America's Feral Mood Descends on DC

The hunger games have come at last to the nation's capital city.

The home invasion and claw-hammer attack to the skull that left an 82-year-old California man alive but hospitalized has put a chill in the air from West to East.

Where does the country turn their eyes for salvation?  

Who has answers to the random attacks that have plagued our country these past years, everything from catalytic converters stolen from cars parked right outside homes overnight to people being pulled from their vehicles and overpowered for their possessions?

It takes time for economic good news from the coasts to reach inland regions, like with the time zones there's a lag.

Same is true, it seems of the feral mood that has prevailed in local communities overturning with newcomers, displaced workers, elderly and disabled in need of community care, as well as the ones who have bought in at fair market value into zoned neighborhoods.

What's had everyone with their guards up, hardening their hearts to protect themselves is an attitude of survival, with the fear that others are working against your own interests to advance their own.

Today, Maureen Dowd tells us, what's here is there too.

They seem to understand, if even the wealthiest and most powerful government actors cannot provide protection for their own elders, how can we?  The worry has become real.

Where do voters turn to look for answers?  Best look within ourselves.  

On behalf of the Dems, Maureen Dowd taps out.

Democrats had a nice run, on climate change and gun legislation, and enjoyed some backlash to the Dark Prince of the Supreme Court, Samuel Alito. Now Republicans seem set to win back the House, and maybe the Senate, with a range of incompetent and hypocritical candidates.

“I cannot believe anybody would vote for these people,” Nancy Pelosi [said] on a fund-raising swing.  

But a feral mood has taken hold. If you think Washington is monstrous now, just wait.

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* Earlier in the column, she dropped this: 

"In a tingly echo of Jan. 6, the man shouted at Paul Pelosi, “Where is Nancy? Where is Nancy?” When police arrived, the man said he was “waiting for Nancy.”

Mr. Pelosi, a genial investor who likes to star in amateur musicals and who has been married to Nancy for 59 years, called 911, 

Like with the misreported "pee" tapes that Democratic political operatives alleged paid to create as a dossier against former President Trump, you have to be careful about taking fake details and reporting them as true.  But... how interesting that line about Mr. Pelosi liking "to star in amateur musicals".

And beware always when somebody tries to pump up a relationship by telling you how long a couple has remained wed even though they live on separate coasts, as Dowd does right here after dropping the hobby interest of Mr. Pelosi. 

(If he were a consummate woodworker, or enjoyed puttering in the garage, as a genial investor while his wife was away, would it be appropriate tucking that detail in there in a story about a potentially deadly criminal attack against him?  Just... odd. Especially since, like with the "pee" tape, salacious details about Mr. Pelosi and the attacker's alleged relationship are finding a home (ie/the attacker was found in Nancy's underwear and the two men were lovers...)

We are all glad the 82-year-old survived the hammer attack and was able to subdue his attacker until police arrived.  More details will no doubt be coming, as elders across the nation fear such situations happening to them, without the possibility of paying for private security.

You hate to see crime fears ramped up like this, going into a cold winter, but we are all alike trapped in mortal bodies going into the season of darkness.  Shine those lights, for real.  Whether you find them in church candles, welding sparks, or eyeballs, your own or others.

Here's my daily contribution:

ain't no time to grieve / 

Said it's daybreak if you'll only believe / 

and let it shine, shine, shine / all around the world

We can do better, together, than accepting rich old people attacked at home or on the streets.  We can do better by our children than locking them down for fear of answering to the guns in their schools.  We can do better by more fairly paying the workers today, and means testing -- today before the safety net needs patching in anticipation of the disabled and retired newcomers coming in to our country, as well as our own, whose social needs can no longer be ignored because now they are affecting the lives of even our most rich and powerful people...

Pray for Paul Pelosi, and what his attack represents today.  When the people on the coasts listen and share the concerns of the people inland, and vice versa, then we will sleep easy as a country not fearing further attacks.  Can we get there?

Everybody do your jobs for the pay your taking.  Congresspeople:  address immigration. Yesterday. If you can't, let others in who can.  Reporters/journalists: Practice independence. Write your own stories. Do your own research. Try for timeliness.  Stories reported weeks, months even years later don't help inform the public.  That's your job. Sharing information.  Not digesting facts and spitting them in people's mouths all chewed up for us.

On November 8, American citizens will come together as voters to choose our best representatives for the future.  Believe in that, and do what you can not to harm the feral ones who mean no harm but have never known the light some of us live by.

Bless the beasts and the children and the elders and vulnerables, indeed. 

The powerful and wealthy are in this mortal circle of life as much as the rest of us, and in time, the targets they have become for doing their jobs, or not -- as Supreme Court justices or political spouses -- might not make them the most efficient leaders for getting us out of this mess we've collectively gotten ourselves into here at home.