that man to death, then go kill everybody the man has ever known, then blow up his house.

I’ll tell you this: If you DO take that course, you’ve gone from being a victim to being a perpetrator in your own right and I’d say Israel is comfortably in that category now…

Little Pleasures…

by MyBaconPress

When he first got elected, I didn’t know much about Mike Johnson. I can’t TELL you how much I wish that was still the case. This guy is as crazy as any MAGA ever. And just to make sure he puts the cherry on top, he’s ALSO a security risk. For one thing, he was instrumental in trying to help Donny betray America. That’s bad enough, but he ALSO worries SO MUCH about his 17-year-old son looking at porn (“self-pleasure” being the sin it is), they have an app that tattles to someone when you turn on porn on ANY of your devices. (That’s why the 17-year-old is always borrowing his friend’s electronics.)

Okay, maybe you don’t understand how things like that work so let me offer you a thumbnail. Somewhere, there’s a company, with people working in it (we don’t know any of them and they likely change over time), that has full and complete access to ALL of the electronics of the Speaker of the House, next in line to the President of the United States after the VP. This, of course, creates a route for people of malevolent intent (say…Donny’s Russian buddies) to get access to the inner workings of the Speaker of the House. Cons don’t seem to care. They’re FAR too worried that Hunter once did some cocaine and took photos of himself in the bathtub. Priorities, people.

Since EVERY Republican voted for this guy, I had hoped that, maybe, he was just a teeny-weeny bit more moderate than your standard MAGA. As it happens, he’s in the extreme arm of the movement, carrying the MAGA flag (it’s all white, of course), and leading the parade (wherever Donny tells him to.)

He claims not to have any bank accounts, anywhere. What?!? How does a guy like that manage in the modern world with no bank accounts? I’d bet he doesn’t. I’d guess he just keeps that public disclosure information to himself. You know, like Clarence Thomas likes to do. Possibly, for the same reason. But he’s Speaker of the House, now, and people are on to him. If he HAS a bank account, reporters WILL find it. How does he cash his House paycheck? (And can you believe we still have to pay those useless f*cks?)

Clearly, he plans to try to govern according to MAGA delusions, too. These guys just keep trying to force reality into their preferred perceptions but it never works and they just don’t get it. It never sinks in that reality is reality and delusion is delusion and ne’er the twain shall meet. So, since the cons took over, they have only managed to finally elect a Speaker, dump that Speaker, eventually bring in a new Speaker, and initiate an “investigation” into Joe Biden for…reasons. Useless. (Good. Crazy is dangerous…)

The thing is, the founders never foresaw this kind of insanity in the House. ALL spending bills start at the HOUSE (technically. In reality, they don’t always originate there but the House has to approve first.) So…the debt ceiling the cons don’t understand? Problem. The next budget talks? Problem. Funding Ukraine? Problem. (Cons want Putin to win that war so they don’t want to help Ukraine. They’re mad at Ukraine because Ukraine refused to help Donny cheat in the election.) Cons don’t LIKE cheating in elections – unless, of course, THEY’RE the ones doing the cheating. Then they’re all in.

I’ll tell you this: It’s really quite simple. If you love America, you’ll never vote Republican…

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Donny got angry that his kids are part of his criminal enterprise and got called to the stand for it. He barked at the judge, “Leave my kids alone!” No. They’re criminals, just like you. They should be punished, just like you. At least two of them are going to jail, just like you. But the cons dutifully responded to Donny’s faux outrage by issuing subpoenas to pretty much everybody Joe Biden knows, including his lost son’s widow, for some reason. Donny made pretty clear it’s a petty response to bringing Donny Jr, Eric, and Ivanka to testify. Petty.

I’d bet money that Biden’s family’s testimony will be FAR less incriminating that Donny’s family’s testimony has been for him so…bring em…

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Donny says he wants to bring over 100 witnesses in his NY civil fraud case. Yet another stalling tactic I’m sure will fail. I doubt it’s POSSIBLE there are over 100 people with relevant information that is new. (They’re not supposed to bring witness to simply repeat information someone else has already brought up.)

He doesn’t get to ramble and he doesn’t get to give speeches, he doesn’t get to repeat some lie, over and over until his audience is mind-numbed and mesmerized and he CERTAINLY doesn’t get to throw temper-tantrums until he gets his whiny way. (Archaic reference alert:) As Joe Friday used to say, “Just the facts, please.” Donny always, always, ALWAYS loses on “just the facts.”

I’ve got to confess: I’m enjoying this…

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Hey, try to act surprised. Over 10,000 dead, so far, in Palestine. Over 4,000 of them babies. (“Oh, the babies,” whined the Israel apologists before not caring and giving Palestinian babies “what they deserve.”) Netanyahu says Israel will have a security interest in Gaza for the “foreseeable future.” You (may have) read it here, first. It’s EXACTLY how Israel plays it’s cards, over and over. Agitate your target until they over-react, then punish the HELL out of them for their over-reaction and take still MORE of their land, agitating them further. It’s been going on since 1947 and it won’t stop until Israel pushes Palestine off the map and into the ocean completely. It’s got to be getting harder for the Israel apologists to make their case…

Hamas (not Palestine) says they want to push the Israelis into the ocean once and for all but has no power to do it. Israel says, “Can’t we all just, get along?” and then continues to push Palestinians into the ocean on a daily basis because they DO have the power (thanks, U.S.) – they just have to manage the “optics…”

Listen, it’s great to be vindicated and all but…what a crappy thing to be right about…