MARCH 2024 IGNOMINIOUS ABSURDITY OF THE MONTH: THE IGGY

1. Alabama Supreme Court. The Alabama Supreme Court, in its ultimate wisdom, ruled this month that frozen embryos are the legal equivalent of children. This has caused Alabama’s largest hospital to pause in vitro fertilization treatments for fear of criminal prosecution. Other fertility treatment providers in the state were continuing to provide IVF as lawyers explored the impact of the ruling.

“Unborn children are ‘children’ ... without exception based on developmental stage, physical location, or any other ancillary characteristics,” Justice Jay Mitchell wrote in Friday’s majority ruling by the all-Republican court.

The ruling prompted a wave of concern about the future of IVF treatments in the state and the potential unintended consequences of extreme anti-abortion laws in Republican-controlled states. Patients called clinics to see if scheduled IVF treatments would continue. And providers consulted with attorneys.

Justices — citing language in the Alabama Constitution that the state recognizes the “rights of the unborn child” — said couples could sue for wrongful death when their frozen embryos were destroyed in a accident at a storage facility.

Mitchell said the court had previously ruled that a fetus killed when a woman is pregnant is covered under Alabama’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act and nothing excludes “extrauterine children from the Act’s coverage.”

The ruling brought a rush of warnings about the potential impact on fertility treatments and the freezing of embryos, which had previously been considered property by the courts. Groups representing both IVF treatment providers and patients seeking fertility treatments raises questions for providers and patients, including if they can freeze future embryos created during fertility treatment or if patients could ever donate or destroy unused embryos.

The Alabama Supreme Court decision partly hinged on anti-abortion language added to the Alabama Constitution in 2018, stating it is the “policy of this state to ensure the protection of the rights of the unborn child,” an amendment that its opponents warned was essentially a personhood measure that could give rights to fertilized eggs. Well, that time has come.

2. US Senator Rick Scott. The medical fraudster is doing his bit for the destruction of liberal democracy, claiming that he’d vote for insurrectionist, self-described grabber of crotches, and judge described sexual assaulter, business fraudster, top secret documents thief, and semi-ambulant absurdity Donald Trump—even if Trump is convicted of a crime.

The Republican Party, which once swaddled itself in principled opposition to Soviet aggression, has become a wholly owned subsidiary of Vladimir Putin’s vodka- and evil-marinated brain, and all Putin had to do was compromise one debauched reality TV star. Normally you have to buy a $325 Cameo to get Rudy Giuliani to do embarrassing tricks for you, but Putin got his services for free.

Watching old-guard Republicans morph into humiliated wads of protoplasm in utter thrall to a Flamin’ Hot Cheeto Demon would be really effing funny if the stakes for Western democracy weren’t so damn high.

In an impromptu interview with CNN’s Manu Raju, Scott said he’d “absolutely” support Trump as the party’s nominee, even if he’s convicted in one or more of the four felony cases he currently faces.

And Sen. Scott—who, again, was responsible for the worst Medicare frauds in history--is standing by his answer. After all, even if the GOP nominated Nikki Haley, surely Democrats would dredge up something on her that’s equally as picayune as Trump’s deadly attempted coup, 91 felony charges, global business fraud judgement, massive defamation/sexual abuse judgement, wholesale betrayal of a democratic ally, and weird series of speeches that sound increasingly like Hitler screaming lunch orders through a glitchy Arby’s drive-thru intercom.

“I think any of our nominees, they’re going to try to go after for something, so I support Trump,” Scott bravely intoned.

Really? Haley’s pretty awful, but mostly in ways Republicans love. Unless she’s vowing to crack down on rampant Medicare fraud, it’s hard to imagine why Scott would prefer Trump over her. Unless he’s a soulless, craven Jell-O salad, that is. Or, maybe he's bucking for the VP nod.

“Everybody gets to decide how they want, what they want to do,” Scott added. “Look, I want a president that’s going to secure the border; Trump will do it. I want a president that’s gonna have a better economy. Trump will do it. I want a person that doesn’t like war,” he said, before attacking President Biden on foreign and domestic policy matters. 

Yes, the famously antiwar Donald Trump, who wants to invade Mexico, hates all foreign military engagements, unless they’re initiated by Putin, and likely Neville Chamberlained Europe into its current predicament.

Yeah, that guy’s been great for global stability.

Of course, Scott isn’t exactly a deep thinker, as evidenced by his original plan to “rescue” America by regularly sunseting Social Security and Medicare (which, again, his former company stole from). But it strains credulity to think that he can’t see Trump for what he is. Maybe he’s not as cowardly as Sen. Lindsey Graham, the hawkish Ukraine booster who just voted against Ukraine aid because Putin’s most valuable foreign asset told him to. But we already knew there are no depths Lindsey won’t stoop to. He’d vote for a Senate resolution saying Lindsey Graham sniffs his own underpants if Trump told him to.

Psst, Republicans. History will judge you. Not for Medicare fraud, apparently, but surely future generations will cast a jaundiced eye toward the folks who greased the skids for American fascism. We could even turn into a kleptocracy run by unaccountable oligarchs if we’re not careful. Which means Medicare fraud will suddenly be legal.

Okay, so maybe there’s a bit more method to Scott’s madness than meets the eye.

3. Michele Morrow, Republican Nominee for North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction. In this month’s Republican primary, Morrow defeated Catherine Truitt, the incumbent North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction. Morrow, a registered nurse and grassroots activist who home-schooled her children, ran on a platform of supporting parental rights and opposing critical race theory.

What can we expect from a new Sup who has in the past called public schools “socialism centers” and “indoctrination centers.” Well ……

In a campaign speech in February, Morrow advocated for a constitutional amendment to abolish the state Board of Education, which sets policies and procedures for public schools in the state. Doing away with the board would put direct control over the state’s education agenda under the superintendent and the state legislature, which is currently controlled by Republicans.

“I’d like to see a constitutional amendment to get rid of the state Board of Education,” she said. “If the superintendent is elected and works under the legislature - knowing that they’re accountable to the legislature to oversee the DPI and to oversee and have impact into the superintendents in the 115 districts, I think we would be so much better off because you don’t have all these extra people right in mix.”

Morrow also promoted QAnon slogans and tweeted that the actor Jim Carrey was “… likely searching for adrenochrome” – a reference to a conspiracy theory shared by QAnon believers that celebrities harvest and drink the blood of children to prolong their own lives. Media Matters, a left-leaning publication, was first to report the QAnon tweets.

Central to QAnon lore is the notion of the “Storm,” a belief there will be a day when thousands will purportedly be arrested, subjected to military tribunals, and face mass executions for their alleged crimes, with Donald Trump leading efforts to dismantle them alongside other QAnon “patriots.”

Murrow has s a history marked by extreme and controversial comments, including sharing baseless conspiracy theories and frequent calls for the execution of prominent Democrats. She has shared a wide range of extreme views on social media in recent years. Here’s a sampling of her whoppers.:

In a September 2019 post, Morrow said that Barack Obama (referred to as B.O.) was a puppet for the “Deep State” and the “Muslim movement” and suggested he pay the highest penalty for his alleged crimes.

“B.O. was a puppet for the Deep State and the Muslim movement to destroy our Constitutional Republic. We cannot give up until ALL the guilty pay the highest penalty for their crimes. We will lose our country #SAVEOURNATION #JusticeForAll #TraitorsMustPay

In January 2020, she wrote “The DEEP STATE globalists and Muslim extremists, intent on destroying America, and placed Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar and MANY others into our govt.

In other comments on social media between 2019 and 2021 reviewed by CNN’s KFile, Morrow made disturbing suggestions about executing prominent Democrats for treason, including , Omar, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Hillary Clinton, Sen. Chuck Schumer and other prominent people such as Anthony Fauci and Bill Gates.

In 2020 she expressed support for the televised execution of former President Barack Obama and suggested killing then-President-elect Joe Biden.

“I prefer a Pay Per View of him in front of the firing squad,” she wrote in a tweet from May 2020, responding to a user sharing a conspiracy theory who suggested sending Obama to prison at Guantanamo Bay. “I do not want to waste another dime on supporting his life. We could make some money back from televising his death.”

Morrow’s ire also went beyond Democrats, including one post in December 2020 calling for putting Republican Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia in prison after he certified Georgia’s results for Joe Biden in that year’s presidential election.

In other comments, Morrow repeatedly shared the false claim that Obama was Muslim, called Islam evil, and expressed belief in a conspiracy theory that tens of thousands of Chinese troops were stationed in Canada to invade the United States to help Joe Biden become president.

“Tens of thousands of Chinese soldiers are already in Canada and probably Mexico waiting for orders to invade,” she wrote on January 8, 2021.

Since Joseph Goebbels is dead, Murrow seems a reasonable alternative to oversee public education.  Rod Serling would be proud.   

4. NY Jets Quarterback Aaron Rodgers. It seems anti-vaxxer,  Aaron Rodgers" conspiracies know no bounds. Just a day after independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the NFL quarterback was on Kennedy’s short list for vice-president, a CNN anchor alleged that Rodgers shared widely debunked theories questioning whether the 2012 Sandy Hook shootings were faked.

In January, CNN’s chief investigative correspondent Pamela Brown described an encounter with Rodgers, who “was spewing a very disturbing, debunked conspiracy theory to me” when she first met him in 2013. She did not name that theory until Wednesday, when Brown described her meeting with Rodgers—who was then playing for the Green Bay Packers—at a post-Kentucky Derby party that same year. The report claims that Rodgers confronted Brown when he heard that she was a CNN journalist, claiming the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting—which killed 20 children and 6 adults—was an inside job and that the media was deliberately ignoring the facts.

When Brown questioned those facts, Rodgers is said to have spouted examples which have proven to be false, according to the report. “Brown found the encounter disturbing,” it said. Another unidentified source claimed that Rodgers said at another time: “Sandy Hook never happened…All those children never existed. They were all actors.”

Kennedy didn’t select him, but he’s now free to join Trump’s team. A perfect fit.

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And the March IGGY winner is:

Because Scott's endorsement of Trump is not absurd in the eyes of today's Republican faithful, and the despicable Rodgers is not worthy of any attention, I have to select Michele Murrow as the March IGGY recipient. That thousands of North Carolina voters will vote for this fascist Cretan says everything that can be said about the state of today’s partisan divide.