The Reinking who is the catalyst for this post is of course Travis Reinking, the fellow who was recently arrested for "allegedly" killing four innocent victims in yet another needless shooting in a Tennessee Waffle House. But this is more about Travis Reinking's father Jeffrey [I assume his last name to be Reinking also].
The reports on this incident were, sadly, ho-hum news of the day until we also heard later that Reinking's father intervened in August 2017 to avoid having law enforcement officers confiscate Travis's weapons. Dad agreed to hold the weapons himself on the understanding he would not return them to his son. Illinois police should have had better sense than to agree to that, but since they did not, guess what? Jeff gave Trav his guns back! It's been reported officials are now "uncertain" whether either Travis or Jeffrey broke any firearms laws (hah! only in America, as they say). Firearms laws or not, though, a case can and should be made to prosecute the father; the charge should in my view be accessory to murder. We can't be sure if Jeffrey is good at his work (whatever it is) but we can see he is one hell of a fine enabler.
Regular readers know Morning Fog is a fan of "interesting" juxtapositions of news events and developments and in this case, it struck me that Reinking (the elder) is just a small potatoes example of a much worse enabler, namely, Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader.
How so? McConnell is the prime enabler of Donald Trump. That's true on many fronts, but the one that immediately suggests to me a philosophical kinship between Mitch and Jeff is the Mueller investigation into the Gordian knot of Trump's team and the Russians. We know Trump's style. First the posture that something will "never" happen, he wouldn't even think of it; then the edging away; then an apparent decision that "maybe" he can get away with some egregious action; and finally, the action itself.
Trump has been testing the envelope on firings at Justice: Sessions, Rosenstein, and Mueller. Both McConnell and his erstwhile partner in enablement Ryan (good riddance!) have refused to stand up to Trump on the issue of firing Justice officials who just happen to piss him off. Just as Jeffrey Reinking seemingly assumed his son would not do anything with those firearms, McConnell doesn't see a need for specific legislation to protect Mueller - one might even say he has "waffled" on that -- because reportedly he just doesn't think Trump intends to, or really would, fire Mueller.
That's a dangerous thing. McConnell eventually will get his political comeuppance (or not) but by the time he does, it may be too late for the country to avoid having the Department of Justice turned into a Waffle House.
