JULY 2021 IGNOMINIOUS ABSURDITY OF THE MONTH: THE IGGY

The recent spike in Covid delta variant cases, and associated deaths, and continued refusal of many Republican faithful to get vaccinated, dominated the July news cycle. At the risk of kicking a dead horse in the mouth, I will confine the July nominations to GOP absurdities on the subject.

NOTE: Also, as you will notice the presence of some frequent IGGY candidates, perhaps it is time, as one Phronesis reader suggested, to retire some of these repeating absurdists to the Ignominious Absurdity Hall-of-Shame, thus joining original inductee Donald Trump. Expect a new induction ceremony in the near future. If you have any IGGY HOS recommendations, please let me know.

1. Tennessee Republican Lawmakers. Ever wondered how far the GQP will push the limits of anti-science?  Look no further than the state of Tennessee.  Straight from the files of “you can’t make this up,” some Republican lawmakers were so aghast at commercials encouraging children to get Covid vaccines (which is a great idea, by the way, of addressing the low vaccine rates we are still struggling with), that they are saying we should just cancel the Health Department.

Some Tennessee Republican lawmakers accused the Tennessee Department of Health of "guilt-tripping" kids to take the Covid-19 vaccine. Rep. Scott Cepicky, (R) Culleoka, motioned to "dissolve" the department altogether over the accusations.

Cepicky said the department's vaccine campaigns featuring children "peer pressure" them into taking the vaccine.

"When you have advertisements like this with a young girl with a patch on her arm all smiling, we know how impressionable our young people are and wanting to fit in in life," Cepicky said.

How terrible!  It’s bad enough teens have to fend off aggressive advertising from tobacco, alcohol, vapes, and big pharma, now we are taunting them with lifesaving, pandemic-busting vaccines!

At the source of this conflict (allegedly) is the state’s “Mature Minor Doctrine” allowing health care providers to treat children age 14+ without parental consent.  These advertisements may brainwash teens into getting health care against the wishes of their science-denying parents!  The horror!

The worst part?  This wasn’t just some off-the-cuff comment that will be ignored and forgotten.  The issue is scheduled to be brought back up in July.  Republicans have a strangle-hold on the state, and so far, only democrats and health officials have spoken up in opposition to the plan.

It may be time for us to move.

PART II. WHY DID THE JAPANESE SURRENDER?

By Ronald T. Fox

WHY DID THE JAPANESE SURRENDER?

It is conventional wisdom that the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, along with Truman’s threat to launch a “reign of ruin” on Japan the likes of which the world had never seen, forced the Japanese Supreme Council (consisting of the six top members of the government—The Big Six) to accept the Potsdam Declaration demanding its “unconditional surrender.” Assessing the validity of this claim requires looking at the war situation from Japan’s perspective. Were the atomic bombings, and the threat of more to come, the main reason Japan’s Supreme Council decided to surrender? To answer this question, it is necessary to examine the timing of the surrender decision as well as how the top Japanese political and military leaders saw their strategic options in August of 1945.

JUNE 2021 IGNOMINIOUS ABSURDITY OF THE MONTH: THE IGGY

1. Pardoned Dirtbag Michael Flynn. Over the weekend, the now-pardoned traitor Michael Flynn appeared at a QAnon-themed event in Dallas, Texas, where he once again seemed to support the notion of a violent pro-Trump rebellion to topple the government. This was met with approval by the Trump-supporting crowd. The movement of oft-delusional conspiracy theory promoters is well represented among the seditionists who staged the Jan. 6 insurrection.  Those still demanding that individual state electoral totals be nullified because of unspecified frauds, believe that the entire election was a scam or undercover front and actually Trump is still the legitimate president. They point to an August date when Trump will drive his gilded golf cart back onto the White House grounds, arrest Joe Biden, and begins mass executions of all those who doubted him. Or something to that effect.

Yes, Michael Flynn may have been caught dead to rights in acting as influence-peddler for foreign government while moonlighting as Trump adviser—which, among Trump's many advisers, now seems to have been the most common single occupation—but now that Trump's freed him from his criminal past he appears to believe it is time for a good, old-fashioned coup. That's what he told the Q crowd, anyway.

A self-identified "Marine" in the audience posed the question, "I want to know why what happened in Minamar[sic] can't happen here?", a reference to the recent military coup in Myanmar that has been promoted in Trump-supporting circles as a playbook for reinstalling Trump as president in this country.

"No reason. I mean, it should happen here. No Reason. That's right," Flynn replied.

After video of these remarks exploded through the internet, the ex-national security adviser once again bizarrely attempted to claim that he specifically did not say the specific thing he was filmed saying. "There is NO reason whatsoever for any coup in America, and I do not and have not called for any action of that sort," he bellowed.

As the Washington Post’s Aaron Blake points out, this has become a routine for Flynn. He says something clearly supportive of martial law, an overthrow of government, or the QAnon movement itself, it gains national attention, and he or an ally responds by claiming he never meant the thing and you're all fake news for thinking he did. Flynn, however, is a liar through-and-through. He was ostensibly fired from his White House position in the first place for lying to federal investigators and to American Jesus Mike Pence. He's not good at it.  Like Trump, he simply gaslights his audiences with toddleresque claims that whatever you saw happening didn't. If you're a believer you'll go along with it, and if you're not then he doesn't care.

Flynn appears to be fully off the rails. It's not clear that he himself knows what he believes and what he doesn't, but he seems utterly unconcerned with the violence that he and his allies have already unleashed. Instead, those in Trump's orbit seem intent on pushing for more. You probably won't see Michael Flynn on the front lines of whatever new violence comes after the Jan. 6 insurrection, but at the conferences and meet-ups that validate those violent views, he continues to poke and prod for it.