Make America scared again

I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

This week Elizabeth Warren scared the shit out of Mitch McConnell.  He invoked an obscure rule about "impugning the character" of another senator as she read a letter written in 1986 by Coretta Scott King which opposed (successfully) the federal judgeship of Jefferson Beauregard Sessions.  Warren was silenced but McConnell had no problem with Jeff Merkley (D-OR) reading the same letter.  Afraid of women much, Mitch?

Jason Chaffetz was "bullied" and "intimidated" by the overflow crowd at his town hall meeting in Salt Lake City.  Chaffetz, who had vowed to continue his bogus investigations into everything about Hillary Clinton had she been elected, apparently can shovel it out but can't take it.  He pronounced all the Utah citizens "outside agitators" bent on disrupting his nice meeting with angry questions about the Affordable Care Act.  Similar upheaval occurred at other meetings around the country.  Poor Bill Akins (R-FL) told his constituents that "when you're 74 you have to go before a death panel," but the old folks in Florida wouldn't buy it. 

Betsy DeVos was all set to visit her first public school as Secretary of "Education" when her path was blocked by two people and she ran away.   Eventually she got inside and made sure they were locked and loaded and ready to deal with any grizzly bears who turned up in Washington.  But it was terrifying.

There was fear at the border, where a woman named Fadwa Alaoui was stopped as she drove from Quebec to Vermont to shop, as she often does.  Alaoui is a Canadian citizen who was born in Morocco, and this time she was interrogated about her mosque, its imam, and her opinion of the Orange Emperor -- strange, because neither Morocco nor Canada is on the travel-ban list.  Which suggests that Muslims are indeed being singled out for abuse.

Edward Snowden must be scared, as rumors fly that he will be returned to this country as part of the effort to convince Americans that Trump is no puppet of Putin.  Adding fuel are the reports that Mad Dog Flynn was in contact with the Kremlin last December to reassure them about the lifting of sanctions.  Private citizens are not supposed to do that. 

I can only speculate that Melissa McCarthy put the frighteners on Donald J. Trump with her uncanny impersonation of Sean Spicer on last week's Saturday Night Live. Not even one nasty tweet about her appearance, her talent, or her extremely vicious hating -- Sad!  Can he afford to employ a press secretary who can be imitated so precisely by...a woman?  Is it true that Rosie O'Donnell will launch a similar attack on Steve Bannon?  Suddenly Saturday night is the scariest night of the week.

Speaking of Bannon, we should all be afraid.  It turns out that O.K. Trump doesn't read those imperial decrees executive orders he signs.  Apparently he was surprised to find that he has appointed Bannon to the National Security Agency.  Which begs the question:  What else has he signed?  Has the Thirteenth Amendment been repealed?  Are we at war with Venezuela?  Say, is that a statue of Timothy McVeigh in front of the FBI building?

Don't panic!  In large, friendly letters.