So. . .
I really wanted to write a follow up on the thirteenth
Doctor, Jodi Whitaker (got lots left to say about that!), but of late, I’ve
been distracted by the three ring circus unfolding down south. And I don’t just
mean Charlotesville. . .
The news has been unfolding so quickly, everything one can
say is redundant or out of date by the time it’s written down.
I knew the election of the clown prince would be a disaster.
What I didn’t anticipate, was just how hilarious it would be. If Curly, Larry
and Mo were made joint Presidents, they couldn’t have been more bumblingly
farcical than the Trump White House. I mean, what a display of lumbering
nincompoopery! What a gong-show, train wreck, dumpster fire. I feel like a
rubber necker, transfixed by the chaos and holding up traffic. Sorry folks, I
just can’t look away!
Nevermind he can’t seem to get laws passed or walls built
(which suits me fine), or that he can’t retain press-secretaries (Scaramucci,
aptly named after an operatic clown, gone in ten days!), the corporate bigwigs
on his advisory committees fleeing like rats from a sinking ship (hey Mr.
President, if Frazier’s ripoff drugs were so overpriced, WTF was he doing on
your committee???). And now, we get a President of the USofA takes his sweet
jolly time to condemn neo-nazis. I mean.
. .neo-nazis! The folks who think gas-chambers are a great thing. The President
of the United States of
America, Land of the Free, needed to be
reminded that these were very people.
Oh sure, he got ‘round to it eventually. But it took a shit
ton of prodding. But even then, he equivocated. “there is another side, you can
call them the left, that came violently attacking the other group.” By whom he means the guys who showed up at
the rally to tell the nazis what assholes they are.
You had one job Mr. President. Just tell the world
“neo-nazis are bad.” Scratch that, just say “nazis are bad”. Save yourself a
syllable. “nazis are bad”. That’s all folks wanted to hear. In times of crisis,
people just want to hear their leader say something nice. One nice thing we can
all agree on. Nazis are bad. Even your craziest critics would have left you
alone on that one. I would have given you kudos for that one.
But no: apparently nazis are no worse than the folks who
stand up to them (somebody send the memo to any surviving WWII vets). There’s
violence on both sides, the left are attacking the right.
Indeed. Those poor, poor peace-loving, kumbaya-singing
Klansmen, just wanting to denounce Jews and blacks in peace! Why can’t we just
leave them alone?
(I suppose James Alex Fields Jr. was just acting in self
defence when he ran his car over Heather Heyer).
A couple things: we have to admit, the far left can get
rambunctious. They can break things. They sometimes tip over garbage cans. They’ll
write naughty words on the side-walk in chalk. It happens. Acts of sheerest
evil to be condemned in the strongest possible terms. But here’s the thing: the far-left tend to
target property. The far-right tend to target people. There is a difference.
There is no equivalence. I have written of and criticized the tendencies of the
“regressive left”, having seen it and felt it up close. But there is no
equivalence. Nazis are worse. When swastikas start flying, there are no “two
sides”; there is the side that wants to put Jews into ovens, and the side that
wants to stop them.
Nazism is a lot like child-rape: there’s no neutrality.
Fearless Leader chose a fine to show nuance for the first time in his life.
And as for that codswallop about “not having all the facts”,
what more facts did he need exactly? What else did he need to know about
marching Klanners? And since when did Mr. “Biggest Crowds ever” give a damn
about facts?
Ye Gods Mr. President.
Throughout it all, there is hope. The whole grotesquery has sunk so low, it just
might awaken a shred of decency within the Republican party.
John McCain has spoken out. He tweeted: “There’s no moral equivalency
between racists and Americans standing up to defy hate & bigotry.”
Mitt Romney has spoken out. He tweeted: “Not the same. One
side is racist, bigoted, Nazi. The other opposes racism and bigotry. Morally
different universes”
Jeb Bush has spoken out. He tweeted: “For the sake of our country,
he (Trump) must leave no room for doubt that racism and hatred will not be
tolerated or ignored by his White House.
Mark Rubio has spoken out. He tweeted: “The organizers of
events which inspired & led to #charlottesvilleterroristattack are 100% to
blame”
and “Mr. President, you can’t allow #White Supremacists to
share only part of the blame.”
Ted Cruz spoke out. “The Nazis, KKK, and white supremacists
are repulsive and evil, and all of us have a moral obligation to speak out
against the lies bigotry, anti-semitism and hatred that they propagate”
Mitch McConnell spoke out: “There are no good neo-nazis, and
those who espouse their views are not supporters of American ideals and
freedoms. We have a responsibility to stand against hate and violence.”
Ronna McDaniel spoke out: “the KKK and the white
supremacists were wrong. . .there is no good KKK member, there’s no nice
neo-nazi.
“The president was saying that people brought violence from
both sides. And violence isn’t OK, but the blame lies squarely at the KKK, the
white supremacists, the neo-nazis who organized this rally, caused violence and
are pushing hate”.
Carlos Curbelo spoke out. He tweeted: “@potus just doesn’t
get it. No moral equivalence between manifestations for and against white
supremacy.”
Who’d have thunk I’d one day be applauding so many
Republican tweets? It’s a miracle!
Ken Fraizier and the corporate bigwigs on Trump’s manufacturing
councils have resigned en-mass, and Ill Presidente, in typically
juvenile fashion, is wailing that he never liked them anyway.
Here in the Great White North, Ezra Levant and his Rebels
have denounced the whole thing, to my boundless relief. There is a line they
won’t cross, a place they won’t go. There is a value Canadians still share.
Thank God. Hallelujah!
Maybe it’s all a trick. Maybe the Troglodyte in Chief was
trying to shake some sense back into the parties, slap a complacent public
awake, and lure the fascist slugs out of their slimy holes so they can be
salted once and for all. Maybe. If I were of a conspiracist mind-set. . .
A fella can dream.
