DECEMBER 2019 IGNOMINIOUS ABSURDITY OF THE MONTH: THE IGGY

1. Minnesota Republican Candidate Danielle Stella. Stella, a congressional candidate for vying for Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar’s 5^th congressional seat, seems to think the route to victory requires triggering language and death suggestions. In two vile tweets, Stella referenced an unfounded rumor that Qatari officials had recruited Omar, the first Somali American elected to Congress and the first to wear a hijab, the Post reported.
“If it is proven [that Omar] passed sensitive info to Iran, she should be tried for treason and hanged.,” Stella tweeted. She followed with a tweet sharing a blog post link about her thoughtless statement and a photo of a stick-figure being hanged.

In an even classier move, Stella went on to defend the tweets Friday on Facebook.

”There are MANY hypocrites rage posting here. Breathe, think this through, logically,” Stella said in the post. “To clarify, I said, ‘If it is proven ____ passed sensitive info to Iran, she should be tried for #treason and hanged.’” Because this is logical to someone actually entrusted with teaching students, the special education teacher went on to explain the statement. “Treason is the only thing mentioned in the constitution for the death penalty, punishable by hanging or firing squad. I believe all involved should be thoroughly investigated,” Stella said. “I did not threaten anyone. If you are calling it a threat- you believe that individual is guilty, and therefore it is not a threat, it's treason. You and the fake news #MSM are lying by calling it lynching or terroristic threats.”

It’s like there is an outline these Donald Trump aficionados refer back to in crafting these statements: First, spew dog-whistle racism. Then, blame the media. Next, falsely accuse any dissenters. Deny, deny, deny, and cry victim.

Stella didn’t vary from the script in the least bit.

“I believe all traitors to our Country need to be tried for their many crimes,” she said. “I've been outspoken about HRC crime family, BH0, S0R0S and others as well. You are making this into something it's not.” “You are making it about race, about religion, about anything but the truth,” the educator added. “While doing so, you are sending heinous comments, actual death threats, threats of bodily harm, threats to my friends, supporters, threats to post private photos, insulting/attacking my religion, intelligence, race, gender, mental health, physical health, appearance, labeling me with many disorders and diagnoses, and using very non-PC language to do so.”

Insert more tears.

“What you're doing is reprehensible and speaks to your flawed souls and damaged psyches,” Stella said. “The only death threats I'm seeing is from the angry liberal mob where facts don't matter, only emotion, and you're somehow thinking you're righteous by threatening my life, my supporters' lives, my loved ones lives?  No, this is wrong. You are hypocrites. The angry liberal mob does this frequently to our President Donald J. Trump and his family, and never are held accountable for your hatred, your violence, your many threats, or heinous posts like Kathy Griffin.”

Stella ended her rant with “#UnitedWeStand #ForGodAndCountry #FightForUS.”

Her inflammatory remarks got Stella’s accounts banned from Twitter. Let’s hope voters scuttle her quest for public office and return her to a private life where she must deal with a felony shoplifting charge for allegedly taking 279 items worth more than $2,300 from a Target Store.

As is her above-the-fray style, Omar kept her response brief and on-message, tweeting: “This is the natural result of a political environment where anti-Muslim dogwhistles and dehumanization are normalized by an entire political party and its media outlets,” Omar said, “Violent rhetoric inevitably leads to violent threats, and ultimately, violent acts.”

Let's see, President Trump damaged American national interests when he held up military assistance to Ukraine, abandoned our Kurdish allies in Syria, cancelled the nuclear agreement with Iran, pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement. and has acted as a Putin stooge.  Talk about treason; hang him!

2. GOP Leaders in the Kentucky Legislature. The Republican legislative leaders are pushing a bill that would effectively remove Democratic Gov.-elect Andy Beshear’s control over the state’s Department of Transportation, the latest move in an accelerating trend of Republicans stripping power from Democratic governors before they can take office.

The legislation would limit the governor to nominating a transportation secretary from a list chosen by a new board whose nine members would be selected by the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and local government associations, with those members subject to a veto by the Republican-run legislature. Lawmakers would also have veto power over Beshear’s nominee, making this the only cabinet position in the state requiring Senate confirmation.

This bill would therefore hand over control of a key government post to moneyed corporate interests, and with Republicans firmly in charge of the legislature, it can become law even if Beshear were to veto it. Only intervention by the courts could stop it.

This power grab comes after top Republicans floated the idea of using an obscure constitutional provision to steal the Nov. 5 election for Republican Governor Matt Bevin, who made unsupported claims of "irregularities" in the vote. Republicans backed off on that ploy amid a public backlash, but they've now set their sights on weakening the governor’s office instead.

It also follows similar lame-duck maneuvers by Republican legislators in Michigan and Wisconsin in 2018 and North Carolina in 2016—all of which came only after the GOP lost elections for governor in each state. These schemes amount to a refusal on the part of Republicans to acknowledge that Democrats are a legitimate opposition party entitled to govern when they win elections.

This is an ominous trend, and one that could rear its head at a level far above state politics. Prior to the 2016 elections, Donald Trump refused to say he would honor the results if he lost, and ever since, he’s repeatedly claimed without any evidence that widespread voter fraud cost him the popular vote. The GOP establishment has given its full support to these power grabs in the states.

Don’t be shocked if Trump rejects a legitimate election loss in 2020and refuses to leave office in 2021, with his Republican lapdogs righteously defending his refusal. Stay tuned on this.

3. Wisconsin Judge Paul Malloy. Malloy has ordered the purge of over 200,000 names from the state’s voter rolls. More than 90% of those names are not in the county where the judge presides. In fact, the number of names the judge ordered stricken is over twice the whole population of his county.

As reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Judge Malloy acted on a request from just three voters who were backed by a conservative organization, while ignoring both the state election commissions and the League of Women Voters, neither of which were allowed to testify. The center of the case was a letter that the elections commissions sent out to voters it believes may have moved. However, that letter was sent only a month earlier, and the elections commission intended to give voters until 2021 to correct any information.

But Malloy didn’t give the commission, or the voters, that chance. Instead, he ordered the names removed in advance of the next election. To get an idea of how big a deal that is, Donald Trump won the state of Wisconsin by just 23,000 votes. In fact, it’s that kind of margin that has Republicans out hunting for cases like this in which they can make it impossible for everyone to vote.

In fact, Malloy seems to have done even more than the conservative group “Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty” asked. The original request was for an injunction requiring election officials to remove voters who had not responded in 30 days. Instead, Malloy issued a “writ of mandamus” ordering the purge and threatening any election commissioner who refused to cooperate.

Malloy’s action was not accidental. Wisconsin was targeted, not because of the complaint by three local voters, but because a national conservative voter-purge organization, ERIC, targeted the state as an easy mark. Malloy also wasn’t an accident. The case was filed in his court specifically because he was appointed by former Republican Governor Scott McCallum and had a record of conservative rulings.

Wisconsin’s voter suppression move is just one of a series of similar assaults that are underway.

4. Georgia Councilman Jim Cleveland. In defending Hoschton city mayor Teresa Kenerly admission that she snuffed a clack job candidate’s chances because of his race, Cleveland defended her by admitting he couldn't stomach seeing blacks with whites together on television. According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Cleveland said: "Makes my blood boil because that's just not the way a Christian is supposed to live."

He went on to explain his beliefs: “I understood where she was coming from,” Cleveland told the AJC. “I understand Theresa saying that, simply because we’re not Atlanta. Things are different here than they are 50 miles down the road.”

He’s since resigned, saying Tuesday that he would rather quit on his own terms than face voters in a recall election next month. “I’m not going to give them the pleasure of saying they recalled Mr. Cleveland,” he told the paper.

City Attorney Thomas Mitchell read the councilman’s handwritten resignation letter at a special council meeting the next day, according to Fox 5 Atlanta. “Effective today, December 10, 2019, I, Jim Cleveland, do hereby tender my resignation,” Mitchell said, reading the letter.

Meanwhile, don’t think this means Cleveland has changed his mind about interracial marriage. He didn’t even pretend to backtrack yet still contended last month with Fox 5 that he’s not a racist. “I still don’t believe it’s a good idea for whites and blacks to marry but I am as antiracist as anybody,” Cleveland said.

While Atlanta may have come to some enlightenment about race, having recently elected a black mayor, most of the rest of Georgia remains entrenched in Jim Crow thinking, as is, I’m sorry to say, much of the Republican faithful. Trump, of course, is “as antiracist as anybody,” but perhaps Jim Cleveland.
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And the winner is:

All these ignominies are so egregious, I honestly cannot decide who deserves the December IGGY. Really, they’re all worthy. So, rather than try to decide on a “least of evils,” I leave it to Phronesis readers to pick your favorite (specify in the “comments,” below). The December winner awaits tabulation of the results.