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.”
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.
“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, Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate from Georgia
LGBTQ Nation reports that Pastor Dillon Awes delivered an insane sermon suggesting all gay people should be killed.
Dillon alleges the answer to the ‘gay people’ is in the Bible:
They should be lined up against the wall and shot in the back of the head.
“Every single homosexual in our country should be charged with the crime, the abomination of homosexuality, that they have,” he continued. “They should be convicted in a lawful trial. They should be sentenced with death.”
Pastor Dillon Awes, a Pastor of Stedfast Baptist Church
In his Sunday sermon, which took place during the first week of Pride month, Awes alleged that all gay people are pedophiles and that all child molesters are gay. He argued that it is for that reason they should all be killed.
The Stedfast Baptist Church in Hurst, Texas, has been designated as an anti-LGBT hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
So, Awes is arguing that these individuals who haven’t committed any civil crime be tried in a court, convicted, and killed because they violate Awes interpretation of a Bible verse. Okay, maybe that explains why the younger generation is abandoning the Christian church.
When a Christian Church is designated as a hate group, you know something is fucked up.
Nominated for Jackass of The Week (JOTW) — in the first of what is likely to eventually become thousands of nominations — is Texas Senator Raphael “Ted” Cruz.
In response to the leaked draft opinion from the Supreme Court revoking abortion rights, Cruz, in his role as Jr. Detective, pointed the finger of blame at a law clerk for Justice Sonia Sotomayor without any evidence, whatever.
I think it is very very likely a law clerk. And it is very likely a law clerk for one of the three liberal judges. If I were to guess the most likely justice for whom the law clerk is clerking, it’s Sonia Sotomayor, because she’s the most partisan of the justices.
Raphael Cruz, earning this nomination as Jackass of the Week
After the allegation against the clerks in Justice Sotomayor’s office, Cruz added, “I have no evidence of that. I’m just making an inference.”
I guess that was Trump’s position after suggesting Cruz’ father was somehow responsible for President Kennedy’s assassination, and clearly making the case that Mrs. Cruz was not an attractive woman.
From my viewpoint Cruz astonishingly accuses someone based solely on their likely political affiliation while citing partisanship as the reason for the accusation. A well-deserved nomination.
Give it a rest, Raphael. No matter how much of a jackass you truly are, the 2024 GOP nomination isn’t coming to you. Believe it!
Kansas state representative from, Republican Cheryl Helmer, said she does not “appreciate the huge transgender female who is now in our restrooms in the Capitol,” obviously referring to her colleague, Rep. Stephanie Byers, the first transgender legislator in Kansas, and a Democrat.
Helmer, from Mulvane, responding in an email to a University of Kansas graduate student, saying she was a biology major in college, said that she knows “the difference biologically between a male and a woman.”
…”no surgeon can cut, remove, wop, add to change the biology that is chemically occurring in each and every fiber, bone and molecule of every human being.”
Kansas State Representative Cheryl Helmer
I used to think people who made statements like those by Helmer were simply stupid. Now I think they’re just hateful.
“A doctor can inject meds and dilute but cannot destroy what God has done in the perfection of the HUMAN BEING, Helmer added. We as women have humans that are much larger, stronger, more adrenaline and testosterone and therefore possibly more dangerous and we have to share our restrooms. Not only that but our wee little girls in elementary and middle and high school are having to be exposed and many have been raped, sodomized and beaten in the restrooms by these supposedly transgenders who may or may not be for real.”
I think Helmer has gone out of her way to contradict herself. Whatever/whoever created Helmer (Mom and Pop Helmer?) clearly goofs up on occasion.
Just how hateful must your community be to elect someone like this to office?
The Washington Post is reporting that former president Donald Trump will travel to Nebraska later this month to campaign with Republican gubernatorial candidate Charles Herbster, who has been accused of sexually assaulting several women, including a Republican state senator Julie Slama.
According to the Post article by Amy B Wang and Mariana Alfaro, Herbster has been accused by eight women of inappropriate touching, according to a report by the Nebraska Examiner. Two men and a woman on Monday put their names behind what they said they either saw directly or were told immediately afterward about Nebraska gubernatorial candidate Charles Herbster groping young women at political events.All three said they were upset by Herbster’s denials of the behavior. They said they were also upset by how Herbster and some of his political allies have treated State Sen. Julie Slama since the Nebraska Examiner last week reported the allegations against Herbster.
Two of the three who came forward Monday had previously spoken to the Examiner to corroborate accounts of women who had made allegations. The third person commented after the initial article was published.
The Examiner corroborated six of the women’s accounts with at least one witness to each incident. The other two women told at least one person about the incident on the same day it occurred. Each witness and confidant confirmed the women’s descriptions of what happened.
Four days after joining the New Hampshire Republican primary, U.S. Senate hopeful and bitcoin millionaire, Bruce Fenton, compared the widespread adoration of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the reaction to Osama bin Laden, warning that bin Laden was also once seen as a “hero.”
Fenton spun up the cautionary tale last week in his first televised interview as a candidate, telling WMUR’s Adam Sexton that “there’s so many parallels right now between Ukraine and the Taliban.”
“Remember, as Zelensky is a hero now, Osama bin Laden was once considered a hero,” Fenton said.
Fenton previously served as an executive director for the non-profit Bitcoin Foundation, originally founded in 2012. His early bitcoin-roots allowed Fenton to amass a small fortune preparing him for his eventual self-funded campaign driven by his $5 million injection.
After his tenure with the Bitcoin Foundation, Fenton turned his eyes to New Hampshire and the Free State Project, which is a political pro-freedom movement that calls for smaller government and lax regulatory burdens.
