I’m in quite a mood. I wanted to write about fitness. Maybe encourage everyone to take advantage of the weather and do something outside. Maybe make a joke about everyone overindulging this weekend. But I don’t have it in me because I’m so full of bile.

I keep watching public officials fail in public, often tragic, ways without facing any accountability. The French Revolution is making more sense to me.

Let’s start with the Uvalde school shooting. It’s bad enough the local police department and then some higher up at the Texas Department of Public Safety couldn’t accurately recount what happened. As the truth trickles out, we now know the local cops are a dangerous embarrassment. It turns out a gunman fired on them so they hunkered down because they could have been shot. No shit. It’s in the job description.

These brave heroes in blue called for all the back up they could get and they got it. Then they told the very people best qualified to confront the shooter to wait. Children were calling the police asking for help and these jackasses did nothing. The BORTAC unit that arrived finally decided to disobey the local cops and enter the school. Thank G-d they did. The awful carnage likely would have been worse but for their bravery.

What enrages me is the predictable lack of consequences. Being stupid, scared, or a coward isn’t a criminal offense. These cops can’t be sued by the parents because cops have no duty to defend you. I would like to think every cop (un)involved in this incident will lose their job and be drummed out of law enforcement but that won’t happen. Scott Israel got a new job. There just isn’t a way to fire a cop and keep them out of law enforcement.

Less deadly, so far, is the baby formula shortage. It’s been well reported in libertarian and right leaning media that half of all the formula is “sold” through WIC, each state negotiates with a manufacturer which result in over half the market being locked in, and federal regulations make it virtually impossible for foreign manufacturers to sell in the US. The claim an Abbott Labs plant was shut down due to tainted formula is garbage. The FDA shutdown the plant because four children suffered a bacterial infection. The bacteria was not traced to the plant, no contaminated formula was found, and the bacteria found in the plant does not match the bacteria in the infants. But that’s no reason for a bureaucrat not to turn a problem into a crisis. Will the agency change its ways? Will anyone in the FDA face professional consequences? We know the answer.

Our Dear Leader is on the precipice of forgiving some amount of student loans. He plainly doesn’t have the authority to do this. Pelosi said so less than a year ago. The Department of Education (warning: PDF download) said so. Will Biden be impeached for violating his oath of office when he implements this plainly unlawful idea. Of course not.

 

Music for:

My mood

Memorial Day

What I should be doing this weekend

JFC. I need to go for a run.