WTF

Now that Meta is re-opening Instagram and Facebook to Donald Trump with new “guardrails” to protect against Trump being Trump, I’m left to wonder once again what’s going on in our world – and what to say about it.

Meta observed, in its release on this topic, that we are now living in less precarious times than when Trump was taken off Meta’s platforms about two years ago. What Meta did not appear to recognize is that our times are less precarious precisely because there has been less Trump. In other words, we’re now opening the platforms to him because we’ve been safer without him. Excuse me, but…WTF?

If I’m speechless, forgive me. But I simply don’t know what to say (or write) about one thing after another these days. It isn’t as if I’m perplexed by one event or one politician. It’s not one thing. It’s all these things, stacked on top of each other, demanding some kind of thoughtful response. The higher the pile of events becomes, the more I find myself being mute.

·      A six-year-old brings his mother’s pistol to school, shows it to other children including one he threatens to shoot if reported, and eventually – after various warnings to the school authorities – puts a bullet into his teacher’s stomach. Whoa -- this kid is six, as in “six years old?” WTF.

·      Vice President Pence has been Mr. Clean despite laboring for years in a filthy White House. Now it develops that he, too, had top-secret documents drifting around his house these past two years, despite his assurances that it wasn’t true. Turns out, it’s true.

·      A chief investigator for the FBI, one of J. Edgar Hoover’s legacy heroes, turns out to have been taking money from the Russians he was supposed to investigate. Not nice.

·      Ginni Thomas, wife of a Supreme Court Associate Justice, has spoken out and lobbied hard on issues to be decided by the Court. And we’re to believe that the couple has never discussed any of these things at home. I’m speechless at the claim of their evidently speechless marriage; speechless.

·      Kevin McCarthy – who would have sold his children’s souls to the right-wing squad holding his precious speakerdom hostage – wants the nation to believe that Adam Schiff is a danger to America and Marjorie Taylor Greene, defender of the insurrectionists, is a paradigm of patriotism. See Kevin and MTG in their endless hug. See that? Hear them? WTF?

·      In a stunning abuse of the English language and the concept of “fairness,” Georgia Republican Representative Earl “Buddy” Carter has introduced U.S. House Resolution 25 which, in summary, would replace myriad taxes with a 30% flat-tax on all purchases in the U.S. This means the billionaire and the McDonald’s cook would pay the same amount of tax on a loaf of bread. The title of this legislation? “The Fair Tax Act.” WTF?

·      I’ve barely come to grips with one mass shooting before another hits the headlines. Our nation has seen more mass shootings (40) since January 1st than we’ve had days in 2023. We’re averaging more than one per day. What do I say about this? I have no more explanation for all these shootings than I do for one of them, or for the dozens of law enforcement personnel who stood outside Uvalde’s classroom for more than an hour paralyzed by something: fear?

And I’ve gotten this far without saying the name George Santos, Republican Representative to the US House, elected by citizens of New York who just didn’t know any better. His fantasies are stunning and, apparently, endless. Meanwhile, Kevin McCarthy, desperately clinging to a razor-thin House majority, thinks George – having survived an assassination attempt and loss of his shoes at New York City’s busiest intersection -- deserves some committee assignments. This is leadership at work? C’mon.

Some days – and most nights – it’s just very hard to know what I should say. I’m stumped into silence. Numbed. Left with nothing but WTF.