Squad

 

   AI image, prompted by me

There are plenty of reasons to abolish the death penalty, not the least of which is the number of incarcerated people found, after years in prison, to have been wrongly convicted. And that horror show in Tennessee. If it’s ever appropriate, however, the mass murders committed by Nidal Hasan would be a justification. It’s best left to states, though. Our federal government has been murdering innocent US citizens on our streets, without regret. It’s not their job.

Which brings us to the preening, unqualified, self-sexualizing talk show host in actual charge of our actual military, trying to butch up after years sitting on his butt in a comfy Fox studio. With Trump’s approval, he’s resurrected death by firing squad. Shooting a blindfolded man in a wheelchair seems something he’s brave enough to do. He’ll find enough testosteriacal soldiers to join in. Not the kind I served with, though. Decent men and women, all. Trump kiboshed the livestream, though, about which DHS Secretary Mullin said livestreaming it is “part of restoring American values.” His. Hegseth’s and Miller’s and Patel’s. Along with Trump, America’s exemplars to the rest of the world. Trump did, however, mock a man killed by a tiger and posted an AI image of himself beating the tiger. What kind of person...

He’s a “president” who swats away our Constitution like bugs at a picnic. In the latest, he ignored court orders to stop using taxpayer money for self-promoting political ads, then had several hundred trees on D.C. property knocked down after a judge ordered him not to. Beautiful things threaten Trump, so he focuses on creating ugliness. It’s the one thing he’s preternaturally good at. Gilded ballrooms, glowering arches, leading chants of USA!, USA!, USA!, after a rally-goer punched a protester in the face. As opposed to this.

In charge, for now, is a once-credible political party, given over to MAGAfied authoritarianism. It continuously and falsely accuses prior presidents of weaponizing government while doing exactly that. Encourages a “president” who weaponizes a debased Department of Injustice against political foes. His raid on the home of Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota), right before the election, for the crime of legislating while Muslim, about which Fox “news” was tipped off in advance, confirming its cynically political motive, debased us all. Unlike the raid on Mar-a-Lago, occasioned by Trump stealing classified documents, admitting it, refusing to hand them over, ignoring a subpoena, and lying about what he returned. Federal crimes, committed openly.

Having broken every pre-election 2024 promise, Trump has nothing positive to tout at his current formulaic, tired rallies. So he lies about communist Dumocrats (Brilliantly clever name, that. He discovered the “b” and left it out because his uncle taught at MIT) and their plans to change your children’s gender. In school. Or, as Matt Gaetz, his original choice for Attorney General verbed it, “trans” them.

When attending medical school in Cleveland for four years, I rooted for their teams. Now I hate watching them, as networks air darkened lies about Sherrod Brown, falsely implying he’s a transer, too. Has anyone seen a Republican political ad anywhere, for anyone, promoting a positive agenda? They have none. And they’re stuck with Trump.

As bad as things are under Trump and his contemptible claque, they’d be worse if they were competent. Following their senatorial embarrassment via Eric Schmitt’s (R-MO) humiliation as he botcheda gotcheda toward Jack Smith, mistaking Kansas Jayhawks for Atlanta Hawks and who cares where he was that night anyway, they’ve stepped on the same rake with Texas senatorial candidate James Talarico. Claimed by his opponent, a person as deplorable as Trump if you can believe it, spread enthusiastically by Elon Musk, fresh off donating over $300 million to Republicans, and believed by every decerebrated MAGA, they lied he’d spent ten days in an Ohio mental institution. That desperate fiction was debunked faster than Q-Anon’s “revelation” of Hillary Clinton trafficking children from the basement of a pizza parlor lacking a basement but which Trump’s new qualified-by-bleach-and-grovel press secretary promoted back then.

Capping off the week was Trump’s “deal” with Putin to spend our money buying Russia’s diesel fuel. Since it amounts to but a few days’ worth of America’s usage, the significance is, yet again, Trump’s buttosculation of Vlad; freeing him from sanctions, breaking the bipartisan law against importing Russian fuel he’d just signed. At least he’s stopped all pretense of not being Putin’s puppy. Openly colluding with him. Praising his favorite murderer and insulting a fledgling democracy’s brave president. Blaming Ukraine for Russia’s criminal invasion. Saying its president, not Putin, must stop the war. If he did, Ukraine would cease to be, handing it to Russia; if Putin stopped it, nothing would happen except universal relief. Same if Trump stopped his stupid Iran war.

As November’s elections approach, Trump is desperate to undo the economic damage his war has caused. Hallucinating or lying (which is worse?), he announced an agreement between the parties to stop attacking energy sources. It was news to Zelensky, and Putin is still bombing them. Having nothing constructive to offer, for Trump and his candidates, it’s lies all the way down.