JULY 2022 IGNOMINIOUS ABSURDITY OF THE MONTH: THE IGGY

1. Herschel Walker, the Republican Senate Nominee in Georgia. When Walker began his campaign to unseat Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, the Walker campaign's main task was to play down Walker's history of domestic violence. As the campaign progresses, his handlers have a lot more cleaning up to do, which is not something Republicans are very good at—or, interested in.

Take the following: Walker’s involvement with a company that scammed American veterans (he falsely claimed he founded Patriot Support), his promotion of a scammy-sounding anti-coronavirus spray, his public lies about graduating from the University of Georgia (he even claimed he was in the top 1% of his class), his lying about working in law enforcement (he was an honorary Cobb County deputy, which is like being a junior ranger), his false claim about owning a lucrative chicken processing business, and, after “family man” Walker repeatedly criticized absent fathers in black households, his forced public acknowledged of having fathered two sons and a daughter with whom he is not regularly in contact. Add to this his suspiciously opaque supposed financial disclosures and his recent denial that former President Trump ever said the 2020 election was stolen, one can only conclude that Walker doesn't know anything about anything.

All right, so Herschel Walker is a liar and a hypocrite, a possible scammer, a political buffoon with a history of domestic abuse and a string of children he has so little involvement with that even his own campaign didn't know they existed. Fine. I think we could have all left it with "if you put a gun to your wife's head, you probably should forever be excluded from the United States Senate" but we're dealing with Republicans who don't blink at plots by a sitting Republican president to get his own vice president assassinated, they're not going to blink at any of this.

The depth of Walker’s ignorance never ceases to amaze. On Sunday, Walker spoke in front of the Hall County Republican Party. The group was small, and the speech revolved mainly around the enemy: China. That’s the country he claims created the COVID-19 virus and is to blame for climate change and a tax increase used to clean up the air.

Straying from his usual stump script, Walker started talking about the environment and climate change and how “[President Joe] Biden” began “getting rid of pipelines,” and “getting rid of our energy.” Then Walker explained climate change and the “Green New Deal” by saying that “We, in America, have some of the cleanest air and cleanest water of anybody in the world.” He then pivoted to describe how the U.S. is going to “pull from the ‘Green New Deal’… millions or billions of dollars cleaning our good air up,” and added that, “China and India aren’t putting anything into cleaning that situation up.”

“So all that bad air is still there. But, since we don’t control the air, our good air decide to float over to China bad air. So when China get our good air, their bad air gotta move. So, it moves over to our good air space. And now, we gotta clean that back up. While they’re messing ours up. So, what we’re doing is just spending money. But we’re not just spending money, we’re spending your money,” Walker says. And that is why Biden is raising taxes, he reasons.”

Enlightening!

Earlier in a monthly IGGY, I mentioned that Walker, if elected (the race against Warnock is virtually a dead heat), would be a shoe-in to join Louie Gohmert and Tommy Tuberville as one of the Three Stooge dumbest Congressmen. I’ll bet you could probably get Walker to play quietly in his office for at least an hour by giving him a copy of The Last Supper and telling him to find Waldo.

And now, he may be trying to earn the distinction of not only being a moron, but the Congress’ biggest fabricator, perhaps one of the greatest of all time, only one step behind the Trumpster..

SWEDEN ENDS TWO CENTURIES OF NONALIGNMENT

Sweden has not been involved in foreign wars since 1814. This long, successful record, maintained without the aid of foreign alliances, was instrumental in developing a tradition of neutrality and a general aloofness from active involvement in international affairs. This tradition of aloofness gradually diminished in the years after World War II as Sweden responded to the centripetal pull of European integration and its political, economic and security foreign orientations became increasingly internationalist in both their nature and purposes. Swedes liked to refer to this policy as "active neutrality."  Still, throughout the post-War years Sweden stood steadfast in avoiding military alliances with the aim of remaining neutral in any war.

JUNE 2002 IGNOMINIOUS ABSURDITY OF THE MONTH: THE IGGY

Shakespeare wrote something like “It’s an ill day that brings forth the adder.” Well, you can count on a horrific Uvalde mass shooting to bring out Republican Adders, and they didn’t disappoint. Given the proliferation of many idiotic comments about guns and mass shootings, I will limit this month’s IGGY comments on the gun question.

1. Heather Ann Sprague, Republican Candidate for Maine’s House of Repersentatives. Evil deeds seem to always bring out IGGY-worthy absurdities. Thus, we get tortured explanations like the following, from Republicans who need to continually trot out fresh bugaboos to keep their base from questioning the wisdom of putting assault rifles in the hands of teenagers. You see, it’s liberal teachers who did it—at least according to Republican hopeful Heather Ann Sprague, who helpfully posted some of her transphobic thoughts on Facebook in the wake of the tragic school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

According to Sprague, “Liberal teachers” are responsible for the mass shooting at a Texas elementary school that killed 19 children and two teachers.

In an apparent reference to a rumor on social media that has been debunked, Sprague claimed there were pictures online of the shooter dressed in women’s clothing, obviously a “confused” transgender kid.

“All I have to say is this is the result of what happens when kids are pushed past their limits. It’s obvious he was brainwashed in school by liberal teachers to think he shouldn’t be a male. If this crap doesn’t stop we will have more shootings because there are alot more confused, fed up and now mentally ill kids out there thanks to the #publicschoolsystem. THIS is why I have been TRYING to get the truth out about what the schools are doing to our youth because it’s DANGEROUS,” Sprague said in her post.

NBC news reported that a transgender woman’s photo was used to spread the baseless theory about the Texas shooter. The thread began on forum website 4chan and was spread by right-wing Facebook pages. Its falsity, of course, didn’t stop conservatives—including Republican Rep. Paul Gosar--from spreading it far and wide.

So, Sprague took unconfirmed information that felt comforting to her, and instead of researching it thoroughly, she immediately weaponized it in order to smear liberals and deflect responsibility from her own party’s shameful lack of action?

In another Facebook post, Sprague wrote, “I’ll go a step further and say the teachers that molded this kid into a #killer should be arrested for multiple MURDERS.” But not the person who sold the gunman two assault rifles with multiple rounds on his 18th birthday. Okay.

She also wrote, “more and more I cant help but think these shootings are on purpose to push gun control with the lives of babes. If they’re not getting shot they’re getting aborted. It’s disgusting and EVIL. If elected I will push to have armed guards at ALL our schools here in Maine.”

Of course, this is the same kind of muck conservatives stir up whenever there’s a mass shooting. They mix all that roiling sediment with our own righteous indignation in order to muddy what should be a pretty clear picture, and then they wait for the whole mess to settle down again—which it inevitably will, no doubt before Congress is spurred to take anything even resembling meaningful action.

By the way, Sprague is the only Republican running in her district, and will face incumbent Democrat Ann Matlack in the general election. So, voters, it seems, will have a pretty stark choice in this election between bullshit and reality. Let’s hope they choose wisely.

MAY 2022 IGNOMINIOUS ABSURDITY OF THE MONTH: THE IGGY

1. Rep. Matt Gaetz. Rep. Matt Gaetz, who is currently under investigation for having sex with a 17-year-old girl, and is the only member of Congress to vote against a law boosting the government’s human trafficking investigatory powers, has big thoughts on women who are upset about Roe v. Wade being overturned by the Supreme Court.

“How many of the women rallying against overturning Roe are over-educated, under-loved Millennials who sadly return from protests to a lonely microwave dinner with their cats, and no bumble matches?”

The only way to make sense of the sicko Gaetz is to assume he’s using his soapbox to promote himself for a future media gig, except he’s so extreme Fox doesn’t even want him. That’s saying something. He’ll probably have to settle for a gig as a resident Trump flatterer at Mira Logo.

APRIL 2022 IGNOMINIOUS ABSURDITY OF THE MONTH: THE IGGY

1. Florida Senator Rick Scott and the RNC. GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has decided that the best way for Republicans to prevail in the midterms, and thus regain Congress, is to simply run against President Joe Biden and use inflation, mask wars, vaccine wars, and gas prices to defeat him. McConnell has decided not to release a competing Republican agenda—to have a plan Republicans will run on. Too bad, because that gives the guy he picked to head up the Senate Republicans 2022 effort, Florida Sen. Rick Scott, all the room he needed to go full-on fascist with his vision for America.

Politico got its hands on the Scott plan, and it is a chilling vision for the end of America as we know it. He calls it a plan to “rescue America.” It’s 11 points with 128 action items to fight the “militant left,” which “now controls the entire federal government, the news media, academia, Hollywood, and most corporate boardrooms.” Here’s what he says we militants are out to “change or destroy: American history, patriotism, border security, the nuclear family, gender, traditional morality, capitalism, fiscal responsibility, opportunity, rugged individualism, Judeo-Christian values, dissent, free speech, color blindness, law enforcement, religious liberty, parental involvement in public schools, and private ownership of firearms.” That’s just him warming up.

His 11-point plan is beyond radical and terrifying in its embrace of white supremacist, eliminationist principles and policy. It is also ridiculous. No. 1 is public education, where the Department of Education will be abolished and schools will “focus on the 3 R’s [sic], not indoctrination children with critical race theory or any other political ideology,” and where parents will “choose the school that best fits.” So that’s public funding of private, segregated, and preferably for Scott, Christian schools.

With that comes “color blind equality,” or Point 2. Because “we are all made in the image of God” and “dividing people by race, skin color, ethnicity, or country of origin” is “an immoral and corrosive habit of the woke crowd.” However, the brown people whose country of origin is not the U.S. can’t come through the southern border. Scott wants to not only build that wall, but to name it for Trump. Because of course he does. And he has no problem dividing out LGTBQ people, declaring: “Humans are born male and female, there are two genders, and to deny that is to deny science.” To that end, “No government forms will include questions about ‘gender identity’ or ‘sexual preference.’”

Poor people are going to have to fend for themselves, by the way. “No government assistance unless you are disabled or aggressively seeking work,” Scott declares, leaving retired people hanging. Does that mean an end to Social Security? Also, in a nod to Utah Sen. Mitt Romney’s infamous  47% of Americans are moochers rant, Scott declares: “All Americans should pay some income tax to have skin in the game, even if a small amount. Currently over half of Americans pay no income tax.” Elderly, disabled? Tough.

Having declared all Democrats “socialists,” Scott has a plan for us. “Socialism will be treated as a
foreign combatant which aims to destroy our prosperity and freedom,” which is pretty much a threat to imprison and/or execute a huge swath of the population based on their political beliefs. Because freedom.

Also, he’s got some pretty wild plans for government. First, what’s left of the IRS will be halved, both in funding and in staff. Everyone in government, elected and civil services, will be limited to 12 years in service. Just to make everything that much more chaotic, “All federal legislation sunsets in 5 years.” From the party that can’t manage to fund government from year to year. Also, he would: “Sell off all non-essential government assets, buildings, and land.” Bye bye National Parks.

Also, they’ll destroy the national and global economy. “Prohibit debt ceiling increases absent a declaration of war,” and “stop spending money on non-essential state and local projects until the budget is balanced.”

And of course, “we will protect the integrity of American Democracy [sic] and stop left-wing efforts to rig elections.”

Scott’s ideas are an amalgam of standard Republican economic principles—keep taxes low for the rich, punish the olds and poor—and batshit Fox News, MAGA culture warrior propaganda fueled by conspiracy theories.

There it all is: what Republicans really think about the majority of Americans and how they intend to “govern.”

No wonder McConnell didn’t want to put out an agenda; he knew it was going to be full of this kind of stuff. Too late, though. It’s been embraced by the Republican National Committee (RNC)—you know, the official Republican Party that said the Jan. 6 insurrection was “ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political protest.”

Republicans have been good at telling people what they’re against. Now we know what they want to achieve and it’s terrifying. Wake up America!

MARCH 2022 IGNOMINIOUS ABSURDITY OF THE MONTH: THE IGGY

1. Senator Lindsey Graham. The hypocritical, deceitful Graham called for a “Brutus” or Stauffenberg” to rid the world of Vladimir Putin. I find this ignominious worthy for a couple reasons.

First, to the age-old debate of whether history makes the man, or the man makes history, let me say I lean to the side of history. Did Rome become better off without Ceaser? Had Hitler been assassinated, would the world be better off with Hess, Goring, or Bormann in charge? With Putin gone, would a successor be more reasonable? You get my point.

Second, official talk about killing Putin implies US support for regime change in Moscow. If you make a nuclear-armed enemy believe your strategy requires the end of their regime (or life), you are pushing them to nervous finger on their nuclear trigger. I’m reminded of Stanislav Petrov, a lieutenant colonel in the Soviet military who in 1983 was assigned to the command center that monitored Soviet early warning satellites over the US. During one of his shifts when Cold War tensions were running high (downed Korean airliner, revelations about nuclear winter) an alarm went off signaling that the Americans had seemingly launched five Minuteman ICBMs. Petrov had just a few minutes to decide whether to report the attack to the chain of command, which, under the tense circumstances, could have triggered a swift retaliatory strike. Fortunately for the US, Soviet Union, and the world, he decided to report the alert as a malfunction-a false alarm. Which it was: the satellite had misread sunlight reflecting off clouds as a missile attack.

Think about what would happen today with Russian nuclear forces on alert if a similar false warning were to occur. Would we be so lucky?

Lindsey Graham is one of the lowest of” humans”: a seemingly intelligent man who should know right from wrong, but time and time again defers to political expediency. His latest low life display was to announce he would vote against the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson after voting to confirm her when she was appointed to an appellate court. It doesn’t matter if he contradicts himself, speaks with forked tongue, or tells an outright lie, if it benefits him politically. He’s the epitome of what it means to be ignominious.

FEBRUARY 2022 IGNOMINIOUS ABSURDITY OF THE MONTH: THE IGGY

NOTE: I know, I declared that because Donald Trump is a member of the Ignominious Hall-of-Shame his evil absurdities would no longer be noted in monthly postings. Though he's ineligible for a monthly IGGY, I can't resist including his latest.  

After Russian military forces began moving into Ukraine, while claiming that nothing like this would have happened under his administration (of course), Trump told a Tennessee talk radio audience that after watching the news after Putin declared the Donbas region of Ukraine to be independent and ordered Russian troops to storm the region for alleged “peacekeeping” purposes, Putin should be praised.

“This is genius,’” Trump recalled. “Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine, of Ukraine ― Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful.” “So, Putin is now saying, ‘It’s independent.’ A large section of Ukraine. I said, ‘How smart is that?’ And he’s going to go in and be a peacekeeper. That’s the strongest peace force.”

“We could use that on our southern border,” he added, before continuing with his praise. “That’s the strongest peace force I’ve ever seen. There were more army tanks than I’ve ever seen. They’re going to keep peace all right. No, but think of it. Here’s a guy who’s very savvy.”

“I know him very well. Very, very well,” Trump said. The fondness that Trump displayed for the Russian strongman over the course of his presidency and beyond has continues to baffle even some in his own party. Along with his general affinity with autocrats, and Putin in particular, didn’t you expect such a comment? I’ll lay you ten to one that the only thing Trump knows about Ukraine, let alone the Donbas region, is that it’s a place where Hunter Biden was doing “bad things, very bad things.”

1. Texas Senator John Cornyn. It doesn't get any more dimwitted than this. Last week, Cornyn claimed that Democrats' focus on protecting the right to vote was in response to a “manufactured crisis.”

To support that claim, he pointed to a Pew Research Center poll conducted just after the November 2020 presidential election that found more than nine in 10 voters said it was easy to vote in the election.

"More than nine-in-ten voters (94%) say that voting in the election this November was either very easy (77%) or somewhat easy (17%), while just 6% say that voting was very or somewhat difficult," Cornyn tweeted, quoting an excerpt from the Pew report.

Several hours later, Cornyn managed to finish his thought.

"Democrats claim there's a nationwide assault on the right to vote, but 94% of voters said voting was easy in 2020. This is a manufactured crisis designed to achieve political gain," he tweeted.

Seriously, how stupid does this guy think voters are? Sure, the GOP base is living in an alternate universe, but there's no need to convince them using a Pew poll. They'll soak up any old slop they're served.

Instead, the tweet seemed aimed at slightly swingier voters—an attempt to sell them on the idea that Democrats are making stuff up. Only Pew was talking about 2020, and the GOP's nationwide assault on voting rights began in the wake of 2020, precisely because Joe Biden flipped states that hadn't gone for a Democrat in decades.

So the Pew poll of 2020 holds no relevance whatsoever to the fact that GOP-led states have since passed a title wave of bills that seek to subvert the will of the voters.

That means Cornyn is either daft, or he's grown accustomed to the idea that voters are stupid and will believe anything you tell them. That may be true of the GOP base and Trump cultists, but it isn't true for some 60% of the country.