The Reagan Era Finally Ends

"The evil that men do lives after them … "

- William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

The news hit at five o'clock last night like an anvil dropping. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was dead – suddenly – overnight, in his sleep, while visiting friends in Texas. Perfect. In Texas. Where all used up, washed up, past their prime and past their time Republican dinosaurs should go to die. With the swiftness and suddenness of the Citizens United decision, which Scalia championed, unashamedly – and has changed the course of elective politics in this nation of ours – the Court's judge who sat furthest right, as it were, was gone. Within hours, the jockeying began, initiated by Republicans with the announcement from Mitch McConnell that the "vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president." But let's set that aside for just a few minutes and think about the man and what has just happened.

Through the night and certainly this morning on the talk shows, there was weeping from both sides of the aisle about how beloved the guy was, even if you disagreed with his politics … what his hobbies were, how he was a such a man-about-town, with his wife in tow on the social circuit … everything you'd expect from those who live in the cesspool of shallowness that is Washington, D.C. Well, at this point, I'm less concerned with Scalia's hobbies than I am the damage he did to this country over three decades.

He was a "traditionalist" they've said. Maybe he was – like George Wallace was a traditionalist – a self-proclaimed constitutionalist until he wasn't, always and only for the purpose of satisfying his own personal opinions. As an "originalist" he claimed that his method of constitutional interpretation was to look into the meaning of words and concepts as they were understood by the Founding Fathers. But if that was true, he wouldn't have written the 2008 opinion which overturned Washington D.C.'s handgun ban, freeing up individuals to own a gun for private use – and not just in connection with service in a militia, as stated in the 2^nd Amendment and as intended by the Founding Fathers.

One could go on and on about the evil that Scalia did which will live after him, but if we toss aside everything else, it's impossible to toss aside the fact that it was Scalia, conspiring with his right-wing brethren on the Court, who gave us George W. Bush – a brutal vestige of his time on the bench.

And now, according to a whole herd of elephants, he's not to be replaced until after the election this November when, God willing, a Republican is elected – and the more conservative, the better, by which to properly fill Scalia's place, right? Hell, in last night's Republican date, 'ole Donald Trump called for delaying the process, as if the business of this branch of the government was going to come to a screeching halt for a year-plus. Hey Donald, this may be beyond your abilities of comprehension, we're trying to have democracy here!

There are so many reasons to be joyous about the death of Antonin Scalia. But most of all, this occasion finally and officially marks the end of the Reagan Era; a finale that has been 35 years in the making. Reagan initiated and presided over one of the most despicable chapters in this country's history, defined by a shift to the right that included an unprecedented hatred for minorities, women and gays. In naming Scalia to the Supreme Court in 1986, Reagan ensured that such a legacy would continue, at least for a while. But now Scalia is gone. And the era of Reagan is – thank the Lord – finally over.

Scalia was said to remark to those who complained about his role in the ascension of George W. Bush to the White House, to "get over it." Well, to those who are saddened by the death of Scalia – an unmitigated, unflinching, hypocritical asshole – I would simply laugh, and say, "get over it."

 

Kathleen and Nikki: Together at Last

It's good to see that Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker seems to have finally gotten past her three-decade-plus crush on the Family Bush. It's NOT so good to see that the latest object of her admiration is even crazier than the previous one. In case you missed her column yesterday, Parker's new crush appears to be Nikki Haley, Governor of South Carolina, and newly-touted GOP VP Candidate.

Really?

In trying to protect her old-time Republican party from the Nut Crowd (as she and fellow Washington Post conservative columnist Michael Gerson have been working feverishly to do), Parker probably thinks she has landed in safe territory with Nikki Haley.

Really?

This is the woman who won all sorts of accolades this summer when she (finally) called for and lead the removal of the Confederate flag from the South Carolina state house property – after four and a half years in office. And only after the murder of nine African Americans in a Charleston church by a Radical Christian Terrorist.

Let's be clear: It took the murder of these nine people for Haley to – on the surface – come to realize that the Confederate flag was still a sign of racism and a dangerous flashpoint.

And Kathleen Parker thinks this is okay.

Really?

Parker claims that Haley has been "changed by her time in office." You bet she has. She's suddenly realized that unlike South Carolina, the nation as a whole won't tolerate a racist in leadership.

Haley likes to tout her immigrant roots, but is too politically savvy, of course, to use her given first name. (She was born Nimrata Nikki Randhawa.) She no doubt understands the thinking in South Carolina and throughout much of the Republican Party – "Indian descent? Why, she must be a Muslim!"

Maybe Haley understands the still-prevalent racism in this country all too well.

Ted Cruz: The Organ Grinder Strikes Again

Is it in poor taste for a media outlet to prey upon the family of a political candidate? You better believe it!

Sure, dragging your family members onto a stage at campaign stop after campaign stop is part of the history – even the macabre charm – of campaigning in America. Not to mention that magic moment on the Big Stage at a National Convention when you've secured a place on a National Ticket and all gather 'round. Even so, in such scenarios, it is the candidate alone who should bear the brunt of any critique.

But when you include your children as innocent, unknowing audible participants in a paid commercial; when you have the guile to have one of them utter a commentary on an opponent; when you're shameless enough to include them in a completely fabricated scenario, right down to the made-up children's book being read and enjoyed by the family at hand … then you, the candidate, open up anyone and everyone to commentary, the whining complaints of Ted Cruz, be damned.

And in case you still don't know for sure that Cruz is, indeed, the most shameless politician to ever run for president in this nation of ours … a man who would probably even lie about the origins of his own mother to get votes (oh, wait … he has done that, right?), Cruz is now invoking the Washington Post cartoon depicting the candidate as a conniving organ grinder and his children as monkeys – the cartoon which has caused such a clatter – as part of a ploy to collect $1 million in campaign cash. I guess the cartoon didn't bother poor Ted that much.

Anyhow … now you know for sure.

Misplaced Priorities

Just five days ago, we as a nation witnessed yet another attack of violence on innocents – an exhibition of hatred that has become all too common, even expected – an assault on a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs, Colorado, by a lone attacker who was just another fine American with a gun. Was it terrorism? Just some angry dude? Who knows? Who cares? As always it was immediately politicized. Not like Paris.

Ah, Paris … we'll always have Paris – where just two weeks prior, a violent attack had occurred. And for one glorious, united moment, the world seemed to stand up and say, "no more!" No politicizing. No figure pointing. Instead, a common cause. Something for we Americans, for sure, to rally around as one as we usually don't do. Everyone on board! Filter those Facebook photos in the rouge, blanc et bleu of the French flag!

You don't get that sort of comradery with a shooting in the good 'ole USA. These occurrences here – which are no longer out of the ordinary, no longer unusual, are part of our culture, like hot dogs and apple pie – initiate an instantaneous round of finger pointing every time. No "all for one and one for all" here. These shootings are the new normal, as is the politicizing that goes with it. These events are seized by politicians to make a point, the victims be damned. In any gun culture – and certainly in the battle that is the NRA's war on decent society – this is what is known as collateral damage. There IS no explanation. It just is. Just part of everyday life in America.

The morning after the Colorado shooting, we in St. Louis were reminded of it up close and personal via a story on the front page of our local paper about a random act of gun violence in which a bullet (source unknown) pierced the throat of a grandmother sitting on a back porch with her family one evening last summer. The perpetrator has yet to be caught or, heaven forbid, fess up. Collateral damage, indeed.

Back in Colorado, it wasn't so random. A rogue gunman burst into a healthcare facility and started blasting away. The immediate take was that this was his anti-abortion statement; an act of emotion no doubt fueled by the now-debunked Planned Parenthood videos.

Ah, the tapes. Those hotly disputed tapes of Planned Parenthood honchos allegedly negotiating deals over fetal tissue, as it were. Heartless? Maybe. Legal? Certainly. Callous? Probably. The business of science can be a cold one. And in this case, an emotional one. Which is what produced Colorado.

Let's be clear: The shooting at the Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado was absolutely motivated by the screaming lies about the "videos," which influenced a person who is not one of the more reasonable thinking humans among us. Which brings us, once again, to the subject of The Access of Guns.

Sure, many agreed, a reasonable person would not be motivated by just the videos to shoot someone, just as a reasonable person knows how to use a gun properly. But we're talking about America here – the home of the idiot. And therein lies the problem: we are a nation virtually devoid of reasonable people, with 90+% being complete morons, the reason for being disqualified from understanding the inaccurate message of the lying Republicans with regard to those videos, not to mention responsible gun ownership.

The outcry bordered on silence – not such a bad thing. Only Ted Cruz was tasteless and shameless enough to stick his smug mug out there and actually pretend to express sorrow for the victims when deep in his dark soul, we know how he REALLY feels. Not that most Republicans don't feel the same way – simply out of pure hatred and for the sake of petty politics. But not a one of them was willing to hang his ass out there like Cruz did. Though Ben Carson did mention that it was time to end the hateful rhetoric. Better talk to your friends at Fox News about that.

And therein lies the big picture. Because it's not just a small problem of too many "gun free zones" as the dumb little boys on Fox and Friends think. It's a much bigger problem – more than just about opposition to abortion or easy access to guns. There is a greater realization: Hatred and vigilante law are now accepted in this country. Yes, indeed, Fox News has made it, over the course of decades now, acceptable, to hate. Hell, they promote it. And the NRA has made us all think that it's okay to shoot anyone you don't like. Period. And the GOP – with the hatred and self-law mindset in place – has jumped in by promoting the concept of vengeance, in general.

Hence, Colorado Springs. The new normal.

Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker concluded in a recent column that "one man may have heard fiery rhetoric and decided to kill people, but 322 million other Americans went about their day as usual." In other words, one out of 322 million ain't bad.

The new normal, indeed.

The Republicans will go on claiming that it's a healthcare issue. (As they continue, by the way, to try to repeal the Affordable Care Act.) But what the hell – Republicans didn't cause this presumed Radical Christian Terrorist to go crazy! What they have done, however, is (1) sustain an environment whereby it was easy for him to have a gun thanks to their refusal to enact sensible gun control legislation and (2) pour gas on the fire with their lies about Planned Parenthood.

But screw this mess – Republicans tell us we have 2,000 Syrian refugees to worry about – mostly women and children. And those Republicans – which include the governors of 30+ states – are trying to keep from entering the United States. They forget the fact that there is a 2-year vetting process in place that requires sponsorship; (often by a faith-based organization.) The anti-Syrian Republican nuts also forget – or may not know – that 20 million people enter the USA every YEAR through a visa waiver program that permits up to 90-day visits from 38 countries with no advanced approval required. Oh, and every one of those 20 million people can buy a gun with relative ease. Or get someone to buy one for them. And this is all fine. Yet they – the Republicans – continue to concern themselves about those 2,000 Syrians. Because it's political.

Talk about your misplaced priorities.

POSTSCRIPT

As I put the finishing touches on the rant above, news has hit that there's been ANOTHER shooting – in southern California – in an office complex – by one or two or more middle-eastern types. Well, thank the Christian Lord for that! Now we can go back to being united again – sort of; focused on foreign terrorists. And we can forget about Colorado … right? Time will tell.

It's getting hard to keep up with all of the shootings these days. As they would say in Paris, "c'est la vie."