A recent anti-human trafficking event at the Statehouse proclaiming to #SaveTheChildren was not entirely about saving children and more about promoting and recruiting for the surreal and disturbing QAnon “theory” that believes prominent lefties such as the Clintons, the Obamas, Oprah and Tom Hanks, are part of a secret pedophile cabal sacrificing children to Satan and drinking their blood.

About a 100 or so attended the event on August 29th and pictures from the event show people wearing “Q” masks, camo gear (holding automatic rifles of course), and some carrying pizza-slice signs.

Many of our readers are familiar with the QAnon bat-shit craziness, which is gaining serious traction with more and more people who are obviously in need of mental health services. But if you are not aware of Q, let us be absolutely clear and say it again: They believe high-profiled liberals are sacrificing…children…to drink their…blood.

One result of the Republican convention will be a drop in the number of progressives who are in denial about the Trump regime’s momentum toward fascism. This week’s relentlessly unhinged GOP gathering has probably done more to win votes for Joe Biden from the left than last week’s Democratic convention did. And that points up a problem.

Our local police-state apologist broadcast news stations, such as Sinclair-owned WSYX Channel 6, can’t resist to lead their shows with the bloody crime-of-the-day from some of our urban neighborhoods.

Nothing like a morning and nightly dose of urban violence to get out the conservative vote or push back against defunding the police. In case anyone needs reminding, Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns roughly 200 local news stations, is pro-Trump and has ideas on rivaling Fox News.

Mayor Ginther has held three press conferences addressing this apparent spike in violence. And even though the call for less police has never been louder, Chief Quinlan has recently suggested more officers are needed to prevent gun violence.

This looks like the beginning of a civil war.

The chaos and violence in Kenosha, Wisconsin are unfolding as I write. I feel as though I’m watching some natural disaster develop, suddenly overpowering any hope for social change “before it’s too late.”

Is it already too late — that is to say, too late to disarm our concept of social order and, for God’s sake, safety? The American problem of guns is not only that there are so many of them, vastly more than there are people; and that they are deemed, by so many Americans, necessary for survival and empowerment, commanding a reverence in the collective imagination right there alongside the flag and the cross; but also, that they are inextricably linked, in so many ways, with American racism.