The New McCarthyism ...

... is at least as deranged as, and even less supported by evidence than, the mid-century Red Scare. Or, for that matter, the Salem witch panic.

It's also, as I wrote almost exactly three years ago, dangerous. Not just to the existing system, which I'm fine with, but to the lives and liberty of just about everyone.

There's a degree to which I don't "get out much," and that's when it comes to the comment sections of "mainstream left" news sites.

Over the last couple of days, I've been "getting out more," reading reactions to Hillary Clinton's unhinged attack on Tulsi Gabbard, Jill Stein, and third party candidates in general.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but I am.

If those comment sections are accurate, a whole lot of people really seem to really believe that !THEM RUSSIANS! were behind the election of Donald Trump, that Hillary Clinton was "really" the winner ... and that anyone and anyone who disagrees with those two assertions is a Russian bot, a Russian asset, or a Russian troll.

I'm beginning to suspect I may have been overly optimistic in predicting a few years ago that the United States of America might groan on for as long as three more decades before collapsing into something probably even worse.

It's all banana Republicans to the putative "right" and all bananas Democrats to the putative "left." And it's starting to look pretty scary.