Okay, so some failed human being goes to a splash pad in Detroit and…opens fire. An eight year old boy was shot in the head and is in critical condition. Eight other people were shot, too. They’re in stable condition. THEN, the idiot shooter goes home and kills himself. A LOT of these random crazies end up killing themselves in the end. My question? Why not just do the second part and leave everyone else out of it?

Perhaps he was just celebrating the Kangaroos return to stupidity when they restored bump stocks to the nation. A bump stock is an add-on device that allows a semi-automatic gun to fire at rates similar to a machine gun. For the most part, it’s illegal to own fully automatic machine guns in America. There are some exceptions, of course. But the gun world’s work-around was bump stocks. Bump stocks are the key to how that idiot in Las Vegas was able to murder so many people in such a short time.

Oh, yeah, bump stocks were banned by the Trump maladministration. (He got one right. He deserves that credit, though, he’s now denying he did it…) No matter. The Kangaroos overturned the ban and now bump stocks are back. The ethically challenged moron Clarence Thomas, of course, insisted that bump stocks don’t turn semi-automatic weapons into fully automatic weapons. No, they don’t. But they allow a semi-automatic weapon to fire at nearly the same rate, so the difference is negligible…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One of the things I note about MAGA is that they lack empathy. As a group, to be sure, but I mean individually. I consider it a defining characteristic. One definition of empathy is: “The ability to identify with or understand another’s situation or feelings.” This, MAGA can not do. The only way MAGA can understand anything, even have a chance of understanding, is if they experience that thing themselves and even then, there’s no guarantee.

Steve Scalise (R, La) is a rabid gun nut. He got shot by a random shooter at a softball practice. He nearly died. He’s STILL a rabid gun nut. He’s also still in good with MAGA. Compare that to Gabby Giffords. She was also a strong gun supporter, though maybe not a “rabid” gun nut. Then she got shot. Now she’s more wary of allowing just anybody to have a gun or to carry one anywhere and everywhere. She learned. Scalise couldn’t.

The reason I mention this is that there’s a tendency for me to momentarily wish upon them the things they deny others. Does that happen to you? When I heard Thomas’s claim about bump stocks, I momentarily wished he could be on the receiving end of someone with a bump stock. When that young woman insisted she’s going to destroy a woman’s right to control her own body, I momentarily wished her pregnant by her rapist.

I really don’t like that. It shames and embarrasses me that such thoughts might even BE in my head. I don’t mean them. They just show up, unbidden. Then I have to slap them down and reproach myself for even considering it. I don’t WANT to be like MAGA. I suppose (hope?) it’s a natural, animal response. But I KNOW it’s not decent nor civilized. I think it comes from a place of, “Well, if it’s the only way they’re going to learn…” But it isn’t the “only” way. It can’t be. How DOES one teach a person who doesn’t WANT to learn?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Everybody on the left is worried that the cons are ushering in Fascism because we, on the left, know what Fascism is. Everybody on the right is worried that the LEFT is ushering in Fascism because cons DON’T know what Fascism is. I think both sides are wrong. I’ve seen all kinds of lists about what MUST be on display to be Fascism but I never agree with them. They seem a distraction from the simplest, most correct definition, the one I take from the so-called “Father of Fascism,” Benito Mussolini.

Mussolini kept it simple. Fascism, he said, was the merger between government and corporate power. He didn’t say anything about the “add-ons,” things like authoritarianism. Those came later. But IF one sticks with Mussolini’s definition, it seems the United States has been a Fascist nation since 2010, when the SKCOTUS made their dreadful, infamous Citizens United vs the FEC ruling. That’s the one that allowed (required?) rich people to buy politicians through unlimited campaign contributions.

Consider: we all know that politicians these days are owned and operated by corporations and rich people. If the politicians want to keep their phony-baloney jobs, they have to stay ‘hat in hand’ with the money people. The average Joe, sending $20, or $50, or even $100 to some candidate isn’t the person the candidate will look to after winning. They’ll look to the rich guy or corporation that sent them $20,000, or $200,000 in bundled cash, or the people who pay the tab on expensive gifts and other bribes.

But that system absolutely reflects the “merger between government and corporate power.” The wealthy buy the politicians, the politicians do as they’re told by the wealthy – and the wealthy only want politicians to do what’s best for the wealthy! Voila! Fascism. It happened quietly. Most people didn’t even seem to notice. Many haven’t noticed yet.

But I’ll tell you this: it happened. Fascism came to America in 2010. It WAS wrapped in the flag and carrying a Bible, too. But make no mistake, it came because wealthy people bought it and morons supported it. Now we’re all suffering from it…