The Left-Cheek Ass Clown for November, 2022

It's an ... interesting ... time in American political life, as voters have opted once again for divided government, but have rejected many of the worst extremists who were running for office (yes, Kari Lake and Doug Mastriano, I'm talking to you in particular). I'm not sure what the overall message is, other than that at least some thoughtful people are tuning out the worst of the worst, denying Republicans their cherished and expected "red wave" and opting for responsible, fact-based government that works for the people rather than for big business and the wealthy.

The last few months have produced a veritable landslide of blathering ass clowns in state and federal races that cost the nation an estimated $16.7 billion - $8.9 billion at the federal level, and $7.8 billion on state races. This is an absolutely disgraceful sum to spend on political blather when schools are underfunded, children go hungry, infrastructure is crumbling, and quality medical care is unaffordable.

But I digress.

Looking back at the run-up to the election, it's clear that a group award is once again called for, and so I have selected as

The Left-Cheek Ass Clown for November, 2022

Dan Bongino, Dinesh D'Souza,

Tomi Lahren and Brigitte Gabriel

This group of four constitutes some of the loudest, yet most incoherent hyperconservative commentators on American airwaves and the Internet today. Each is ignorant and annoying in different ways.

For the last few months, Dan Bongino has posted a daily tweet which says simply, "Today is (date) and Joe Biden is the WORST president in US history." Well, that's his opinion and he's welcome to it, but it needs to be said that he supports a former president who was impeached twice, debased the presidency, upended the alliances that have kept the peace for decades, and ruined the image of the United States on the world stage. Despite Mr Bongino's (and other conservative commentators') assertions that Der Furor kept every promise he ever made, his legislative and leadership record is actually vanishingly thin, especially when compared to that of Mr Biden. Mr Bongino is, to put the most charitable spin on it, an uninformed fool.

Dinesh D'Souza is a prominent figure in far-right circles, famous in particular for his discredited book and movie "2000 Mules," a "documentary" which tried to show that widespread, coordinated voter fraud in the 2020 election resulted in the presidency being "stolen" from Der Furor. He is a near-constant presence on Twitter and on conservative news and opinion broadcasts, where he continues to sow doubt on the integrity of American elections and hawk a variety of conspiracy theories and denunciations of Democratic elected officials.

Tomi Lahren is a self-described "constitutional conservative," although her demonstrated understanding of what the Constitution actually says appears to be quite limited. She is a popular commentator on conservative networks Fox News and OANN, and a frequent presence on Twitter, where she routinely criticizes liberal or Democratic politicians, usually in dismissive and sometimes crude terms.

Brigitte Gabriel is the screen name of Lebanese-American conservative activist Hanan Qahwaji, a stidently anti-Islamic figure who strongly supports Der Furor and far-right causes. A typical tweet published on November 15th after Der Furor's announcement of his 2024 presidential campaign, reads "DRAIN THE SWAMP! ELECT [DER FUROR]!" Considering that Der Furor ran the presidency as a money-making operation, with his unprecedented ignorance, grift, and illegality not only in full view, but actually admitted, Ms Gabriel seems to have confused draining the swamp with making it ... well ... swampier.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Readers, the Left Cheek Ass Clown award for this month is presented jointly to four of the noisiest and least attention-worthy voices of the extreme right: Dan Bongino, Dinesh D'Souza, Tomi Lahren, and Brigitte Gabriel. Life is too short to waste your time listening to any of them ... you will get more useful information from listening to random drunks shouting on street corners. You've been warned.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow, when Cartoon Saturday returns ... see you then!

Bilbo