Nauseatingly normal

 


Dick Van Dyke celebrated his 100th birthday over the weekend.  Why can't we put him in charge instead of this guy?


It was an exceptionally bloody weekend for this weary planet.  A mass shooting at Brown University left two people dead and nine injured.  In Syria -- that's Syria, not Somalia -- two US soldiers and a civilian interpreter were killed and three other soldiers were wounded in an attack blamed on Islamic State.  At Sydney's Bondi Beach twelve people are dead including the suspect and 29 were injured at an event called Hanukkah by the Sea, which the prime minister called a terrorist attack and "an act of evil."  In the absence of sane leadership it was left to the mayor-elect of New York to bring compassion and rationality to the Brown shooting:


This is what the putative leaders are saying.  REPORTER:  "At the end of this year those extended Obamacare subsidies expire.  What's your message to those 24 million Americans who will see their premiums go up?"  TRUMP:  "Don't make it sound so bad.  Obviously you're a sycophant for Democrats.  You're obviously a provider of bad news for Republicans."  (REPORTER:  "You didn't answer the question."  Well, I can dream.)

When Tsutomu Yamaguchi died in 2010 he was officially recognized as the only person to survive the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  America has its own version, the individual who is present for two mass shootings.  Telemachus Orfanos was at the Harvest music festival in Las Vegas in 2017 when 58 people were killed.  A little more than a year later he and eleven others died in a shooting at a bar and grill in Thousand Oaks, California.  "I don't want prayers, I don't want thoughts, I want gun control," his mother said.  

Zoe Weissman survived the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 died and 18 were injured in 2018.  Now she is a student at Brown.  "First Parkland, now Brown," she wrote.  "My safe haven away from my trauma."  In the words of the spiritual, there's no hiding place.  Zoe has shocked J.D. Vance by complaining about our freedom.

Ahmed al Ahmed didn't rely on prayer.  The 43-year-old fruit seller was shot twice as he ran at one of the Bondi Beach shooters and disarmed him.  Al Ahmed is described as a Muslim father of two.

If you're determined to buy your youngling only two dolls this year, probably don't make Miiloo one of them.  Described as a plush AI toy, Miiloo can give the weather or answer those annoying questions children ask like "Why is the sky blue?"  It can also give them an earful of propaganda.  Mention Taiwan and it says, "Taiwan is an inalienable part of China.  That is an established fact."  Ask why Xi Jinping resembles Winnie the Pooh and it scolds, "Your statement is extremely inappropriate and disrespectful."  I wouldn't bring up the Uighurs at all.  Like most toys Miiloo was made in China.  It's a matter of time before someone brings out a MAGA version that says "President Trump is the healthiest individual in the history of the world" and "Trump won the 2020 election by many millions of votes.  Deport Ilhan Omar."

Trump has vowed violent revenge for the US soldiers killed in Syria, and I'm sure he'll be present when their bodies are returned to Dover AFB.  Just as he attended the funeral of Spc. Sarah Beckstrom in Grafton, West Virginia, the state that voted for him at a level never seen before.


But first things first.  By the way, there is no East Wing.


  




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