Would I rather have Joe Biden in the White House right now instead of Donald Trump?   Absolutely, you bet your life.  Biden believes in science, and funding things like the Center for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health, he’d have agencies up and running full-steam ahead to deal with this possible pandemic in a way that someone who doesn’t believe in science, or facts, or anything else is incapable of.   

Trump right now has a 29 year-old vetting everyone in government for personal loyalty to Trump.   Trump recently appointed his loyal poodle, a religious extremist whose greatest previous achievement was trying to “cure” young people of homosexuality, as the man in charge of controlling the spread of a potentially mass killing disease.   Way to go, for a dictator in waiting, though few Americans seem reassured to have Mike Pence as the Pandemic Czar.

That said, would I rather have Joe Biden in the White House in 2020 than Elizabeth Warren, or Julian Castro, or Kamala Harris, or Bernie Sanders or Stacey Abrams or any number of other progressive Democrats?  Absolutely not.  Biden is the corporate candidate of the status quo, the smiling centrist deal-maker who worked closely with former segregationists and gets along with everybody.    Biden’s legacy is working cheerfully with the right, cooperating in hideous policies, like pushing for Cheney’s war in Iraq, like humiliating Anita Hill when he was the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee (and having the gall to “apologize” to Hill decades later, telling her “I wish there was more I could have done…”).   

Where does the myth of Biden’s “electability” come from?   Recall that in his 1984 and 1988 presidential runs the famous gaffe machine totaled (combining 1984 and 1988 delegate numbers) less than one percent.  0.008%. to be exact.  And he’s more than thirty years older and even less nimble on his clumsy feet now.   Trump, who only has to refrain from actually shitting on the debate stage to “win”, will mop the floor with the confident moderate dotard who insists he will beat Trump “like a drum.”  Hey, Biden already proved he’s a winner, garnering almost one percent in those two primary runs…

Speaking of one percent, here’s a fun one.  Put one billion in your calculator. Assume the least sophisticated billionaire in history, on a full-time IV of his favorite pleasure drug, has his money in a series of FDIC insured bank accounts making 1% interest.  Tap those numbers in and you will see what even this idiot earns in simple interest in one year:  $10,000,000.   Almost a million a month, not bad for a complete dope!   Of course, at 5% the annual earning would be $50,000,000 and at 10% a neat $100,000,000, but, of course, those are just numbers.  No reason to get excited.

Well, that’s about it for me today.   Biden Derangement Syndrome has got me down, even as I’m very glad the smarter version of Trump is out of the race, only $500,000,000 down.  Of course, that piece of garbage, Mayor Mike, is now throwing his vast wealth behind Biden, and why wouldn’t he?   Biden will make everything like it was under the golden age of his black best friend Barack Obama — hopeful, and changey-ish, if you don’t look too closely at either of those things, and best for you if you are a very high roller.   

Democrats are one of two American corporately funded parties, bought and paid for by big donors.   The Democratic establishment is so terrified of what most Americans want that they will do anything to avoid having a candidate committed to long-overdue institutional change.  No reason to begin correcting fundamental injustice in our nation, no reason to highlight solving the escalating climate crisis that is already well underway.   

A “moderate” Democrat like Biden will make sure the big things stay the same, maximum privileges for the already privileged and whatever trickles down to the “takers,” the rest of us, who feel so entitled to the generous handouts we get from a government that needs to be restrained from viciously coercing the “makers”.   The corporate Democrats require a candidate who will not lead a discussion of what justice, public health, public safety, democracy, the rule of law, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness actually looks like.   

We are a nation of passive spectators, consumers, doomed to vote for whoever the corporations approve, whichever candidate is best branded, rebranded (in the case of Biden) and most expertly marketed. [1]   Not the way we were all taught about democracy, which is always a struggle.

[1]   Again, I was surprised and relieved that the best ad campaign $500,000,000 can buy didn’t convince many people to vote for the autocratic Mike Bloomberg, whose hideous leadership we already saw in action when he was NYC mayor, when he bent the law to maintain power for an illegal third term.   Good for that sad, ruthless fuck, and the good people of American Samoa, who voted him five delegates (more than Biden had in either 1984 or 1988).