The George Soros-funded, self-proclaimed socialist, and gun-grabber Andrew Gillum hopes to be the next Florida governor. If he wins, he plans to jack up taxes some 40 percent, to fund a Cuban-style single-payer health plan. In other words, he wants to take a state whose economy keeps growing as people flee dying “blue” states, and give it the Venezuela treatment. He wants to “monkey up the economy,” as Ron DeSantis said — and no, of course that’s not a racist term, as The Stream’s Rev. Bill Owens explained.

But you knew all that. What you didn’t know is this: For help raising money, Gillum has turned to Sheriff Scott Israel. That’s right, Gillum has brought Israel into his campaign.

“Amazing Leadership”

Remember Sheriff Israel? He’s the guy whose four deputies cowered outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, while Niklaus Cruz hunted students and teachers. Some unarmed students showed a lot more courage and saved their classmates’ lives. But the deputies whom Israel had hired and trained obeyed his rules of engagement. They waited outside, where it was safe, for the cavalry to arrive. (That is, other cops unafraid to do their duty.)

Instead of firing those deputies immediately and then resigning himself, Israel brazened it out. He boasted of his leadership skills. Commenting on the slaughter in his city and on his watch, Israel was truculent. “I can only take responsibility for what I knew about. I exercised my due diligence. I have given amazing leadership to this agency,” he said.

Shifting the Blame

Israel wouldn’t apologize, wouldn’t explain. He joined with cherry-picked student “leaders” like David Hogg in shifting the blame. This wasn’t a comprehensive failure of law-enforcement from top to bottom. Of the school system, which covered up Cruz’s violence and whitewashed his previous outbursts, to massage its statistics. Of the FBI, which ignored Cruz’s online boast — using his real name — that he would be “the next school shooter.” Then blew off a warning to its tip line. The failure of Israel and his deputies, such as Scot Peterson — whom Israel tried to scapegoat as the only villain.

Nope, it’s the law abiding citizens who exercise their Second Amendment rights. They’re the ones at fault. That was the message of the media circuses, such as CNN’s carefully stage-managed “Town Hall.” In the wake of it, the lonely pro-Constitution spokeswoman, Dana Loesch, was hosed down with abuse, rape threats, and threats against her family.

Read Mark Smith’s short book Duped, a scathing account of how gun-grabbers hijacked and manipulated the Parkland tragedy. Gillum seized upon it to call for a ban on so-called “assault weapons.”

Adding Insult to Injury

Now Gillum has brought Israel into his campaign. I learned that when Andrew Pollack, whose daughter died thanks to the cowardice of Israel’s men, complained about it:

The people of Broward need to get out and vote @RonDeSantisFL.

The disgraceful sheriff that is partially responsible for the death of my daughter is out Campaigning for Andrew Gillum.

Desantis will hold failed ‘leaders’ like Israel accountable. #FixIthttps://t.co/tA75c4rVC7

— Andrew Pollack (@AndrewPollackFL) September 17, 2018

 
The brazenness of bringing a disgraced figure like Israel into Gillum’s campaign might have been shocking once. These days we shrug. We might call it “Peak 2018.” But we’d know that some equally insane event would quickly top it. Within a news cycle or two.

We’re Trapped in a Bad Netflix Series

I’ve seen people snark on Twitter that the past two years of history haven’t been real events. Instead, we’re living through the waning seasons of some House of Cards knock-off TV show. And the writers are getting desperate. That’s why the plot twists are so dang ludicrous. What self-respecting writer would try to get away with inventing a political campaign that included all of the following:

• Donald Trump hinting that Ted Cruz’s dad was involved with Lee Harvey Oswald.
• An FBI conspiracy to stop Donald Trump’s election, and stifle the probe into Hillary Clinton’s crimes.
• That conspiracy unraveling because New York FBI field agents rebelled. That happened thanks to the classified emails they found on Anthony Weiner’s laptop — which they seized for illegal sexting with a teenager.
• Trump almost losing the race because of his Access Hollywood comments a decade before.
• Clinton actually losing the race because she ignored key battleground states.
• The Democrats blaming their loss on Russians hacking our voting machines. Then on unspecified, unproveable “Russian collusion.”
• The same FBI agents who conspired to stop Trump’s election helping to gin up an endless witch hunt against the president.

Can’t you see the TV producer hurling such scripts back at his writers? Asking them if they’d switched from cocaine to something stronger, like crystal meth?

None of it is plausible. None of it can be real.

I’ve seen people joke that we’re living in some unhinged alternative timeline. Or a comic-book “bizarro world,” where up is down and down is some sideways diagonal fifth dimension.

It’s Ayn Rand’s World. We’re Just Living in it.

But I have another theory: That Ayn Rand is writing our headlines, from her cubicle down in hell.

Think about it. What could be more cartoonish than an arrogant, bumbling sheriff who shrugs off blame for murdered children? Ayn Rand would know, and she would double down on his wickedness. She’d also make him a gun-grabber. Someone who used the slaughter on his watch to justify disarming honest citizens. So that they’d be even more helpless the next time some maniac (long ignored by police) came to murder them. But that wouldn’t be quite villainous for Rand. She would also make that sheriff a socialist, who wanted to grab the citizens’ property, along with their freedom. She’d have him collude with a ludicrous figure like Gillum. He in turn would be funded by some utterly implausible international banker/socialist who hated nationhood, borders, capitalism, and even the State of Israel. (George Soros, if you’re keeping score.)

None of it is plausible. None of it can be real. I ask Ms. Rand in the name of all that is holy, to please cut it out. We apologize for calling your characters one-dimensional caricatures. You have proven your point. Collectively, we cry “Uncle!” You have your revenge.