Bacon Bits for February 26, 2017

When I named this blog in November of 2016, it was with a large dose of self-mockery as, before November 8th, I was convinced that this country would see through Donald Trump and could not possibly elect him President — in other words, when pigs fly, right?

Clearly I was wrong, hence pigs can fly, and here we are today.

Yet, it is with some satisfactory irony that I find Trump and his administration to be true to form — they can’t stop floating porcine dirigibles at every opportunity.  Going forward, I will call these bacon bits — the chaff of the flying pig.

So, our blog’s weekly roundup has morphed a bit — I will still summarize what I feel is important each week, but with a focus on the bacon bits.  Let’s get started.

Bacon Bit #1:  This one is too good not be number one for the week.  Did you know that Trump single-handedly, through just the sheer force of his man of action power, has reduced the deficit in one month by $12 billion?  Yes, the federal government posted a decrease in the deficit of $12 billion, and it is now a given through various faux news outlets that the reason you don’t know this is because the media does not want you to — fake news, fake news!

The truth is something else entirely:  the deficit did go down by $12 billion over the last month.  However, it goes up or done rather erratically every single month depending on how much money the government takes in.  This has close to zero to do with Donald Trump or any other politician or policy.  Of course, you won’t be hearing him or the faux news outlets trumpeting the numbers in, say, June, after everyone pays their taxes and the government isn’t bringing in as much, because the deficit is likely to increase that month instead.

Bacon Bit #2:  The Democrats elected a new leader of the DNC this weekend.  Trump almost immediately had to get ahead of this news (since it wasn’t about him) and declare the election to be rigged.   Why?  Remember, everything in Trumpland is about dominating or being dominated, and everything about Trump tweets is directed entirely at his true believers.  So, tweeting this out shores up his rep with his followers and has the added benefit of dissing on the Dems positive news cycle.

Bacon Bit #3:  Did you know that almost half of all Guantanamo Bay detainees (nice word) that were released ended up back on the battlefield?  Half! I guess the Obama outrage machine on Fox and Friends hasn’t completely wound down — this was the claim of that ultra-right-wing nationalist and autocrat lover, Sebastian Gorka, who is now a psychophant and some kind of “advisor” to the Trumpster.

The truth, of course, is nothing like this.  The data shows the confirmed recidivism rate to be in the 5-6% range with another 5-6% unconfirmed for a grand total of 10-12% during Obama’s term — the Bush/Cheney percentage was twice that.

There are more bits of bacon that came out of the flying pig this week, but I’m in the midst of packing and sorting and throwing things out for the big move to Nashville — so, until next week, my friends!