So let’s see: Calling it a “Trump Shutdown” didn’t work. The democrats had to cave without having won a single thing they wanted. But, like a racquetball hitting a wall, the narrative carried a surplus of kinetic energy that had to go somewhere, so…BOUNCE. Suddenly we’re all supposed to demand release of the Epstein files. Trump invokes the time-honored technique of “Destroy a stupid idea by taking it seriously”…bully-pulpits the Congress into authorizing the release, signs the bill.

It turns out just like the Russia Russia Russia hoax: Everyone was collaborating with Epstein *except* Donald Trump.

Racquetball hits the wall with a loud KITOONK sound, and suddenly we’re all supposed to be talking about yelling “Quiet, piggy!” at a female reporter.

No one seems to be interested in the identity of this “female reporter,” which is floated among three candidates, one of whom is named Margaret. White House says Trump was actually saying “Quiet, Peggy” and although this seems unlikely to those who have listened to the recording, there’s nothing to prove otherwise.

So, KITOONK, two senators and four congressmen decide we’re all supposed to be talking about the issuance of illegal orders to the military.

Trouble is, they can’t name any illegal orders that have been issued. Three of them have been directly confronted with the question during interviews and all three had to waffle and weenie out of it. That means the six are guilty of weakening the chain of command purely for political purposes, which is sedition. Meanwhile, two members of the national guard are shot, one fatally. Loudmouths wanted everyone to think of the national guard as following illegal orders and potentially shooting unarmed civilians, and it turns out when you say stuff like that, someone takes it seriously.

It’s scandal-racquetball. Trump isn’t supposed to win at this, so when he does, it becomes imperative to bounce that ball and spawn off another scandal.

The kinetic energy accumulates, with deadly results.

Meanwhile, I notice something about the way people argue when the subject turns to this stuff.

Trump’s policies which are supposed to be illegal, unconstitutional, hurtful and morally deficient…although no one can say how or why…supposedly manifest his moral failings and character shortcomings as a person.

If you oppose the Trump agenda, you’re socially obliged to speak out about these shortcomings. Even if you don’t personally know Donald Trump, you’re supposed to churn out several paragraphs about how morally bankrupt he is.

Of course people are much more loquacious about things when they don’t have the knowledge to support what they’re saying, so what ends up spewing forth is this geyser of blah blah blah about what a terrible person Donald Trump is.

And if you have an opinion about that — you are further socially obliged to think something similar about his supporters. All of them. Every single one. Although you don’t know us any better than you know Donald Trump, whom you don’t…

There can be no “I oppose the reforms they support, but I know their hearts are in the right place.” None of that. None. We must hate the women hate the gays hate the blacks hate the trannies and be anti-science and anti earth.

And if you’ve figured out what terrible people we are…

…you are further socially obliged to oppose the reforms we support. And it goes back to the beginning. It’s a feedback loop.

So we end up with post after post, page after page, paragraph after paragraph, kilobyte after kilobyte, of this…stuff.

• Trump’s policies are wrong
• Trump is a bad person
• We who support his reforms are bad people
• Lather, rinse, repeat

We get to read all about that. But meanwhile, we have a lot of illegal immigrants inland. And there are industries built around them. They inflate the welfare rolls and the registries of various public assistance programs. They cost us a lot of money, we’re 38 trillion dollars into the public debt which is climbing. These are real problems…and no, nobody anywhere is saying “Get rid of Donald Trump and it solves all these problems.” That would be so absurd, even the most frenzied Trump hater is coming nowhere close to saying that.

Just: Get rid of Donald Trump.

Sorry to say, this all ends up looking like what it is: Trump came along for a reason. The country is divided on him because it’s divided on whether we want the problems fixed or not. A lot of people don’t want the problems fixed and that’s why they hate him and whenever they come up with a new scandal and he ends up surviving and winning that scandal, they have to create a new one.

Meanwhile, no one is addressing these problems.

Except Trump. And we who support him.

Everybody is else just babbling nonsense. Pulling new scandals out of thin air, trying to win at them…and failing.

Making things worse. Getting people hurt.

It happened Wednesday.

Liberals are showing new strains of ignorance, hitherto uncharted intensities of it. Yes, I’m fully aware that they’re saying the same thing about people who see things my way.

But once again, I see their own ignorance is unique because it mixes in apathy in equal parts. When you blame Republicans for the shutdown, for example, which we’re repeatedly told most people do — this comes at the end of not any kind of critical analysis, but mere word selection. This side is “holding out” or “refusing to budge” on something; the other side is “blocking” a continuing resolution. So-and-so is “standing firm”; the other guy is “holding government hostage.”

People don’t dissect these word-choice burbles. For the most part, they think what they’re told to think. Then, if there are any doubts, they might ask people like me “What news sources should I watch/read?” Watch or read? You mean, follow? Believe uncritically? None of them, of course.

I notice a lot of people can’t even process that.

Another thing I notice, since this shutdown began, is that there is a whole array of topics on which liberals display a special ignorance. Ronald Reagan was quoted as saying “The trouble with our Liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.”

That’s because a lot of it is not based on fact. I say something like “The mainstream media is biased, to the left” — a leftist liberal might hear me say this, and figure, incorrectly, that I’m saying this just because I lean the other way. So he’ll retort “No, the mainstream media is biased, if in any way at all, to the right.” Just like returning a volleyball serve. But, no. If he bothered to discuss and debate, we’d get into some of the examples I might have to offer, and then he’d be obliged to come up with his own. But we don’t get that far. Such an exchange devolves into a shouting match, just like a volleyball match, or a racquetball match, or a ping pong game. I serve, you return, I return the return, etc.

They don’t argue to learn. They argue to win.

So they end up not knowing very much. About a great variety of topics that are supposed to be interesting to them.

It occurs to me that if you make a list of such subjects, and then make another list of subjects on which they want the final word…refuse to take no for an answer. Subjects on which you must must must, do it their way their way their way…

…or else like a socially arrested eighth grade schoolgirl they’ll just hate you for-EVER!! Can’t be friends! Because you didn’t do it their way…

The two lists would be exactly the same.

The economy.

The presidency, Congress and the judicial branch.

The rest of the U.S. Constitution.

Rights.

Privileges.

Responsibilities.

God.

Guns.

Hunger, famine, poverty.

Capitalism.

Socialism.

Education.

Bigotry.

Tolerance.

Civilization.

Societies.

Cultures.

Defense.

Immigration.

War and peace.

Surpluses and Deficits.

Marriage and family.

Work and play.

How pretty sexy blonde girls sell blue jeans and what we are to think of that.

And, discussing any of the above.

In fact, out of the many things on which liberals maintain an ignorance, there is only one item that does not appear on the list of things over which they demand control, and that is: The motivation of their opposition.

This is something they don’t understand, and at times, it seems they know they don’t understand it. They don’t care to learn about it. They’re proud of not knowing and they’re proud of not caring.

But at least, on that one particular thing, they’ll allow us to do as we will. It’s part of their final dismissive gesture as they shut us out of the village gates to starve in the winter. Or, to modernize the metaphor, intone to us that we can’t sit with them at lunch.