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Coronavirus

Could Nancy Pelosi Become the First Female President?: A Constitutional Crisis

April 3, 2020
by Peter Feinman
Trumpican Governor Analysis of the Coronavirus

Could Nancy Pelosi become the first female President? Right now such a scenario seems unlikely. Now think about what used to be impossible and no one ever thought of and now is the New Normal.

Inaugural Day Vacuum

What would have to happen for Nancy Pelosi to become the first female President?

First, there has to be an election in November. Then the Democrats have to maintain the majority in the House of Representatives. Next, the Democrats have to elect her Speaker of the House. Finally, on Inaugural Day, there has to be no President or Vice President of the United States.

Is it possible that as of January 20, 2021, that the Electoral College will not have elected anyone to the two highest offices in the land?

Contested Election

Is there any doubt that the presidential election will be a contested one? In the 2016 election, the candidate who expected to lose already had his legal justification for denying that the winner was duly elected. The issue was illegal voters. 3 million of them. No. Wait! 5 million of them. Whatever number he needed to win the popular vote, that’s how many people voted illegally. If he had filed suit to void the election, it wouldn’t have worked. A Trumpican commission created by the newly elected President failed to find illegal voters. It was a dismal failure.

In the 2020 election, the now incumbent President can’t risk repeating the half ass effort he undertook in 2016. There is no point in finding or wasting time trying to find illegal voters in California. The effort needs to be more strategic. It needs to be well-thought out. It means that even prior to the election, there need to be teams in place to question the results in states that would reverse the election results if the charges prove true. This means in places like Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Arizona and then perhaps places like Georgia, North Carolina, and dare it be said, Texas.

How much time would it reasonably take to collect the required evidence to support such a claim in each of the states with contested results?

How many legal challenges would there be to that effort?

How many rulings and at how many judicial levels would it take to resolve all the claims so it can be determined just who the valid Electors are?

Is it possible that it would take until January 20, 2021?

I have no idea. However with a President having the full weight of the Attorney General and FBI at his personal disposal, it could take quite a while. Now try to imagine the furor Fox would stoke daily. Consider the death threats to Fauci for daring to tell the truth. Fauci telling the truth even when it means contradicting the President equates to attacking the Trumpican Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed Be his Name.

Meanwhile the clock to resolve the voting disputes would be ticking.

Could Inauguration Day be postponed? The Mayor of New York City floated that idea after 9/11 that he would remain in office temporarily until the dust settled both literally and figuratively. That suggestion didn’t fly. The election was held on schedule and a new mayor was installed on schedule as well.

There is no provision for extending the presidential term of an incumbent if the Electoral College cannot elect a President. If there is no President and no Vice President than the Speaker becomes President. Say hello to Nancy Pelosi, the first female President of the United States of America.

Governors

But it probably won’t come to that. As part of that effort to contest the election, both sides would be working with the states. That means also working with the governors of those states. That also also means working in an unprecedented situation of massive mail in ballots that would increase the number of disputed votes exponentially. Even just to count them under normal circumstances would be a challenge. Under these circumstances the chad counters in Florida will seem calm by comparison.

So who are these governors who would manage this count at the state level? Keep in mind, the federal government is just there for backup purposes, will take no leadership role, and will not accept any responsibility.

Many of these governors are extremely popular now. If the election were next year Andrew Cuomo would win both the Democratic nomination and the election in landslides. His poll numbers have skyrocketed compared to the teeny-weeny bump of the Impeached President who never tells the truth except by accident, has limited cognitive skills, and is self-centered. It would be embarrassing to watch the two Queen bros bash it out, the adult and the immature child.

But Cuomo isn’t the only governor with improved ratings. Many Democratic governors have increased their popularity.  Any challenge to the vote totals in a state led by a Democratic governor who is more popular and who has been demeaned and who has not received federal support for the coronavirus then would have the last laugh. Oh, you want to dispute the votes in Michigan. LOL.

Even Republican governors in Maryland, Massachusetts, and Ohio have fared better than the President. These are the people who would be the basis for the Republicans taking back their party after the 2020 elections or who would start a new Republican Party.

Now name a Trumpican governor whose stature has increased as a result of the coronavirus. Texas? Florida? Georgia? Oklahoma? Trumpicans have the analytic skills of a person who jumps off the Empire State Building and at the 42nd floor says “so far so good.” No Trumpican looks better now than before while Democrats are producing a whole new group of people with national reputations for getting the job done.

Meanwhile the Trumpicans are only likely to look more and more foolish and inept, completely incapable of handling the real world but unable to escape the presidential game of make-believe. We are watching the governors of Georgia and Florida play “Simon Says.” They can act to protect their residents until they are given permission to do so. Truly he sucks all the oxygen out of the Trumpican tent until no one is left with any credibility.

Trumpican Behavior

Now consider the Presidential letter to Chuck Schumer. Keep in mind the perfect third-grade letter to Erdogan which is going to figure prominently in the Unpresidential Library. This time we have another unsolicited public example of his cognitive skills. Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large, refers to it as an “utterly childish letter.” He writes the letter “reads like a sort of Mad Libs you might fill out and leave in the locker of your 7th grade enemy.” Sounds exactly like something I would write about the seventh-grade-smart-aleck-dumb-aleck. In fact, it is what I have been writing in blog after blog! He is not childish, he is a child. He has the brain of one.

And let’s not forget Nunes, the crooked clown’s performance on Fox.

The Trumpican Party performance from Pence on down has been pathetic. Nikki Haley is reconsidering her desire to become the Vice Presidential candidate after Pence is dumped when Biden names a female candidate. Is she really prepared to debase herself to the Trumpican level? Will she have more of a political future as a Republican or a Trumpican? Too early to tell.

In the meantime, consider what is happening at the ground level now that adult children have returned home due to the coronavirus. [NYT, 4/1/20] In this one example, a son is trying to convince his parents of the seriousness of the coronavirus. He also is trying to convince them of how the government completely trumped-up its handling of the crisis. Shouting matches were the result.

The parents resisted. “How could this happen [here]? It must be fake,” the son reported the parents as saying. The government couldn’t have attempted to cover it up and downplay it at first. Maybe a foreign government is responsible.

But over time, the real world began to sink it. The son said, “Things just got out of control. You could see people dying at home.”

The son in this example is Chinese, not Chinese-American, but Chinese. China has its own equivalents of Trumpicans, its own Hannitys.

Here is an example of an American Trumpican. In a phone call to Rush Limbaugh on March 13, Brian from Richmond, Va., said he wanted the President to say: “[D]on’t believe the fake news and the media hype. It’s not that serious.” [NYT, 4/2/20]

Perhaps all this talk about the end of days makes sense for Trumpicans. Perhaps they are willing to face the truth about their Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed be his Name. I doubt it. Unless Trumpicans die in droves, Trumpicans aren’t going to take the coronavirus seriously. Eventually, however, the real world trumps the world of make-believe. The more the Trumpican governors show they are not up to handling this crisis, the more people die on their watch, the more they will be held accountable. The more We the People pull back the curtain and see there is nothing there, the less chance there is of a contested election and Nancy Pelosi becoming the first female President. On the other hand, Biden not Cuomo is the candidate.

He Really Could Stand in the Middle of 5th Avenue, Shoot Somebody, and Not Lose Voters

April 1, 2020
by Peter Feinman
The Cuomo-Trump Debates in America's Third Civil War (Granger Collection, New York)

On January 23, 2016, the future president of the United States speaking at a campaign rally in Sioux Center, Iowa, said:

“I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters,”

This comment was an impromptu, unscripted, off-the-cuff remark. Prior to the rally, he had no idea that he would make such a comment. He was just showing off to the crowd about how loyal they were to him. He was expressing that loyalty in the strongest terms possible. After he made it, he had no idea of the implications of the comment or its consequences. His brain simply is not configured to think in those terms.

He didn’t even believe it. How own actions reveal that he did not think his assertion was true. It was and is true but because he didn’t believe it, he has done things he never needed to do.

For example, he had no need to pay hush money to the porn start and the playmate. Trumpicans couldn’t care less about family values, adultery, and campaign finance laws. It would be different if Barack Obama had done those things. It would be different if the previously impeached President had done those things. But it was a matter of complete indifference if their Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed be his Name did them. Their ire was directed only against Michael Cohen, the fixer, for daring to tell the truth.

Similarly, there was no need to fire Jim Comey. Suppose Comey had launched a full investigation and discovered that the candidate had colluded with the Russians and laundered money for the Russian mob, so what? With Trumpican control of both houses of Congress nothing would have happened. New York at the federal and/or state level might have pursued criminal actions against him. He would not have cooperated with any such investigations and the district attorneys would have had to wait until he was no longer in office to get anywhere. But he wouldn’t have lost any votes.

We know that because a Special Prosecutor was appointed. And what happened? Despite finding 10 examples of obstruction, no action was taken. Did he lose any support? This example illustrates the importance of controlling the narrative. Imagine How Fox would report the shooting on 5th Avenue. First it would be hoax by the media mob and the Deep State intended to reverse the 2016 election. Its goal was to remove from office the duly elected by 63 million real American voters president. Then when Fox learned he really had shot someone, Fox would identify the person as Deep-State agent, Seth Rich, and he would be portrayed as a hero.

The same situation occurred with the Ukrainian extortion attempt and cover-up. In this instance Mick Mulvaney got it exactly right: “Sure we attempted to extort the Ukraine for our political benefit. That’s the way the game is played. Get over it.” This time an impeachment did occur. The Trumpican majority in the Senate said, “So what if he did everything of which he is accused?” If it been Obama that would have been a different story. Now it was “so what” with the official legal blessing of the OJ lawyer as well. And once again, he did not lose any support.

When the coronavirus first broke in China, China deployed the Trump Playbook. The Chinese Hannitys denied that anything had happened. They suppressed the whistleblowers who dared to tell the truth. Then when China seemingly had things under control, China bragged about the superb job they had done all along, worthy of a world leader.

Then in this country, the American Hannity went ballistic. He was livid in his denunciation of the Chinese. He directly blamed them for the unnecessary deaths that were occurring in Italy and elsewhere. He was furious at China for the deaths they had caused by not telling the truth and allowing the coronavirus to spread. He wanted China held accountable.

Now the American leader has done exactly what Hannity denounced the Chinese leader for doing. Now the death toll is rising in this country at an almost Italian-like rate. Under the watch of our President, we have become the world leader in the number of cases and will be in the number of deaths. Our leadership position will only increase in days and weeks to come.

The Speaker of the House has denounced the President of the United States for fiddling while Rome burned. That accusation is not fair since Nero was an adult. The Speaker now has asserted that the President of the United States is responsible for the deaths of Americans. Death has come to 5th Avenue. Death has come to Manhattan. Death has come to the five boroughs. Death has come to New York State. Death has come to America. Our Dear Leader did not cause the coronavirus, but he has maximized its deadly impact in the United States with his ineptitude, incompetence, ignorance, dishonesty, self-centeredness and simplemindedness.

Trumpicans deny the charges. It is the disloyal traitors scum who bear responsibility with their cutie pie nasty questions who are making things worse. And the coronavirus like AIDS is targeting people who aren’t real Americans anyway. Real Americans don’t have to fear the coronavirus. Many governors do not. A map of the United States showing which governors have acted and which haven’t looks like a map of the Union states and the Confederate states and like the 2016 elections.

From time to time, I have been writing about our third civil war (Battle Report from America’s Third Civil War: Trumpicans versus Democrats Since July 14, 2019). The lines are drawn in this fight but so far there only have been skirmishes. My expectation was that our Battle of Saratoga, our Battle of Gettysburg, our showdown at high noon would occur after the presidential election. I stand by that prediction.

If Joe Biden wins, the full force of the United States government will be unleashed to undermine that victory. There will be for all practical purposes no limits to what the Attorney General will do to reverse the results since the Democratic victor will not have been duly elected. If the polls showing a 9% lead for Biden persist throughout the campaign, the intensity of the attacks against him will ramp up. How violent the battle becomes remains to be seen.

If Joe Biden loses, tens of millions of people will have a meltdown. How could it be happening again? How could it be happening to when the victor is directly responsible for the deaths of Americans?

Whatever happened before the coronavirus will be forgotten. Who cares what John Bolton has to say? He missed his moment. The election will focus on the coronavirus. In part this means, we won’t know until the fall what the facts on the ground will be. We won’t know what the impact on the voters will be. The intensity of the struggle will ratchet up. After all, the conversation will be about death. Americans will become even more divided.

Here are the two competing campaign strategies.

Trumpicans will claim it is not by chance that our Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed Be his Name, is here at the precise moment the United States needed him to defeat the Chinese invasion and save the country. Truly he is our greatest president and the only one who could have saved us. Look at how few people died. Since there is no more room at Mount Rushmore, we need to find a new mountain to be named Mount Trump where his image can be carved.

Democrats will claim that the inept, incompetent, ignorant, immature, simpleminded, self-centered child is directly responsible for an increased number of deaths and a bigger decrease in the economy. They will want to hold the former President of the United States responsible.  A commission would be created after the new President takes office to prosecute him to the hilt. Perhaps Adam Schiff will lead that effort.

How this will play out is not certain. So far the coronavirus has not cooperated with the happy-talk of our immature child president playing make believe.  It just keeps infecting and killing people. Even he finally has learned to live somewhat in the real world. There is no more talk about just 15 people total and they are recovering. There is no more talk about the coronavirus just disappearing one day. There is no more talk about a miracle. And he has not lost any support for his mismanagement of the crisis. Instead, his poll numbers are up.

The coronavirus has been weaponized.

Florida gets it requests filled because it has a Trumpican governor and he needs that state to win.

Michigan is insulted because it is led by a nasty female Democrat. That woman has been banished to the cornfields (MAD DOG BANISHED TO THE CORNFIELDS: TWILIGHT ZONE EPISODE BECOMES REAL).

Does that mean he has abandoned any hope of winning Michigan this time even though it was important to him in 2016? Quite possibly.

But what about Florida? What if the virus continues to spread there? What happens if he can no longer meet the needs of the state? Is it possible Trumpicans will finally open their eyes to the truth of their savior’s shortcomings? It is possible but I wouldn’t hold my breath. Trumpicans would have to die in droves before they would even consider that possibility.

Let’s end with another campaign rally about killing people. There was a raucous professional political wrestling arena rally in the Panhandle in Florida. When he raised the subject of what should be done about people crossing in the United States illegally, a voice from the audience rang out, “Shoot them!” Everyone laughed. That person is a true Trumpican. That audience consisted of true Trumpicans. Are they still laughing now? Will they still be laughing in the weeks and months ahead if not only New Yorkers die but they do too? Too early to tell.

One safe prediction: expect to see Andrew Cuomo on the campaign trail all the time especially in Florida with its former New Yorkers. Those campaign exchanges will be heated. Move over Lincoln-Douglas debates, there is a new civil war brewing.

The Coronavirus Is Not AIDS: Do Trumpicans Know That?

March 27, 2020
by Peter Feinman
The Hollywood cast anti-vaccine successor to Fauci

The coronavirus is not AIDS. There is more to a disease than simply the disease itself. Another factor is the human reaction to the disease, the cultural perception of it. For example, lung cancer tends not to generate much sympathy except perhaps from the immediate family. Lung cancer often is viewed as a preventable occurrence if the afflicted did not engage in the disgusting habit of smoking. By contrast, breast cancer generates waves of sympathy for the innocent victim. There are walks for finding a cure, runs for finding one, and ribbons. The vibe is quite different. A celebrity can affect how a medical condition is perceived from Lou Gehrig to Michael Fox who have the condition to Jerry Lewis who did not.

The same circumstances applied to AIDS when it appeared back in the 1980s. There was a lot of fear about who could get and how it was transmitted. Eventually it was determined that three groups were most at risk:

male homosexuals
needle-using drug addicts
innocent victims of infected blood transfusions.

It was the third group which generated the most sympathy. The first two were victims of their own actions. These actions were considered to be disreputable if not outright sinful by sections of the American public. Real, that is, decent Americans had nothing to fear from this non-contagious disease. Celebrities who had the condition and celebrities who befriend those who had it helped change public opinion. Tom Hanks was connected to that condition too. Still, there was no denying that the perception of a disease affected the reaction to it and therefore the action We the People should take collectively through our government and with our tax dollars.

I was reminded of this scenario when I heard the President of the United States announce that so far no one in West Virginia has tested positive for coronavirus (a status that is no longer true). What was the purpose in making such a statement?

If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there, has it made a sound?

If a person is infected with the coronavirus and has not been tested, is there an epidemic?

So on one hand, there is a simple explanation for the comment by our inept, incompetent, ignorant, immature child President. He lacks the mental necessities to understand the correlation between testing and the number of people infected. He was not capable of understanding that in part due to his failed leadership that wasted weeks into months of time, we simply had not conducted enough tests to know what the actual infection exposure was in the country.

But I also realized that there was more to this comment than to dismiss it as something said in passing. The context of the comment was that real Americans like the people in West Virginia who voted overwhelming for him were less likely to be infected by the Chinese invasion than were the Democrats = disloyal people in New York who had not voted for him. My general comment is that Trumpicans would not take the coronavirus seriously unless they started dying in droves, something that so far has not happened.

This insight seemed to be substantiated by subsequent actions. Polls indicate that Trumpicans were less likely to take the coronavirus seriously than non-Trumpicans. Take for example, the gas-mask photo-op by House frat boy Maculate Conception Gaetz (see his Chris Cuomo interview to understand this nickname). His action expressed the sentiment being championed both by multiple Fox talk show hosts save Tucker Carlson and the Very-Stable-Genius whose uncle was a super-genius. The coronavirus was something that was happening in Washington State, California, and New York as if it were targeting “those” people and bypassing the real Americans who were immune.

This attitude continues to this day. Trumpican governors and Lt. Governors in Florida, Oklahoma, and Texas have belittled the need to take action against the coronavirus. By contrast, Democratic governors, most famously in New York, and Republican governors in Massachusetts, Maryland, and Ohio, have acted.

Here we may observe a continuation of actions in other areas. It would be interesting to compare the governors who have not acted against the coronavirus with those who have not chosen to extend Medicaid. It would be interesting to compare the people who reject the idea of climate change with those who reject the idea of a coronavirus in their state. Finally, it would be interesting to compare the people who are anti-vaccine with the people who would decline to take a coronavirus vaccine should one be invented.

FAUCI’S SUCCESSOR SELECTED

The internet is really amazing. I knew I wanted an image for this blog of photogenic Hollywood-cast Jenny “anti-vaccine” McCarthy as the successor science advisor to 79-year old Anthony Fauci. Even if she doesn’t replace him when he is shoved aside, there is an excellent chance that the replacement will be an unqualified loyalist just as we have seen with the two individuals appointed and nominated to be director of national intelligence. Professionalism is never a factor in appointments compared to loyalty.

But during the search for a photograph, I came across unexpected information. The famously germophobic President had a previous connection with the anti-vaccine movement in the United States. In fact, he donated $10,000, which is real money, to an anti-vaccine charity operated by Jenny McCarthy. He had observed her success in spreading her conspiracy theory just as he had had about the foreign-born Moslem president. The newly elected President in November 2016, even met with leaders of the anti-vaccination movement.

McCarthy has had real success in convincing people not to vaccinate their children. It became a problem in multiple school districts. The concept of the right of people to play Russian roulette with the lives of others was spreading. It had not reached the point of allowing people to drink and drive but it had reached the point of allowing unvaccinated kids to mingle with vaccinated ones. Despite the herd immunity theory, the number measles cases rose.  That reality convinced even the President of make-believe to support vaccinations.

One presumes then that when the now-past due miracle for the discovery occurs, he will support its usage. There are two caveats.

Suppose the vaccine is discovered in China.

Suppose he is no longer president.

LET THE PEOPLE GO

There is a legitimate discussion to be had about when we will be free to move about the cabin. It is quite reasonable to suggest the proportion of infected Americans will remain much lower than initially expected. Here in New York, the epidemic epicenter, it is hard to imagine even 10% of the population, approximately 2,000,000 people, becoming infected in the next few weeks. But we should wait and see.

Unfortunately, no such discussion about high, medium, and low infection rates at the county level will be held. The decision already was made probably by Tuesday when he mentioned earlier this week in a Fox town hall. From that point it was only a matter of waiting for it to become official. Trumpican governors will be encouraged to free their people as long as they don’t travel to states that are under lockdown. How exactly that will work out remains to be seen but it will back to normal for real Americans.

Why the fixation on Easter and churches full of people? He is not a religious person and does not attend church. I was thinking about why he so admires Queen Elizabeth. As it turns out his mother did and she passed that admiration on to her son. I wonder what Easter was like in the Trump family when he was growing up and what it meant to her mother. Just a thought about why the Easter date is so important to him.

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

March 24, 2020
by Peter Feinman
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.

Would You Blame a Dead Pet Rock for Mismanaging the Coronavirus Crisis?

March 22, 2020
by Peter Feinman
Is It Smarter than a President? (Amazon.com)

Would you blame a dead pet rock for mismanaging the coronavirus crisis? Of course not. The question is absurd. A dead pet rock isn’t capable of managing a crisis yet alone mismanaging one. The fault is in you for asking it to do something that is inherently impossible for it to do.

Why blame Donald Trump for his failure to manage the coronavirus crisis? He is inherently incapable of being an adult. HE IS NOT RESPONSIBLE!

Why blame Donald Trump for the additional deaths due to his failure to manage the coronavirus crisis? IT’S CHINA!

Why blame Donald Trump for the accelerated economic collapse due to his failure to manage the coronavirus? IT’S THE DEEP STATE!

There is no constructive purpose served in affixing responsibility now on the person who is even more out of his league as president than a dead pet rock would be. At least the dead pet rock would not exclaim the ignorant absurdities this President dishes out daily. It’s not fair to judge him by adult standards since he isn’t one.

There will come a time when the next administration conducts an investigation through an appropriately named commission to document all the shortcomings of THE GREATEST FAILURE IN AMERICAN HISTORY. So not only won’t he be THE BIGGEST FINANCIAL LOSER IN AMERICAN HISTORY, he will become THE WORST PRESIDENT IN AMERICAN HISTORY.

Right now the press is making a big fuss about overlooked intelligence service reports and mock simulations. On paper they both warned of a virus crisis and declared that one was now upon us. What makes you think this President has the cognitive skills to read, understand, and act upon these reports? Everything we have learned from former and sometimes current White House employees consistently states that this individual simply cannot process such reports. They would have to be dumbed down and simplified to an elementary school level so in 15-30 seconds they could be digested. In addition, every third line would have to tell him how great he is. Think of the failed effort of HHS Secretary Alex Azar even to inform the President of the seriousness of the coronavirus crisis. By background he is a successful lobbyist for the drug industry. While there are grounds for questioning his qualifications, it should be noted that he is an adult and he has some expertise with viruses precisely because he had to have some knowledge to be a successful lobbyist. Still, he could not get through to this president.

Nothing could until the stock market collapsed. At last there was something that he could understand!

Now let’s examine his thinking skills.

Mitt Romney ran the worst campaign ever.

Crooked Hillary was the worst Secretary of State ever.

Nancy Pelosi is the worst Speaker of the House ever.

NAFTA is the worst trade treaty ever.

I give myself a 10.

I am the smartest person in the room.

I was the best baseball player in New York (but couldn’t play professionally because of business).

I would have been a great soldier (except for the bonespurs that I know were on one of my feet).

Greatest first year/two years of a President ever.

Notice a pattern here? At the level of his brain functions, there are only two possibilities: the best and the worst. There is nothing else. Is this the management level thinking needed during a crisis? Is this the judgement we need in a leader?

Consider his recent exchange with NBC reporter Peter Alexander. When I first heard the question I groaned. Why oh why is this reporter giving the Narcissist in Chief another opportunity to brag about how he is a ten? And why is the network choosing to replay this scene? Doesn’t that qualify as cruel and unusual punishment? Couldn’t you spare us a rerun of this self-centered person telling America how great he is? Then I heard the answer. I was stunned. I could not understand the connection between the puff piece question and the vitriol of the answer.

Then I realized why.

There are two principles to remember when seeking to understand this person:

1 He will always be an immature child
2 He will be the seventh-grade-smart-aleck-dumb every opportunity he has even when you think he doesn’t have one.

The phrase I have used is “playtime is over.” Now he has to function in the real world.

Let’s try to determine his mental state. Imagine a room of worried, concerned, upset adults. The child in that room senses the mood. So does a dog for that matter. The cause in this case is Grandma has cancer. The child may never have heard the word cancer before and have no idea what it means. The child can say the word “cancer” but has yet to develop the mental necessities to understand what it is and why people are so upset. Similarly, that child would be incapable of understanding the medical, emotional, and psychological meaning of a pandemic.

Now it is becoming harder and harder for Little Donnee Waney to play make-believe. He is trying as best he can to ignore, bad-mouth, and trash-talk his way out of this situation but it is just not working. What we witnessed with the NBC reporter is a moment when the President of the United States cracked under pressure. The real world is getting to him. He can’t fix the stock market. He can’t make the coronavirus go away. He can’t even hold professional political wrestling rallies where he can mock, demean and insult people all he wants. Imagine how he will react if he sees a poll with Sleepy Creepy Joe Biden beating him. Imagine how he will react if he sees such a poll on Fox. Imagine how he will react if he thinks he is about to lose his presidential immunity. The Alexander exchange is just a preview. We can anticipate more and more moments where the real world overwhelms the immature child playing adult make believe.

Right now, the only check and balance on this President is Anthony Fauci.

FAUCI IS THE NUMBER ONE CORRECTION OFFICER IN THE UNITED STATES TODAY.

His job is to correct the President and protect the people from the nonsense that spews forth on a daily basis. It is a wonder he has any time to do actual scientific work.

So where can We the People turn?

The Governor of New York is trying to fill the gap. The Governor of New York is trying to be what the Mayor of New York was after 9/11. But the Governor is well aware that more is needed. The governor of a state cannot be the national voice for an epidemic that is affecting every state. Who can be?

Joe Biden.

Imagine if we had a parliamentary system. Imagine if we had an opposition leader who could offer an alternative voice to the person in charge. Imagine if we had an opposition leader who could call the person in charge to task. Imagine if we had an opposition leader who could command media attention. We do not have a parliamentary system but we do have a presidential election year. We do know who the Democratic candidate is going to be.

We do not have the luxury of waiting until late January, 2021, to find out what he would do.

We do not have the luxury of waiting until the fall campaign to hear what he would do?

We do not have the luxury of waiting for the summer party platforms to read what he would do?

Fauci is not enough, we need Biden to speak out and correct the President. We need Biden to offer comfort, to show empathy, to express sympathy. And we need Joe Biden to identify the team who will lead the country out of the crisis that the current President helped create. Who will be your Vice President? Who will be your medical people? Who will be your economic people? Who will be your people who can elevate Cuomo’s message to the national level and provide America with a path forwards. What is your plan? The time has come to end the Democratic primary campaign and begin the national campaign with a full team. In this crisis we need to act as if we were a parliamentary system even though we aren’t.

Can China Leverage the Coronavirus to World Leadership?

March 19, 2020
by Peter Feinman
Putin's strawberries (Reuters / Centers for Disease Control)

When the coronavirus first erupted in Wuhan, China, the Chinese government deployed the Trump playbook. It denied that there was a problem. It repressed those who sought to tell the truth. It questioned the whistleblowers. It unleashed the China Hannitys. There was no coronavirsus. There was no coverup. Fake News.

The real situation was illuminated in the title of an article by Li Yuan, the Hong Kong based reporter for The New York Times “China’s Rifts Laid Bare by Outbreak” (January, 29, 2020, print). She quoted a Chinese newspaper editor who wrote:

The local government’s tolerance level of different online voices is way too low…Government agencies have weakened he checks-and-balance function of the Chinese news media.  

She cited two online comments made in response to the coronavirus:

“The current system looks so vibrant, yet it’s shattered completely by a governance crisis,” one user wrote on the social media site Weibo.

“We gave up our rights in exchange for protection,” the user wrote. “But what kind of protection is it? Where will our long-lasting political apathy lead us?”

Comments like this led her to conclude:

From the outside, China’s Communist Party appears powerful and effective. It has tightened its control over Chinese politics and culture, the economy and everyday life, projecting the image of a gradually unifying society.

The coronavirus outbreak has blown up that facade.

My own blog February 4, Kobe and Coronavirus: Meaning for World War IV expressed a similar negative perspective on the Middle Kingdom’s outlook. At the point, the conditions. The coronavirus was rampant with no end in sight. In addition to the medical emergency, there were the economic consequences which were impossible to gauge not only for China but for the rest of the world increasingly dependent on China.

Following the thread of Li Yuan’s articles, she subsequently wrote:

China Targets the Coronavirus, and Farmers Pay a Price (Jan. 31, 2020, online)

Coronavirus Crisis Shows China’s Governance Failure (Feb. 4, 2020, online)

Widespread Outcry in China Over Death of Coronavirus Doctor (Feb. 7, 2020, online)

In Coronavirus Fight, China Sidelines an Ally: Its Own People (Feb. 19, 2020, print)

The coronavirus outbreak has exposed the jarring absence in China of a vibrant civil society — the civic associations like business groups, nonprofit organizations, charities and churches that bring people together without involving the government.

Think of it as the nervous system that helps a society move smoothly and briskly — something Benjamin Franklin recognized over 200 years ago when he organized Philadelphia’s first volunteer fire department, first public library and first charity hospital. “It is prodigious the quantity of good that may be done by one man, if he will make a business of it,” he wrote in 1783.

Score one for America!

Coronavirus Weakens China’s Powerful Propaganda Machine (Feb. 27, 2020, print)

Beijing is tapping its old propaganda playbook as it battles the relentless coronavirus outbreak, the biggest challenge to its legitimacy in decades.

The problem for China’s leaders: This time, it isn’t working so well.

Online, people are openly criticizing state media.

Could the China Hannitys be failing? Are the mainland Chinese (not Hong Kong Chinese) failing to be good little obedient national Communists? What is the Chinese government to do?

Evidently, the Chinese government did something. A different New York Times reporter, Javier Hernandez, provided an entirely different perspective than the continual negative drumbeat of Yuan.

China, in Propaganda Push, Boasts of Response to Crisis (February 29, 2020, print)

According to this article, the Communist Party “is trying to rehabilitate its image as a model for the world.

SOME COUNTRIES SLOW TO RESPOND TO VIRUS read one headline. Gosh, I wonder what country the Chinese meant. As of February 29, in the United States, the corona virus was still a hoax, round three of the media-mob/Deep-State attack in the attempt to undermine the duly elected President of the United States. So claimed the American President and his propaganda outlet.

Hernandez reports that the Party officials were now trying to spin the coronavirus crisis as a testament to the strength of China’s authoritarian system and, of course, to its leader, Xi Jinping.

Mr. Xi has appears eager to reframe the crisis as a triumph for the party and for a vindication of his efforts to strengthen its control over everyday life in China.  

Can you imagine an American President trying to rewrite history as the Chinese leader has to show he is the hero and savior who knew all along it was a pandemic?

The China Hannitys claim that it is the United States political system that is not capable of dealing effectively with an outbreak. Whether or not they could make that claim in we had an adult in the White House is undetermined.

In March, the tide seems to be turning from the failure of China in January to a position of world leadership. The slowing of new cases of the coronavirus to zero in China matches the claim the American President made weeks ago about the 15 cases in America also soon to disappear like a miracle. The number now exceeds 10,000, no, now 11,000, no, now 11,600 and rising. The miracle is nowhere in sight. We still have to spike.

It is easy to understand why China thinks it is in a position not only to gloat but to magnanimously offer assistance to countries in need. Remember the Marshall Plan? Now it is the Chinese who have the masks and testing kits the rest of the world needs including the United States. It is not only in 5G where the United States is second and not really competing, it is on the coronavirus battlefield as well.

Xi Jinping’s victory appearance in Wuhan on March 9 was that of leader strutting his stuff. While other nations (Iran and Italy) and rival America are just beginning to gear up to confront the coronavirus, China is looking back on its triumph, looking ahead on its desire to move forward, and looking around at its willingness to help the less fortunate among the world. Other countries make talk about 40-70% of its population becoming infected – not in China.

There is no talk of 500 million Chinese being infected by the coronavirus.
There is no talk of 75-100 million Chinese requiring hospitalization.
There is no talk of 10-20 million Chinese requiring ventilators.
There is no talk of 5 million Chinese dead from the coronavirus.

True, there is no vaccine so there always is the problem of resurgence.

As prophecies go the infamous article China Is the Real Sick Man of Asia by Walter Russell Mead (Wall Street Journal, February 3, 2020, online) seems to have missed the mark.

The mighty Chinese juggernaut has been humbled this week, apparently by a species-hopping bat virus.

At present, the Chinese juggernaut has survived the virus and is ready to revive its economy…which will be a challenge give the dire straits of its customers. By contrast, it is the United States which has been exposed as the sick man of the world. It was in denial for two months and is poorly prepared to even test yet alone treat those infected and it is only beginning to prepare for the economic challenge and changes to daily life which will ensue.

These changes have led to an extraordinarily surreal moment in coverage by the government propaganda network in the United States. Suddenly the American Hannity is woke to the reality of the crisis. Suddenly he is aware of the consequences when a leader fails to act during that critical first month. Suddenly he has berated and castigated the Chinese Hannitys for their deceptive and dishonest coverage of the coronavirus as propaganda arms of the government. The American Hannity has taken the Chinese government to task for its cover-up and lies. He identified China as contributing to the current medical emergencies in Iran and Italy visited by Chinese because the government failed to tell the truth. People were dying as a result and the American Hannity blamed the Chinese Hannitys and the government for them.

In effect, the American Hannity’s message was:

If a drug manufacturer similarly had covered up the truth, it would be criminally negligent.
If an airline manufacturer similarly had covered up the truth, it would be criminally negligent.
If a car manufacturer similarly had covered up the truth, it would be criminally negligent.

Shouldn’t a government be held to the same standard? How many people have died and will die because the leader of a country was in denial and sought to repress the truth? How many people still don’t recognize a crisis exists because for months that is what their Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed be his Name and his propaganda apostles have told them? How many jobs will be lost due this criminal negligence?

The American President has said the United States is in war, that we will triumph over the invasion, the invaders from China. He is right to recognize that it is a war but he has failed to identify the enemy. The coronavirus like 5G and the newspaper reporters is a battlefield but the war is with China.

For three years our immature child President got to play at being President. Now he has to face three crises at once:

1. the national medical emergency unprecedented save perhaps for the flu epidemic of 1918
2. the economic collapse unprecedented save perhaps for the Depression
3. the battle between the City on a Hill with China for world leadership  – Who Will Win World War IV?

In a blog only a week ago, I commented on how much fun our Dear Leader has doing the penguin walk at professional political wrestling arenas (One Small Step for the Penguin-Walk President or One Giant Leap for the Fox President?). It reflects his idea of what adults expect a president to be. Do you think once such rallies are possible again, he still will perform the penguin walk? Do you think he is starting to realize that there is more to being president than he knew? Do you think he understands that even though he is not an adult, Americans want a president who acts like one?

World War II marked the emergence of the United States as the center of the world. It had supplanted England as world leader symbolized by the United Nations headquartering in New York. Now that city struggles with its increasing number of coronavirus cases and Times Square, the crossroads of the universe is empty. Instead the coronavirus witnesses the emergence of a new world order where all roads lead to China. Does Bonespur Boy have the right stuff to go into the arena and triumph in America’s moment of need?

Tom Hanks and Donald Trump, Round II

March 16, 2020
by Peter Feinman
"It's going to be just fine." (Opinion Weekly)

Tom Hanks and Donald Trump were the subject of the blog Tom Hanks versus Our Immature Child-President (August 8, 2017). The blog compared the characteristics of the two 13-year olds in the bodies of adults, one in the REEL world and one in the REAL world. It was easy to contrast the two (one could read a book the other couldn’t). The primary basis for the difference was that the Tom Hanks adult was based on a level-headed child while the Donald Trump adult was based on an immature child as father Fred Trump well knew when at age 13, he shipped Little Donee Waney off to military school in the vain hope that he would grow up.

Without knowing it, that blog anticipated the issue we are now facing with the coronavirus. Here is what I wrote about the Tom Hanks character:

Tom Hanks’s job was to play. His job was to utilize what appeared to adults to be his child-like sensibilities to play with toys. He job was to maximize their economic value by designing toys that better appealed to actual children. The joke was that no one realized he really was a child. Still, no one ever considered putting him in charge of the manufacture of toys. No one ever considered putting him in an administrative position. He had the perfect job that matched his abilities: being a child.

As an intelligent level-headed child in the body of an adult, Tom Hanks knew the difference between work and play. He had no objections to fun and chaos but no one would ever put him in a position where he had to managed adults or function in an organized manner. He hadn’t yet reached the maturity where he could do such things. That time was still off to the future. By contrast, the ignorant immature child in the body of man now in the White House when he isn’t out playing golf, never reached that level of maturity. He is only capable of chaos. It is not a management-style choice by adult, it is the limit of his mental capabilities as an immature child.

Children are not prosecuted as adults because they lack the capacity to know right from wrong and to recognize that actions have consequences. They simply lack the mental necessities to function as adults and are not expected to (excluding the stories of the parentless children where the oldest now has to act as the parent to the younger siblings).  Children have imaginary friends. Children make up stories. Eventually they outgrow them except for those who become novelists, comic book writers, or who write screen plays in Hollywood who can tap into that childhood sensibility.

Now We the People are dealing in the real world with a President of the United States who does not have the mental necessities to function as an adult in the real world. He still lives not in an alternate reality, an adult term, but the make-believe world of childhood.

A group of children with the Sunrise Movement, a climate advocacy group, went into Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s office to sway her vote on the Green New Deal. The California Democrat fired back. (USA TODAY 2/22/19)

Take for example the incident where a group of young girls ganged up on Senator Dianne Feinstein. Regardless of the specific topic and regardless of whether you agreed with those children or not, would you consider putting them in charge in the adult world? Obviously not.

Now think of young voters in the 20s. They may live at home with a parent or parents. They may be covered by the insurance of a parent…or maybe they aren’t anymore. They may have student loans. They may not have a 9-5 job with pension and medical benefits and instead have a random schedule of “shifts” in a gig economy. Is that the traditional image of young adulthood?

Think of Friends. In the pilot, Rachel Green abandons her wedding in her wedding dress, a traditional path to adulthood for women. Instead she runs off to the city. The next day she goes looking for the “job thing.” She returns to the apartment which is a steal due to rent control and announces that she is qualified for nothing. Yet she is surprisingly happy. She displays the source of her happiness: some expensive boots she just bought on sale. Wouldn’t you be happy?

Donald Trump refusing to take $413 million from his father so he can be a self-made man (Friends Pilot)

She is asked how she paid for the boots. The answer mumbled under her breath is that her father pays for the credit card. Her friends then encourage her to cut the cord. CUT! CUT! CUT! She cuts the cards. “Welcome to the real world. It sucks.” Rachel did not have a rich daddy who could give her $413 million on her way to becoming the biggest financial loser in American history. The principle is the same. There is a transition from being the child dependent on the parent to being able to take care of oneself. That does not mean cutting all ties with parents. It refers to the American Dream of being able to make something of your life. In Friends and the Big Bang Theory, these twenty-somethings venture out into the adult world and through many trials and tribulations (so the shows can keep going year after year!) they finally reach the cusp of adulthood, married with child and maybe a house, the starting point for Father Knows Best, Leave it to Beaver, and The Dick Van Dyke Show from the old days.

By contrast, Little Donnee Waney remained trapped, through no fault of his own, as an immature child in the body of an adult who never grew up. Consider these comments.

Would an adult liar claim there are only 15 cases of coronavirus in the United States? No, because an adult would know that claim would be too easy to fact check and he would be exposed as a liar, idiot or both in a few days.

Would an adult liar claim those cases would go down to zero in a few days? No, because an adult would know that claim would be too easy to fact check and he would be exposed as a liar, idiot or both in a few days.

Would an adult liar claim that a vaccine would be ready and available shortly? No, because an adult would know that claim would be too easy to fact check and he would be exposed as a liar, idiot or both in a few days.

Would an adult liar claim that one day soon the coronavirus would disappear like a miracle? No, because an adult would know that claim would be too easy to fact check and he would be exposed as a liar, idiot or both in a few days.

These assertions are not the words of an adult liar but an immature child playing make-believe. Tallying his lies serves no constructive purpose since he frequently is too ignorant to know the truth and too busy playing make-believe.

If you are serious about wanting to understand how the mind of Little Donnee Waney works, don’t consult an adult psychiatrist, ask a child psychiatrist. They can explain how the brain develops and did not it this case.

If you are serious about wanting to understand how the mind of the seventh-grade-smart-aleck-dumb-aleck works, ask the people most familiar with them people: a seventh-grade guidance counselor or seventh-grade teacher. Or go to a high school or college reunion where there is bound to be at least person who never fully grew up.

In 1986, after the Challenger disaster, Ronald Reagan said:

We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them this morning as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God.

People can rise to the occasion in a crisis.  Can you imagine if the person who just delivered the worst presidential address ever even tried to say something inspiring? By contrast our immature child president is limited to

LOCK HER UP!
BUILD A WALL!
FAKE NEWS HOAX!

No. I don’t take responsibility at all.
I don’t know anything about it.
It’s a nasty question.

That’s the limit of leadership We the People can expect from our immature child-president whose natural venue is the professional political wrestling arena. Unfortunately We need more.

One Small Step for the Penguin-Walk President or One Giant Leap for the Fox President?

March 12, 2020
by Peter Feinman
https://batman.fandom.com

The favorite venue for this President is the professional political wrestling arena. He literally feeds off the emotion and energy there. For the seventh-grade-smart-aleck-dumb-aleck the professional political wrestling arena is a dream come true. He can say whatever he wants, act however he pleases, and make up whatever “facts” occur to him. There is no teacher, no principal, and no school superintendent to control him. In fact, he is the superintendent!

One of the acts he likes to perform is the penguin-walk President. He goes all stiff with arms down his sides and waddles a few steps. He adds a commentary about how this is how the adults in the room tell him to behave as President. Then he laughs at them for championing such rigid behavior. After all, wasn’t he elected precisely to destroy such conduct?

There are a few times when the immature child President knows he has to behave like an adult. For example, the State of Union. Just like the child who knows he has to behave at a funeral or some other occasion, Little Donee Waney can behave properly…for a short period of time, but that’s it.

Then there are the unexpected times when America wants him to act as an adult and he can’t – Charlottesville, Puerto Rico, and now, the coronavirus. One would think by now We the People would know he simply isn’t wired to do so but we hope for the best and then are disappointed once again when he fails to be an adult.

His penguin-walk persona (which is separate but related to his running on air off a cliff behavior, see Running on Air off a Cliff: The Coronavirus and the Real World), provides a window into the mind of the child trying to pass for an adult. It genuinely reveals how the seventh-grade-smart-aleck dumb-aleck perceives the role of the President. For him, acting presidential is what he does when he is in the professional political wrestling arena, not when he is speaking to the nation from the Oval Office or standing alone at a White House podium. It demonstrates the impossible challenge facing him when circumstances beyond his control force him to assume the adult mantle.

His White House coronavirus speech of March 11, 2020, was one such moment. When the Unpresidential Library is built, this speech will be one of the highlights. Visitors will have the opportunity to see and hear Franklin Delano Roosevelt after December 7, Ronald Reagan after the Challenger, George Bush and Rudy Giuliani after 9/11, and Little Donnee Waney during the coronavirus.  In the years to come, visitors to the Unpresidential Library will gasp in horror and shock as this immature child struggled to pass for an adult. It will become a lesson for teachers of American history.

The speech would have been more effective if it simply had been distributed as a handout. It was not the creation of a President writing on a legal pad, typing on a computer, or even tweeting and then giving it to others to polish for the presentation. The speaker was unfamiliar with words, struggled with phrases, and didn’t understand what he was reciting. He looked and acted uncomfortable because he was. Remember, his view of the President as an adult is of a stiff, rigid penguin. He was out of his element and out of his league.

Remember how much fun Little Donne Wanee had had just ten days earlier mocking the height of Mike Bloomberg by ducking down behind the lectern?

Our President Having Fun while the Hoax Virus Miraculously Disappears

This picture of him during the coronavirus when everything supposedly was contained and the count of 15 was miraculously dwindling to zero also will be in the Unpresidential Library. It will hang right next to a picture of Nero fiddling while Rome burned.

A float depicting President Trump as Roman Emperor Nero in the traditional Carnival parade in Mainz, Germany, on Feb. 24. (Michael Probst/AP)

THE DEEP STATE IS BIGGER THAN FOX IMAGINED

The reaction to the pitiful performance was worse than even the nightly Fox diatribes against it.

BREAKING NEWS

The E.U.’s top officials condemned President Trump’s Europe travel ban, saying the decision was “taken unilaterally and without consultation.” (NYT, Fake News)

The European leaders are well aware of the mental shortcomings of the immature child President of the United States. They laugh at him to his face at the General Assembly. They laugh at him behind his back at international conferences. They probably laugh at him more times than we know. Still no matter how much he insults and alienates them, they know that American leadership is needed to solve global problems. They know it for climate change and they know it for the coronavirus.

As soon as Little Donee Waney announced the 30-day ban on travel from Europe, they knew the moron in-chief had done it again. My own immediate reaction after gasping was to think of the American travelers who would be stranded in Europe for a month. Where would they stay? How would they pay for it? If they were traveling with medicines, how would they get refills? If they needed to be back in the United States for family and business, what would happen? I am sure other people had equally puzzled reactions to this announcement.

Sure enough almost as soon as the speech was over, the American Government began issuing correctives. What he said was not what he really meant. Why expect clarity in the single most important speech of his presidency? Do you really think he has a White House staff capable of ensuring the final product was coherent?

I presumed he personally knows of someone currently in England so he exempted England from the travel ban so that person could get home. I could be wrong. What’s your explanation?

In any event, his botched performance led to this headline:

Trump address sparks chaos as coronavirus crisis deepens (CNN, Fake News)

President Donald Trump set out to steady a rattled nation and a diving economy in a solemn Oval Office address, but instead sowed more confusion and doubts that he is up to handling the fast-worsening coronavirus crisis.

Trump’s top assignment on Wednesday was to show that he was in charge and that he appreciated, finally, the grave nature of the weeks that lie ahead. But the confusion over the travel ban turned his speech into something of a debacle and may up exacerbating uncertainty over his leadership.

“I don’t think there’s confusion,” Pence said on CNN’s “New Day.”

Who the hell does Vice President Mike Pence think he is deciding for us whether or not we are confused? Why were there so many corrections issued afterwards if the President of the United States was crystal clear? It is one thing to sell your soul, but did he have to abandon his common sense with it?

BREAKING NEWS

U.S. stocks plunged again, as investors reacted with dismay to President Trump’s latest effort to address the coronavirus outbreak. (NYT, Fake News)

European leaders weren’t the only ones to cast judgment against Little Donnee Waney. Wall Street did too. Almost as soon as the speech was over the stock markets began to tank. And they continued to do so throughout the day. Wall Street like Europe knows better than to trust Fox. It could see with its own eyes that the President of the United States wasn’t up to the job of being a leader in a time of crisis. The judgement has been harsh.

Some of the decline has been due to the hit the economy is going to take from the coronavirus.

Some of the decline has been due to the oil battle between Saudi Arabia and Russia (will the world’s greatest dealmaker negotiate a deal?)

Some of the decline has been due to the recognition that we are in a crisis and no one is in charge…or at least, no adult is.

The presidential speech did have one positive impact despite its shortcomings.

The day coronavirus became real for millions of Americans (CNN, Fake News)

Even Trumpicans who watch Fox should be starting to learn that the coronavirus is a real threat that is only going to get worse contrary to the claims of the Fox announcers save for Tucker Carlson.

Is the NBA also part of the Deep State?

Is the NCAA also part of the Deep State?

Is Tom Hanks also part of the Deep State?

And what about the upcoming baseball season?

Meanwhile on the Bull-Trump network, the speech of our Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed Be His Name, was the greatest speech since the Sermon on the Mount. Such bold and decisive leadership showing full command of the subject and demonstrating the ability to contain and defeat the disease. And remember Trumpicans like mainland Chinese get their news from only one source, the government propaganda network…unless they also watch basketball, unless they also like Tom Hanks, unless they opened their bank statements at the end of February or will do so at the of March.

There is one way to get through to Trumpicans. Margaret Sullivan (Washington Post, Fake News) suggested that

Rupert Murdoch could save lives by forcing Fox News to tell the truth about coronavirus….So imagine if the word flowed down from on high that Fox News should communicate to Trump that he needs to take an entirely new tack on the virus. Imagine if Murdoch ordered the network to end its habit of praising him as if he were the Dear Leader of an authoritarian regime and to instead use its influence to drive home the seriousness of the moment.

Or imagine if Murdoch replaced Hannity with Tucker Carlson. Fat chance. But for a sneak look at what is really important in the Trumpworld and what has the highest priority, it is just what you would expect:

The Trump team is now working overtime to question Joe Biden’s mental fitness (CNN, Fake News)

It’s always about him.

Running on Air off a Cliff: The Coronavirus and the Real World

March 11, 2020
by Peter Feinman
If Only We Lived in a World of No Gravity!

Here is what I wrote last June 19:

There is a longstanding cartoon routine of someone running off a cliff. The figure may be human or an animal and it is almost always male. The figure runs straight off a cliff and then appears to be running on air. The laws of gravity are suspended and the figure remains aloft, legs churning. Finally comes the moment of truth. He realizes his predicament and looks down. There below him, far, far below him, is the hard ground. Suddenly reality takes over. The result is SPLAT! Actually, since the fall does not kill him, it’s not too real.

So far that moment of truth has not yet arrived for the current cartoon character running on air. He has managed to maintain his illusions for far longer than I would have anticipated. There has been no Cuban Missile Crisis. No 9/11. And his hurricane failure occurred in Puerto Rico and not Louisiana. Thanks to John McCain and a few others he was not able to strip Trumpicans of their healthcare otherwise the Trump really would have hit the fan.  Is it really possible to sustain his delusions for an entire four-year term?…

There are a few simple tests to monitor his grasp of the real world, his willingness to operate it, and his success if he tries. We don’t need to wait to see how he deploys his campaign resources to know if he is operating based on real polls or his fake polls. We’ll know in a month because of health care.

“You’ll see that in a month when we introduce it. We’re going to have a plan. That’s subject to winning the House, Senate, and presidency, which hopefully we’ll win all three. We’ll have phenomenal health care.” 

 So claims the very stable genius who is the smartest person in the room and the only one who can solve America’s problems.

That month of waiting for his “phenomenal health care” plan has long come and gone.

Now he says

“the people are getting better, they are all getting better”

“You may ask about the coronavirus, which is very well under control in our country.”

“We’re doing a great job with it. And it will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.”

And there will be a miracle. Now it is the vaccine which will be ready soon, soon, very soon. Imagine if we did have a “phenomenal health care” plan as promised last June and people didn’t have to be worried about the cost of coronavirus healthcare.

Playtime is over for our immature child president. Try as he might with his Fox assistants, ignoring, denying, and insulting the real world doesn’t cut with the coronavirus. When it first appeared, mainland China tried the Trump approach. It suppressed whistleblowers. It ignored the facts on the ground. It stood by while people died.  And then its leader took credit for solving the problem and being an example to the world of what every other country should do. So besides in trade, the Middle Kingdom and the City on a Hill now are competing as to who should be recognized as the world savior.

America initially followed a similar path as mainland China. The impact of the coronavirus was downplayed. Democrats and the media were insulted. It was all a hoax. Still the stock market tanked and the numbers of infected and died rose. These past few days I have received too many emails about conferences cancelled, lectures postponed, and places closed.

This morning I woke up to see the street where I grew up on the front page of the newspaper. For most of my life, New Rochelle was best known for Dick Van Dyke. Now the National Guard will be enforcing a containment area in New Rochelle that looks like it includes the house where Carl Reiner once lived. It is a strange feeling to see your childhood community on the front page with the words “National Guard” and “containment.”

At this point, no one knows what is going to happen. Eventually, of course, the coronavirus one day will pass as an imminent threat. No one knows when that day will or how much damage it will cause. No one knows how long it will take for normalcy to return.

Think back now to the ancient crisis of the targeted killing of Iranian Major General Qassim Suleimani. Today, March 11, would have been his birthday. On a personal note, March 11 also was the birthday of my father and of a neighbor around the corner from us in New Rochelle, Benjamin Ferenz, the Nuremberg lawyer. Today he is celebrating his 100th birthday. I hope he is in Florida and not at his home in New Rochelle or else he would be caught in the lockdown too.

It was only two months ago when Suleimani died but in Trump time that is eons of crises ago. At the time, Peter Baker (New York Times, January 6, 2020), began an article with:

For three years, President Trump’s critics have expressed concern over how he would handle a genuine international crisis, warning that a commander in chief known for impulsive action might overreach with dangerous consequences.

But this time the crisis is not self-induced. This time it can’t be solved by behaving like a seventh-grade-smart-aleck-dumb-aleck. This time it can’t be solved by Hannity and his parade of Flying Monkeys who have sworn to defend the Wicked Witch of the White House. Iran and mainland China have their own Hannitys, too, and saying “Death to America” won’t solve their problems either. “Lock her up” and “Build a wall” aren’t enough. We need real leadership.

Part of the challenge is coping with the uncertainty. It is no secret that stress aggravates all other physical conditions. Our mental health pays a price for ongoing stress whether it is the abused wife who never knows when she will be struck again, the workers who never knows when they will be laid off or what time their next shift will be, or the kid who never knows when he will stopped by the police. Now We the People know that uncertainty and stress. Where will the coronavirus strike next. If I get it, will it kill me? Besides any specific legislative action, We the People need our Comforter in Chief to tell us not that everything is alright since we know better but that everything will be alright.

No one is less qualified to be America and world’s Comforter in Chief than our current President. He can’t do sympathy. He can’t do empathy. He can’t tell the truth. It’s always about him. It’s always about what he has done. If he tried to be Rudy Giuliani on 9/11, the results would be frightening. He cannot understand why in a moment of crisis, Americans would prefer the calmness of Joe Biden to the ongoing stress of what will this President say, tweet, or do next. Fortunately the coronavirus crisis is not like the Cuban Missile Crisis where a single action might destroy the world. Fortunately he hasn’t eliminated all the government employees with professional abilities in health care and who will speak truth to power. Fortunately these health professionals can be the adults in the room.

This is one crisis where the solution will be despite the President instead of because of the President since on his own our immature child President would drive We the People over a cliff while yelling how great he was.

Can anything get through to him?

Maybe the plunging Dow Jones. Wall Street knows better than to believe him or Fox. After all it was in New York where America’s biggest individual financial loser first made his mark as a con artist who could not be trusted.

Maybe the rich people he helped get richer know the truth and share with him the true situation including how poorly his performance is playing in Peoria.

Maybe watching some of the leading Congressional Trumpicans self-quarantine, including people who were in direct physical contact with him will bring the real world home to him.

Maybe Tucker Carlson will get through to him in a way Sean Hannity hasn’t:

“In crisis, it’s more important than ever to be calm. But staying calm is not the same as remaining complacent. It does not mean assuring people that everything will be fine. We don’t know that. Instead, it’s better to tell the truth. That is always the surest sign of strength.”

Maybe it will be the senior White House official said, “The gravity of the moment was pretty clear.”

Does he at last understand the gravity of the situation? Does he at last understand that real leadership is needed? Does he at last understand that Fox can’t solve the problem? We may know in 60 minutes.

Hoax Claims 5000 Dow Jones Points: No Miracle in Sight

March 9, 2020
by Peter Feinman
The Presidential Plan for the Coronavirus

White House press spokesperson Sean Spicer today announced that President Trump’s Dow Jones drop was bigger than Barack Obama’s. In fact the biggest individual financial loser in American history now may be the biggest stock market loser in American history as well.

White House fabulist Kellyanne Conway said you do not even need alternative facts to realize how great a loser the current President is.

President Trump twitted that he has authorized Attorney General Bill Barr to investigate the Deep State and its Wall Street allies for the ongoing drop in the stock market. The disloyal traitors responsible for the decline will be identified and held accountable.

President Trump twitted that the coronavirus was a Fake News hoax that was being weaponized by the Democrats to do what the Russian and the Ukrainian hoaxes had failed to do: undo the election of 2016.

President Trump twitted that Kris Kobach was being brought back to the White House. He will be investigating the FAKE NEWS reports of deaths allegedly due to the coronavirus beyond the 15 people first identified by the President. The same people who were responsible for millions of fraudulent votes in the 2016 election are back to their old dirty tricks falsifying medical records to provide a dishonest picture of what is really happening. And if there is any President who knows about the falsification of medical records it is Bonespur Boy. The dishonest traitors who are harming our country will pay the price for their actions.

Mike Pence announced that all efforts to develop a vaccine have been stopped. Our Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed Be his Name, has declared that with the warming in April the coronavirus will die a natural death. And thanks to global warming that warming will evcen occur earlier. Therefore there is no need to develop a vaccine. And it was going to be ready for distribution in a few days anyway. Furthermore the coronavirus is just like the flu and the flu never killed anyone. Pence also announced that his head is not on the chopping block. There is no truth to the rumor that he will be replaced by Nikki Haley especially if the Democrats nominate a woman for Vice President.

President Trump twitted that just as he said there were 15 people who had the coronavirus, they were getting well, and the number of infected was dropping to zero (and not because they all died either).

The Secretary of Health and Human Services has contacted former members of the military and intelligence services for advice on how to prepare simple briefing cartoons and pictures for Little Donee Waney since he lacks the attention skills to read an adult briefing book. Elementary school reading and science teachers have been retained to develop the necessary “Dick and Jane” briefing books.

President Trump twitted that he could have been a Nobel-award-winning scientist if he had followed in the footsteps of his super genius uncle. Remember how he solved the problem of the California fires through his analysis leading to the admonition to “Make America Rake Again.” Remember how he solved the problems of Puerto Rico after the hurricane by throwing rolls of paper towels to people. Wasn’t that fun! Remember how he asked Michael Bloomberg for advice after the 2016 election. Remember how Bloomberg suggested he hire people smarter than him. Remember how he replied to Bloomberg that he was the smartest person he knew. Aren’t we lucky that in our moment of need that we have a very stable genius in charge?

Think of all the actions the world’s worst manger took to prepare for this crisis.

He ensured that all critical departments were led by acting department heads often with no professional expertise except for lobbying to help rich people get richer.

He ensured that the funding for critical departments like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the global health security unit of the National Security Council were slashed or eliminated since why waste money where it wasn’t needed. Why fund the World Health Organization or the Pan American Health Organization for their work in trump-hole countries?

He ensured that all allies had been alienated and that no would expect American leadership in a FAKE NEWS crisis like climate change or the coronavirus.

What a superb job he did and the voters in 2020 will be sure to praise him for his foresight and managerial expertise.

Who can forget his calm words of patience to soothe the troubled mind?

“The market’s in great shape.”

On a positive note, the President did order a box of Sharpies so he could doctor the medical charts to provide the American people with accurate information about the path of the coronavirus which he predicted would hit Alabama.

It isn’t as if we haven’t heard this story before. In The Andromeda Strain, it only took four days for a small team of scientists to solve the mystery of this deadly contagion from space. We should be so lucky. The ending rings true today:

At the Senate Hearing, one of the hero doctor postulates that another biological crisis can occur. The senator tartly asks, “What do we do about that?” The doctor grimly redirects the question with, “Precisely, Senator. What do we do?”

In Outbreak, the Centers for Disease Control contributed to the curing of a deadly virus that had crossed over from a monkey to humans similar to ebola.

In Contagion, the Centers for Disease Control helped save the world after millions had died and anarchy had prevailed due to deadly pathogen. The cause of the outbreak of the contagion:

A final flashback occurs. We finally see what caused the global epidemic. A construction crew from Beth’s company AIMM was cutting down trees in a forest in China. That caused some bats to fly out. One bat was infected with the virus. It grabbed a piece of banana and perched above a pig’s pen. It dropped the banana piece which we are to assume had the virus on it. A pig eats it and is eventually slaughtered at market for food. A chef handles the dead pig, touching the inside of the infected pig’s mouth with his bare hands. He goes out to dining room and poses in a picture with Beth holding hands, transferring the virus to her and starting the chain of events.

But these were movies. If only there had been some real world example in recent history involving a pathogen that crossed from animal to human that we could learn from instead of having to reinvent the wheel! Something that even the current President was familiar with and had twitted about, but no such luck!

Benchmarks for Crisis

1. Have more Americans died from the coronavirus than from the flu? Then what’s the big deal?

2. Are the people who died from the coronavirus Trumpicans? Then what’s the big deal?

3. Are gas prices lower now? Isn’t that a good thing?

4. Are the people losing money in the stock market people who voted for me? That’s a big deal!

Ultimately in a time of crisis, it helps to have a voice of authority who can speak the truth to us in a way that can comfort us and provide hope. If only there had been some real world example in recent history of a person rising to the occasion to calm the country at a time when it was terrorized.

Rudy Giuliani said he would be the hero again during the Ukrainian impeachment hoax. Perhaps now that his country is in danger he could abandon the nonsense that has made him a joke and return to the real world. He could offer to show Little Donee Waney the crisis management skills that he had used in 9/11 that calmed the nation and enabled us to go on.

But even if Giuliani did try we know what would happen. The President of the United States would tell him to stick to the Ukraine and leave the current crisis to the real leader. After all, by the time all this fuss is over he will win the Nobel Peace prize for saving the world just as he already had for denuclearizing North Korea. Life is so much easier and more fun when your world is one of childish play and you are an immature child who lacks the mental necessities and cognitive skills to understand the adult world.