NOVEMBER 2019 IGNOMINIOUS ABSURDITY OF THE MONTH: THE IGGY

1. Sevier County Commissioner Warren Hurst. This month, Warren Hurst, County Commissioner of the Tennessee county of Sevier, bashed openly gay Mayor Pete Buttigieg during a public meeting of the county commission. Hurst made the offensive comments during what was scheduled to be a meeting on establishing the county seat of Sevierville as a “gun sanctuary city,” one in which gun laws would not be enforced.  During this meeting, Hurst described 2020 presidential hopeful Buttigieg as a “queer running for president.” He also declared that white men in the United States are losing their rights.

“It’s time we wake up, people, it’s time. It’s past time,” Hurst said. “We got a queer running for president in this country. If that ain’t about as ugly as you can get,” he added. "Look what we got running for president in the Democratic party. We can go over here to Hoss's jail and get better people out of there than those running for Democratic to be President of the United States."

Apparently, the spattering of applause was enough to encourage him to continue, because continue the commissioner did. “I’m not prejudice,” he proclaimed, uttering the words of every not-prejudiced person in the world, “but by golly, a white male in this country has very few rights and they’re getting took more every day.”

In the video, at least one person—also a white man—is seen laughing at the comments.

While you can hear some applause from the public, and someone shouts, “Amen,” at least one woman did walk out of the meeting. She’s heard saying, “This is bullshit.” Hurst later told a reporter from TV station WVLT in Knoxville that he stood by his comments. He also made sure to note that some of his best friends are black.

OCTOBER 2019 IGNOMINIOUS ABSURDITY OF THE MONTH: THE IGGY

1. Right-Wing Smear Network. Congressional Republicans afraid to come out and say that Donald Trump has engaged in impeachable behavior aren’t only afraid of Trump himself. They’re also living in fear of a smear network in the right-wing media, social media, and blogosphere, ready to respond to any hint of criticism of Trump with everything from insults to outright lies.

Every Republican to offer so much as a whiff of criticism of Trump has faced this onslaught, The Washington Post reports. Sen. Mitt Romney tweeted that “If the President asked or pressured Ukraine’s president to investigate his political rival, either directly or through his personal attorney, it would be troubling in the extreme.” Romney was then accused of having ties to Burisma, the company that former Vice President Joe Biden’s son was associated with. The ties? One of his mid-level 2012 campaign advisers joined Burisma’s board in 2017. Rush Limbaugh also piled on with false claims that Romney had consulted with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Sen. Chuck Grassley spoke up for whistleblowers, an issue he’s known to care about. Gateway Pundit saw this as a desertion: “So much for the Republican leaders in the Senate defending President Trump against the continuation of the attempted coup.” Sen. Ben Sasse and Rep. Adam Kinzinger were accused, respectively, of “stabbing [Trump] in the back” and being a “spineless sellout.”

Any Republican tempted to step out of line even an inch has gotten the message: We’ll come for you next. That’s why if Republicans do start breaking with Trump, it’s likely to start with a group, for safety in numbers. But even those who retain some shred of decency or concern for the Constitution or democracy may simply be too weak and scared to stand against the bulk of their party, which is now consumed by the drive for power over all else.

DONALD TRUMP: THE CONSUMMATE NO-DEAL-MAKER REVISITED

Trump's House of No Deals

In July of 2018, I posted Donald Trump: The Consummate No-Deal Maker (The Consummate No-Deal Maker).  In the piece, I contrasted Trump’s reputed (mostly self-reputed) deal-making prowess with his actual accomplishments as president. During his run for president, Trump bragged that deals would be easy, clean and quick, and they would exceed all expectations. He would make, as he put it, “beautiful deals that no other president could make.”

Well, after a little more than a year in office he made no deals of any note: no deal on health care, climate change, immigration reform and DACA, gun control, spending cuts, NAFTA, China or Pacific trade. He failed to broker deals on Iran, Iraq, Syria or Afghanistan, and made no progress on his Israeli-Palestinian peace initiative. Despite much fanfare, and his bromance with North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong-un , Pyongyang remained steadfast in holding on to its nuclear weapons.

Now that he’s been in office nearly three years, has his alleged nonpareil deal making skills finally showed up? Let’s see.

SEPTEMBER 2019 IGNOMINIOUS ABSURDITY OF THE MONTH: THE IGGY

1. John Merrill, the current Secretary of State of Alabama. Merrill recently asserted, among other bizarre and archaic ideas, that people are “too interested in homosexual activities” and that’s why he can’t find any good television. As reported by Yellowhammer News, an Alabama-based publication, Merrill went on to clarify that by good TV, he has shows like The Virginian, Bonanza, and I Love Lucy in mind.

“That’s what we’ve allowed to happen,” he said on the loss of golden TV… and the rise of homosexuality.

Merrill, by the way, is running in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate in 2020. Yup: Doug Jones’s seat. He’s actually one of five Republicans looking to oust Jones; a list that includes former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore.

But back to today’s story.

The answer came about because Merrill was participating in a town hall in Dekalb County over the weekend. One audience member asked Merrill about cultural shifts, and how our country’s principles have “eroded.” While a question that’s probably clearly coded for this sort of response, Merrill’s doesn’t shy away from hate.

“We’re too interested in homosexual activities,” he replied. “We’re too interested in seeing how this family’s finding a way to mess on this family or to see how people are trying to date on TVor having wife-swapping on TV. That’s what we watch. When we push back against that, and we quit allowing it to be in our homes – that’s how those changes have occurred because we’ve allowed them to slowly but surely come into our lives.”

“I meant what I said,” Merrill said in response to AL.com, where he had the generous opportunity to clarify his obviously offensive words. “People are too interested in anything that is not uplifting, edifying. They’re too busy being preoccupied with homosexual activities and the wife swap shows.”

Merrill lamented he can no longer find shows “that are based on biblical foundations. … shows that promote family and culture with a father, a mother, and children based on biblical teachings and biblical principles on which our nation was founded." Yikes.

He also doubled down on his point in an interview with NBC News, when he criticized coverage of the U.S. Women’s soccer national Team. “The national narrative began to be one of divisiveness,” he claimed to NBC, “and if you can’t support these young ladies because they’re gay and because they want to wear the LGBT flag on their uniform, as opposed to just appreciating the great talent that they have, and the unbelievable athletic accomplishments that they produce, that's a problem.”

The problem is (actually) homophobia. Maybe for some wholesome TV, he can check out the gay rat wedding on Arthur that the public broadcast channel in his state refused to play? It’s a kid’s TV show, after all.

AUGUST 2019 IGNOMINIOUS ABSURDITY OF THE MONTH: THE IGGY

1. Jeffrey E. Epstein. Epstein, the wealthy financier who is accused of sex trafficking, and child molesting had an unusual dream: He hoped to seed the human race with his DNA by impregnating women at his vast New Mexico ranch where he could maintain a vast stable of women for the sole task of impregnation—by himself.

Mr. Epstein’s vision reflected his longstanding fascination with what has become known as transhumanism: the science of improving the human population through technologies like genetic engineering and artificial intelligence. Critics have likened transhumanism to a modern-day version of eugenics, the discredited field of improving the human race through controlled breeding.

That’s something you can kind of envision the leaders of the Third Reich contemplating in their Berlin bunker at the close of World War II, just before the Soviet tanks overran them. It appears to stem from some egomaniacal notion that because they’ve managed, whether by fortune, skill, conquest, or just plain dumb luck to attain a hugely disparate share of power over others, well, there must be something special about themselves that separates them from the rest of the human race .

In the case of Epstein, a billionaire who quite literally had the world at his beck and call, it apparently took the form of  trying to achieve some type of "immorality." This strain of gross egotism isn’t all that uncommon among the billionaire set. Jeff Bezos and Peter Thiel are some examples of those who’ve succumbed to this burning desire to bless the world with their perpetual existence, devoting large chunks of their fortunes to quixotic “life extension” projects.

But even among such rarefied company, Epstein still sounds like a character straight out of Blade Runner:

Beyond his fixation with “transhumanism” and buried deep in that New York Times article, another interesting tidbit about Epstein was brought out.  As spotted by Marie Lodi, writing for New York Magazine:

If that wasn’t shocking enough, another detail that stood out was Epstein’s supposed interest in cryonic preservation, a pseudoscientific process in which the human body or head is frozen and stored with the hope that it could be successfully revived in the future, à la Encino Man. According to sources who spoke to the Times, Epstein “wanted his head and penis to be frozen.”

While he presumably wanted to have his head frozen to protect his brain, it’s not clear what benefit Epstein desired to bestow on future generations with his frozen penis. Nor was the method and storage of preserving this appendage fully fleshed out. As the penis itself serves as a mere vehicle for reproduction, the natural question arises as to whether Epstein meant for his testicles to be preserved as well. Or whether he intended his penis to maintain some sort of functionality down through the centuries, in some type of animatronic-like state.

Further complicating the situation, Epstein made no known arrangements for the penis’ presentation or the manner in which the public might view it.  So, whether it was meant to be seen by private invitation or by the broader public remains a mystery (perhaps he envisioned lines forming around the block at the Met in New York, for example, for such an exhibit). The sad likelihood is that, with Epstein’s suicide we will never get a straight answer to these questions.

I have no evidence, but I suspect that Donald Trump has sacked away some of his sperm for future breeding purposes. How better to extend his white nationalist legacy? And, would you put it past the Trumpster to have his head and penis frozen as well? (To be sure, after he has had them cast in bronze and put on display in the Capitol Rotunda.)

But when all is said and done, Epstein and Trump shouldn’t be worried. Enough evidence has already been developed about their character and behavior that few will conclude that they were anything less than colossal pricks. And no one needs to see their penises for that.

JULY 2019 IGNOMINIOUS ABSURDITY OF THE MONTH: THE IGGY

1.  Montana GOP Representative Greg Gianforte.  Gianforte announced this month that he was giving up his seat in the House to run for governor of Montana against Democratic incumbent Steve Bullock (I’m going out on a limb in assuming Bullock won’t become President). Yes, this is the same Gianforte that back in 2015 in a speech to the Montana Bible College poo pooed the concept of retirement by invoking Noah—yea, the Noah. The Huffington Post captured a transcript:

"There's nothing in the Bible that talks about retirement. And yet it's been an accepted concept in our culture today. Nowhere does it say, 'Well, he was a good and faithful servant, so he went to the beach.' It doesn't say that anywhere…. "The example I think of is Noah. How old was Noah when he built the ark? 600. He wasn't like, cashing Social Security checks, he wasn't hanging out, he was working. So, I think we have an obligation to work. The role we have in work may change over time, but the concept of retirement is not biblical."

Just think, if Gianforte wins the governorship, he could rule for the next 550 years! Let’s hope, though, that Montana voters supersede the Bible and retire the moronic bible pumper before he sets foot in the governor mansion.  No disrespect for Noah intended.

TRUMP’S INHUMANITY AND IGNORANCE ON CLEAR DISPLAY

I know, I promised to refrain from posting anything about Donald Trump.  After all, what can be said that hasn't already about the lying, malignant narcissist?  Besides, the last thing he needs is more attention. The following commentary by NY Times columnist Roger Cohen, however, has moved me to make an exception.  In a few short, revealing words, Cohen paints a  spot-on picture  of Trump the man. It got my blood boiling.

Several less than perfect persons have occupied the White House.  Ours is an imperfect system; a few bad apples are inevitable.  But I will venture to say that the American presidency has never been so dishonored as it has been by Donald Trump.  It's not just that the self-absorbed dirtbag is an embarrassment to everything America is supposed to stand for, after all we've been led by a number of presidents who have strayed from our ideals, but it's hard to reach back in history and find a president whose deceit and downright evilness has caused so much damage to our values, our democracy, and to so much of humanity, at home and abroad. We've endured evildoer presidents in the past (Nixon comes to mind), and have managed to transcend the damage, but I'm sorry to say I'm not sure we will ever recover from the Trump presidency, especially if he wins  reelection, which is shockingly possible, if not likely.

I know Americans are a resilient people, we've overcome many hardships and adversities, and risen to  great challenges.  I'm encouraged by the empowerment of women, young people, and progressive energies alive at the grassroots, but I'm not sure this will be enough to overcome the Trump effect.  (Apologies for my cynicism; I hope you have not become similarly afflicted.)  Donald Trump is a product of a white nationalist, fact-adverse populism that has been brewing for decades.  It is now deeply entrenched in our political institutions and a large segment of our national culture.  This means progressive-thinking people need to overcome not just the man, but the roots that produced, and continue to sustain, his ignominious rule, a Herculean task, indeed.

If you value humanity, I trust the following Cohen commentary will summon raw emotions similar to mine.  If you're a Trump supporter, or one of his shameless Republican congressional lapdogs, I suspect you'll see nothing wrong with the president's frank indifference to Nadia Murad's story-- or, for that matter, to his general lack of empathy for human suffering.  Hell, you might even celebrate it.  Such is as it is in the Trump's world. 

I hope the Cohen post inspires a dialogue, and hopefully a personal response.

Ronald T. Fox

JUNE 2019 IGNOMINIOUS ABSURDITY OF THE MONTH: THE IGGY

1. Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Fellow Military Hawks. Senator Cruz joined the hawk bandwagon in calling for the creation of a Space Force, except Cruz one-upped them all in offering an ignominious line of reasoning. To get the full effect of the Cruz absurdity, you need to experience it with the full pomposity with which Republican he brought this dire warning to the Senate Armed Services Committee.

“Since the ancient Greeks first put to sea,” said Cruz, “nations have recognized the necessity of naval forces and maintaining a superior capability to protect waterborne travel and commerce from bad actors. Pirates threaten the open seas, and the same is possible in space.”

No. No, it is not possible. Poor Somalis, living in chaos and an economic system that runs on bullets, may board rubber dinghies to assault tankers off their coast. No one, no one, is or will be cobbling together a backyard rocket to buckle their swash in space.

Cruz went on: “In this same way,” he said, “I believe we too must now recognize the necessity of a Space Force to defend the nation and to protect space commerce and civil space exploration.”

At other points in Cruz’s complete speech, he discusses how a Space Force may be needed to protect America in “asteroid mining in which a small asteroid could contain rare materials such as platinum worth billions.” Which seems to overlook a few things.

First, we’re not doing any asteroid mining. We’re not going to be doing any asteroid mining for decades, at best. Second, anyone with the technology to be a pirate against asteroid miners could just mine their own asteroid. Third, the material from asteroids only has value if there is somewhere to sell it; you can’t, shockingly, smuggle an asteroid back to Earth for easy sale at the local bodega.

But hey, screw facts. Ted Cruz is on the floor of the Senate, demanding billions to fight space pirates. That is where we are.

Not only is a Space Force an unneeded boondoggle, it promises to bring consequences that will prove costly to our national and domestic security. It will add fuel to interservice rivalries, bloat the defense budget, impose mind-boggling bureaucratic hurdles, undermine the capacity of our military forces to operate with any sense of coordination, and compromise domestic spending priorities which will bear the burden of expanded defense spending. Been there done that. Think back when the Air Force split off from the Army Air Corp after World War II. How did that work out? Each service developed their own priorities, which don’t always square well with combat effectiveness. Think of the low priority the Air Force attaches to close ground support for our troops—not something they relish, as our troops, as well as advocates for the highly effective A-10 Warthog, have sadly learned.

But wait, another independent service will mean more defense spending, which should make the military-industrial complex salivate. Therein lies the crux.

Cruz points out that nations such as China have developed satellite-killing technology, but those are essentially missiles launched from the Earth. We have them as well. It’s not clear how any “space force” would help with this situation in any way. You can’t sneak up on someone in space. You can’t dash out from the nearest shoreline, make a quick hit, and return.

There are no space pirates. Unfortunately, there is a Ted Cruz.

MAY 2019 IGNOMINIOUS ABSURDITY OF THE MONTH: THE IGGY

The forced-birthers are picking up steam. With God on their side, how can they lose? Here’s a couple samplings:

1. Michigan State Senator Kim LaSata. Everyone knows that God hates women who get abortions. In fact, one of the earliest books in the Hebrew Bible—Numbers—has a “pleasant” story about God’s priests giving women a special “potion” that would induce an abortion. According to the Bible, it was a punishment for adultery. So, abortion is OK if God wants it done to punish women.

Michigan state Sen. LaSata doesn’t read those kinds of bibles. She reads her own special bible and has big thoughts and feelings about what God wants. She and other forced-birther zealots in the Michigan state legislature have been trying to get their own abortion ban through.

With Alabama’s decision to outlaw abortions in virtually all cases, forced-birther types like Sen. LaSata want everyone to know that they are overjoyed by their victory in protecting the “sanctity of life.” The Detroit Free Press explains that during examination of medical experts, LaSata became angry after testimony that by banning standard second-trimester procedures for abortion, the Michigan legislature would be putting women into painful and dangerous scenarios. Sen. LaSata’s response was the kind of Jesus-empathizing you might expect from a good Christian like herself:

“Of course, it should be hard! And the procedure should be painful! And you should allow God to take over!! And you should deliver that baby!"

LaSata has talked about her own personal abortion story, where she attempted to get an abortion, it didn’t work, and she ended up giving birth to a stillborn baby. She called the experience an intervention by God, forcing her to go through with what must have been a truly emotional and physically brutal experience.

It seems that what LaSata wants is for other women to experience, regardless of the situation, the trauma she experienced. In her mind, based on her words, she thinks that God did that to her so other women should get to experience God’s work in the same way. Bring on the pain.

APRIL 2019 IGNOMINIOUS ABSURDITY OF THE MONTH: THE IGGY

1. The Texas State Legislature. The Texas secretary of state’s recent effort to target non-citizens for voting illegally was a giant mess—of 95,000 names flagged as non-citizens who had registered to vote, it turned out that thousands had become citizens before registering, and were doing absolutely nothing wrong. The state faces lawsuits over the effort to demonize immigrants, but that’s not stopping Texas Republicans from doubling down. Two bills in the Texas state Senate would force local voter registrars to strip their voting rolls of everyone who had at any point said they weren’t a citizen.

Under the Republican bills, people who had recently become citizens and registered to vote—as is their right—would have that right taken away without being notified so that they could set things straight. And voter registrars who failed to kick a group of mostly legal voters off the rolls would face penalties and possible removal from office.

Not that we needed any further evidence of how much Republicans want to suppress voting, but wow. Immediately after a list of supposed illegal voters was shown to be overwhelmingly a list of legal voters, Republicans are moving to use the same standard to disenfranchise voters without warning or recourse. They’re evil, they’re desperate … and they might prevent a lot of people from voting.

FEBRUARY 2019 IGNOMINIOUS ABUSRDITY OF THE MONTH: THE IGGY

1. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. Graham is suddenly very concerned about due process and how suspects are taken into custody by law enforcement. That’s why he’s now demanding answers from the FBI about the arrest of former Trump political adviser Roger Stone. The South Carolina senator is leading a one-man pity party for Stone, insisting the agency address why it was necessary to have so many agents arrest Stone at his home in the early morning hours on Friday, Jan. 25.

In a letter to FBI director Christopher Wray dated Jan. 30, Graham asks (among other things) why Stone was simply not permitted to surrender himself voluntarily. He also asks if anyone at the FBI, Department of Justice, or the special counsel’s office alerted the media, specifically CNN. This is all because Stone’s arrest was caught on video and the incredible image of FBI agents knocking on the door of an adviser to the American president won’t soon be forgotten.

Republicans are trying their best to make this some kind of conspiracy where Stone is the victim of an out-of-control investigation by Democrats who just want to oust Trump. But facts are facts: No one made Roger Stone get involved in criminal activity on behalf of a corrupt and unfit president. He’s being charged with seven federal counts, which range from witness tampering to obstruction of justice. This is serious business, and none of us should feel bad for the way his arrest went down.

He got treated just like the millions of regular people across the country when they get arrested and don’t have money, power, and political influence. In a nation where inequality increases daily and money allows people to do whatever they want, consequences be damned, there is something a little bit democratic about the way Stone got nailed by an FBI SWAT team while he was still in his pajamas.

Where’s Graham’s outrage for the many people who are arrested or killed without due process? What about Walter Scott, Graham’s fellow South Carolinian, who was gunned down in 2015 by a North Charleston police officer, shot in the back as he was running away after a traffic stop? What about all the unarmed black and brown people who don’t receive just treatment by police? Did Graham demand answers from the Cleveland Police when they shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice within two seconds of arriving to a park because he was playing with a toy gun? It seems as if Graham’s passion for justice only emerges when rich friends of his president are in big legal trouble.

Just a reminder: Even though the charges against him are serious, Roger Stone was released on bail the very same day he was arrested. He was not allowed to surrender himself to the FBI because investigators were concerned that he would tamper with evidence. But he was still released on a $250,000 bond (that’s it!) and made the conservative media rounds later that day to proclaim his innocence. Even though Graham and Republicans want us to believe that the FBI was needlessly inappropriate and harsh with Stone, his arrest and release point out one thing quite clearly: If you have to get arrested at all, it’s you better be a rich, old, white dude.

MARCH 2019 IGNOMINIOUS ABSURDIRTY OF THE MONTH: THE IGGY

1. Senator Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota). Say what? According to Rounds, Donald Trump having an affair with Stormy Daniels—shortly after his youngest child was born—and then paying her hush money to keep the story under wraps before the election, is okay in his book because it just proves that Trump really, really loves his family:

“I honestly think this president loves his family … I think it has as much to do with trying not to have public discussions about something that is, for him, a private matter … and I don’t think he wanted his family to go through this.”

Some might suggest that Trump could have better proven his love of family by not having an affair with a porn star—again, shortly after his youngest child was born—but hey, who can argue with a family values guy like Mike Rounds? Of course, one does wonder if Mrs. Rounds is somewhere thinking, “If Mike loves me that much, I’ll kill him.”

MY SOCIAL AND POLITICAL AWAKENING: A SPECIAL THANKS TO SYDNEY VERBA AND BIRCH BAYH

By Ronald T. Fox

 

My Social and Political Awakening

I read in the March 18 New York Times that two men who were importantly responsible for my political awakening and the development of my thinking about government and politics had passed away. One was political scientist Sydney Verba and the other Indiana Senator Birch Bayh. Their passing moved me to reminisce about their roles in my intellectual and political maturation.

JANUARY 2019 IGNOMINIOUS ABSURDITY OF THE MONTH: THE IGGY

1. Fox News. Fox News has been a shameful apologist in its responses to the Trump Administration’s inhumane immigration policies on the Mexican border. With Americans being exposed to images of small children being stripped from their parents and held in caged-in detention centers, Fox has been steadfast in downplaying the cruelty and blaming, of course, Democrats for the inhumanity.

As we approach the new year, here’s a brief round-up of the more callous, hateful, embarrassing and downright jaw-dropping moments the entire Fox line-up has shoved to viewers throughout the year. Buckle up and ride this embarrassing wave until the end.

Fox has been consistent in contending that the children aren’t really being kept in cages. You see, they “are merely chain-link walls” to create rooms.  Small rooms, but hey! Definitely not cages! Back in June, Tucker Carlson summed it up:

"No matter what they tell you, this isn't about helping children. A lot of people yelling at you on TV don't even have kids, so don't for a second let them take moral high ground. Their goal is to change your country forever."

And with no irony detected whatsoever, Carlson’s guest, acting ICE Director Thomas Homan said the comparison to Nazis is unfair because “they are simply enforcing laws enacted by Congress.”

But, nothing, and I mean NOTHING could top The Ingraham Angle with host Laura Ingraham and special guest, Attorney General Jeff Sessions. First up, Laura Ingraham laughed off the suggestion that tearing kids, including babies, from their parents and sticking them in cages inside a former Walmart amounted to child abuse. Ingraham wanted her audience to know, these child prisons are “essentially summer camps!”

What the hell kind of summer camp does Laura Ingraham send her kids to? We have one working as a summer camp counselor right now and you know what they are doing? Zip lining, learning how to care for animals, doing craft projects, creating variety show skits and making s’mores over a campfire.

But, my God, nothing could prepare us for what came next on Ingraham’s show. Attorney General Jeff Sessions joined Ingraham to beat back the growing, legitimate comparisons between the concentration camps of Germany and these border facilities and the indefinite lock-up of migrants. Hitler whipped up nationalism using many of these same techniques, scapegoating Jewish people and immigrants. So, how did Sessions bat down these comparisons? By claiming they are nothing like the Nazis because Hitler wouldn’t let the Jews leave Germany.

In the last week of December, Fox excused ICE’s anti-immigrant actions when it featured New York’s jackass Representative Peter King saying:

“They’ve had hundreds of thousands of people that they had custody of over the years and I think these are the only two children that have died in recent memory.”

That’s right, he thinks it’s ONLY two dead kids. And, they weren’t even white kids. And besides, King points out, it “does happen in housing projects across the country” all the time. Which also sounds like dog whistle for “other kids who aren’t white, so who cares?”

What is wrong with these people? Where were they radicalized to be so cruel and inhumane? Every action they take is more deplorable than the last. It is past time for Congress to start acting as the check and balance they were intended to be. The need to find their spines. If they don’t, let’s hope American voters send them to the unemployment lines. In the meantime, pick up the phone and call your elected representatives today to demand this policy end and these children are reunited with their parents.

TRUMP’S DEBASED PRESIDENCY

By Ronald T. Fox

We’ve” endured” two years of the Donald Trump presidency. I put endured in quotes since the damage he has caused to our democracy, fundamental norms and global standing has not yet fully played out. Things could get far worse.  I can't help wonder whether American democracy, as we've come to know it, will survive the Trump onslaught.  

Trump’s incessant attacks on human rights, freedom of the press and speech, honesty in government, public health and safety and the rule of law, has seriously degraded the quality of democratic life in America. In addition, his attacks on our closest allies, while embracing brutal foreign demagogues, and his abandonment of long-standing international treaties and agreements have severely tarnished America’s international standing as a bastion of democratic rule and leader of the free world. His manipulations of fear and hate has widened political divisions to levels not seen since the Civil War.

Two-thousand eighteen finds him reeling from what he has wrought. Slumbering Americans may finally be waking up to the Trump ship wreck, at least let’s hope so.

One of the best summations of Trump’s 2018 was published in the Opinion Section of the December 24, Sacramento Bee, written by the progressive thinker and activist, Sasha Abramsky. For over three decades, Abramsky has been a tireless advocate for social justice. He pulls few punches in his extensive writings lambasting compromises made with our cherished democratic norms. His latest book, Jumping at Shadows: The Triumph of Fear and the End of the American Dream, offers a personal, beautifully written and compelling exploration of the rise, and consequences, of irrational public fear, which he connects to our toxic politics and susceptibility to demagogic messages. It is a primer on the rise of Trumpism and where we may be heading if we don’t confront irrational fear.

I’m posting Abramsky’s opinion piece on Trump’s second year in office. It hits the proverbial nail on the head.

DECEMBER 2018 IGNOMINIOUS ABSURDITY OF THE MONTH: THE IGGY

1. Republican Lawmakers in Michigan and Wisconsin. Two years ago, Republicans in North Carolina undertook a brazen power grab after their nominee — the sitting governor — lost re-election by deciding to weaken the governor’s office. The state legislature passed two bills stripping the governor of some powers, and the outgoing governor, Pat McCrory, signed them.

In doing so, McCrory and his allies rejected the peaceful transfer of power that is essential to democracy. They instead chose the peaceful transfer of some power.

In 2018, it became clear that this problem extended beyond North Carolina. Republicans in Michigan and Wisconsin are now following a similar script to protect partisan GOP power. Let’s see: