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…

Bernie’s doing well.  In fact, he’s kicking hell out of the centrists.  That’s because, despite centrist claims that people only want a centrist, most people don’t really want a centrist.  Perhaps surprisingly, the incremental, baby-steps ‘let’s-make-sure-nothing-happens’ message isn’t catching on with those falling – or who have fallen – through the cracks.  Go figure…

The Washington Post did what they could, declaring Bernie the darling of the Russians.  Of course, the centrists jumped all over that but I found myself with questions.  For instance, the first line of the story says that it’s unclear what form the Russian “assistance” is taking.  (“No, we don’t know what they’re doing but they must be doing SOMETHING!” isn’t very…persuasive…)  If 2016 is any indicator, the complaint is that the Russians might be saying mean things about various candidates to try to inflame passions.

Really?  Is that it?  Because, truthfully, when I saw a meme saying that Hillary had personally killed Vince Foster, it made no difference to me if the message originated with the GOP or the GRU, I knew it was bunk.  So what passions might the Russians inflame regarding Bernie?  Oh, the DNC might be trying to rig the primaries again?  Berners know that.  Berners are all over that.  The Russians saying so won’t inflame the passions of Berners.  It will only make the centrists crazy because the centrists are working so effing hard to hold on to the fiction that the DNC didn’t cheat in 2016.

But the DNC DID cheat in 2016 and handed the “election” over to trumpery.  If the centrists will accept that one simple fact, there will be no more passions to be inflamed.  Russian influence ended.  Simple.

Of course, if the Russians are hacking into voting machines and flipping votes, that’s an entirely different matter but our corrupt system doesn’t allow officials to acknowledge even the possibility – you know, to “protect the integrity of the system.”  Obviously, if ANYONE is hacking in and flipping votes there IS no “integrity of the system” to protect, right?

Another question: was Bernie the ONLY candidate briefed on the Russians?  That’s the impression left by the Post story but at the same time, we also know that our fearful misleader got furious with Joseph Maguire, his director of National intelligence, because Maguire briefed Congress about the Russian interference (like he was supposed to) before bringing the information to the Trump Crime Family.  I’m guessing, here, but my guess is that ALL of the candidates were briefed.  It’s just that the corporate media needed a quality smear against Bernie so pretending he knew and kept it a secret and nobody else knew seemed like a good move.

Wouldn’t that be the very same kind of thing the Russians stand accused of – making up things to smear one candidate?  Is it better or worse if the lies come from Americans?  Inquiring minds want to know…

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I don’t think Mike Bloomberg cares that he didn’t do well in the “debates.”  I think he used the occasion to identify areas his massive campaign buys need to focus on in order to deceive the largest number of people.  I mean, have you SEEN his ads?  He’s just promising to fix everything for everyone – and he’ll do it on day one.  He’s taking credit for things he didn’t really do and NOT taking responsibility for things he DID do.  But he’s going to spend enough money to stay relevant.  I don’t know how that will work on the national stage.

From time to time here in California some billionaire tries to buy their way into politics.  They spend massive amounts of money declaring they’re beholding to no one so they should get elected.  Generally?  They don’t…

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Here in my home town, they’re shuffling the homeless around again.  I’ve seen all kinds of ideas and thoughts about the best way to solve the problem.  Curiously, I still have NOT seen “a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work” on the list.  (So-called “free market” Capitalism rejects the concept of an honest wage…)  True, that would only impact one portion of the problem but it would certainly reduce that one portion of the problem…

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I guess this wasn’t supposed to be funny but a guy called “Mad” Mike Hughes died the other day.  He died when he tried to launch himself into space – in a homemade rocket – in order to prove the world is flat.

Apparently, the Darwin Awards are alive and well – even if it’s recipients are not…

Quick question: now that Senate Republicans have declared soliciting foreign influence over American “elections” perfectly acceptable, do you think the Dems should get with the Chinese?  A promise to lift the Dumbass tariffs – but only if the Dems win – could easily be enough to get the Chinese to start hacking into voting machines right along with the Russians and Democratic and Republican parties…

I still think fair elections were better but apparently, we have a new paradigm…

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And now the preliminaries have begun.  So who leads the pack?  Well, that would be one Bernie Sanders.  No, wait!  Pete – we’re giving it to Pete.  (People will believe Pete, won’t they?)  On to New Hampshire so Joe can…what?!?  Bernie?  Again?  Too big a lead to lie about, eh?  Okay, alright Bernie gets New Hampshire.  On to South Carolina where Joe will…

I’ve been laughing at the pundit class.  I’ve read many analyses about who can and can’t win and why.  I’ve noticed that no matter who’s doing the analyzing or which arguments they hang their hats on, they all agree on one thing:  amazingly, each pundit is sure the only candidate that can win is the candidate they, personally, preferred before they even started writing their analyses.  Seems fair and balanced to me.  (Okay, my turn, then…)

I like Bernie.  Most of the arguments I’ve heard against Bernie are pure bunk.  Dems can’t run Bernie because conservatives will call him names.  That position pretends the GOP can’t or won’t call any of the other candidates names should they get the nod.  Is that true?  Let’s ask Pocahontas, Sleepy Joe, or Mini Mike, shall we?  The GOP certainly wouldn’t lie about an opposing candidate, would they?  Let’s just check in with swift-boat captain John Kerry and see.

I’ve also heard that Bernie has “no coat tails.”  That is, his presence on the ballot won’t help down-ballot Democrats.  I don’t even understand this argument.  The person who brings out the most voters will, automatically, help the down-ballot candidates specifically BECAUSE there are voters in the booths.  You know what won’t help down-ballot candidates?  Turning off huge swaths of the voters by artificially sidelining the preferred candidate in favor of the “loyal” Democrat, causing them to stay home.

And “loyal” is relevant.  See, one of the positions loyalist Dems take is that Bernie isn’t a Democrat.  Technically, correct but he HAS worked faithfully with the Dems throughout his political career.  On the other hand, Mike Bloomberg seems to be trending with the party because he IS pretending to be a Democrat – for now.  He has a history of jumping back and forth between parties as he sees fit.  The Dems would rather run a “sometimes Dem” instead of a demonstrated ally just because Bernie won’t subject himself to party dictates?  Apparently…

I’ve heard that running Bernie will only inflame the right.  Bunk again.  The right is already inflamed – like an antibiotic-resistant rash.  Somewhere between 35 and 40% of the electorate will come out for trumpery.  The number won’t be higher because that’s the current, measured level of ignorance in America.  It might be slightly lower because some in that 5% margin of those who voted trumpery in 2016 might well vote for Bernie in 2020 – specifically because he offers the change most Americans want to see…

But red hat conservatives will come out in near-perfect lockstep because they will be told to come out in near-perfect lockstep or everyone will die or some such and these are some scared and angry little people.  In short, nothing anyone on the left does will change what happens on the right.  Why, it almost seems as though picking a candidate based on what the right might do isn’t a good idea at all…

Here’s the reason the DNC should just honor their charter and facilitate fair primaries: the DNC allowed Bernie to run as a Democrat.  If they didn’t want him to win as a Democrat, they shouldn’t have allowed him to RUN as a Democrat.  Rigging the outcome can only do damage.  If the Dems only want Dems (or, in Bloomberg’s case, pseudo-Dems), they should close the process to everyone else…

Listen, in the general, I’m absolutely, positively going to vote ‘Blue to Block.’  In part, this is because I think it’s important to TRY to stop Donnie Dumbass.  But I realized the other day, my motives aren’t pure in the matter.  Normally, I’m not much of a ‘told-you-so’ kind of guy.  But when the Dems sideline Bernie, foist the “safe” candidate on the electorate, and then lose – again – I intend to bash the crap out of the Democrats for the rest of time for again sidelining the candidate that could win in favor of one who can’t.  Fair warning…

Apparently, Donnie hates this picture.

I can see why.  It not only exposes his fake, spray-on “tan,” it kind of highlights his tiny little hands.  He says it’s Photoshopped.  In fairness, there are apparently other copies of this photo where he’s less…colorful.  My guess is the toned down version is the Photoshopped version because, of course, he lies about everything, every day.  But I don’t think it’s fair to attack the guy over being ugly and having little hands.  We should attack him for his Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Lust, Avarice, Wrath, and Sloth, instead…

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I recently had a rather stunning observation.  As you might know, I interact with conservatives on a regular basis.  I don’t mean doing a business transaction with someone who leans right without ever discovering the person leans right.  I mean the occasional political discussion with dyed-in-the-wool conservatives.  You will not be surprised to find we often disagree but I like to engage in the talks because of the times I find where we DO agree.  My basic position is, well, was, that our goals are the same, cons and mine.

I noticed when the impeachment inquiry began, my conservative friends online disappeared – as a group.  My conservative friends in real life were clearly uninterested in discussing politics.  Conservative input was just…gone.  Then came the nullification and my cons were back.  Amazing.

So, I got into a political discussion with one of them and the very moment the conversation touched on the subject of the impeachment, the individual in question went nuts.  The “conversation” was over.  My friend just launched into a loud, non-stop diatribe as he walked away, finishing his rant as he retreated through a door.

I thought it was weird.  We’ve had many discussions.  We mostly disagree but we do so respectfully.  There was nothing respectful about this fulmination – and then he was gone.  Okay, so maybe he’s having a bad day or something, you know?  Maybe the over-the-top response was just an in-the-moment thing.  But then I ran into another of my conservative friends.

He, too, had “left the field,” as it were, during the inquiry and show-trial.  He, too, was now back, ready to talk politics.  And when the topic moved to impeachment?  He, too, went OFF!  Loudly!  It’s a little startling when the shouting starts.  It’s a little impressive that these older guys can hold enough air to supply such an aggressive, loud, and non-stop, rant.  Of course, their information is wrong but they don’t know it and they REALLY don’t WANT to know it.

I realized two things:  1) the response was intended to ensure that the conservative never risked hearing anything about the process Fox “News” hadn’t pre-approved and 2) the power of propaganda is nearly insurmountable.  I’m AMAZED that nearly 40% of this once-great nation is so completely manipulated by propaganda.

It leaves me in a weird place.  I continue to be fact- and evidence-based.  But in this post-truth world, facts and evidence are merely inconveniences to be overcome.  I don’t really know how to interpret a world that thinks it can insist on a preferred reality instead of living in actual reality.

I used to wonder how entire nations could be led around by disinformation and propaganda.  Now I know…and it sucks…

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I need to clarify something.  When it comes to the ImPOTUS and the process used during his trial, I reject the word “acquitted” in favor of the more accurate “nullified.”  This can be confusing because the corporate media only uses “acquitted” as though that’s what happened.  In order to be acquitted, the jury has to hear and consider the evidence and make a judgement based on that evidence.  The Republicans in the Senate rejected and blocked evidence because allowing it made it more difficult to pretend Trump was not guilty.  That’s a nullification, not an acquittal.  Here, see?  I lifted this definition of nullification from Wikipedia.”

“Jury nullification, or a perverse verdict, generally occurs when members of a criminal trial jury believe that a defendant is guilty, but choose to acquit the defendant anyway because the jurors also believe that the law itself is unjust, that the prosecutor has misapplied the law in the defendant’s case, or that the potential punishment for breaking the law is too harsh.”  (Emphasis added…)

See?  The conservatives know Trump is guilty.  They just don’t care.  They didn’t “acquit” Trump.  They nullified the charge.  But in so doing, they tacitly acknowledge their belief that Trump is guilty.  So we all agree…

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Ah, the Dem wars are heating up!  Thanks, Iowa.  Well, thanks to the DNC for what they did in Iowa.  I was concerned this was going to happen.  I tried to tell anyone who would listen NOT to get too attached to any one candidate.  (“Vote blue to block!”)  We KNEW the DNC was going to cheat and foist some useless no one on us – but we also know that the country is in desperate trouble.  If Americans can’t replace Trump, we’ll never recover.  We needed to unite.

It looks to all the world as though Bernie won the Iowa caucus but the DNC CANNOT, WILL NOT allow Bernie to win anything.  So they go into closed-door session and dribble out information as they can create it.  They HAVE  to acknowledge Sanders’ success – to a degree – so he gets second place with – surprise, surprise – Pete Buttigieg as the unexpected front runner – a “hat tip” to the fact that Joe Biden – the first choice of the DNC – came in a distant fourth.  This means that…

RATS!

This is going to take some getting used to.  I keep thinking about this upcoming “election” as though it’s as honest as it should be and things will work out according to the will of the people.  It’s going to take me some time to re-align my thinking to the new paradigm where Putin’s Petulant Puppet “wins” every “election” going forward with 94% of the vote…

In law, there’s a thing called ‘Double Jeopardy.’  Bearing in mind that I’m no lawyer, the basic concept of Double Jeopardy is that a person can’t be tried twice for the same crime.  Well, kinda.  A person actually CAN be tried twice for the same crime.  It’s just that the prosecution can’t use evidence that has already been adjudicated.

So, let’s say a guy gets tried for murder but the case is mostly circumstantial.  A car like his was seen in the area.  He’s known to have that kind of wrench.  Someone saw someone who looked like him but couldn’t be absolutely certain.  So the guy is acquitted.  Then, home security video is discovered that shows the guy getting out of his car, captures the license plate, shows the killer looking directly into the camera as he bludgeons his victim.  The killer is even still wearing his name tag from work!  They CAN arrest the guy and try him again.  THIS time, they’ll only use the video but the video is conclusive.  Guilty.

House Democrats rushed their impeachment inquiry.  I don’t know why.  (They never discuss these things with me.)  There was some “urgency” that also allowed for a month-long hold for a power play.  Call it ‘Prosecutus Interruptus.’  They pulled out before they were finished and pretty much made a mess of everything.

It seems likely that, Republicans having declared their intent to nullify the process, Democrats just figured, “Why put all that work into something that has already been declared DOA?” and took what they could get, creating Articles of Impeachment that – in my opinion – made the case but allowed corrupt Republicans to lie, lie, lie.  (Which, of course, they’ll do under any circumstances…)  I watched every minute of the event that I could.  One thing that became clear was the GOP kept arguing – among other things – about how LONG the process might take.

So the GOP is going to whitewash the process and nullify the impeachment rendering whatever evidence was presented unusable in the future.  The thing is, AFTER the impeachment articles were drawn up, so much more evidence became available the Dems were shown to have rushed the thing WAY too fast.  And most of the new evidence is BETTER evidence consisting of firsthand accounts from people who were in the room at the time (John Bolton) or specifically participated in the process (Lev Parnas).

So…what if, the moment the corrupt Senate nullifies the process, the House took another vote and impeached the motherfucker again!  THIS time, they could take the first vote the GOP insisted was the most important thing in the world.  THIS time, they could take their subpoenas to court and have the courts rule that, yes, the executive branch DOES have to comply with subpoenas.  THIS time, they could use firsthand witnesses and eventually, get the documents they didn’t get last time.  Their first run at it was so slipshod, they could lose ALL of that evidence and STILL present a stronger case.

No, of course they won’t.  But I like the idea…

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Has anybody else been noticing the drop in the DOW?  How could you not?  Over 600 points the day the corrupt Senate voted down justice.  Despite what Americans are told daily in the corporate media, the DOW is nothing more than a CEO happiness index.  If someone cuts pay for the workers, the DOW goes up because the CEO gets to keep more money.  If someone has to pay a fair wage, the DOW goes down because CEO’s DON’T get to keep as much money.

The official, corporate reason given for the drop in the DOW is that Wuhan is closed due to illness.  I have to grant, closing a city of eleven million people IS going to have an impact on the world economy and it makes sense the DOW might react.

But, to me, it ALSO makes sense that the business community isn’t happy about the corrupt Senate’s actions.  Severing the checks and balances that maintained this once-great nation since the start destabilizes…um…everything.  When, in history, has a country devolved into dictatorship and seen things get BETTER for business and/or the average citizen?

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The United Kingdom leaves the European Union on the same day the corrupt US Senate votes down justice.  It seems appropriate that the UK and the US die the same day.  In the United Kingdom, Scotland is moving quickly to create the not-so-united kingdom.  Scotland wants OUT of the UK and back into the EU.  I suspect Northern Ireland will soon follow, lest they be cut off from the rest of Ireland by hard borders.

England will still have Wales, of course, so they still get to be “United.”  But they’re not going to be as strong, economically, as they were with Northern Ireland and Scotland.  The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, is taking a hard-line approach to the EU, which is funny since the EU has all the power in the negotiations.

I expect a severe downturn in England’s economy.  I think the same is going to happen to the American economy because of the failure of the American government.  (That kind of destabilization is never good for economies…)  I expect a rough ride.

Plan accordingly…

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Now let’s set aside the boring stuff and get to the important news.  The Santa Clara 49ers take on the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowel 54! (That’s not a typo.  One is supposed to pay the NFL if you use their actual game name.  But you know what I mean…)  I like the Niners and want them to win.  The Chiefs are a VERY good team and have a very real chance of winning as well.  As the Super Bowel, I’m hoping it’s not a crappy game!  It promises to be a very entertaining.  So, I’m going to use this space to hope for the health and safety of ALL of the players (AND that the NFL hasn’t already decided a “winner” brought about by selective officiating…)

Enjoy the game…

I’ve long understood that a lot of people who ended up voting for trump did so as a second choice.  What they knew was that they were tired of politics as usual.  They were tired of watching the Democrats and Republicans switch chairs and simply exchange playbooks, majority and minority, then continue doing the same old things.

Part of the problem has been the success of Charles Koch’s war against America.  As corrupt politicians have worked steadily to dismantle FDR’s New Deal, life for most Americans has become increasingly difficult – with the blame constantly falling on the victims.  Koch’s assault began in the 1970’s.  It gained steam with the “election” of Reagan.  It coalesced under Clinton with the founding of Fox “News.”

Americans suffered court-appointed “President” Bush (43).  Thinking Americans THOUGHT they’d found a champion in Obama, only to be disappointed by his ineffectiveness.  (Yes, I know, Obamacare.  The Affordable Care Act was better than the the cruel, so-called “free market” but many remember he RAN on universal health care and surrendered even the possibility before negotiations even began.  Disappointing…)

By the time the 2016 “election” came about, huge swaths of Americans were simply fed up.  Two candidates in that “election” promised change: Bernie Sanders and Donnie Dumbass.  As time wore on, it became clear that Sanders was the choice of the people.  He was proposing changes and promising to overturn the status quo.  That’s what the vast majority of Americans wanted.

But the DNC had already pre-sold the nomination to Hillary Clinton.  They were gobsmacked to discover Bernie’s popularity and had to resort to…well, let’s just say…”extra-electoral” activities in order to provide their end of the deal, the nomination.  MANY people reacted in many ways.  Mostly, people couldn’t be convinced to come out for the same-as-usual, incremental, baby-steps candidate who ran such a god-awful campaign.  But a large number of disenfranchised voters had a second choice, somewhere to go, another candidate promising to overturn the status quo: Donald J. Trump.  And so they did.

So, the Democratic Party did their postmortem and, after careful consideration and thoughtful reflection, decided to excuse their own cheating and blame Bernie.  Okay, fine, whatever.  They ALSO started paying lip-service to trying to become more inclusive – but ONLY by doing the same incremental, baby-steps thing.

Cut to 2020.  Bernie’s surging again.  Loyalist, party Dems still don’t understand.  (“Why do people like THAT guy so much more than the candidate I prefer?!?”)  Far and away, the vast majority of the American people want Bernie’s vision in the White House because he promises change.  The thing that distinguishes Bernie’s change from trump’s is Bernie’s isn’t about destruction.  Think of a kid who wants attention.  Some kids gain attention by excelling at good things (Bernie), some kids get attention by being complete assholes (trump).  But they get the attention…

Enter Joe Rogan.

By way of disclaimer, I’ve never heard ‘The Joe Rogan Experience.’  I know he hosted ‘Fear Factor,’ a show I never watched.  In short, I know nothing of Rogan from personal experience.  After two or three minutes of “research” I think Rogan leans Libertarian but sees himself as liberal.  I also know he doesn’t understand the transsexual community.  I know that because Rogan recently said on his podcast that he would probably vote for Bernie Sanders.  Sanders highlighted the “endorsement” and the loyalist, partisan, Democrats went nuts, highlighting the fact that Rogan once said trans women weren’t “real women.”

The fact that Sanders continues to draw air is enough to disqualify him in the view of the loyalists.  They’ll pounce on anything that seems even remotely able to derail the Sanders campaign.  So, Rogan saying he liked Bernie was portrayed as Bernie agreeing with every word Rogan has ever said, not because Bernie agrees with Rogan but because it’s a fun smear.

In point of fact, the idea that a left-leaning Libertarian (who knew?) might consider voting for the Democratic nominee SHOULD be welcome news.  Rogan’s is one of the most popular podcasts in the country.  If Rogan says Sanders deserves a look, literally millions of people will look.  In short, Rogan’s comments should be everything the Democrats pretend they want to see happen: the tent opening up to a larger crowd.

But Rogan can’t pass the Democratic purist test so, he’s out.  (And let us not talk falsely now, Rogan endorsed Bernie.  I suspect if he had endorsed, say, Warren, purist Dems would be just fine with him.)  “Let’s not accept any votes unless they come from dyed-in-the-wool, tested pure Democrats,” say the Dems.  “BUT…let’s be sure to bitch and moan endlessly when it turns out there aren’t enough dyed-in-the-wool, tested pure Democrats to put one of our own in the Oval Office.”

It’s starting to look as though the Dems are preparing to use their superdelegates to defeat democracy again.  The party wants Biden and the party will GET Biden whether he can win or not.  The thing is, California is voting in the primaries on Super Tuesday, along with much of the nation.  Bernie does VERY well in California.  Without DNC interference, it’s VERY possible Bernie could win the nomination.  Personally, I would enjoy knowing all of the purist, loyalist Democrats are out there casting ballots for their hated nemesis because the party told them to.

I’m voting for Bernie in the primary in part because he’s bringing in a larger swath of Americans than the other candidates.  Yes, I’ll vote “blue to block” in the general but I genuinely don’t believe Biden can generate enough enthusiasm to overcome the deceived right.  Warren might be able to, having co-opted many of Bernie’s positions but why accept the copy when one can have the original, yes?  A Sanders/Warren ticket would be MY dream team.

I STILL believe Bernie would have beaten trump in 2016.  (So, I think, do the Dems.  That’s why they’ve been so aggressively smearing him since.)  I think Bernie could beat trump in 2020, given the chance, precisely BECAUSE he attracts more than just the loyalist base.  But it’s looking more and more like the party would rather lose with their purity intact than actually DO what they claim they want to do: include everyone…

 

Apparently, it’s a test of gullibility.  The Trump team just wants to know, “How stupid are you?”  Most of the rank and file conservatives are responding with “How stupid do you need us to pretend to be?”

Here’s the trumped up defense as summarized by the Guardian:

• The transcript (which the White House said is not verbatim) shows that the president did not condition either security assistance or a meeting on anything.
• Ukrainians have said there was no quid pro quo.
• Ukraine did not know security assistance was paused until a month after the 25 July call.
• No Ukrainian investigation into Joe Biden took place.
• Ukraine received assistance without such an investigation.
• Trump has been a bigger supporter of Ukraine than his predecessor, Barack Obama.

Okay, first if it’s not verbatim, it’s not a transcript.  It’s an abstract.  The White House chose which information to include and what to withhold.  The actual transcript?  The White House hid that on a secure server and won’t let anybody see it…

Yeah, the Ukrainians said there was no quid pro quo.  They were trying to negotiate a meeting with Dumbass in the White House and knew they needed to massage the man-baby’s fragile ego.  Besides, as the cons confess, Ukraine didn’t yet know about Donnie’s crime…

Ukraine didn’t know the assistance had been paused at the time of the call.  This particular bit is like receiving the ransom note before discovering your child has been kidnapped.  You wouldn’t really take such a threat seriously – until the day your child doesn’t come home as expected.  THEN, you’d feel threatened.  THEN, you’d know you’re being extorted.  THEN, you’d realize your child had been kidnapped.  But you STILL might keep it to yourself, if you feared that doing otherwise might make the problem worse.  Once Ukraine discovered the depths to which the Beast was willing to stoop, they had an entirely new reason to fear retribution from this White House…

No investigation took place.  BFD.  No investigation was ever going to take place.  Trump didn’t want an investigation.  He wanted an announcement of an investigation.

The conservatives pretend that releasing the aid and saying “No quid pro quo” AFTER getting caught in his crime is the same as not committing the crime in the first place.

I did not see the claim that Dems just want to overturn an “election” though I think they’ll try to make that case as they proceed.  Let’s think about it, though.  Let’s say you get a job as a bookkeeper.  Three years after you’re hired, the company discovers that you’ve been embezzling.  When they try to fire you, do you think you can forestall that outcome by shouting that they’re just trying to overturn their own hire?  Do you think they should have to retain the employee if it turns out he/she is able to form the sentence, “The process is unfair?”

I did NOT see in their list the con that ImPOTUS won’t try to prove his innocence because the process is unfair.  I guess even THEY realize just how stupid that argument is.  I recently saw a story in the news about a guy who was released 27 years after being convicted of a crime he didn’t commit.  You know who suffered from an unfair process?  A guy who gets convicted of a crime he didn’t commit.  (Sadly, it happens FAR more often in this country than we admit.)  Did that guy just refuse to participate because the process was unfair?  Why, no he didn’t.  He used the process to – eventually – prove his innocence.  I ask: what moron would NOT try to prove their innocence if they could?

I’ve had several discussions with cons about this whole process.  There’s not a single argument trumped up by the defense that ANY of the cons would accept if it affected them directly.  Let’s look at the kidnap analogy again.

If the kidnapper sees the cops pull up in front of the house and sends the kidnapped kid out, shouting “No kidnapping.  Arrest this kid for trespassing!” should the police just…shrug their shoulders and walk away?  SHOULD they arrest the kid?  Of course not.  What a person does AFTER they’ve been caught cannot be considered exculpatory.  (In fact, it’s called a “false exculpatory.”)

A friend of mine asked me how we can know if we’re right and the cons are wrong.  There’s a very simple answer: I NEVER have to do anything differently than anything I’ve ever done before in order to make my understanding work.  I don’t have to do any mental gymnastics.  I don’t have to pretend I have no ability to connect dots.  I don’t have to pretend that claiming the process is unfair is a get out of jail free card.  Cons have to pretend – aggressively – not to understand these very simple, basic things.

I don’t think that the fact that Republicans have no actual case is going to change the outcome.  I believe Senate Republicans are going to nullify the impeachment.  It won’t make Trump any less guilty, though…