"Mad bull lost your way"

 

Sometimes classic rock sounds stale to me. Like an overly familiar caricature. I'm certain I've heard "Gimme Shelter" that way. The guitar a stadium rock cliche. Did Mary Clayton get paid for this because she goes beyond the call of duty. The song's haunting power is hers. "War, children, it's just a shot away. Rape, murder, it's just a shot away." The Maysles brothers and Charlotte Zwerwin documentary can kind of overwhelm the song with its own tragic stupid absurdist ending to the 1960s: Hells Angel kills Black college student at a Stones' concert at The Altamont Speedway Free Festival in 1969. At this point, "Gimme Shelter" is a pulpy epic and a tired old war horse.

But then you hear the song again, in a moment like this one. Someone shooting at Trump, his heroic survivor image, fist in the air, and all the violence he has wrought since 2016 flash before the eyes: separating immigrant families, opposing Covid mitigation measures, his assault on the last election Jan 6, 2021, viral death threats against judges, public officials, election workers, extremist bigot hate crimes in Pittsburgh and El Paso and Buffalo, a stunning scale of political violence rarely seen before.  

"War, children, it's just a shot away." And the dust hasn't settled from more violence, perpetrated by a military weapon Biden has tried to ban, and leading republicans are blaming Dems for the violence; specifically, for warning that Trump is a threat to the rule of law, national security, and democracy. (He is.) Such finger-pointing will only provoke more partisan violence, almost all of which to date in fact has come from Trump's fascist minions. Just last week a MAGA republican candidate for governor in North Carolina was preaching that "some people need killing." 

Or like Biden and the Dems we can condemn all political violence and and insist that all political violence or threats of political violence be stopped and prosecuted. All political violence. 

A vote for Trump this fall remains a vote for more political violence. A vote for Biden, or whatever Dem candidate they come up with, is a vote for less political violence and more peace. "Oh, a storm is threatening," "gimme shelter." "I tell you love, sister. It's just a kiss away." 

Trump is the accelerant of political violence, Vox

Trump is inciting violence as another election approaches, Mother Jones

ABC News finds 54 cases invoking Trump with violence while potus