R.I.P. GOP? Don't Count On It

2008 - RIP GOP (Stock Market crash, Housing Market crash). Obama elected president. Then followed two years of Sen. Mitch McConnell's "Just Say No" campaign to make Obama a one-term president.

In March of 2010 the Republican health care plan, RomneyCare rolled out nationwide as the ACA. Not a single Republican voted for it (despite 170+ changes that they insisted on), and it was derided as a socialist scheme they called ObamaCare. In the fall 2010 elections Republicans ran on the platform that the Democrats could not fix the economy and that the GOP was the answer.

The GOP was revived in the House and Senate and spent the next 6 years trying to kill the ACA and trying to hamstring every effort to revive the economy while blaming it on Obama.

Obama spent those six years overcoming the GOP's continued efforts to block everything they could while continuing with McConnell's "Just Say No" campaign. Yearly deficits went from $1,413 billion in 2009 down to $585 b in 2016.

Trump's first year the deficit went up to $665 b. Last year's deficit was up to $987 b. 2020's deficit had been projected to be $1,083 b, but will now be much, much higher. The Coronavirus Relief Bill already passed will mostly benefit wealthy corporations and the 1%.

The GOP will be telling all sorts of lies in the next election, and even if they lose (Democratic fraud!), their spinmasters will make sure the GOP party is revived.

So, You Want To Write-in Bernie's Name On November 3rd?

You can protest and try to change things all you want before and after the election. But if you think a write-in vote in the general election on November 3rd will succeed as a form of protest, you are kidding yourself. On election day it comes down to two choices. Republican or Democrat. Are you really going to throw your vote away and let the Antichrist (religious or not, it's an apt moniker) win another term?

If Biden wins the nomination, a write-in vote (or a vote for the Green party) in November results in Rep +0 Dem +0. A vote for Biden results in Rep +0 Dem +1. See how that works? Might as well stay home and let Republicans win the election; they rely on fewer Dem votes to stay in power. Vote for Bernie in the primaries; vote for the nominee in November. Like it or not, we have a two-party system in national elections.

Biden is definitely not my preference. He is Republican Lite and who knows what else. But he is not a narcissistic psychopath with delusions of grandeur and a willingness to start a war as a distraction. Don't let the antichrist win.

COVID-19 - Spare Me Tears About Your Constitutional Rights

From an internet post:

In the beginning ... Give me liberty, or give me death.

Now ... Give me liberty unless there's a virus with a 98-99% recovery rate, then strip me of my freedoms, my job, my income, my constitutional rights, free speech and put me under house arrest.

98% recovery rate for COVID-19? [Update — the fatality rate is estimated to be 2-3%. This may be undercounted because there are many deaths where testing for COVID-19 was never done.] What is 2% of 331,000,000? 6,620,000 people. With a disproportionate number among people who already have respiratory problems (including COPD) or diminished immune systems (including the very young whose systems are not yet fully functional).

In some places in the world, the fatality rate is closer to 10%. Could we get to that figure if the medical system is overwhelmed (even more than now) and rendered useless? At what point do you think martial law should be imposed? 100,000 deaths? 1,000,000 deaths?

This, despite Our Fearless Leader's pronouncement, is not a bacteria, has never been a bacteria, and will not respond to any antibacterial drugs. This is a virus. Viruses are why there are vaccinations. To train the immune system before the real thing comes along.

Well, we don't have a vaccine, and we probably won't have one until next year. But go ahead and spread it to everyone you know. Go to those churches where people have gotten sick despite the proclaimed shield of faith.

I could go on and on about the lost months where little was done, or how having a 50-state bidding war for supplies is insane, but this is about personal responsibility and social responsibility. This is not a judgment from God, a punishment for not making people of different sexes marry only people of the same sex, a deity's wrath for recognizing women as human beings and not property, and it is not because men don't let their beards grow as was commanded in the Old Testament.

This is a virus. Blaming people or animals or laboratories or faiths, and naming it after the country of origin, does not change the current situation by one iota. Politicizing it only endangers people and encourages racist attacks on people who had absolutely nothing to do with its creation or its spread. Asking governors to kiss someone's ring before their state will be granted supplies is insulting, demeaning, dictatorial, and delusional.

But go ahead and cry about rights. While you are at it, go ahead and question why the coronavirus relief package is overwhelmingly a giveaway to corporations to the tune of trillions while precious little is there for people who have lost jobs and don't have an income and can't even get extended unemployment if they are lucky enough to qualify.

What's the verdict? 200,000 dead, or 6 million dead? A coordinated response or a 50-state scramble to figure out what to do and how to get supplies that every other state needs? Stay-at-home or go on spring break and spread far and wide the virus that has no known cure (quack cures for quick bucks don't count)?

This is not influenza, or the flu as it more commonly called. This is worse. This is at least 10 times worse. Up to 25% of people are contagious without ever showing symptoms. If you want to spread COVID-19, go ahead. Just keep the hell away from me.