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Spring Break Takeaway: Ignorance Was Bliss

Spring Break provided an excellent opportunity to take a break from Twitter. And, given that I’d reached a point where I was defending Trump’s tariffs, I needed one. The world still turned despite me tuning it out for the longest stretch in my recent memory.

Catching up on 10 days’ worth of news at once gives one a different perspective on current affairs than reading the news 10 times a day.

So, what did I miss? A whole lot of talking about the wrong things, that’s what.

Still Talking About Sex

It was #StormyDanielsDay on Twitter when I tuned back in. I’m not proud of it, but I was among the 22 million to view 60 Minutes on Sunday night to watch the porn star’s kiss and tell.  Stormy dished about her sole sexual encounter with Donald Trump 12 years ago. After 60 Minutes aired, Twitter became obsessed with “the spank” allegation and speculated incessantly about whether it was a Forbes or a Trump Magazine with which Stormy teasingly swatted the Donald.

In Missouri, political news seems to have spent the entire 10 days still swirling around what allegedly happened one morning over three years ago between Greitens and his consensually tied-up and possibly photographed hairdresser.

When I first tuned back in, it appeared that I did not miss any stories of great importance. But when I read that John Bolton was going to be National Security Advisor and the Omnibus Bill passed, I immediately regretted checking my Twitter feed. Ignorance was bliss.

John Bolton 

John ‘Warmonger’ Bolton will be replacing Jeff Sessions as my least favorite Trump pick. Bolton’s too Bush-y for me.

The Bolton announcement came just a few weeks after Bolton wrote an Op-Ed that argues that we should bomb North Korea now before it’s in a position to launch strikes against the United States. Hmm…

Five times Bolton supported what Trump described as “mistakes”: 

  1. Iraq: conservative columnist George Will credits Bolton and Bush with making the worst foreign policy decision in U.S. History – a decision Bolton still stands behind – to lead us into war with Iraq. And here’s what Trump said about that war during a presidential debate just two years ago:

The war in Iraq, we spent $2 trillion, thousands of lives, we don’t even have it. Iran has taken over Iraq, with the second-largest oil reserves in the world. … George Bush made a mistake. We can make mistakes. But that one was a beauty. We should have never been in Iraq. We have destabilized the Middle East. … You call it whatever you want. I want to tell you. They lied. They said there were weapons of mass destruction, there were none. And they knew there were none. There were no weapons of mass destruction. 

  1. Afghanistan- when Bolton was last working at the White House, we commenced what is now the longest war in American History – a war in which there is no end in sight.
  2. Iran- Bolton called for the United States to bomb Iran in 2008 and again in 2015, and he’s been constantly saber-rattling about Iran on his all-too-frequent appearances on Fox News.
  3. Syria- the U.S. Intervention into Syria was not soon enough or big enough for John Bolton. However, Trump said that U.S. meddling in Syria was among the mistakes the U.S. made that “helped throw the region into chaos.”
  4. Libya- Bolton supported U.S. intervention in the Libyan Civil War in 2011 (he also called for the assassination of Moammar Gadhafi). Trump, however, included the U.S. Intervention in Libya among the mistakes that lead to more terrorism.

Why would Trump pick the guy that backed every foreign policy move that Trump called a mistake? Does Trump want to play “good cop, bad cop” with Kim Jong Un? Or is he just sick of seeing him on Fox News? I don’t know. But I do think we should spend more time speculating about this than about the precise magazine Stormy swatted Trump with 12 years ago.

Q: Why is Chuck Schumer smiling? A: The Omnibus Bill

The spending-addicted swamp monsters in Congress passed a $1.2 Trillion Omnibus Bill that will grow the government and increase our reckless spending — but will NOT build the damn wall — and Trump signed it! What is the point of electing Republicans when they are just as fiscally irresponsible as Democrats?


So Why is Everyone Still Talking About Sex? 

Three theories:

First, it is thought that it will help Democrats and hurt Republicans in the upcoming midterm elections to keep these incidents in the news. A similar midterm strategy after the Monica Lewinsky scandal failed to hurt Democrats during the 1998 midterm elections.

Second, many people cannot accept the outcome of the 2016 election and are still grasping at straws to undo the results. While the complexity of the legal battles surrounding these stories grows exponentially every day, the grounds for relief remain shaky. Campaign finance laws are usually a technical and sketchy basis to oust an elected officeholder. Laws that purport to be shields for the people should not be used as safety nets for the swamp.

Third, keeping our focus on extramarital sex distracts us from the bad news that really matters.

Final Thought

In thirty years, our kids aren’t going to remember Stormy Daniels, but they will probably still be paying down the debt incurred from Bolton’s wars and the rest of our nation’s reckless spending. We need to resist the urge to keep up with salacious scandals and instead focus on preserving this land of liberty, opportunity, and prosperity. You know what presents a real threat to our nation? The debt. You know what’s not a threat? Stormy Daniels armed with a magazine.

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