TGIF 1/15/21

I don't know about you, but I can't wait for next Wednesday, the changing of the guard, the end of an administration I found incredibly distasteful, the departure of a man ridiculously unqualified to lead our country, and the start of a new administration - one that we all should look at with open eyes, of course, but one that I hope will help erase the some of the worst of the one that preceded it. 

I don't for a second think that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are going to walk on water, get blood from a stone, turn water into wine, or make a purse from a sow's ear. I do think, however, that they won't be on the attack 24/7/365, and I'm confident they'll spend a lot less time watching television, playing golf, and tweeting than the one who's done next week. 

More than anything, though - I hope we get to next Wednesday, and through it - without any of the stuff we're being warned about actually happening. Attacks on state capitals; threats on members of Congress on both sides of the aisle; and the ongoing threat of more violence in DC, including the potential for improvised explosive devices - IEDs - to be used in our nation's capital. I hear that, and I don't even know how to react, whether to rage against the abject insanity of it, or hunker down with the curtains closed, waiting for the 'all clear' signal.

 It's a weird feeling, to be sure.

I listen to reports on what 45 is going to do, whether there'll be more pardons before he leaves, whether he'll pardon himself, how he's going to leave Washington, and when, and I shake my head. His last chance at finally acting presidential - you know, participating in the changing of the guard, to greet the incoming president and First Lady at the door, to ride with them to the Inauguration, and to stand there and take it like a man. Like a patriot. Like an American? Yeah, that's out the window, of course - I really shouldn't be surprised. 

The chance that he would do that were nil, from the beginning, way before the insurrection. He just doesn't have it in him - no matter how much he talks about his patriotism and love of country. And, apparently, no one in his circle has it in them either, to make him do the right thing, no matter how much he doesn't want to. We're not asking a three-year-old to eat his peas, for Pete's sake. He's the president of the United states, to my great dismay - he can act like it for one day.

I wish Joe Biden had said, when asked about Trump not attending the inauguration, "Listen, he can be a man and show up, even though it would be uncomfortable for both of us, or he can slink away. The choice is his."  That would have been a great way to handle it, right? Be the better man? Opportunity lost, IMO. 

I'm appalled by reports that so many current and former law enforcement officers participated in last week's attack, and heartened (at least initially) that investigations are already underway in departments across the country to identify any who did, and to what extent. To be sure, I'm less confident that action will be taken, but hopeful I'll be proven wrong on that.

Significantly more appalling are suggestions that members of Congress were at least sympathetic to what happened, if not accessories to what happened. I want to know - we all should want to know - if the latter is true, and how fast we can get them out of office if it is true.

I don't care who you are, or who elected you - if you are actively engaged with people who are in the Capitol with weapons and zip ties, chanting to hang the Vice President, kidnap or kill the Speaker of the House, smearing feces on the walls and floor, and so on, you do not belong in office. You belong in jail, for a very long time - much longer than the ten-year sentence for people who attack monuments.

It's exhausting, paying attention to all of this. Exhausting, but necessary.  Maybe if we all had been paying attention all along, we wouldn't be where we are right now, holding our breath and hoping we can have an orderly, peaceful transfer of power next week. 

TGIF, everyone. 

Sunday School 1/10/21

Let's dive in to today's classrooms, shall we? 

First up? Former Trump Chief of Staff (etc. etc. etc.) Mick Mulvaney, who talked with Chuck Todd on Meet the Press. Let's see if Chuck redeemed himself after last week's embarrassing scrum with Sen. Ron Johnson. 

Mulvaney said he doesn't know about the president's current state of mind, but he said the Trump of eight months ago or so would have dealt with things differently.

I thought that we'd never be here. I thought the president would be presidential. Clearly, that system has broken down. And whether or not the president is different or the people advising him are different or both, I don't know what's going on inside the Oval Office now, and I don't know what's going on inside the president's head.

And he said that policy differences or differences in style, personality traits you don't like, those are all

different than what happened on Wednesday. Wednesday was a fundamental threat to the United States. It speaks to what makes us American. It's an existential type of thing. It's not, it’s not superficial. It's deep and it's real and it's different, which is why you saw so many resignations this week, and didn't see them over the course of the last couple years. Wednesday changed everything.

Chuck played some of Trump's quotes, using "character is destiny" as the framework, and wondered how Mulvaney and others could say they never saw this "version of Donald Trump," and he wondered how this wasn't the inevitable ending. Mulvaney's response was, well, perfect Trumpeter.

Yeah. And I know it's, I know it's easy for folks now who've never liked the president or always disagreed with his policies or really disliked him as a person to say, “Why didn't everybody see this coming?” But keep in mind, so many of us that worked with him every single day didn't see him through a filter. In fairness, you saw him oftentimes -- you've had some face to face with him -- but most people saw him through the filter of a media that didn't like him very much. We saw him every single day. The reason that I wrote in The Wall Street Journal six weeks ago that I thought the president would leave presidentially is because I had evidence to that end. I had stories. I had background. I had seen that type of president, and I never thought I'd see what I saw on Wednesday. Yes, the rhetoric was very high and very fiery. You and I both know, however, that American politicians do this on a regular basis. I can pull you similar clips of Maxine Waters telling people to take to the streets. It's different though, when as you said in your entry, that people took him literally. I never thought I'd see that. I never thought I’d see a day in our country where people from any side of the political spectrum would storm the Capitol in order to intentionally stop the Constitutional transfer of power, which is part of what was happening on Wednesday. That's what's different, Chuck, that the country is different than I expected. 

I can't help laughing when people indignantly tell me that Maxine Waters and the president of the United States are on equal footing. Honestly, I can't not laugh at that.

Final question? "Should Trump be ostracized from the Republican Party as you know it?" Mulvaney said that's going to happen, but he thinks "the ideas will live on." And, he added,

But I think if you have any role at all in what happened on Wednesday, that you sort of, you don't deserve to lead the party anymore. The ideas are bigger than the people. But I think, I think the voters will take that into consideration... I can't tell you the number of people who've supported me for a decade who’s saying that Wednesday was a bridge too far. They love Trump, they love the policies, they were really pleased with the successes of the first four years, but he lost them on Wednesday. And I think that's, I think that's the right thing. I think people need to know that what happened on Wednesday is just different.

Next, we have DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, who talked with Margaret Brennan on CBS' Face the Nation. The first question was whether DC is prepared for the inauguration and what comes after that. Brennan did note that a public emergency has been declared, and that there will be several thousand National Guard troops in the city.

Bowser admitted that preparations for the inauguration "has to be different than any other inauguration," and that she's engaged DHS and asked that they take extra steps, and she's also going to be asking the president to declare a "pre-emergency declaration" that'll allow for more federal participation.

She said she doesn't know who planted the pipe bombs at the DNC and RNC, and that the FBI is looking into it.

Who we saw charging the Capitol building were trained people in many cases, former military, former law enforcement. I think we may find other- other trained people, trained at marching and surging and sieging buildings. So, we have to take it seriously. We too, have to take seriously how we're spreading our resources. That's why we're very focused on making sure that the federal government is providing enough coverage for federal facilities, including the- the Capitol, but many federal buildings across the district so that other law enforcement, our- our law enforcement can focus on other threats across the district's eight wards.

Brennan questioned a letter she had sent on the 5th to the Pentagon and Justice Department discouraging "any additional deployments without immediate notification and consultation with the police if such plans are underway." Brennan wondered if that might have "played a role in the underreaction."  Bowser said no. Rather,

that letter calls attention to the federal government or other federal policing agencies and asks the federal government to coordinate with us if they were going to be on DC streets. That letter has nothing to do with the Capitol or other federal facilities.

Obviously, that letter was a reaction to the federal government's over-reaction last June to the Black Lives Matter protests; the law enforcement presence then, and their actions, have been compared to what was around last Wednesday, and to say the differences are striking is a gross understatement. 

And, I'll close with House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC), who talked with Jake Tapper on CNN's State of the Union. Clyburn said he was doing well, and he praised his security detail, while saying that "the shame is the fact that the leadership above them did not give them the right kind of directions. And, therefore, they were not able to be -- effectively doing their jobs throughout."

Tapper changed the subject to impeachment, wondering if articles would be submitted on Monday. Clyburn said they papers would be drawn up or finished on Monday, and possibly there'll be action Tuesday or Wednesday, but he thinks it will be this week. He congratulated  Rep. Jamie Raskin for "a job well done" on the article that's been drafted, saying that.

...he brought into that article the issue that concerned me. And that is whether or not we would ignore what the president did regarding the vote down in Georgia that is the presidential vote in Georgia. We heard him on the phone talking to the secretary of state, in fact, almost ordering him, begging at one time and ordering at the other time, and threatening him with criminal action to overturn the vote, to find him 11,700-some-odd votes that he needed in order to be declared the victor. That is impeachable. And I think it should be brought into the discussion. Now, I know the state laws were -- are applicable, as well as local laws. But I think that we in the House of Representatives has got a responsibility to maintain the integrity of a federal election. We tell the people all the time that your vote is your voice. Well, our vote is our voice. And we must voice disapproval of what the president did.

Tapper noted that an impeachment trial in the Senate could start as early a 1PM on January 20th, but noted "it could distract the Senate from considering any Cabinet nominees for Joe Biden, passing coronavirus relief."  Do you have any concerns that Congress will be distracted if this trial goes forward, instead of focusing on the Cabinet and coronavirus?

Clyburn said both he and Speaker Pelosi have concerns, and then he turned on Mitch McConnell.

Mitch McConnell is a pretty good legislator. And he's doing what he thinks he needs to do to be disruptive of President Biden. But I would say to Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi is smarter than that. We will take the vote that we should take in the House. And she will make the determination as to when is the best time to get that vote and get the managers appointed and move that legislation over to the Senate. It just so happens that, if it did go over there for 100 days, it could - let's give president-elect Biden the 100 days he needs to get his agenda off and running. And maybe we will send the articles sometime after that.

I'm getting stressed just thinking about that possibility, aren't you? Hurrying to get the article(s) done, and they'll not be bipartisan to any degree, and then waiting to send them over to the Senate? It's like Deja vu all over again, right?

Tapper turned to suggestions Clyburn made that there might "be some Capitol Police officers who aided the rioters, who were complicit in the attack," and that "something else was going on untoward here." He asked what evidence there was to support the statements. Clyburn said he has an 

unmarked office that you have got to know exactly where it is. It is where I spend most of my time doing my work... And that office is where I do most of my work. And for some reason, these people showed up at that office. But the office where my name is above the door -- or on the door and my position above the door was not disturbed. So, I'm just saying, they didn't go to where my name was. They went where I usually hang out. And so that, to me, indicates that something untoward may have been going on.

And the final question has to do with race, and Nancy Pelosi's comment that the insurrectionists "have chosen their whiteness over democracy."  Tapper wondered if Clyburn agreed was what happened on Wednesday.

Oh, many of them, absolutely. I can't tell you how many times in my life I have heard people say to me, to my teeth, so to speak, that that is what is paramount with them. Why would anybody be going there with this so-called Confederate Battle Flag? I have been telling people all the time there is something else about that flag that people don't focus on. That has never been the Confederate Flag. And when people tell you it is all about heritage, it is not about heritage. That flag was never adopted by the Confederacy. They always rejected that flag.  Nathan Bedford Forrest put that flag out here when he was forming the Ku Klux Klan, or when he was running it, though he said he didn't found it. But the fact of the matter is, that flag has been adopted by skinheads and white supremacists in Germany. You can't -- it is illegal for the swastika to fly in Germany. So, they took that flag. So, when that guy walked in there with that flag, he wasn't talking about the Confederacy. He was talking about his whiteness. That flag is the flag of white nationalism and the flag of white supremacy.

Tapper left it there, and so will I. 

See you around campus. Wear a mask. Stay out of crowds. And if you know anyone in the videos from the attack on the Capitol, the FBI would love to hear from you. 

Trump in Transition (v46)

Look at me! 

LOOK AT ME!

Did you see me on the news? Even the fake news, MSDNC and the rest of them, they had my picture, did you see it? 

I was holding a Bible!!

Someone asked if it was my Bible. Nah, it's 'a' Bible, not 'my' Bible - heck, I don't even know where they found it, probably in the nightstand in one of the rooms in my hotel or something, I don't know. It's a good book, they tell me. Very good, good words. Good words. I don't have time to read it, but I hear it's very good. I'll ask Mike. Is Mike here? Where's Mike?

I didn't speak any of the words in it, because after that Two Corinthians thing, well, I'm a little gun shy, but it doesn't matter, because the people who care that I'm holding it don't care that I've never read it. They read it, so I don't have to. It's OK with them, it's just not OK with the fake news, those people in the back there, yesterday.  My people just care that I have other people who can put one in my hand when necessary, like today. Today it was necessary. And it was pretty cool, don't you think? Didn't I look good, holding it like that? 

I looked stern, didn't I? And Righteous? I gotta tell you, it sure FELT Righteous, holding it in my hands, and making my best serious face, and holding it up for the press?  Fixed them, didn't I? They had to get pictures of ME holding a BIBLE - and all they had were their cameras. I had the BIBLE!

And I had those peaceful protesters gassed - I gassed them, I did! Vicious tear gas, it hurts. Really hurts, in the eyes, the eyes. So painful. So painful. I showed them, I surely did. Hanging out in a park across the street from My House? I don't think so! 

I watched as it happened, I was watching, I wasn't in the bunker, and it was GREAT having them pushed away, crying, from that church. Funny how they thought they were safe there, right? Good stuff. Good stuff.

And the bleeding-heart liberals, the left-wing clergy members and their little seminarians,

From Raw Story

handing out water and snacks for the protesters? And hand sanitizer! Yeah, I showed them, didn't I? They're not like 'my' religious people, they're not like 'our' religious people, are they? Nah, nothing like OUR people. 

But I'm all for peaceful protests, you heard me say that, right? It sounded good, didn't it?  Sounded perfect, I thought. And then I gassed them! Even the religious ones who were there! Bet that hurt, right? Probably hurt pretty good, I don't know. They tell me it hurts.

And I didn't even tell anyone we were coming! HA! How's that for showing how STRONG I am! I'm not going to tell you I'm coming, I'm just going to SHOW UP and hold up this Bible, and it's going to look good, in front of your church, they call it the 'Church of Presidents', right? Historic church, historic. All of the presidents have come here, they say, since that Madison guy. We like him right? 2nd Amendment? Yeah, we like him a LOT!  I'll always protect the 2nd, gotta protect that one, right? 2nd!

Probably even went inside, the others. All of them. And now I've been there, too. It's true - that's what they tell me - I'm the President, they tell me, and I can do WHATEVER I WANT, whenever I want. And boy, I wanted to march across the street with Ivanka and the rest of those white people - didn't she look good, Ivanka? Didn't she look good? She always looks good, doesn't she? 

Even in a mask. She's the only one who looks good in a mask, don't you think? Good girl. She's a good girl, isn't she? Looked a whole lot better in the black mask than Sleepy Joe Biden, didn't she? 

And I don't even care if I was holding the Bible upside down in the beginning - I'm just going to say that's Fake News, it's FAKE NEWS, and the pictures are fake and anyone who posts one of those pictures is the ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE. They're the ENEMY! Fake news, so fake. 

But we have a great country, I said - great line, great line, in front of that great church, right? And it's going to be even greater, soon. We're coming back. Great country.  Oh crap - I forgot to say God Bless America! Do you think they noticed? I forget to say that sometimes...  Yeah, they probably noticed. I'll just have them add that to the transcript. No one will ever know.

Anyone seen my Sharpie? 

#MAGAMA #NMPNNNE

Sunday School 5/31/20

OK, let's dive in to yesterday's classrooms - the beauty of doing this all virtually, right?

I want to focus on some of the women who made the rounds yesterday, all of them leaders, all of them people of color. Let's start with my least favorite classroom - Meet the Press - and Chuck Todd's discussion with DC's Mayor Muriel Bowser and Atlanta's Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.

In response to Todd's question about whether things were better Saturday night than on Friday, and if  "we're going to see some calm going forward or no," Bowser said that the "level of just destruction and mayhem among some" people who gathered in the city on Friday night was "maddening", and that they were working with "all of our law enforcement partners to ensure calm" in the capital. She also said that a clear message is being sent to participants that exercising their First Amendment rights is OK but they don't have the right to destroy DC.

Similarly, Lance Bottoms said that "Things were a bit more calm" Saturday than Friday, "but they weren't perfect." Around 157 people were arrested, she said, and that "...all of the issues and all of the concerns and anger that were there on Friday haven't gone away." She also described it as a systemic issue that will take time to fix, but agreed with Bowser that "the solution is not to destroy our cities."

As to there possibly being "outside forces at work," she said what happened in Atlanta, "even just from a physical standpoint, didn't look like our normal protests," adding

We, obviously, have a large African American population in Atlanta. This crowd was a very diverse crowd. And that was noticeable on Friday even before the problems began. We also noticed that many of the protesters even got lost when there was a detour. And many of our organizers in this city, who often don't agree with me, have shared that these were people from the outside. They did not know them. And had no idea where they came from.

Todd then asked Bowser about the "one resident in Washington, DC who ...was backseat driving you on Friday night," referring to the president, of course, and wondered if she thought Trump could play a helpful role.

Well, I think that the president has a responsibility to help calm the nation. And he can start by not sending divisive tweets that are meant to harken to the segregationist past of our country. And he can start by doing that right now. We certainly urge him to do that. We, as Mayor Bottoms has just said, we have systematic issues in our country to address. And it's going to take us, at every level, federal and local... 

Lance Bottoms was asked what she'd like to hear from the president, and if "any of his words could be helpful here."

What I'd like to hear from the president is leadership. And I would like to hear a genuine care and concern for our communities and where we are with race relations in America. We know that when he spoke on Charlottesville, he made the matter worse. And we're already -- we’re well-beyond the tipping point in America. And it's as my grandmother used to say, "If you don't have anything good to say, sometimes you just shouldn't say anything at all."

I don't have an issue with the president of the United States addressing our nation. But I am concerned that this president has a history of making matters worse.

Last word from Bowser, on potential Independence Day celebrations, which the president wants.

Chuck, well, even before the events of the last several days we've been very concerned about large gatherings. We will not be in a position to allow parades in our city while we're still in phase one of our reopening from the Coronavirus.

Todd also talked with Florida Rep. Val Demings, whose interview last week on another network was cut short by technical difficulties, so I'm giving her time this week as well.  The first question? Over the past decade, when something like the murder of George Floyd happens, "there's outrage. The country has some sort of collective conversation about race and inequality..." and not much else happens; he asked why, and what if this time could be different. Not treating it as an individual department issue is one bit thing.

...I do believe the time has certainly come, we are overdue, for us to look at the problem as a nation. I think we all need to pause and every law enforcement agency in this nation, whether they are ten persons or 35,000 persons, need to review their hiring standards, their training standards, look at their de-escalation training that they're doing within the department, look at those officers who train other officers.

We know, she said, that the training officer sets the standard for what's acceptable and what's not. And, she added,

we have to continue to work with our community leaders to build relationships, to foster trust. And we don't wait to do that, you know, when we're in the middle of a crisis. We have to continue to do that every day. And I do believe we are long overdue for every law enforcement agency in our nation to review itself and come out better than before.

Todd wondered if it wasn't "very hard" to get rid of an officer who doesn't meet the chief's and the community's expectations. Demings commended the Minneapolis chief for immediately firing the officers, and having charges quickly brought against the one officer, and that, while it seemed like a long time before charges were filed, "historically, that was a pretty swift arrest..." And, she said, while the federal government doesn't have "direct jurisdiction" there's a big role it can play "in terms of helping law enforcement agencies throughout the nation maybe come up with some standards for hiring and training, especially use of force training."

Pointing to all that's gone on over the past few months - the impact of the pandemic on people of color, and the high profile incidents of racism, two involving law enforcement, Todd wondered what it all means from a governing perspective, and what Demings thought about "direct help, direct aid to African American communities to sort of fix these injustices." 

Referencing President Lyndon Johnson in her response, she said he knew that it was not only hiring and effectively training the best and brightest; he also said "But we have to address those social ills that cause decay in African American communities in the first place. We have to look at economic development. We have to look at jobs. We have to look at wages. We have to look at education."  Adding her own thoughts, she said

... some believe that, you know, in order to be fair, if you will, that you treat communities the same. Well, it's not that simple, unless communities all start in the same place and we know that's not true... racism in America and the injustices that comes with it is nothing new. And so we have to get serious about, number one, admitting there is an issue. And number two, working together.

She also said some leadership from the top would help, although she doesn't "know why I would expect this president to do something that he has never done before..."

That led Todd to ask what she'd say to Trump if he called her and asked for her help on what to say. Well, there's "showing some compassion for" the families who have lost loved ones; there's talking about America being "great and wonderful because of the beautiful diversity we have in this country, that we are a nation of immigrants. We are a nation of laws, but we are a nation of immigrants. And we have to work together." And then, 

maybe we begin today by acknowledging the sins of the past and even said things that he has said and done that caused harm and brought pain to the American people.

Yeah, like that'll ever happen - either that he'd ask for her help, or that he could deliver that message with even a drop of the emotion he used when describing American carnage in his inaugural address...  

Finally, let's spend some time with perhaps the most or second-most despised member of Congress, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who visited This Week with George Stephanopoulos. George asked if things were more under control Saturday, with the National Guard, than earlier in the week. 

I think, last night, the community did feel safe to know that there will not be a burning of their businesses and their homes. We were obviously worried and feeling terrorized about that prospect, but there really was also many people who chose to demonstrate and not abide by the curfew, who felt like they also were terrorized by the presence of tanks, by the presence of the National Guard and a militarized police. And so, for us, it's -- what we are trying to do is try to figure out something between extreme aggression and ways to figure out how not to get our city burned down. And it's a challenge.

The country is in pain, she added, and people can't get the image of George Floyd out of their minds, but it reminds us that "we are living in a country that has truly, for a long time, brutalized African-Americans, from slavery, to lynching, to Jim Crow, to mass incarceration, and now to police brutality."  And she pointed to Minneapolis having "some of the worst racial disparities, people are also understanding that there have been severe social and economic neglect in our communities." We have "real work to do" she said, to "figure out a system that works for all of us."

George asked, now that one officer's been charged, "what more must be one to deliver justice here?" She said that often, even if justice isn't denied outright, it's delayed. People are looking for justice to take place, including charges for the other officers who stood by and did nothing.

But, also, we need nationwide reforms. We also need to make sure that the kind of investment that we are making in our communities is a real one. We are living in a country that has a two-tiered justice system. And people are tired of the -- people are sick and tired of being sick and tired. And we need to really step back and say to ourselves, where do we actually go from here? And that can't just be getting justice for George Floyd. It needs to be bigger than that.

On the question of how peaceful protests turned violent - whether it's "far left thugs and Antifa" as the president says or "outside instigators from the right" as others have suggested, George wondered what information Omar had on who might be joining the protests. She said that not just here but around the world, we see unrest that stems from people truly being fed up, saying they've had enough, looking for "bold and systemic change;" at the same time,

And what we also know to be true, not just here, but across the world, is that there are people who exploit the pain that communities are feeling and ignite violence. In Minneapolis, we have marched. We have protested. We have organized. And when we see people setting our buildings and our businesses ablaze, we know those are not people who are interested in protecting black lives. They might say they care about black lives, but they're not interested in protecting black lives, because, when you set a fire, you risk -- you risk the community that you are saying you are standing up for.

George asked her what she'd like to hear from the president now, noting that Omar has "faced threats inspired by President Trump in the past." She didn't shrink from the opportunity to answer this question. 

The mayor of Washington, D.C., just recently addressed the nation. And, in her remarks, she talks about how there was a kind of leadership that could have been displayed by Donald Trump. And that leadership has not been displayed. And now we -- she said, we look to one another for that leadership.

Many people in our communities are moving on and deciding that they themselves are going to show up as leaders. They are going to push for the kind of systematic change that we need. They are going to ask for people to work together to rebuild our communities. They are going to be vigilant and make sure that they are protecting one another.

This president has failed in really understanding the kind of pain and anguish many of his citizens are feeling. When you have a president who really is glorifying violence and was talking about the kind of vicious dogs and weapons that could be unleashed on citizens, it is quite appalling and disturbing.

We condemn other nations when their presidents make those kinds of statements when there is unrest in their countries, and we have to condemn our president at the highest sort of condemnation.

I don't agree with the Congresswoman on much, that I recall, but I do agree with her on this.

That's all we've got room for, for now. Keep washing your hands, wearing your mask, and social distancing as much as you can, even if you're protesting. 

And stay safe, especially if you're protesting. There are a lot of bad actors out there, including those who infiltrate in an effort to do who knows what kind of damage. I get the sense they don't care who gets hurt.

See you around the virtual campus. I anticipate a healthy Extra Credit post for you later.