Yes, He Might. You Know He Might.

It has occurred to me that 45 might start a war before the election. Consider:

• A very recent poll, run by Fox News, indicated that in both Michigan and Pennsylvania, key states that he needs, he trails Biden by eight points;
• Despite what he says to build false hopes, Dr. Fauci says (And who's the better source?) that the coronavirus will be back in fall, just in time for the election; and
• It's entirely possible that a second surge of the virus will be much worse than this one, not unlike the flu of 1918.

That will render 45 helpless to stop criticism of him. He will reap the whirlwind of his neglect of February, which the Democrats will be very eager to exploit. Oh, he'll try to deflect it, saying that the governors were lax. But there's simply been no national leadership, and that will become painfully obvious if we're in for another strong dose. Besides, not all the governors who have gone around him have been Democrat.

What else to do but start a war? Do we have a few candidates? You bet.

Try North Korea, whose leader, Kim Jung Un, is reportedly quite ill. Weakened, it may be vulnerable or at least appear to be so, according to his twisted analysis (Remember, nothing is logical here. It's all by gut, which means quite the opposite.). It wouldn't take long to whip up some pro-war sentiment, especially by those who are presently demonstrating on their state capitol steps because they think making money is a superior priority to staying alive.

Or try Iran, which is presently busy putting gunboats in the Persian Gulf, and one of whose leaders, Suleimani, fell prey to one of our drones in January. It wouldn't take much to create a Gulf of Tonkin scenario in which an "attack" could be alleged.

You could even, without stretching matters much, go at Mexico, because of its refusal to cooperate sufficiently with 45's plans to end immigration (which, you know, he's trying to do right now by halting all immigration for 60 days). Then-Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, says the book Border Wars, went to the Mexicans to try to negotiate a border deal (scuttled by 45 because it would involve us paying them, instead of the other way around, which he has always promised, and about which the right-wing talk show hosts grinded him) and told the Mexican government flat-out: This guy's crazy. He'll do anything. Nobody knows exactly what's going on at the border anyhow, since the media abandoned the crisis scenario there some time ago. I have one question: Did they find all the kids yet?

Even if he doesn't start a war, 45 could certainly gin-up tensions and make them last just long enough to scare just enough people to try to turn the electorate around and give him another four years. This, of course, is outside of any shenanigans he might pull in terms of the process itself, as well as any inadequacy that the Republicans won't fix due to Russian interference--which you can bet they'll try.

The media, which is always at odds with him, have to report the new, building tensions and will be an unwitting cat's-paw, regardless of whether the follow-up analysts realize and understand the underlying subterfuge. We are all going to be very tired of the virus by that time, and anxious for something to distract us.

We'll see if we're just as tired of him. This charade of looking like he knows what he's doing when in fact he's not at all is wearing pretty thin. Any politician worth their salt can say something to the average constituent and get them to believe they're heard something pretty important, until they've walked away for a little bit and then ask themselves: What did (s)he just tell me?

But you can get away with that only for a while, and only with separate individuals. Pretty soon, you'll be outed as a phony. People eventually wise up. Lincoln was right: You can fool some of the people some of the time....etc., etc., etc.

In the meantime, the closer we get to the election, the more it looks as if he may lose key states, the more 45 will edge toward belligerence toward someone. He has to appear to be strong, and stirring up military options is the best way for him to do so, according to him. That he may mess that up, too, is another issue. But anybody who thinks that injecting disinfectant to cure a disease has a mind of incalculable strangeness and a distinct lack of propriety.

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


Mister Mark