The weekend has been dominated by stories about Taylor Swift and pets in Springfield, IL?  Seriously?!  I wish I could make fun of it, but I can’t – Someone tried to shoot Trump Sunday afternoon.  That’s twice in roughly two months!  I honestly do not know what is more insane – that those trivial (He said, putting it lightly) issues overwhelmed the weekend headlines or that our politics has grown so violent.  Worse yet, the violence seems very one sided.  From the congressional shooting in Trump’s term to the two attempts on his life in this election cycle, it all seems aimed at Republicans.  I am not saying Democrats are the proximal cause of these shootings, but I will say that they seem to be out of rhetorical ammunition.

Don’t you just love the fact that Dems, er sorry, MSNBC (Wait, hold on, I decided last week they were the same thing) thinks Trump is the one exercising rhetorical excess?  At best, that honor belongs to both sides of the aisle.

At least when Trump rhetorically oversteps, its exaggeration, not fiction.  For example, the whole pet-eating thing.  I have no idea if pets are being eaten in Springfield, IL – none.  But I know from firsthand experience that some cultures do consume cat – I have inadvertently eaten it myself when I relied on the chef in a local place on the other side of the Pacific to serve me his best.  I didn’t ask what it was until the meal was over.  So, even if there is no actual cat consumption in Springfield, it is at least plausible given the influx of immigrants.

The so-called media is not helping either – trying to create conspiracies where none exist.

There are real problems in this world.  There are reports that Hamas is helping Mexican cartels dig tunnels into Southern California.  It would also appear that federal dollars are helping criminal elements come into the country and settle.  The world makes no sense anymore.  California is demanding electric vehicles – and yet such vehicles are hugely damaging to the environment and California is out of electricity.  Oh yeah, and then there is the little stuff – wars in the Middle East and Eastern Europe and the fact that I can’t get out of the grocery store for less than a hundred bucks anymore.

I wish I thought this weekend just past was a giant effort to wag the dog.  But in this age of social media, I’m not sure that is the case.  I deeply fear that as the serious stuff just gets more and more serious, the American people want the stories about pets and Tayor Swift.  That is, after all, what has been retweeted and shared all over my social media this weekend.  Honestly, I have seen more coverage of the pet thing than the foiled assassination attempt – especially on social media.

We live in insane times.  I fear what lies ahead.  If Harris wins the insanity will become policy.  If Trump wins, the insanity will grow in volume, and likely violence.

There is an irony here.  We have chased religion from the public square almost entirely.  Much of the chase was rooted in the presumption that sectarianism leads to violence.  It would seem not all sectarianism is rooted in religion and we’ll take pretty much any excuse to raise our disagreements to violent levels.  At least religion tried (often failed but tried) to control the violent impulse.