NYT’s Michael Bender and J. David Goodman had quite the lede summing all this up: “In the last 28 months … Trump has been voted out of the White House, impeached for his role in the Capitol riot and criticized for marching many of his fellow Republicans off an electoral cliff in the 2022 midterms with his drumbeat of election-fraud lies. He dined at home with a white supremacist … called for the termination of the Constitution … embraced the QAnon conspiracy theory movement, described President VLADIMIR V. PUTIN of Russia as a genius and used a gay joke to mock a fellow Republican … has become the target of four criminal investigations. … Still, Mr. Trump remains a strong front-runner for the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination.”
Shortly after a threat to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the Democratic-led Senate unanimously approved and House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation to provide 24-hour security protections for Justices and their families. In June, President Biden signed the legislation into law.
Four months later, the spouse of the Speaker of the House of Representatives was viciously attacked while sleeping in his bed in his San Francisco home. The Speaker was in Washington, D.C. at the time of the attack. Paul Pelosi, 82, was attacked and hit on top of his head causing a skull fracture. The alleged assailant, David DePape told members of the San Francisco police department that he planned to talk to Speaker Pelosi if she had been home, and if she lied to him he was going to break her kneecaps, resulting in an injury that would serve as notice to other members of Congress.
So, how did Republicans react to the tragedy of an 82 year old man being attacked in his sleep in his own home? They had fun with it!
Virginia’s Governor, Glenn Youngkin joked that on Election Day, voters were going to send the Speaker home to be with her husband. At the time of the comment, the Speaker’s husband was undergoing surgery in a California hospital.
Kari Lake, the GOP candidate for governor in Arizona, while campaigning and lying about violent crime in the state, joked that the Speaker has security when she’s in D.C., but apparently her house doesn’t have much protection.
Of course, the Republicans in attendance at Lake’s campaign event howled in laughter. Yes, these people are deplorable — and vile.
And, of course, no instance of vile and deplorable behavior is complete without the inclusion of one of the Trump idiots. #2 idiot, Donald Trump, Jr., tweeted a picture of a hammer and a pair of men’s underwear with the caption, “Got My Paul Pelosi Halloween Costume Ready.”
shockingly bad or excessive ”an outrageous act of bribery’‘
very bold, unusual, or startling “her outrageous leotards and sexy routines”
In recent years more and more acts seem outrageous, at least compared to behavior of say, 10 years ago. We seem to be less civil, less engaged, less friendly. Much of that behavior stems from the actions of politicos and their followers, but it also reaches deeper into our neighborhoods and casual interactions with others we encounter during the exercise of our daily lives.
I thought it would be interesting to catalog some of these interactions, and hopefully cause some to consider their own contribution to the weakening of the fabric that was once considered essential in American life.
My hope is to keep the list updated with the latest instances of outrageous behavior that come to my attention. Of course, if you have other examples, I’d love to share them with other visitors. Feel free to leave examples in the comment section.
Outrage #1: Republicans in Georgia nominate Herschel Walker for the United States Senate.
The members of the Republican Party of Georgia nominated former University of Georgia football star, Herschel Walker to represent them in the “world’s greatest deliberative body.” Walker, with no legislative or political experience, was endorsed by former president Donald John Trump, and apparently the people of Georgia are okay with whatever Trump wants.
During a recent campaign event in Georgia, speaking on the topic of climate change, Walker said:
Since we don’t control air, our good air decided to float over to China’s bad air. So when China gets our good air, their bad air got to move. So, it moves over to our good air space. Then — now we got we to clean that back up.
Herschel Walker, Republican U.S. Senate nominee, Georgia
Of course, as we’re reported before, this isn’t Walker’s first brain freeze. Actually, his brain seems to be frozen much more often than it is operates normally. Of course it’s entirely possible his version of normal is different from the rest of us.
“If you don’t believe in the country, leave and go somewhere else. If it’s the worst state, why are you here? Why don’t you leave? Go to another — there’s, what, 51 more other states that you can go to?
Herschel Walker, apparently one of the smartest Republicans in Georgia
It’s possible that Walker wins this election against the incumbent, Reverend Raphael Warnock. If he does, we should consider eliminating the Senate. It will have become a haven for idiots. (See: Marsha Blackburn). And maybe this is the method Republicans have agreed upon as the quickest way to destroy democracy in the United States — elect enough unqualified people to important positions in the government that it implodes.
On Friday, the Supreme Court, a division of the Republican Party, issued their expected decision eliminating a woman’s choice on whether to maintain an unplanned pregnancy to term. Republican justices Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Coney Barrett voted to end the constitutional protection provided by the Roe v. Wade decision for 60 years.
In a dissenting opinion written by Justices Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan, the dissenters wrote:
“With sorrow — for this court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have lost a fundamental constitutional protection — we dissent.”
Justices Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan.
But know this — this Court, full of extremist conservatives is just getting started. What Republicans have unleashed on this country is going to be devastating for the rights of people who don’t think, look, or live like they do.
Just think, if Hillary Clinton hadn’t mishandled those emails, our personal rights and freedoms wouldn’t be under attack. American voters have to do better, but it’ll likely have to be up to white voters to make that change. Minorities are likely to have their right to vote severely restricted in the coming years.
Maybe President Biden should seriously consider demands to ‘pack the court.’
After the 3rd hearing of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, the simple question that seems to come more clearly into focus is — did he or didn’t he fulfill the oath of his office as outlined in Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution:
Article II, Section 1, 8 of the Constitution of the United States
Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation: — “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
GOP power brokers are making sure that our political institutions work at every turn against majority rule. Controlling many more state legislatures than Democrats, Republicans gerrymander Democrats into oblivion in congressional and state legislative elections.
They then block Democratic efforts at redistricting reform in the Senate with the use of the filibuster, another essential antidemocratic instrument. To further obstruct voting and thwart the will of popular majorities in the administrative machinery of government, their gerrymandered legislatures pass laws expressly designed to suppress voter participation, making it harder (or, in the case of baseless voter roll purges, impossible) for some groups to access the ballot.
And then they cement their hold on the whole system by packing the courts with right-wing judges to enforce all the exclusion.
They are fortified in all this self-entrenchment by Supreme Court decisions like Shelby County v. Holder (2013) and Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee (2021), which have dismantled the Voting Rights Act and weakened the Constitution, which had both been for a brief shining moment effective guardians of the voting rights of the people.
In short, the leaders of the GOP — not just Trump, mind you — are using every trick in the book to stifle majority rule and to erase popular democracy in the same way they have been working to erase science and history.
The majority of Americans are caught in a vicious circle of anti-democracy.
Do yourself a favor and read the brilliant opinion piece by Jill Lepore in Wednesday’s “The New Yorker.” In the “Daily Comment” section, Lepore brilliantly counters arguments by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion revoking Roe vs. Wade.
Predictably, Alito argues that abortion rights are unconstitutional because they aren’t specifically mentioned in the constitution. Lepore points out that the women were of little or no concern to the men who drafted the document, and in fact, for all intents and purposes of the drafters, weren’t considered “persons.”
Women are indeed missing from the Constitution, as Justice Samuel Alito’s leaked draft opinion suggests. That’s a problem to remedy, not a precedent to honor.
Lepore continues by pointing out:
There were no women among the delegates to the Constitutional Convention.
There were no women among the hundreds of people who participated in ratifying conventions in the states.
There were no women judges.
There were no women legislators.
At the time of the Constitutional Convention, women could neither hold office nor run for office, and, except in New Jersey, and then only fleetingly, women could not vote.
“I truly feel sorry for our friend. He’s never had a days peace. On the other side of this, he’s exposed a very dark side of the swamp that’s far worse than I ever imagined and I am not particularly optimistic for the future.”
Fox celebrity Sean Hannity to White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows – December 12, 2020
