The Dunces of September: The Month's Most Foolish Politicians and Pundits
From “The Border Is Secure” to “Nazi-Style” Salutes
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One of my readers recently posted on Facebook that one reason she liked my articles is that she could read them without wanting to “throttle” someone. I hate to disappoint her with this “Dunces” column, but my monthly search for unintelligent life in America’s political class can turn up some infuriating behavior. This month, unfortunately, had its fair share of dumb behavior from some very prominent people.
The Vice-Presidential Gaffe Machine
“Dunces” could not have asked for a better vice president than Kamala Harris. The White House press office must go into crisis mode every time she grants a big interview. Her appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sept. 11, 2022, provided a couple of examples.
First, she actually claimed “The border is secure.” Honestly, does she think people are dumb enough for her to pull the wool over their eyes? I won’t even bother with the details here, but maybe she should read the New York Times and learn that migrant apprehensions just surpassed a fiscal-year record two months before that year ended?
Then, Harris advocated for the end of the filibuster in order to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act (to legalize abortion), the Freedom to Vote Act, and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
When the show’s anchor, Chuck Todd asked her whether that might end the filibuster for good, Harris answered no, insisting that it would remain for other issues.
In other words, she believes the Democrats can get rid of the filibuster for some issues, and that Republicans won’t retaliate and do the same whenever they regain a majority in the Senate. Clearly, Harris has forgotten how Senate Democrats lifted the filibuster for most executive and judicial nominees during the Obama administration, only to then see Republicans lift it for Supreme Court nominees during the Trump administration.
As if her questionable comments on “Meet the Press” weren’t enough, on a Sept. 29, 2022 visit to the Demilitarized Zone between the two Koreas, Harris said: "The United States shares a very important relationship, which is an alliance with the Republic of North Korea. It is an alliance that is strong and enduring."
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris walks towards the demarcation line at the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating North and South Korea, in Panmunjom on Sept. 29, 2022. (Leah Mills/Getty Images)
It was especially embarrassing because she was reading from a prepared speech, not speaking off the cuff. The White House had to cross out “North” in its publication of the remarks. Making matters worse, the North Koreans again violated UN resolutions by firing four ballistic missiles in the week surrounding the Harris visit.
THE DUNCE RATING
For repeatedly making mistakes on all sorts of topics, some innocently but others with political cynicism, Harris deserves:
It Never Ends
In this month’s edition of Donald Trump fatigue, the former president has come up with another outrage.
In comments posted on his Truth Social platform, Trump escalated his attacks on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell by slamming him for compromising with Democrats on some spending bills.
The king of horrible hyperbole didn’t stop there. Trump then wrote: “He has a DEATH WISH.”
Whether that was a death threat against McConnell as some have claimed, it is inexcusable, especially when Trump has seen some of his crazier supporters resort to violence in the 1/6 attack and Pizzagate.
Trump wasn’t finished, mocking McConnell’s wife by using a racist nickname (with his frequent grammatical and spelling mistakes): “Must immediately seek help and advise [sic] from his China loving wife, Coco Chow!”
Comments posted by former U.S. President Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform on Sept. 30, 2022.
So, a former president who appears to be leading the race for the GOP’s 2024 presidential nomination attacked his party’s Senate leader and McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, who also happens to be Trump’s former secretary of transportation.
THE DUNCE RATING
For these most recent unhinged comments, Trump deserves:
The End Justifies the Means?
Niccolò Machiavelli would be pleased to see how American politicians have taken his advice to heart (pardon the pun). One of the latest is Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacy Abrams.
“There is no such thing as a heartbeat at six weeks,” Abrams proclaimed in a now-viral video about bills banning or restricting abortions after a “heartbeat” is detected. Abrams added, “It is a manufactured sound designed to convince people that men have the right to take control of a woman’s body.”
Her first point is debatable. The second is a misrepresentation topped by a full falsehood.
Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams speaks on stage at the Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins' second Annual Sno Ball Gala at Flourish Atlanta on Sept. 29, 2022 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Aaron J. Thornton/Getty Images)
I understand that Abrams is trying build opposition to so-called “fetal heartbeat bills,” which are, in fact, a double misnomer. At six weeks, it’s an embryo, not a fetus, and there is no real heart or heartbeat yet. However, the “fluttering” that is detected by ultrasounds is the beginning of cardiac activity, so Abrams’ statement is misleading, especially in the context of extensive medical literature that has used the word “heartbeat” to describe that activity.
For example, the Johns Hopkins Medicine website says that early in the first trimester “The heart is beating.” Even Planned Parenthood’s website used to refer to it at that point in gestation as a “very basic beating heart.” The organization recently changed that language, but it still says, “A part of the embryo starts to show cardiac activity. It sounds like a heartbeat on an ultrasound, but it’s not a fully-formed heart — it’s the earliest stage of the heart developing.”
Abrams then went on to call the sound heard as “manufactured,” which led me, and probably many others, to think she meant it was fake and fully artificial. Again, she’s being as inaccurate as the anti-abortion laws she’s attacking. This language from FactCheck.org best summarized the research I’ve read: “The ultrasound is picking up on the slight movement of the developing heart while it beats, as high frequency sound waves are sent out from the machine, get reflected back when they hit different kinds of fluids and tissue.”
So, the sound we hear is not blood rushing through arteries, but it does reflect “noise” generated by the beginning of cardiac activity.
Finally, the rest of her statement is just plain political garbage. There is no evidence whatsoever that the ultrasounds were “designed to convince people that men have the right to take control of a woman’s body.” And the machines are overwhelmingly used for women by women, who now far outnumber male OB/GYNs.
THE DUNCE RATING
For ignoring accuracy for the purpose of furthering her political ambitions, Stacy Abrams deserves:
What Intellectual Consistency?
I have long given up expecting intellectual consistency and honesty from politicians, but Senator Lindsey Graham (R.-S.C.) came up with a doozie in last month. He unveiled a bill limiting abortion access just weeks before the midterm elections, at a time when the GOP seems to be hurting politically from its anti-abortion stance.
The bigger problem is that Republicans have traditionally argued that the issue of abortion should be left to the states, which is what the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision did.
Worse yet, Graham said that abortion was “not a states’ rights issue.” That’s a drastic change of tune because he had said just this summer that “States should decide the issue of abortion,” and that “There’s nothing in the Constitution giving the federal government the right to regulate abortion.”
THE DUNCE RATING
For having extremely malleable principles and possibly hurting his party, Graham deserves:
Who Thought this Salute Was a Good Idea?
No wonder Doug Mastriano, the election denier who was endorsed by Trump in the GOP’s Pennsylvania gubernatorial primary and who has repeatedly flirted with QAnon conspiracy theorists, is running way behind in the polls for the general election.
At a rally on Sept. 18 in Chambersburg, Penn., Mastriano supporters were asked to raise their hand in a salute immediately compared by numerous politicians and commentators to the Nazi “Sieg Heil.” You can judge for yourselves by watching the video on this link.
Audience members raise their index fingers in a salute that’s been compared to the Nazi “Sieg Heil” while President Donald Trump speaks at a Save America Rally to support Republican candidates running for state and federal offices in the state of Ohio at the Covelli Centre on Sept. 17, 2022, in Youngstown, Ohio. Supporters of GOP Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano have used a similar salute. (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)
Trump supporters also raised their right arms and index fingers in salute at a rally where the former president spoke in Youngstown, Ohio on Sept. 17. They did what’s become QAnon’s one-fingered salute as a song that’s almost identical to the QAnon theme song played.
Apparently, someone in MAGA world figured out that the saluting was outrageously offensive because security at a Trump rally in Wilmington, N.C., appeared to ask the former president’s supporters to stop using the salute. You can see video at this link.
THE DUNCE RATING
For not immediately and publicly condemning the QAnon saluting at their rallies, Mastriano and Trump deserve:
“10 Thousand Million Jobs” Created?
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has had a pretty rough time during her short time in the job, and it wasn’t made any easier after saying that the U.S. has added "10 thousand million jobs" since President Biden took office.
That number can also be expressed as “10 billion,” which, of course, is far more people than live on this planet.
THE DUNCE RATING
I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt and say it was just a bad slip of the tongue, for which she deserves:
“Dunces” will be back at the beginning of October with a new bunch of offenders.
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Cover photo: Left, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to the media at the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating North and South Korea, on Sept. 29, 2022. (Leah Mills/Getty Images). Right, former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a Save America Rally to support Republican candidates running for state and federal offices in the state at the Covelli Centre on Sept. 17, 2022, in Youngstown, Ohio. (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)