This is the status quo our gun culture has created. If the shooting doesn’t take place up the street, Americans are increasingly inured to the phenomenon. Yes, it’s remarkable that one day you’re just a guy who struggles with depression; the next, you’re the criminal that right wingers say we need even more guns to protect ourselves against.

If you follow the news, you know the demand for counseling at all levels has at least doubled since COVID-19 hit. And stories abound of people trying for a year or more for an appointment. We clearly need a bigger system. And that’s going to take more money and time than we’d like.

Because he knew what he was doing, Kenneth Chesebro proved himself more ethically vacant than the Trumpian mobs. He applied oily legal arguments made potent by an elite education. Supporting an insurrection against the United States, he undoubtedly figured, could be a good career move.

Judge Tanya Chutkan is hearing the January 6 case against Trump brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith and has decided to partially muzzle Trump with an order that is nonsensical and possibly unconstitutional.

It’s time to renovate the government, public schools and universities. If that means starting over, so be it. We can’t go on like this. If we do, disaster awaits, because the history of nations that ignore the house equivalent of a cracked foundation or leaky roof are doomed to self-destruction.

The Federal Elections Commission recently ruled that it has no jurisdiction over state referendum campaigns, creating this dangerous loophole that allows foreign governments — and entities they control — to spend in referendum campaigns unless explicitly prohibited by state law.

Are universities suppressing or delaying the potential of some of their most innovative and energetic students? Are they subtracting money for tuition that could be much better spent in ventures than in classrooms?

The tank remains the baddest dinosaur on the battlefield.