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Would the Dukes of Hazzard Be Vaccinated?

Dukes of Hazzard and the General Lee

The Dukes of Hazzard was a very popular TV series that ran from 1979 to 1985. It was a cleaned-up version of an outlaw family in Georgia. By “outlaw” one should think of moonshine, racing fast cars (later NASCAR), and a general disdain for the law. It featured, besides the prerequisite babe in short shorts, a car called General Lee with a Confederate flag painted on the roof. Surprisingly, this top-rated show for seven seasons engendered no “cancel” culture outcry. America was different then. The outcry did not happen until after the Charleston church shooting in 2015 when the show was in reruns.

The Dukes’ good ole boy lifestyle may be said to be generally reflective of a distinctive folkway in American culture. It is a folkway that does not take kindly to being told what to do and resents the people who tell them, that is, the “dam Yankees.” The odds are the Dukes in real life would not and are not vaccinated. It would be interesting to speculate if they would be vaccinated if the TV show was still being produced and the outcry if they were.

Diverse America includes the Scotch-Irish, a people often overlooked given the racist standards of today. I wrote about this diversity back on August 28, 2018, in “Fellow Americans” versus “Tribal Rivalries”: Whither America?. The blog featured the work of David Hackett Fischer and Colin Woodard. Those sections are reposted below.

DAVID HACKETT FISCHER

On an academic level, I became more aware of the diversity of the United States through Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America by David Hackett Fischer. As the title indicates, the book divides the English or British into four distinct groups of folkways. He identified them as:

The Puritans who famously settled in Massachusetts and the surrounding areas
The Quakers who tended to be limited to one colony, Pennsylvania
The Cavaliers who started in Virginia but spread to other southern colonies
The Scotch-Irish who tended to be located in the border lands, the back country or fringe areas.

So rather than view the people from Great Britain monolithically, one should understand them as four distinct peoples or folkways.

These folkways brought their lifestyle with them when they emigrated to the colonies. Fischer lists various characteristics by which he defines each folkway in the area of Great Britain where they lived. Then he traces each characteristic or its equivalent to the life they created when they arrived here. In general terms, Fischer finds they each folkway transplanted their way of life from the old world to the new. Thus to claim that the English settled America obscures the reality of the situation – four different peoples [from there] settled here.

Fischer continues the story beyond the colonial era. He tracks the migrations of these peoples across the United States as it expanded westward. Most famously are the New Englanders who became Yorkers around the time of the Erie Canal. They kept moving west across the northern portion of the country. Their distinctive trait was doing something they already had done in the 1600s in New England – start a college.

He concludes by identifying the folkway to which the individual American presidents belonged. The early domination of the Cavaliers (Virginians) and New Englanders (Adams father and son) are obvious. Today we have no appreciation for the significance of the election of Andrews Jackson, the first of many Scotch-Irish presidents. Now he is just a dead white male; back then he was our first diverse president.

COLIN WOODARD

Recently, Colin Woodard, has continued this line of thought. He is the author of American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America. As the title suggests, his purview extends beyond the four folkways analyzed by Fischer. Woodard certainly is aware of Fischer’s work and he has expanded on to reflect the greater diversity which exists today. On July 30, in an opinion piece for the New York Times, “The Maps That Show That City vs. Country Is Not Our Political Fault Line: The key difference is among regional cultures tracing back to the nation’s colonization,” Woodard applied his template to the recent presidential election.

[O]ur true regional fissures can be traced back to the contrasting ideals of the distinct European colonial cultures that first took root on the eastern and southern rims of what is now the United States, and then spread across much of the continent in mutually exclusive settlement bands, laying down the institutions, symbols and cultural norms later arrivals would encounter and, by and large, assimilate into.

In other words, New York is still a commercial city (thank you Dutch) and Boston is still a college city thank you Puritans).

His analysis tracks 11 different groups.

Tracing our history, I’ve identified 11 nations, most corresponding to one of the rival European colonial projects and their respective settlement zones. I call them Yankeedom; New Netherland; the Midlands; Tidewater; Greater Appalachia; Deep South; El Norte; the Left Coast; the Far West; New France; and First Nation. These were the dominant cultures that Native Americans, African-Americans, immigrants and other vital actors in our national story confronted; each had its own ideals, assumptions and intents.

Through a series of colorful maps, Woodard then compares the vote percentages from 2016 to these cultural demographics. His explanation for the stark differences he finds in each of their choice of presidential candidates is:

Why the differences? I’ve long argued that United States politics resolves around the tension between advancing individual liberty and promoting the common good. The regional cultures we think of as “blue” today have traditions championing the building and maintenance of free communities, today’s “red” ones on maximizing individual freedom of action. Our presidential contests almost always present a clear choice between the two, and the regions act accordingly.

Take a simple and well-known example not in the article: healthcare. The “individual freedom of action” or “don’t tread on me” faction despises being told what to do and having no choice about it. Whether a law is in their best interest is secondary to whether it is being imposed on them by condescending arrogant self-righteous elitists or not (the 2010 election). And why should the Democrats try reasoning with such people in the first place? As Junior Trump said, they are not even people. Oh wait. He was talking about the Democrats. How can there be “come let us reason together” when neither side can acknowledge the humanity of the other?

Woodward Map

 

 

Covid death rates 12/28/21 NYT (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/12/28/us/covid-deaths.html)

 

 

 

 

 

 

JOE KLEIN

Joe Klein joined the discussion in an essay October 17, 2021 in The New York Times entitled appropriately enough “The Four Americas: Why the past is never past” (print, the online version is Joe Klein Explains How the History of Four Centuries Ago Still Shapes American Culture and Politics on October 4.

He begins by noting that as he watched the COVID crisis enfold, he thought back to Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America. In his comment on the Scotch-Irish “wild caste of immigrants,” he links them to the January 6 insurrection and the Whiskey Rebellion fought by their ancestors against the Constitution.

However, Klein is troubled by the fact that America includes many other folkways besides ones identified by Fischer. For one thing, he does not appear to be aware of Woodard’s 11 groupings. He also does not seem to recognize the acculturation or assimilation which can occur once a person from one folkway grows up in the world of another folkway. On a slightly different note, think of the independent countries today where judges wear the trapping of British judges.

In any event, Klein is somewhat optimistic. He comments that each of these different groups “provided an essential strain of the American idea.” This concept puts him at odds with The New York Times 1619 Project which in practical terms is oblivious to these different white folkways and operates under the Woke racist idea that if you’ve seen one white person, you’ve seen them all. By contrast, Klein opines these tensions among the folkways “created a distinctive American spirit. That defines us, too.”

Individually and collectively, these analyses suggest there is little likelihood the Scotch-Irish folkway or those who grew up in that culture will ever voluntarily agree to be vaccinated. Perhaps a charismatic Scotch-Irish President like Andrew Jackson could persuade them that it is in their own best interest to be vaccinated. After all this folkway traditionally has disproportionately served in the military which requires obedience in a structured setup. But neither the former nor the present President are capable of providing such leadership.

Perhaps if future Hall-of-Famer and Superbowl-Winning quarterback Aaron Rogers had strongly advocated for vaccination instead of playing cutesy-wootsie hide-and-seek about his status, these people would have listened to him. But Rogers failed the country in his moment of truth and Joe Rogan did not die from COVID either. At this moment in time, there does not seem to be a charismatic leader in the Scotch-Irish tradition who can pierce the bravado of the folkway which would rather die than listen to reason from the Puritan elitists symbolized now to them by all people by Anthony Fauci.

Play Ball: The Tulsa Template for Professional Sports

Tulsa Shows the Way (https://www.etsy.com)

The Tulsa template for professional political wrestling provides the way for professional sports to return to action. Since March, professional sports have ceased. Sports headed towards season-ending championships including at the college level came to an abrupt halt. Sports warming up for the coming season never got started. Tournaments were rescheduled or vanished for the 2020 year. The U.S. Open (tennis) aims for a regularly scheduled tournament this summer with no fans. It seems it also won’t have some of the top male players either and who knows if players will be willing to travel to New York. The U.S. Open (golf) coincidentally is scheduled this summer for New York as well. It plans to play but with no word on whether or not spectators will be allowed and if so, how many. Meanwhile, everyone holds their breath for Friday Night Lights high school football, Saturday college football, and Sunday-Monday-Thursday professional football.

The Tulsa template this June 20 shows how games can be played with full attendance. The model is for an indoor arena so surely it will work outdoors as well. The model is for 20,000 people so it certainly will work for smaller crowds and should work for larger crowds outdoors in larger arenas. Real men don’t wear masks and real Americans don’t get COVID-19 so since sports fans are real men and real Americans there is no risk there. Besides as everyone knows the coronavirus is yesterday’s news. It’s over…but just in case, make sure that all attendees sign an insurance waiver so we don’t go bankrupt!

Here is a model that all professional sports can follow. Once again, the very stable genius has solved a problem the so-called experts have failed to solve. Remember how he solved the problem of forest fires in California: MAKE AMERICA RAKE AGAIN. Remember how his uncle was a supergenius. Remember how Little Donnee Disinfectant visited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and said:

I really get it. Maybe I have a natural ability.

Seriously, wouldn’t the world be a better place if he had become a scientist. Think of all the discoveries he would have made.

Tulsa is just the start of the summer and fall political campaign. It shows that a full season of sports events can be scheduled as well. Of course, matches only can be held in Trumpican states. The New York Yankees will be unable to play in New York as long as the Democratic New York State Governor follows the advice of real scientists. The Yankees will have to play their games in a Confederate State. Similarly, the New England Patriots will have to follow their former quarterback south if it wants to play. The Republican Massachusetts Governor is not a Trumpican.  At this point, no one knows if professional sports will follow the example of the professional political wrestling and conduct their seasons in the South. But they will know that they can and the fans will demand it.

So as things stand, America can look forwarded to a summer of rounding up Trumpicans and herding them into arenas. While there, they will breathe on each other for hours, inhale each other’s droplets, and prove that the so-called scientists don’t know what they are talking about. Anthony Fauci has complained of an anti-science bias in America (see Darwin and COVID-19: Science in America). Now there will be an opportunity for Trumpicans to expose the fallacies of Fauci and the medical advice on the coronavirus. Once that happens, it will be PLAY BALL for college and professional sports.

The Trumpican rallies can be seen as a counter to the post-George-Floyd protests that have rocked the land. And these rallies probably will be without the physical violence that has occurred elsewhere….unless you are a black female reporter with a mask! One should anticipate a rip roaring fusillade of insults to come gushing forth. Look how long it has been since he has been able to deliver a full-throated performance.

Regardless of your personal views, we are witnessing an historic event. If the accounts of 800,000 people wanting tickets to attend are accurate, that is an extraordinary event in American history. It is reminiscent of the attendance in the Great Awakening with George Whitefield. This is not a Frank Sinatra, Elvis, the Beatles, or Woodstock event. Trumpicans are not attending for mere entertainment. They are attending for hope and salvation.

Hundreds of thousands of people are eager to see their Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed Be his Name. They are more than willing to sign insurance waivers because of their complete faith that the coronavirus is gone and couldn’t affect them anyway. They are here because they support the last line of defense against chaos. Only one person stands between the America they love and the total breakdown of society. They can see the foreigners all around them eager for the chance to take over the country after the rigged November elections. They know how perilous the situation is.

We can anticipate from now to November, the arenas of the country will rock to “Four More Years (at least!), Make American Great Again Again, Save the country, Lock her up, Build a wall, Deep State. Maybe some new material will be tested to see what works. The drumbeat over rigged elections will start now. It will be repeated incessantly. By the time of the actual election, Trumpicans will know the one and only way their Savior can lose is if the game is rigged.

For Little Donnee Wannee, these professional political wrestling matches are a matter of life and death. His life and his death. He has been cooped up in the White House for far too long. He needs the energy of the crowd roaring as he does the penguin walk, mocks Biden, and distributes free bottles of disinfectant to anyone who wants it. He needs their energy to sustain him against the Socialist Democrats, to sustain him against John Bolton, to sustain him against his niece.

The stakes are quite high.

P.S. We need to clarify the issue of Juneteenth and the Tulsa riots. When I first heard about the June 19 scheduling, I never considered that it was a racist act. I know anti-Trumpers were quick to jump to the conclusion that the racist bigoted president had just committed a doubly offensive act. My reaction was quite different. It never occurred to me that anyone in the White House [except a black Secret Service agent] even knew about Juneteenth or Tulsa. We are dealing with a person who blames the Baltic states for the breakup of Yugoslavia, who thinks the Canadians burned down the White House in the War of 1812, who thinks 306 Electoral College votes is a landslide. If your first reaction is that his decision was a racist action and not the action of a genuinely ignorant person then you are no better than someone who didn’t know Britain was nuclear armed and that Finland was an independent country. Just because he is a racist does not mean all his actions are racist. Sometimes they are just those of an ignorant person. Tulsa on the 19th was one such example. To those who criticized the racist action, the proper response is FAKE NEWS!

If Mike Pence Were President, How Many More Americans Would Be Alive Today?: Over 80,000 and Counting

God’s Plan for Mike Pence (The Atlantic, Tim O'Brien)

If Mike Pence were President, how many more Americans would be alive today? I posed that question in my blog on April 27, 2020, entitled If Mike Pence Were President, How Many More Americans Would Be Alive Today? At that time, I did not have a specific figure. I wrote this about the counterfactual:

This time we have hard-based scientific evidence that the situation could have been different. We know that social distancing and lock-downs work. It is possible to examine the dates of when cities in the United States (like New York) and cities throughout the world commenced a lock down. The numbers aren’t hidden figures. They are visible in plain sight. We know that the earlier these actions were taken, the fewer deaths there would have been and would be.  The same applies to the states. It is possible to examine the numbers from the 50 states and observe how many lives would have been saved if a state had acted a day earlier, two days earlier, a week earlier, or two weeks earlier. We know with different national leadership fewer Americans would have died and the economy wouldn’t have collapsed as much.

In my concluding paragraph, I wrote:

It is really not so difficult to imagine a different scenario being played out. The evidence is right there before us. We have the numbers. We have the multiple examples from the different cities, states, and countries.

Now we have the answer. A team of researchers at Columbia University have crunched the numbers and created a model in a report entitled “Differential Effects of Intervention Timing on COVID-19 Spread in the United States” by Sen Pei Kandula and Jeffrey Shaman. I don’t expect it to be on the night stand of our elementary-school literate President or mentioned on Fox except perhaps in a derogatory way.

According to the study, the implementation of mitigation measures a week or two earlier would have made a substantial difference. They used the May 3 death toll of 65,307 as a control point for the number of deaths and March 15 as the date for the start of mitigation measures in the United States. The results for starting earlier are:

March 8 – a decrease in the number of deaths from 65, 307 to 29,410 deaths for a reduction of 35,987 or almost 55%

March 1 – a decrease in the number of deaths from 65,307 to 11,253 deaths for a reduction of 54,054 or almost 83%.

If we extrapolate the results to the pending 100,000 actual deaths, the results based on the March 1 date mean approximately 17,000 Americans would have died instead for a reduction of 83,000. Presumably these calculations would ripple through the timeline.

True, this is a model. But when asked by Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” about the impact of starting mitigation efforts in February Anthony Fauci replied:

“I mean, obviously, you could logically say that if you had a process that was ongoing and you started mitigation earlier, you could have saved lives…  Obviously, no one is going to deny that.”

My immediate reaction on hearing that comment was that obviously one person was going to deny that. After all he rated himself a “10” and wouldn’t change anything he has done. Fauci went on to say:

“We make a recommendation. Often, the recommendation is taken. Sometimes it’s not. But we — it is what it is. We are where we are right now.”

Would we be where we are right now if the Senate had voted to remove the impeached President and Mike Pence had become President in February instead? We will never know but I think it is safe to say he couldn’t have done any worse. We certainly never would have heard of hydroxychloroquine or have considered the feasibility of disinfectants. Time Magazine has reported a spike in accidental poisonings with household disinfectants (May 25, 2020). The number of prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine has nearly doubled now that it has the Presidential seal of approval. How long will it be before the lawsuits against the government start?

But, of course, Mike Pence did not become President? Could he have risen to the occasion and become a profile in courage against the buffoon President? Could Vice President Brown Nose have cast aside his subordinate identity and become as outspoken and dedicated to the truth as Fauci is? I asked that question in a blog on October 3, 2019, minus the Fauci reference, entitled Will Mike Pence Become a Profile in Courage?   The blog gave me the opportunity to compare Pence to a lookalike Star Trek figure Captain Merik in “Bread and Circuses” who did rise to the occasion.

Mike Pence Is No Captain Merik in Star Trek “Bread and Circuses” (William Smithers)

My conclusion then was that Pence would not:

What will Mike Pence do? He prides himself on his Christian values. Will he tell the truth? He prides himself on never dining alone with a woman who is not his wife. Will he tell the truth? He prides himself on his integrity. Will he tell the truth? He thinks he is part of God’s plan. Will he tell the truth?

No. Even his staff knows the truth does not register with him.

He will not rise to the occasion.

He will not be a profile in courage.

He never would have been picked for the position of Vice President if he was.

Thinking about this topic now caused me to reread The Atlantic article God’s Plan for Mike Pence by McKay Coppins (January/February 2018). Coppins began by describing Pence’s appearance at a political rally where he passed on the good wishes of the president.

He delivers this message with a slight chuckle that has a certain, almost subversive quality to it. Watch Pence give enough speeches, and you’ll notice that this often happens when he’s in front of a friendly crowd. He’ll be witnessing to evangelicals at a mega-church, or addressing conservative supporters at a rally, and when the moment comes for him to pass along the president’s well-wishes, the words are invariably accompanied by an amused little chuckle that prompts knowing laughter from the attendees. It’s almost as if, in that brief, barely perceptible moment, Pence is sending a message to those with ears to hear—that he recognizes the absurdity of his situation; that he knows just what sort of man he’s working for; that while things may look bad now, there is a grand purpose at work here, a plan that will manifest itself in due time. [bold added]

Did you notice that “slight chuckle” at any of the coronavirus press conferences? You probably noticed the grimaces and groans of Fauci and Birx as the simple-minded immature child wandered off into his imaginary world. As for Vice President Brown Nose, nary a facial expression of any kind except beaming adulation. At some point someone will document the timeline of when and why Pence sold his soul.

Coppins also reported Pence as saying:

“We’ve come to a pivotal moment in the life of this country….It’s a good time to pray for America.” His voice rising in righteous fervor, the vice president promises an opening of the heavens. “If His people who are called by His name will humble themselves and pray,” he proclaims, “He’ll hear from heaven, and He’ll heal this land!”

It is quite possible Pence actually believes what he is preaching. If McConnell has been the conduit for the appointment of conservative judges, then Pence has been the conduit for white evangelical Christians to the White House. He’s doing God’s work.

Pence is following God’s plan.  “If you’re Mike Pence, and you believe what he believes, you know God had a plan,” says Ralph Reed.

Coppins own analysis probably written at the end of 2017 is tinged with tragic irony given what has occurred.

Pence is a man who believes heaven and Earth have conspired to place him a heartbeat—or an impeachment vote—away from the presidency. At some crucial juncture in the not-too-distant future, that could make him a threat to Trump.

We had the impeachment. Did you notice any change in Pence? We are having the coronavirus crisis. Did you notice any change in Pence? Do you think the President ever worries about the Vice President telling the truth?

Coppins observed:

In Pence, Trump has found an obedient deputy whose willingness to suffer indignity and humiliation at the pleasure of the president appears boundless.

Still true over two years later.

Kellyanne Conway: “Mike Pence is someone whose faith allows him to subvert his ego to the greater good.”

Pence’s belief in “servant leadership” makes him a perfect patsy for a skilled con artist who knows how to manipulate people.

Evangelical Marc Short [White House director of legislative affairs] told me that in moments of need, Pence turns to a favorite passage in Jeremiah: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Coppins noted this passage in conjunction with the Hollywood Access tape crisis. What exactly is that plan? Is it to go down with a sinking ship? Is it to stand idly by and watch tens of thousands of Americans die? When will that divine plan manifest itself? According to the evangelical Vice President in April:

“I truly do believe that if we all continue to do that kind of social distancing and other guidance broadly from federal and state officials, that we’re going to put this coronavirus in the past. I believe by early June we’re going to see our nation largely past this epidemic. I think honestly, if you look at the trends today, that I think by Memorial Day weekend we will have this coronavirus epidemic behind us.”

The day of reckoning is upon us. Memorial Day Weekend is here. Will Pence face the truth of his failed prophecy? Will he see the light at the end of tunnel? Will he rise to the occasion? Will he be the leader America needs? No. No. No. And no. Are you kidding me? He will claim his prophecy has been fulfilled just as his Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed Be his Name, will.

V-Zero Day: We Have Prevailed Over COVID-19!

"We have met the moment and we have prevailed,"

Did you celebrate V-Zero Day? Did you celebrate the day when we finally prevailed over Covid-19?

Ever since the White House Council of Economic Advisers delivered its Happy Talk message showing deaths dropping precipitously to the point of zero by May 15, I have been counting down the days on my blogs.

We’re Number 2! We’re Number 2! We’re Number Two: Trumpicans Rejoice

Measuring His Performance: The Target Dates

May 15 2020: Coronavirus deaths drop to zero: in 3 days!!!!!
May 25 2020: Celebrate the victory over the coronavirus again: in 13 days!!!!!!!

“The Trump Presidency Is Over:” Peter Wehner Is Wrong and Living in an Alternate Reality

Measuring His Performance: The Target Dates

May 15 2020: Coronavirus deaths drop to zero: TOMORROW!!!!!
May 25 2020: Celebrate the victory over the coronavirus again: in 11 days!!!!!!!

As the first promised day drew nearer the excitement mounted. Given the track record of success in White House predictions of miracle cures, it will just go away, and 15 to zero, I anticipated front page coverage of this historic event. I chose not to issue a blog Friday night covering the celebration and I guess I missed the fanfare. On Monday, Rachel Maddow did devote a segment to this auspicious achievement…and heralded the upcoming triumph on May 25. The countdown continues.

REVENGE AGAINST THE NERDS

How popular were nerds in 7th grade, the emotional age of our President? Nerds tended not to be the most popular kids in the class. They knew science. They knew math. They could read books. Remember even non-nerd Tom Hanks when he became big could read a book and understand algebra (see Tom Hanks versus Our Immature Child-President 08/08/17).

For Little Donnee Waney, it is unlikely that nerds were his favorite people. The seventh-grade-smart-aleck-dumb-aleck was superb at insulting and demeaning people. It would be nice to know more about why Fred Trump placed his son in military school in the vain hope that Macho Macho boy would man up.

By coincidence there was a recent book review on And Then They Stopped Talking to Me: Making Sense of Middle School by Judith Warner (NYT 5/10/20). Reviewer Shannon Hale wrote:

Warner shows how for so many of us, our “narrative identity” is greatly affected by what we suffered in middle school, and since our perceptions during those years are undoubtedly distorted, so too might be our sense of self. How many of us are walking around with the unhealed emotional wounds inflicted in junior high?

 Warner recommends “compassion.” She does so both for actual middle schoolers and middle-aged adults who still are middle-schoolers inside and “even now feeling somewhat wrong, inferior and unfinished.” Or as I have written: it is not fair to judge Little Donnee Waney by adult standards since he isn’t one.

Think of what it must have been like for Macho Macho boy to have been repeatedly upstaged by Fauci. Time Magazine’s Person of the Year is someone our immature child president never would have associated with back in junior high school. And now here is Fauci with far higher approval ratings claiming the center stage from the narcissist in-chief, the stage that was supposed to showcase how the war leader with the supergenious medical uncle was saving America. It had to be humiliating to have to stand there while this little nerd commanded the respect the immature child can only fake but never achieve. Think of how Bonespur Boy loved to trot out his Hollywood-cast uniformed generals. He loved playing with his action figure dolls and parading them with all their accessories for the world to see as if he were a real man. Now this little pipsqueak of a nerd was showing him up daily.

People have caught on to his act. Our previous adult President just said at a virtual high school graduation commencement:

Doing what feels good, what’s convenient, what’s easy — that’s how little kids think. Unfortunately, a lot of so-called grown-ups, including some with fancy titles and important jobs, still think that way — which is why things are so screwed up.

Barack Obama grasps the truth about Little Donnee Waney. At some level, it must infuriate the immature child to see the adult President behaving in a way he will never attain…even if there was no racial component.

This background helps explain the science recently demonstrated by the person with the maturity of the seventh-grade-smart-aleck-dumb-aleck. Consider these examples of logic and scientific reasoning by the President who is not Spock or Kirk either.

1. New York City raised the number of Covid-19 deaths by over 3000. Given the uncertainty and chaos of the early days, it is easy to understand why the death totals might not be accurate. People were dying at home as Fauci pointed out. Coroners didn’t know what to look for at first…or have the means to test for it. The volume was overwhelming. Even a normal 7th grader could understand that.

But not the narcissist in chief. Since it is always about him, the reason for the discrepancy could only be due to one thing: the Deep State plot to undermine his presidency by inflating the number of dead on his watch.

2. If he couldn’t handle the increase in death count of over 3000, what are the odds he could accept The New York Times analysis showing up to 20,000 more deaths. The study compared the number of deaths this year during the worst weeks with the death totals from the same time period in previous years. A nerd could understand this, an immature child could not. Our President genuinely lacks the mental necessities to understand this analysis. His uncle may be a super genious who could have but his nephew has been wearing the proverbial dunce cap for decades.

How did he respond to these numbers? The answer is exactly the same as when he is forced into an adult conversation and realizes that he cannot function at that level. In a press conference exchange with adults, the nasty cutie pie always resorts to his seventh-grade persona when the going gets tough because that’s what he really is. The temper tantrum via tweet or verbal putdown is the only weapon in the arsenal of Macho Macho boy. In this case of the number of Corvid-19 deaths that means the numbers are false. The unhappy talk numbers are part of the Deep State attack on him. Given his middle-school mind, what other possibility is there?

3. His lack of reasoning skills has been on full display. After all, if we didn’t do any testing, we would have very few cases of Covid-19, right? If President Joe Biden institutes a robust national testing program and the number of cases increases dramatically, what would that mean? Right now the mortality rate is averaging 6% of the infections. That is fairly high, in fact, 60 times the mortality rate for flu and 6 times the projected rate of 1%. Is that infection rate valid? If the number of infections also was six times the present number, then the mortality rate would decrease to a less scary 1%, still 10 times worse than the flu but much less terrifying than the present numbers. Unfortunately the very stable genius is far from being the smartest person in the room. By his calculations, that increase in infections would mean that as soon as Biden became president, the number of cases skyrocketed because Biden was a failure as President. That is the level of his thinking. STOP THE TESTING TO STOP THE NUMBER OF INFECTIONS!

So what can we look forward to?

“By Memorial Day weekend we will largely have this coronavirus behind us.” Just ask him.

After Memorial Day, there will no longer be any need to take hydroxychloroquine. Just ask him.

How many lawsuits will there be against the President on behalf of people who take   hydroxychloroquine and have adverse effects? Just ask him.

Note 1: Tubby-wubby is not “morbidly obese.
Note 2: How many of the 3 Foxettes are taking hydroxychloroquine?

Measuring His Performance: The Target Dates

ATTENTION WASHINGTON POST: IT’S NOT ENOUGH TO TRACK HIS 16,000+ TRUMPS, TRACK HIS PROMISES TOO.

April 2011: Birtherism – reveal Hawaii findings on Obama soon: STILL WAITING
October 2016: sue all his women accusers after the campaign: STILL WAITING
May 5 2020: “There is tremendous hope as we look forward and we begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel.” DO YOU SEE THE LIGHT YET?
May 8 2020: “Those jobs will all be back, and they’ll be back very soon.” WHEN IS SOON?
May 15 2020: Coronavirus deaths drop to zero: WE HAVE PREVAILED!!!
May 25 2020: Celebrate the victory over the coronavirus again: in 6 days!!!!!!!
June 2020: Back to Normal economy
July 2020: We’re rockin’ now: “We will transition into greatness. That’s a phrase you’re going to hear a lot, because that’s what’s going to happen.”
July 4 2020 Supreme Court rules Republican President is above the law; American experiment ends short of 250th anniversary
Fall 2020: Deep State Indicted
Fall 2020: Deep State proves China responsible for coronavirus
Fourth Quarter 2020: economy will be tremendous
October 2020: announce vaccine cure in election day surprise
November 3 2020: Deploy army of real Americans to suppress vote of…you know…those people – Vote Suppressors to become a TV reality show
November 3 2020: CLAIM VICTORY NO MATTER THE RESULTS
November 3 2020: Democratic coronavirus hoax magically disappears and all lockdowns and restrictions end
January 1, 2021: begin distribution of miracle vaccine
January 20 2021: Nancy Pelosi becomes President
January 20 2021: Arrested by New York, spends night at Rikers

Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! Saving America

COVID-19 Has Been Around for a Long Time (Photo by Egyptologist Kara Cooney)

Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! The impeached wartime President needs to be the savior of America. Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! All hands on deck. This is not a drill.

The number 1 issue in America today is the need for the housebound impeached wartime President to stand before the American people and proclaim that only he can save America and he has done so.

Let’s consider some of the numbers that contributed to the Trump crisis that is about to apex on May 1.

First there are the hidden figures. These are the known unknowns.

How many Americans have the coronavirus? If a coronavirus infects a tree in the woods and it is not tested, has anything happened? This philosophical adage on the issue of human observation – who will tell our story? If no one does, do we have a story? – has been revised in the current situation. If we don’t have national testing or testing of a valid representation of the American population, then how do we know how many people have been infected?

How many people have died die to the coronavirus? By this time we are all used to seeing very specific numbers tracking the number of deaths by state due to the coronavirus. Are all coroners able to test for the virus to determine the cause of death? Are there standards on what is reported? What about the vast-right conspiracy of helicoptering dead people to maximize the death rate in certain areas?

Second there are the known knowns. These are the numbers that are known and which have contributed to the current situation.

20

These are the infected people on the Grand Princess Cruise Ship that was denied docking to minimize the number of infected cases in America during this administration. When future historians and school children study the COVID-19 crisis, this action will become one of the defining moments of it. It will be known as the “King Canute Embarrassment.”  It refers to the effort of the impeached wartime President to secure the borders of the realm by forbidding the waves of the virus to come ashore. His actions follow on his success in preventing drugs from entering the country illegally and his success in preventing people from entering the country illegally.

In the future, school children will laugh at the silliness of this tactic. It will become proof positive that the impeached wartime President was out of his league. In mock trials of his ineptitude, his deploying of the King Canute maneuver will be deemed sufficient in its own to justify the activation of the 25th Amendment on the grounds of mental incapacity.

15 to 0

No, this is not a baseball score. Instead it is the number of people the impeached wartime president claimed were infected with COVID-19. It is a prediction that the number will very soon drop to zero with a 100% recovery rate and no fatalities. In fact, very soon the virus will suddenly disappear like a miracle.

Historians will ask, “Who were these 15 people? Do we know what happened to them? What was the source of the information? What does “soon” mean when translated into adult English?” Here again students will laugh in sheer amazement at the brazen stupidity of the comment. It easily could be fact-checked and would expose him as someone out of his league and living in the land of make believe where he loves to play. As James D. Zirin, author of Plaintiff in Chief: Portrait of Donald Trump in 3500 Lawsuits just said in an interview on HNN, “I think he enjoys lying. I think it’s part of his DNA. I don’t think he has any grasp of the facts at all, so he says whatever he thinks will help him and whatever comes into his head.”

430,000

Only the impeached wartime President can save America. He said so himself in the 2016 campaign. Then in January, 2020, he proved it by severing airlinks with China. He acted boldly and decisively when he became aware of the seriousness of the crisis. He demonstrated that he had the right stuff to go into the area and provide the leadership America needed in this time of trouble.

JAPAN BOMBS PEARL HARBOR. FDR BOASTS OF HIS RADIO RATINGS.

If you ask the impeached wartime President about the 430, 000 people who arrived after his severing of the link, he will tell you that you are a third-rate nasty cutie pie from a Fake News organization.

If you ask the impeached wartime President about Europe being the source of the virus that struck America, he will tell you that you are a third-rate nasty cutie pie from a Fake News organization.

10

If you ask the impeached wartime President how he would grade his performance, then perhaps you are a third-rate reporter. In the land of make believe where this President lives, what other grade is possible? Here is an example of where there is a disagreement that will be crucial to understanding what is about to happen on May 1.

Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” when asked if social distancing and stay-at-home measures could have prevented deaths had they been put in place in February, instead of mid-March.

I mean, obviously, you could logically say that if you had a process that was ongoing and you started mitigation earlier, you could have saved lives. Obviously, no one is going to deny that. But what goes into those decisions is complicated.

Exactly wrong. One person is going to deny that. How could lives have been saved if the person making the decision to save those lives earned a grade of 10? Mitigation began exactly when it should have begun under the leadership of our impeached wartime President. Fauci’s days are numbered.

AL-QUEDA ATTACKS WORLD TRADE TOWERS. MAYOR GIULIANI BOASTS OF HIS TV RATINGS

5/1

In ancient times, before making the biggest decision of his life, kings thinking of going into battle would inquire of the divine what they should do. Normally, prophets know to tell the king exactly what he wants to hear. But sometimes prophets were not quite as accommodating to the king. Consider the less well-known biblical example involving the prophet Micaiah.

 1 Kings 22:4 And he said to Jehoshaphat [the king of Judah], “Will you go with me to battle at Ramothgilead?”… 5 And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “Inquire first for the word of the LORD.” 6 Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, “Shall I go to battle against Ramothgilead, or shall I forbear?” And they said, “Go up; for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.” 7 But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there not here another prophet of the LORD of whom we may inquire?” 8 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the LORD, Micaiah the son of Imlah; but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil [Fake News].” And Jehoshaphat said, “Let not the king say so.” 9 Then the king of Israel summoned an officer and said, “Bring quickly Micaiah the son of Imlah.”

Beginning with Moses before Pharaoh, Nathan before David [“Thou art the man!’], Elijah before Ahab and the prophets of Baal, and Micaiah here, the Israelite prophets speak truth to power and defy what the king wants.

COVID-19 STRIKES AMERICA. DONALD TRUMP BRAGS OF HIS TV AND FACEBOOK RATINGS

The fix is in for the Opening our Country Council. The members know what the king wants and will be loyal to him. They are not traitors. However, even after he is fired for disloyalty, Prophet Fauci and the medical community will speak the truth in the real world. If it matches what the king wants to do on May 1, then there is no issue. But suppose it doesn’t match. What happens when the impeached wartime President’s need to be the savior of America in a big way trumps the facts on the ground?

Trumpican governors like that man in Florida are chomping at the bit to play Russian roulette with the lives of the residents of their states. They just are waiting for their Lord and Savior, the Chosen one, Blessed Be his Name, to grant them their 007 license to kill, the same license he used throughout January, February, and into March.

By contrast, Democratic governors and Republican governors (MA, MD, NH, OH) who have better ratings than the impeached wartime President will defy the call to reopen American until there is an opportunity to conduct proper testing, contact tracing, and can be done in a responsible way. After all, the reopening is a state matter since the Federal Government only provides backup and waiting-in-the-wings VP candidate Nikki Haley has just touted the role of the individual states. In fact, since I wrote the first draft of this blog some of the states have already started organizing. When the governors stand simultaneously on the steps of their capitols to read a prepared statement declaring their independence from guidelines of impeached wartime president, what will he do in response? This moment will be the biggest decision he has ever had to make. How will he answer the following question:

How do you ask a person to be the last person to die in the Trump crisis? How do you ask a person to be the last person to die for a mistake?

Trump Fires Fauci and Cuomo by Twitter: “Only I Can Save America”

Abraham at Sodom: How Many? (reformedfellowship.net)

Donald Trump, our Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Bless be His Name, has tweeted that director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci and Governor Andrew Cuomo have been fired under his powers of Article 2 where he can do anything. The Very Stable Genius, the smartest person in the room as long as it is a morgue or a nursery school with no adults present, thanked them for their work and then sent them on their way.

Did anyone think that when the Vice President of the United States was put in charge of the crisis team that it meant that he would be in charge? That he would be making the presentations to the American people? If you thought that then you shouldn’t be a reporter and probably not a voter either. Vice President Brown Nose knows his place and it is not center stage. That position is reserved. Your job is to genuflect and sing my praises at least once every five sentences.

Obviously Fauci did not get the memo. He thought that as the professional in the field, the American people should hear from him. He did not realize that the uncle of our Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed Be His Name, was a supergenius and that the medical people were amazed at much the President absorbed and understood what they were saying.  Therefore Fauci was superfluous. He was retained only by the kindness of our sympathetic, empathetic and pathetic President.

And how did Fauci replay this kindness? By hogging the center stage, by continually correcting the false information communicated by the Very Stable Genius, and even boasting of these actions to the media. Such disloyal actions cannot be tolerated. Remember what happened to Mick Mulvaney when he said “Of course we tried to extort the Ukrainian president. That’s how the game’s played. Get over it.” He’s I Ireland now. The 79-year old Fauci is even older than Biden, older than Sanders, as old as I will be when I start my third term. It’s time for Fauci to spend some time with his family and stop complaining about only getting three hours of sleep each night.

As for Cuomo, what can be said about the Queens bro. We grew up together as longtime Democrats and Clinton supporters with very successful fathers. Now look at you. Holding daily press briefings on your own. Displaying a command of the data instead of rambling all over the map with disjointed thoughts. Having an organized presentation using PowerPoint. Sticking to a planned performance while also speaking without a script. Showing sympathy. Showing empathy. Not making it all about you. These characteristics are unforgivable. If you were the Democratic nominee for President, I would be in big trouble now. You are too visible!

Now it is time for the Very Stable Genius to show who is boss. Now it is time for the smartest person in the room to save America. Now it is time to show that I should not be added to Mount Rushmore but should have my own mountain. Now I will reveal to the world my plan to save it. It will be so brilliant and so great that people will be in awe of it.

What are the prime factors in making such a plan?

First, it is all about me.
Second, it is all about me.
Third, it is all about me.

That means I must be re-elected as America’s greatest president and keep my immunity. Look at what happens when all your life you are pond-scum slime and it finally catches up with you. Did you see what happened to Epstein? Suicide? Did you see what is happening to Weinstein? A medically broken man who can barely hold himself up even with assistance! I can’t let that happen to me. Got to be re-elected. Got to get the Dow Jones back up where it should be.

Why not just let everyone go back to normal and America rise from the dead by Easter? Let’s see what happens and focus on the bad spots like New York City.

Suppose Americans die? How many?  Worst case scenario: If every American got the coronavirus and 1% died that would be about 3.3 million people? But suppose the economy was saved. Is that acceptable? They keep saying you can’t put a price on human life but we do that all the time. Ever hear of life insurance? How about the 9/11 commission that distributed the money after I had the tallest building in Lower Manhattan? Of course, we can put a price on human life and as the president with no empathy and no sympathy I am the best qualified person to do it.

Suppose instead of 100% of the people getting the coronavirus only 50% do based on common predictions, only 1.65 million people died, and the economy was saved. Is that acceptable?

Suppose the doctors who predict 20% of the people getting the coronavirus are right, only 660,000 people died, and the economy was saved? That’s less than he people who died in the Civil War. Is that acceptable?

Suppose we have mitigated the curve and continue to do so in the bad spots? Is that acceptable?

And how many people have died so far anyway> How does that compare with the number of people murdered annually? The number who commit suicide? The number in car accidents? The number from drug overdoses? We don’t close the country because of those actions do we? And the number of coronavirus deaths is less than any of those yet alone all of them.

We know how Abraham’s bargaining with the Lord over the destruction of Sodom worked out. We don’t know how it will play out in the mind of our immature child president who is not capable of having such a discussion and instead relied his gut and Fox.

And whatever decision I make, how am I going to explain it to the American people? In my usual baby talk? By making it all about me? By calling the dead “collateral damage”? In another disastrous Oval Office address written by idiots and delivered by a moron? Trumpicans will believe anything I say, college-educated women won’t. But in times of trouble, people want a leader. Regardless of what I do as long as I am doing something as the leader my poll numbers will go up. But suppose my plan doesn’t work, can I talk my way out of it even with Putin’s and Fox’s help?

The countdown has started. Invisible Joe Biden has until just before Easter to become relevant.

Has the Trump Hit the Fan?: The Challenge of Being President in the Real World

Trade wars are easy.
Insulting people is fun.
Dividing the country is good.

WE the People want our President to have the right stuff to go into the arena and emerge victoriously in the real world. How do we know if a person is capable of doing so? One way is to examine previous experiences. They may be suggestive of how a person will respond under pressure. Military experience may be a factor in such considerations but it is not a prerequisite. Such leadership challenges may take many forms and not necessarily military.

One test case comes from Ebola: a 2018 article in The Atlantic by Ed Yong entitled

“When the Next plague Hits: The epidemics of the early 21st century revealed a world unprepared even as the risk of pandemics continues to multiply. Much worse is coming. Is Donald Trump ready?”

This rather long title reviews the responses to various medical threats to human life which have occurred recently. It asks how well prepared we are to handle the next one. We do not know where it will originate. We do not know what it will be. We do know that sooner or later it will happen.

The author interviewed Anthony Fauci, Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NAIAD) for the article. Fauci has directly interacted with every American President from Ronald Reagan through Barack Obama on the subject of epidemics. He has done so because in every one of those administrations there has been an epidemic issue which needed to be dealt with. Since as of the time of the article, there had been no such epidemic in the current administration, there had been no such opportunity for him to interact with the current President.

Naturally that raises the question of what would happen if there was a virus or epidemic of some kind that would “emerge to test Trump’s mettle.”  The author expresses some trepidation at this prospect given his lack of background in science or health and the absence of such expertise in the White House. The author does not mention the oft-voiced disdain for science expressed by numerous Trumpicans.

To attempt to answer the question of what would he do, Yong examined how The Donald responded to the Ebola epidemic of 2014. By coincidence, he updated his article with online post on The Atlantic website on August 3:

The Rank Hypocrisy of Trump’s Ebola Tweets

Five years ago, the doctor Kent Brantly was evacuated back to the U.S. after being infected with Ebola—against the wishes of the man who is now president.

Yong probably wrote this post in response to that president retweeting a tweet from Franklin Graham commemorating the anniversary of the return of Dr. Brantly. That retweet lead to the following tweet by Sam Stein.

Of all the Trump hypocrisy tweets, this one may be the most infuriating for me. In 2014, he was an absolute horror show when it came to the Ebola crisis: creating panic, advocating medically indefensible positions, demagoguing, etc… Now, he has the nerve to RT this???

The retweet infuriated Yong too. In his online post he referred to what actually had been said back in 2014:

Ebola patient will be brought to the U.S. in a few days – now I know for sure that our leaders are incompetent. KEEP THEM OUT OF HERE! (7:04 PM – 31 Jul 2014)

The U.S. cannot allow EBOLA infected people back. People that go to far away places to help out are great-but must suffer the consequences! (6:22 PM – 1 Aug 2014)

The fact that we are taking the Ebola patients, while others from the area are fleeing to the United States, is absolutely CRAZY-Stupid pols (3:55 PM – 2 Aug 2014)

The U.S. must immediately stop all flights from EBOLA infected countries or the plague will start and spread inside our “borders.” Act fast! (4:26 AM – 2 Aug 2014)

The hypocrisy shines through because if Obama had acted in accordance with these tweets, Brantley and others would have died. There would be no five-year anniversary to celebrate.

Here we go! I stated long ago that we should cancel all flights from West Africa. Now we have Ebola in U.S., AND IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE! (5:09 PM – 30 Sep 2014)

Looks like Obama will not stop the very potentially dangerous flights to and from West Africa. What the hell is wrong with this guy? (5:53 PM – 16 Oct 2014)

I am starting to think that there is something seriously wrong with President Obama’s mental health. Why won’t he stop the flights. Psycho! (1:23 AM – 16 Oct 2014)

At least he did not call these countries “Trumphole” countries as he later would.

In the article, Yong noted that the direct flights The Donald called for to be banned did not exist. He also cited the evidence that travel restrictions had not helped to control previous diseases like SARS or H1N1. But whereas Yong consulted health experts to write his article, THE VERY STABLE GENIUS has no such need. After all, his is the smartest person in the room.

As Yong tactfully wrote in his article:

His dislike of outsiders and disdain for diplomacy could lead him to spurn the cooperative, outward-facing strategies that work best to contain emergent pandemics.

Yong questioned whether our leader can provide the reliable information and unifying spirit that We the People most need. Instead we have an immature child attempting to function in an adult role without having the mental necessities to do so. The result is an impulsive reaction by an uniformed individual incapable of learning. Or as Yong put it:

Trump’s tendency to tweet rashly, delegitimize legitimate sources of information, and readily buy into conspiracy theories could be disastrous.

I submit that the Ebola crisis provides a test case for how the immature child posing as an adult would respond in a crisis. All the tricks of the trade that work so well for THE DONALD in the political professional wrestling arena would prove counterproductive if not outright dangerous if the seventh-grade-smart-aleck-dumb-aleck acted the same way in the real world in a real crisis.

For the first 2 ½ years, he was fortunate not to have an emergency. Yes, there was a hurricane in Puerto Rico. But he managed the greatest recovery effort in the history of the United States. Plus he had fun throwing rolls of paper towels at the needy. WHEE! Look at how much fun everyone is having! WHEE! What a great job I am doing!

There also was Charlottesville. How much more of a unifying leader could one be?

But perhaps his luck has run out. Perhaps his ability to fake it as an adult is reaching its breaking point. Perhaps from this point forward he will have to deal with real problems in the real world that are not going away, that he cannot ignore, and that he can dismiss in a tweet. Since his declaration of America’s Third Civil War on July 14 (July 14, 2019 = April 12, 1861 II: The Third Civil War Is Engaged), emotions have intensified, lines have been drawn, and people have been murdered.

So what is going on in the real world where adult leadership actually is required?

What does the Nobel Peace Prize winner have to show for his abusive love affair with Kim Jung-un?

What does he have to show for his anti-Obama actions in Iran have now that vessels have been seized and Iran is free to pursue nuclear weapons now since there is no treaty to bind it?

What does he have to show for his easy trade war with China so far? The fact that he thinks the Chinese are paying the tariffs proves how much money Fred Trump had to pay to get his son into Wharton. And if he took Introductory Economics there he never read Samuelson or understood him.

What does he have to show for his excessively intense use of the term “invasion” in his speeches, his rallies, his tweets, and his Facebook campaign posts? How many more people will take the advice of the good ol boy in the Panhandle who shouted out “Shoot them!” to the laughter of this President and the Trumpicans?

Our president has never even tried to be the leader of the country. When the adults in the room convinced him that situation required him to at least fake being the president of the country, he can read of a teleprompter. But no matter what polished words he recites, his true nature cannot remain under wraps for long. At the teleprompter, he evinces no sympathy, no empathy, no emotion, and no conviction. His low energy imitation of an adult leader is a far cry from the engaged seventh-grade-smart-aleck-dumb-aleck when he is in his element in the political professional wrestling arenas. He feeds off of that energy. In that setting, his real feelings emerge. He will never rise to the occasion because he will never grow up. What happens now that We the People and the world need the President of the United States to be a grown up?