Go Past Him. Ignore Him. The Only Way to Maintain Sanity.

It's clear what 45 wants. He wants dependency.

It's the key to his control, to his power: Dependency. He wants people to rely on him so he can humiliate them in case they don't agree with him and say so. It's how he controls his Cabinet and the people around him; they're afraid, for some reason, of being fired.

He wouldn't say the things he says about governors if it weren't so. And for now, they're trapped.

They have to rely on the federal government for whatever paltry amounts of resources it has--and it's already been proven that they aren't adequate to meet this terrible curse of a virus. That 45 has actually suggested that resources be held from the Michigan governor, Gretchen Widmer, just because she's anxious about stuff that she's already supposed to have is just an example of 45's awfulness.

Bidding for resources is competitive, which is obviously the wrong way to deal with this. The economy of some producers is being made to be a greater concern than the saving of lives. That this ridiculous aspect of this epidemic is made real is evident by 45's refusal to invoke the Defense Production Act on a large scale. He could do it in a moment. He's waiting for Republican-controlled states to need him, instead of helping all Americans right now.

When that happens--and it will; all signs point to it--he will invent some kind of an excuse or muzzle any question from the press as to why he waited so long. It will be absurd. It won't matter, of course, because the damage will already have been done. If the deaths of many people can't be directly connected to the lack of resources, the blame will be spread wherever he can, but certainly not to himself. He's already said it: "I take no responbility."

The only way to get around this now-you-see-it attitude is to organize by oneself. The governors should consider doing that. They should consider a temporary consortium of non-competitiveness, and bid down the price gougers.

It can happen, and on a bipartisan basis. The cooperation is growing. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker have, together, written an article in the New York Times on the crisis, demanding more resources from the federal government. They're not likely to get it; they've been hung out to dry. They didn't carry for 45 in 2016. (Think that isn't an issue?)

They can, and should, pivot on such neglect and create their own cooperative. Lives are at stake. Economic concepts are silly to consider at this juncture.

Mississippi's governor, Tate Reeves, and Alabama's governor, Kay Ivey, both Republicans in states that overwhelmingly voted for 45 in 2016, can talk big (Oh, is this a time for big talk, huh?) about not wanting to become China or California (I wonder whether Ivey equated the two; foreign as their lands appear to be), but when the onslaught of the virus hits their states--as it will--they're not going to talk big; they're going to need help on the same level as that of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who's getting the lion's share of the attention because the virus is centered there, but only until it moves on. While it's possible that 45 is saving the bulk of his attention to traditionally Republican states, pretty soon, it's going to become obvious that the inadequacy of resources is going to be a shared problem.

I expect Ohio's governor, Mike DeWine, a Republican, to consider this carefully. His state carried easily for 45 in 2016, but it's being overrun by the virus as you read this. He needs help. He's not getting nearly enough.

Either.

But his buying power can be increased sharply by combining with Michigan. So can Wisconsin's. (Note that the gerrymandered Republican legislative leaders have advised Democratic Governor Tony Evers not to seek federal help just yet; what, so their revered leader in Washington need not look quite so bad?) So can Iowa's, which has a Republican governor. So can Minnesota's, which has a Democratic governor. So can Nebraska's, which has a Republican governor, Pete Ricketts, who's on record (with CNN) saying that this isn't a hoax. See? We're pretty far across the nation now.

I think of the prime phrase from the movie "War Games," in which a computer holds the key to saving the world: The only way to win [at nuclear war] is not to play. The governors must conclude first, that partisanship is secondary; second, that they're simply not going to get what the federal government should be doing for them; and third, that together, they can overtake this utter irresponsibility together. Whatever frees them from needing to cooperate with 45 will be the way through.

This may not be nuclear war, but it's survival at its highest level nonetheless. And 45 has no real caring about anybody else's survival but his own, politically. Anyone who needs to pay the greatest price for that, will. They're just in the way.

On CNN just before, Dr. Anthony Fauci, seemingly the only conduit to 45 (for now) to make much sense (I think he was the prime source of thwarting 45's proposed 'quarantine' of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, as ridiculous as that would have been), was quoted as saying as somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 Americans will die from the virus after it has had its way. Nancy Pelosi has already said that 45's dithering, for whatever reason, has been "deadly," and she's correct. Nowhere near the lives that have been lost need to have been lost to this point. And they pile up by the hour.

It's probably risky, to be sure, to try such a thing depending upon the state; the mechanics and politics of such moves are probably complicated. But they can be simplified, too, by the necessity of the moment. I just read something on Facebook, put there by my friend Kathryn Valido, that's worth mentioning, a quote from FDR: "Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear."

We are nearing that point for all 50 states. 45 is trying to get away with inadequacy. He might do so politically for the moment, but he can't medically. It's impossible, and he won't take the responsibility of caring for the country's population. Someone has to. That someone is the governors of the states.

First, ignore his request to get them on the phone. That's the vehicle of his control. Ignore him. He isn't respecting them; why should they return anything like it? Then get each other on the phone and float out such a proposal. He'll find out soon enough, and ignore him again. We're busy. We have a population to save if you won't do what you can to do so.

Oh, he'll threaten to cut states off, like he just did to Michigan. So what? Get a consortium going, and you won't need it. That's the idea.

Is this radical? Depends on how you look at it. But the virus will come at us in waves, and something like this must be considered to deal with it. Otherwise, we're completely at its mercy.

Be well. Be careful. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.


Mister Mark