we heard about another mass shooting in the news, my thoughts immediately went to a Joy Reid rant on TikTok. Now, I’m a bit old, so TikTok is not necessarily my thing, but the sentiment seemed so accurate that I couldn’t help but share it.

https://www.tiktok.com/@joyreidofficial/video/7164996613700717866?is_from_webapp=v1&item_id=7164996613700717866

For those of you that haven’t followed the news, the latest tragedy involves a LGTBQ club in Colorado Springs. As of the latest reporting, five have died with over two dozen being injured. It might have been more on both fronts if not for the heroic efforts of some inside the club.

I should point out that there are plenty of people I know that are conservative and good, decent people. This turns into one of those logical statements that we used to get on the SAT or GRE. Not every conservative is an asshole and I would surmise that most conservatives aren’t assholes. Yet, when you picture an asshole in your head you probably see a conservative.

Maybe that isn’t fair. I’m willing to concede that some liberals could be assholes. Heck, some people might think I’m an asshole. However, let’s consider the campaign we just finished. Crime seemed to be the number one issue on the ballot for them. Yet, whether violent crime really is as pressing an issue is open to considerable debate.

The Democratic brain and the Republican brain work differently. When you say violent crime, the images that pop into our head are vastly different. For many conservatives, violent crime is a dog whistle that point to certain people committing those crimes. The Colorado Springs shooting involved a young white male. Most of these mass shootings involve young white males. So, there is some cognitive dissonance going on here. There is a difference between who we think is dangerous and who might actually be more dangerous.

It would be irresponsible of me to claim that this shooter (I will not publish his name) was somehow radicalized by the rhetoric on the right. We know that was true in the El Paso mass shooting. Yet, it isn’t true all of the time. It isn’t true that they are ALWAYS white males, but that seems to be a good rule of thumb.

I suppose I risk the possibility of becoming the old man sitting in his lawn chair and shaking his fists at the neighborhood kids playing in the street. However, I don’t remember this many zealots actually representing us in government when I was younger. The inflammatory rhetoric has an effect. It ramps up the tension and widens the divide. It creates the irrational view that the other side aren’t real Americans or even real people. It becomes easier to depersonalize and shuts off our compassion when tragedy befalls us. We become numb.

I wish I had some answers for everyone. I wish I could simply wave a magic wand and make it all go away. Maybe it starts with each of us individually. Maybe each of us can make a small contribution to returning our discourse into something resembling civility. Short of that then it becomes simply a live and let die world

We all saw it (or at least heard about it) when Elon Musk posted an easily manipulated poll asking if TFG should be reinstated at Twitter.  Recall that Musk, just a week ago, announced that any decisions about reinstating any toxic user would be deferred until he convened a “content moderation council” of outside experts.  Well, like almost everything Musk announces, that didn’t come true, and after Musk got a very split decision (52/48) to his poll, including votes from who knows how many bots he regularly criticized before buying the platform, he ordered that TFG be reinstated using the Latin term, Vox Populi, Vox Dei, translated “Voice of the People, Voice of God.”  With the dramatic flare of a Caesar granting a pardon, Musk unleashed TFG back on normal people.  Jesus H. Christ.

This morning, Quinta Jurecic of The Atlantic published a piece about the stupidity of Musk’s decision and it is a must read.  The operative quote that says it all:

“You are reading this, and I am writing it, because a very rich man who desperately wants people to pay attention to him posted an easily rigged poll on the website he’d just bought for $44 billion. The answers to many of the questions I have just posed will depend on the fancies of another rich man who desperately wants people to pay attention to him. There’s an indignity to having one’s attention jerked around this way.  Demanding that people simply ignore these bumbling titans is too simplistic: Their flailing has a tendency to wreck the world that the rest of us live in.”

Amen.  One can only hope that the media has learned something from the last train wreck of a presidency, but my confidence is at a low ebb.

Hey, I just deactivated my Twitter account of 12 years. You can too! Here’s how:

1. Open Twitter
2. Tap the navigation menu icon , then tap Settings and privacy.
2. Tap Your account, then tap Deactivate your account.
3. Don’t bother reading the account deactivation information, just tap Deactivate.
4. Enter your Twitter password when prompted and tap Deactivate.
5. Confirm that you want to proceed by tapping Yes, deactivate.

You can then remove the Twitter icon from your desktop, and go in peace.

Nancy Pelosi just announced that she would not be seeking her position as Speaker of the House or Minority Leader.

We won’t find anybody as smart as she is and I heard that Adam Schiff isn’t entering the fray because he’s considering running for senate.  Pelosi’ stop two deputies, Steny Hoyer of Maryland and Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, were both born before chocolate chip cookies were invented.

Surely we can find someone young, vigorous, and smarter than Kevin McCarthy, which is a very low bar.

Okay, so here’s the deal.  At every swearing-in ceremony for new citizens, the League of Women Voters – a long standing non partisan group of do-gooders across the country volunteer their time to register voters and educate people on the voting process.  Voting is the first right of citizenship.

I am blessed to have a good friend who volunteers with The League.  For 20 years, they register voters all across the greater Houston area.  They go to high schools, civic events, and just about any place they are needed.

Once a month, they report to the swearing-in location at 5:00 am to set up for a ceremony that does not start until 9:00.  Usually about 2,000 people are sworn in.  They register 88 to 90% of attendees.

They make the wheels of democracy work.

Until now.

Not only have they being kept from registering voters, they are even banned from attending.

Judge Doofus says he didn’t know this 20 year old tradition was a 20 year old tradition. However, he says he was only appointed in 2019 so how can we expect him to know everything?  Seriously, Judge Goofy?

We know exactly what he was doing.  He was saying that people who play by the rules, study hard, pass all necessary exams and paperwork, and harbor a deep dream of living in a democracy don’t need to carry that to extremes, like you know, voting.

The League has reacted graciously and say they are disappointed but they know they are guests at these events and will accept that.  But deep inside in a tiny whisper they are saying, “What the hell, you ungracious jerk. You had to go out of your way to do this.”

Best I know, we have not deserted you.

I think maybe everybody is kinda stunned over the Red Wave that turned out being Little Princess Barbie pink.  It was kinda like when you wash your Klan robe with you MAGA hat.

Texas: We are the most backwards state in the country.

Florida: Hold my possum jerky and watch this…

And after getting beat so badly that alligators wouldn’t even eat him, Trump announced that he’s running for president of the Semi-United States of America. He challenged democracy and turned up face down.

I have been distracted by the Republicans in my county who howled that the county stayed as blue as we flipped it four years ago, plus we added two new Democratic wins – one county commissioner (we now control commissioners court 4 to 1), and one new state representative.  Republicans were convinced that we cheated at the ballot box of damn course.

They showed up loudly! and in force on the day the vote was canvassed, provisional ballots were rejected or certified, and several races were recounted. They came with lawyers, bean counters, loudmouths, people who were just mad and didn’t exactly know why, and a couple of guys who were born before chocolate chip cookies were invented.  We countered with sending one lawyer – never send two lawyers because they’ll spend all day arguing with each other -, three retired grade school teachers, and some righteous precinct chairs who had read the Texas Election Code.  They were headed by a tiny gray headed African American woman who was one of the first people to integrate the University of Texas and then worked her way to be an executive with AT&T. God made her short so she could chew butt and then spit it out over a bonfire she had simultaneously started by stomping her foot to keep the devil from coming up and making a ruckus.

Twelve hours later, Democrats emerged with the vote total rising in every single damn race.  We didn’t just beat them, Honey. We beat them good.

They went home with their tail between their legs.

It was so much fun.