Today is Friday, October 28, 2022. This is the day when a 42-year-old assailant took a hammer to the head of the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. The political atmosphere we live in today is supercharged with the threats of violence and it can be directly traced to what happened on that terrible day in early January of 2021 and the aftermath. What have we become where our political leaders and election workers are now threatened with violence by a ragtag assortment of far-right crazies all brainwashed by the lies and deceptions of a former orange-haired fake president? The current President just went on television to condemn this latest attack against an 82-year-old man. This attack occurred today at the home of the Speaker of the House in San Francisco and, as the police chief in San Francisco just said, everyone in this damn country should be disgusted by this intentional act of violence.

Here are the facts surrounding this terrible incident that occurred early in the morning of Friday, October 28. In an online CNN article written by Jamie Gangel, Clare Foran, Whitney Wild, and John Miller entitled “Assailant tried to tie up Paul Pelosi in home attack and shouted, ‘Where is Nancy?’ sources say,” the details of the despicable act are put forth.

In the incident, the husband of the Speaker, Paul Pelosi, was attacked with a hammer at the couple’s home in San Francisco by a male assailant, law enforcement sources told CNN. The assailant who attacked Pelosi was searching for the speaker of the House, according to a source briefed on the attack.

The intruder confronted the speaker’s husband in their home, shouting, “Where is Nancy? Where is Nancy?” according to the source. Two sources familiar with the situation have indicated that the assailant tried to tie up Pelosi to wait for his wife to come home. He was ostensibly waiting “until Nancy got home.”

San Francisco Police Chief William Scott said during a press conference, “This was not a random act. This was intentional.”

The victim was taken to a hospital and underwent a “successful surgery to repair a skull fracture and serious injuries to his right arm and hands.” Doctors expect that he will make a full recovery.

The police chief said that the suspect, who is in the hospital, will be booked on felony charges.

This vile attack comes as fears of political violence directed toward lawmakers remain high in the wake of the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The deranged assailant wielding the hammer can be identified as someone who was incited to act violently since he posted memes and conspiracy theories today on Facebook about COVID vaccines, the 2020 election, and the January 6, 2021, attack, whereas an acquaintance told CNN that he seemed “out of touch with reality.” Immersing yourself in these cockamamie theories about the pandemic and the insurrection fomented by a pathological psychopath of an ex-president would certainly submerse you in an alternate reality.

At a fundraising dinner in Philadelphia today, President Biden tied the assault to growing strains of right-wing extremism. He railed, “This is despicable. There’s no place in America – there’s too much violence, political violence. Too much hatred. Too much vitriol.”

For what it’s worth, and I think it’s not worth that much, because of what the Republican Party did not do immediately after the attack on the Capitol, some repugnican leaders like Senate GOP Leader “Bitch” McConnell did say in a tweet that he is “horrified and disgusted” by the attack on Pelosi’s husband.

House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy did reach out to Speaker Pelosi after the assault, according to his office. This pusillanimous leader has kissed the pinkie ring of the occupant of Mar-a-Lago several times and has been notably absent from the discussion arising from the insurrection and its implications, so this digression from his usual silence doesn’t pardon him at all.

We have to be thankful that Paul Pelosi is expected to fully recover from his injuries that he sustained today. But this trend toward physical violence is not abating anytime soon, with more opportunities for violence occurring all the time against our elected officials. Republican Senator Susan Collins told The New York Times that “I wouldn’t be surprised if a senator or House member were killed” after an assailant smashed a window in her home.

The hatred peddled on the Internet is mostly responsible for this alarming situation and it needs to stop. It’s sobering that this attack on Pelosi happened just as the wealthiest man in America, Elon Musk, finally got his media platform, Twitter, today and that he favors more lenient content moderation policies. Does this mean then that the former president could be given his Twitter platform back by this new owner of the company? If that did happen, then Twitter would become a bigger cesspool of misogyny and abuse than it already is. As Kara Alaimo, an associate professor in the Lawrence Herbert School of Communication at Hofstra University, has said in an opinion piece for CNN today, “It’s time for social media companies to stop hosting content that normalizes this kind of violence and for the FBI to get serious about investigating and prosecuting these attacks.” She chillingly ends her CNN contribution with, “They [the FBI] should use this horrific episode as the wake-up call that it is, and not wait for Sen. Collins’ prediction that a member of Congress may end up dead to come true.”

Let’s hope this terrible incident brings more Democrats and Republicans together to condemn the toxic atmosphere in this country that ultimately leads to violence.

So try to have a good weekend anyway.

Stay safe and be well.