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Meet Nancy Mace. She is one of the MAGA people in Congress. She chose to wear the Scarlet letter as a symbol of pride. Well, maybe not. I’m not really sure why she wore it, but I’m fairly certain she didn’t read the book. Maybe a copy of Spark Notes would have been helpful before pulling this stunt. The self-own is the cruelest own of all.

It’s been a long week and it’s only Thursday. We’ve had some tense moments. We have international crises in different parts of the world. We have a rudderless ship in Congress. Maybe a little bit of right wing idiocy is what we need to limp through before the Friday margaritas. If you can explain what the A stands for in Nancy’s mind please feel free to let us know. I can’t figure it out.

Nuance has become one of the four letter words. We might as well skip it and move on with the rest of our lives. However, I’m a wild and crazy guy, so let’s give this a try. We have been told that if we mention anything somewhat bad about Israel that we are anti-Semitic and horrible horrible people. I know this is a risk, but I thought it was well worth the effort. Let’s start with a notion. Hamas is a terrorist organization. Hopefully we can all agree on that. While Hamas is made up of Palestinians and primarily Palestinians, it does not mean that all or even most Palestinians are a part of Hamas or even supportive of their efforts.

The Proud Boys and Klu Klux Klan are American groups, They are made up exclusively of Americans. However, no one in their right mind would argue that all or even most Americans are members or endorse their activities. I know this seems basic, but it should inform our thinking moving forward when dealing with groups like Hamas. So, when I tell you that nearly 6500 Palestinians have died in this conflict, our reaction should not be “well, those sorry bastards had it coming.” That kind of talk is grotesque and serves to exacerbate the problem. The ratio of Palestinians killed to Israelis killed is more than 20 to 1. This is fairly normal historically. Logic would clearly dictate that we should all find that to be somewhat troubling.

Governments have the right to respond disproportiately to threats, but those rights come with responsibilities and consequences. If your response is not proportional you might have some blowback around the globe when other rational actors consider your behavior. We have seen this in Europe as it pertains to Israel. Their opinions of Israel seem to differ from ours. We have long had a blind spot as far as Israel is concerned. They can do no wrong and have an absolute right to “defend themselves” even if that defense goes well beyond the normal bounds of self-defense.

We can say that we understand someone’s actions without approving of them. This is where many of our friends are in the case of Israel. We understand what the Palestinians are thinking and feeling. We understand what the Israelis are thinking and feeling. We understand their actions from a clinical perspective. When people feel threatened they act. Sometimes they act badly.

We can look at what Israeli leadership is doing and keep that separate from what the people are going through. No civilian should ever live in fear. This is a basic human right. We can assert this human right to all places around the world. We may hate the Russians, Chinese, Iranians, and anyone else. Their people deserve basic human rights. Hell, most of the time our hatred for those governments stems from the fact that their people are not afforded those basic rights.

I can feel an affinity to the Israeli people. I can feel that same affinity for the Palestinians as well. No one deserves this. To bomb neighborhoods because someone in Hamas might live there is grotesque and horrific. Killing and threatening civilians is never okay. We absolutely have to say that without equivocation. Some Palestinians have done some very bad things. They should be punished as any other aggressor should. Some are minding their own business and trying to live their lives peaceably. If we are going to say they all deserve it because a few of them killed Israelis then that is the bigotry. If we don’t question Israel and their constant need to meter out extreme justice then we are guilty of the same bigotry that the pro-Israel crowd is accusing rational and sane people of containing.

Okay, I’m depressed.  I turned off the teevee on Monday morning and haven’t turned it back on.  I just can’t do this. I’m too old, too broken hearted, and too filled with rage to watch the horror screaming around my head. I need to learn to knit or something.

I read about the situation so I understand it (somewhat) intellectually.  But actually seeing the slaughter makes me crazy enough to believe that Trump gave secret documents to our enemies and that’s how this happened.  And then I have distant relatives in Louisiana who say we have to fight this to make Israel safe for Jesus to return.  Holy goddamn crap, y’all. Sweet Jesus doesn’t need us to slaughter babies to make something safe.  Jesus can still the waters all on his own.  Contrary to some Christian beliefs, Jesus is not Stalin.

It’s making me crazy. I’m gonna learn to knit and force you to wear whatever I make because that’s how angry I am.

As an aside, last week my son Mark filed a lawsuit again Elon Musk. You can read about it here. Mark also talks about it on the place formerly known as Twitter.  The short of it is that Elon Musk outed a really decent 22 year old kid as a neo Nazi by claiming he was at a riot in Portland.  Musk bases his identification of the kid on a bad picture taken at the riot. Mark’s client, while looking a tiny bit like the picture, was in another state at a fraternity party at the time.  But, Musk will not back down because Musk is never wrong. Mark’s client is a Jewish kid and Musk declares he’s a Nazi. The results of this for the kid have been horrific. Then Musk declares that he’s going to say what he wants to say and if that costs him money, so be it. He’s going to ruin this kid’s life just because he can afford it.

Man, I’m depressed.  So, I’ve got girlfriends coming over today and we’re gonna each bring our favorite guilty pleasure food to share for lunch and make a decision about who makes the quarter final round of sexiest man alive picked by real women who have some experience with this stuff. You’ll be happy to know that Eric Swalwell and Pedro Pascal are still in the running.

Far be it from me to point out the obvious, but there are times when our behaviors don’t have real world consequences. Maybe we leave the stove on. Maybe we forget to lock the door. Maybe someone let the dog out. It doesn’t mean the house always burns down, someone robs you blind, or the dog bites a neighbor. It just means those things are more likely.

Yet, we know these things do happen. We see too many instances on the news to completely write it off. In one breath we talk about how that person should have been more careful and then in another instance we remember that we have likely done the exact same thing.

We experienced this as a country this weekend. We heard a story about the ex-president sharing secret plans with a foreign national and some people immediately pointed out the hyperbole. It couldn’t possibly come back to bite us in the ass. That’s just something that liberals are spouting off about to scare us. There are never really real world consequences. Loose lips don’t really sink ships. That’s just a red herring.

Well, maybe not. The Israelis were under attack this weekend. I’m not going to say it. Don’t listen to me. Let’s listen to the Israelis. They know the ex-president shared their secrets with the Russians. We can connect the dots from there. Let’s dispense with something really quickly. The Russians are not our friends. They have never been our friends. They likely will never be our friends. Their interests almost never align with ours.

Again, I did not connect the dots here. The Israelis did. Trump told Russia. The Russians are closer allies with the Iranians than we certainly are. Everyone we oppose is usually somehow Russia’s friend. So, Trump’s secrets that he got from Israel somehow made it to Iran. The Iranians don’t like the Israelis, so it probably made to Hamas. Again, I repeat that I did not connect those dots. Our right-leaning allies in Israel connected those dots.

So, before we start linking a six billion dollar deal (none of which is U.S. money) to this attack let’s talk about direct consequences and not seven degrees of Kevin Bacon. We already know the intelligence community kept things from Trump. Why did they do this? Well, that episode with the Russians in the oval office is probably exhibit one. That exact exhibit one is at play here. Remember, that is not me just pissing in the wind. The Israelis believe this.

I keep repeating that on purpose. You can certainly question Biden’s policy decisions and everyone is free to do so, but there are not two rational actors in this presidential race. One is a bloviating jackass that can’t be trusted with any actionable intelligence. You’d almost expect the intelligence organizations to give him far fetched and dubious intelligence to just to see if he can embroil Russia in a misinformation campaign. Unfortunately, Putin is smarter than someone you could dupe with an Ethiopian prince scheme.

Let’s get this off to a very basic start. Maybe the guy that kept our government secrets by a toilet shouldn’t be president again. Maybe that guy should be in jail before he can share any more of our government secrets. I know many of us wanted to believe that those loose lips wouldn’t actually cause any real damage. It was a fool’s errand. Loose lips do sink ships. They just don’t sink all of them and they don’t sink them immediately.

So, Lara Trump has made herself a song. She didn’t play any instruments. She didn’t write any of the chords or come up with any of the lyrics. She had a fancy studio auto tune her, so that it sounded halfway decent. It was a step above those places in the mall that would record you singing a song for $59.95. It was essentially karaoke. It was average karaoke.

Listening to her complain about the “obvious conspiracy” that was keeping her song from getting radio play was the last straw. I’m a pretty easy going and tolerant fellow. I’ll endure your crap a lot longer than most people. I’m done. It is the total lack of self-awareness that gets me. If her name were Jane Doe it never would have gotten by that mall shop style recording. She might get 13 downloads in that scenario.

I’m not even sure what to call her complaint on the conservative talk show circuit. It is equal parts irony, hyperbole, and certainly there is some oxymoron in there somewhere. How can someone completely misunderstand that she only got it recorded in the first place because of who she is and then turn around and complain about it not getting radio play because of who she is?

Call it hypocrisy but that doesn’t even begin to describe it. It’s like Donald Trump Jr. complaining about Hunter Biden and his drug problem while he is obviously hopped up on cocaine. Okay, we didn’t see any white residue on his lip, so we can’t say it was definitely cocaine. However, the blood shot eyes, manic speech patterns, and cloudy thought patterns make that one all too obvious.

Listening to all the Trump children and hangers on is an exercise in chutzpah. They are people that have never put in an honest day’s work in their life and are somehow victims of something. It is the lack of self-awareness that is breathtaking. We knew this of daddy, but listening to the entire clan is just so very exhausting.

I propose Elba. For those that don’t remember, Elba was the island the French exiled Napoleon to. This time you set up some kind of an invisible wall where no electronic messaging can penetrate. There will be no landlines. No cell service or any ability to post to social media. All of these idiots will be cut off from the outside world. They are banished for an eternity.

I’ll exclude Tiffany and Baron from this treatment. They have so far had the good sense to keep quiet and Baron is still a minor child. However, I am putting them on notice. You suffer the same fate as the rest of them if you too become tiresome. Airlift supplies to them. Send in a maintenance guy and cook and promise them Trump’s booty once they all perish. I know it sounds too humane for Trump, but I just don’t want to deal with it anymore. Let’s make this happen.