Isn’t it ironic?
America has lost its mind.
It’s still my favorite place on earth.
But I lament the fact that there are people who still can’t see our outgoing president as he is.
That he’s not as insightful as he is “inciteful.”
That’s IRONIC.
History books will define this nation’s 45th president as something of a cartoon-like character, who came close to inciting an armed takeover of the U.S. government.
He’ll leave office (one way or another) with blood on his hands, and delirious devotees wondering what his next scheme to unravel this Democracy will be.
But isn’t it IRONIC, that the electronic vehicle he used to gather his flock is no longer available to him?
Twitter decided they’d had enough of him and his misbehavior.
It’s IRONIC, that if Twitter had acted four years earlier, that may have blunted Trump’s bloodlust, and he may have been preparing for his second term.
The theme of this is IRONY.
I’m throwing it around a lot today.
Hope you don’t mind.
Isn’t it IRONIC that most of those folks who stormed the U.S. Capitol last week would probably confront people who claim Black Lives Matter with the words Blue Lives Matter?
Yet, they were the people who brutally killed U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick and attacked dozens of people dressed in blue while forcing their way into that structure.
Isn’t it also IRONIC that Trump claims he’s got a special place in his heart for cops, but it took him four days to allow the flag over the White House to fly at half staff in honor of Officer Brian Sicknick?
They flew the flag at half staff over the Capitol building days earlier.
The night before the insurrection, Raphael Warnock became the first Black man ever to be elected U.S. senator for the state of Georgia. Jon Ossoff became Georgia’s first Jewish U.S. senator.
Isn’t it IRONIC that within hours of them winning their seats, there were Confederate flags and Neo-Nazi symbols being run through the halls of their new places of employment?
On Fox News, One America News, and Newsmax, though, they were forming the schematic for a brand-new hoax. The various hosts on those stations were claiming “there’s word” that Antifa was there, helping to foment the rampage.
That wasn’t IRONIC.
It was stupid.
And it was wrong.
No investigator claims that Antifa had anything to do with the siege of the Capitol.
That didn’t stop a Pro-Trump Republican congressman from Florida, Matt Gaetz, from standing during the joint session and making that phony claim.
Gaetz was far from being the worst Republican congressional culprit on Jan. 6.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz showed again why he’s the leading blowhard in Congress with his mythical journey through the land of Trump’s so-called “landslide win” on Nov. 3.
Cruz, and the junior senator from Missouri, Josh Hawley, tried to gum up the works of the Electoral College vote certification, despite the obvious futility.
Hawley went even further than Cruz. He sent out fundraising appeals while there were thugs on the march through the building. He saw his effort to try to stop the count as a way to curry favor with Trump.
That backfired.
Missouri’s two largest newspapers (the Kansas City Star and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch) both called for his resignation.
And Simon & Schuster ended their deal to publish his upcoming book. To which Hawley took to Twitter and claimed that “It’s a direct assault on the First Amendment.”
Isn’t it IRONIC that a Stanford University and Yale Law School scholar doesn’t understand that what Simon & Schuster did had nothing to do with the First Amendment?
It’s a private company. It’s not Congress. And it’s not preventing him from publishing somewhere else.
Finally, isn’t it IRONIC, that many of the people who follow Trump refuse to wear masks to help prevent them from getting COVID-19?
That’s why many of the marauders who appeared without masks last Wednesday are being rounded up across the nation.
Maybe they’ll wear masks when they get out of jail.
Edward A. Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter, and anchor for Entertainment Tonight, and 20-year TV-news veteran. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.