A jackass at my daughter’s school has decided to call in bomb threats on two consecutive days. The local police are on the case. The sheriff’s office is on the case. The FBI is on the case. I’m sure every teacher and principal are studying the voice on the other line to see if they can identify him. There are all kinds of silly rumors as to why this kid is doing this. The answer is simple. He wants others to feel afraid because that somehow gives him power.

Calling in terroristic threats is a felony. This kid will be found and it won’t be pretty when they do. However, that knowledge in the background hit me when I heard an Eva Guzman ad again this morning. She is running for attorney general in Texas. She will presumably have to go through Ken Paxton and the infamous Louie Gohmert. You have to try really hard to out-slime those two.

Guzman’s ads tell us that she will tackle the immigration problem as attorney general. The only thing is that she doesn’t call it a problem. She calls it an invasion. As you might suspect, she also goes into the other stereotypes and misconceptions about them stealing our resources, committing crimes, and coming after you and your grandchildren. Democratic policies are making it worse and we are at a crossroads.

Except we aren’t. Illegal immigration is not a growing problem. Illegal immigrants are not committing crimes at the same rate. It is illegal for them to collect social security. It is illegal for them to get welfare. Hell, it is illegal for them to work at all. So, what exactly are we doing here? These ads are long on emotion. They want you to feel afraid. They want you to feel angry. They want you to hate. They just aren’t all that long on facts. Facts don’t help them. Facts just get in the way of a good story.

The 64,000 pound elephant in the room hits you squarely across the chest when you realize that Eva Guzman (and those like her) are using the exact same tactics as that kid calling in a bomb threat. The reality of Guzman’s threats are about as valid as the boy’s threats. There’s no bomb. There’s no invasion. The world isn’t going to hell in a ham basket because someone came across the border or because a boy decided to become a girl or vice versa. Oh, it might be going to hell alright, but it won’t be because of any of those things.

The hell we fear is a hell of our own creation. It was one that spins out of our fear. It is one that comes from the notion of life as a zero sum game where everything someone else gets is something that we don’t. It’s a fear where we point at people that aren’t like us and turn their desire just to exist into an existential threat to our humanity and culture. Be afraid. Be very afraid and while you’re at it why don’t you try on this hate for size. It fits you well.

Every once in awhile, something invades my sacred space. Eva Guzman has done that in the mornings. I listen to local sports radio in my 15 minute drive to school every morning. Now, they are playing her ads as she attempts to unseat Ken Paxton from the role of attorney general in Texas. Paxton is the symbol of GOP excess in Texas and possibly the entire nation.

When we teach our students about irony we often bring up Paxton. He has been under indictment for nearly his entire term. You add in the obligatory example of an arsonists as a fire chief and a crook as the chief of police and you have yourself a perfect example. The fact that the number one law enforcement officer in the state is under indictment has to be a joke. The fact that voters knew he was and voted for him anyway is the cruel part of the irony. That and the fact that his trial might occur before the apocalypse.

So maybe Guzman is a better choice based purely on the fact that she hasn’t been credibly accused of a crime yet. Maybe I’m giving myself away and revealing my bias when I say yet. All I know is that 6:30 in the morning is way too early to hear about Joe Biden’s “radical agenda.” Biden has been called a number of things in and out of Democratic circles and radical comes nowhere near any of those things.

Republicans are good for two things. First, they somehow manage to label themselves as the law and order party when their politicians seem to be responsible for 90 percent of the indictments, convictions, and jail time. I suppose white collar crime doesn’t count. It is a tradition as long as life itself. Find a dedicated Q zealot and you’ve probably found yourself a pedophile. Projection is their spirit animal.

The second thing is that a Republican will call any Democrat a radical whether they be moderate or progressive. The Virginia race proves that, but we didn’t need any proof. If we are going to be saddled with the radical label whether we are radical or not then we might as well go for it. We spend half of our time muting ourselves. Obviously, they don’t have the same issue.

So, Guzman is the flavor of the month. Paxton is the perfect MAGA stooge. He is willing to do anything the master wants and he already seems on his way to jail as soon as the courts get off their duff and actually hold his trial. Why shouldn’t he be the number one law enforcement officer in the state? So, keep trying Guzman, but just lay off the commercials early in the morning. 6:30 is way too early to get my daily dose of bullshit.