Dec 7^th

Today is the 74^th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack. We had more Americans killed on 9/11 than were lost at Pearl Harbor but when Pearl Harbor was attacked we knew who had attacked us; that wasn’t the case after 9/11.  In spite of the fact that 15 of the 19 attackers were Saudi citizens and that Saudi Arabia subsidized Madrasas that preached nothing but “hate Americans” (and still do) we attacked Iraq on the basis of likely deliberately faulty intelligence. Go figure!

Last night we had a speech by the President; this morning we had the usual condemnation of his speech by the right wing pundits…same old, same old. In fact the rhetoric coming from the right has now become predictable enough to be boring. Obama asks for an a renewed authorization to use force against ISIL (AUMF) but while some of the more bellicose in Congress want something like that, the majority will have nothing to do with any such authorization…so it languishes.

Most of the right wing columnists echo each other and then come around full circle to repeat themselves. Only occasionally will someone say something unusual as Kasich did when he recently claimed that we should allow those on the terrorist watch list to buy semi-automatic weapons, and presumably use them, because to stop the purchase would tell them that they were on the prohibited list! I have been doing this blog for just shy of a year and that is absolutely the nuttiest thing anyone has said.

Coming close was Trump’s suggestion to register all Muslims into a data base and require them to carry identification labeling them as Muslim. What he says is not all that scary; what’s scary is that huge numbers of Americans agree with him. They agree with him because they are frightened. Effective politicians know how to keep them afraid and then persuade the fearful they’ve created that they, and they alone, can keep them safe.

Now I’ve just wasted a few minutes listening to Trump’s fear mongering in a speech he is making in South Carolina.  He says that “we have no idea who is coming into this country.” If you have ever been out of the country and then returned you know that Trump’s assertion is nonsense. Then Trump takes the mandatory shot at the media singling out Katy Tur who had apparently not been worshipful enough with her coverage of him at some point. Now I’m sure that Ms. Tur and all of her NBC colleagues will fall right into line.

Maybe, in the next few days, there will be something worthwhile to comment about but if something doesn’t soon maybe I’ll be reduced to telling war stories.