Know who starts shooting when the looting starts? The President starts shooting his mouth off because he never misses an opportunity to say whatever stupid idea gets into his head. And what’s really funny about his attempt to link the mostly-peaceful demonstrations about George Floyd’s murder to everything and everyone who’s against anything he wants, is that he’s the guy, more than anyone else, who has been urging his so-called ‘movement’ to show up with their guns whenever and wherever they can.

Let’s be honest, okay? A bunch of jerk-offs stand in front of the State House in Michigan with their AR-15’s in plain sight to protest the state’s lockdown rules and Trump gives them a Tweet high-five. Want to tell me how an assault rifle will protect you from COVID-19? Oh, I forgot. The anti-lockdown demonstrators just want to remind everyone that their ‘freedoms’ can only be protected if they go around armed.

Remember Charlottesville in 2017? Remember how guys went marching down the main street yelling anti-Semitic slogans, waving Nazi flags, and flaunting their beloved AR-15’s?  Remember how Trump couldn’t bring himself to say one negative word about those assholes without finding fault with the ‘other side?’ And this guy has the nerve now to get up there and shoot his mouth off about how much he believes in justice and peace?

I’m not going to waste one precious word of this comment by inserting the requisite ‘I’m not supporting violence’ comment that invariably finds its way into every, single op-ed being published by the people who feel badly about the murder of George Floyd. I mean, is there any reason to even consider the idea that a normal person would want to see local businesses being burned, private cars being trashed, and people no matter how they feel about politics getting bashed over the head?

Actually, there is such a person out there, but he’s hardly normal in the way we usually use that word. In fact, he’s a frightened, school-yard bully who never (read: never) misses an opportunity to tell everyone how smart he is and how much you are an idiot or worse if you don’t agree with him.

This guy took out full-page newspaper ads in 1989 calling for the execution of 5 Black teenagers (none of whom were older than sixteen) after they were convicted of gang-raping a young woman who was jogging through Central Park. And when it turned out that the kids were innocent and New York City coughed up some money to compensate the five kids for spending 15 years in jail, Trump published an op-ed calling the settlement ‘a disgrace.’

The disgrace is that back in 2016 we took Trump’s candidacy as a big joke and somehow talked ourselves into believing that the candidate, our candidate, who spent twice as much money as her opponent would have no trouble ending up in front. The truth is that we better not behave in such a disgraceful and stupid way again. And notice the pronoun ‘we.’ Two weeks before the 2016 election, I was as convinced as everyone else that the polls which showed Trump cresting in swing states had to be wrong.

I shouldn’t indulge myself in trying to figure out what’s in the minds of people who are demonstrating about George Floyd’s murder by burning, looting, doing all kinds of violent behavior that I would never do. Be that as it may, I’m not convinced that these demonstrations are just a reaction to the way a couple of dumb cops did what they shouldn’t have done.

These demonstrations are directed at Donald Trump. Stupid behavior? Maybe so. But I have a funny feeling that the message will get through. And know what will happen then? If anything, Trump will become even more hateful, more racist, more determined to goad his so-called ‘movement’ to support him to the extreme.

I wrote this column before Trump came out with his ANTIFA rant. It’s exactly 169 days until November 2^nd, okay?