BLOOD AND IRON

BLOOD AND IRON: Republicans now control all three branches of government, having attained the White House with the help of Vladimir Putin. They have majorities in both houses of Congress and the Supreme Court. You might think they’d relax and have fun making America great again. But no. Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.

It becomes more obvious every day that Donald Trump is mentally impaired. His tweets and off the cuff remarks provide a window into his unfiltered id. Lately he has returned to the topic of women’s blood. When he was feuding with Megyn Kelly last year, he told CNN that “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.” Recently, he’s turned his attention to Mika Brzezinski, claiming that she approached him at a party “bleeding badly from a face-lift.”

Apart from blood, Trump enjoys describing women as unattractive, stupid, crazy, and old. Those adjectives fit Trump himself so perfectly that you have to wonder if he has a bleeding problem of some sort. But his obsession with blood is also of a piece with his phobias about other bodily fluids, so who knows? Whatever is going on with his body, he has a sick mind.

And speaking of sick minds, the National Rifle Association has released an over-the-top recruiting video featuring an angry woman calling for NRA member to have their shootin’ irons ready. It’s time, she said, to use the “clenched fist of truth” against Democrats.

Why this? Why now? I suppose they’re looking for money. Barack Obama is no longer president, and his presumptive heir, Hillary Clinton, lost to the Trump-Putin coalition. They have to find a new bogeyman. The NRA has painted itself into a rhetorical corner. Unless they keep upping the ante, its members will get their fix of crazy somewhere else.

The NRA used to be about teaching marksmanship and gun safety. Nowadays marksmanship takes a backseat to firepower. Get yourself an automatic weapon and just keep pulling that trigger. You’re bound to hit something. And anyone who talks about gun safety probably just wants to confiscate your arsenal.

For the record, I don’t own a firearm. If you do, as long as you use it responsibly, it’s fine with me. But I can’t for the life of me imagine why a sane gun owner would join the NRA. Those people are crazy.