Individual 1 appears to be single minded and that is he’s focused on somehow “winning” the election come November and, as you look at things caving in all around him, you can see why he comes across as if he’s desperate. Yes, he’s got a pretty solid (white nationalist) base which I don’t believe is going to abandon him – it’s definitely like a cult – but, there are some glaring issues which are getting worse instead of better in regard to his re-election. First and foremost his plan was to run on “The greatest economy in the history of the country” – which, was just another LIE, but…… Now it appears he’s going to provide whoever “wins” the election with quite possibly the WORST economy in the history of the country.

I said when he was first elected he INHERITED the economy at the time, whatever you think of it, from President Obama and, like every president before him, it’s not his economy until after the first year – the president doesn’t come in and change everything on day one. So in individual 1’s first year ALL his BRAGGING should have been aimed at thanking Obama. The ONLY significant “accomplishment” individual 1 and the republican Congress (remember BOTH houses were controlled by republicans for his first two years) was another of the republican “tax cuts for the rich” – which, this time, didn’t fool anyone. The result of those first two years was an overwhelming democratic landslide in the 2018 election leading to individual 1’s IMPEACHMENT, but I digress. (Yes, there were many executive orders repealing environmental regulations – which actually helped the 2018 “Blue wave”)

I should have added above, the tax cut (I call it usually a “tax scam”) added a couple TRILLION $ to the national debt – which has raised a few eyebrows now, during the Covid-19 pandemic when the debt is going up for actually necessary reasons. And, right now, all eyes are on the pandemic because, well, it’s everywhere – and, in much of America it’s still getting worse. But, our IMPEACHED so-called president has his focus on the economy because he views that as his “road to victory” in November. I have to add that it’s still hard for me to understand how he can’t comprehend the real road to victory would be focusing on this virus and leading a federal response that got it under control – but, it appears, “that aint happenin.”

So, he’s still focused on “fixing” the economy which has shed almost 40,000 jobs and is soon to have GDP, likely, at depression era levels. Here’s the problem as I see it for our IMPEACHED so-called president; he inherited close to half a BILLION from his daddy and managed to squander most of it to the tune of something like a half dozen BANKRUPTCIES so his record of building up something he inherited is, well, pitiful. What he inherited from President Obama was an economy which was on an upward “swing” for the previous 7 years and it was gaining momentum. That SAME upward trajectory continued for individual 1’s first three years, but…….. I will concede the upswing was in jeopardy when we learned about the “incoming” virus, however, it didn’t have to be this bad. Bottom line: another bankruptcy for individual 1. #7?

Originally, individual 1 was envisioning a “V” shape recovery, meaning it would go back up as rapidly as it came down. When I heard him making that assertion, to me, that was simply further evidence he bases his view of the health of our economy via Wall Street and his “happy thoughts.” To me, the “disconnect” between Wall Street and Main Street has never been more evident than it is right now. Wall Street has actually gained ground recently as the news continues to get worse. I’m not sure that’s sustainable? I’ve heard talk that thousands of “small businesses” have already “thrown in the towel” and won’t be reopening once we get past this pandemic. Jerome Powell, it appears to me, has done a good job of stabilizing Wall Street but I’ve heard him warning that Main Street needs more “stimulus” money – and soon. I believe he’s trying to fend off another “great depression.” (And, I have to add, I hope he’s successful)

As usual I started this post a couple days ago, and in the interim the democrats in the House passed another $3 TRILLION relief package which includes money for state and local governments – keeping “first responders” to the pandemic paid and on the job (states are losing a LOT of revenue with things shut down) plus money for unemployed workers – “Main Street” in none other than Mr. Powell’s words, needs this stimulus, plus various other issues the democrats MUST go to the “wall” for are in the bill (which, naturally, republicans say is “dead on arrival”) – like saving the Post Office – no matter what! Additionally, there’s money in the bill for vote by mail and, combined with keeping the post office open these two issues are worth FIGHTING for – and, NOT giving in – basically to Moscow Mitch and individual 1. It simply takes a two thirds majority of Congress to over ride a VETO – so, democrats need to be working with republicans to get these two parts of the bill agreed to – while they have leverage! These two issues are fundamental to the future of this nation! OK, I’ve digressed again! And, Oh by the way, this bill is intended to stabilize our economy which works to the benefit of our IMPEACHED so-called president! You’d think he’d be for it.

Based on what I’ve read so far, we’ll have a good idea of how all the “opening up” of the economy is working out in two to four weeks. supposedly, that’s how long it takes from when you’re exposed to the virus until you’re feeling the symptoms of the virus – although, I listened to a person today who suggested it only took 3 days to feel the symptoms – this person was interviewed in the semi ICU at a hospital (I think) in New York. Every person who I listen to who seems to know what they’re talking about regarding Covid-19 say the key to re-opening the economy is expanded testing and contact tracing with isolation for those who are infected. The only part of that scenario which appeals to individual 1 is the re-opening of the economy. Yikes!

I’ve been writing about the DAMAGE being caused to this country and this country’s interests by individual 1 for over three years now and it’s getting worse – almost exponentially. I pointed out lately I just finished reading “Rising from Hatred” by Eli Saslow and I’ve come to the conclusion our IMPEACHED so-called president feels backed into a corner so he’s reaching out to all those “very fine people” who hang out at Stormfront.com and marched on Charlottesville carrying Tiki Torches, confederate and Nazi flags, wearing swastikas, and chanting “Jews will not replace us.” The way to get the attention of this group and keep their “loyalty” is simply to mention the name of our previous president, which he’s doing once again, and it’s not clear to me how far he’s willing to push this group, but as I’ve said previously, he’s the vehicle which “carried” them into the mainstream of politics and I don’t think it makes them happy to see him losing ground in the polls. Individual 1 accomplished what David Duke was unable to do.

And, Oh, by the way, the DAMAGE I’m referring to often here goes well beyond the incompetent response to Covid-19, which, I’m concerned people will totally forget about as we near the upcoming election. Lately, in his desperation coming from the bad polling data individual 1’s projection (he’s the champion of projection) has gone into overdrive as he’s constantly attempting to find ways to attack Joe Biden. While all of that is happening and that is the focus of our so-called “liberal media,” remember our IMPEACHED so-called president has filled the government with his cronies and one institution after another is being undermined.

The obvious one would be the Justice Department with William Barr turning it into a weapon of our IMPEACHED so-called president – but, the State Department has been undermined, the CDC has been turned into a “tool” of individual 1, and I could go on. Remember, for example, Rick Perry was the head of the Energy Department with a focus on destroying it – Betsy DeVoss in Education, and on and on. It’s really bad – it’s CORRUPTION in its worst form. But, individual 1’s mastery of manipulating the media leaves most of this DAMAGE “under the rug.” Individual 1’s latest version of projection is aimed at someone who people like me would like to see in the fray! Even Lindsey Graham remembers this saying, “Be careful what you wish for.”

So, it appears our IMPEACHED so-called president is determined to take on Barack Obama as he’s desperately trying to turn the polls around. There’s another saying which comes to mind: I would use it back when I was working and would do something foolish: “I might be dumb but I’m not stupid.” That’s what I thought of, for individual 1, when it became clear he’s serious about taking on Obama. This would fall into the STUPID category, however. It’s almost as if he hasn’t pissed off enough people yet, so how can he really up the “ante.” Apparently he doesn’t believe Obama is WAY more popular than him – and, by going after Obama he’s going to make our former president even more popular. Additionally, I’m not sure if he should be encouraging more public appearances by Obama – who presents a clear alternative to our IMPEACHED so-called president.

And, speaking of that IMPEACHMENT (and, remember, the republicans chose to essentially enable EXTORTION coming from a U.S. president as OK) I keep reminding myself, based on my reading of our constitution, there’s no limit to the number of times a president, even a “so-called” president, can be IMPEACHED. You have to wonder what it will take to get republicans to understand what they’ve “hitched their wagon” to. I’m thinking this attack on President Obama and Vice President Biden – Biden, of course, is presumed to be individual 1’s opponent this November – is going to be a “bridge too far” for even some of those who’ve continued to support individual 1 up until this time. If you haven’t been paying attention, this is the way Vladimir Putin deals with his political rivals – especially anyone who poses any significant opposition to him – he simply has them arrested on “trumped up” (pun intended) charges and thrown in prison.

Are there a significant number of Americans who actually want our nation to devolve to that place? I have a friend who’s a supporter of individual 1 (I continue in my failing to understand why, but that’s a story for another day) and he occasionally has referred to a “civil war” to me when we’re having our dialogue regarding individual 1. The more I learn about the white nationalist world and read about some of these extremists who have been caught planning to try starting a “civil war” by murdering police officers – the last one considered himself (I think) a “boogaloo boi” – which is apparently an online and underground group of right wing white nationalist extremists – the more I wonder (and worry) about what my friend is reading when he’s online. He’s mentioned the “Proud Boys” to me as if they’re “patriots” – I’ve discovered they’re another right wing white nationalist group of potentially violent troublemakers. Yikes!!! These people are “armed and dangerous.”

I had never visited Stormfront.com until after I read “Rising out of Hatred” and have only done so once – just to confirm it is a website which clearly is pandering to a significant audience of white people who believe they are the oppressed. It is! The more I learn about all this and realize our IMPEACHED so-called president is “connected” to this group and they have unfettered loyalty to him the more I realize the importance of this next election. These people, like individual 1, picture THEMSELVES as the victims! (All while Black Americans continue to be MURDERED for things like “jogging” or “sleeping” – it’s a sad state of affairs) William Barr, as individual 1’s so-called “Roy Cohn,” is also proving himself to be extremely dangerous to the foundation of our republic and I have to wonder if he’s a white nationalist? If he actually attempts to carry out individual 1’s threats to “imprison” President Obama and Vice President Biden, well – BOTH he and individual 1 need to be IMPEACHED!

Adam Schiff put things in clear perspective during the IMPEACHMENT trial of individual 1 when he clearly explained individual 1 has “CHEATED before and he’s going to do it again.” He’s (individual 1) going to do whatever it takes to “win” re-election and his actions are getting more and more overt in their similarities to his apparent hero Putin. I’m actually not sure if his hero is Putin or Hitler, but the reality is he SHOULD be “persona no grata” as a politician in this country. Joe Biden was asked in a “digital town hall” the other night whether he will pardon individual 1 if he’s elected – as Gerald Ford did for Richard Nixon – the very question I would have asked had I had the opportunity and Biden gave what to me was the CORRECT answer – and that is NO! Biden promised that in his administration the Justice Department would be independent and he agreed “no one is above the law.” I believe both individual 1 and Barr, if not others, should be considering that statement as the polls turn farther and farther away from individual 1 and we get near November. My advice to them would be stop acting as if you’re “above the law.” Eventually, there will be accountability!

And, of course, as I’ve been saying – virtually EVERYTHING individual 1 does – and, it appears to be all instinctual – bringing out the mob boss in him – is making things worse – for HIM. As I’ve said, at the beginning of this Covid-19 crisis he actually had the opportunity to act like a president and turn the nation’s focus to minimizing the effect of the virus. Naturally, he was unable to do that because, from the beginning, he considered the virus as just another attack on him by the democrats “trying to take him down.” He referred to it as another “democrat hoax” at a rally back in early March – while he SHOULD have been busy attempting to take the necessary steps to block the spread of the virus. If you don’t think that would have been possible, look at the countries around the world that did just that. The reality is the death toll in America is significantly higher than it should have been and, sadly, based on what is happening as I’m writing this, it appears we’re headed toward a massive resurgence of the virus by, certainly, the election – and, likely sooner. With individual 1 in the “White House” there’s not much “we the people” can do to prevent this – other than KEEP contacting our Representatives and Senators. (And, praying)

From my vantage point it appears individual 1 already is picturing himself as America’s dictator – he’s already purged the Justice Department and the Intelligence Communities (think about that while KNOWING the Russian “attack” is ongoing) and, I expect, he will soon be finding a “justification” to fire Christopher Wray as the head of the FBI because he’s not compliant enough. He will do everything he can to destroy the Postal Service, to fight efforts making it easier for people to VOTE – including blocking vote by mail efforts in Congress, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he attempted to declare some kind of emergency to stop the election in November all together. I’ve been saying this for over three years now, the answer to all the illegal activity and the corruption coming from individual 1’s “White House” is a republican party which finally says “enough already.” According to dictator 101, once he gets rid of Wray, he’ll be going after the media – count on it!

Democrats are mostly “rule followers” and individual 1 and the republicans consider that a weakness. I’m not sure what lies ahead if my predictions prove to be prescient because I believe there becomes a point where “we the people” will have had “enough” ourselves – and if our representatives won’t step up, well, OMG – I hate to think what might happen. But, don’t lose track of the reality individual 1 is connected to the white nationalist movement to a degree “we the people” don’t fully understand at this point. The evidence would lead, at least me, to believe it is a pretty strong “connection.” And, certainly, I have no idea how large that white nationalist movement actually is – but, I suspect we’re going to find out in the coming months. (My brief visit to “Stormfront.com” would suggest it’s significant) They will be working diligently to keep their fuehrer in office. (Sorry, I can’t help with the Nazi references when I see his supporters wearing their swastikas to rallies. Just trying to “tell it like it is!”)

Final Thought: Since the day the republicans voted to enable individual 1’s EXTORTION by refusing to convict him at the end of the IMPEACHMENT trial, our IMPEACHED so-called president has increased his norm breaking, rule breaking, and law breaking. The more the polls look bad for him the worse his behavior becomes – with what is now evolving to just open moves toward Putin type authoritarianism – ie fascism. There may be some Americans who are OK with that – personally, my father fought in WW II to prevent fascism from overtaking our republic and there’s NO WAY I’m giving in to ANY thoughts along those lines. That being said, if individual 1 fails to come to some kind of agreement with the House on a relief bill and actually follows through on efforts to fabricate crimes against President Obama and Vice President Biden, I believe it’s time for IMPEACHMENT number two! There’s nothing in the constitution which says the republicans shouldn’t have a “second chance” to do the right thing.

And, as I said above, while they’re at it, they should include William Barr. They would find no shortage of former Justice department officials – appointees of BOTH parties – who would testify in any IMPEACHMENT trial of Mr. Barr. I don’t see why “we the people” should allow both of these men to be “off the hook” simply because there’s an election looming. We’re seeing first hand, right now, how much DAMAGE they are doing and, trust me, it’s likely to get a “whole lot worse” before it gets better. Stay tuned………………

I hope to keep this posting rather short. (If you’ve been around here, that probably sounds impossible) Lately I’ve been reading more and more about the Michael Flynn case and William Barr’s “intrusion” on the case which smacks of “prosecutorial impropriety” similar to Barr’s actions in the Roger Stone case. Today I read two articles in the Washington Post, one suggesting Judge Sullivan should have simply dismissed Flynn’s case at the request of Barr’s appointed sycophant and the other praising Sullivan for appointing a former judge to “present the other side” – essentially, the legal reasons why Judge Sullivan should deny the “government’s” request and proceed with sentencing of Mr. Flynn.

I’ve also read several other articles from several different sources in regard to what is happening in this case and a couple things are clear. First, there is MOUNTING evidence, coming from MULTIPLE former prosecutors that William Barr is as dangerous as people like me believe him to be. He appears to be brazenly and shamelessly doing individual 1’s “bidding” with the belief of “what are you going to do about it?” to “we the people.” Well, Judge Sullivan, at least for the moment, is giving me a sense of peace in that he’s not “caving” to Barr and, hopefully, he’ll follow through on what he said to Flynn at the first sentencing hearing.

The thing NO ONE in any of the articles are mentioning would be the FACT Flynn’s original “guilty plea” was based on a “plea agreement” which allowed a plethora of OTHER charges to be “forgiven.” (dropped?) Not being a lawyer I don’t know the correct term, but the bottom line is Flynn was allegedly GUILTY of MUCH more than LYING to the FBI. Remember, Flynn’s plea agreement caused him to have to “cooperate” with the Mueller investigation and, at the time – to me – seemed to be a “sweetheart deal.” That’s because myself, and anyone else paying attention, knew what else Flynn was “up to.”

For example, while working as individual 1’s de facto National Security Adviser Flynn was also working as an UNREGISTERED foreign agent for Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s president (ie dictator) to the tune of close to $500.000 in payment. Additionally, he was alleged to be part of a scheme to kidnap a Turkish Cleric, living in Pennsylvania, in order to send him back to Turkey to face certain death at the hands of Erdogan. And, none of that mentions Flynn’s strange connection to Vladimir Putin where he was Putin’s guest at some kind of dinner in Moscow and included payment of close to $50,000 from the Russians which, apparently, was in direct violation of his military retirement regulations. I’m bringing all this up from my (old person’s not so great) memory – but, my point is, Flynn pled guilty – from what I could tell at the time – to prevent facing charges on these other issues – all of which seem to be forgotten – except, maybe by Judge Sullivan.

I say that about Judge Sullivan because, if my memory serves me correctly, he admonished Flynn for much more than LYING to the FBI when Flynn was trying to get off with no jail time. I believe he used the term treason or traitor or something of that magnitude and suggested he needed to see more evidence of “cooperation” in order to agree to no jail time. And, then to add to all that, keep in mind Flynn’s son was involved in ALL of his misdeeds. I always believed his GUILTY plea was made to protect his son from all the OTHER charges Flynn was forgiven for because it appeared the two were working together. I’m not sure if Judge Sullivan is in such a forgiving mood?

All of this has been the part of this fiasco which has bothered me the most. For example, I never for an instant believe Flynn “LIED” to the Vice President. I never thought Flynn was making his overtures to the Russian ambassador without the full knowledge of individual 1 – which would indicate, if I’m correct in that assumption, that Flynn NEVER had a plan to “cooperate” with Mueller – his pure motivation for the GUILTY plea was to save his son from prosecution and himself from more serious charges. I believe Flynn, Barr, and anyone else involved in helping him “get off” for his crimes think no one will remember all of this – and, so far, from what I’ve been reading, they may end up being correct.

Except, it’s possible Judge Sullivan remembers and he very likely could be placing himself in the “good” section of our History books – the opposite section of individual 1, Barr, Flynn, and the other sycophants who are enabling dear leader who are headed to the section currently led by Benedict Arnold! Stay tuned!

OMG – I keep saying this and, well, I have to say it again. The next stage of individual 1’s LYING “tour” appears to be another in the “can it get any worse” reality “we the people” face AT LEAST until January 20, 2021. Today it was reported individual 1, who’s struggling with the reality he’s responsible for many of the 85,000+ Americans who have died so far in the Covid-19 pandemic, is now planning to LIE about how many people have actually DIED from this virus. As I’ve said in my previous few posts, our IMPEACHED so-called president is getting more and more desperate each day as the reality of his political future is becoming clearer and clearer. I’m beginning to think the main reason he’s pushing so hard for the “re-opening” of our economy – meaning getting people back to work who are unemployed – is to get them away from being in front of their TV’s all day. They’re watching him in action and it’s NOT working for him.

MILLIONS of Americans watched him in real time as he postulated about the possibility of people ingesting disinfectant to “clean their lungs” or to somehow get UV rays internally into their systems because they “kill the virus in less than a minute.” Every day individual 1 marches out in front of the cameras Americans, by the MILLIONS, witness they have an incompetent boob as their IMPEACHED so-called president. The other day he was going after President Obama, AGAIN, and, now, LYING about those who have died??? I broached the topic of his utter lack of empathy the other day and, sure enough, today – as if he’s reading my posts – he’s making me look like a prophet. LYING about the people who have died is, well, really LOW. I’ve written about republican governors who appear to be “cheating” with the statistics.

For heaven’s sake, in this environment, people aren’t even allowed to be with their “loved ones” as they’re lying in the hospital on a respirator and, now, individual 1 appears to be planning to find ways to LIE about their deaths. I can only guess on how he’s going to go about this – but, let me suggest it will be “aimed” at the “old” people who have died. My guess (and, it’s only a guess) is he will suggest many of these people in nursing homes who’ve been dying from the virus their deaths “shouldn’t count.” For example, I can hear him now suggesting these people were going to die in the near future anyway so it’s unfair to count their deaths as the result of the virus – despite the REALITY their deaths are the result of the virus. Why? Because he thinks it makes him look bad!

I did hear Bill O’Reilly a few weeks ago suggesting, as he was lobbying for the economy to be re-opened, that a large segment of the people who are dying from the pandemic are people who were/are going to die pretty soon anyway – ie “old people.” So, instead of trying to prevent these people from dying “sooner rather than later” they’re trying, I’m guessing, to figure out how to say their deaths shouldn’t count in the statistics. Honestly, I hope I’m wrong on this one – individual 1 supposedly represents the “pro life” Americans – so, I’ve already been a bit curious as to their cavalier willingness to subject “we the people” to the “herd immunity” solution to this virus – meaning sacrificing 6 – 10 MILLION Americans in order to “save” the stock market – as if that “plan” would actually save the market.

I would remind individual 1 and his (white nationalist) followers the reason he’s feeling a sense of desperation is because more and more Americans are becoming totally turned off to his idiocy. His plan to sacrifice us old people already seems to be backfiring on him because it appears not many of us old fellers think the same way as the Texas Lt. Governor who famously said, “There’s worse things than living” as he was lobbying for the sacrifice of our old people (and, I might add, although he didn’t mention this – maybe this is the real motivation – large numbers of “Black and Brown people”) to the virus in order to save Wall Street. The latest reports I’ve read is the old white males are no longer a safe voting “block” for individual 1 – in fact, I’ve read reports he’s “underwater” with that group. That would be really bad for our IMPEACHED so-called president’s chances come November 3rd. We can hope!

While individual 1 is likely attempting to LIE about the number of Americans succumbing to this virus due to his determination to “open” the economy much sooner than most scientists are suggesting makes sense, he’s really suggesting he’s more concerned with getting re-elected than saving lives. And, even in this regard there’s another “catch 22” making things difficult for him. This “push” to open up the economy is causing the scientists to predict the American death toll will double by the day individual 1 is officially nominated for the November election – meaning 170,000 by August! Yikes!!! He wants to LIE about the number of people who’ve died and, at the same time, he’s pushing for a plan which will cause, you guessed it, MORE people who will die – apparently, which he can LIE about. “Par for the course?”

I’ve been pointing out for some time my personal opinion our economy was like a house built on sand – and, this was before the pandemic – so, I suppose, it would make sense I’m a bit skeptical about the recent “resurgence” of Wall Street – apparently in response to the TRILLIONS Jerome Powell, at the Fed, is able to funnel to those entities which need funding – entities people like me don’t even understand what they are. Like the “financial” sector of the Market, or “Manufacturing” or ?????? All I know is he’s got access to something like $7 TRILLION. Now, even Mr. Powell is suggesting Congress needs to send even MORE money toward “Main Street.”

I’ve always believed for Wall Street to really be on solid ground the requirement should be that “Main Street” is healthy. America has been inching away from that philosophy, in my view, since the day Ronald Reagan took the oath of office. To me, that was when I came to the conclusion there was a concerted propaganda plan designed to get Americans to believe shareholders are more important than workers. It’s when I began to believe we were evolving into a “me” society from a “we” society. This all appears to be an “issue” for our IMPEACHED so-called president.

He just can’t bring himself, by what I’ve been observing, to keep his focus on defeating the effects of this virus as the challenge allowing our economy to recover. He seems to be intent on simply just pretending the virus “will just go away” and forging ahead with opening businesses, schools, and organizations like sports leagues, etc. It’s as if he’s put his “eggs” in the “basket” that he’s correct the virus is just going to go away – he doesn’t seem to have the capacity to understand what an incredible gamble he’s making – for ALL of us. I call it putting “the cart before the horse.” Like it or not, we’re all tied to his “bandwagon” – until next January there’s not much “we the people” can do about his decision making. I even believe he will attempt to put people into venues for his rallies prior to the election – no matter the risk to their health.

One thing we know about individual 1 is that there will be diversions virtually every day in his never ending attempt to deflect BLAME from his bungling initial response to the virus – what is mostly referred to as the “missing 70 days.” It seems the only plan he has is no plan at all. For example, ALL the experts I’ve listened to are suggesting the way to get to the point where we can safely re-open the economy would be to expand testing with a commitment to “contact tracing” – exactly what SHOULD have been the “plan” back in February when we all became aware this was coming. He STILL can’t bring himself to do what is necessary and, sadly, things are just going to keep getting worse. When you look at the charts showing the difference caused by even just a few days of inaction it’s alarming – let alone 70 days! And, of course, individual 1 is back in denial stage – so this could get unbelievably bad.

Our IMPEACHED so-called president apparently is aiming his most recent BLAME back at Barack Obama – you’d think he would have learned that one doesn’t work by now and, as I mentioned above, a new focus with his LYING. Now, I’ve always maintained his LYING is pathological, but it appears the LYING about President Obama and/or the number of Covid-19 deaths is all going to be premeditated. Whether that would qualify as “pathological” I’ll leave for an argument for another day – to me, the bottom line is the same – he’s AGAIN trying to LIE his way out of his own incompetence and I just don’t believe enough of “we the people” will believe him.

I just finished reading “Rising out of Hatred” by Eli Saslow a book which “walks” the reader through the process of transformation that caused Derek Black, the son of the former Grand Wizard of the KKK and the person who created and manages the white nationalist website “Stromfront.com,” to renounce his commitment to the white nationalist cause. I really recommend this book to anyone who wants to better understand what’s going on “behind the scenes” in America. As I’ve said previously, individual 1 was mentioned numerous times in the book and it became clear to me by the end of the book our IMPEACHED so-called president’s connection to white nationalism goes much deeper than I had thought. I believe his attacks on President Obama, at this point in time, is simply more “dog whistle” to the “heart” of his base.

Clearly, those in America who believe white Americans are the ones being oppressed were alarmed when President Obama was elected, leading to the “Tea Party” which has kind of morphed into the republican party and individual 1 was connected to those who hang around “Stormfront” to a degree most of “we the people” don’t understand. In reading this book it’s clear the white nationalist movement believes individual 1 is the “vehicle” pulling them into the “mainstream” of American politics. Now you have what’s left of what I call the “real” republican party – most of them are estranged – the tea party, and individual 1ism. To me, going after Obama is simply individual 1’s way of reminding those who are left in the republican party why they have been supporting him. It’s just more “dog whistling.”

None of this is going to work for him – it’s all coming across, at least to me, as acts of desperation. I keep pointing this out to our IMPEACHED so-called president that he’s putting one blunder on top of another blunder and, sadly, this is making things worse for all of us. And, of course, he’s not listening to me – probably a surprise to no one. The next month or two should be interesting, to say the least, as states “open up” and we find out whether the scientists are correct about the potential of this virus going forward. Individual 1 says “it will just go away.” Scientists are saying the amount of deaths could double in the next couple of months. Stay tuned…………..

Final Thought: If you’re questioning my suggestion individual 1 is “connected” to those who hang out at the “Stormfront.com” white nationalist “world,” you may need to look no further than one of his “senior advisors,” Stephen Miller. Miller is mentioned in “Rising out of Hatred” as being connected (in some kind of way) with Richard Spencer, a strong individual 1 supporter and, apparently, the person who “coined” the phrase “alt right.” Spencer and Miller were associated together when they attended Duke University. Also, there’s a “trove” of emails from Miller to Breitbart.com which further suggest Miller is a believer in the message coming from Stormfront. The reason I point this out is because I believe individual 1 and Miller want it “both ways.” They want to send their “dog whistles” to the white nationalist movement while, at the same time, suggesting to “we the people” they’re “not racists.” I just don’t believe you can have it both ways. I believe this issue should be front and center in the next election. Believe what you want, just don’t LIE about it to “we the people.” Personally,

I’m looking forward to the day when the “white nationalists” stop viewing themselves as “victims” and realize those of us who are white in this country have had built in advantages since the beginning of this nation. And, suggesting this is a “white country” is a bit ludicrous when you think about the European genocide of the Native Americans and, in reality, most African Americans have a heritage going back well before most of those people who are leading the racist attacks on the “Black and Brown” communities in America. None of that is debatable.

It just keeps getting more absurd! Today, what individual 1 said reminded me of a couple sayings I think our IMPEACHED so-called president should pay attention to. I know most who read what I write would not expect me to be giving individual 1 good advice, but, I’m giving it my best, here are the sayings: First, “what goes around comes around” and, second, “be careful what you wish for.” My memory was jogged as Individual 1 claimed, today, Barack Obama committed “the worst crime” (“Obamagate”) ever. He called it “disgraceful,” and when a reporter asked him “What crime?” our IMPEACHED so-called president responded by saying, “You know what it is.” OK???

So, I have to wonder if William Barr is going to be continuing his attempt at becoming the 21st century version of Roy Cohn and is going to be instigating some kind of McCarthyite “investigation” of our former president – the one who’s much more popular than the one we have today – probably looking to individual 1 like a terrifying majority of Americans. Apparently, last week, on what was supposed to be a private call former president Obama took part in, he gave an accurate description of individual 1’s response to this coronavirus pandemic. Supposedly, that is what prompted our IMPEACHED so-called president to “Tweet” over 120 times on Mother’s day – with nary even one “tweet” referencing any mothers – other than a generic “HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY.”

It’s been no secret former president Obama gets under individual 1’s skin pretty easily. It has seemed, if there is one focused plan in his administration, undoing anything attributed to “Obama” has been the “order of the day” for our IMPEACHED so-called president. I mean, individual 1 gained his white nationalist following by leading the “birther” movement questioning whether President Obama was born in America or not. What do you think was the motivation behind that movement? Race?? I suppose, when it gets right down to it, other than Vladimir Putin, individual 1 has President Obama to thank for him being our IMPEACHED so-called president – the white nationalists revere him for the “birther” movement and they make up a significant part of his “base.”

Getting back to individual 1 suggesting President Obama committed a “disgraceful crime” which “began long before I (he) took office” I absolutely think whatever Obama did should be investigated. I thought the GW Bush/Cheney regime SHOULD have been investigated and I can guarantee you if I had one question to ask Joe Biden as he’s running to replace individual 1 as our “leader” it would be “are you going to allow the Justice Department (obviously, with a new Attorney General) to investigate individual 1 after you’ve taken the oath to defend our constitution? Are all the other investigations going to be allowed to go forward? For example, I’m not convinced the “collusion” with Russia has EVER stopped. No one knows what is discussed when individual 1 talks with or meets with Vladimir Putin. And, by all accounts, the Russian “interference” not only has not subsided, but has intensified and has become much more sophisticated – stealth cyber warfare.

So, yes, investigate President Obama and, as I said above, “be careful what you wish for!” Those of us who loathe the idea of individual 1 having another four years in the “White House” want our IMPEACHED so-called president to keep making the commercials for Biden’s campaign. Every time individual 1 suggests President Obama needs to be investigated – there’s another campaign ad for Biden. The best strategy for Biden right now is, well, NOTHING! Do NOTHING! Just continue recording every word that comes from individual 1’s mouth. Of course, having President Obama do an occasional campaign rally would likely be very helpful – especially, in the response it would generate from individual 1. Honestly, our IMPEACHED so-called president seems more deranged by the day. I’m not sure if that’s more scary or sad??

I’m just finishing a very interesting read titled “Rising Out of Hatred – the awakening of a former white nationalist” by eli saslow and I highly recommend the book. In the book, there is a repeated reference to the website “Stormfront.com” (Google it) and individual 1 is mentioned in passing several times in the book – which simply suggested he was the candidate of those who associate with the KKK, like David Duke, Don Black, and other committed white nationalists. (Black, the father of the young man on who the book is focused, came across to me as a loving Dad with a messed up ideology – but, I digress) My point is there’s a reason all those people protesting the “shutdown” are wearing individual 1 hats and carrying confederate flags and/or wearing swastikas, etc. There’s a disturbing connection.

If you’re wondering why, despite all the blundering, all the incompetence, all the LYING, etc. coming from our IMPEACHED so-called president, individual 1’s support remains solid at between 40% and 45% – read this book. There is a significant number of Americans who believe the “oppressed” class of Americans are the white Americans – not those in the minorities – despite the OVERWHELMING evidence to the contrary. It’s really interesting, at least to me, reading about how a group of students at a small college in Florida – one student in particular – caused the heir apparent to the “Stormfront” community to admit he was wrong in his belief system and to publicly acknowledge it – to an incredible backlash from “his” (former) community. (He is Don Black’s son)

What is apparent to me is that individual 1 HASN’T changed his own beliefs since taking office – it becomes crystal clear as he responds to words coming from Obama – and, I guess this is the bottom line why I believe individual 1 has serious mental health issues! It’s not just the overt racism he can’t “hide,” but it’s also his “thin skinned” response to virtually any criticism coming at him. He likes to come across as the “tough guy” but, yesterday, he just “whimpered” away after a couple female reporters challenged him at a press briefing. This was shortly after he had made his obscure accusation against his reviled predecessor.

It appears individual 1’s new campaign strategy will be “sicking” William Barr onto President Obama and, by extension, Joe Biden as a way to tarnish Biden after the failed attempt to get the Ukrainians to do it for him. Virtually every decision coming from individual 1 makes things worse for him and I don’t believe this will be any different. MOST of the American people will become even more turned off to our IMPEACHED so-called president and, I believe, this will cause even more republican Senators to go down with him. Individual 1’s constant threat to “jail” his opponents – as I said above – is likely to come back to “bite” him. He’s the one who ACTUALLY should be concerned about presidents being investigated once out of office!

Michael Cohen is sitting in jail, on a three year sentence, for work he did as individual 1’s attorney. If you’ve wondered why our IMPEACHED so-called president still managed to get elected despite his admission in the Access Hollywood tape that he’s a sexual predator you need to read the book I mentioned above. They don’t care about his sexual prowess – the white nationalist movement has been searching for a way into “mainstream politics” for over 40 years and he’s their vehicle. And, they don’t care about the payments to a porn star which got Cohen thrown into jail – but, I believe, there are MILLIONS of Americans who do care. And, after out of office, individual 1 will likely have to deal with why I refer to him as “individual 1” – thanks to the prosecutors in New York who put Mr. Cohen in jail. (I suggested a couple years ago individual 1 would come to rue the day he decided to run for president – maybe that day’s getting closer)

I have to believe that, despite his public attempts to convince “we the people” he’s “doing a great job” in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, he has to be having some sleepless nights. Even someone who comes across as completely lacking ANY capacity for empathy, when they are constantly seeing references to their own failings at the beginning of a crisis such as this, which has claimed over 80,000 lives and counting, there has to be moments of regret, don’t you think? – maybe? The evidence of sleepless nights for individual 1 would be the late night “tweet storms” which sometimes appear to go on for many hours – hundreds of “tweets.” Of course, from what I’ve been able to “tell,” – I don’t do “Twitter” – the “tweets” don’t demonstrate any “regret.” (The ones I’ve seen, anyway)

Here’s the sad reality for anyone who is thinking of defending the performance of individual 1 during this pandemic. The United States represents about 5% of the world’s population and, based on the data at worldometer.info the United States represents about one third of all the coronavirus cases worldwide. Based on what I’ve read during this pandemic the time to “defeat” the virus is at the beginning – which makes individual 1’s “missing 70 days” so egregiously bad. This appears to be what allowed the virus to gain such a “stranglehold” in America. And, it appears, once it has made that “stranglehold” it’s going to run its course – period. So, the virus is going to be with us for the foreseeable future.

The challenge has been – after the initial blunders of the “missing 70 days” – to be “mitigation.” Mitigation, if I understand it correctly – based on the explanation of people like Anthony Fauci – is the process of the “shelter in place” orders coming from most of the governors and the other ways of controlling the intensity of the disease – Covid-19 – which results from the virus. For example, “testing, contact tracing, and isolation” should be the strategy for opening the economy back up – but, it should be a NATIONAL strategy. Apparently, individual 1 is just not able to “impose” any kind of a national response to this virus. (Well, actually, he did break one out, but he basically trashed his own plan within 24 hours) It appears he fears responsibility.

So, I’m pointing this out in response to individual 1’s threats to investigate “Obamagate” – which appears to be him blaming President Obama for the Russians attempting (and succeeding) to help him win the 2016 election. He still doesn’t seem to understand the original “Russia investigation” would have ended much quicker had he simply allowed it to proceed – and, it would have verified what the other investigations verified – that the Russians did it. Of course, his son and son-in-law should NOT have met with the Russians to get “dirt” on Hillary Clinton – but, that was not determined to be a crime. Virtually everything in the Mueller report which could be considered “criminal” resulted from individual 1’s own behavior, his reaction to the investigation. And, like in every thing else which doesn’t go “his way,” individual 1 looks for who to BLAME, and his actions make things worse – for HIM!

Trying to blame Obama for the investigation or any part of it is absurd on its face – It wasn’t President Obama who discovered the Russians were involved in the “intrusion.” It was our CIA and other agencies in the DNI – along with our allied intelligence agencies who were witnessing the same thing – I believe it was the Australian Intelligence Agency who alerted the FBI of George Papadopoulus’ claim the Russians had hacked the DNC – which, of course, turned out to be true and was the “trigger” for the “Russia thing.” Honestly, I would EXPECT the FBI to investigate that. The bottom line is individual 1 will NOT be able to “wish away” all the contact people in his campaign had with Russians and, additionally, his “request” to the Russians that they “Find the missing 30,000 emails” was made on national TV. None of this is disputable!

William Barr masterfully managed to divert the reality of what was in the Mueller report by his public statements (LIES) which came out prior to the release of the redacted report – as I’ve said here numerous times, I read it cover to cover TWICE – but, I don’t think there’s any way he’ll succeed in “twisting” the TRUTH in that report and somehow “aiming” it back at former President Obama – Obamagate???? Yikes! Actually, if that’s the plan, maybe that would get more attention back onto Mueller’s report and might even cause more people to actually read it. I don’t think you can read that report and not come to the conclusion that, at a minimum, individual 1 is GUILTY of multiple acts of OBSTRUCTION of Justice. In his report Mueller even goes out of his way to explain why OBSTRUCTION is such a serious CRIME – as he’s listing the evidence of about 10 instances where individual 1 committed OBSTRUCTION. Mueller honored the OLC memo and didn’t consider and indictment – instead leaving it to Congress to consider IMPEACHMENT – the option Barr “cut the legs out from” with his absurd “summary.”

There’s another old saying and that is “when you’re digging, if it’s not getting you where you want to go, STOP digging.” (I think that’s an old saying – if not – well, I made it up) That would be more of my advice to our IMPEACHED so-called president – I just don’t think he’ll listen to me. His total focus SHOULD be on doing the best he can to minimize the DAMAGE of this pandemic on “we the people,” but he just can’t bring himself to do that. Clearly his focus is on somehow finding a way to “win” the election in November and as the polling gets worse for him he gets more desperate and resorts to the kind of actions which have made the polling continue to get worse for him. Is that what you call the vicious cycle?

Final Thought(s): No matter what (unless he would resign) “we the people” are stuck with individual 1 as our IMPEACHED so-called president until January 20, 2021. I’ve been comparing him to a mob boss for over two years now – it took me a while to figure this out via observation and reading a few books – and we’re really seeing more evidence of this as reality begins to close in on him. Keep in mind, he must think about what happens once he’s no longer protected by that Office of Legal Counsel memo “suggesting” a president can NOT be indicted while in office as mentioned above on a daily basis. There’s the two felony charges which garnered him the name “individual 1” awaiting his removal from office via the Southern District of New York (SDNY) and, Mueller was clear when he said the evidence in his report was “memorialized” so it could be pursued once he was out of office should a prosecutor desire. Of course, there’s a multitude of other legal “issues” which are awaiting his return to being a “civilian.” He was in the Supreme Court this week fighting to keep his taxes secret, which he seems to consider of paramount importance.

This is why I find it so curious as to his obsession with going after his political opponents. It appears he’s unable to see them as opponents in a process where voters get to decide an “outcome” – in regard to an election. He views anyone who’s a political “opponent” as an “enemy” and his instinct seems to be that he/she needs to be destroyed. His obsession with all of this has caused many others – who are ALL much smarter than me – to suggest he’s mentally ill. And, watching him at his press briefing yesterday, that’s all I could think about. I started to feel a sense of pity for him – which is strange, because I loathe what he stands for. He came across to me as pathetic.

I keep seeing him as the sixth grade bully who goes home from school and is never admonished. Being raised in a family where if anyone criticizes their “child” the “onus” is put back on the teacher or whoever is responsible for the criticism. I believe the pathological LYING begins at an early age and, in his case, has, obviously, never been addressed. As I’ve said, I think he believes his own LIES as they roll off his tongue – which is dangerous when you consider the position he holds. And, of course, he believes in REVENGE – which, I believe is going to become more and more apparent as we approach January of next year. I truly hope I’m wrong, but I anticipate some ugly times between now and then.

His reference to the “very fine people” after Charlottesville followed by calling the armed protesters spitting in the faces of the Capitol police in Michigan’s Capitol building as they were attempting to push their way into the Capitol chamber “very good people” were, in both instances, coded (“dog whistle”) messages to the group hanging out at Stormfront.com. Most Americans (including me) missed the connection just as they kind of glossed over the LIE when he claimed he didn’t know who David Duke is during the 2016 campaign. For me, reading “Rising out of Hatred” was a real “eye opener. I had connected individual 1 with the white nationalist movement simply via inference, but I had never checked out “Stormfront,” nor did I really have a clue about how involved the white nationalist movement actually is.

If individual 1 can find a way to STEAL another election he’ll do whatever it takes – but, if “we the people” prevail it will be these “very fine (good) people” who will lead the way in the “revenge tour.” The transition period should be really interesting. (And, of course, I hope it’s peaceful – one way or the other) I have written about the disturbing similarities between individual 1’s administration and Germany of the 1930’s. I had seen the video of individual 1 encouraging the “Heil” salute at a campaign rally and similarly at a rally for one of his white nationalist supporters, Richard Spencer – it just makes it more serious to me when I read about some of his supporters wearing shirts with pictures of Hitler and individual 1 emblazoned on the front.

Oh yes, one more thing: I’m not the best to report on what’s going on with Facebook because I don’t do, nor will I do, Facebook. However, from what I hear, the political misinformation is flowing hot and heavy already as the individual 1 desperation mounts. And, the reality is both the individual 1 campaign and the Russians have the info which worked for them back in 2016 – information on hundreds of millions of unsuspecting Americans who are susceptible to their LYING er “misinformation.” If “we the people” are determined to cause individual 1 to be a one term president there shouldn’t be a day of complacency between now and November 3rd.

Of course, the solution to the misinformation coming from individual 1 and his supporters isn’t misinformation coming from those who oppose him. Somehow, “we the people” should be able to expect some kind of information which is factual. How do you do that? I really don’t know because FREE SPEECH is a foundational part of our nation. Maybe the tech whizzes who have created the platforms like Facebook and Twitter can figure out how to prevent their internet portals from becoming political cess pools. To me, people like Mark Zuckerberg have too much potential for political manipulation. My hope would be our leaders in Congress would recognize there are some behemoth monopolies being created with these tech companies and that these monopolies are dangerous. More on this later…………………..

I’m watching all this Covid-19 stuff pretty closely and I’ve come to the conclusion individual 1 simply is unable to deal with this crisis – and “we the people” are simply forced to just go into the abyss with him. He’s the (IMPEACHED so-called) president and there’s nothing we can do about that until November’s election – and, of course, it could get even worse with individual 1 in office for almost three months during the transition period – he could get even more deranged, if that’s possible. I keep telling myself he’s going to realize he’s got to come up with a plan and then………. more of the same. He says one thing one day and almost the opposite the next. It’s as if he still doesn’t really understand what is happening.

Sadly, his focus has been on getting re-elected and he’s got what appears to be a serious level of paranoia based on his “ratings.” He’s either a mob boss or he’s a pseudo mob boss and he takes out revenge on ANYONE who even suggests he’s NOT a “stable genius.” His incompetence and/or his corrupt behavior goes way beyond what is happening with the coronavirus – although, obviously, the virus is in the headlines every day – we’re stuck in our homes and people are dying by the thousands every day so you’d expect that to be where “we the people” have our focus.

However, there’s a whole bunch of other stuff going on which will be in the “pile” of lasting “DAMAGE” individual 1 is going to be leaving behind once he’s out of office – this is why many people who are “in the know” are suggesting it will take at least 10 years to recover from what our IMPEACHED so-called president leaves behind. Of course, his plan is to “win” re-election apparently so he can make all this “DAMAGE” worse. And, of course, if you don’t understand he will CHEAT in any way he can in order to “win” the election you’ve had your “head in the sand.”

How might he do this CHEATING? Well, we know the Russians are still busy trying to keep individual 1 in office although they have a rapidly increasing Covid-19 crisis of their own so maybe they will be a little less focused – but, at least we know they’re here. We know he tried to enlist the Ukrainians to help him CHEAT and that’s what led to his IMPEACHMENT – and, I might add one more time, republicans had the opportunity to end this nightmare last January – but, I digress. Well, now he’s getting much more sophisticated in his attack on our voting system. While democrats all over the country are fighting for a “vote by mail” election this November, individual 1 and his sycophants are surreptitiously working to either eliminate the Postal Service or to put cronies in place who might…………….????? I don’t know what they might do, but……

Just the thought of what could happen with the Post Office and how that might effect the upcoming election I couldn’t help thinking about a group of disaffected republicans who’ve formed an anti- individual 1 group called the “Lincoln Project.” This group is a bunch of republican operatives who, to a degree, are the reason individual 1 is in office and they’ve realized what a mistake that has become. The members include Kelley-Anne Conway’s husband George, Bill Crystal, Steve Schmidt, and Rick Wilson (who wrote “Everything (individual 1 Touches dies).” This group’s first anti-individual 1 ad caused individual 1 to have a 24 hour “tweet storm” calling all of the members derogatory names, of course. That is something which our IMPEACHED so-called president has a lot of practice.

I bring this up because these former republicans know how to forge a campaign for national office – they get right to the point and they know what they’re doing. Democrats would be wise to unite with this group and LEARN something. As I’ve said over and over here, this is a WAR for the heart and soul of America. And republicans, well, they’re going to be republicans and they believe “The end justifies the means” – hence, CHEATING = OK. And, the democrats just continue to get “played” by the republicans and they need help – from where? Yep, from these former republicans. I just listened to Chuck Schumer complaining about how Wall Street is doing “just fine” and the republican donors are doing well. The reason Wall Street is doing well is because democrats have allowed TRILLIONS, for Wall Street, to be part of the CARES Act. When that “act” was being negotiated democrats had leverage. Not as much now.

I pointed out when all these “CARES Acts” were being proposed that democrats needed to take advantage of the leverage they had at the time. Of course, the democrats were focused on getting as much money to the working people as they could as quickly as they could – which was honorable, but a week or two wouldn’t have caused any more of a bottleneck than what happened anyway – but, democrats “saved” things like the Post Office, Vote by Mail, money for State and Local governments, and money for hospitals – for some of the critical needs “for the next bill.” I pointed out what a HUGE mistake that was. It’s a rare time when democrats have had “leverage” on republicans and, hopefully, that opportunity has not passed, but……

Here’s the deal, when Schumer was pointing out how well Wall Street is doing – which, of course, is the focus of republicans – that was because democrats “gave” republicans something on the lines of $7 TRILLION to be used by either Jerome Powell or Steve Mnuchin to bail out the markets and, now? Well, what more do republicans need? Clearly, they don’t care what “we the people” think – that their support of Wall Street is SHAMELESS. Of course, there was a need to provide some money for Wall Street, it’s just a bit awkward to see the stock market respond to unemployment numbers at depression era levels with an upswing on the DOW. Reports that Billionaires have increased their wealth by almost $200 BILLION during this crisis is going to, at a minimum, raise a few eyebrows.

So, now, as democrats are going to be proposing the relief for the Post Office, the money for “Vote by Mail,” the money to keep police officers, firefighters, and other public sector workers on the jobs around the country they’re getting a “shrug” from republicans. They’ve given up their leverage – maybe for a “promise” from Mnuchin or individual 1 or Moscow Mitch. You’d think they’d learn. That’s exactly why I believe democrats would be wise to enlist the services of people who understand how the republicans are going to attempt to STEAL this next election. And, as an aside, just imagine individual 1 dealing with the climate crisis which very well could be at the “you can’t ignore me anymore” stage once “we the people” are on the other side of this Covid-19 crisis.

Well, this is where the “Lincoln Project” could come in handy. They know how the republicans work because, well, up until individual 1 came along, they were all republicans. And, they’re not so worried about offending the “other side” in this WAR which is why I believe democrats need to join forces with them and LEARN from them. There’s an old saying, “You fight fire with fire” whereas many people say democrats go to a duel with a “butter knife.” It really is time to take the “gloves off” – if it’s not too late. I guarantee you, republicans will attempt to pin the blame on democrats for any issues with legislation helping the republican donors, so the democrats might as well earn the “blame.”

So, there can be NO more help for Wall Street or any of the other things on the republican “wish list” unless democrats are able to take full advantage of ANY leverage they still have. (There must be “red” states who need funding, don’t you think? Like, for example, Kentucky? or South Carolina? or Texas?) If democrats are unwilling to draw a “line in the sand” over the Post Office and the Vote by Mail at this point in time, for example, their chances for “winning” in November go way down. (And, by the way, democrats MUST absolutely refuse to relax the payroll tax – but, that’s a story for another day) And, as I said, republicans are going to be blaming democrats for all the cops who lose their jobs without a “swift” passage of the next bill – and, they had better NOT fall for it! Many wonder: Can things get any worse? Answer = Yes!

Another, maybe even more serious abuse individual 1 will either leave behind or, somewhat more unnerving, boost him going forward should he manage to “win” the November election can be summed up in two words: William Barr. Individual 1 constantly lamented for his “Roy Cohn” as he was lashing out at his first Attorney General Jeff Sessions and, it appears, he’s happy now because Mr. Barr fills that role. And, if you’re not aware, Cohn was a disgraced Mob lawyer who defended the infamous Joe McCarthy back in the 50’s and, apparently, individual 1 during the early days of individual 1’s business failures. Based on what I’ve read it was Cohn who taught our IMPEACHED so-called president to NEVER admit a mistake and ALWAYS “hit back 10 times harder” when you feel attacked. Which, as (our IMPEACHED so-called) president you have to expect you’re going to be criticized. Yikes!!! This is a dangerous situation!

So, today, Mr. Barr said the Justice Department is dropping ALL the charges against Michael Flynn who actually pled GUILTY to the charge of LYING to the FBI early in the “Russia thing.” Still, not many of the people on TV commenting on this travesty are reminding us all of the other “stuff” Flynn was alleged to have committed, which amount to much more serious crimes than LYING to the FBI and VP Pense. For example, I never for a minute thought what Flynn said to the Russian Ambassador was unknown to those in the “White House” – and I always felt the reason individual 1 wanted James Comey to “let Flynn go” was for reasons we still likely don’t understand. However, what we should all understand is that Flynn was working as an unregistered lobbyist for Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president (dictator) of Turkey.

In his work for Erdogan Flynn was ALLEGEDLY involved in a kidnap scheme designed to return a Turkish Cleric who is a critic of Erdogan out of Pennsylvania and back to Turkey where, apparently, he could be executed. Flynn collected nearly half a MILLION dollars in his work for Turkey (without registering as an agent) all while working for individual 1 as his proposed National Security Adviser – as a three star general you’d think he’d know better, especially after leading the “Lock her up” chant at the republican convention. This money from Turkey was in addition to the $45,000 he took from the Russians for some reason after spending an evening having dinner with Vladimir Putin after being fired as America’s head of the Department of National Intelligence. Do you think he should have known better? I hope you answered – Yes!

Final Thought: Today as I logged in to “Yahoo Finance” – it’s just a habit to see how the stock market is doing – the headline read: “Futures hold gains as data show collapse in job market.” Well, if that doesn’t make it clear – the disconnect from Wall Street to Main Street – I’m not sure what it will take. At some point I believe the reality of what is happening will set in, even on Wall Street. With over 30 MILLION workers collecting unemployment benefits the market appears to be thinking there’s going to be a “V” recovery – meaning it’s going back up as sharply as it went down and that doesn’t make sense to me. Jerome Powell has access to TRILLIONS to funnel into the market which has apparently caused it to stabilize.

Of course, I believe the market being stabilized is important, I just hope republicans stop with the “free market” scam they’ve been pushing on “we the people” since the day Ronald Reagan took the oath of office. When taxpayers are called upon to bail out Wall Street periodically when there’s some kind of crisis, well, to me, that’s closer to socialism than capitalism. I keep thinking of how some people have said, on Wall Street they “capitalize the gains and socialize the losses.” Well, I certainly hope there will be oversight of the TRILLIONS which have gone into the market since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis. Individual 1 has fired virtually any inspector general who might be watching how these TRILLIONS are being dispersed and I’m assuming democrats are going to find a way to figure out where all the money is going. After all, $6 TRILLION or $7 TRILLION is a lot of money!

Republicans, for instance, seem to have no concern with how much money is going to Wall Street, BUT – they are REALLY concerned that they somehow were convinced to agree with a bill providing $600 per week for unemployed workers. My son is a minimum wage worker (works in a restaurant – where NO one works full time – except the managers – and, there are NO benefits beyond wages and tips) and his job is temporarily on “hold” based on the virus. He’s actually able to buy stuff he needs right now because the unemployment benefits finally have come through. I told him to be thankful because I’ve never seen the government providing REAL help to working class Americans – EVER!

Well, after writing that last sentence, I remembered the unemployment office providing great help for me 30 years ago after the Sawmill I was working in was shut down – it was just a different form of help. They helped me get “retrained” and that may end up being a “need” as the effects of this virus play out. I hope my son uses that $600 per week to help him get some kind of retraining – because the restaurant industry may be facing a really difficult next few years. The benefit I received came as a result of Bill Clinton signing the “Timber workers relocation act” – so “we the people” have a history of caring about each other, it has just seemed to me that every time something like this happened we’ve seen democrats fighting against republican obstruction.

In the case of this present unemployment compensation, I still remember Lindsey Graham and a group of other republicans fighting the bill until the final moment when it was passed. And, since I’ve heard many republicans complaining about “workers” receiving that kind of money – “They won’t want to come back to work.” So, as they “open” the economy at a point when MOST people believe it’s “too soon” these “workers” will have to decide between their unemployment benefits and risking their lives if they’re uneasy about, for example, going to work in a restaurant – or, like in the meat packing plants around the country where, in many cases, a majority of workers have the virus. Stay tuned……………………

Oh yes, I believe no matter what is done to re-open the economy, if it’s too soon, it’s too soon. I’m not sure how much money republicans can come up with to keep the “market” on the upswing – but, the reality is when people are dying at a rate where there’s no room for all the bodies and when close to 20% of the population is unemployed, you have to wonder why the market is going up? Should all be interesting…………………

I’d love to be a “fly on the wall” in some of the meetings between individual 1 and some of the republican governors who are “re-opening” their economies in the face of “data” which would indicate they’ve decided, like the Lt. Governor of Texas said recently, “there’s worst things than living.” I can’t help but think of all those who have pushed the theory of the only way to “beat” Covid-19 is through “herd” immunity – meaning let the virus run its course and “let the cards fall where they may.” I have to believe the strategy with these republican governors is virtually the opposite of what has been recommended by health experts whose focus is on saving as many lives as they can.

I believe their “plan” is to minimize testing and to LIE about the cause of deaths in their states. Whereas the health experts have said we should have massive testing, “contact tracing,” and capacity in the hospitals in case there’s another “surge,” these (republican) governors are doing none of that. As I’ve said, and I’ve admitted I’m cynical – I DON’T believe a word coming from individual 1’s mouth, those around him, governors like DeSantis of Florida or Kemp of Georgia and I’d love to hear how they discuss the “data” which suggests the brunt of the deaths are coming from elderly people and black and brown people. I believe these governors are willing to do whatever it takes, in their minds, to get individual 1 re-elected – with no regard to the people who are going to die due to their decisions.

Individual 1 is working full time to DEFLECT the blame away from his own disastrous actions at the beginning of this crisis and it appears our IMPEACHED so-called president is putting his focus (which is a challenge in and of itself) toward China and trying to suggest this virus was created in a lab in Wuhan (Apparently, he got that one from Fox). Scientific evidence CLEARLY has suggested it came from someone in China eating (ugh!) a bat. It makes me uncomfortable to even write that. To me, whether it came from eating a bat (ugh!) or from the lab in Wuhan, I’m not sure how that makes a bit of difference in regard to individual 1’s INCOMPETENT “leadership.” He’s NOT going to be running away from the reality of, for example, the missing 70 days. It’s all on video tape – and, we’ll be reminded of that over and over again. Plus, he’ll continue to make more tapes for Biden!

This past weekend he FIRED another Inspector General who apparently, just like the others he FIRED, had the audacity to tell the TRUTH about the issue with “PPD” in our nation’s hospitals. To individual 1 telling the TRUTH is being “disloyal.” This all reminds me of the issue with James Comey. Individual 1 denied publicly that he ever asked Comey to give him “loyalty” but now it’s clear Comey was telling the truth about our IMPEACHED so-called president – just as if he’s the mob boss many of us think he is – he instinctively continues to confirm what Comey alleged prior to him being unceremoniously exited from the FBI. And, now individual 1 has cleared out the leadership of the Justice Department (sans William Barr) and the Department of National Intelligence – presumably in order to make sure “we the people” never hear the TRUTH about what he’s doing to our government.

More and more people are beginning to see what a DANGEROUS (so-called) president we have in office at this point in time. And, he’s got enough time and this is a dangerous enough time that between now and next January we could be looking at one of the darkest times in American history. He very possibly could be leading “we the people” into another “great depression” and, I’m guessing, he’ll be blaming President Obama as he’s dragged out of the “White House” screaming the election was rigged in 2021. Of course, that’s where all those “very fine (or good) people” will come onto the scene for him. Members of the white nationalist community NEVER thought they would manage to “move into the mainstream” of American politics – and, they’re not going to be happy when that “house built on sand” slips into the “ocean.” It could get ugly.

And, speaking of ugly – the reality “we the people” are facing very likely is going to get really ugly – and, this appears to me to be the cruelest of ironies. Individual 1 is desperate to re-open the economy because he believes that’s the only way he’s going to get re-elected. (I’ll point out later why he’s so desperate to get re-elected – aside from his narcissism) And, based on what I’ve read and what I’m seeing – meaning the actions of our IMPEACHED so-called president and his sycophantic governors, in the long run (meaning, maybe a month or two), they could be making all of this worse and turning the economy into a downward spiral the likes of which only those alive in the 1930’s would have seen. I just don’t think new cases in the hundreds of thousands and deaths approaching 3,000 per day (or more) is the recipe for a vibrant economy.

The long term damage which could be the result of this short sighted approach to dealing with this pandemic very well could be the destruction of our health care system. Covid-19 patients are overwhelming our hospitals and untold Americans are failing to go to the hospital because they don’t want to be exposed to this deadly virus and/or the hospitals are full. My daughter is a RN and I’m praying every day she can do her job and avoid getting this virus and bringing it home to her family. My niece works in one of the University of Washington hospitals as an Occupational Therapist – well, now she’s a “dofficer” – as she helps doctors and nurses who are dealing with Covid-19 patients to get into and out of their PPD. The idea of making it worse for these incredible people puts me beyond “complaining” here – it ticks me off!

Individual 1 just continues to make his place in the darkest corners of America’s history books – not only the CHEATING to get “elected,” or the willingness to do it again, but worst than all of that will be the DAMAGE to this nation by the incompetence in dealing with this pandemic. If you remember the Ebola outbreak – well, maybe you don’t even remember it – because the Obama administration had a “plan” which kept the outbreak in Western Africa where it originally broke out – that virus could very well have been as bad as Covid-19 if, for example, individual 1 was our so-called president at that time. Once you allow the virus to get embedded into the society, well “Katy bar the door.” It didn’t have to be this way.

Likely, with all the air travel from China – due to all our multi-national corporations – I don’t think it was possible to protect America from this virus just as it’s in virtually every other country around the world. However, the DAMAGE to America didn’t have to be this bad. We could have instigated a massive testing, contact tracing, and quarantining “plan” like South Korea or some of the other places who kept the number of cases and the number of deaths down – addressing the issue aggressively from the beginning. For example, that would have prevented the Mardi Gras – which helped to spread this virus all around the world.

Clearly, from the beginning, individual 1 has been more concerned with his re-election – via the Stock Market – than “we the people.” And, now that they’ve discovered the bulk of those who will be the “2% to 3%” Dr. Oz mentioned on Fox “news” a week or two ago ( 6.6 to 10 MILLION Americans) – the number who would die with a “re-opening” of the economy – are going to be the elderly, prisoners, and Black and Brown people. Therefore, in the mind of our IMPEACHED so-called president, it’s time to open things up and disband the Coronavirus task force. Additionally, with any luck from individual 1’s perspective, maybe they can finally get “Obamacare” overturned during this pandemic. I’m not kidding, individual 1’s Justice Department is in court arguing for the end of “Obamacare” as I’m writing this! It’s like we’ve evolved into “la la” land.

The mistakes individual 1 continues to make are the kind you can’t retreat from – it’s as if he’s putting all his “chips” on the “table.” And, when we get to that place where the death toll spikes upward, should that be what happens, our IMPEACHED so-called president’s plan, actually lack of plan, clearly will be to BLAME the various governors around the country. Well, the eager ones are all his republican sycophants – so, is he going to be blaming Ron DeSantis for all the old people dying in Florida? Is he going to be blaming Brian Kemp for the spike in deaths in Georgia? These are places he MUST “win” if he’s to be re-elected. (Of course, if they decide not to do testing and they choose not to identify the cause of death in the cases of many of the people who die in their states in the next couple of months, well…………. then every thing will be OK, right?

Personally, the ONLY thing which has made sense to me, right from the start in all this, would have been a national “plan” coming from the “White House” so that everything is coordinated. As I just said, the mistakes being made are serious because there are immense consequences every time you screw up – because this virus is so contagious and moves so quickly. So, while, at the outset, individual 1 had the opportunity to act like an actual president and he blew it – and, now, it’s likely too late. Plus, I just don’t believe he’s even capable of doing so – but, basically, “That ship has sailed.” And, of course, our IMPEACHED so-called president continues to make it worse.

Individual 1’s failures go well beyond the BLUNDERING response to the Covid-19 pandemic. For example, farmers around the country are plowing under lush crops, dairy farmers are dumping thousands upon thousands of milk – which, easily, could be made into cheese – a great form of protein – and, at the same time, people are lining up at food banks around the country in desperate attempts to feed their families. As far as I can tell, there is NO plan in place to re-route this food to those who desperately need it and republicans in Congress are more focuses on protecting their donors from Wall Street – the latest report is Moscow Mitch is willing to block the next “CARES” act from passage unless businesses get liability relief going forward in regard to employees working in their plants. I’m not sure why that is the republican’s focus when so many people are hungry, out of work, and stuck at home. At a minimum, in my view, we SHOULD be TRYING to provide food and temporary income to help get those most affected by this virus to the other side – wherever that may be. And, of course, this is just one of the “issues” which demonstrate individual 1 is in “way over his head.”

I’ll end with today, the Doctor who was demoted for refusing to allow himself to be intimidated into giving the OK to a drug which had no scientific evidence to support its use (Hydroxychloroquine) plus Bayer (the company) which volunteered to “give” one million pills coming from India and Pakistan via manufacturers who haven’t been vetted by the FDA – published his “whistle blower” complaint – which, the parts I heard tonight, are most interesting. He’s planning to testify before the House next week and I’m predicting, right here, right now, individual 1 will do everything he can to prevent this doctor (I believe his name is Dr. Rick Bright) from testifying. Dr. Bright’s testimony is not likely to be complimentary toward our IMPEACHED so-called president.

Hydroxychloroquine is the drug right wing media outlets convinced the most vulnerable of individual 1’s cult to believe would be the “magic pill” saving people from this virus. Despite all the scientific evidence suggesting that was a bad idea they (individual 1 and his right wing media supporters) continued to BRAINWASH their supporters. Some even believed their story of someone being miraculously saved from certain death, in one day, by this “miracle drug.” All the while Dr. Bright was fighting to stop the brainwashing. Finally, the “studies” where the drug was actually administered to patients with Covid-19 showed this drug was dangerous to the hearts of those patients. Thankfully, those doctors aren’t trying disinfectant on these patients!

Final Thought: Mike Pompeo was a decorated graduate of West Point where the honor system would suggest that LYING just would not be something he’d be comfortable with. Well, if you’ve been following Pompeo at all, you know – well – apparently he never took the pledge seriously. At this point, as he’s attempting to help individual 1 DEFLECT blame from himself to China there you’ll find Pompeo these days supporting the unsubstantiated rumor that the Covid-19 pandemic started in a lab in Wuhan China – instead of what the scientists say is the virus is an animal to human virus – coming from eating that bat (ugh!) – as I’ve said many times – including above. We watched Pompeo show a willingness to LIE during the IMPEACHMENT episode and he’s been pretty quiet since – until individual 1 needed a bit of conspiracy theory support for another set of LIES! This is what you see when someone becomes desperate – meaning individual 1.

Rick Wilson wrote a book titled “Everyone Trump touches dies” and he goes through, in the book, all the people whose careers were being “sidelined” simply because they chose to defend individual 1 by taking part in this “deplorable” administration. Well, Pompeo is pushing himself right up the list of people who are putting their future “on hold” because of the taint of being part of this administration. He’s making it worse with all the easily

It appears that, on the horizon, as a way to get the topic changed, for at least a few days, the topic coming from the “White House” is going to be how Michael Flynn was treated so “unfairly” by the FBI. If individual 1 gets away with this – and, likely, he will – at least in regard to our so-called “liberal media” – it will be due to the predictable issue with amnesia which permeates America. And, this is understandable because we’re all witnessing an administration which has “provided” us with a “scandal a day.” So, the issue with Flynn seems to be a “lifetime” ago. There was much more to all this – Flynn’s GUILTY plea – than we’re likely to remember. But, I’ll try to help. (And, I’ve got the memory of an old person so I probably will miss some of it)

Flynn was working with his SON in a business which was ILLEGALLY lobbying for the government of Turkey. In addition, he had some kind of questionable arrangement with Vladimir Putin resulting in him accepting around $50,000 from the Russian government – which, I believe, was in violation of his status as a retired Army general. If you remember (and, if you don’t, I’ll remind you) Flynn was also involved in a scheme to kidnap a Turkish religious leader who lives in Pennsylvania and gets under the “skin” of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s dictator er president. Flynn’s son was involved in all of this – they had accepted half a MILLION dollars from Turkey without registering as foreign agents – all while working on individual 1’s campaign. Flynn was writing op-eds in support of Turkey.

It’s a bit curious why individual 1 would feel such an obligation to Flynn simply because the fact is he was doing these things while taking the job of National Security Adviser to the (now IMPEACHED so-called) president. Certainly, a retired Army general SHOULD have understood what he was doing was illegal. And, his son was right in the middle of it all based on all the reports I read at the time – so, I believed he got a “good deal” from the FBI with his plea arrangement because there were NO charges for anything other than his LYING to the FBI which would have ended up with possibly NO jail time had he followed through on his original agreement with Mueller. And, NO charges for his son! The judge in his case reminded him of some of the things he was doing aside from the LYING and he (the judge) considered it almost treasonous. All of this will be revisited, at least publicly, if individual 1 does what it appears he’s setting up to do – and that’s to give a pardon to Mr. Flynn. (And, once Flynn accepts the pardon he MUST testify with no “taking the 5th” privilege – for example, in the case there was a different Attorney General)

My guess is the pardon will be for the LYING and I’m not sure if that means he’s still liable for the other issues which were the ones the judge suggested might be treasonous. Additionally, I have to wonder if Flynn’s pardon leaves his son with nothing to worry about – I’m reasonably certain his original GUILTY plea was negotiated so his son was not charged with anything. Remember, there’s a pretty good chance individual 1 WON’T be in office past next January and, therefore, William Barr won’t be the head of the Justice Department. Admittedly, there will be a HUGE challenge to restore credibility to one of the foundational parts of our republic (The Justice Department), so the question of liability for crimes committed by individual 1 and his sycophants is up in the air.

When President Obama said we need to “look forward instead of back” as he, in essence, was enabling the lawbreaking of the Bush/Cheney administration I pointed out that was a monumentally BAD decision. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and others in their administration had authorized TORTURE (and, in the case of Bush and Cheney they both said they’d “do it again” – in interviews on national TV no less) plus other crimes and allowing that to “stand” was a terrible suggestion that those at the “top” are above the law. Additionally, virtually no one was charged with a crime in the financial disaster of 2008 despite Wall Street bankers (and banks) recklessly using other people’s money to make HUGE gains which were “ill-gotten” and then getting bailed out by the “we the people” who provided them the money they squandered in the first place. As many others beside myself predicted, this would enable a future president to feel comfortable violating our laws. Well, here we are again! We GET to choose if we want to continue on this present course – come November.

I feel as if this pandemic is likely to prevent much of a campaign (other than digitally) based on how we’re dealing with it right now – much of the country is in “re-open” mode as I’m writing this and, it appears, in most instances it’s too soon – at least based on the guidelines which came from the “White House task force” which was laid out just over a week ago. Of course, as I predicted, individual 1 would be unable to stick to his own “plan” and it only took about half of one day before he was “tweeting” LIBERATE – followed by a list of three states which had a group of white nationalists armed to the hilt “protesting” at their state capital while, in each instance, the state was following individual 1’s guidelines – the white nationalists were carrying an array of assault weapons, racist and Nazi signs, confederate flags, swastikas, and “MAGA” hats connecting them to individual 1. He, of course, reminded us they’re “very good people.”

Here’s what I hope DOESN’T happen should Joe Biden (or whoever the democrats nominate) become our 46th president: “Looking forward instead of back.” Not only are individual 1 and many of his sycophants – including William Barr – appearing to think the laws don’t apply to them, but they appear to be arrogantly believing democrats would never hold them accountable for their misdeeds. And, that would include the groups who are invading our state capitals carrying assault weapons – pseudo terrorists. For example, there is clear video evidence of the thugs, who they are, the ones who forced their way into Michigan’s capitol building yesterday and were yelling in the faces of the capitol police. I hope there will be a time when these people are forced to realize they live in a country which is a “country of laws and not men.” I have to wonder if they believe their actions are helping individual 1?

Along that line, the reason I’m becoming more confident individual 1 is going to LOSE in November is I believe he’s finally got the attention of all of us and his decisionmaking is being exposed to a wide array of Americans who don’t watch Fox “news” and the other right wing outlets which act as sycophants. Just yesterday Mike Pense suggested the virus will be in the rear view mirror by Memorial day (That’s 30 days from now) and Jared Kushner, who claims the administration’s actions regarding this crisis have been a “great success,” also is claiming America will be “rocking” by this summer. Well, I’m a baseball fan, so I hope he’s correct. But, here’s the reality, several states are “re-opening” as I’m writing this and, as I’ve predicted in the “you heard it here first” section in one of my recent posts (OK, that was sarcastic) several of the states are CHEATING with their statistics to make themselves look better. The statistics would suggest it’s too soon to start going back to “normal” so they’ll just LIE about what happens going forward. Many reports are now suggesting the number of “covid” related deaths are maybe as much as 20% higher than what has been reported.

I had mentioned South Dakota, Florida, and Georgia as the first three states which, I felt, the statistics on “Worldometer.info” didn’t make sense. Well, now we know (somebody “blew the whistle”) that Florida’s Health department has been ordered by their (really bad) governor Ron DeSantis to cover up the cause of many of the deaths in that state. I had written the data suggests the same thing is happening in South Dakota and Georgia – but, so far, no one has blown the whistle there. However, if you live in those states, the likelihood you’re going to be exposed to the virus is much higher than if you lived in my state, Washington – which is also opening some venues (golf!!!) – but, in my state the numbers of infections have been going down for quite some time – I think a couple of weeks. (Well, it’s another day, and wouldn’t you know, Washington’s “numbers” went up yesterday – so we’re still in phase one)

I’m watching the statistics as close as I can and the deaths are still averaging OVER 2000 per day and newly infected Americans totaling over 30,000 per day of late. As New York is going down, the “rust belt” seems to be going up – in relation to the number of cases and deaths. By “re-opening” too soon, according to Dr. Fauci, there’s going to be another “spike” upward in cases and deaths. Picture yourself as a doctor or nurse thinking maybe there will be a time to take a deep breath and, in stead, bracing for another surge of very sick patients. My daughter is an RN and I pray for her daily – fortunately, the leadership where I live is listening and being guided by the scientists so things have been, as I said above, getting better.

The problem with a bunch of “red states” in America’s heartland opening up too soon – (for heavens sake, like in the case of Florida and Georgia where they instigated “shelter in place” orders way too late and didn’t leave them in tact for even two weeks – and, in states like South Dakota they still haven’t put stay at home orders in place at all) – is that it will make things worst for the rest of us. People in America travel all over the place and the places where the infections are going up can have an influence on places where the crisis is more under control. I’m like, presumably, everyone I know – I want this to be over with, but we have to persevere to get through this sooner rather than later. As the saying goes: “patience is a virtue.” That would suggest, a lack of patience is a problem!

What that means is re-opening too soon could mean this is going to be a problem much longer. I know you can’t expect people to stay in their homes for 2 years so “we the people” are going to need to learn how to deal with this. I think MOST of us just assume our federal government would have a “plan” to help get “we the people” through this, but what seems apparent is there is NO “plan” coming from the “White House” – other than to say, “We’re leaving it to the governors.” And, I keep seeing the pictures in my head of those “home grown terrorists” being called “very good people” by individual 1 as they were pushing their way into Michigan’s capitol building carrying AR 15’s (or some other form of assault weapon). I guess those “very good people” need their guns to make sure we know they’re bullies. Do they really think the rest of us should be listening to them? In a word: PREPOSTEROUS!

So, not only are we living in a time when Michael Flynn is able to shamelessly push for a pardon after committing some, according to the judge, near treasonous offenses – and, likely will get what he wants but, additionally, these right wing white nationalists are feeling enabled to bring their “deplorable” fascist philosophy out into the open with no fear of any push-back coming from the “government.” It is the “government” they seem to “fear” yet they drive up with a large flatbed truck with TRUMP UNITY emblazoned in large letters on the side of the truck’s bed, bully their way into Michigan’s capitol building and get a “very good people” response from our IMPEACHED so-called president. Yikes!!!

Final Thought(s): It appears to me what is really bothering these “home grown terrorists” is the reality their furor is being exposed during this pandemic and, somehow, they think by making the damage of the virus worse it will help him. You think that comment is too harsh? Then you haven’t seen the signs etc. referencing Nazi’s in their protests. It’s hard for me to look at this any other way than they’re seeing the same statistics the rest of us are seeing and that is first, individual 1’s INCOMPETENCE has been exposed – you actually need a competent leader in a situation as this (maybe they think making it worse will be better for him) – and, second the statistics are clear, most of the people who are dying from this virus are old people in nursing homes and people of color. So why not just re-open everything?

Well, aside from how bad that makes me feel that we have so many people in our nation who might even be thinking like that, as I’ve said here many times, you can open all kinds of businesses but they’re not going to flourish with no customers. Here’s my thinking: People will NOT by rushing to the airport to take trips, people are NOT going to be going to restaurants in large numbers, I don’t see people rushing back to the Movie theaters, I don’t see people rushing to take their kids to Disneyland anytime soon, as I’ve said here many times I’m really “longing” for Major League Baseball but if they have any season at all it’s likely with no fans, and I could go on, but I hope you get my point.

We’re in a severe recession and it’s going to get worse without strong national leadership and individual 1 has already abdicated his “throne.” He’s “giving it up” to all the governors – which, in effect, is NO plan at all. Some governors are attempting to coordinate but that is more like an act of desperation because they can’t control what’s NOT coming from the “White House.” I believe MOST of the American people realize what is happening (those not in the cult) and they will do their patriotic duty this November and vote to remove individual 1 from office – and, hopefully a “gaggle” of his republican sycophants in the Senate.

I’ve been correct in many of my predictions (guesses) on what was going to happen, although my predictions had nothing to do with the possibility of a pandemic – I’ve been hoping we could get through the four years of individual 1 without a major crisis – but, the republican party is where I was terribly wrong in my “guessing.” Right from the start I felt once the republicans realized individual 1 (I was still using his surname at that point) was threatening their own job security they would vote to remove him from office. Obviously, that was a foolish (naive) thought on my part. I miscalculated the power of the cult – which I didn’t understand was a cult following back then. I’ve been reading up on the white nationalist movement lately and that’s another part I was totally missing.

I’d heard the term “alt right” and I had a rough idea on where Steve Bannon was coming from when he took over individual 1’s campaign, I just had no idea how deep the thinking was in the white nationalist “world” and how much they were “connected” to individual 1. I honestly had no idea where his support was coming from – I certainly, even to this day, have been at a loss to understand his support with the so-called “Christian right.” I did “notice” the parallels with 1930’s Germany early on, including people giving the “heil” salute at his rallies, and the base comprised of “Christians” not to mention the same campaign slogan as Hitler – “Make Germany Great Again.” I also noticed David Duke was an eager supporter of individual 1. It took a while for much of this to sink in to me – but, each day it’s becoming clearer and causing me to realize the importance of this November’s election. I’ve been saying for years, this is a WAR for the heart and soul of this nation and that has never been clearer to me!

I’ll end this by reminding anyone who’s reading my posts for the first time I’ve been saying individual 1 is incapable of “shutting up” as his various advisers have futilely, and without success, have been encouraging him – almost from day one – and he keeps making campaign commercials for Joe Biden. Apparently it still hasn’t sunk in to our IMPEACHED so-called president what a “bad look” it was calling the white nationalists who converged on Charlottesville a couple years ago carrying Nazi flags, Confederate flags, holding Tiki Torches and chanting “Jews will not replace us” “very fine people.” So, with some variation of the white nationalist “crew” from Charlottesville protesting in Michigan, brandishing clothing with swastikas, signs in German with Nazi slogans, flying Confederate flags, armed with AR 15’s, and “storming” the capitol building – demanding Michigan make this virus worse – I guess it should surprise no one when individual 1 calls them “very good people.” There’s another commercial!

Well, individual 1 has been working hard to place the BLAME for his BLUNDERS and incompetence in regard to his response to the novel coronavirus somewhere beside, well, himself – and, lately it’s been a combination of the World Health Organization and/or China. Of course, his incompetence was the result of his own ignorance – but, he’s got a history of NEVER admitting to a mistake and ALWAYS coming out “swinging” when anyone criticizes him so the fact he’s busier figuring out how he can deflect and BLAME than actually fighting the pandemic should surprise no one. While “we the people” are suffering for his decisionmaking he considers himself the victim. I suppose it still hasn’t sunk in to him suggesting ingesting disinfectant to “cleanse your lungs” is a bad look for a U.S. president!

I wrote yesterday that his son-in-law Jared Kushner managed to get a spot on “Fox and Friends” to announce the IMPEACHED so-called president’s administration’s response to the pandemic has been a “great success story.” Well, we all know that’s not true, and, in fact, I believe it’s MORE “untrue” than “we the people” fully understand at this moment in time – there’s one day left in April (I’ll likely not finish this post until sometime in May) – and, starting on Friday the “stay at home” “suggestion” coming from individual 1’s administration will end and his push to “re-open” is designed, on its face, to transfer the responsibility for the soon to be uptick in Covid-19 cases to the governors of any of the states who fall for his shtick. Going forward, the uptick will be the governors fault, trust me on this one.

I can picture someone saying “How ignorant is individual 1? Let me count the ways.” Well, one way he’s not ignorant is in his ability to manipulate the media – he’s the “center of attention” every day, whether it works in his favor or not. He NEEDS the attention and it’s worth it to him no matter the cost. So, he is going to keep himself on the “front line” – in front of the TV cameras and, therefore, I’ll continue writing – apparently, this would indicate I don’t want him getting the last word. That being said, our IMPEACHED so-called president’s expertise is in his ability to brazenly just forge ahead looking for anyway to make himself look good and, like many of the workers he doesn’t care a lick about who are living “paycheck to “paycheck,” individual 1 operates day to day.

It’s almost as if he can’t remember what happened “yesterday” when he’s questioned “today.” This is why he is able to, for example, after suggesting people might try ingesting cleaning solvents as a way to “cleanse their lungs” one day and the next day, without breaking expression, claim “I was just being sarcastic.” He did the same thing after standing next to Vladimir Putin in Helsinki (most people have forgotten this dreadful performance) and “throwing our intelligence community under the bus.” The next day he, with a straight face, suggested he meant to say “wouldn’t” instead of “would” – which would make little difference, but it just showed his “ability” for shameless LYING for the entire world to see.

Of course, his suggestion of the use of Lysol or ???? caught the attention of MILLIONS of people around the world who are just wondering what on earth has happened to America? Well, when I suggest he’s “shameless” I believe that is the best way to describe what he’s doing with his plan to force our economy to re-open. Like I wrote yesterday, we’re still seeing deaths which total over 2000 per day – on most days. We’re still seeing nearly 30,000 new confirmed cases of the virus each day so I’m not sure how individual 1 has come to the conclusion we’re past the serious stage of this crisis. I’ve admitted I’m a cynic and, at this point, there’s no way I’m going to see individual 1 as anything but the PROBLEM which has caused America to be experiencing, by far, the worst case of this virus in the world. (And, apparently, it’s going to get worse in the not too distant future. Just sayin…)

I mean, they’re talking about the “return” of the virus while it appears to me the virus is still RAGING. Doesn’t it have to “leave” before it can “return?” I’m honestly not sure how to take the suggestions we’re getting from many governors – almost all republicans – that it’s time to re-open the economy. In fact, it’s causing me to think this will cause the rest of us to stay in our homes or succumb to the republican wish that we just “go for it” and let the philosophy of “herd immunity” to be our policy. If that was going to be the policy why did we “stay at home” for the past month and a half? Of course, there’s a couple other countries with leaders who somewhat “mirror” individual 1 and that’s Great Britain and Russia. So, I’ve been checking their statistics on “Worldometer.info” to see how they compare to the U.S.

Well, I suppose it shouldn’t be a surprise to me to see the United Kingdom and Russia moving quickly up the statistics of the “worldometer.info” website because both Boris Johnson and Vladimir Putin took similar positions to individual 1 at the beginning of this pandemic. As of today, Britain has surpassed every country beside Italy and, of course, the U.S. in the number of deaths and they should be in “2nd” place in all categories, including the number of infections, in a matter of days. And, of course, that’s not a good place to find yourself. Then there’s Russia and, based on reports I’ve been reading, the combination of the price of oil tanking and the virus rapidly spreading, Mr. Putin is finding himself in the awkward position of having “tanking” poll numbers – even in Russia.

Putin didn’t take this virus seriously to begin with, but, from what I can tell, he’s “changed his tune.” For example, Russia is testing way more people each day, by far, than America. That would tell me Putin has decided this really is serious. Just a couple weeks ago there were just a very small number of cases in Russia and now there are over 100,000 with over 7000 new cases today plus their death toll has surpassed 1000 with hundreds dying each day. I don’t get a lot of information out of Russia, but I’m guessing they’ve put some stringent “social distancing” measures in place as the virus appears to be spreading rapidly in Moscow. Clearly, this virus does not discriminate – if you don’t take it seriously, you’re likely to be getting it.

There does appear to be many people who could care less if they get the virus and they are moving back into situations where “social distancing” is, well, a “distant” concept. In at least a couple of the states where there were protests against the stay at home orders, Wisconsin and Minnesota, their numbers of confirmed cases are going up again. The protesters in Michigan were traced back to Western Michigan after their last protest, and the cases there have doubled. I agree “staying at home” for a year and a half, if that is how long it takes to get a vaccine, is not a workable solution to this problem. Yet, all I’m seeing coming from individual 1 in the form of a “plan,” is, well, NOTHING. It’s up to the governors! Actually, that’s NOT a plan.

Individual 1, clearly was planning to get himself re-elected based on “The greatest economy ever” (Which, of course, wasn’t the greatest economy ever), an economy which he inherited from the Obama/Biden administration which they managed to keep on the same upward trend by passing a HUGE tax cut for corporations and rich people and deregulating many environmental regulations. Of course, the trade-off is dirtier air and water in an attempt to make sure that the graph’s trend continues going up until, at least, November. Individual 1 has tried on several occasions to wish this virus away and that seems to be a really BAD strategy. Just as he looks to BLAME away his incompetence re; this virus, he’s been taking credit for the economy he inherited since his first day in office. Neither of those tendencies is a recipe for saving our economy.

In times like these our “free market” republicans are really good at finding unlimited amounts of money coming from – somewhere – in an effort to “save the economy.” Honestly, I think it would have been much better for individual 1 to put his focus on the virus and putting an emphasis on helping workers above all other goals, right from the start during this crisis. I think people would have been surprised and would have noticed had individual 1 been able to act as if “we the people” were more important than his re-election. Fix the problem with the virus and the problem with the economy is solved – as best as it could have been.

I’ve pointed out several times here I don’t see how our “market” can continue moving upward while there’s 30 MILLION people claiming unemployment benefits and business after business boarded up. At some point, it appears to me, Wall Street is going to go through another “tanking” and this is likely to happen sooner rather than later. I believe, as I’ve said, the market is like a house built on sand. In my view, the economy was never “the greatest ever” and, as I’ve said, when you disconnect “Main Street” from “Wall Street” it’s eventually going to fall like a house of cards. Obviously, I don’t understand the market, but I don’t think even finding a way to “fix” that will overcome the day in and day out demonstration of incompetence – in front of the TV cameras while MILLIONS of Americans have nothing better to do than watch TV. To me, that’s an ill advised strategy.

As I said above, it’s likely the main objects of individual 1’s ire, in the next few weeks will be the World Health Organization and China. Individual 1 is likely to create lasting DAMAGE to America’s relationship with China and there’s virtually nothing “we the people” can do about it. And, if he’s able to cut off funding to the WHO (Isn’t that like what he did with Ukraine? Isn’t it illegal?) in the middle of this pandemic, well, that seems STUPID once again. Whatever he can do to place the BLAME elsewhere. If individual 1’s actions have been such a “great success” why does he need to be doing all this BLAMING?

Final Thought: I’ve pointed out recently my suspicion that some of the republican governors who don’t want to put “stay at home” orders in place are CHEATING when it comes to reporting the actual statistics of the number of cases and the deaths in their states. I put my focus on South Dakota – the worldometer.info statistics make it seem obvious they’re CHEATING. Well, now the governor of Florida has been exposed as ordering the death count in his state to not be reported. Well, Florida and Georgia were the other two states I had suspicions about and this is really outrageous. You have to think individual 1 is somehow involved in this CHEATING! My guess, in regard to Florida, is their statistics are maybe double what they’re reporting.

Here’s the reality, the “experts” are pointing out that, depending on where you live, between 5% and, maybe 15% of the people have had this virus. And, before it’s done with us, based on reports I’ve seen, it will infect at least 60% to 70%. So, we’re no where near having “flattened” the “curve” and, based on what is obvious and what you can infer, the death toll of this virus is potentially 25% more than what’s been reported. There are statistics related to normal death rates in states and comparing those stats to what is happening it becomes clear there are many more people dying of Covid-19 than what is being reported.

The main issue is testing – which has been the problem since day one – which leads me to believe individual 1 simply just doesn’t want widespread testing because he doesn’t want “we the people” to know how many people are infected. And, of course, now we’re seeing republican governors, Ron DeSantis for one, are HIDING the statistics likely at the behest of our IMPEACHED so-called president. What’s the saying, “What we don’t know can’t hurt us?” Of course, this is all about the November election and individual 1’s belief “we the people” are really STUPID! I guess we’ll see – it doesn’t appear it’s working.

One more thing: I have written about one of the thoughts I’ve had that I try to block out because they just seem too cynical, even to me. But there he was today, Bill O’Reilly – remember him – suggesting most of the people who are dying from Covid-19 “were near the end already” – as if that makes it OK to sacrifice them – he was on Fox where the idea of just going for it seems routine. What he didn’t say is the other “groups” who are affected by this virus beside people in nursing homes are African Americans, prisoners, and people working in meat processing plants – many of whom are Hispanic. For example, 80% of the deaths in Georgia, which opened back up today despite being in the throes of this virus, are African American. Does that surprise you? Does any of this surprise you? Clearly, democrats are just a bunch of “softies.”

And, Oh by the way, many of the states which were kind of on the sidelines of this virus, up until recently, are getting promoted to the “varsity” – thanks to their arrogance thinking “it can’t happen here.” Like, South Dakota, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Mississippi, South Carolina, Arizona, Missouri, Kansas, Alabama, and Tennessee just to name a few. Andrew Cuomo said it best as New York was pleading for help (and, of course, it’s still bad there, just no AS bad) “This is coming to your state.” Prescient words!

Of course, Michigan already is in a bad spot with over 40,000 confirmed cases and today there were a few hundred pseudo terrorists carrying assault weapons demonstrating the importance of putting an assault weapon ban into law ASAP. These people are further spreading the virus and we’re seeing this happening in more places coming from right wing militia types who seem to want to create a violent assault on our nation – and, of course, individual 1 is encouraging them. These are the people I’ve been talking about for when individual 1 LOSES the November election. I’m expecting a violent reaction – and, of course, when it happens individual 1 will still be our IMPEACHED so-called president and William Barr will still be our Attorney General. Yikes! God help us!!

I recently saw photos of the militia members who had their protest on my state, Washington, and it looked like a bunch of hill people who were drummed out of the military so this was their response. The sad, and dangerous, reality is they, as with the people in Michigan today, were armed and they’re threatening violence as if they are the answers to the problems in this country. And, one of the worst parts to me, is the reports these people “hang out” together on, where else, but Facebook. I’ve been saying for some time now Mark Zuckerberg is one of the more dangerous people in this nation. He’s created a “platform” which allows these seditious groups to fester and, clearly, he’s doing NOTHING to stop them. Yes, there are other places for them to congregate, but Facebook seems to be the “petri dish” for them and other terrorists around the globe. Just sayin………….. (And, yes, I DON’T do Facebook)

As individual 1 is now proposing to bail out the oil industry, I can’t imagine a worst idea RIGHT now – but, well, he is individual 1 – republicans are suggesting states declare bankruptcy, and America and the world is sitting on the brink of a depression what else would you expect? I’ve written how imperative it is that “we the people” don’t go back to “business as usual” following this pandemic – which is happening as the climate crisis – which will be far more serious than this Covid-19 crisis – is looming in the way too immediate future. Let me put it this way – the Covid-19 pandemic SHOULD have convinced Americans how we can NOT afford to continue with individual 1 as president one day longer than necessary. The “White House” has become a “national disaster area.”

Not only is individual 1 denying scientists during this pandemic but EVERYONE knows he’s been a “climate denier” since the day he took the oath of office. This is a potentially fatal “double whammy” in regard to the future of this nation. As I’ve said here repeatedly of late, America needs to be rebuilding her infrastructure in a way that would suggest our leaders understand we are now in the 21st century. If the impending Climate Crisis (along with a plethora of other issues) aren’t enough for America’s young people to realize the importance of the upcoming election, well, God help us! And, if for some reason, they choose to believe ANYTHING individual 1 says – OMG!

You would have to have had your head under a rock (or, up your…..) in order to believe individual 1 actually tells the TRUTH. Of course, the FACT he’s been documented to have told around 20,000 “whoppers” since taking the oath of office should make it no surprise he’s been trying to LIE himself into a favorable spot with “we the people,” regarding his failures, as America has been hit harder than any other country by the novel coronavirus. (It’s been reported he’s LIED over 600 times about his response to this virus) One of my vivid memories from when I was a 6th grade teacher was the sign over the door to the principal’s office which read: “Tell the truth, there’s less to remember.” I remember telling students who had a propensity to LIE that, eventually, the TRUTH always shows its “head.” Well, obviously, individual 1 still has not learned this lesson!

The “lost 70 days” are not going to go away, and, in fact, the DAMAGE caused not only by the inaction, but worse by his actions are going to haunt individual 1 right up to the election – which he clearly put as more important than the lives of Americans being threatened by this virus. And, he can’t even claim “ignorance” – although, I’m sure many would agree that’s an issue – because it’s been reported our IMPEACHED so-called president received NUMEROUS “Presidential Daily Briefings” which clearly gave him the warning this was coming and identified the level of its SERIOUSNESS. Of course, individual 1 chose to ignore the briefings and then LIE to the American people – maybe his 6th grade teacher failed to teach him the truth always finds a way to show it’s “head.”

I was long ago suggesting individual 1 was making campaign commercials for the democratic nominee at his press briefings (this was before we knew it was Joe Biden) because I was picturing in my mind virtually everything individual 1 was/is saying is in someone’s video archive. Well, not only are there commercials now which are based on individual 1’s own words but we’re seeing news outlets using these archived videos to challenge the veracity of the LIES which just won’t stop coming at us all. Covid-19 is too serious for “we the people” to continue ignoring the reality of the mountain of LIES not only coming from the “White House,” but also from the republicans who’ve been willing to defend our IMPEACHED so-called president for over three years now. Obviously, they had the opportunity to get rid of the problem in the IMPEACHMENT trial and only one of them had the guts to vote to remove this unfit so-called president from office.

Today, in what was not supposed to be a coronavirus task force briefing there were, of course, questions regarding individual 1’s failures in dealing with this crisis. I list a couple which stood out to me (mainly, because I didn’t watch the entire episode). A reporter pointed out that today the United States went over one MILLION (confirmed) cases of Covid-19 (likely, there are a significant number of unconfirmed cases) and that early on individual 1, when the number was 15 said “it will soon go down to zero.” Well, you could see our IMPEACHED so-called president was anticipating that question because he said, “Well, it will eventually go down to zero.” He said it as if he knew it would surpass (likely) a couple MILLION cases (or more) before it then goes down to, eventually, zero. (Apparently, he forgot to mention that back in February) This is what us sixth grade teachers would have called a creative LIE! Then, when questioned about whether he was warned in the “Presidential Daily Brief” as reported, he answered, “Well, I’ll have to go back and check. I”ll check the dates.” That’s NOT reassuring!

I stopped thumping the side of my head long ago when I hear this absurd stuff coming out of the mouth of our IMPEACHED so-called president – although, I have to say, the idea of somehow getting a UV light into my lungs OR ingesting disinfectant to “clean the lungs” did cause a few thumps. It was like, OMG those words just came from the mouth of the IMPEACHED so-called president of our country – who was given a “get out of jail free” card from republicans back in early February who could have, as I’ve pointed out here many times, put an end to all of this. That being said, now it’s up to “we the people” to take care of that. I understood, to a degree, the argument “There’s an election in November” by those who voted to acquit – but many of us pointed out he’s going to CHEAT in order to “win” in November – that’s a given – and, now he’s LYING in rapid fire succession every day in an attempt to keep his base in tact. Can you imagine him in charge with TWO crises going on at the same time? Covid and Climate???

As I often say, that was then and this is now – in other words, it’s another day. So, this morning I turned on the TV and there was Jared Kushner saying, “I think we’ve achieved all the milestones that are needed, so the federal government rose to the challenge and this is a great success story, and, i think that’s really what needs to be told.” Before I could get beyond my thought that Jared is the perfect son-in-law for individual 1 – LYING apparently comes naturally, (or is he simply delusional) I then saw another instance suggesting individual 1 is backtracking on his previous comments congratulating China regarding their handling of the coronavirus pandemic back in January and February to now, as he often does, shifting the BLAME for his own BLUNDERS to the Chinese. This could get really interesting – and, if you think the Chinese are going to just say “sorry” I think you haven’t been paying attention. And, if individual 1 thinks his BLUNDERS are not on tape, well, he’s in for some MORE reminders of them as we get closer to the November election.

As I was listening to Kushner this morning I was reminded of President Obama’s response to the Ebola outbreak, which could have evolved into a worldwide pandemic, and my mind reminds me of the Obama administration, once the Ebola outbreak was controlled, setting up the pandemic task force as part of the National Security Agency – which individual 1 eliminated back in 2018 because he didn’t want to “spend the money.” Is that one of the successes Kushner was talking about this morning? Or was it the death toll surpassing Viet Nam today? Or surpassing a MILLION confirmed cases?

Of course, Kushner was on “Fox and Friends” so you can assume there was no push-back from the moderators – but, thankfully, many different outlets are “watching Fox so I don’t have to.” That’s actually the motto of Media Matters “We watch Fox so you don’t have to.” So, members of individual 1’s administration feel comfortable on Fox LYING because they think they get away with it. But, of course, DVR machines are routine now! So, no, this isn’t a “great success story” and NO you won’t be able to blame your BLUNDERS on China! And, by the way, the day the death toll surpasses 60,000, to me, is a really STUPID day to claim the administrations actions are a great “success story.” People around the world are watching with their jaws dropped!

Actually, China showed everyone around the world how to deal with this virus – they still are. Unless there’s some kind of serious surprise out there I think we can all agree this virus started in Wuhan province in China. That was apparent at least by early January – which, from recent reports, is when individual 1 was informed of what was coming. I don’t think it was the fault of the Chinese that our IMPEACHED so-called president chose to IGNORE the early warnings and then, once it was apparent the virus was here, chose NOT to take action on a national basis. I’m not the only person who’s written about ALL the decisions individual 1 has made which demonstrate his ineptitude. We’re all left to speculate on his motives, although the November election being the primary motive seems almost undeniable. I’ve yet to hear him show any remorse for the reality that, as of today, over 60,000 Americans have died.

For example, he has refused to use the Defense Production Act (DPA) to make sure our doctors and nurses have the “Personal Protective Equipment” (PPE) they need as they’re fighting this disease. He’s refused to use that power to make sure our testing capacity is up to the task necessary for the economy to re-open. Yet, just yesterday he enacted the DPA to ORDER the various meat packing plants around the country to re-open despite the FACT thousands of the workers in the 20, or so, plants which have shut down have Covid-19 and, to this date, 20 of the workers have died. Apparently, these workers don’t have a lot of value in the minds of our IMPEACHED so-called president. I realize the importance of trying to keep the “food chain” moving – but, it didn’t appear to me the health of the workers was the most important factor in the re-opening of these plants. The workers will be FORCED to choose between the health and their ability to pay their bills!

To me, this doesn’t seem like a “great success story” as in the words of Jared Kushner. I, personally, really want Major League Baseball to re-open, but I think it’s unlikely – even with no one in the stands. I listened to a leading MLB agent (Scott Boros) today suggesting a plan which would get the games started by early July – although, to me, it seemed a bit like a “pipe dream” – because it was planning on games in Florida and Arizona. Well, if the heat helps to stop this virus that may be possible, but otherwise, I’m not feeling that great about either state’s response to this pandemic. Florida, for example, appears to be the next really bad “hotspot.” Their governor didn’t “close” the state long enough for even one period of “isolation” for those with the disease – and, many of their beaches are already crowded once again. Yikes!

All the “re-open” talk seems to be the result of the fact there are still people who listen to individual 1 and I did hear him, today, claim “the worst is behind us” as if it’s time to start up the economy again. Well, I double checked the website I’ve been following which keeps track of every confirmed case and every confirmed death related to Covid-19 in the WORLD, and, yes, New York seems to be calming down a bit – but, today’s numbers are: New cases – 28,429. Today’s deaths – 2390. It doesn’t look all that “calm” to me. Of course, you do have to keep in mind there is still a significant portion of individual 1’s cult who believe this is the “flu” and they’re thinking in terms of “herd immunity.”

Meaning, let it run its course with no mitigation efforts and let the cards fall where they may. Of course, most of the people I’ve seen suggesting that are among the least likely to DIE from that strategy. And, apparently, they have no clue as to what that would do to our health care system. Just sayin…….. When you consider the importance of old white people to individual 1’s re-election bid, that strategy, to me, doesn’t seem that well thought out. I do know the Lt. Governor of Texas has shared that, to him, “there’s worse things than living,” but I’m guessing there are a significant number of old people who don’t wish to be sacrificed at the “altar” of Wall Street and the oil industry. If older white people bail on individual 1 he’s in even MORE trouble, come November!

Final Thought: I’ve pointed this out before, but there are right wing governors around the country who I believe are manipulating the statistics coming out of their states to make themselves look better considering their choices to leave their states “open.” The main one, from what I’ve seen, has to be South Dakota. As of today there are over 2300 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and, I can tell you, I’ve been watching this fairly closely and MOST of them (likely over 2000) have appeared in the past two to three weeks. According to the statistics at “worldometer.info” South Dakota is reporting over 1500 cases with an “outcome.” Well, they’re also reporting ONLY 13 deaths (2 today) so, according to their reporting 1500 people have recovered from the disease.

Well, when you listen to the various doctors talking about how long it takes to actually get to the point where you no longer test positive, the last one I heard, a doctor from the University of Washington who’s been at the front of this pandemic said it takes at least 21 days to determine if you’re “in the clear.” So, that makes me think there’s something untoward going on in South Dakota. For example, in every other state with a comparable number of cases as them, there have been in the neighborhood of 40 to 60 deaths reported, with one state over 100. And 1500 cases “recovered” seems impossible in such a short time frame. What I’m saying is put the governor of South Dakota in the class of republicans who I wouldn’t trust as “far as I could throw her.”

If you’ve been around here at all lately you know I’ve been watching “Wall Street” due to the incredible ability of our “free market” republican led government to “find” about $7 TRILLION to keep it “afloat” during the Covid-19 pandemic. To me, this is just further evidence of why America has been heading toward “third world” status over the past 40+ years – led by corporate interests and executives who just can’t seem to get enough “cash.” I won’t go into all the “inequality” stats, because if you’re reading this you are either aware of them or you willfully hiding yourself from the TRUTH. But, here’s an interesting bit of info I heard this morning: During the pandemic America’s Billionaires have seen their wealth increase by another $282 BILLION – while Americans in the most vulnerable areas of the country are dying at a very disproportionate rate.

If you’ve seen the statistics from who’s doing the most dying in this pandemic you KNOW that the “Black and Brown” communities are bearing the greatest “brunt” from this virus. For example, in cities like Detroit, or Chicago, or New York, or New Orleans – to name a few off the top of my head – members of the “Black and Brown” communities are dying at a rate of around twice the proportion of what would represent their actual numbers in those cities. And, you might ask, is this some kind of heretical issue? Did they inherit the asthma which is leading to many of the deaths? Or the other issues which affect their respiratory systems? And, of course, the answer to those questions is, NO!

“We the people,” for as long as I can remember have been trying to ignore the sad reality of the racial inequality in our nation and refusing to accept this as a national issue. Republicans say, “pull yourselves up by your bootstraps.” And, democrats, well, I don’t remember them saying much other than racism is wrong and encouraging African Americans to be the backbone of their party. But,. the lack of clean water in Michigan, for “people of color” isn’t a new issue – it’s been more serious since their former (republican) governor turned the water in Flint into a lead pipe nightmare – which hasn’t been fixed to this day.

And, like many of the other cities in America, these cities I mentioned above have what seem to me to be (at least nearly) segregated communities many of which are located near the major polluters of their areas which leads to the issues with their lungs which is what is making them more vulnerable to this virus. The coronavirus is exposing so much about this nation which needs to CHANGE – and sooner rather than later – I hope we’re all paying attention. And, just voting for Joe Biden this November isn’t going to be the solution unless “we the people” make CERTAIN “business as usual” is not an option going forward – not even close to “business as usual” as we can get post Covid-19.

I’m happy Biden has committed to choosing a woman as a running mate and, personally, I’m in agreement with those who believe it should be a woman “of color.” My personal choice is Stacy Abrams who SHOULD be the governor of Georgia, but that being put aside, is an extremely intelligent, articulate, and strong woman. From everything I’ve read, heard, or seen from her she’s not afraid to “tell it like it is” and she’s not someone who is willing to LIE to get what she wants. It also appears to me she’s very energetic, very passionate, and did I already say STRONG?

Of course, I’m going to vote for Biden assuming he doesn’t go out campaigning and get this virus – he’s like me, in that class of old people who are, apparently, the most susceptible to the worst form of the disease. I’ve listened to Biden recently and it’s clear he’s moving closer to positions championed by Bernie Sanders which should be clear to everyone would have made this nation more prepared to deal with this virus. I can’t help but keep thinking about all the republicans (and, sadly democrats – including Biden) who’ve been claiming “Medicare for All” is too expensive. “How are you going to pay for it?”

Well, Bernie didn’t do a good enough job of explaining how “Medicare for all” would be much cheaper than our present insurance for profit plan and, actually, much better. For example, there are now MILLIONS of Americans who are out of work due to this virus and their “employer based insurance” has either run out or will run out shortly – which will mean there are even more Americans who won’t get tested or go to the hospital until they’re desperately sick because they fear the bill in the tens of thousands of dollars. With Medicare for all everyone “wins.” People get the health care they need and, in times like this, the hospitals get paid – they can get rid of their bill collectors.

Also, think of all the doctors and nurses who are risking their lives to fight this virus in hospitals all over the country who are still facing HUGE debt from their years in college. Both Bernie and Elizabeth Warren made college loan forgiveness a centerpiece of their campaigns AND this could have been done for ONE of the SEVEN TRILLION republicans managed to funnel to Wall Street as a result of the market crash at the beginning of this pandemic. Really, the last thing we needed at the beginning of Covid-19 was BILLIONAIRES getting more BAILOUT money! The list is LONG as to where that money might have been more needed and where it might have, in the long run, been a MUCH better “investment.” When you watch the stock market as I am and you wonder how it could be going up when the economy is in near depression, well, join the club!

I’ve heard estimates that bringing America’s infrastructure up to 21st Century standards with an eye toward the future would cost around the amount of “Care’s 3” – $2.2 TRILLION – (and, remember, the $7 TRILLION was “on top” of that amount – so, our government has managed to come up with around $10 TRILLION so far – and, I can guarantee you there are some investigative reporters out there who are going to fill “we the people” in on what Steve Mnuchin (Treasury Secretary) and Jerome Powell (The head of the Fed) are doing with all that money. Individual 1, conveniently, fired several of the “inspector generals” who would have been in charge of overseeing the dispersal of some or all of that money. Sooner or later we’ll find out where it all went.

And, America’s corporate interests showed us exactly where their “hearts” are at when the “PPP,” (Paycheck Protection Program) was initiated – this was the plan to get money to small businesses in order to keep them “afloat” during this crisis and to keep their employees on the payroll until it’s time to bring them back and start up operations again – so they CAN start up again. Well, the first “tranche” of the money was “gobbled up” largely by publicly held corporations who found ways around the requirement that they have fewer than 500 employees – the money was gone in less than one week. Clearly, this was a scheme put forth via the larger banks who were simply conduits for the money so had no “skin in the game,” and, apparently, just passed the money along to existing customers. In the process not many actual “small businesses” got any of the funding – businesses who are desperately in need of it.

The numbers are becoming more shocking every day – as of today the total number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 has gone over a MILLION and, of course, the number would be much higher if there was sufficient testing capability. And, the number of deaths has exceeded 55 THOUSAND Americans and that number is climbing at the rate of somewhere between 1000 and 2000 per day. Hopefully, it will go down, but it’s a bit worrying that many people, including some governors, are losing patience and either, in the case of the governors, opening up their states, or many people are becoming defiant of the “stay at home” orders coming from their governors – which may lead to a spike in the number of infections.

Look, I understand we can’t stay in our homes indefinitely, but we certainly need to be thinking of the people on the “front lines” – the doctors, nurses, and others who are fighting to save lives in hospitals around the country and they need, at a minimum, a break from this initial surge. I believe it’s inevitable that MOST Americans will be exposed to this virus, but, to me, the sensible plan would be to, at this point in time, re-open in a way that somehow might cause our hospitals to avoid being overrun by Covid-19 patients. There’s only so much room in these hospitals and, as of today, people who need “elective” surgeries are waiting for a time when the hospitals can handle their procedure safely.

I’m certainly not smart enough to figure out what the “plan” should be – what I do know is under our IMPEACHED so-called president there is NO plan – other than whatever he can do which makes him feel like he’s putting himself in a bright light. He’s been forcing his way in front of the cameras on a daily basis for the “Covid-19 task force” briefings which is, from the standpoint of Joe Biden, the “gift which keeps on giving.” It will be interesting to see if individual 1, for example, can EVER recover from suggesting people ingest disinfectants as a way to clear up their lungs. And, of course, the list of BLUNDERS coming from our IMPEACHED so-called president seems almost never ending.

There’s the “missing in action” 70 days at the beginning of this crisis which is responsible for who knows how many deaths to this point in time – and, if you think those days weren’t important, just log on to worldometer.info and compare what is happening in America to what’s happening in the rest of the world. And, it’s true, the virus isn’t his fault – it just exposed how individual 1 is simply incapable of handling the responsibility of being the president of the United States. That’s not a job for a pathological LIAR who is such a narcissist he is unable to admit ANY kind of mistake – even suggesting people “ingest disinfectants into their lungs” – nor is it a job for someone who is an overt racist, misogynist, or xenophobe in a country which has been built by immigrants. In fact, individual 1 is a second or third generation immigrant and TWO of his wives are immigrants – meaning first generation.

I believe the WORST mistake of all, when the “smoke” clears from all of this, will be if what I read today is actually true – that America’s BILLIONAIRES have used the stimulus (relief) funds appropriated by Congress – along with that mysterious $7 TRILLION appropriated (?) to the Fed – to increase their wealth by almost $300 BILLION – while doctors and nurses are using garbage bags in an attempt to protect themselves as they are on the “front lines” of this fight – that will be the ultimate scandal – in an administration which has seemingly had a “scandal a day” since individual 1 took the oath in January of 2017. Moscow Mitch is suggesting states file for bankruptcy – meaning fire police, firefighters, and other front line workers – while the republican donors are gaining more “fat.” I think that would be too much even for those in the cult who survive the drinking of Lysol! (Doesn’t that remind anyone of Jim Jones?)

Final thought(s): I’m guessing the $7 TRILLION I’ve referred to which apparently is money provided for the Fed (?) and/or Treasury (?) to use to prop up the financial markets – CONSIDERABLY more than we saw in the TARP bailout of the banks back in 2008 – is going to be money which is “off the books” – to make our deficit look better. As I often say, I’m no economist, but it appears from what I’ve been able to find out that the Fed is buying up bonds which would be considered “bad debt” – meaning as a way to prevent default on the bonds. (I’m honestly not sure who that’s protecting?) I don’t know how all that works, but my point is, I don’t think we’ll see these numbers when the annual deficit is reported. This reminds me of the Iraq and Afghanistan “wars” back in the days of GW Bush/Cheney where they didn’t report the expense of the “wars” “on the books.” As if it was on a mysterious credit card. If I wasn’t so old I’d spend more time studying economics.

And, if you don’t believe my “assertion” that our IMPEACHED so-called president is a narcissist (of the highest order) well, today, in the mail, I received the absolute proof. I got a letter from the IRS today which, on the envelope, said it was “Official Business” “Penalty for Private Use, $300.” (Whatever that means?) My first thought was – looks like we’re being audited! But, Nooooo! It was a letter signed by individual 1 making sure we think he was the one responsible for putting $2400 into our bank account! Actually, wasn’t this Mitt Romney’s idea? But, I digress! Just like individual 1 is forcing his name onto all the checks Americans are receiving, I guess this is his way to use the POST OFFICE to send MILLIONS of letters to us minions in the hope we’ll all vote for him. Stay tuned……………