Somebody asked me what I thought about the tomahawk attack on a Syrian airbase. What is there to think? Nobody thought much about it beforehand, and there is no indication that it accomplished anything substantial -- either positive or negative.
The dogs and ponies have put on a show, and I can't help but imagine 45, adrenaline coursing through his aging body as if he were a seven year old boy (no offense to seven year old boys), watching the footage from a sand bunker at Mar-a-lago and barely able to contain his testosterone rush. POW! BAM! KABOOM! Small hands notwithstanding, he is still the all powerful one, the one with all the little buttons at his fingertips.
There's no denying the good optics. The brutal slaughter of babies replaced by exploding rockets. Oh say can you see, Mr. President? When television news becomes better than a video game, 45 is engaged. Energized. Empowered. Better than a good pussy grab, though that would certainly have capped off his evening.
Ahh. We are sending messages. To Syria, though it is unclear what the message is, and to whom it is directed. To Russia, that our love is not unconditional. To our broken Congress, where, if at first you don't succeed, change the rules. Next time I lose in Words with Friends and the app offers up a "rematch," I will decline and seek the rule-change option. No more seven letter words. All triple-word spaces belong to me. POW! BAM! KABOOM!
Nobody can please everybody all of the time, but 45 has mastered the art of changing the conversation, at least for a moment long enough to cause collective amnesia and bring on a bunch of approving nods. Killing babies is bad. Punishment must be swift and obvious. Nobody thought much about the end game when rampant anti-Hillaryism helped install a bombastic, uninformed, erratic man-child into the White House. And, clearly, nobody gave much thought to the end game of launching all those tomahawks. We the people find it hard to resist the immediate gratification of a not-so-cheap cheap thrill.
What do I think? Why should I be the one who has to think?
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