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.