I can’t tell if we’re insane or stupid. We see the collapse of the two-party system into a criminal kleptocracy, and yet we keep pretending it’s something else.
I started this with the Stoneman Douglas High School deaths. It still hurts to think about it, but we have another mass shooting in another school. We see the broken and bloody bodies of our children on the news. This time we even got live video of them screaming and cowering as they get shot, the images streaming live to us from their cell phones. And just like each prior mass shooting of children, we remain completely hapless about acting.
[Update: I have to shout about the High School students. Unlike the rest of us, they’re not taking ‘no.’ I love what they’re doing.]
As always, Republicans vow to oppose any changes that threaten gun profits, all while giving us their empty thoughts and prayers. I guess I’m not surprised. Republicans didn’t object to wife-beaters or child-molesters; why would they change about a little murder while they’re ahead? The White House was even happy. An anonymous White House source said the massacre distracted the press from the Russian investigation.
They were happy. It’s the word the White House source used to describe the reaction there to the news of the high school shooting.
The anti-gun demonstrations got big. [Thank god for the Stoneman Douglas students.] Trump launched into his normal response: tap-dancing on rationality, kicking empathy in the face, and mouthing some incredibly damaging idiocy from the wing-nut fringe. Arm our elementary and high school teachers! They’ll cap anyone, and don’t care if they’re facing into military-grade long guns!
Uh… yeah, sure.
And it worked, same as always. Yes, it was nonsense, and yet all anyone talked about for days afterward was how giving grade-school teachers guns to fire in crowded schools wasn’t sensible. Nobody believed that was ever going to be a thing. And yet, we wasted all our time anyway. Day after day of distraction and pointless jabbering. Trump, I’m sure, giggled gleefully.
Here’s the deal. We are not required to rebut every single piece of crap Trump flings out the windows at us. Really, we aren’t. Common sense isn’t a one-for-one thing where each turd he forces out requires an equally long on-air response, or we somehow lose the game rules.
<Sigh> I know I’m talking to myself. Instead of thinking, we let Trump set the national agenda again. Really? Is everyone in the media helplessly insane or stupid? (I’m voting ‘stupid’ here.)
Jeeze, I hate doing this, but I have to dismiss this first. Does anyone reading this blog believe that Trump meant any of what he said about arming goddamn teachers?!? I could do the analysis, but here’s the gist: it won’t work, nobody would so much as consider doing it, and it would cost billions they won’t spend. Remember: Trump cut funding for school security. So that is all nonsense. And we know that. Why are we still talking about it?
But we are consumed by Trump. The mass media can’t turn away. TV feeds us endless articles on why we don’t want teachers shooting more kids. Wonderful. Then they lament about our fate. “Are there no real answers to American gun violence?” wail another set of talking heads.
Oh, please! Australia banned automatic and semiautomatic guns, and guess what? They don’t have mass shootings in schools anymore. It worked because, you know, it’s goddamn obvious. I know. You ask, isn’t the Second Amendment a total guarantee of gun-loving freedom? Why would you think that? Was it that grenade launcher display at Costco? They’re on sale this month! No, the second amendment doesn’t guarantee any nutjob the right to any weapon they might ever possibly want. There are already restrictions. It’s the NRA that doesn’t want it, but their word is not (yet) the law.
We have to watch people kill our kids right in front of us. I’m tired of seeing TV people bloviate how there are no possible answers, or that it’s somehow ‘hard.’ Legally and practically, it’s easy. We’re insane or stupid if we believe we can’t do anything about this. I’m voting ‘stupid’ again here.
We know that Russia attacked our election in 2016. We have Mueller’s indictments to explain the details to us. We know who did it, how they did it, and we have documented examples of every step from financing through the implementation. We have the posts, the rallies, the full Astroturf ‘activism’ job. Trump denies every part of this because he’s batshit crazy. Which we already know. And yet the press covers all the White House statements as if every man, woman, and child employed there hasn’t lied routinely about everything on earth, all the time, every day in and out of office. What, are we insane or stupid?
I’m going with ‘stupid’ again.
Trump colluded with Russia on the election, requesting their aid and providing them material assistance in return. Trump and the Russians traded favors. Trump’s duplicity wasn’t technically Treason only because he wasn’t trying to overthrow the country or kill our leaders, but his administration betrayed everything Republican, everything American, and everything in our democracy. And we already know this.
Trump and his companies owe Russian oligarchs hundreds of millions of dollars Trump cannot repay, ever. Include Jared in the calculation and the Trump organizations may owe China similar amounts, which is also money none of the Trumps can possibly repay. We already know from Mueller’s new indictments that Paul Manafort was selling fake government positions for cash. We know Trump profits illegally from every day in office. And yes, Trump remains singularly incompetent at almost every part of being President of the United States. And we already know that, too.
Why are we still talking about these as well? Are we insane or stupid? My vote hasn’t changed.
Republicans are responsible for federal oversight. It’s not just their job and their duty, they swore explicit oaths of office that require it. Does anyone believe they’re meeting those oaths, even in a minimal way? You’d have to be an idiot or a zealot to believe anything Nunes says, and yet keeps showing up on TV, along with the other apologists, ninnies, and goons.
Congress even wrote laws requiring the US to create more sanctions against Russia in retaliation for interfering in the 2016 election. Remember that? The deadline passed a while ago, so you might have missed it. Trump has simply didn’t bother, and he doesn’t pretend he’s getting to it anytime soon. We know Trump promised Russia he’d get sanctions lifted so that Putin, his oligarchs (along with Exxon and Rex Tillerson) could realize tens of billions of dollars in hard currency profits that Obama blew up when he first sanctioned the Russians. So no, Trump doesn’t plan to follow that law, either. Why would he? It’s not like the (Republican) Senate or the (Republican) House plan to take actions against him. And we don’t make them.
What are we, stupid or insane?
Trump guts the government every day with the worst appointees ever envisioned. He populates every agency with people dedicated against their agency’s goals and methods. And this one is actually a Republican talking point. They see it as a plus. They brag about how they’re destroying our wealth by making the federal government less efficient and worse at almost every job they do. Crippling the federal system is something Republicans have apparently lusted after, talked about, and planned in detail for years in advance. They’re proud of how much damage they’re doing.
What, are we insane or stupid?
They’re politicizing the judiciary, openly nominating some of the most biased and corrupt people we have ever seen for lifetime judicial appointments. And we let them. Because it’s not like we needed the judiciary or anything.
I’m tired of pretending that we’re not in a fight for America’s soul. The Republican party gave up pretending they’re not just a criminal enterprise, Why don’t we believe them? The Trump kleptocracy is in full swing, not even pretending they’re not skimming money off the top. I say we take them at their obvious, demonstrated intentions. Why are we still talking as if this isn’t serious? Are we stupid or insane?
Personally, Trump has become… well, no, actually. Trump hasn’t changed at all. Somehow, we thought he wasn’t what he said he was, what he showed he was, and we didn’t believe him despite every time he showed us who he was again, over and over. And we elected him anyway.
I think I’m finally leaning toward the ‘insane’ vote. Because nobody can truly be this stupid, can we?
