There May Be Blood

Now might not be a bad time to remind this Major League Baseball umpire and others like him that participating in a cival (sic) war, if that means committing an act of violence, will meet with immediate and overwhelming force from law enforcement (supported, as needed, by the U.S. military), that any crimes committed will be fully prosecuted, and that “making America great again” or “taking back our country,” or any of dozens of other hateful and idiotic slogans, will not mitigate these crimes.

Keep in mind:

• Hate crimes and mass shootings are already occurring, some of which are perpetrated by those who explain that they are simply carrying out the wishes of the President of the United States.

• Trump is almost sure to be impeached in the House. (Whatever happens past that is a matter of speculation.)

• Regardless of the ultimate outcome of the impeachment, it seems certain that a small but non-negligible percentage of alt-right Trump supporters will be angered to the point of violence.

By any conceivable moral standard, what has happened to the United States is disgusting, but that doesn’t mean it can’t get worse.