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Putin’s Last Rodeo: It’s Now or Never

February 23, 2022
by Peter Feinman
If Putin stops there, he wins; if he continues ... (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissolution_of_Czechoslovakia)

Vladimir Putin is 68 years old.

He is closer to the end of his reign in Russia than to his beginning.

He has ruled Russia this entire century.

He has ruled Russia this entire millennium.

What does he have to show for his rule in history?

One area of agreement in the effort to predict what will happen in the Ukraine is that one and only individual is the decision maker.  Learned people and experts have filled the airwaves and websites with their prognostications. All of the points they raise are no more than ivory tower debating points. But the situation is not an academic one where the outcome can be determined by reasoned discussion, aka “negotiations.”

What is being overlooked or minimized in the plethora of analyses is the recognition that the current crisis is solely one Putin’s choosing. No Archduke has been assassinated. No ship Maine has been exploded. No missiles have been surreptitiously snuck onto an island a mere 90 miles from America. Nothing has occurred which could have triggered the encircling and invading of the Ukraine with a huge proportion of the entire Russian military. The catalyst for the event is solely in the mind of its instigator. Putin launched this threat solely because he needed to.

Putin famously has asserted that:

First and foremost it is worth acknowledging that the demise of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century. 

The century he meant was the 20th century and not the 21st when he spoke these words. The idea that one could have a rational debate on the merits of this claim is preposterous. It is what he believes and will believe until his dying day. And even though he named the Soviet Union, he was not bemoaning the collapse of communism. Quite the country, just as Stalin called upon his people to fight for Mother Russia in the darkest days of World War II, so Putin was referring to Russia, the Russia that seemingly was the co-equal with the United States in the battle for world supremacy.

Russia today is a hollow shell of what it once was. True it has a nuclear arsenal second only to the United States and still more than China. But it has no ideology that even can provide a fig leaf to its global ambitions. It has no economic success story that it can proclaim to the world. Its only world class achievements seem to be in hacking, the military, and drugged athletes.

Putin’s concern is Russia’s role in human history and his personal prowess in making that claim real. From the Middle East to Africa to Latin America, Putin is extending Russia’s limited resources in the effort to be recognized as a giant astride the globe as China has done. Russia lacks the economic resources to compete at that level but still it tries.

So if the demise of the Russian empire was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century, what does Putin have to show for having reversed it, for having undone the havoc foisted upon the Russian people? In his 2005 speech, Putin then went on to say:

As for the Russian people, it became a genuine tragedy. Tens of millions of our fellow citizens and countrymen found themselves beyond the fringes of Russian territory.

Not only was the Russian empire no more, Russia did not even rule all the Russian people. So many of them were beyond the borders of what was left of Russia.

In this context, Putin’s goals are clear. At minimum, before he dies or his forced to leave office, he wants his legacy to be that at least he put Humpty Dumpty back together again for the Russian people. He wants those people beyond the fringes of Russian territory to be part of Russian rule even if they are in separate countries. It is one thing for Moslems to be separate from Russia; it is quite another for God-fearing Orthodox Russians to be beyond the pale.

Eastern Ukraine is not the Sudetenland. Putin’s dominance of this Russian-speaking area beyond Russia’s borders is not a prelude to a larger campaign to seize non-Russian empire lands in Europe and to dominate a continent. There has been no invasion from the Russian perspective because the lands have declared their independence so how can the United States claim otherwise? Russia is not invading the foreign country of the Ukraine, he is assisting the independent countries formerly dominated by the Ukraine in their quest for independence. Whether this ploy makes him a genius or not is a separate issue.

For Putin, it is now or never. It is time for him to stamp his legacy in Russian history. His Russia will rule Russian-speaking people. We have seen Yugoslavia dissolve into its constituent parts. We have seen Czechoslovakia divide into its constituent parts. We have seen the ongoing debate in the United Kingdom about both Scotland and Northern Island. We have watched Sudan split.

We know that many countries in the United Nations are lines on a map and not real national entities. Libya. Syria. Iraq/Kuwait/Kurds. If Putin is willing to stop at Russian-speaking people to affirm his place in history, then he holds the winning hand in the current Ukraine crisis. If he seeks not just the Russian-speaking portions of the Ukraine but the entire country, then events on the ground may spiral out of control, the circumstances are more dire for both him and the world. We should know in a few hours which way he will go.

 

P.S. The assertion by the alpha-male wannabe that Putin is a genius is exactly what he should have been expected to say. The hope that it will be the straw that breaks the Trumpican’s camel’s back is a forlorn one. The new Congress may very well favor Putin over NATO just as Trumpicans prefer Lee to Lincoln and support the overthrow of the Constitution.

Make Room at Gitmo: The Trumpicans Are Coming

January 19, 2022
by Peter Feinman
The Newest Trump Resort

Trumpicans are right – there was a conspiracy to steal the 2020 Presidential election. Trumpicans are right – it is time to name names, kick ass, and lock up the people responsible for the attempt to steal the election. And finally, Trumpicans are right that the conspiracy to steal the election, override the votes of the American people, and overthrew the Constitution involves people at the highest level of American society.

There needs to be a lot of room at Gitmo to hold all the terrorists responsible for the Big Lie.

A MULTI-PRONGED ASSAULT

The story is a still unfolding one with new surprises constantly coming to light. And this is even before the National Archives now releases the relevant documents and people in the inner circle begin to sing.

There should be an investigation underway right now of all the alternate electors from the seven states and of Stephen Miller who publicly expressed awareness of this initiative. That investigation should quickly grow to include the people in the seven states who initiated the effort as well as Jeffrey Clark and others in the White House who masterminded it. Of course the Hitman himself was aware of it.

So in this one maneuver, there is enough to populate an entire wing at Gitmo of people who sought to overthrow the government.

On the other hand, give credit where credit is due. The actual event on January 6 of invading the Capitol was a slapdash, unorganized, confusing effort. In other words, it was exactly the type of inept incompetence one would expect from the immature child President. True, we have yet to learn the details of what transpired in the Willard war room the night before. But given the small turnout and the even smaller armed turnout, what were the expectations on January 5 of what would happen? Hopefully, more information will become available and there are glimmerings that the Department of Justice is pursuing obtaining information about an “organized conspiracy” involving the former president.

In the meantime we should stand back and appreciate the thought that went into the planning for certification process on January 6.

First we learned about the six-point plan culminating with the Vice President doing the right thing to certify the Loser as the winner. Even though there was no Constitutional basis for the plan, we should appreciate the thought that went into the planning to overthrow the Constitution in a seemingly legal way.

Second we have now learned that the Vice President was supposed to have an alternate slate of electors to choose from. The conspirators must have known that the Trumpicans in Congress had insufficient votes to disqualify the real electors. They were really counting on Mike Pence to have the strength and courage to do the right thing and arrange to designate the alternate electors as the real ones…with an audience in the gallery to cheer him on.

Third we now understand the tortured and elongated mantra the Vice President pronounced before the accepting of the electors from a state as legitimate. His words signify that he was aware of the alternate elector ploy and rejected it. Even as the Hitman was outside stoking the crowd by imploring Mike Pence to have the necessary courage, Pence undermined it and sabotaged any effort to advance the alternate electors with his little recitation before each certification. If he ever decides to become a profile in courage and testify to the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help him God before the House Select Committee, he will have quite a story to tell.

THE POLITICAL IMPACT   

Will the House Select Committee’s interim and final reports have any political effect? Legally it should spur the Attorney General to act more aggressively even before the Trumpican-rigged 2022 election. For Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, the exposure of the widespread and nearly-successful conspiracy to steal the election, override the will of the people, and overthrow the Constitution may, I say “may,” cause them not to support any of Trump’s Traitors for any elective position at any level anywhere.

However, for Trumpicans, the House Select Committee report will have no impact. It will be fake news. It will be a Deep State witch hunt. It will avoid dealing with the real effort to steal the election on November 3.

Oftentimes, non-Trumpicans speak derisively of Trumpicans as living in an alternate reality. They recite all the failed court challenges by Ridiculous Rudy, Séance Sydney, and Pillow Head AS IF SUCH LOGIC WILL BE CONVINCING TO TRUMPICANS SO AS TO CAUSE THEM TO CHANGE THEIR MINDS ABOUT THE BIG LIE! Now, who is living in an alternate reality? One would think by now these advocates would have caught on to the folly of trying to reach Trumpicans with the facts. Trumpicans know the election was stolen. They know that hundreds of thousands of votes were switched or lost. They have mountains of the evidence that the courts refused to examine. And as we heard and saw in the Arizona rally, they are ready to name the names of the election workers and lock them up.

Trumpicans have signaled Democrats their Achilles’ heel. It is up to the Democrats to listen and respond intelligently.

THE ONLY WAY TO EFFECTIVELY COMMUNICATE WITH SOMEONE IS IN A LANGUAGE THE OTHER PERSON UNDERSTANDS.

Trumpicans have said they understand the language of the Big Steal on November 3. Call their bluff. Create a Put Up or Shut up Stop the Steal Committee chaired by Jim Jordan, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Matt Gaetz. Its mission should be to identify the people who should be prosecuted for stealing the election. To name names.

Who are the people who voted more than once? Name the names.

Who are the people who voted for dead people? Name the names.

Who are the illegal aliens who voted? Name the names.

Who are the people who voted in districts other than their own? Name the names.

Who are the election workers who counted Joe Biden votes more than once? Name the names.

Who are the election workers who did not count Donald Trump votes? Name the names.

Who are the people who programed the voting machines improperly? Name the names.

Everyone who thinks the election was stolen should send their evidence and names to Jordan, Greene, and Gaetz. Put up or shut up.

To all the candidates who said they would not have certified the election – send your proof to Jordan, Greene, and Gaetz. Put up or shut up.

To all the officials who said the election was stolen – send your proof to Jordan, Greene, and Gaetz. Put up or shut up.

To all the Trumpicans who know the election was stolen – send your proof to Jordan, Greene, and Gaetz. Put up or shut up.

As long as the Democrats continue to bring to a plastic spoon to gunfight, they should expect to lose. Instead create a Put Up or Shut Stop the Steal Committee to name the names of the people who should be prosecuted. It worked when the Hitman named the two people in Georgia and they sued him. It worked when Pillow Head name the voting machine companies and they sued them. It will work for Jordan, Greene, and Gaetz when they name the names as well.

The Three Faces of The New York Times: Woke, Patriotic, and Scared

January 4, 2022
by Peter Feinman
The three faces of the Gray Lady

The countdown to calamity continues now at three years to January 6, 2025. At that point we will see if the Hitman will be successful in ending the United States as we know it …  and whether it will be done peacefully or violently. The military knows the stakes involved and are aware of the need to prepare. Political pundits know that time of wimpy talk about culture wars must yield to more realistic talk about the America’s third civil war. At this point no one knows what the outcome will be. There is a realization that while January 6 was the poorly-planned slapdash attempt to steal the election, the effort for 2024 already is much better organized. This times the forces arrayed to overthrow the Constitution may even seize the Capitol in 2022 before turning to the White House in 2024 (excluding the impeachment efforts).

Meanwhile, what does The New York Times, as the paper of record, think about the history unfolding around us? Its responses may be grouped into three somewhat contradictory approaches – woke, patriotic, and scared.

WOKE

On one hand, there have been actions which suggest a woke outlook. Here are some snippets from the seemingly ancient resignation of Bari Weiss from the newspaper.

I was hired with the goal of bringing in voices that would not otherwise appear in your pages: first-time writers, centrists, conservatives and others who would not naturally think of The Times as their home. The reason for this effort was clear: The paper’s failure to anticipate the outcome of the 2016 election meant that it didn’t have a firm grasp of the country it covers….

But the lessons that ought to have followed the election—lessons about the importance of understanding other Americans, the necessity of resisting tribalism, and the centrality of the free exchange of ideas to a democratic society—have not been learned. Instead, a new consensus has emerged in the press, but perhaps especially at this paper: that truth isn’t a process of collective discovery, but an orthodoxy already known to an enlightened few whose job is to inform everyone else….

My own forays into Wrongthink have made me the subject of constant bullying by colleagues who disagree with my views. They have called me a Nazi and a racist ;…

The paper of record is, more and more, the record of those living in a distant galaxy, one whose concerns are profoundly removed from the lives of most people. This is a galaxy in which, to choose just a few recent examples, the Soviet space program is lauded for its “diversity”; the doxxing of teenagers in the name of justice is condoned; and the worst caste systems in human history includes the United States alongside Nazi Germany.

How different is Weiss’s “distant galaxy” from the “alternate reality” depiction of Trumpicans today? They, of course, have their own “orthodoxy” about the stolen election and peaceful assembly of patriots on January 6 seeking to redress a wrong until planted FBI agents fomented the violence.

The great example of the woke New York Times is its assault on the United States in the 1619 Project. Whereas Trumpicans deny the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s presidency, the newspaper attacks the very legitimacy of the country as one born in sin and prospered through racism based on racist founding documents. I recognize that this Frankenstein monster may not be what was originally intended. However that does not change the fact that the closer we get to July 4, 2026, the more readers of the 1619 Project will call for the day to become one of mourning like Columbus Day and Thanksgiving and the less one to celebrate. And while Foxhub aims at adults, by contrast The New York Times seeks to educate the young not to have pride in their racist country.

PATRIOTIC

On the other hand, on Sunday, November 7, 2021, The New York Times had a special 24-page section entitled SNAP OUT OF IT, AMERICA! expressing a diametrically opposed view that ignores the 1619 Project. The front page exclaimed:

Our once restlessly inventive country has settled for sclerotic politics and modest ambitions. It’s time to dream big again. This is a special section featuring bold ideas to revitalize and renew the American experiment.

This was not the 1619 Project. The words express the hope and optimism of a country that once did dream big [until the landing on the moon] but subsequently has lost its mojo. It is a country mired in the little led by small-brained people seeking nothing more to remain in power. Today we could not build an interstate highway system or go to the moon. We can barely fill potholes with hundreds of members of Congress opposed to even such a tiny achievement.

On page 2, The New York Times expressed its vision.

America used to be a young country. And in its youth, it changed as it grew, the idea of what was American as malleable as the idea of what was America. The country expanded its borders, abolished slavery, broadened the franchise; waves of immigrants reshaped and revised America’s character; the government added and dropped functions, amending the Constitution to fit the times. It was a restless experiment.

But America is not young anymore.  

The words are more reminiscent of James Earl Jones standing in a Field of Dreams about the ever-renewing promise and potential of America than they are of the 1619 Project.

The remainder of the section contains seven essays on what America should do next. The organizing theme was changing America through amendments to the Constitution. The specific recommendations are secondary to the theme of this blog on the expression of belief that America can renew its vision of itself and optimistically face a better future even with COVID,  Climate Change, and Trump.

Sometimes people can be too idealistic for their own good. One favorite from this supplement is the call for a one-year mandatory national service program. This call is made in a country where people will not even wear masks or be vaccinated when their lives are on the line. And exactly what service could the Hitman or Speaker Marjorie Taylor Greene perform? Teach people how to wait for John Kennedy to return? To say nothing about the genuinely mentally ill. And how many ways would here be to game the system in the name of service?

A better approach would be draw on traditional American values of voluntarism and community associations as noted by Tocqueville. Providing incentives to do something constructive (higher social security payments?) probably would be more effective. National service then would be a choice and not a compulsion. Regardless of the details, the proposal hints at the need for a discussion on what it means to be an adult citizen in a constitutional republic.

The most immediately impactful suggestion in the current political arena is the one to redraw the map of the states. As one who has written about the West Virginia solution, the dividing of Confederate states into their Union and Confederate parts, I strongly support this recommendation which can be achieved through Article IV in the Constitution. All the issues of gerrymandering, voter suppression, rigged counting, partisan Secretaries of State, imperial state legislatures, and rural domination disappear if our states better reflected the different constituencies that exist today.  The teeny-tiny view of thinking about Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia exemplifies the small-mindedness of sclerotic leadership noted on page 1 of this special supplement.

Regardless of what you may think about the seven proposals made or my comments on two of them, the point is they reflect an attempt to resurrect the can-do attitude than once made America the envy of the world and a magnet for millions. Now we a fading has-been on democracy death watch.

SCARED  

The New York Times has caught up with reality and it is scared. It began the New Year with a big editorial on Sunday, January 6, 2022, entitled “Every Day Is Jan. 6 Now.”  Exactly. Every day is part of the war leading up to January 6, 2025, when we will know who won or if we will divorce.

Every day is January 6 as the House Select Committee works to document and reveal the truth about the attempt to steal the election and overthrow the Constitution.

Every day is January 6 as the Hitman and his confederates both in and out of Congress fight back against the efforts of the House Select Committee to document and reveal the truth.

Every day is January 6 in Waiting for Godot style for the appearance of an Attorney General to indict the conspirators, a wait perhaps to end this January 5.

Every day is January 6 as Trumpicans seize control of the election infrastructure, the one infrastructure they believe in, so there will not even be a need to storm the Capitol on January 6, 2025.

Despite the editorial, The New York Times still has not fully come to grip with the real world. It writes:

Political violence is not an inevitable outcome. Republican leaders could help by being honest with their voters and combating the extremists in their midst.   

ARE YOU SERIOUS? Republican leaders on CNN are going to free the Republican Party from Trumpican domination? How many Republicans as opposed to Trumpicans do you think there will be in the House of Representatives after the 2022 elections? Yes, there still are some Republicans out there and Larry Hogan intends to find them. But they can only return to power in the Republican Party if a disaster occurs to Trumpicans and the soul-selling Trump wannabees and that has not happened yet. Until then MAKE THE REPUBLICAN PARTY THE REPUBLICAN PARTY AGAIN is wishful thinking.

The New York Times concludes the editorial with an expression of awareness of the stakes involved. It calls upon the American people recognize the threat to Constitution sooner rather than later if we are to salvage a democracy that is in grave danger. Exactly right. Maybe the televised hearings will do it. In the meantime, The New York Times 1619 Project has been weaponized to undermine exactly what the newspaper professes to want in the supplement and fear in the editorial.

The Historical and Political Significance of Trump Acknowledging His Vaccination Shots

December 28, 2021
by Peter Feinman

The COVID President has acknowledged that he has been vaccinated. Even though he had been infected already he still was vaccinated. According to the science, the vaccination is a more powerful a defense against COVID than any residual antibodies from having had the virus. And if there is any President who believes in following the science it is the former infected-President who lost to Joe Biden.

As has been pointed out by commentators, when the COVID President does acknowledge that he has been vaccinated, his own followers boo him. If he does it on a podcast, then the Candace Owens, the Trumpican host, later twisted into a pretzel. She had to explain to her audience that Trump is too old and too dependent on mainstream news sources to know what he is talking about. She makes him sound like the Foxhub view of the current President!

Alex Jones was even blunter:

This is an emergency Christmas Day warning to President Trump. You are either completely ignorant about the so called ‘vaccine’ gene therapy that you helped ram through with operation warp speed, or you are one of the most evil men who has ever lived…What you told Candace Owens is nothing but a raft of dirty lies.

Trump’s example is unlikely to inspire Trumpicans to convert to followers It should be fun watching the diehard Trumpicans become the ones to challenge him in the way only real Republicans like Liz Chaney have. of science and highlights that they would be ready to cancel him if someone purer came along. It is going to be both brutal and fun watching Trumpicans give the treatment.

Commentators may also note the paucity of the crowd at these “I want your money” shows. He does not appear to be raking in the money that he had anticipated.

What is generally overlooked is the significance of his having been vaccinated. That action has historical and political implications for understanding his tenure as President and for the upcoming elections.

Here is a list of some of the consequences from those comparatively brief and low-ley announcements that he had been vaccinated and his audience should be too.

1. The coronavirus is not a hoax.
2. The 15 cases going down to zero was nonsense.
3. The miracle disappearance was nonsense.
4. The warm weather cure in the summer was nonsense.
5. The hydroxychloroquine preventative was nonsense.
6. The disinfectant cure was nonsense
7. The vaccine is not worse than the disease.
8. Demonizing Fauci was wrong.
9. Weaponizing masks was wrong.
10. He was wrong to fire or transfer government workers who spoke the truth.
11. Following the science was right
12. He does not deserve a “10” for his handling of the pandemic.
13. He does not deserve an “A’ or “A+” for his handling of the pandemic.
14. He is responsible for the deaths of more Americans than Osama bin-Laden.
15. He is responsible for the deaths of more Americans than Adolf Hitler.
16. He is responsible for the deaths of more Americans than the Spanish flu.
17. He had an opportunity to be a Mount Rushmore President if he had provided the United States with the leadership it needed.

This list is quite extensive. It shows how one simple little utterance can have a Krakatoa-East-of-Java impact. By acknowledging that he was vaccinated and his followers should be too, he gives credence to the House Select subcommittee report on the coronavirus crisis released on December 17, 2021. Undoubtedly this report will be a featured item in the COVID in the Unpresidential Library to be located in Manhattan (Presidential Shrine versus Presidential Library for the Former Guy). The 46-page report documents the culpability of the COVID president for his mismanagement of the crisis. Rather than rehash what already had been reported in the news, I will present the section titles of the report:

Part I: The Trump Administration Was Responsible for a Series of Critical Failures that Undermined the Nation’s Ability to Respond Effectively to the Coronavirus Pandemic

Part II: Companies Profited during the Pandemic while Endangering the Public’s Health

Part III: The Trump’s Administration’s Questionable Management of Pandemic Relief Programs Left the Federal Government Vulnerable to Fraud and Profiteering, while Failing to Effectively and Equitably Deliver Relief.

A subtitle under Part I is quite explicit:

5. The Trump’s Administration’s Persistent Political Interference in the Pandemic Response Contributed to One of the Worst Failures of Leadership in American History.

How much more damming a criticism of a President could there be? The criticisms levied about 9/11 and 12/7, the Day of Infamy are about what a President might have done beforehand. In this case, the accusations are about the President did and did not do afterwards.

I predict that in the Unpresidential Library there will be a picture of Nero fiddling while Rome burned and of Trump touting disinfectant.

But this report and the reporting on it fail to tell the whole story. The COVID President is rightfully criticized for his political interference. He also is routinely criticized for always putting himself first, for his narcissism. But it is not evitable that a narcissist playing politics would mismanage the crisis. More is involved.

Reporters and politicians should keep in mind that he was a serial failure in business before he came one in the pandemic. He was and is quite capable of being inept and incompetent even in non-political settings. One should go back and read some of the criticisms of him and predictions about him if he were to become President. Up until COVID, all his failures were self-generated (excluding Charlottesville, perhaps, which was reactive). When he faced his first command decision in a crisis situation, the simple-minded immature child with the emotional maturity of a three-year old was out of his league. He did not have the mental necessities and emotional maturity to succeed in handling the crisis.

Imagine if you will a narcissist with no morals, no conscience, and no ethics as President but who was an adult. Such a person might well realize that the COVID crisis also was an opportunity to provide leadership that would make the President a hero worthy of being on Mount Rushmore. The smart political move was to follow the science and end the pandemic by explaining to We the People what the problem is, the stakes involved, and how we were going to solve the problem. The problem was not that the COVID President acted politically but that he acted stupidly. Remember if the Senate had voted to remove Trump from office then Mike Pence would have become the COVID President, hundreds of thousands of Americans would be alive today and the medical profession would not be exhausted, burned out, an decimated (If Mike Pence Were President, How Many More Americans Would Be Alive Today?: Over 80,000 and Counting, May 22, 2020).

By revealing that he has been vaccinated, DONALD TRUMP has validated the Congressional report and all the criticisms of him as failure.

His admission also has implicitly called out others to desist with the anti-vaxx rhetoric.

1. Foxhub was and is wrong to demonize Fauci
2. Trumpican Congressional performers are wrong to demonize Fauci.

Now we see another reason why it be would a disaster for the country if Jim Jordan and/or Marjorie Taylor Greene attain leadership positions in the House of Representatives at the beginning of 2023.

Perhaps that election result can be prevented. Somehow all the consequences of the admission that he has been vaccinated have been ignored so far. Everything he said about the coronavirus now can be weaponized against him. The opportunities to use his own words against him in upcoming campaigns are endless.

There should be giant billboards of him saying:

I WAS WRONG WHEN I SAID….

followed by the words from the examples listed above… or commercials by The Lincoln Project.

There should be giant billboards of him calling out all the hosts on Foxhub, Congressional legislators, and others who demonized Fauci and refused to follow the science. Trumpicans should be reminded every moment of the truth rather than the bulltrump they are used to hearing.

Naturally, he has no idea of the consequences of saying he was vaccinated and his followers should be vaccinated too. It may start to sink in through the Trumpican reaction. The reaction by Trumpicans to their Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed Be his Name, Say Hallelujah, saying to be vaccinated will become a classic case of cognitive dissonance that psychology teachers and others will use in the classroom.

Because he is a simpleminded immature child he can only understand his comment for the moment. He is not capable of seeing the ripple effect of his being vaccination on the judgement in history of his management of the crisis when he was President.

The question is not is he too simpleminded to understand the consequences, but are the Democrats too incompetent to exploit this admission to the hilt in the upcoming elections in 2022 and 2024. We will have to wait and see.

In the 2022 Congressional Elections, How Many Candidates Will Have Been Indicted?

December 22, 2021
by Peter Feinman
The coronavirus is a hoax. Vaccines are worse than the virus. The election was stolen. (https://www.usatoday.com/)

The 2022 Congressional elections may be one for the record books.

Never before will so many candidates have been indicted – and not for corruption like the Cabinet Secretaries under President Swamp Builder but for attempting to steal an election and overthrow the Constitution.

Never before will there have been such an exerted effort to:

1. suppress the vote of one party
2. rig the counting of votes so 11,780 votes or whatever number is needed will be disqualified
3. have the state legislator appoint the Electors
4. gerrymander the Representative districts to ensure control of the House.

We will not need to wait for the 2024 elections for a Constitutional crisis. It is already here.

TRUMPICAN PARTY

The Trumpican Party may not even need to steal the election through an insurrection. Its control of the election infrastructure may be sufficient to provide a legitimate win based on the laws which have been put in place.

Let’s look at the 435 Trumpican candidates in the excessively gerrymandered Congressional districts:

1. a small number of the candidates such as Jim Jordan and Scott Perry will be under indictment for obstruction of the election. The House Select Committee will have its report out well before the election yet alone the end of its term on December 31. The report even will be out in time for the Department of Justice to act before the campaign season is underway. The only remaining question is whether the DOJ actually will act.

The indicted Congressional candidates may even wear their indictments as a badge of honor as Steve Bannon is doing. They saw the election was being stolen. They acted to help the rightful winner be returned to the White House. They are heroes who attempted the save the country for Real Americans from, you know, those people. Trumpicans will regard this indicted seditionists as heroes. Of course, everything they say on the campaign trail can and will be used against them in a court of law. They may be gambling on dragging out the case until they can be pardoned after the 2024 election.

2. a large number totaling around 200 candidates will be people who did not actively participate in the planning of the attempted coup. Instead they actively participated in the cover up or whitewashing of it. These people can be identified from their votes:

* Not to accept electors on January 6 so the results could be overturned
* Not to impeach the Hitman for his efforts to steal the election
* Not to hold Steve Bannon in contempt for disobeying a subpoena
* Not to hold Mark Meadows in contempt for disobeying a subpoena.

This list may be lengthened as the 2022 year unfolds.

3. new candidates who support the Big Lie but were not in Congress at the time to act in its behalf. Some of them may have acted on the state level to support forensic audits to overturn the results as well voter suppression to eliminate the chance of a Trumpican defeat in 2024.

4. the two Republicans remaining in the House will be gone next term. One already has withdrawn from running and the other trails badly in polls against her primaried Trumpican opponent (although she has outraised her).

The net result of all these machinations will a House where the majority of members pledge their loyalty to a person who sought to steal an election and not to the Constitution. That is a Constitutional crisis beginning January 2023.

CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS   

At present there is not a Constitutional crisis but simply an extremely odd situation. The people who support the attempt to steal the election are not in the majority. Due to the control by the Democratic Speaker over the Democratic members, even in a near parity House, the Trumpicans are not in control or able to undermine the Democratic hold. The inmates have not yet taken over the asylum. The rule of law still prevails.

As things stand now, that condition will no longer be true come January 2023. It is not unusual for the out-of-power Party to win in the midterms of the first-term President. But this time, the stakes are higher. A switch from Democratic control of the House of Representatives means that the criminals will be in charge – those who helped plan the attempted steal, those who supported covering up the attempted steal, and those who support the Big Lie.

Should the Trumpican House of Representatives in 2023 be considered legitimate?

The question facing the Democratic Party and the country in 2023 is should anything done by a pro-sedition House of Representatives be treated as law?

How exactly will the United States be governed starting in January 2023, if one of the Houses of Congress declines to accept Joe Biden as the legitimately elected President of United States?

If the Trumpican House doesn’t consider Biden to be legitimate then why should he consider it to be legitimate?

THE CRISIS HAS STARTED

Way back in July/August 2020, Anne Applebaum asked in an article “The Collaborators” (Atlantic):

What would it take for Republican leaders to admit to themselves that Trump’s loyalty cult is destroying the country they claim to love?

The obvious answer 16 months and an attempted coup later is “Nothing.” People keep thinking that there is some straw that will break the camel’s back, some point when Republicans say “Enough is enough!” There has not been a Howard Baker moment and there is not going to be one. Even the Trumpicans including a son and the Foxhub hosts could not get through to him on January 6. He was having the time of his life watching his people fight for him to restore him to power and only when the effort failed could he roused to take some action about the people he loves.

Far from there being a moment when Applebaum’s question will be answered at some breaking point, the trend is the exact opposite.

The Number 1 Republican in House displayed momentary outrage when his life was endangered. Since then he has become a gutless, spineless, craven embarrassment. Even though he is on the Trump list never to be removed, he remains submissive.

The Number 3 Republican in the House did reach that breaking point after January 6. Since then she has been removed from her position, practically run out of the party at home, and primaried. She joins a small group of profile in courage Republicans who withstood the assault and have paid the price.

The potential 1 Republican in the Senate has called it quits. He has seen what happened to Republican Senators like Jeff Flake and Bob Corker. He has seen who replaced Lamar Alexander.  He fears the Trumpicans who will replace Republicans like Richard Shelby of Alabama, Rob Portman of Ohio and Roy Blunt of Missouri. He sees the quality of Trumpican candidates in Georgia and Pennsylvania (now withdrawn). He knows that the current Number 1 Republican is under attack and his supporters will be fewer after the 2022 elections. So Thune is at his breaking point and he is the one who is broken. Time to call it quits and go home.

And as things stand now Joe Biden will never name a Supreme Court judge either.

Right now in America, it is dark before the darker. In 2020, Wisconsin Trumpicans submitted a false slate of Electors and have paid no consequence. They are still trying to reverse the results.  There literally are no limits to what they will do to elect their Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed Be his Name, Say Hallelujah. Meanwhile the Democrats bring a plastic spoon to a gun fight and wonder why they are losing.

What do Pence and McCarthy Have to Show for Selling their Souls?

November 22, 2021
by Peter Feinman
Soul-Selling in America

Selling one’s soul is a big deal. I am not referring to someone who is the spawn of Satan but to human beings who choose to sell their souls in return for some tangible benefit. After all, everything is transactional.

A classic expression of soul-selling in American mythology occurred in the short story “The Devil and Daniel Webster.” It is 20th century story with a 19th century figure and the values of the Puritan 17th century. It claims that all is not lost for a person who sells his soul. Even with a jury stacked with the world’s greatest collection of evil people, the great champion of oratory and the forceful power of reason can triumph over Satan and regain the soul that had been sold to him.

What about for Never-Will-Be-President Mike Pence and Never-Will-Be-Speaker Kevin McCarthy?

MIKE PENCE

For a long time, Mike Pence was the posterboy for soul-sellers. He publicly and repeatedly voiced his joyous acceptance of his actions. His exuberant cabinet-meeting declaration that he was grateful to share the same space-time continuum with his Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed Be his Name, Say Hallelujah will become part of American lore. People will be laughing at his abject expression of soul-selling for years to come.

Except is not always a laughing matter. Think of how many Americans are dead because we had an immature, inept, incompetent President when we needed an adult. Time and time again, Pence has had the opportunity to rise to the occasion and be the profile in courage the country needs. Time and time again, he has failed to do so. Possibly on 1/6 he acted responsibility but it was because he had no other choice. He knew the plan to have the Vice President steal the election would not work. If he had had any doubts he would have implemented it.

Never-Will-Be-President Pence will have one last chance to redeem himself. In this context, he would have to be his own Daniel Webster. At some point he may be asked to testify on two different events: the January 6 insurrection and the management of the Covid pandemic. What will he do then?

Based on precedent there is little reason to expected him to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth in either investigations. However if defying a subpoena means jail time even for a short interval, that fear might be enough to get him to appear. Such an appearance does not mean he would answer any questions in any meaningful way.

My position consistently stated over multiple blogs is that Never-Will-Be-President Pence never will rise to the occasion. His conduct since leaving office suggests he still thinks he has some sort of future in the Trumpican Party. It has yet to sink in to him that his only appearance at the 2024 Trumpican Party convention will be to be hanged in effigy. I do not know what it will take to get through to him that he has been thrown under the bus. There would seem to be no friends or family who can make him realize that he sold his soul for nothing.

KEVIN MCCARTHY

The situation for Never-will-be-Speaker McCarthy is slightly different. Pence did not get on the Trump List until the waning days of his Vice Presidency. His failure by being weak on 1/6 doomed him to be placed on the Trump List where he will remain forever. McCarthy joined him on the list shortly afterwards for his own conduct once the insurrection had started. He compounded his failure expressed in the phone call with a public expression of where he thought the fault for the insurrection belonged. He has been on the Trump List ever since.

Unlike Never-will-be-President Pence, Never-will-be-Speaker McCarthy is aware that he is on the Trump List. The embarrassment occurs in watching him try to remove himself from it. He is deluded and desperate enough to think that if he goes to Mar-a-Lago enough times and kisses whatever he has to, that his Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed Be his Name, Say Hallelujah will restore him to glory as a worthy soul-seller. He is so deluded and desperate that he even tortured America for more than 8 hours in a performance that will be contrasted with Jimmy Stewart for years to come.

The difference with Never-will-be-President Pence is that Never-will-be-Speaker McCarthy knows who his replacement will be. Marjorie Taylor Greene already has been designated as an upcoming star in the Republican Party. Since she is a true-believer she did not need to sell her soul. So even if the next speaker is not her, it will be someone with her blessing. As things stand now, she will continue to be the face of the Trumpican Party in the House of Representatives after the 2022 elections.

What will Never-will-be-Speaker McCarthy do when it is his turn to rise to the occasion and tell the truth? Gradually the list of subpoenaed people by the 1/6 Committee is working itself up the food chain. Will he defy the subpoena to testify and turn over documents to the House committee? Will he embrace the opportunity to go to prison as Bannon has? Will he jeopardize his own House seat by telling the truth? It will be too late to primary him at that point.

No one knows for sure what Never-will-be-Speaker McCarthy will do then. He well may realize that he has been thrown under the bus and has no future in the Trumpican Party. He may not be as delusional as Never-will-be-President Pence. So while I would not hold my breath that when the moment of truth comes that Never-will-be-Speaker McCarthy will be the profile in courage the country needs, it is more of a possibility then with Never-will-be-President Pence. We shall see.

DO REAL REPUBLICANS WANT TRUMP TO BE INDICTED?

Ironically, the House report issued late spring may provide the Brutus/Howard Baker moment so many people have been waiting for. The election in Virginia has shown the way to a post-Trump future. The refusal of some Republican governors to run for the Senate has exposed the difference between governors and representatives. Trumpicans are willing to be the party of potholes, the party of dilapidated bridges, and the party of tainted water; Republican governors are not. Legislators such as in Wisconsin are willing to continually relitigate the 2020 election; Republican governors are not. The January 6 report documenting the Hitman’s attempt to steal the election and overthrow the Constitution may be a bridge too far for the Republican governors to take…especially as the Hitman continues to seek to depose Republican governors who were not loyal to him.  At some point someone is going to say “enough is enough. We have more to gain by facing the future than by being trapped in the past with a traitor.” We shall see.

Can West Virginia Save Ezra Klein?

October 11, 2021
by Peter Feinman
"Civil War" was a top trending topic on Twitter on Sunday after remarks from an attendee of former President Donald Trump's rally in Iowa were widely circulated online and by the media. Trump held a rally at the Iowa State Fairground in Des Moines on Saturday. At the event, Trump supporter Lori Levi told MSNBC that she believes the U.S. is headed for a "civil war." Levi criticized Democrats and Republicans, saying most members of the GOP are "as weak as they possibly could be in Congress." "They're establishment. They don't care about the American people because they're in their elite little tower," she said. "So we're just sick of it, you know, and we're not going to take it anymore. I see a civil war coming. I do. I see civil war coming." (www.newsweek.com)

West Virginia is having a moment. So far in 2021, it has been the legislative year of West Virginia. How much longer can this last? What does it mean for the elections of 2022 and beyond?

JOE MANCHIN IS NOT MITT ROMNEY

In February, 2020, I wrote a blog entitled Where Will Mitt Romney Caucus in 2021? I said the following about Manchin at the time of the second impeachment vote:

It is rare for a Senator to break with a party on an impeachment vote. So far in American history, there is only one instance of a Senator voting to remove a President of his own party. Apparently, the Impeached One thought there was a Democrat who might vote against his party. Joe Manchin, West Virginia Senator, has long been considered one of the more conservative members of the Democratic Party. He has voted more often against his Democratic caucus than with it. There seems to have been a genuine belief that this Senator (and perhaps Doug Jones of Alabama for different reasons) might defect. Obviously that did not happen. The Democratic Party remained united.

The main subject of the blog was not the impeachment vote but the 2020 Senate elections. Different outcomes were possible. I conjectured that there was the possibility of a split Senate and what it might mean.

And then there is Mitt Romney. Suppose when all is said and done, the Trumpicans have 50 Senate seats… But suppose the Democrats win the presidency. Then Romney’s vote could make the difference. In this case, the Democrats only need a net gain of two to put Romney in the driver’s seat.

At the beginning of this year, I returned to the same subject:

Depending on how the vote in Georgia plays out, Mitt Romney may potentially have the opportunity to take a leadership role in healing the country. Of course, even if that opportunity presents itself, he may not rise to the occasion to take such a leadership position. Of course, if he doesn’t, who will?

As it turned out, I had the numbers right but the Senator wrong. One Senator has been in the driver’s seat and taken a leadership position but it has been the West Virginia Senator, Joe Manchin.

THE SENATE AND EZRA KLEIN

Manchin’s position will likely change after the 2022 elections. One possibility is that the Democrats will do well and pick up seats in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and North Carolina. Such a Democratic majority in the Senate would neutralize the significance of Manchin’s vote including for the filibuster. Another possibility of course, is that the Democrats will lose their leadership in the Senate in which case Manchin will be meaningless.

The Democratic prospects in the Senate contributed to a major op-ed piece in The New York Times yesterday entitled “David Shor Is Telling Democrats What They Don’t Want to Hear.” Klein paints a dire picture for the Democrats in accordance with the prognostications of modeler Shor. My purpose here is not to regurgitate Shor’s predictions or Klein’s response. Rather I will hone in on the Senate-related comments.

Klein notes that the Senate configuration overweighs rural states. He cites the Republicans adding a flurry of states in 1889 and 1890 that continue to vote Republican to this very day – North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and Washington (Democratic state level). Klein mentions the last gasp in the present Congress for additional Democratic states in Puerto Rico and Washington D.C. to rectify that imbalance.

The consequences of this division is doom for the Democrats. Essentially, Democrats can pile up the votes in states like California and New York and have little to show for it. I have always thought Democrats in California should create their own Homestead Act in other states. Imagine relocating 1-2 million Democratic voters from California to Republican and/or battleground states. In part, something like that has happened but it is Republicans in California moving to Texas instead. Think of New-York-City-dwelling Democrats who move to Florida and are replaced by immigrants who vote Democrat for a net change of zero. By contrast, when upstate Republicans move to Florida, they are replaced by no one. The result is an even more Democratic state.

In my local paper, there was a report of Westchester County Republicans becoming desperate. Once the county was Republican. Now all county positions are Democratic and all county legislators are Democratic except for one who is Conservative. The Republican Party therefore if it wishes to be successful has to live in real world. It has decided to jettison Trump to get back in the good graces of the voters. Good luck with that effort as the Hitman gears up for the 2024 election.

I mention these New York and California anecdotes to point out that major structural change is needed if the Democrats wish to overcome the Senate and Electoral College obstacles. Small actions just don’t cut it. Once again, West Virginia shows the way.

THE WEST VIRGINIA SOLUTION TO THE SENATE AND ELECTORAL COLLEGE

More and more people now are openly talking about the current civil war and the possibility of secession. On one level, I am pleased to see people are now facing the real world. For years I have been writing about the civil, not cultural war. For years I have expressed my doubts over whether we will celebrate the 250th birthday of the country in its present form. At this point baring medical concerns, the 2024 presidential election will be a rematch of the 2020 election, the first rematch since 1956. To know this far in advance who the candidates will be really is remarkable. The Hitman already has taken his show on the road to Iowa. The campaign is underway.

In 2024, no matter what, the Hitman will claim victory on Election Night. What will Joe Biden do? January 6, 2021, is small taste of what will happen if the Hitman is not certified as the winner in 2025. The civil war will move beyond the talking stage to the fighting stage. We already know that whether we want to admit it or not. Since we know this scenario will play out, what if anything can be done to minimize the looming violence?

One step is the West Virginia example from America’s Second Civil War.  The key to minimizing the violence and uncertainty is following the precedent of West Virginia. In the Second Civil War, the people of what became West Virginia separated from the Confederate state of Virginia. They did not ask Virginia’s permission; they just did it and with Federal approval.

We need to follow that precedent. The eleven Confederate states need to divide into their constituent parts – part Trumpican and part American. The boundary lines should not be that difficult to determine. There already are gerrymandered districts at the Congressional and state level. Voting results are known at the county level. As part of the post-2020 census reapportionment, the Confederate state legislatures effectively will divide their states into two groups anyway. The next step is to take that division further by creating separate states based on those boundary lines drawn by the Confederates.

The result will be eleven new states. What worked for Republicans in 1889 and 1890 can work for Democrats in 2024. The new states directly address the issues raised by Klein and in a far more decisive manner. The eleven new states mean 22 additional Senators and a reallocation of the current Representatives. The 22 states will have 44 Senators, 22 Trumpican and 22 Democrat. These numbers compare to 18 Trumpican and 4 Democrat at present. The net increase of 14 Democrats creates a high hurdle for Trumpicans to overcome to achieve control of the Senate. The separation also eliminates the issues of voter suppression, rigged counting, and partisan Secretaries of State at least in the Confederate states. It also means the current Electoral College vote totals in Confederate states including Texas and Florida will be split between the two candidates instead of winner-take-all.

We all know that winter is coming. We all know that the storm is coming. We all know that Americans will not accept the results of the 2024 presidential election. Why wait until after the fact to respond? Why not act now to minimize the violence? Separate the Confederate states into Union and Confederate peacefully now while we still can. Trumpicans are hard at work to ensure the game is rigged in 2024; it is past time for the Democrats to rise to the occasion and fight back.

What Will Trumpicans Do on August 14?

August 8, 2021
by Peter Feinman
The Trumpican Book of Revelation foretells his return

We are less than one week away from one of the momentous days in the history of the United States. An unprecedented event is about to occur. A sitting President will be removed from office midterm. We came close with Andrew Johnson. This time is different. You can feel the excitement mounting. You can sense the joy beginning to erupt across the land. One can start to count the hours until the glorious day of divine deliverance occurs.

PILLOW HEAD’S PERFORMANCE

Pillow Head teased us with his performance on CNN of what is to come at his conference. Never in the annals of history has there been a better organized, better sourced, and better presented case than when Pillow Head dazzled a world audience with the truth he has uncovered. Is there anyone who knows more about the law and how voting works in America than Pillow Head himself?

Truly his performance was one for the record books. I predict that debaters in high school and college, trial lawyers, and screen writers will turn to Pillow Head’s talk for inspiration and guidance in how to marshal an argument when unmasking a crime. Not since Sean Hannity exposed Seth Rich has there been such a masterful display of connecting the dots to reveal the ugly criminal truth. Now we know that even devices not connected to the internet can be hacked. Truly the steal-the-election crime was overwhelming in its complexity, design, and execution.

The end is now in sight. Pillow Head has carefully documented and presented his case for the most egregious cyber-crime in world history. There can be no doubt now of the consequences. It is only a matter of waiting a few more days for the removal sequence to unfold. In addition, Pillow Head’s team of lawyers will be seeking criminal indictments in multiple counties throughout the country for the perpetrators of his steal. This time the lawyers have the hard evidence and do not need to concern themselves about retribution from the courts for frivolous lawsuits devoid of merit and intelligence.

However, I confess I would feel more confident about the validity of the August 13 date if instead of petitioning the Court on his income taxes, the Still-President simply had said, “My new Acting Attorney General will reverse that decision on my taxes on August 14.”  And, of course, none of his people will cooperate with the January 6 Commission witch hunt either.  Since he voiced neither objection, I guess he lacks confidence in Pillow Head’s predictions even if he accepts Pillow Head’s data.

POST TRUMPATIC STRESS SYNDROME

On the off chance that events do not unfold as predicted, what then are the consequences?

Consider the disappointments that Trumpicans have experienced so far.

They were not able to celebrate after Election Day.

They were not able to celebrate on January 6.

They were not able to celebrate on January 20.

They were not able to celebrate on March 4.

They will not be able to celebrate on August 13.

Combined, all these failed days of joy pack a powerful traumatic punch. How much more trauma can they be expected to endure?

Trumpicans still know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the election was stolen. Nothing will ever sway them from that belief. They do not care if the theft was due to Chinese bamboo paper, Chinese thermometers, Jewish lasers, Italian satellites, dead people voting, illegal aliens voting, or some combination. They know it has to be something. Their concern instead is over the redress for this monstrous theft. At this point, the odds are they have run out of options for anything to be done. Perhaps the last gasp is the seven step plan outlined above.

Although there is no date attached to the implementation of that plan, one possible date for portions of it is the 2022 elections. At this point even Democrats expect to lose control of the House. Perhaps then the new Speaker of the House will yield his position, the House will impeach Joe Biden, the Senate will remove both Biden and Harris, the rightful President will resume office, and the rightful Speaker will return to his position. It certainly is true that if the Democrats lose control of the House that Joe Biden will be impeached twice before the 2024 election. Unfortunately for the loser there is no foreseeable legal way for him to return to the White House except by winning the next presidential election. Trumpicans are going to have to forgo their celebration until then.

PREVIEWING 2024

It should be taken for granted that the 2024 election will be rematch of the 2020 election as things stand now. This presumes that both candidates are in good health and that neither one will run if not physically and mentally up to the job.

For some strange reason, some political commentators and actual politicians think that 2024 will not be a rerun. I kid you not, but there are people handicapping who will be the Trumpican candidate in the event that the original voluntarily chooses not to run. Perhaps he won’t want to lose again!

The mind boggles at this view. Think of how hard he has worked to sustain the big lie that that election was stolen. It is August and we are still talking about it as current events. Tens of millions of people fervently believe the election was stolen. Their Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed Be His Name still holds Cabinet meetings and conducts himself as the 45th and current President of the United States. The Governors of Florida and Texas know that in the event of a hurricane, they need to go to him for aid. No one is going to risk a Christie.

The Hug of Death for Trumpican Governors (REUTERS/Larry Downing)

Everyone who sold their soul in the hopes of being the one chosen for 2024 as the successor sold their soul in vain. The only battle is over who he will pick to his Vice Presidential candidate. And if you are not a woman, do not even bother. Even niece Mary Trump has come around to the view that Donald will run again. After, the electoral game is rigged so he cannot lose in Arizona and Georgia in 2024.

 ALTERNATE REALITIES INTERSECT

At some point, probably prior to the 2022 elections, the alternate realities will intersect. They are not parallel rails extending forever, separate and never meeting. They are instead two trains on the same track on a collision course. The open question is which one will knock the other one off.

The Trumpican track will run until 2024. Then we will see if all the voter suppression and rigged elections efforts will prevail.

But there is another track that could shortchange that process even before the 2022 election. I am not referring to the criminal case in New York which is progressing at turtle speed.  The January 6 Committee knows that if it does not finish its job before the 2022 election and if the Democrats lose control of the House, then the plug will be pulled on it. In an instant, the House will shift from investigating January 6 to impeaching Joe Biden. That Sword of Damocles provides a much firmer deadline than does August 13 for Trumpicans.

By election 2022, the January 6 Committee needs to have identified, investigated, and interrogated

The hitman

His Congressional co-conspirators

His Department of Justice co-conspirators.

They need to have documented the timeline and to have prepared charges of sedition against those who sought to overthrow Constitutional rule in America and instigated the assault on January 6. While August 13 may be a joke the election deadline is a deadly serious one. If there is unfinished business by the 2022 elections, then then it may remain unfinished. The Committee does not have the option of moving the goalposts the way the Trumpicans do every time a deadline fails to deliver.

The Department of Justice has a longer deadline. It is not subject to the election results. Its investigation can continue. Still as we continue to learn more and more about how far the hitman was willing to go to overthrow the election and the Constitution, we realize how close we came to not celebrating our 250th birthday as a country. After Bill Barr, the Deluge. If only he had stayed a few more days we might never have heard of the Clark-Perry machinations because they would have been curtailed…or perhaps Barr saw what was coming and decided to bail before being entrapped in seditious activity.  Even he may have his limits. He should be asked under oath. The DOJ may need to up its game, show some vigor, and indict some people.

THE BRUTUS/HOWARD BAKER MOMENT

If and only if the January 6 Committee and the DOJ do their jobs, then there may be a window of opportunity to push aside the Loser once and for all. Then one of the soul-sellers will be positioned to be the candidate in 2024 instead. The Florida Covid Governor knows this. Ironically, for any one of the soul-sellers be nominated in 2024, they need the help of the Democrats. They need the Democrats to make him damaged goods. The hitman still will not leave the stage voluntarily, but maybe, just maybe, one of the soul-sellers will be willing to push him off once he is charged with sedition.

Dueling Anniversaries: July 4 and China 100th

July 6, 2021
by Peter Feinman
Tiananmen Square Rehersal ( Roman Pelipey/EPA via Shuttlecock)
Trump Organization CFO (Jefferson Siegel for the New York Times)

The battle between the Borg and the Disunited Federation of Countries is engaged. The dueling images on the front page of The New York Times print edition on July 2 tell the story. If you only saw the website you would have missed the message delivered by the juxtaposition of these two images and articles. A picture is worth a thousand words so these pictures alone are sufficient for a battle report from the frontlines between the Middle Kingdom and the one-time City on a Hill.

CORONAVIRUS

The first item of note is that in the American picture the people are wearing masks while in the Chinese picture they are not. In so doing the images contrast the records of the two countries in the handling of the coronavirus. In general terms, regardless of the origin of the virus, the Chinese handling of it proved successful. The country went through some drastic steps which would not have been possible in a free country but which were eminently doable in a country devoid of both freedom and the desire to be free (outside of Hong Kong and those who lie back). The result was a country which snapped back to normalcy far quicker and far more successfully than anyone else. That record enabled China to assert the supremacy of its way of life and government over the democracies who failed abysmally in their responses.

As always, one must keep in the mind that the world does not watch Foxhub. What the world saw in the United States was country with a leader who was out of his league. His simple-minded and silly prognostications and recommendations guaranteed him a place of honor in the Hall of Ineptitude and Incompetence. He will be joined there by his counterparts in Brazil and India. In the years to come, people will not know whether to laugh at his stupidity and dishonesty or cringe in recognition at the hundreds of thousands of people who needlessly died as a direct result of the shortcomings of the greatest mass murderer of Americans in history. In time, more and more White House people will tell the tale of what really happened. In the battle for world leadership, score one for China over the United States due to the catastrophe of having an immature child as president during a crisis.

There are two caveats to this that can put America back in the game despite China’s success and America’s failure. First, China is a HAT country (Honest as Trump). That means China cannot tell the truth about the origin of the coronavirus. That failure undermines its position in the world. Second the American vaccines are superior. While the United States is not yet geared up to save the world, the rest of the world still is more willing to accept America’s role as the rescuer if we want the job. So at this point, China is ahead on the coronavirus, but as the American economy roars back, travel resumes, and vaccines are distributed, the United States can regain some of the status it lost under the previous administration provided there is no return.

“Audacious” TAX FRAUD versus THIRD TERM

The leaders of both countries want a third term and to rule for life. The image from China article shows Chinese people rehearsing for an event where the Chinese leader would all but announce his intention to govern for a third term, breaking the two term convention. There should be no doubt that he intends to govern for life and should be expected to do so.

The American photograph tells a different story. It shows the Chief Financial Officer of the Trump Organization being escorted to court. He stands accused of multiple accounts of audacious tax fraud over a fifteen-year period. So far the only defense offered by the Chief Executive of the organization is that such perks are standing operating procedure. Everybody does it. His acknowledgment that other people in the organization indulged in similar activities guarantees additional charges against addition people.

So far his preference to preside for life has not worked out. As least legally it has not. He no longer lives in the White House. The issue of how he would arrange for a third term has been replaced by a different consideration. He remains the real but-powerless President in his second term to tens of millions of Americans who yearn to return him to Office on January 20 or March 4 or in August or January 1, 2023 as Speaker of the House or back in White House in January 2025. The same people who think the coronavirus was a hoax, who would not wear a mask, who will not be vaccinated, and who vilify America’s health leaders, are eager for their Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed Be his Name, to be restored to power since only he can save them.

The contrast between a united China under one-man rule for life and a divided country could not be more stark. The Chinese leader speaks from a position of strength ruling a united country. By contrast the United States is a divided country experiencing a civil war. Local rulers are deploying military forces outside their jurisdiction in support of the policy they believe is the correct. I did not know that governors could deploy their military forces outside their state without federal authorization. Apparently they can and with private money funding these militias as well.

These actions guarantee a reciprocal action by state forces on the other side of the civil war in the event they deem it necessary.  One can anticipate such deployments at the two upcoming critical moments – the elections of 2022 and 2024. The forces assembled in the nation’s capital may there to remove Joe Biden from the White House or to keep him there or both. Either way, the ratcheting up of the level of confrontation in the United States will show to the world that we are not united, not a democracy, and not governed by the rule of law (except when the winning side changes the law to support its entrenchment in power). The global coverage of the American civil war in 2022 and/or 2024 will undermine any effort by the United States to maintain a leadership position in the battle with China.

After all the talk about the previous President being a Russian asset, his “Stop the Steal” dividing of America turns out to be the greatest gift he could have given the Chinese.

WAVING THE FLAG

A third image from the two front-page articles is of the Chinese waving their flags. True, the contrast between the masks in the American photograph and the flags in the Chinese photograph could be equalized. There are plenty of pictures of American’s waving flags at the nation’s capital. Take January 6, for instance. The difference between the two countries is that flags are a symbol of unity in China and division in the United States. Flags are becoming like masks, a weaponized symbol in the American Civil War. If you think “defund the police” was an incredibly stupid political slogan for Democrats, then their abandoning the flag and the claim of being patriots to the Trumpicans is an even bigger blunder.

The more Democrats cede the American flag and national anthem to the Trumpicans, the more they jeopardize their slim majorities in Congress. The more the Democrats cede the American Revolution 250th to the Trumpicans, the more they jeopardize both their slim majorities and the presidency. Between now and the elections in 2022 and 2024, the Woke will have numerous opportunities to enable Foxhub to characterize the Democratic Party as a party of traitors even though it was Trumpicans who lead the assault on America on January 6.

There are signs of hope, that all is not lost. Consider this example from an article “On July Fourth, Stars and Stripes and Division,” (July 4, 2021, NYT), an article that does have a picture of an American flag. It is a story about a farmer who displays a flag on his truck and the assumptions people make about his political views as a result. The article concludes with three vignettes about people who are neither Trumpican nor Woke and need someone to champion them.

The first example is from a white male Republican who sometimes votes Democrat. He flies the American flag and said:

There is a lot of history with this country, some that maybe people don’t like today, and some that people are being judged for today for what they did 300 years ago. It’s still our country, and very good and bad thing made it our country. And that’s what that [the flag] represents.

The second example is from a female El Salvadoran immigrant who wore an American flag T-shirt and intended to do so on July 4. She said in Spanish:

This symbolizes this country and I live in this country. This flag is for all.

The third example is an African American Democrat who used to display the flag regularly until recently. When she just saw a forest of flags not at a political rally but as a peaceful “field of honor” installed by the local rotary club in honor of people who had helped the community. It led her to say:

I’ve always loved the American flag so much, and now seeing it by the carousel I felt happy again. And I haven’t felt that way about the flag in such a long time.”   

These are the people on whom America must build its future if it wants to win the war against China for world leadership. The American Revolution 250th provides the opportunity to forge a We the People identity that we can showcase to the world. All we need is the leadership.

The White House or the Court House in August?: The Shrinking Loser

June 30, 2021
by Peter Feinman
“But when my son was about 3, I realized his fictive worlds were vivid enough to continue without me. All he need, at first, was a listener.” (John Mahler, “New York at a Crossroad,” NYT 6/20/21) REUTERS/Gaelen Morse

Pre-millennialists generally avoid specifying a date for the return of Jesus. They do so because they have learned from experience. Every date they pick has come and gone without anything happening. Eventually the message sinks in: to avoid being laughed at do not identify the date.

By contrast, Pillow Head goes where pre-millennialists fear to tread. He named if not an exact date then an exact month when his Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed Be his Name would triumphantly return to power in a blaze of glory. The month is August 2021 and he still champions that date.

I confess I want to people to be believe Pillow Head’s prophecies. I want Trumpicans to be counting the days until the moment occurs. I want them to be glued to the screen of their choice waiting for Tucker or Sean to announce that the moment of moments has arrived. The Satanic pedophile forces of evil have been vanquished. The senile stealer of the election has been booted from the White House. Once again the forces of right and light have prevailed. I want this modern version of the Great Disappointment to be played out for all the real world to see as the alternate reality crashes and burns. There should be a betting line on when the day will be. Trumpicans should be interviewed on what they will do to celebrate it. The days are drawing down, let the countdown continue.

Where do things stand now?

AS ARIZONA GOES SO GOES THE NATION

According to the Gospel of Pillow Head, Arizona was the start point for the return to power. It would show the massive defeat of Biden that was reversed through fraud due to aliens from Italy, China, or Mars. Those UFOs are not here by chance!

From there the Cyber Ninjas would march through Georgia as the second coming of Sherman. They would find the 11,780 votes and then some. Michigan would be next. Devotees made pilgrimages to Arizona so they could replicate the Way of the Vote back home. Everything looked good for a successful reversal of the Electoral College vote of January 6 on paper. Even if they did not herald an immediate return to power, they would provide an unbeatable election cry for 2024 to right the wrong of the stolen election in 2020.

So far things are not working out as expected.

A Reagan-appointed judge in Georgia nixed the effort there. It is over in Georgia.

A Republican controlled State Senate Oversight Committee squashed the effort in Michigan. They did so in terms so insulting to the “Stop the Steal” movement you would have thought they were Democrats. There is “no evidence of widespread or systematic fraud.” “The Committee strongly recommends citizens use a critical eye and ear toward those who have pushed demonstrably false theories for their own personal gain.”

The outcry against them has been minimal. In nearby Ohio, the Loser President railed against the Michigan Republican leaders demanding his followers call them to change their ruling or be voted out of office. Do you think they are concerned? It is highly unlikely that they will be primaried or censured. The lack of outrage signals a dissipation of the Stop the Steal movement and the weakening of the power of the Loser ex-President. He can huff and puff and threaten to blow them all down but he cannot do it. It is over in Michigan.

Even worse, the Republican Senators admitted that since there had been no fraud in Michigan, there was no need for new laws to prevent it. In other words, the voter suppression laws have nothing to do with preventing fraud. Their purpose is to ensure that a repeat Biden victory does not occur in 2024. Perhaps one of the reasons Trumpicans can accept that the Loser ex-President will not be returned to power now is because of all the actions taken to legally prevent the Democratic candidate winning in 2024.

If you think the actions of the Cyber Ninjas have been ridiculed so far, wait until they disclose their findings. Wait until they produce the evidence that will convince the Supreme Court to cancel the January 6, 2021 vote and install the true winner as President effective immediately. If you think Séance Sydney was good for a few laughs in communicating with the dead, the Cyber Ninja evidence will be the death knoll for the Stop the Steal movement. There is no August return to the White House and no replacement date in sight until 2024.

If Florida or Texas need disaster recovery relief in the fall which President do you think they will contact? If there is a bipartisan infrastructure bill how can you maintain the lie when you just entered into an agreement with the illegitimate President? Even elected Trumpicans in Congress know it is time to move on….with some exceptions of course.

PREDICTING THE FUTURE

Predicting the future is easy. What else can you predict? The past? So here are my predictions.

1. The Durham report, the hope of Hannity for days, weeks, months, even years, will prove to be a Nothingburger.

2. The Horowitz report will prove there was spying at the highest levels against political opponents just as Foxhub said but it was by Trump and not Obama. This investigation does not get the airtime on Foxhub the original Horowitz report did. It will be a little like the movie Z as the truth is unraveled only this time the military is on the side of democracy.

3. The House Select Committee to investigate the January 6 will document the assistance by some Republicans, the instigation by the President, and the presidential unawareness of the difference between a TV show where the violence is fake news and the assault on America where it was real. It will even force Kevin McCarthy to tell the truth.

4. The COVID investigation will show the ineptness and incompetence of the immature child President lead to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans. If the Senate had done its job and removed him from office and made Mike Pence president those Americans would be alive today.

5. More and more insiders will expose the horrendous truth and callous evil of the Trump Presidency. The face-saving efforts of Bill Barred-for-Life is one example. The pathetic joyride in the hospital parking lot by the COVID President is another. Even more amazing, there actually were people in the White House who thought the infection of the immature child would cause him to grow up and take the disease seriously. It boggles the mind that anyone could think such nonsense. Getting COVID did not change the need of the biggest weeny in America from a fake display of his manliness. He will always be Macho Macho Boy pretending to be more; nothing can change that.

6. At some point, the Loser will realize even in his deranged alternate reality, that even though the election was stolen – he will believe that to his dying day – he will not be returned to the White House by his Supreme Court. What will he decide to do then? We probably have to wait for the results of the 2022 elections to find out. This mid-term election may be an anomaly in that instead of simple being a referendum about the current President, it will be one about the former President who wants to be the next President. That is good news for the Democrats.

7. The criminal and civil cases in Georgia, Washington, and New York will only become worse for him. He may even have to cut down as his golf which would be cruel and unusual punishment in his case even without being convicted.

One final prediction does not augur well for the Loser. His former Vice President Brownnose is no profile in courage. But he is the proverbial canary in the coal mine. When he took pride in his actions on January 6 in fulfilling his constitutional duties to certify the election of Joe Biden against the demand not to, he dared to put his loyalty to the Constitution over his obligations to the President of the United States. “If we lose faith in the Constitution, we won’t just lose elections — we’ll lose our country,” Pence said in a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Exactly right. But there are other ambitious would-be candidates for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, too. They can sense weakness. They can smell the blood in the water. They can see the rivals around them. The king will be dead and I want to be the new one. Republicans do not need Trump to campaign against the Woke. The more they realize that they are stronger without him then without him, the more likely the Howard Baker moment will be the Brutus moment of shoving the Loser aside.