At the risk of dating myself a common greeting among friends is, “What’s happening?”. Politically I’ll attempt to partially answer that question in the following paragraphs.
The Endorsement Of Beto O’Rourke
We could have quite a debate as to who is the worst governor in America running for reelection in 2022, but no doubt Greg Abbott of Texas would be high on that list. While it may be a bit outside, there is a chance he can be knocked off even in an “off year” election.
A Crummy Deal
Sunday afternoon the framework of a gun bill was announced. It still has to be written, pass both chambers and be signed by the president before it becomes law. Assuming it passes, which is far from a forgone conclusion, it will almost undoubtedly be watered down. So I wouldn’t count any chickens just yet however I’d like to spend the next few paragraphs reviewing just what has been announced as of this writing.
The Glaringly Obvious Domestic Threat
One of the email messages that greeted me when I woke up Sunday morning was that 31 white supremacists had been arrested in Idaho for plotting to disrupt an LGBTQ pride event. It seems that members of that community, their families and supporters were basically going to get together for a family day at the park. A Saturday picnic at the park; it hardly gets more American and peaceful than that.
“Organized”
For some time now I’ve described the Trump administration as an organized criminal enterprise. With due respect to real mobsters and in view of last week’s 1/6 Committee hearings perhaps I need to put scare quotes around the word organized.