Have you noticed the force around Luigi Mangione as they move him from place to place? It’s like every cop in New York is needed to escort this oh-so-dangerous man. Really, it’s one hell of a show. Yeah, he shot a guy in the back. Now, because the guy he shot was a CEO and, more importantly, rich, officials are charging him with terrorism – so they can put him to death.
Mangione was a very specific shooter. He’s not a threat to all of society. It’s not like he randomly shot up a school, killing anybody unfortunate enough to be in front of his barrel. Because he had – and achieved – a goal, I’d say he’s LESS of a threat. But 30 cops surround the guy like he’s Public Enemy Number One with a long list of murders to his name every time he gets moved.
It’s all a show. The masses are being “discouraged” from following his example by seeing the treatment Mangione receives as a result of his action. Expect it to be harsh. Publicly harsh. Expect it to end with Mangione sentenced to die. Hell, they might fast-track him to the gallows, just to make their point.
The message is, ‘don’t attack rich people’ but I’m not sure that’s the takeaway the public will go with. I haven’t seen any waning in people’s support for Mangione or his choice, despite the fact that we ALL think murder is bad. People see this killing as a kind of retribution, not murder. When they DO kill him, I suspect he’ll become a martyr, a rallying cry…
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Have you heard about this? A congresswoman from Texas, Kay Granger (R), has been living in a care facility for dementia patients at least the last six months. Her son tried to downplay the situation: “There’s nothing wrong with someone wanting to live in a community with other folks their age,” Brandon Granger said. He’s right. There IS nothing wrong with that. More, there’s nothing wrong with battling dementia. It’s sad, but it happens.
It’s the ‘battling dementia while holding a House seat’ part that concerns me. She hasn’t voted on the House floor since July. She hasn’t shown up at all, except for one photo op pretending she was a-okay. She has stepped down from her committee assignments. Oh, and she HAS continued to accept that sweet paycheck…
I’m not ripping on Granger, herself. We see this from time to time. We last saw it from Dianne Feinstein, who was no longer aware she WAS Dianne Feinstein much of the time, but maintained her position in the Senate. Useless, possibly even dangerous to her job, but holding the seat. The thing is, in Congress, this can only be about money, right?
Had Feinstein stepped down due to health issues, Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom could be expected to replace her with another Democrat, so the balance of power would not be affected. That’s the exact same situation with Kay Granger. Her Governor, Greg Abbott, would likely have appointed a Republican, so, same outcome. But they stay. And stay. And stay.
Yes, it appears Joe Biden is battling some age issues, himself, and Ronald Reagan, famously, no longer knew he was Ronald Reagan by the end of his term. It just comes up from time to time. People get old and they don’t have control over dementia. Once it hits, it hits. But they don’t leave their offices.
Theoretically, their teams take care of them by keeping them out of public view and occasionally issuing statements in their candidate’s name but it’s essentially a seat held hostage in Congress. I might go so far as to assert it’s a kind of theft. EVERYONE is getting paid – from tax dollars – but nobody is doing the job they were hired to do. It’s no different than if you went to work every day but never did your job. Well, there IS one difference. Once your employer found out you were accepting the check but never contributing, you’d be let go.
I’m not normally an advocate for age restrictions but I think I’m leaning further and further that direction when it comes to Congress critters. For one thing, FAR too many of them are FAR too old, even if they’re NOT battling dementia. One gets out of touch with things as they age. The world moves pretty fast, these days, and it gets harder and harder to keep up.
Since people clearly can NOT be trusted to just gracefully step aside when, say, health conditions demand it, there should be a defined upper age limit. I genuinely appreciate the wisdom and perspective that can come with age but it’s not guaranteed and some people end up with dementia, instead. They shouldn’t be allowed to continue in such important roles.
What if we say 70? It’s a random, round number. 70 is old, but one is still likely to be in command of one’s faculties. Yes, we WILL lose some good people early but we have an obligation to protect ourselves from being governed by people who don’t even know who they are, let alone that they’re supposed to be governing…
The Bacon Press 