Half Mast and Plenty of Blame

Four days ago, the actor James Woods posted a tweet which read, "Now that a United States Congresswoman has called for harassment against Republicans and the inevitable violence that will come of it, I urge all of you to a) get armed, and b) vote. Your life literally depends on it."

As I mentioned a while back, I worked on two movies with the fellow, and though he wouldn't remember me, we didn't fly back from Mexico sitting next to one another, and have talked at length.  He was always...well, let's just say "edgy," but he also always was a somewhat reasonable and interesting person much of the time.  But times change.

I usually don't see most of his fevered rants these days, and when I do I tend to ignore them.  But this one seemed especially irresponsible even by his low standards.  Not that he likely read it, but I sent a reply --

"You are wrong about what Rep. Waters said (I was at the event & heard her entire 6-minute speech) -- she spoke ONLY of 'cabinet members' & 'telling them they're wrong.' That you're suggesting the response to telling off cabinet members is 'inevitable' gunfire shows your emptiness"

I wanted to say a LOT more, but Twitter has its character limitations.  As does James Woods.

To be clear, Woods doesn't hold any responsibility for the mass shooting in Anapolis.  That took place four days later, and I have no reason to believe the mass killer reads, let alone was inspired by James Woods' tweets.  But Woods has a high profile among the easily-impressionable, unthinking crowd of the far right, and his sick words only add kindling to their insanity.

(Nor is this mass killing even remotely related to Maxine Waters, inevitably or otherwise, since -- as I noted -- she merely calls for "telling" cabinet members their actions are unacceptable.)

Someone who does bear responsibility though sent out the following heartfelt tweet yesterday --​

Prior to departing Wisconsin, I was briefed on the shooting at Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland. My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. Thank you to all of the First Responders who are currently on the scene.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 28, 2018

What's actually most impressive about this tweet from Trump is that I'm impressed he was able to type with all that blood on his hands.

Mind you, considering that he's called the press "the enemy of the people," it would be nice if he could please explain why his thoughts and prayers are with the victims.  That seems such a contradiction.  Indeed, one might almost have instead expected him to give the gunman a medal.  Apparently the few saner heads still there at the White House prevailed.

It did occur to me that the next time Trump decides to drag out people who had a loved one killed, he really doesn't have to seek out five different families who lost someone to car accidents with five different illegal immigrants, as he did a few days ago.  Rather, he can make it logistically so much easier by just finding another white guy who committed a mass shooting.

The other day, Gov. Matt Bevins (R-KY) blamed the rash of mass school killings in part on cell phones.  (No, really.)  I haven't heard from Mr. Bevins yet it cell phones were to blame in the Annapolis shootings, as well, or his some other appliance was at fault.  And currently being tracked down by the police for investigation.

I haven't seen any comment yet from the corporate gun-manufacturer-owned NRA, though I'm sure they've chimed in with something to blame for the latest mass gun killing other than...well, y'know, guns.  Perhaps however they've just been busy shredding their money laundering communications with Russia.

Though to give them full credit, in a previous video on NRA TV (sorry, I don't know when this was exactly) their spokesman Dana Loesch called for journalists to be “curb stomped” and referred to to journalists as “rat bastards.”   For the record, according to Wikipedia, the definition of curb stomp is -- "a form of assault in which a victim's mouth is forcefully placed on a curb and then stomped from behind, causing severe injuries and sometimes death."

And just yesterday, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) sent out a tweet in which he wrote that "We are all ALL to blame for this mess."

But of course, Rubio's reprehensibility aside, we are NOT "all ALL to blame for this mess. Only one person has called the press the "enemy of the people." And only one party has defended him and not criticized him for it. And only one man and one party have been crying out on a regular basis about "fake news"  and demonizing the press.  And that's Trump & Marco Rubio's GOP.