I’m starting to love when Betsy DeVos goes and speaks to Congress. It’s the funniest thing C-Span gets to air. Seriously, she says things that are blindingly stupid or ignorant, and everyone’s soul in the room dies a little every time it happens. Even the Republican who have to pretend to think she isn’t totally incompetent at her job, have trouble holding it together. It’s really entertaining. This week, it was watching Senator Patrick Leahy grill her about funding and her School Safety Commission. When asked if her Commission would look into the role guns play in gun violence (you know, that thing the White House, including the Donald himself and in tears Sarah Huckabee Sanders assured the nation this commission was set up to do) she said no, and acted like she was completely baffled as to why she would be asked such a question. The problem is that it should have been a dumb question. He should have asked that, and the obvious answer should have been “Well of course. It’s Gun Violence. Gun is in the description.” The answer should not have been “No, and why are you looking at me like I’m a crazy person?” Seriously, watching her fumble her way through these interviews like a drunk driver talking to a police officer is wonderful…wonderful in a way that has me worried about the education of our kids.
So Donald Trump seems pretty convinced that he would have pulled a Die Hard during the Parkland shooting, and I had a pretty good laugh about it. He says “I really believe I’d run in there even if I didn’t have a weapon.” I can’t tell if that’s a lie or if he actually believes that about himself. I mean, Donald Trump is famously squeamish about blood. He admits himself that he can’t be around blood in even small amounts without getting sketchy. But his inner Harrison Ford would have DEFINITELY kicked in to take down a terrorist.
So Trump held a “listening session” at the White House on Wednesday, so people affected by the tragedy in Florida could express themselves to him. The session is hard to listen to, as you’re having to hear the rawest emotions from people who were struck by the most horrendous act of human hatred, and having to be composed and responsive…well I don’t know that I can blame someone for having some structured notes to make sure when they were asking questions, they could get to the heart of the matter. So I can’t in good conscience give Trump guff for having notes, even though they were clearly written by someone with better handwriting then him. But what I can take note of is the fact that on the bottom, number 5) was a clear note for him to tell these poor people that he hears them. To suggest that Trump would need a reminder to say something like this shows that the people around the President are concerned that he can’t project his sincere attention.
Trump and friends are now floating around the idea of arming teachers in the wake of Parkland. I know it’s not a new idea, but it’s a particularly bad one. Seriously, it’s dumb. It’s a bad idea for a multitude of reasons, where the benefits are haphazard at best. A teacher holding a gun is expected to get into a standoff with a mentally unstable person, perhaps shoot the person, who is hopefully not wearing any kind of body armor, and will hopefully, in a high stress situation, not misfire the weapon, or shoot an innocent person in the crossfire. All of this doesn’t even take into account the idea of having a stressed out teacher having a firearm within reach while thinking about a frustrating problem child who won’t shut up…Just sayin’….
Mind the Exit 