JANUARY 2023 IGNOMINIOUS ABSURDITY OF THE MONTH: THE IGGY

1. Representative Elise Stefanik (R-NY). Stefanik has gone too far in pursuing her ambitions. It did not have to be this way. But she doubled down where better politicians would have laid low. And now — as she nears the pinnacle of power — she has sown the seeds of her destruction. In one disastrously short-sighted play, she has remained silent on George Santos.

We should not be surprised. Stefanik has no spine. Nor any core beliefs or values. She has become the most cynical of Republican politicians since she made the political calculus that throwing all-in with Trump would grease her skids to power. So far, it has worked like a charm. She is Chair of the House Republican Conference (#3 in the GOP House hierarchy) and days away from being a senior member of the majority party. It is a position she worked hard for and achieved by burning down at least as many political bridges as she built. And it required a sea change in her philosophy.

Stefanik entered Congress in January 2015 as the youngest female member to date. She was not then a MAGA. Instead, she was cut from Northeastern Republican cloth. A Harvard graduate, she worked for Paul Ryan before holding office and became his protégé in Congress.

Vocal in criticism of Trump’s lies during his 2015-16 campaign, she had a solid in with the sane center of the Republican party. And she could have been the standard-bearer for forward-looking conservatism before the noxious miasma of Trumpism grabbed control of the Republican Party.

Sadly, her moderation did not last. After Trump won in 2016, she cast her lot with the orange malevolence and became a Trump groupie. It got so extreme that in a press conference in May 2022, she declared,

"I am ultra-MAGA, and I'm proud of it."

Her public adoration for Trump has grown since she supported him in his first impeachment by the House in 2019. The GOP selected her to be on his defense team during the 2020 impeachment trial in the Senate. As she simpered about it in a press release,

“I am honored to be named by President Trump as a Member of his Impeachment Defense Team. I am proud to stand up for the Constitution, my constituents in New York’s 21st District, and the American people’s vote.”

Like so many Republicans, Stefanik believes that because she won a majority in one rural upstate district, she speaks for all American voters. Although she made a mockery of that loyalty to the voter when she signed on to Trump’s election fraud lie. Saying things like,

"More than 140,000 votes came from underage, deceased, and otherwise unauthorized voters" in Fulton County, GA. 

This was far from her only fact-free, court-dismissed claims. She enumerated a laundry list in an open letter to her hometown newspaper, The Sun. Another local newspaper, the Times Record, swatted them away in an analysis, under the title, “Fact check: Stefanik's defense includes rejected legal claims, debunked theories”.

Stefanik made her most ridiculous claim in May 2021 when she called Trump the "strongest supporter of any president when it comes to standing up for the Constitution." Trump put paid to her hagiographic excess when he posted on Truth Social,

“Do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION? A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.”

Political pundits believe that Stefanik’s political idolatry is a maneuver to promote her as a candidate for Trump’s running mate in 2024. Why? She is 38. If she attaches herself to Trump — a piece of foolishness that has cost many a political career — she will be a has-been loser by 40.

Not that she has much future in the House. The GOP has declared it will launch two years of Bengahzi-style kamikaze investigations into the Bidens, Fauci, DoJ, FBI, and every other acronym in the administration. They will expose themselves as idea-free, rabid dogs raging over imaginary bones while the independent voter will wonder what the GOP’s policies are and why they do not change their medication.

She is so spineless. If she thinks Santos has done nothing wrong or at least deserves a chance, where is her support? Her silence is not the act of a good teammate. On the other hand, if she thinks his lies have fatally compromised him, then where is her condemnation? She is not a politician scared to say dumb things. Why is she mute now?

And worst for her, her groveling solicitation of Trump’s political affections has been sneered at by the object of her esteem. Talk of her being Trump's running mate has, the New York Times reports, engendered "bemusement."  After all, he may have Marj Taylor Green on the mind.

NUCLEAR MADNESS CONTINUES: LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL

Northrup Grumman's B-21 Raider Stealth Bomber

By Ronald T. Fox

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin went to the Northrup Grumman plant in California to “unveil” the latest super weapon, guaranteed to deter any aggressor foolish enough to fuck with the US. In what looked like a Hollywood set, with Grumman workers and Austin chanting USA! USA! the Defense Secretary introduced the ultra-secret B-21 Raider stealth bomber. What such grandiose spectacles never do, and I've watched or read about dozens over the last four plus decades, is give specifics about how the new state-of-the-art weapon will make us safer.  This is because they invariably spark enemy countermeasures, making any advantage gained only temporary, if that. Modernized nuclear munitions have never advanced our national security; more correctly, they push us closer to Armageddon.