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.  

DECEMBER 2022 IGNOMINIOUS ABSURDITY OF THE MONTH: THE IGGY

1. Kanye West. Professional conspiracy promoter Alex Jones invited Kanye West onto his show today, one week after the rapper and anti-Semite, West arranged a Mir-a-Lago dinner meeting with Donald Trump that included notorious white nationalist and anti-Semite Nick Fuentes. That meeting roiled the Republican Party, as there are few names more synonymous with America's antisemitic far right than Fuentes. Meanwhile. Fuentes and others on the far right were giddy with their propaganda victory.

Jones presumably invited West and Fuentes onto his show as a bit of self-promotion. It immediately collapsed into antisemitic rants, praise for Adolf Hitler, and praise for Hitler's Nazi Party.

West claimed at one point that "300 Zionists" are in control of the media and the government, speculated on pedophilia and the Talmud, and ranted bafflingly about Israeli political figure Benjamin Netanyahu.

It was his repeated and explicit praise for Hitler and Hitler's Nazi movement that gained the most attention. "I see good things about Hitler also," West said, … We have to stop dissing the Nazis all the time." …"The Jewish media has made us feel like the Nazis and Hitler have never offered anything of value to the world."

West has also said:

"I don't like the word evil next to Nazis. [...] I love Jewish people, but I also love Nazis."

"Woke culture is controlled by the Zionist media."

The sickest thing about West’s comments is that they accurately represent prevailing sentiment in the far right.

NOVEMBER 2022 IGNOMINIOUS ABUSRDITY OF THE MONTH: THE IGGY

1. Ohio State Rep Bill Dean. According to Dean, there is “No great risk of dying from pregnancy.” People really need to stick to speaking about their expertise, and in some cases, not speak at all. Republicans across the country are speaking loudly and wrongly about reproductive health and, in at least one case, even body-shaming everyone who opposes the right wing’s ideas about bodily autonomy while doing so.

Dean doubled down on recent comments, calling rising U.S. maternal mortality rates a “myth” by blaming high maternal mortality on “lifestyle choices to do with abortions and weight.”

“I’m not a physician,” Dean began and should have stopped. “But,” he continued, “I would imagine, a lot of times, it’s the lifestyle of the lady that’s having the pregnancy,” he told the Dayton Daily News. “We also have the most obese people in the whole world. It’s just individual cases.”

The comments follow earlier ones in which Dean told the Dayton Daily News that “there’s no great risk of dying from pregnancy,” adding that ectopic pregnancy “doesn’t count.” Ectopic pregnancies, which account for about 2% of pregnancies, are the leading cause of maternal mortality during the first trimester. They occur when the fertilized egg implants outside the uterus. While Dean believes there’s no death risk associated with pregnancy, the reality is the U.S. has the highest maternal mortality rate among wealthy nations.

What's worse is that 80% of pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S. are preventable. According to the CDC, these deaths are a result of high costs and limited access available to health care. Race plays a role in access to health care and disparities—Black people are three to four times more likely to die of pregnancy-related causes than their white counterparts, and American Indian maternal mortality is also “disproportionately high” compared to their share of the population.

The stats are horrific, and the fact that a public official currently tasked with legislating the parameters of medical decisions is ignorant of them is even worse.

When asked by the Dayton Daily News about his stances on abortion last week, Dean defended them and said: “Pregnancy is a natural thing that women are made for. That’s the way God made them.”

He added: “The myth is that it is dangerous; it’s no more dangerous than living every day.”

Clearly, Dean has no idea what he’s talking about, I mean, he even admitted that he’s not a physician. So essentially, Dean believes that while there is no risk associated with pregnancy, the mortality rate of pregnant people is due to lifestyle choices and obesity.

While obesity does often impact health, there is no correlation between obesity and maternal mortality rates. Dean, who is no expert on the matter, is clearly making such claims to distract from the problem at hand and his lack of knowledge on the topic.

Dean also claimed that a majority of abortions are done for convenience, a claim his competitor, Democratic Ohio Statehouse candidate Jim Duffee, who is a doctor, pushed back against.

“Late trimester gestational abortions are almost never by convenience,” Duffee said. “They’re almost always related to life-threatening conditions for the mother or the baby, or severe chromosomal and genetic malformation that places mother and baby in danger.”

Would the general public approval of a woman’s right to choose, and understanding of health risks in pregnancy, turn the tide in Dean’s reelection bid against Duffie? Nah! Not in his red Ohio district. Duffie got swamped.

OCTOBER 2022 IGNOMINIOUS ABSURDITY OF THE MONTH: THE IGGY

1. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC). In an opinion piece for the Washington Post, Sen Tim Scott (R-SC) says “Abortion is not the way to help single Black mothers.” First, can he get any more patronizing? Some guy, who has never had to worry about an unwanted pregnancy, swans into the room and tells women he knows what’s best for them. Second, how does removing a constitutional right benefit the person who loses it? Let’s look at his reasoning.

Scott starts with a hagiography of his mother, saying she worked 64 hours a week to raise Scott and his brother and to “keep food on the table and the lights on”. It makes you wonder where he stands on the minimum wage — spoiler alert, he is against raising it.

I am glad for Scott that he was able to benefit from the American dream — elevating himself from poverty to the US Senate in one generation. But anecdotes are not evidence. And children are not the best judges of the trials and tribulations of their parents, who usually put the best spin on difficult circumstances for their kids.

Next, Scott reports on remarks made by Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen. According to him, she said,

“I believe that eliminating the right of women to make decisions about when and whether to have children would have very damaging effects on the economy.” She went on to say how abortion affects “particularly low-income and often Black” mothers and how a lack of access to abortion “deprives them of the ability often to continue their education to later participate in the workforce.”

Scott was horrified. He asked,

“Was Yellen making the case for how abortion is good for America’s labor force?”

No, she was not. She clearly said that lack of choice hurts women because it could deny them educational and professional opportunities. But Scott chose not to hear Yellen’s respect for individual rights. Instead, he created a strawman argument — misrepresenting what Yellen said to criticize an argument she did not make.

Next, Scott goes on to write.

If abortion is our first and “best” answer to ensure that women and low-income families can thrive economically, the United States has reached one of its darkest times in our history.

Where is anyone saying that abortion is the “first and best answer”? Yellen was talking about choice because it is on everyone’s mind due to Alito’s rights-stripping, Roe-overturning opinion. Ask a liberal what will help “women and low-income families thrive economically” and they will talk about childcare, universal pre-K, parental leave, affordable higher education, and increasing the minimum wage. Scott supports none of that.

The hard truth is that the Supreme Court’s Roe-overturning decision takes away a right that American women of all backgrounds have been entitled to for 49 years. And they do not need a man, of any background, explaining how that is good for them. 

SEPTEMBER 2022 IGNOMINIOUS ABSURDITY OF THE MONTH: THE IGGY

1. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC). Have you heard of RepublicanMD? It’s just like WebMD, except it’s based on GOP talking points instead of science. So, for instance, if your kid has rickets, WebMD might tell you to give her vitamin D supplements tout de suite, whereas, at RepublicanMD, the prescription for every affliction is always more upper-class tax cuts. Hey, it’s just common sense.

Of course, RepublicanMD is even more misleading when it comes to reproductive health care. Conservatives tend to be against sex education in schools, and, hoo-boy, does it ever show. It’s like they all learned about sex by watching dogs in their neighborhood give elliptical TED Talks about “late-term abortions” and “legitimate rape.”

The latest Republican womb-bat to stick his foot in his mouth is South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who recently sent out a fundraising email insisting that “if we don’t take back the Senate, Dems will pack the courts, give DC statehood, grant abortions up to 52 weeks, and Republicans will never win again.”

52 weeks? What on God’s green globule is this man talking about? I thought full-term pregnancy was 40 weeks. While a woman can’t be pregnant for 52 weeks, Scott’s idiocy seems terminal. For the good of the country, he should have his brain (if he has one) terminated immediately.

It would be nice, however, if the rest of Scott’s dystopian hellscape rambling would come to pass. Court packing, DC statehood? Why not? You can toss in Puerto Rico statehood in the mix.

This kind of doofus doctoring is all to common within the GOP. For instance, in 2019, when asked if incest victims could still procure abortions under a bill he was proposing, Alabama state Sen. Clyde Chambliss said, “Yes, until she knows she’s pregnant.”

Nuff said!

AUGUST 2022 IGNOMINIOUS ABSURDITY OF THE MONTH: THE IGGY

1. Carl Paladino, Former New York Gubernatorial Candidate.  Every foray into Paladino's campaign history reveals a racist, sexist, piece of work. He is currently running for a congressional seat in the Empire State and is endorsed by none other than the third-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, Elise Stefanik. The Buffalo businessman has been making some headlines lately for a slew of hot takes he’s had over the past month.

About a week after the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and two teachers were murdered, Paladino posted (and subsequently deleted) a Facebook conspiracy screed implying that the mass shootings like those in Buffalo and Uvalde were not real or orchestrated by deep state operatives.  Before admitting that he did make the post, Paladino initially denied having shared the pathetic conspiracy theory, saying: "I don't even know how ti post of Facebook." 

After more pressure was put on him to “cowboy up,” as the gun enthusiasts love to say, like a true coward, Paladino offered up this backward-crawling explanation: "I just didn't remember the fact that I published it; I couldn't remember. It was written by Jeff Briggs, a good friend from Rochester. I published it because he is a friend."

Blame his “good friend?” In fact, Paladino has a new offensive set of remarks and ideas, first uncovered by Media Matters. Bottom of Form

According to the report, Paladino appeared last year on a weekly Buffalo radio show, called The r-House Radio Show, hosted by real estate executive Peter Hunt. Hunt was asking Paladino about how conservatives could get “roused” up in a state that votes predominantly blue. “How do you get people thinking about the possibility of change here in New York state and what that might mean ... for everyone here?”

Paladino begins by telling Hunt he was just thinking about this very topic “the other day.” Well, not exactly. See, according to Paladino, he was hanging out with some other good friends, and “somebody had mentioned on the radio Adolf Hitler, and how he aroused the crowds.”

Okaaaaaaay. Weird soundtrack for a group hangout, but let’s see where this is going.

Paladino sort of laughs with this worn-out white supremacist trope of a talking point. “And he would get up there screaming these epithets and these people were just, they were hypnotized by him. That’s, I guess, I guess that’s the kind of leader we need today. We need somebody inspirational.”

Someone inspirational. Like Hitler.

Paladino then makes a vague and somewhat rambling attack on “RINO-ism,” and Hunt quickly changes the subject to “deficit spending” in New York State.

It isn’t shocking that people like Paladino, and Trump before him, look up to Hitler and his supposed charisma. Decades ago, Ivana Trump did an interview with Vanity Fair and let the antisemitic cat out of the bag when she revealed that a book of Hitler’s speeches was the only book on Trump’s nightstand.