Bullied Former Student Shoots Lifelong Bully

It has to be one of the greatest ironies in modern times. Thomas Matthew Crooks, the "neutralized" person who shot Donald Trump in the right ear, was relentlessly bullied in school, according to classmates. Television news, needful of viewers, pumped the story for every possible nuance, teaching the word breathless to those who might not be aware of its meaning. So far none have noticed the irony of a bullied former student shooting the most notorious bully in human history. 

As well as ironic, it seems kind of inevitable in the U.S.A., awash in guns, a violent, narcissistic culture and a political candidate who foments violence, incited the attempted overthrow of a presidential election, and is a tiresome presence on the national scene. He is doing all he can to overthrow the next election, which takes place this November 5. I watched the nonstop coverage Saturday, found it much ado about something we should have expected.

Crooks somehow escaped scrutiny from Secret Service agents and local police, climbed atop a nearby building wearing "camouflage" clothing, though to be truly camouflaged he would have needed to look like a metal building. He used an AR-15, a weapon not meant for distance accuracy, but accurate enough, apparently, to zing Trump in the ear and hit three people in the audience, killing one of them.

"Republicans" seem ubiquitous on TV, repeating the newly created mantra "Trump is unbeatable now!" If they say it enough it becomes true, so they think. The reasoning is that Trump, blood on his face, yelled "Fight, fight, fight!" as he was being whisked off the stage by his Secret Service detail. By comparison, it is assumed, bumbling, weak, doddering Joe Biden will lose in a landslide.

Maybe, maybe not. Biden does look weak. Even better, maybe he will drop out. The Intercept has a great article about what the all-knowing knowers in various establishment capacities call political violence. Israel's genocidal siege of Gaza doesn't count as political violence in establishment calculus. Police attacking demonstrators of various kinds - climate activists, antiwar marchers, pro-Palestinian tent encampments, civil rights advocates, Occupy Wall Street advocates, etc. - doesn't count in official narratives.

I have an even attitude about the shooting. Climate change is far more serious that Donald Trump, Joe Biden (Genocide Joe), the "Republican" convention, the November 5 election, and especially the all-knowing punditocracy. Donald Trump, a deranged criminal sociopath, seems unscathed by what would be a very traumatic experience to a normal person. I'm no expert on sociopathy, but I believe a façade of fearlessness and unperturbedness masks a deeply buried disturbance. 

It will manifest in other ways. I wasn't planning on watching the convention, but Trump's nomination acceptance speech might be worth seeing. A lifelong bully, he will be hard-pressed to speak in a manner that is critical of violence, especially political violence. A sociopath is free of cognitive dissonance, but Trump, a free-floating pathological liar, will find it daunting to thread the needle of advocating both violence and nonviolence in the same speech.

It should be noted that Trump, survivor of an assassination attempt, is himself an assassin. In 2020 he ordered the assassination of a foreign leader, Qasem Soleimani, an Iranian general. He feared assassination by Iran as revenge, according to authors Peter Baker and Susan Glasser.

The whole situation is very dirty. In the presidential election we have Genocide Joe versus deranged criminal sociopath Trump, the assassin who survived an assassination attempt. It has always been dirty, though not this dirty. I am still optimistic, though struggling. Everything implies its opposite, and total crap implies at least a significant countervail, maybe even a complete transformation.

I have had the belief for a long time that neither Trump nor Biden would be their party's candidate by election day, and though that seems less likely now, I still believe it. The more likely is that Biden will drop out, and it seems more likely every day. The only reason he remains in the "race" is ego, vanity, pride and hubris all rolled into one. In every day that passes it becomes clearer that he will lose if he continues with his pathetic campaign.

With Trump, he likely is suffering from dementia, and between now and November 5 it can only get worse. If the "Democrats" offer a non-genocidal choice (Is that asking too much?), Trump's ethical, moral and mental defects will become clearer each succeeding day. He will be sentenced September 18 for his 34 state felonies in New York. His trials on other felony charges are still pending, and the one in Georgia may commence by election day. He will have momentum from the convention, but momentum has a funny way of changing. If he suffers a health crisis between now and election day his electoral chances are toast. 

So cheer up. Things aren't as dire as they seem. The lifelong bully isn't as powerful and relentless as he seems. His day of reckoning may finally be upon us. As he soweth, so also must he reapeth. ____________________________________

Here's a song. Here's another John Prine. Warren Zevon. Another from Warren Zevon. The Beatles. John Lennon. The Waterboys. Bob Marley. The Beatles. The rain is coming. A hard rain. Hard indeed. The Grateful Dead. For good measure, this.