And the NRA has been infiltrated and manipulated by a Russian spy. 

I wonder what President Reagan would think about all this?

come back to this place.  As many have pointed out, it is easy to get caught up in the almost daily ridiculousness that is our current politics, and lose sight of the bigger picture.  There is a purposefully delievered desensitization happening in the good ole USA.  I think I kind of expected to see that now some of our self-identified independents and "burn it downers" might be starting to get a little nervous with some of the developments of the last several months, which are almost too many to list.  I also thought an absence from here, and maybe even a little less following of daily developments with this current administration, might help me with some needed perspective. Having said that, of the last months developments, many are not inconsequential oddities of a "he just does things differently" potus and administration.  The performance in Helsinki and almost unimaginable kowtowing to putin and russia (can you imagine if a democrat had capitulated to an arch enemy in such a way??), the banning of a member of the free press from covering the white house b/c she asked an "inappropriate" question, and then actually following through with the ban (the question was about putin), plans to completely repeal the endangered species act, overtures from potus himself about the security of our elections in november b/c the russians might "help" the democrats (do you see what he is laying the groundwork for here?) not to mention, this revelation from our president after he has repeatedly denied this ever even happened in the face of overwhelming evidence sourced from both parties that it has and still is happeing (and the fact that this admin is doing nothing about stopping it), the now apparent and documentable connections of the NRA, trump administration and russia,  the unilateral decision to embark on a trade war with some of our biggest commerce allies, and the list goes on.

I came back to find that nothing has changed here.  People on the left and left center are still like "wake the #badword# up, people" , people here on the right and right center are mostly like "I'll be concerned when 'X' happens", and the president's most ardent followers (and maybe even some moderates who won't admit it) have totally bought into the farce that there is some kind of coordinated deep state conspiracy perpetrated by media elite and hollywood and nothing you read from "liberal media" is true.  I'm sorry, but if that doesn't concern you, you either aren't paying attention or you are ok with what the potential outcomes are. Me?  I am still waiting to see if we really have guardrails.  When you step away for a little while, you see pretty clearly that we do not.

BBG