I think calling the conservative fantasy about smaller government a ‘fever dream’ is particularly relevant right now.  The story has always been a fraud but now it is being fully exposed as the folly it is – literally by fevers!  I was reading an article in the Guardian, ‘The missing six weeks: how Trump failed the biggest test of his life,’ about the various and sundry ways the Trump administration has failed in it’s response to Covid-19 (the article would have been FAR shorter had it been about the things the ImPOTUS got right) and I had a bit of a revelation.  To my conservative brethren: this is it.  This is your dream come true.  THIS is what small, impotent government looks like…

The entire basis of the conservative dream is that government should just dry up and blow away.  Or, according to Grover Norquist, “I’m not in favor of abolishing the government. I just want to shrink it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.”  Who needs ’em, right?  Well, look around.  In keeping with the conservative “utopia,” states are being told to take care of Covid-19 themselves.  SOME states are finding they’re being “punished” by the petulant President because the governors of those states are not nice enough to Trump himself.

In at least one case, I’m pretty sure Trump is punishing Michigan because the governor of that state, Gretchen Whitmer, is among the whispered VP candidates for Biden.  Whitmer claims medical supply vendors were told not to deliver equipment to Michigan and suggests the vile order came from the White House.  Trump just can’t let the opportunity to smear a political rival pass – even if it means people will die.

The entire world seems shocked that the United States government could get their response so completely, undeniably wrong.  The reality is, even after the Trump administration began trying to take the whole thing seriously, they simply failed.  Now, we know that some of it was just a stall while rich people sold off their stock shares before the crash but I’d say the delay seems to be a natural, predictable outcome to posting people who are completely unqualified for the jobs they’ve been assigned – unless their goal was to destroy the department in charge, as seems to be the case.

And conservatives have been cheering all the while.  “Oh,” they say, “we just LOVE what he’s doing!”  The ‘what he’s doing’ they refer to?  Dismantling the government.  NOW we find ourselves in a position where we need that government, the one that worked before, and it’s simply unavailable.  It no longer exists.  I wonder if conservatives will continue to cheer as they struggle to take that one, last breath…

Trump just lied, of course, claiming he “inherited” a weak system.  But HIS administration disbanded the pandemic response team in 2018.  Trumpsters pretend it was Bolton, not Trump, who disbanded the team.  Truth?  Most people know that Trump is a feckless, out-of-touch administrator who spends most of his time playing golf or watching television so you could convince me that Bolton took such a serious action without Trump’s knowledge…except for the presser Trump had the day AFTER the team was disbanded in which he defended the decision…

And STILL, Conservatives have tried to defend Trump, pretending there WAS no delay in responding because, after all and gee golly whiz, you go into a pandemic with the team you have, not the team you might wish to have had – or actually had on hand and ready to go.  After all, how important could it be to have experts at the ready, prepared to spring into action and do what needs to be done?  In a word?  NASCAR!

Say you’re a NASCAR driver.  You’ve been out driving in circles for awhile and you need a pit stop.  You pull into pit row and your pit team, led by Pit Boss Obama, springs into action.  They take 12.9 seconds to get you four new tires, fuel, and whatever else you need to keep going.  It’s an awesome, drilled and skilled team that works together with near-perfect precision because they’re prepared and properly equipped when you pull in.  Then, Obama retires.

You hire a new guy.  You’ve never heard of him but he talks a good game.  Besides, you think to yourself, there’s only one race left in the season.  We can check out the new guy that way.  And really, how much damage could he do?  Obama left behind a team that works so well, they don’t really even need a Pit Boss…

New race.  You’ve been out driving in circles for awhile and you need a pit stop.  But as you pull into the pits, you don’t see anybody in your station except the new guy.  You get on the radio, “Where is everybody?”
“I’m a business person,” Trump responds.  “I don’t like having people around when you don’t need ’em.  What do you need ’em when you can get them back very quickly?” (Trump’s actual response to disbanding the pandemic response team…)
“We don’t have a crew ready to go?”
“I told you.  When you called and said you were coming in, I put together a new team, a great team, the very best team in the history of teams.  Nobody has ever put together a team like the team I’ve put together because nobody understands things like I do.  It’s a great team.  It might suck but I think it will be great.  And fast.  And great.  I’m just the best.”
“So where are they?”
“They’ll be here in about 20 minutes.”
“20 minutes?!?  Your incompetence has cost me the Winston Cup!”
“Listen, nobody knew this was going to happen.  It was completely unpredictable.  I take no responsibility.  I’m doing a great job…”

As it happens, I’ve noticed that not ONE NASCAR team has opted for the ‘build a pit crew when the car’s on the way in’ model…

By now, everybody has had the chance to watch the video of Donnie Dumbass scolding NBC reporter Peter Alexander for asking a question.  The ImPOTUS called him a “very bad reporter” and then went from there.  The thing is, I think trump’s rant gave people a glimpse of the workings – if you can call it that – of trump’s mind.

Mr. Alexander asked what “Tiny Hands” would say to people who are scared.  Part of trump’s rebuke was that the question contained “a very bad signal that you’re putting out to the American people.”

Now, we all know that one of the functions of a President – or in this case trump – is to calm people in times of crisis and I honestly think that’s what trump thinks he’s doing.  He honestly seems to think that lying to people – badly – will calm them.  His lies are so stupid and destructive the CDC team has to correct him right away – often in real time.  NOBODY believes the trumpery.  There’s no calming affect to lying to a person in a way they know isn’t true.  But trump doesn’t know that…

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One of the lies Dumbass insists on telling is that he’s in complete control of the process and has an amazing, astounding, “unpresidented” understanding of the situation.  (Actual doctors try to hide their faces as they roll their eyes…)  Another lie he likes to repeat, ad nauseum, is that he “inherited a bad system.”  We know this isn’t true.  We KNOW it was his administration that disbanded the pandemic response team that had existed specifically to address this kind of situation.

His supporters point to John Bolton as the person who eliminated the team.  Donnie lies that he didn’t even know it happened.  (Video exists of the presser where he – Dumbass – is telling reporters – the day after the team was disbanded – how useless the team was and how quickly and easily he could rebuild it should the need arise…)

So, I’ll need a little guidance from my cons.  IS Donald J. Trump the master controller of his maladministration with his tiny little finger on the pulse of every event and in perfect control of every decision made as each of his sycophantic minions claim?  OR, is he an out-of-touch, lazy, Fox “News” watching moron who hasn’t got a clue who’s doing what in his name?  It can’t be both.

Before you answer, please remember; we have video…

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Anybody who lives outside the conservative bubble knows that Fox “News” exists to deceive as many Americans as possible into undermining America.  Fox often takes contrarian views, either to attack Democrats/America or to support conservatives.  So it was natural when the Trump Pandemic started that Fox told their viewers that it was all just hokum; literally a hoax perpetrated by, I don’t know, Democrats…the Chinese…just anybody but ImPOTUS.

But after a couple of months of downplay, Fox had an awakening and – along with this maladministration – turned on a dime and started telling people to take Covid-19 seriously.  Now, here’s the thing: most of the audience of Fox “News” is old.  I mean…WAY old.  Covid-19 is most dangerous to…wait for it…OLD people!  Especially old men.

This is just me, now, speculating, but it seems as though Fox realized that their standard contrarian viewpoint in this case ran the risk of wiping out the Fox “News” audience!  They had no choice but to resort to science, like it or not.  (And they don’t.)  Whatever it takes, I guess…

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As the conservative fever dream of the glories of the so-called “free market” crash down around them, I’ve noticed my cons have mostly retreated to their hidey-holes until Fox tells them it’s safe to come out and start relentlessly regurgitating bullshit again.  Every day, more and more people are understanding that Socialism, not Capitalism, will save the day and overcome this virus.  The more Capitalism “they” try to infuse into the process the longer it will take to solve and the more people will die.  But it seems the U.S. held out to create it’s own test in the name of profit and Donnie Dumbass has made more than one attempt to buy any vaccine that gets developed in order to profit.

Yes, I know.  The World Health Organization didn’t, technically, offer their test to the US and it’s common for countries to develop their own tests.  But the WHO HAD functional tests while the US was developing their own.  When the US test ran into manufacturing problems, the WHO STILL had tests that worked.  People ALL OVER THE WORLD are using the WHO test and defeating this virus.  Meanwhile, the US is still trying to manufacture and roll out their own test.

Crapitalism is literally killing Americans…

Conditioning: Pavlov is sitting in a pub.  A patron enters, ringing a bell over the door.  Pavlov thinks, “Oh, I forgot to feed the dog!”

Our society has been so deeply conditioned to believe that Socialism is evil and ALWAYS constitutes Communism it’s just a knee-jerk reaction by huge swaths of Americans.  The so-called “free market” is the only economic system that works and makes sense, we’re told.  But here’s the thing: from time to time the so-called “free market” just…shits the bed and everybody suffers.  No, everybody not rich suffers.  It’s SO common for the “free market” to crash and burn, it has a name: “The Business Cycle.”

See, every seven to ten years the “free market” crashes.  Mostly, that’s just rich people extracting money from everyone else – often after creating some economic bubble somewhere, usually housing.  But…WHEN the “free market” fails – as it does on a regular and predictable basis – what do rich people do?  Why, they turn to Socialism.

Not for everyone, of course.  Just the rich people.  And just enough to prop them up so they can do it all again to everyone else.  Of course, rich people receive Socialism all the while, what with subsidies to their businesses and such.  But it’s NEVER acceptable to help “the poors.”  Ever.  Under any conditions.

Remember the Second Republican Great Depression?  The one in 2008?  THAT was caused by rich people being irresponsible and the solution was…wait for it…socialism!  Government spending as much as conservatives would allow.  They fought it every step of the way, of course, but only for show.  Their rich masters needed socialist help and they were, by God, going to receive socialist help but the conservative show had to go on as well, pretending socialism wasn’t socialism in this case.  Although conservatives slowed progress – as usual – socialism saved the day.  Then the economy was handed back to Capitalists and – voila! – it’s crashing again.

Defenders of this bullshit Capitalist system will no doubt want to point out that Covid-19 was unexpected.  Okay, sure.  But that’s the thing.  The first Republican Great Depression, the one in the 1930’s, was seriously exacerbated by an unexpected natural event called the Dust Bowl.  It was a long-term drought, itself exacerbated by poor farming practices of the day.  Maybe running one’s economy so close to the edge of failure that a single, unexpected event can wreak so much havoc is a very bad idea…

But now the Fed is talking about injecting 1.5 TRILLION dollars into Wall Street to “help stimulate the economy.”  (No explanation about how giving hugely rich people even MORE money will stimulate the economy – since it won’t.)  They’re using “Quantitative Easing” – a program conservatives ripped on every chance they got when Obama was President.  1.5 TRILLION dollars!  I haven’t heard ONE conservative asshole ask how we’re going to pay for it, either!

You want to stimulate the economy and you’ve got 1.5 Trillion dollars to use?  Here’s an idea: send every American a check for $4,500.  That would stimulate the economy in ways giving the same money to rich people simply won’t.  But we can’t do that.  Giving money to the poors, where it would do overwhelming good, is Socialism but giving it to Wall Street, where it won’t do anything, is just sound economic policy, see?  (Just putting this here: The Dow was 29,551.42 on Feb 12 of this year.  It closed Friday, Mar 13 at 23,185.62, down from it’s high 6,365.80…)

Now that everybody is crapping their panties about Covid-19, people are talking about allowing – heaven forfend! – government paid testing of the population.  Even the poors!  But rest easy.  It will only last as long as Covid-19 is a problem.  Then the poors become pure victims of the ‘Greatest Country on Earth’™ again.  But in the meantime, Socialism, not Capitalism, will save the day…

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For reasons I can’t explain – outside of pure hubris – the United States refused the Covid-19 tests used by the World Health Organization preferring to use it’s own.  It’s my understanding that’s not really an unusual practice but it would help if the US had actually HAD it’s own test in the first place.  Every time you hear the test being developed will take 18 months, remember, a test exists right now.  It’s just that American pharmaceutical companies can’t profit from the WHO’s test.

I’ll tell you, watching the Trump team in action is, well, a mind-boggling experience…

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I’m going to say to my Berners again – ‘Blue, No Matter Who.’  There’s not a damn thing a Berner can tell me I don’t know.  The DNC cheats?  No shit.  Biden is a corporate shill?  Absolutely.  Biden is having cognitive challenges?  No question.  Bernie is, in every measurable way, the better choice?  Abso-fucking-lutely!

BUT…the DNC told you up front Bernie didn’t stand a chance.  It doesn’t matter if he’s more popular.  It doesn’t matter if he has the better program ideas.  NOTHING matters.  They TOLD US they were not going to let him win right up front.

Imagine marrying a person who cheated on you throughout the courtship and maintains that they can not – WILL not – be monogamous.  Did they do you wrong when they went outside the relationship again?  You KNEW going in they weren’t going to be faithful.  Getting all butt-hurt that they did exactly what they said they would do seems…unreasonable.

In the same way, declaring ‘Bernie or Bust’ is unreasonable.  At the convention, Bernie simply will not be an option and we knew it going in.  I prefer Bernie and I’m proud to be a Sanders supporter.  But this is different than 2016.  In 2016, any one of us can be forgiven for not believing Donald Trump could actually be such an existential threat – such a complete failure of a human being.  He seemed – hell, he STILL seems – like a pathetic caricature of a human being.

Our protest vote in 2016 made sense.  It was the one way we had to demonstrate to the DNC that we do NOT accept their abuse of the system.  But in 2020?  Your protest vote will not be a “principled stand.”  It will be a Pyrrhic victory.  Sure, you’ll make your point but you’ll leave Donald Trump in the Oval Office.  Worse, you’ll give the DNC the perfect scapegoat: Bernie supporters.

So let’s support ‘blue, no matter who’ but think of it as ‘blue to block.’  This is not about Bernie, anymore, or even the DNC.  It’s about the future of a once-great nation and if there’s going to be ANY chance to recover from the damage inflicted by Charles Koch, step one is stop Trump.  At the very least, we all vote Biden and he loses to the Russians anyway?  WE BLAME THE DNC!  Aggressively.  Relentlessly.  Mercilessly.  If we don’t stop Donnie Dumbass, I fear (honestly) there may not be any more “elections” in this once-great nation.  The DNC shill MUST win, whether we like him or not.

Because, remember, in 2024, AOC will be old enough to run…

Last week I suggested that if, on Super Tuesday, Biden won Oklahoma, Texas, and Tennessee but lost the rest, I’d feel like the fix was in because those states use computer voting machines with no verification.  I got called on the position.  There was a suggestion that I had succumbed to a conspiracy theory.  Maybe I did.  Biden DID win Oklahoma, Texas, and Tennessee but he won elsewhere, too.  Then again, Biden has not lost a state that uses computerized, no-paper-trail machines and I doubt he will.  Because Sanders was projected to win California, Biden HAD to win Texas to make it look good.  He started out behind.  But all turned out well for the DNC in the end…

As you can see, I’m not giving up on my “conspiracy theory” just yet.  That’s because there was another…I’m going with “unusual” event that occurred the day before Super Tuesday.  (We’ll call it ‘Manipulated Monday.’)  Not one, not two, but THREE also-rans came out and endorsed Biden the day before the “election.”  Three.  I called them “also-rans” and two of them, O’Rourke and Klobuchar, were.  But one of them, Buttigieg, was in third place in the delegate count.  No, he wasn’t burning up the field but in third place going into Super Tuesday is NOT the normal time for a candidate to decide he has no path.

Two candidates stepping down under unexpected circumstances and three making big productions about endorsing the preferred DNC candidate the day before Super Tuesday seems…orchestrated to me.  But that’s the thing, right?  This process IS orchestrated.  By the Democratic National Committee.  How?  Just a friendly phone call.  “Nice political career you’ve got there.  Shame if something were to happen to it.  Listen, I need you to do me a favor, though…”

While all of the arguing and fighting is taking place over the “best” candidate by various Americans online and in person, the DNC has made clear that, from their point of view, THEY pick the Democratic nominee and you WILL vote for their choice.  Period.  Which brings me to another point.

Elizabeth Warren.  I really like her.  I think she would have made a terrific President.  I’m still a Sanders guy, though, and it’s important to remember that.  Warren supporters are upset by the appearance that Warren got sidelined by the DNC – a feeling I know having supported Sanders in 2016.  It’s frustrating.  But then, Warren’s supporters started suggesting that Warren was sidelined because this country isn’t ready for a woman as President.  I don’t agree.

In 2016, the DNC rigged the primaries in FAVOR of a “Vulvular American” AND said Vulvular American WON the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes!  The fact that the DNC rigged the race to benefit a woman in 2016 belies the idea that the DNC won’t support a woman and the fact that said woman won the popular vote suggests that the masses are ready for a woman, too.  So, stop with that stuff…

Warren’s single biggest strike is that she presented as a Progressive and the DNC CAN not – WILL NOT – tolerate progressives.  The DNC is a corporate organization working for the benefit of corporations.  That’s why only corporate Democrats need apply.  Rule One: a candidate MUST be in the “incremental, baby-steps” (read: ‘don’t rock the boat’) crowd.  But after that basic consideration, the OTHER requirement to “win” the nomination seems to be money.  ANY loyal, corporate Democrat can have the nomination – if they can buy it.  Hillary did in 2016.  Biden seems to have done in 2020.

THAT’S why Warren will, eventually, endorse Biden.  She has to.  As a party member, she needs the DNC and the DNC is quite clear what kind of political future one has in the party should one defy the dictates of said party.  The fact that Bernie is not a party member and is, therefore, not controllable by the party is the single most important reason the DNC will never, ever allow Bernie the nomination.

My attitude is that if the DNC is going to let Bernie run as a Democrat, they should let him win (or lose fairly) as a Democrat.  If they’re not going to let him win, they shouldn’t let him run.  But right and wrong, “should” and “shouldn’t” don’t seem to matter anymore.  This is what we’ve got.  Trump on the right.  The DNC choice on the, well, center-right.  Nobody on the left.

Now, here’s why it’s important to remember I’m a Sanders guy: we’re gonna lose.  I think we have the best candidate but the DNC has already made a choice and they’ve told us they’ve made their choice.  Think of it this way: when you go to a booth at the county fair to play a game, you KNOW the game is rigged against you.  When you DO lose, you don’t demand your money back because you knew you were going to lose going in.  So do that with Bernie.

Let’s all have our fun.  Let’s rock the boat as much as possible to expose the dirty politics of the Democratic party.  But do not get so emotionally involved you deceive yourself into believing you actually have a chance when you KNOW you don’t.  Do not get so polarized you can’t bring yourself to cast a ballot for Biden in November.  Yeah, Biden sucks.  But not as badly as Donnie Dumbass and those are really your only two choices…

Well, that was…interesting.  I had noticed that Sleepy Joe didn’t do so well in the Iowa Caucus.  He came in 4th, in fact, with just 15.8% of the vote.  On to New Hampshire where he lost again, coming in 5th with just 8% of the vote.  He did better in Nevada where he lost again but came in a distant 2nd, with 20% of the vote to Bernie’s 46.8%.  I mean, it seemed very much like Biden’s “let’s not rock the corporate boat” message wasn’t catching on with the masses.

But the message from the corporate media became all positive for Biden heading into South Carolina and, hey, it seems they were right.  Overnight, ol’ Joe jumped from a distant also-ran to leader of the pack.  And he didn’t just win, he won BIGLY!  48% to Sanders 20%.  NOW the campaign is on track.  NOW the corporate Democrats can breath a sigh of relief.

Still…a thought crossed my mind.  (Hey, don’t be like that.  It happens…)  I did a little digging and now I’m confident enough to make a bold prediction.  Biden “won” South Carolina?  I predict he’s also going to “win” (are you ready?): Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas.

You see, the thought that crossed my mind and the results of the digging I did?  Those are the states that use computer voting machines with no paper trail!  He may or may not “win” Kansas and Mississippi but he’ll surely do well in those states, also, as they use a combination of machines with no paper trail and some that DO leave a verifiable record.

So…to review: states where people have to show up and states with verifiable paper trails vote overwhelmingly for Bernie.  States with NO verification go to Biden.  Got’cha.  Move along, folks.  Nothing to see, here…

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I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of ‘The Young Turks,’ but they’ve recently taken a very “do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do” attitude.  To catch you up, ‘The Young Turks’ is a supposedly progressive news outlet led by a guy named Cenk Uygur.  (No, I didn’t just pound the keys, that’s how the guy spells his name…)  They’ve hung their hat on their liberal bona fides, blasting everybody who isn’t as “left” as they are and suggesting/demanding better behavior from all of their less enlightened brethren.

Then workers at ‘The Young Turks’ decided to join a union, normally a progressive position.  Uh-oh.  Turns out, pseudo-progressive Uygur thinks unions are great ideas – for everyone else.  HIS company just can’t afford the expense, says he.

It seems conservative Capitalism can infect anywhere…

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Just for fun, here.  I read a little blurb that something like 1,300 people complained to the FCC about the halftime show of the Stupor Bowl.  The comments were pretty uniformly about the gyrations of the dancers and the things they touched while dancing.  Now, I’ll tell you the truth.  I don’t tune in to football to watch dancing.  I did find the performance rather suggestive but a case could be made it was sex-positive – ostensibly a good thing, yes?  Not to the 1,300…

As it happens, 102,000,000 people watched the broadcast.  1,300 complained.  1.27% didn’t like it.  That means 98.73% did – or, at least, didn’t take the time to complain.  At that rate, I suspect it will only be a few more years until the dancers are all naked…