America's Favorite Passtime

This shooting was a tragedy. Not surprisingly, several Republican "leaders," both in and out of office, unscrupulously exploited it for the party's political advantage, blaming Democrats for the trend of uncivil political discourse. As usual, these alternative facts just don't hold up under even the most superficial scrutiny. And what's even more sickening (and still unsurprising) was hearing the NRA-bought and paid for Republican officials trotting out their usual dead-end solutions of further loosening restrictions on guns, as if somehow if we were all just armed to the teeth, none of this would ever happen.

Somewhere the gun manufacturers are rubbing their hands in glee and looking forward to yet another opportunity to further weaponize our society while they rake in even more revenue from having created the conditions for this senseless carnage. Meanwhile, our "President," spent about 5 minutes doing the right thing and then went right back to bullying and blustering about the special counsel's probe into his campaign's and administration's possible involvement with the Russians. Given a real opportunity to unite us as a country and to deescalate the violent political rhetoric and its predictable results, this is what we get instead: narcissistic, self-serving bellowing. I guess this is what "leadership" looks like in the Republicans' vision of America.

Stab in the Dark

I'm not even going to try to describe the rank hypocrisy of the Republicans ramming through a disastrous health care bill without holding a single public or committee hearing, never mind allowing the American people a chance to weigh in on an issue that is critical to all of us. Hypocrisy and the associated total lack of integrity is part of the Republican Party's DNA. They'll literally do anything if it helps advance their hate-filled white supremacist agenda, which includes among other things stripping the most vulnerable of any credible access to affordable, quality health care.

And, of course, there's the Donald, who's apparently only to happy to throw his voters under the bus all in the service of his fragile, bloated ego, so that he can score a "win." So sad, so sad...And will his voters even realize that they've just been had? That for all of their fierce commitment to something or someone who was going to drain the swamp, finally represent their interests and give their concerns a voice that instead they've just had a narcissistic billionaire steal and eat their lunch? Hmmm...I'm guessing the answer would be...no? Oh well, I guess it's just another validation of the political scientists' dictum: we deserve to get the government we elect.