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Coronavirus

TrumpVirus, Lafayette Square, and Portland Statues, Monuments, and Memorials

July 21, 2020
by Peter Feinman
This is not a drill. The jack-booted thugs have landed. Repeat. This is not a drill. (http://www.quickmeme.com)

With all the talk about toppling statues and defacing monuments and memorials, it is time to start thinking about the new ones which should be erected. Typically, wartime leaders build just such markers to their greatness and their triumphs. Our wartime thinks he deserves to be on Mount Rushmore. However that possibility does not seem likely. Instead We the People should consider the statues, monuments, and memorials appropriate to his leadership.

TRUMPVIRUS

The first topic for consideration is the TrumpVirus. Here is an area where our wartime leader rates himself a “10” and would not do anything different. He often proclaims how we are the envy of the world for our handling of the virus. Surely that appreciation can be expressed physically with commensurate statues, monuments, and memorials.

Statue

The obvious statue which comes to mind is the image of our heroic wartime leader brandishing his most powerful weapons in the fight against the TrumpVirus. I am referring, of course, to Little Donne Disinfectant wielding the one thing the coronavirus fears above all else – disinfectant! The statue should be of our wartime leader holding a bottle of disinfectant while the coronavirus slithers away in horror.

Think of Nero. Nearly 2000 years later and he is still remembered for fiddling while Rome burned…EVEN WITHOUT A STATUE! Think of how long Little Donnee Disinfectant will be remembered with a statue in his honor.

Funding for the statue should be easy. How much would Clorox play so the bottle of disinfectant isn’t Clorox? Similarly, how much would Lysol pay so it isn’t Lysol? The major issue to be decided is the size of the statue. Should it be a life size statue or one larger than life? And if larger than life then how much larger? Statue of Liberty large? Washington Monument large? Trump Tower large?  The size is open to debate.

The statue also should be bathed in a heavenly aura. This glow will represent the divine assistance Our Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed Be his Name, each time he invoked heavenly help to effect a miracle cure. After all, it is hardly unusual for divine right-kings and son of God rulers to pray for divine assistance in the midst of or prior to a battle.

Monument

Commentators frequently note that the death toll from the TrumpVirus exceeds that of multiple American wars combined. Plus the number is still rising and will continue to rise in the indefinite future. Therefore building a monument comparable to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial with 58,318 names may be impracticable. Who knows how many hundreds of thousands of people will end up dead due to the TrumpVirus.

Perhaps instead of one national monument dedicated to all who died of the TrumpVirus, there should be multiple monuments throughout the communities and states of the country. Once upon a time, the coronavirus was comparatively contained. But now it has metastasized and is everywhere. So any single monument to reflect the experience of the TrumpVirus would have to be conceptual.

Or perhaps it could be digital. Instead of a stone monument to the deceased perhaps a digital monument could be built. It would show the increased number of deaths over time with a suitable caption or voiceover. Some of the cable shows already have done something like this. For example, the map might start with 15 dots becoming zero and then gradually increase to fill in the whole country. Think of the vaunted Red Wave the wartime general always is talking about. We saw it in action in 2018.  We are seeing it in action in 2020 as Trumpican Senate candidates exult in the boost to their own reelections derived from the wartime President’s superb handling of the coronavirus. The digital projection could show the same red wave color spreading as the deaths of Americans sweep the country each time the wartime leader says the coronavirus is contained and under control.

LAFAYETTE SQUARE

Lafayette Square is indelibly etched into the American national consciousness as the site of the greatest military victory by a sitting President ever. Of course, American Presidents prior to becoming President had great victories as generals. Of course, American Presidents presided over great victories led by others. But what President himself has personally had such a stirring victory as the one by this wartime leader? Plus it was not against the coronavirus or even foreigners, but against Americans themselves. The closest parallel may be George Washington’s leadership in the Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania [where decades earlier he had launched his military career in the French and Indian War].

I predict that Lafayette Square will become a great tourist draw. Tourists will flock to the site where America’s wartime leader dominated the square as no leader had before him and none will since. They will reenact the strenuous march to victory following his footsteps painted on the ground. They will approach the history sign erected to mark this heroic victory. And then convulsed in laughter they will take a selfie next to the cardboard cutout of the wartime President proudly holding a Bible upside down thrust to the heavens. Truly it will be a site to behold.

PORTLAND

But our wartime leader did not stop with dominating a mere square. It was just the start of a more ambitious effort to take back the country. He would seize the Democratic-governed areas one-by-one if he had too before all bowed down before him and knuckled to his will. It would be like Cornwallis taking back the colonies one-by-one in the South. To mix war metaphors, Portland may be our Fort Sumter, the place where America’s Third Civil War, became a true battlefront.

Remember how often we have been warned about jack-booted thugs and their black helicopters. Think of the National Rifle Association (NRA) running a four-page ad in the center of its American Rifleman magazine in 1993. It showed goose-stepping, jackbooted legs under the question, “What’s the First Step to a Police State?” The NRA followed up in 1995 with a reference to federal agents as “jackbooted government thugs” in a fund-raising letter.

Now we know all the rantings and ravings of the vast rightwing conspiracy are true. Now we know all the warnings about the Government are true. Now we know that the incessant call for the American people to arm themselves against the Government are true. Our wartime President has made his move against Portland. Other cities are to follow. We could not celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Boston Massacre this year due to the coronavirus. But now we have an opportunity to relive it. The wartime President will crush the Patriots until only the Loyalists to him remain. Isn’t that worthy of a statue?

So let’s not just topple statues, monuments, and memorials. Let’s think about the new ones to create in recognition of our wartime President. He has triumphed over the TrumpVirus, dominated Lafayette Square, and is seizing the cities that defy him. Truly he is worthy of being on Mount Rushmore if only there was room for him.

City on a Hill to Trumphole Country: A Day in the Life of America’s Worst President Ever (July 10, 2020)

July 13, 2020
by Peter Feinman
Do Trumpicans Want to Survive? (Courtesy Simply Psychology)

One day there will be a story told of how the United States degenerated from a City on a Hill in the 1980s to the Trumphole country it has become today. It is a sad story of decline where the resolution is not yet known and the restoration has not yet begun. Whether or not the downward spiral of the United States will be halted or when we will begin to dig ourselves of the very deep hole that America’s worst President ever has dug remains to be seen.

It wasn’t that long ago when things were different. In the 1980s, President Reagan ran as a City on Hill President. He confronted the leader of the Evil Empire with the famous call in Berlin to “tear down that wall.” A short time later, both the wall and the Soviet Union collapsed.

By contrast, only a few decades later, Putin’s Pence is complicit in the Russian scheme that offered bounties to the Taliban for killing American soldiers. What once would have been unthinkable and an impeachable offense scarcely makes the front page given all the other actions or lack of actions by Swampbuilder. In addition, he is far from welcome in Germany today, a country he treats more as an enemy than he does Russia.

No one day can be definitively defined as the bottom of the barrel in this administration. There is always something new to startle us – see the Puerto Rico sale? Maybe China will purchase Puerto Rico after buying Iran in another coup for the American deal-maker.  In this blog, let’s examine just a slice of the decline by focusing on one day. It is an approach that can be used for any number of days. I choose to use the morning paper (NYT) of July 10, 2020, as an starting point to illustrate how much of a Trumphole country we have become.

The frontpage above the fold headline was deceptive: “President Is Not ‘Above the Law,’ Justices Decide.” Why should such a headline even be necessary? No one in their right mind would say that the President is above the law. My purpose in mentioning it is not to discuss the absurd claim made by the lawyers who should be disbarred that was shot down by the Court. Rather it is to note that by the time I sat down that evening to read the paper, the legal world had been turned upside down with the commutation of the sentence of renowned political operative and trickster Roger Stone.

The incongruity of trying to read the paper with that headline while listening to the talk shows was overwhelming. On the one hand, we were to congratulate ourselves for being a country of the rule of law despite the authoritarian proclivities of our leader; on the other hand, here was proof positive that, with the strong encouragement of key political advisor Sean Hannity, we really were a Trumphole country.

Unfortunately, going through the newspaper page by page painted a bleak picture.

CORONAVIRUS   

The first news pages (1, 4-10, 14) covered the coronavirus at home and abroad. This has become typical for the reporting format. At this point, the wartime President is in complete retreat. All he can do now is repeatedly claim victory, call for a miracle, and engage in happy talk about nobody in the world is doing better than he did. [It turns out he is capable of taking vigorous action: disparage Fauci! That will put the coronavirus in its place; for a preview of this attack see The Twilight Zone and the Coronavirus April 8, 2020.]

Back on May 21, 2020, I wrote a blog Friday Night Lights: Risking Lives for the Dow. It was written just after we celebrated V-Zero Day over the coronavirus per the White House Council of Economic Advisers. It was written just before we would be looking back at the crisis per the Vice President of the United States. I raised the issue of Friday Night Lights football as a canary in the mine prelude to the return to school debate. Come August, it would be time to start practicing. Even before classroom schooling was scheduled to begin in September, there would be this moment of truth. Schools would decide yea or nay on authorizing football practice. Football is an essential component of the social fabric of many communities especially in Texas where the book, movie, and TV series were set.

What has happened since then? Even though at the federal level, the fight against the coronavirus has ceased, at the state level it has not. Trumpican governors for the most part have been forced to abandon the happy talk for the real world. The situation is dire in many states. Not only were we late to the war, we fought it badly. At this point we have the national record for the number of cases daily. Florida exceeds New York at its worst. Florida each day surpasses many countries to date in total! Medical facilities are being maxed out. Medical personnel are being stretched to their breaking point and sometimes beyond. It’s as if April-June never occurred. What do we have to show for the effort then outside New York and some other states?

So on Thursday, the NBC headline was:

Friday night lights could go out in Texas as coronavirus threatens high school football

The superintendent of Dallas schools, Michael Hinojosa, says he doubts there will be gridiron action this fall.

The Dallas Superintendent channeled his inner Fauci in responding to questions about the potential delay. SHOW ME THE DATA! His decision would be based on the facts on the ground, not out-of-touch baby talk from our clueless President.

The decision goes beyond football. The vow that schools will open is backed by nothing. Then there are issues:

1. will parents obey the command of the wartime commander to risk their kids especially as the number of cases skyrockets? – STOP THE TESTING and the problem will be solved!

2. how many more teachers will take early retirement complicating the staffing problem even more?

Yes, parents would love to be able to send their kids back to school but they don’t want to commit suicide in so doing.

BOUNTIES

Headline: “Top General Says He’ll Be ‘Outraged’ if Bounties Are True” (page 13)

Will there be an impeachment in December?

SHARPIEGATE

Headline: “White Pressured NOAA Officials” (page 15)

How much longer will Inspector General Peggy E. Gustafson remain on the job? In addition, tampering with National Weather maps is a civil (criminal?) offense. While it is not an impeachable offense, it still is illegal. There will be a special exhibit in the Unpresidential Library about Sharpiegate.

Unfortunately, the significance of Sharpiegate is worse than that. If someone cannot admit error on a hurricane path, what are the chances of admitting error on coronavirus? If a person rates a 10 and wouldn’t change anything he did, what is his explanation for why there are over 135000 Americans dead now? Why did Europe quarantine us? There’s really nothing that could have been done differently? Ask him.

RUSSIA COLLUSION

Headline: “Judge Asks Full Court to Hear Flynn Case” (page 17)

Does anyone think Flynn spend any time in jail? There will be a special exhibit in the Unpresidential Library about Michael Flynn.

MORE RUSSIAN COLLUSION

Headline: “Ousted U.S. Attorney Recounts Tense meeting with Barr at Luxury Hotel” (page 20). There will be an entire room in the Unpresidential Library about the Russian Collusion.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN WAS A REPUBLICAN

On Friday, before the commutation, the Very Stable Genius shared with the American people some unbelievable information he had acquired:

“Like people don’t remember, nobody ever heard of it until I came along, nobody remembered it for a long time, or they didn’t use it at least, I use it all the time: Abraham Lincoln was a Republican. You know you say that and people say, ‘I didn’t know that’, but he was Republican, so we’re doing a great job.” 

He seems to repeat this claim frequently. Why he repeats this to his Confederate audiences, I do not know. Maybe he thinks they admire Lincoln along with Lee. Regardless, he is so proud of himself for this knowledge. It’s like acing his cognitive skills test that showed he was not demented. When I wrote about his knowing Lincoln was a Republican three years ago (My Birthday and the Day I Was Born Are the Same Day: Previewing the 2020 Election [Part 1] May 17, 2017), I asked why he thought Lincoln was a Democrat in the first place. My best guess is the Civil Rights March at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963. Imagine what Fred Trump must have said about that gathering to his teenager son. His lack of knowledge about Lincoln reinforces the claims of Mary Trump. When you don’t know Lincoln was a Republican, you damn well better hire someone to take your SATs.

The comment also shows a learning disability. He is capable of learning that Lincoln was a Republican. But he is not capable of learning that everyone already knew that. You would think after boasting about his superior knowledge once, he then would have shut up for repeating what seventh graders know [in New York, seventh grade social studies traditionally has ended with the Civil War].

And then to wrap up the day there was the Roger Stone commutation. There will be a special exhibit in the Unpresidential Library about Roger Stone, too.

It looks like we are past the moment of truth for the Trumpican Party. Back on June 8, 2020, I wrote Mitch McConnell: Howard Baker (Time to Go) vs Stay the Course (Go Down with the Ship). I suggested that McConnell had a decision to make as an adult who lived in the real world. I had no expectations that he would be a profile in courage and he hasn’t been. Since then, there was a teacher on Cuomo Prime Time who mentioned Maslow (the hierarchy of needs). She did so to express her concern for teacher safety and security in returning to the classroom. The unmentioned first level is for survival. Apparently no Republicans including McConnell are interested in it except the Never Trumpers.

Ramses II and the Coronavirus: Lessons from the Pharaoh of the Exodus

July 3, 2020
by Peter Feinman
Pharaoh Smites the Coronavirus Plague (Art of Daniela Rutica https://www.facebook.com)

A stunning archaeological discovery sheds new light on the life and times of the great ancient Egyptian builder and his modern counterpart. This unexpected and vividly-colored treasure shows Ramses II smiting the coronavirus. He is depicted in the traditional Egyptian pose for defeating the forces of chaos that threatened the stability and order of the country. This plague is no match for the Pharaoh of the Exodus. Like a miracle it will just disappear. Soon.

In case there was any doubt about the identity of the triumphant Pharaoh, a second discovery confirms it.

1974 passport so Ramses could be flown to France for repair (https://www.ancient-origins.net)

With proof positive that the king in question really is Ramses II, there is no doubt that he is the wartime leader who was victorious against the coronavirus…plus it proves he can vote in the Georgia elections.

Astute readers may suspect that Ramses II really did not fight the coronavirus. True enough. But he did have a moment of truth that called into question his fitness to be Pharaoh. The incident in question was the Battle of Qadesh. It was fought around 1275 BCE in what today is Syria. The foe was the Hittites from Anatolia now Turkey. For its time, it was a superpower showdown, a rare direct confrontation on land between the two major powers of the region.

At the time, Year 5 of his 67 year reign, Ramses was comparatively new to the throne. He followed a successful father who was a strong military figure. Although Ramses did not have bonespurs, he did have a strong need to prove himself as an alpha male.

So off he went with 20,000 soldiers marching across Sinai and Canaan into Syria. This army was an impressive force on a scale rarely seen. Along the way, some spies from the other side were captured. They provided intel on the movements of the Hittites. It was bogus intel and part of a ruse. As a result, Ramses charged full steam into a trap. He barely escaped with his life thanks in part to the first time in human history when the “cavalry” arrived in the nick of time.

Ramses, who was the most modest person in human history until now, described his escape as follows:

My shield bearer saw the vast number of enemy chariots hemming me in, he blanched and fear gripped him. He cried out to My Majesty, “…we stand alone amidst the foe…” Then said His Majesty, “Stand firm, steady yourself my shield bearer. I shall go for them like the pounce of a falcon, killing, slaughtering, and felling them to the ground. I Alone Can Fix It”

Ramses then strode forward looking like one of Patton’s tanks lumbering across the countryside until victory was his. The Syrian Square belonged to him. He dominated it.

My army came to praise me, [amazed] at seeing what I had done. ‘I like this stuff. I really get it. ‘People are surprised that I understand it. ‘Every one of these generals said: “How do you know so much about this fighting?” Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have gone into the military instead of running for president.’ I took on millions of foreign lands, I …alone fighting the foreign armies.

So great was his victory that Ramses displayed it throughout the land in living color. Giant billboards of Egypt’s action hero appeared everywhere so the people could bask in the brilliance of their wartime king who had vanquished the forces of chaos.

Not exactly. There was a battle. The consensus among Egyptologists that at best for Egypt, the battle was a draw. Ramses failed to make any headway against the Hittites. However that did not prevent him from rating his performance a “10” and declaring he would not do anything differently. And that is the message his Fox propaganda network communicated to the Egyptian people throughout the land on its billboards.

What are the lessons for today?

INTERNATIONAL ARENA

Part of the reason Egyptologists don’t accept the government propaganda version of the battle is because an alternate version survives. Not only did the Hittites remain in Syria, not dislodged by the Egyptian king, they knew the message of the Egyptian propaganda. Later the Hittite king Muwatallis objected to the Egyptian portrayal of the battle: You fought alone? Really? Why should I trust you now in our treaty negotiations when you can’t even tell the truth about the battle? But Ramses wouldn’t budge. He insisted his version was the truth.

Credibility is an important part of international diplomacy. So is competence. Ramses could say whatever he wanted in the domestic arena. But outside the area he controlled, the view of him was quite different.

When people in the lands of Canaan, Russia, and China, realized that the king and superpower had failed they reacted as you would expect them to have reacted. They saw an opportunity to free themselves from Egyptian rule and they took it.

Here’s what I wrote over one year ago:

The rest of the world is already ahead of the Trumpicans. They learned that THE DONALD is merely a character in the professional wrestling arena and not a real person. They know when Bonespur Boy is forced to go into the arena in the real world that he will back down.

“If we were to believe everything Trump has said for the past three years, there would have been war with China, North Korea and Mexico,” said Joseph Fahim, an Egyptian film critic. “The guy’s a joke, he’s not serious. We don’t know if these threats are something to believe in, or just another of his many stunts.” (Iran Does Not Watch Fox: The Real World and the 2020 Elections, June 19, 2019)

Even before the coronavirus, he was a laughing stock. People laughed at him to his face at the General Assembly; they told jokes about him behind his back at international gatherings; they flew baby Trump blimps of him. Now Little Donnee Disinfectant has provided on indelible image of how much of a simple-minded ignorant immature child he really is. He is a buffoon everywhere even on Russian television. The proof that the world no longer takes him seriously can be seen in the actions of Russia and China. They know he is a weakling, a loser, and have no fear of him. Finally the European Union has called his bluff on coronavirus “happy talk”: Americans are not welcome here unless they quarantine first.

THE BELTWAY

Regarding Ramses false propaganda in the Battle of Qadesh, Egyptologist Mark Janzen wrote:

Yet there must have been numerous individuals ⸺ soldiers, officials, etc., ⸺ who knew the truth of the situation, namely that the campaign was unsuccessful…and word of this must have spread.

The same here. Inside the White House and the Beltway, how stupid a human being would you have to be not know that the President of the United States was a simple-minded ignorant immature child? Think of the books which have been published. Think of the recent disclosure by Carl Bernstein about the transcripts of the phone calls with international leaders. Did Anonymous leak those transcripts? Are the adult professionals in the White House tired of having this seventh-grade-smart-aleck-dumb-aleck constantly berate and belittle people for doing their jobs? Have they had it with the transfer/firing of people who placed loyalty to the Constitution and the security of the country above loyalty to a person solely focused on his reelection, who defers to alpha males, and who conducts himself like a narcissistic infant?

There is a limit to how long you can live a lie. There comes a time when all the “happy talk,” miracles, and embers just doesn’t cut it. Trumpican governors in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, and Texas have reached that point. They no longer have the option of being good vassals to the crown. His imaginary world doesn’t cut it in the real world. They can’t go along with the government propaganda anymore. They can’t pretend the battle was won … especially if anyone in their state wants to travel to Europe for business or pleasure. Who knows what parts of the world will quarantine them next. So much time lost. So much time wasted. So many people dead. All because they went along with the hype that the very stable genius had things under control.

THE TRUMPICANS  

That leaves just the people to catch on to the truth. Ramses disseminated his message of victory throughout the land using stone. Now the failed leader uses Twitter and Fox. Trumpicans like the ancient Egyptians and mainland Chinese receive their news only from one source – the government propaganda machine. The ancient Egyptian people never caught on to Ramses’s shortcomings. The American people who voted for him in 2016 are starting to catch on. They are recognizing that the country they love is now a world laughingstock. They are recognizing that the hospitals in their communities are being overwhelmed. They are slowly learning that real men do wear masks and real Americans can become infected and die. They know they can’t go to Europe. And if the Democrats aren’t buying commercials on Fox to connect Trumpicans to the real world, then their intelligence can be questioned, too. The coronavirus keeps spreading in the real world. We are not Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Uganda or Europe. We are a loser and all the world knows it. Even Trumpicans are learning it too: our leader failed us and he still hasn’t learned it.

 

P.S. There is one other alternate source of information about the reign of Ramses II, Pharaoh of the Exodus. Unfortunately Cecil B. DeMille didn’t include the Battle of Kadesh or the Canaanite uprisings in his version. That’s another movie.

Wishful Thinking and the Tulsa Truth

June 22, 2020
by Peter Feinman
A Blue Wave Coming (Matt Barnard/Tulsa World via AP)

We all engage in wishful thinking. It is one way to remain optimistic, to keep up one’s spirits, to have hope. It is also the proverbial Wiley Coyote running off the cliff – it works until you look down. Then SPLAT!

25th Amendment

Mike Pence has been a source of wishful thinking. When this administration began there were a series of blogs in History News Network (HNN) about him. They had to do with his activation of the 25th Amendment to end the current administration almost immediately. In a series of posts to  HNN, this contributor carefully explained how the 25th Amendment worked. But the analysis did not stop there. It was followed by a meticulously detailed description of every individual who would be involved in the implementation of the 25th Amendment to discharge the President and have the Vice President becoming the Acting President. The analysis demonstrated that the votes were there to make it happen. The writer confidently predicted that it would happen. If the current administration wouldn’t be the shortest on record it would be close to it. Obviously the 25th Amendment maneuver didn’t work or even happen unlike the Impeachment ploy. It should be noted that this writer also had confidently predicted that the 2016 elections would result in a Democratic victory with over 330 Electoral College votes and possibly over 350. All of this was pure wishful thinking. It gave the appearance of sound research while being based on absolutely nothing substantive. As you might expect, I don’t read this blogger anymore. The again that writer has refrained from making predictions and sticks to anodyne summaries of the past.

Michael D’Antonio

Recently Michael D’Antonio decided to engage in some wishful thinking. His article “Time for Pence to jump ship?” was posted on not HNN but CNN (June 11, 2020). D’Antonio wrote:

With a schism forming [in the Republican Party], the time is ripe for a high-level official to make the dramatic break that would signal that someone is ready to stand as the leader of the post-Trump Republican Party. I would nominate for this job, Vice President Mike Pence. Unprecedented? Pretty much. But the Trump era is unprecedented too, and Pence signaled, when he agreed that he would be Trump’s running mate, that he’s willing to do the unexpected.

Here we can observe three examples of wishful thinking:

1. That there still is a Republican Party – the Republican Party no longer exists except in name. Actual Republicans like Romney in the Senate and some governors are few and far between.

2. That there will be a post-Trump Party after 2020 – unless his health really takes a turn for the worse he will not leave the stage especially after defeat. And if Eugene Debs ran for President from jail, so can a convicted person today.

3. That Vice President Brown Nose is willing to do the unexpected.

D’Antonio compounds his wishful thinking with the following:

Pence should weigh the merits of declaring he won’t be vice president for a possible second term….Behind that mild-mannered persona lurks a savvy and opportunistic politician…. Conditions are perfect, in other words, for Mike Pence to observe that either he needs to spend more time with his family or believes the President would benefit from the excitement that would come were he to run with a fresh face — perhaps former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley — beside him. Pence could resign, saying Trump is just too loyal to fire him, and graciously make a path for himself to become the new leader of the GOP come the defeat of the Trump-Haley ticket in November.

It’s hard not to laugh when reading this. After all, D’Antonio is the author of Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success and co-author with Peter Eisner of The Shadow President: The Truth About Mike Pence. He is a serious, reputable person. His opinions are sought on talk shows. Technically, he has made a case on paper of the merits of Vice President Brown Nose taking a bold dramatic action that would thrust him into a leadership position post-2020 elections. But in fact, what D’Antonio wrote is pure unadulterated wishful thinking.

The proof was shown a few days later on June 15, 2020. The headline for The New York Times tells the tale:

As Cases Rise, Pence Promotes a Misleading Claim About Testing.

The article recounts how Pence “encouraged governors on Monday to adopt the administration’s claim that increased testing helps account for the new coronavirus outbreak reports, even though evidence has shown that the explanation is misleading.”  Not surprisingly, the false claim was the same on previously made by the President and which would be repeated in Tulsa. Stop the testing means stopping the number of cases of new infections means the deaths decrease.

There is no sign of bold dramatic action. There are two ways the D’Antonio scenario could work. One is if he became convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that there was no way the ticket was going to win, he could abandon ship for his own survival. Second, if he got wind that he was going to be dumped for Haley, he might bow out first. But either way, he still would be Vice President until January and still perform as a Brown Nose. The result will be he sold his soul for nothing.

Trumpicans and the Coronavirus

Tulsa exposed the wishful thinking of Trumpicans. Consider these examples:

1. “This coronavirus is a little bit hyped. The media hypes things,” Anonymous.

If only FAKE NEWS knocked off their hyped reporting, there would be no talk of 120,000 dead and they would not be dead either…or the deaths aren’t really from the coronavirus anyway. Who knows how this unidentified electrician from Seattle is able to live in an alternate reality. The whole thing must be a hoax.

This second example lends credence to Trumpicans thinking it is a hoax.

2. “It’s all fake. They’re just making the numbers up. I haven’t seen anybody die, not from coronavirus. I don’t know anybody who’s got it,” said Mike Alcorn, Wichita, Kansas.

3. “I’ve been watching this closely over the last four months or so, and the numbers just don’t add up,” said Jeff Eskew, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

4. “[The virus] is a scare tactic more than anything. And I just don’t believe all those deaths are coronavirus,” said Donald Fanning, Wichita Kansas.

Do you see any global warming in your backyard? I don’t see any global warming in your backyard. It’s all fake, it’s all made up.

How can you even blame China for a hoax? How can China be at fault if it’s all fake? That’s like saying the Bolton book is a complete lie but the lies are classified so it shouldn’t be published.

Remember, Trumpicans like mainland Chinese only get their news from the government propaganda machine. What are the odds on Fox showing how much better Europe has done then the United States in reducing the number of coronavirus deaths? What are the odds of Fox showing how much better countries from around the world have done in stopping the coronavirus? What are the odds on Fox showing the rise in coronavirus deaths in Trumpican states because it is not a New York problem anymore?  The Trumpican wishful thinking on the coronavirus will continue until Trumpicans start dying in droves and they all do know someone who died from it. I suspect, that little by little more and more Trumpicans will learn to live in the real world because it will become more and more difficult to live a lie.

THE TULSA TURNING POINT

I am going to go out on a limb with my wishful thinking. Tulsa was nothing like it was hyped to be or I expected it to be based on the hype. Tulsa may signal the turning point. For weeks now, Little Donnee Wanney has been the equivalent of a caged animal who hasn’t been feed. He was starved for the energy of a raucous crowd that would ignite his election campaign and power him to victory in November. Without the energy of Trumpicans he is just a tired irritable old man who has trouble walking down a ramp or raising a glass of water with one hand. With their energy he becomes the Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed Be his Name. There is no Plan B. He has no vision except that he be the center of attention and be re-elected so he can stay out of jail. If the defining characteristic of his campaign in 2016 is removed from him, he has nothing left but hissy fit tweets from his White House bunker. A crowd of over 6000 when 19,000 indoor and 40,000 outdoor were expected doesn’t cut it. Where were all the people! Have they seen the light?

Tulsa is more than just a campaign event. True he can use it to take credit for making the country aware of a holiday that has been celebrated for 155 years. That is no small achievement. But Tulsa may be more remembered as a Toto moment. The curtain has been pulled backed. He looks not just like a loser to Biden but weak and wrong on everything: coronavirus, the economy, China, race, the courts, his niece, and his finances. Right now it seems as if the refs will have to throw a red flag for piling on just to save him. The military is not going to support him if he loses the election and claims “foul.” Even Barr seems to have his limits. President One-Term won’t want to leave the White House, but who will be left to help him remain there? All the adults are gone, the only ones left are loyalists and the son in-law. It will be easier to get him to leave the White House following an election defeat than I previously had thought. Perhaps Brian Williams is right to have started a countdown.

Play Ball: The Tulsa Template for Professional Sports

June 19, 2020
by Peter Feinman
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!

8:46 AM 9/11 to 8 minutes 46 seconds, 2020: What Happened?

June 11, 2020
by Peter Feinman
From 9/11 to May 25, 2020 (https://knowyourmeme.com/)

The numbers 8:46 may become bookend numbers for a transitional period in American history. The first is the time when a jet plane commandeered by Islamic terrorists crashed into one of the World Trade Towers in Manhattan. The second is the amount of time a Minneapolis cop knelt on the neck and back of black man who then died. Each event set off chain reactions. The worlds of these two incidents of death are very different.

9/11 8:46

The attack on the World Trade Center lead to responses which are not possible today. In France the headline of the newspaper Le Monde was “Nous sommes tous américains — We Are All Americans.” Parisians gathered at Notre Dame to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” [how did they know the words?]. The French built 82-foot-tall scaffolding replicas of the now collapsed buildings. The sign on the buildings read: “Les Français N’oublieront Jaimais. The French Will Never Forget.”

Nineteen years later the French may still remember but it is a different United States they see today. The eyes of the world are still upon us but what do they see now.

1. They see a simple-minded immature child president who is a buffoon and laughing stock.

2. They see a country that has abandoned of its own free will its position of leadership in the world.

3. They see a country which failed to manage the coronavirus in a spectacular display of ineptitude, declare victory, and move on content to have 800-1,000 deaths a day forever.

4. They see a country divided by racism preparing to refight the Second American Civil War.

At times like this they must wonder what happened to America or have their eyes been opened to longstanding but buried truths?

At home, the situation has changed as well. After 9/11, the members of Congress, meaning of both parties, stood together on the steps of the Capitol to sing God Bless America. That could not happen today.

The coronavirus clearly shows that even when faced with a deadly attack that far exceeds the death totals from 9/11, Vietnam, and Korea combined, that We the People that cannot come together. We can’t because we aren’t really one people, we are two houses.

By now it is well-known to Trumpicans that CORVID-19 is a New York medical emergency and not an American one. Real Americans don’t wear masks because real Americans aren’t infected. CORVID-19 is a disease of New Yorkers, nursing homes, prisons, and meatpacking plants operated by both legal and illegal immigrants. Why should real Americans care?

This division between the not-a-house divided but two houses played out in the relief packages to help people, businesses, and states get through the crisis.

Donald J. Trump 10:41 AM – Apr 27, 2020

Why should the people and taxpayers of America be bailing out poorly run states (like Illinois, as example) and cities, in all cases Democrat run and managed, when most of the other states are not looking for bailout help? I am open to discussing anything, but just asking?

These thoughts were echoed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Senate Trumpicans who see no need to assist Democratic states like New York during this national crisis that isn’t really a national crisis. Overlooked in the debate is that New York paid $26.6 billion more in taxes in 2018 than it received back, a testament to the weakness of the New York State federal delegation compared to the Confederate federal delegations. What happens if New York State tires of subsidizing the Confederate states and decides it needs the money itself?

8 MINUTES 46 SECONDS

The death via kneeling has had a profound effect on American politics and society. We are just starting to see the impact in the polls. It still is too early to know how it will play out.

One regrettable type of response has been how to exploit the death to your own advantage.

One way has been for mostly young black males to exploit the absence of police to smash windows and loot expensive stores. Obviously these instances are the favorite of Fox.

A second way has been for the alpha-male wannabe commander in chief to demonstrate that he is a real man. He has done so with his comic-book-tough talk to governors on phone calls. He has done so by pretending he was inspecting the White House bunker. He has done so by dominating Lafayette Park in one of the greatest displays of false bravado in American history. He has done so by using his generals as props. In so doing he has learned that he can’t count on them to do his bidding for photo-ops against the American people exercising their constitutional rights. He has even learned that Bill Barr of all people has his limits in his loyalty. Despite all this, he will continue to act tough and talk up his great victories before loyal Trumpicans at his professional political wrestling arena events beginning June 19 in Tulsa.

A third way has been to ramp up efforts to purify America. Monuments will be toppled. Once the forces of purification have been unleashed, it is impossible to tell where it will end. This Columbus Day during the election countdown is sure to provide multiple battlefronts as America’s Third Civil War heats up.

A different and optimistic way also is possible. The murder of George Floyd can be a catalyst for an intense, often painful, and hopefully honest discussion about the place of Middle Passage blacks and Confederates in the United States. Remember “malice towards none.” There are too many people involved to wish away the current situation or to solve it unilaterally. A national discussion where one side simply condemns the other as inferior, terrorist thugs, or people who need to repent their sins will be destructive. Much of the discussion will be at the grassroots level which is good since it will be harder for the conversation to be hijacked. But ultimately not everything can be solved at the local level. No matter what people work out involving the local police that will still leave the damage caused by interstate highways that ripped neighborhoods to shreds.  Given the failure to develop a national solution to the coronavirus, it is impossible to imagine how we can develop national solutions to the problem of race in America with the current political environment in Washington. Someone is going to have win America’s Third Civil War and I hope it is We the People.

AMERICA’S THIRD CIVIL WAR

As stated in previous blogs, my expectation was that America’s Third Civil War would heat up after the presidential election. It appears that more people now recognize the possibility of the culture war becoming a civil war.

Thomas Friedman (May 13, 2020, NYT, print): Having a pandemic is really bad. Having a pandemic and a civil war together is really, really, bad. Welcome to Donald Trump’s America 2020 [written before the murder of George Floyd]

Paul Krugman (June 2, 2020, NYT, print): And Donald Trump, far from trying to calm the nation, is pouring gasoline on the fire; he seems very close to trying to incite a civil war.

Thomas Friedman (June 3, 2020, NYT, print): I am not at all certain that we will be able to conduct a free and fair election in November or have a peaceful transition of presidential power in January. We are edging toward a cultural civil war, only this time we are not lucky: Abraham Lincoln is not the president.

The Confederacy is back in the news big time. We see it in the conflict over the military bases with Confederate names. We see it in the conflict over Confederate statues. It’s as if the America’s Second Civil War never ended. Probably that is because it hasn’t.

No matter the election results, a battle will ensue. It is already underway.

Borg to Hong Kong: Resistance Is Futile (Not in America)

June 2, 2020
by Peter Feinman
Is Resistance Futile for Hong Kong? Is It Futile for the Federation? (https://www.startrek.com/database_article/borg-cube)

Back on August 7, 2019, I wrote a blog entitled When Will the Borg Assimilate Hong Kong?: Is Resistance Futile? I did so triggered by the title of an article “Can Hong Kong’s Resistance Win? (NYT July 14, 2019). I even speculated that the reporter might have had in the Borg in mind when contrasting China and Hong Kong:

If human beings have other wants or needs ⸺ like independent thinking, free expression or person happiness ⸺ well, those are things for our rivals, the Western democracies to pursue. The West’s production model is less efficient than ours. Ours has “Chinese characteristics.”

In that blog, I noted that China has its own Hannitys and Huckabees. It has its own propaganda machine that even surpasses Fox. It even matches the Fox techniques. Chinese are graduates of the Laura Ingraham School of Spin. As one Chinese professor said in support of the Chinese government against the Hong Kong Spring:

They are obviously actors, not Hong Kong citizens.  

Ingraham could not have said it better herself. In fact, she has said it. The same technique is being used today in America in reference to “outside agitators.”

The NYT article reported that activists who claim Hong Kong has a unique identity that needs to be protected are called “localists.” They advocate for independence, an increasingly taboo subject. The localists differentiate themselves from mainland Chinese. They do so by employing derogatory language. They call the mainlanders “locusts” [not “animals’ or “scum” or “lowlifes and losers”] and “invaders.” By American standards, these localists in support of Hong Kong independence are using racist language. They compound the derision by referring to the people of China as being from “Chee-na” instead of “China.”

Pro-Chinese people understand the insults and have responded in opposition to such castigation of mainland Chinese. As one individual said:

We’re all Chinese people with yellow skin. Why are you discriminating against your own people? 

So the pro-freedom and independence people use demeaning language to belittle and mock the locusts who invade their land and overwhelm their communities. The pro-government people refers to the Asian people of color as “yellow.”

The issue then as it is now really wasn’t so much “if” the Borg would assimilate Hong Kong as “when.” Evidently, China decided now was the time.

Why?

Why did China decide that now was the propitious time for its Bill Barr to legally swallow up Hong Kong into the Chinese legal system?

The answer really should be obvious. The Wolf Warriors smell the weakness in the global arena and are ready to feast on America and the world.

In response to the Pompeo accusations on the coronavirus, the Global Times, a nationalist Chinese newspaper, stated:

“Such lunacy is a clear byproduct, first and foremost, of the proverbial anxiety that the U.S. has suffered since China began its global ascension. It is also a combination of envy and panic on behalf of Washington elites.”

CCTV reiterated the message:

“If this evil politician Pompeo is allowed to continue his swaggering bluff, one fears that the United States ‘great again’ can only be a joke.”

Sounds like China recognizes the weakness of the United States. Every move by our immature child President to withdraw from the global arena either from an international organization or geographic presence, is matched by Xi seeking to fill the vacuum. The brilliant success of the ‘America Alone’ policy was on full display at a recent W.H.O meeting. George Bush’s “coalition of the willing” a scant generation ago was reduced to a pathetic attempt to gain Taiwan admission into the very organization the United States was about to leave! The feeble attempt highlights the decay and decline in American power under the lack of leadership by Little Donnee Wanney. Or should one say he has reaped what he has sown.

The Global Times was back at it when the weak President ramped up the rhetoric promising fire and fury as had never been seen before.

“Washington is making a bigger gamble, but America’s economy is not as fat as it once was, and it still coughs from the coronavirus. Their extreme tactics amount to nothing more than the slow suicide of a superpower.”

Given the success of regime change and behavior modification from sanctions in Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Venezuela, it is hardly surprising that the current manufacturing center of the world is dismissive of the threats from the fading giant.

Quite the contrary. The Wolf Warriors are moving ahead on all fronts. China is aggressive against India, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Vietnam in addition to Hong Kong. Who is going to stop them? It is not as though China doesn’t have its own friends in Asia either like Nepal, Pakistan, and the Maldives. Meanwhile the United States is pretending the coronavirus crisis is over and is facing its own internal problems. Now the United States is the awkward position of defending the right of Hong Kongers to be free while calling for the domination by force of Americans seeking justice and equality. So far Xi has just proposed unleashing his Bill Barr; by contrast, Macho Macho Boy is calling for American troops to crack down on the agitators even when they are peaceful and white.

Here one may observe why although resistance is futile in Hong Kong, it is not in America. True the world is watching the riots just as it watched the failure of America to manage the coronavirus crisis. The eyes of the world are still upon us no matter what we do. But what is it we are doing? The story is not yet over and there is more to see than the looting and burning.

The world will also see police chiefs and officers kneeling down, hugging, and shaking hands with protesters.

The world will also see governors defying the President’s “request” for National Guard troops to be sent to the capital to protect the President.

The world will also see governors defying the President’s threat to send military forces into the states if he decides to do so.

And what makes you think the generals will obey a command from the Commander in-chief to send troops into American states to suppress American people?

What makes you think the troops if they do go will fire on the American people? Troops who are minorities themselves. Troops who may be from the very area they are called upon to secure. Troops who may even know people in the crowd. The American military is not the Department of Justice. The generals are more likely to be loyal to the Constitution than the individual who happens to be President. If Bonespur Boy tries to intimidate the military into playing his game of domination, he may be in for a surprise. Generals are not Trumpican Senators who have sold their soul and will roll over like obedient dogs at whatever whistle he blows, command he issues, or photo-op he desires.

The world will also see that America has an alternative to the current President. Countries throughout the world are familiar with the idea of Vice President from one administration challenging the President of the current administration. The current crisis has liberated the former Vice President and current Presidential challenger from his basement prison. He is now free to roam around the country, to offer an alternative, to bond with protesters, to show empathy, to hug people. Will the American President call upon American forces to fire upon his Vice President opponent if he stands with the protesters?

The situation between China and America is quite different. The Wolf Warriors will move aggressively secure in the knowledge that there is no one to stop them. By contrast, the America people, the American governors, and the American military will not be cowed by Little Donnee Wanney. And the world will see both countries in action almost on split screen as just happened with the current President and former Vice President. In that comparison, the world will also see why it wants the United States to be the world leader. All we need is a President who accepts that role and has vision for the 21st century.

2020: The End of the 20th Century and the Beginning of the 21st

June 1, 2020
by Peter Feinman
This Is the Dawning of the Age of the 2ist Century (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hair)

Will 2020 be remembered by historians as the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st?

We humans like to organize time. Sometimes it is comparatively easy. We are consciously aware of the movements of the sun and the moon. That awareness leads to having days, months, and years as part of our calendars (but not weeks).

When we enter the political and social realm, the organization of time becomes more problematical. For example, the ancient Egyptians like to start the new reign of the king on the Egyptian New Year. The obvious problem was that the previous king had a tendency instead to die during the middle of the year. So when do you start the first year of the new king?

John Kennedy was assassinated in November, 1963. Lyndon Johnson immediately became President. Is 1963 the third year of Kennedy’s administration or the first year of Johnson’s administration or both? Should Johnson’s first year have begun in January, 1964? Should it have begun in January 1965 when he was first elected? At that point he would have been President for 14 months and over 3 calendar years.

The Egyptians had these issues too. It mattered less or them than it does for Egyptologists. They are trying to reconstruct history. It doesn’t matter what the Egyptians decided to do as long as the Egyptologists can figure out what they did and hopefully that over the millennia, they were consistent.

Did the 18th century end with the arbitrary year 1800 or at Waterloo?

Did the 19th century end with the arbitrary year 1900 or in World War I?

Did the 20th century end with the arbitrary year 2000 or on 9/11?

Historians make these decisions about how to organize time. They write books based on those decisions. They teach college classes based on the flow of history and not the arbitrarily rounded-dates which are derived from a base 10 numerical system and an error in the calculation of the birth of Jesus probably by four years.

I suggest for your consideration that 2020 will come to be regarded as the end of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st. The time from the Iron Curtain collapse to the Covid-19 pandemic will be regarded as a transition period. It was the time when the old order died and the new order, still in the process of being formed, was born.

The old older clearly is dead. For America, it was a time of three world wars: against Germany, against Germany and Japan, and against the Soviet Union. We were on the winning side of all three. It was a time of international organizations especially after World War II. Now probably to the surprise of many, it is the United States that has taken the lead in shredding these institutions. Instead we are left with a world where it is every country for itself. We live in a world of transactional relationships where the United States is not a leader but alone.

In mythical terms, this situation is referred to as a time of chaos and not cosmos or order. The created world, the world the United States took the lead in creating, is undone. It was a created world of firmament, of substance, of structure. Now that has been washed away and the world is returning to its primordial chaos.

Assyrians used the deluge to represent this change metaphorically. In effect, a tsunami washes away the existing order. That creates a blank slate for a new order to be built. The metaphor was for the Assyrian army, the Assyrian king, and the destruction of conquered cities. The message was that the Assyrian king had destroyed the old order. The new order would be built with the Assyrian capital as the cosmic center and the Assyrian king as the deity’s representative on earth. The Assyrians were extremely successful in delivering this message in the ancient Near East because at that time they did rule the ancient Near East from Elam in Iran to Ethiopia.

2020 has the potential to be just such a watershed in human history. Let’s considered some of the events that have or will happen in 2020 from an American perspective.

An impeachment of a President starts the year.

A Corvid-19 pandemic sweeps the world. While parts of the world have it under control America continues to flounder for all the world to see and pretends otherwise. We still are on track for over 2,000,000 fatalities before herd immunity is reached.

The economy is depressed if not yet in a technical depression. Unemployment skyrockets, businesses collapse. The 1% are immune.

America’s Third Civil War heats up. As previously written, I had expected the Presidential election in November to be the catalyst for the more violent phase of the war but trigger may have been fired earlier.

So we began the year with an impeachment and we will end the year with a constitutional crises, public outrage, or both.

Meanwhile climate change continues to wreak damage on the world.

America has been exposed as a Third World Country. Joe Biden declared LaGuardia Airport to be a Third World Airport. That problem has been relatively straightforward to repair. I am reminded of that every time I fly out of that airport which is why I avoided it even before the Corvid-19 crisis. But that virus has exposed that for much of the country, we have a Third World health care system for people with Third World infant mortality rates, Third World health, and Third World life spans. For much of the country we have Third World education, housing, infrastructure, and opportunity. What little there was of a social safety net has been ripped to shreds. Our shortcomings are visible for all the world to see, a world which watches not Fox but CNN. China which blocks CNN is more than happy to broadcast scenes of riots across America from other sources.

Speaking of China, the Middle Kingdom is exploiting the opportunity of the coronavirus crisis. Since the United States is so willing to abandon its position as world leader, China is eager and willing (but not necessarily able) to become the world leader instead. Even before the current crisis, China saw itself as the wave of the future. From their perspective, it was only a matter of time before the fading giant passed the torch of world leadership to the wolf warriors eager to seize it. They think that time is now.

Returning to Egypt, the Egyptians had a concept of ma’at.  Ma’at was their concept of cosmic harmony, of all being right with the world, of order. It began in the beginning when the world was created. It continued to exist when the gods ruled Egypt, meaning the world, and then when human kings did so as well. Although Egypt had no Fall, it did have disruptions. There were times when kings had to do more than pledge to maintain ma’at, they had to pledge to restore it. They had to act to end the chaos that had engulfed the land and return to it to the order expressed by ma’at.

The United States lives in just such a time right now. We live in a time of chaos where the social fabric is unraveling and America’s position in the world is dwindling. Ending this time of troubles does not mean a return to the past; it does not mean restoring the world as it was in the beforetime. It means redefining the new world order so that it fixes what was wrong and can provide us with a sense of security and peace of mind for the future. A call to bring back the 50s will not solve the problems of the 21st century.

Right now America has no such visionary to lead us to a better tomorrow. In fact, no one at the national level is even trying. For the sake of the country and the world, we need a vision to define what the 21st century will be…or at least a vision We the People want to try to fulfill. Until such time we will continue to flounder and chaos will prevail here and around the world.

Unmasking Trumpicans: I Live Free and You Die

May 29, 2020
by Peter Feinman
We Live Free and You Risk Dying

The coronavirus has had many non-medical effects on America…and you don’t need a red pill to see them. Think of the talking heads, some of whom receive (and open) these posts. Now we can see your kitchens, your livings rooms, your offices with the required bookcase. Sharp-eyed people or more technically-advanced people can even identify the books on the shelves. We can see men without ties and women without makeup. Will the talking head practices revert to normal once the crisis ceases or will some of the changes become permanent?

With Trumpicans, we have had an opportunity to glimpse their world view from something as simple wearing masks. I doubt if anyone only a few months ago anticipated that masks would become a political issue and part of the culture wars, but they have. Masks serve as a reminder that anything no matter how seemingly innocuous is grist for the culture war mill.

So what can we learn from the Trumpican preference not to wear a mask?

Are Trumpicans Thrill-seekers Who Like to Live on the Edge?

Trumpicans explain their opposition to wearing masks along the lines of: We don’t need the Government telling us what to do. We are free to make our own decisions and decide what risks we want to take. After all, tomorrow, I could get hit by a car.

Part of this explanation is based on the fact Trumpicans don’t get the virus. After three months, they can see who does get infected and dies and who doesn’t. The reality is that Trumpican states and even more so, Trumpican counties, have had a far lower rate of infection and deaths than states and counties that voted Democratic. And if there is a hotspot in a Trumpican area it could be meat plant. That means people who aren’t real Americans anyway. Now the land of Field of Dreams is the state where people at meat plants don’t count unless they are 10% infected or more.

Let’s pursue this idea of taking risks just as we do every day when we could be hit by a car. Automobile accidents are in the 30,000+ fatality range annually. That means in three months, the coronavirus has already tripled the annual deaths from motor vehicle accidents. Do Trumpicans know that? Do they still like the odds?

Do Trumpicans wear seat belts? If so, why?

Do Trumpicans wear helmets on bikes and/or motocycles?  If so, why?

Do Trumpican children wear helmets on bikes? If so, why?

Do Trumpicans buckle up on airplanes? If so, why?

At the beginning of his show, Hannity often informs his audience to “buckle up.” What does he mean when he uses that metaphor?

Maybe Trumpicans naturally like to live dangerously and take risks and that separates them from wimpy sissies who wear masks.

Trumpicans Demand Their 007 License to Kill   

Even if Trumpicans prefer to live dangerously, do they demand that people around them do so as well?

For example, do Trumpicans support “Drink and Drive”? Do they regard “Don’t Drink and Drive” as an infringement on their rights? Are Trumpicans naturally able to hold their liquor so the restriction need not apply to them? Do they realize that “Don’t Drink and Drive” is not only for their protection as potential drivers?

In other words, “Don’t Drink and Drive” isn’t only about the drunk driver. It’s also about the passengers in the car. It’s also about the people out for a walk who don’t want to be hit a by car. It’s about the people who are out for a jog, a bike ride with a helmet on, or a car ride buckled up, all of whom do not want to be hit by a drunk driver. Is it the position of Trumpicans that not only do they take risks for themselves but that everyone around them has to take the same risks? Do they think their right to drink and drive gives them the right to play Russian roulette with the lives of others?

The same considerations apply to vaccines. Think of how many people today demand the right to play Russian roulette with lives of others including children. Now imagine what will happen if a vaccine for the coronavirus is discovered but Joe Biden is President. How many more people will refuse to be vaccinated as a matter of personal freedom then?

We are at a point now where the wearing versus not wearing a mask will move beyond a political preference to an economic and legal boundary. Retail establishments, government buildings, planes and trains, will have mask-only policies. You want to go to Disneyland, wear a mask. You want to enter a hotel, wear a mask. You want watch a ball game, wear mask or stay home or go to a Trumpican bar. Here is where Trumpicans will sue to demand their right to play Russian roulette with the lives of others, their right to their 007 license to kill.

Vaccinations may mitigate the need for masks. However how will anyone know if the other person has been vaccinated? Will proof of vaccination be required before entering a venue?

Robert E. Lee versus Abraham Lincoln

No matter how poorly the coronavirus has been managed in America, Trumpicans are not going to abandon their Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed Be his Name. When the war starting going badly for the Confederacy, did Confederates abandon Lee for Lincoln? Did they shift alliances because of the pending and then actual defeat? No. No matter how many Confederates died, they did not abandon their cause. Still 155 years, Confederates prefer Lee to Lincoln even as they have become Republicans. Confederates have remained loyal to their cause despite the defeat and Trumpicans will remain loyal as well no matter how many Americans die.

How Would Trumpicans Know the Coronavirus War is Going Badly?

Now that we have crossed the 100,000 dead and rising threshold, there is a sense that Trumpicans should realize that the wartime general has done a poor job. How would they know that?

As I have repeatedly said, Trumpicans like mainland Chinese, get their news from one and only one source – the government propaganda outlet. Several weeks ago Fox resumed its normal programming – all Deep State, all the time. The onion was being pulled back layer as one guest mentioned to reveal Obamagate, the biggest corruption scandal in the history of the United States. Each day witnessed more and more of the corrupt actions of the Deep State against Michael Flynn. It was only a matter of time before Durham exposed the whole rotten under belly of American politics.

Where was the coronavirus in all this programming? It was in interviews with the wartime general bragging about what a great job he had done. It was in the criticisms of the unelected Fauci really being part of the Deep State. Why should he have the power to prevent America from being re-opened? It was in praise of heroic Trumpican governors re-opening their states with no ill effects. It was in praise of heroic state legislators trying to force Democratic governors to re-open. It was praise of heroic freedom fighters trying to liberate their state from Democratic rule.

How would Trumpicans know that Americans were still dying?

How would Trumpicans know that Little Donnee Disinfectant was the laughing stock of the world?

How would Trumpicans know that Australia, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Korea have all done vastly a superior job individually and even collectively in total to the American experience?

How would Trumpicans know that 40,000-plus people arrived from China after the ban and that the virus hitting New York came from Europe where white people live?

The only way our Dear Leader deserves a “10” is in trying to maximize the number of American deaths. But the only Trumpicans who know that are the old people who are the most exposed and are willing to support Biden. And according to the heroic Trumpican Texan Lt. Governor, old people should be willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good of an open economy where nobody needs to wear a mask.

Trumpicans still live in an a world where real men don’t wear masks, real Americans don’t die from coronavirus, and their Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed Be his Name, is still fighting for them and deserves a “10.” At least they know enough not to actually ingest disinfectant.

 

Contingency Plans for January 20, 2021: If He Loses

May 26, 2020
by Peter Feinman
Preview to the Third Civil War: Bombardment of Fort Sumter, Charleston Harbor: 12th & 13th of April, 1861 (https://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3b49873/)

What are the contingency plans for January 20, 2021, if Joe Biden wins the election?
What are the contingency plans for January 20, 2021, if Joe Biden loses the election?

America’s Third Civil War is moving forward to its showdown. So far the skirmishes in the culture war have been mostly local and mostly non-violent. Clearly now the intensity is ratcheting up. That process will continue until Election Day. Given the write-in ballots, the boiling point may not be reached until after Election Day as the time required simply to count the votes may go beyond Tuesday. And then there will be the law suits. Lots and lots of lawsuits.

Two pre-election Civil War scenarios have been presented in the publications I receive. The first was published in the January/February 2019 issue of The Atlantic by Elizabeth Goitein, a co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, entitled The Alarming Scope of the President’s Emergency Powers. I have slightly revised her possible scenario to bring it up-to-date.

Imagine that it’s late 2020. Trump’s approval ratings are at an all-time low. A disgruntled former employee has leaked documents showing that the Trump Organization was involved in illegal business dealings with Russian oligarchs [and Saudi royalty]. A disgruntled government employee has leaked Trump’s taxes showing that he has violated the law many times for many years.  The coronavirus and trade war with China and other countries has taken a significant toll on the economy. Trump has been caught once again managing ineptly, and his international gaffes are becoming impossible for lawmakers concerned about national security to ignore.

In straw polls pitting Trump against various potential Democratic presidential candidates, the Democrat consistently wins. Trump reacts. Unfazed by his own brazen hypocrisy, he tweets that the Ukraine and China are planning a cyber operation to interfere with the 2020 election. His Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, claims to have seen ironclad (but highly classified) evidence of this planned assault on U.S. democracy [and the release of Covid-19]. Trump’s inflammatory tweets provoke predictable saber rattling by the Chinese leaders; he responds by threatening preemptive sanctions and tariffs. Some Defense Department officials have misgivings, but others have been waiting for such an opportunity. As China’s statements grow more warlike, “Chinaphobia” takes hold among the American public.

Proclaiming a threat of war, Trump invokes Section 706 of the Communications Act to assume government control over internet traffic inside the United States, in order to prevent the spread of Chinese disinformation and propaganda. He also declares a national emergency under International Emergency Economic Powers Act, authorizing the Treasury Department to freeze the assets of any person or organization suspected of supporting China’s activities against the United States. Wielding the authority conferred by these laws, the government shuts down several left-leaning websites and domestic civil-society organizations, based on government determinations (classified, of course) that they are subject to Chinese influence. These include websites and organizations that are focused on getting out the vote [and resisting voter suppression].

Lawsuits follow. Several judges issue orders declaring Trump’s actions unconstitutional, but a handful of judges appointed by the president side with the administration. On the eve of the election, the cases reach the Supreme Court. In a 5–4 opinion written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the Court observes that the president’s powers are at their zenith when he is using authority granted by Congress to protect national security. Setting new precedent, the Court holds that the First Amendment does not protect Chinese propaganda and that the government needs no warrant to freeze Americans’ assets if its goal is to mitigate a foreign threat.

Protests erupt.

On Twitter, Trump calls the protesters traitors and suggests (in capital letters) that they could use a good beating. When counterprotesters oblige, Trump blames the original protesters for sparking the violent confrontations and deploys the Insurrection Act to federalize the National Guard in several states. Using the Presidential Alert system first tested in October 2018, the president sends a text message to every American’s cellphone, warning that there is “a risk of violence at polling stations” and that “troops will be deployed as necessary” to keep order. Some members of opposition groups are frightened into staying home on Election Day; other people simply can’t find accurate information online about voting. With turnout at a historical low, a president who was facing impeachment just months earlier handily wins reelection—and marks his victory by renewing the state of emergency.

Over all, this prognostication remains fairly believable. I tried to update it to reflect the coronavirus and to diminish the Iran factor. I did not revise it to account for the extensive voter suppression activities already underway in the attacks on mail-in ballots, the cleansing of voter rolls in Trumpican-governed states, and the pending deployment of the Trumpican Voter Suppression army. These actions will only heighten the tension. We can witness in Hong Kong what easily could happen here.

The second example “How Far Would Trump Go to Keep Job? Foes Brainstorm Options,”   (NYT, May 25, 2020, print), is briefer as reported in the article. My awareness of this article triggered my reviving The Atlantic one. Preparing such scenarios seems more relevant now as we approach the moment of truth. In this version:

In October, President Trump declares a state of emergency in major cities in battleground states, like Milwaukee and Detroit, banning polling places from opening.

A week before the election, Attorney General William P. Barr announces a criminal investigation into the Democratic presidential nominee, Joseph R. Biden Jr.

After Mr. Biden wins a narrow Electoral College victory, Mr. Trump refuses to accept the results, won’t leave the White House and declines to allow the Biden transition team customary access to agencies before the Jan. 20 inauguration.

The approach here is more domestic-based but ultimately leads the same moment of truth for the United States. It also means that if Joe Biden wins he will face more than legal battles that will drag on for weeks. He will receive no transition support since according to the incumbent, Biden didn’t win and isn’t entitled to any. Therefore as much as possible Biden needs to be ready Day 1 with a full slate of officials who know what they are doing. This interim period will provide a window of opportunity for any foreign entity wishing to take advantage of the American vulnerability. It puts the American military in a bind since it already knows what the rest of the world knows: the American commander in-chief is a blithering idiot, a simpleminded person of limited knowledge, attention span, and retention. Who knows what he might order to be done? Who knows who will obey him?

I first considered the topic of the 2020 election chaos in a blog back in 2018 about Anonymous

Suppose the very stable genius is wrong about 2020 (assuming he is still in office and chooses to run again)? Will the President honor the election results? Will the President leave the White House voluntarily? Will he demand a full investigation into the rigged results? Will he remain in the White House until the investigation by his Attorney General (not a stupid Southerner[Sessions]) is completed?  

In the follow up on March 17, 2019, I added this perspective on my earlier blog:

Those of you who read this blog [2018], may I have thought I was off my rocker. I am pleased to note that five months later the Fixer, who well knows the personality of Person #1 and what he is capable of, raised the exact same concerns in his Congressional testimony. There was not the chance to resolve this issue in the 2018 elections since the Democratic tidal wave was so huge. Even for someone living in an alternate reality there are limits as to how many Congressional districts can be contested. The situation is quite different at the presidential level.

Suppose in 2020, the Democratic candidate wins by the same small margin as the 306 electoral vote landslide in 2016? How many states would need to be contested to switch the national results? At this point it is impossible to know. Indeed we may never know if the margin is comparable to the Congressional vote in 2018. An almost 9% spread is difficult to finesse to an Electoral College victory.

I revisited the subject on May 6, 2019, When Did You First Know Individual #1 Would Reject the 2020 Results If He Lost? following an article two days earlier. Remember Nancy Pelosi’s concerns (Pelosi Warns Democrats: Stay in the Center or Trump May Contest Election Results, NYT, May 4, 2019):

PERSON #1 WON’T LEAVE THE WHITE HOUSE VOLUNTARILY

Few people outside Ms. Pelosi’s inner circle were aware of how worried she was that Mr. Trump would try to stop the opposition party from taking control of the House unless the Democrats’ victory was emphatic enough to be indisputable.

 “If we win by four seats, by a thousand votes each, he’s not going to respect the election. He would poison the public mind. He would challenge each of the races; he would say you can’t seat those people.” In recent weeks, Ms. Pelosi has told associates that she does not automatically trust the president to respect the results of any election short of an overwhelming defeat.

 She said the victory in 2020 needed to be by a margin so “big” that it cannot reasonably be challenged.

 “We have to inoculate against that, we have to be prepared for that,” as she discussed her concern that Mr. Trump would not give up power voluntarily if he lost re-election by a slim margin.

The questions I asked on March 17, 2019, remain valid.

Will Individual #1 unleash his muscle in his militias, military, police, and Second Amendment people to protect him from the greatest threat to the United States ever?

How long would it take the Supreme Court to adjudicate all the legal claims filed?

If his Supreme Court betrayed him, would Individual #1 honor its ruling?

Who would actually extract Individual # from the White House?

Based on The New York Times article, it appears that more people and with more standing than I have now realize the issue is not some wild-eyed hypothetical but a real world possibility with the clock ticking. We are headed for a showdown. Of course, if the post-election legal fight drags on long enough, it could lead to Nancy Pelosi becoming President on January 20, 2021 (Could Nancy Pelosi Become the First Female President?: A Constitutional Crisis).

One final possibility to consider is suppose Biden loses. How will people react to four more years of our immature child president? Will that result push people over the edge? That is a subject for another blog.