1738 Be Afraid

1738 Be Afraid

There are two kinds of terror and this is about the second one.

The first is when there’s an attack.  September 11th. The Boston Marathon.  A bomb in Times Square. Sarin gas in a subway station. A truck mowing down everyone on a crowded street. Oklahoma City.

These terrorists come in various foul flavors.  Islamists, white supremacists, crazies who hunt for kids in an elementary school.

The second kind is sneakier.  You terrify slowly. You don’t realize it’s happening.  And then one day you awaken and realize you’re terrified.  Some of us are early adapters.  We’re already scared to death.

We elected a mad man who didn’t want the job but now has to do it.  And his personnel list looks like a dressed up unguarded Rikers Island lunch line viewed in a funhouse mirror. You want specifics? There are places you can look them up. Meantime, beware of guys in orange jumpsuits and carrying homemade shanks.

Be afraid.

We’ve had disrupters in the White House before.  LBJ, Reagan, both Roosevelts.  We’ve had incompetents before.  Think Carter or Hoover or Dubya.

But never have we had a gang like The Incoming whose members know they are both.

Be afraid.  Be very afraid.  

The cabinet is the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party.

We have had evil vice presidents before. Think Cheney or Nixon.  We’ve had incompetents before. Think Quayle.  

But Pence is not only both, he’s learned to act as if he didn’t come straight out of that straightjacket and pretend he’s normal.

In all these cases, disruptive, evil or incompetent, they didn’t ignore the way this country’s government does business.  We never before had an ordinary civilian who makes foreign policy before taking office.  We never before had a president who can’t make a clear and consistent policy statement on any subject or who changed his views like the weather.

And we’ve never before had a president with one hand tied behind his back and the other on the nuclear button.

Be afraid.  

Shrapnel:

--The Radio City Music Hall Rockettes are scheduled to perform at the inauguration on January 20th.  And although the union says attendance is mandatory, the ordinarily high handed, low minded owners say they are letting conscientious objectors among the dancers opt out. Which could mean a two-girl kickline.

--There’s a junkyard full of reasons Clinton lost the election and plenty of blame to go around … or praise depending on your political views. But an overlooked though important reason is when people saw or heard her they didn’t think of her, they thought of Leona Helmsley.  Even if they never heard of Leona Helmsley.

--Well, that’ll show ‘em.  The President’s private war with the Netanyahu escalated when the US refused to veto a UN Security Council resolution condemning settlement building in parts of Israel.  But in a way it’s Israel’s own fault for failing to annex land it won in the 1967 war.

I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com

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