Captain, My Captain:
I think the first thing I’d like to address is Captain Brett Crozier, Commanding Officer of the USS Theodore Roosevelt being relieved of his command.  He wrote a letter – an email, actually – requesting urgent assistance for his crew.  Covid-19 had been found on board and he needed help.  He sent the email to several people, some, apparently, outside his chain of command.  Someone leaked the letter to the media and the San Francisco Chronicle printed it.  Two days later, the Navy relieved the commander.

They said he hadn’t acted professionally.  I say he was protecting his crew.  They say he had lost the ability to lead.  His crew cheered him as he left the ship.  My guess is they would have followed him anywhere.  The Navy claims they took the action on their own – no pressure from above.  That could be.  Trump has morons everywhere in government.  Perhaps they don’t need direction to do the wrong thing at every turn.  But Trump has publicly supported the decision and whiny petulance is just Trump all over.  Captain Crozier did the right thing.  The Trump administration – once again – did the wrong thing.  Maybe Captain Crozier can get his ship back after we relieve Trump of his position due to his inability to lead…

…assuming we survive Trump’s continuing bungling of the Covid-19 response…

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Primarily speaking:
Well, like everyone else, I’m in lock down.  I spend the day staying mostly indoors, staying away from people as much as possible, little to do, seeking ways to keep busy.

I’ve never enjoyed a presidential primary so much…

It crossed my mind that the primaries could continue using paper ballots.  It’s a slower process, sure, but at least things could keep moving forward.  The thing is – and, yes, I know this sounds like a conspiracy theory – you know all the brilliant, impossible victories Biden started piling up?  What if paper ballots create a surge in Bernie votes, a surge that, for some reason, isn’t captured in electronic voting machines?  My guess is, that’s the very issue the DNC is wrestling with today.

The only real solution is to cancel the rest of the primaries and “fix it” – if you will – at the convention…

…assuming we survive Trump’s continuing bungling of the Covid-19 response…

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A Covid-19 silver lining:
Having JUST said I’m in lock down, I should clarify – I’m not.  I’m “essential” (read: “sacrificial…”)  I spend a LOT of time driving.  The roads are great.  They’ve even stopped wasting time with traffic reports on the morning news.

Yeah, I know that’s a pretty thin “silver lining” but at least it’s something…

Oh, wait.  The people truly trapped inside, never get to experience and enjoy the improved traffic conditions so I guess, for them, it’s no lining at all.  Never mind…

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We’re Number One:
Well, the United States managed to mangle it’s Covid-19 response to the point of having more infections than any other nation.  We haven’t hit the highest number of deaths, yet, but I have high confidence that with this crack team in charge, we will.  We will.

Early on, I saw one of my conservative friends ripping on the Italian government in social media as the Italians struggled to contain the virus.  It was an opportunity, you see, to try and attack Italy’s socialist medical system as inefficient and ineffective.  Now that the Capitalist system shows every sign of failing even MORE spectacularly, my conservative friend has gone silent on the subject…

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Greed kills:
If so-called “Free Market Capitalism” is so great, how come every seven to ten years Democratic Socialism has to step in to save it?  Worse, since we KNOW Democratic Socialism saves Capitalism every time Capitalism fails, why not just STICK with the better system?

…assuming we survive Trump’s continuing bungling of the Covid-19 response…

So…yesterday, conservatives started touting the idea that keeping the American death toll from Covid-19 to under 200,000 would constitute a “win.”  First, I have to acknowledge the possibility that Trump is using the ‘Lt. Commander Montgomery Scott Impressive Scale’ – using inflated numbers so the actual result looks better.  But the truth is, I DO think keeping the death toll under 200,000 would be a “win.”  In fact, with this group in charge, it’ll be a freaking miracle.

To be fair, Trump really HAS done every single thing he knows to do in combating this virus.  He tried ignoring it.  He tried calling it names.  He deflected responsibility and blamed anyone – everyone – else.  All the while, he has lied, lied, lied AND tried to convince anyone who would listen how great he is.  I mean, c’mon!  How much can one person do?  Eventually, he was forced to turn to (horror of horrors) science.   And experts.  Trump HATES science and experts and you can see it in his face every time Dr. Fauci refutes some “gut instinct” Trumps spews.

The thing is, this administration wasn’t built to wield the powers of government effectively.  This administration was built specifically to destroy the government.  The person in charge of any given department was put there, apparently, because of how much they effing HATE that department.  Who better to destroy it?  So is there really any chance this collection of ‘Keystone Kops’ is suddenly going to become a lean, mean administrative machine capable of…well, just…capable?  No.

That leaves it to the individual states.  Fifty different responses to the problem.  The states that insist on getting it wrong (like Florida – always Florida) will continue to be a problem for any state that gets it right.  That is to say, the red states are likely to continue to infect and then re-infect blue states for the foreseeable future.

Back on the Federal level, the two main concerns of the Trump maladministration at this point seem to be 1) Trump’s re-election and 2) profits – in that order.  Putting the health and well-being of Americans in third position – and at the mercy of Capitalists – can only aggravate the problem, long-term.  It’s very short-sighted.  Dead Americans commonly don’t buy as much as living Americans.

The current reports are that the trump team is supporting requests for medical equipment from red states but shorting – and chastising – requests from blue states because, of course he is.  This likely reflects Trump’s belief that the virus has a political agenda but tends to expose Trump’s own agenda: apparently, if 200,000+ people are going to die, Trump thinks they should be Democrats.  (Sorry, Michigan Republicans.  I guess you get what you vote for…)

So get comfortable, my fellow Americans.  Thanks to all the trumpery, it looks like we’re going to be in quarantine for a LONG time to come.  I hope the wine holds out…

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…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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…