outrage

I am standing in the Express Lane at Morton Willimas with one bottle of ketchup. Two women are in front of me, each carrying a few items. 

A smug man (you can tell by the smirk on his face) is at the register. He is patiently waiting while the frustrated cashier fills out some form. It turns out that he has a tax-exempt status. This requires some long form to be completed.  He refuses the cashier's request to complete the form himself. All this to save what? A couple of dollars? 

The process takes about 10 minutes. Does he not know the definition of express?  Or— and far more likely — he just doesn’t care.

I am outraged by his behavior.

Well, that’s what I initially think. Until I begin mentally reviewing other things that are going on around me.

• A woman (Renee Good) is shot through her windshield and killed for trying to get away from an ICE officer. 

• Within hours of the incident, and before any investigation, a cowboy-hatted-puppy-killer immediately announces that this was "an act of domestic terrorism" and that Good's car was "weaponized" against law enforcement, when clearly, she was just trying to get away. 

• And then DOJ pushes for a criminal investigation of the actions of Renee Good's wife. All this, while at the same time DOJ is excluding Minnesota state officials from being involved in the investigation to determine whether the shooting itself was lawful.

• Foreign-looking or speaking people are indiscriminately targeted, dragged from their homes or schools, detained or worse. This goes against every value this great country stands for. Even Joe Rogan, initially a strong Trump supporter and one of the world’s biggest podcasters, recently said, “Are we really going to be the Gestapo? ‘Where’s your papers?’ Is that what we’ve come to?”

• Our US president announces he is acting president of Venezuela.

• And threatens to take over Greenland, a NATO country.

• Now the DOJ is accusing Jerome Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve, of allegedly lying to congress about costs related to Federal Reserve headquarters. No need spell out the connection of the dots here.

• The White House says it's an "appropriate response" when the President of the US flips his middle finger when asked a question he doesn't like.

Okay, I guess a guy taking advantage of the Express Line at the grocery store isn't outrageous, just annoying.

Outrage belongs as a descriptor of the many things our President and his staff are doing. I've listed a few examples, but sadly there are many more. With new ones being added every single day.