Dumb/Dumber/Dangerous

Benjamin Franklin said, “We are all born ignorant but one must work hard to remain stupid.”

BF was right on the money with what happened this past week.

The most attention went to Brooklyn Nets basketball star Kyrie Irving.  I will have my say about him and how that situation was handled, but two other public figures with influence said things that got far less notice but were dumb and possibly more dangerous. 

Did you catch what Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on MSNBC this past week?

She told the fawning, bobble-headed host Chris Hayes, that,“inflation is not going up due to government policies.  Inflation is going up due to Wall Street decisions.”

Let that sink in for a sec.  “Inflation is not going up due to government policies.”

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s official bio says she graduated from Boston College with a degree in economics and international relations.   So I assume she has some basis for her brilliance. But you know what happens when you assume.

I don’t know what she learned at BC, but famous Stanford University economist John Taylor, has studied inflation for his entire career.

He says, “When monetary policy is too easy, either because the Federal Reserve sets the interest rate too low or because it increases money growth too rapidly, there will be an increase in inflation as we are seeing now.” 

It ain’t Wall Street, it’s the Government, stupid.

AOC’s limited world view is filtered entirely by her fealty to Marxism.

She’s aided and abetted, allowed to spew her stupidity, by talk show hosts masquerading as journalists.  In that MSNBC interview, Chris Hayes just let her blab on, uninterrupted, unchallenged and unabashedly wrong.

Regarding her expertise in international relations, Ms. AOC signed on to that idiotic letter from the House Progressive Caucus urging direct talks with Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.  Can you imagine?  The US and Europe are pumping billions of dollars into Ukraine to help them repel Vlad the invader, and these knuckle heads in Congress are calling for peace talks?  Their letter was so severely criticized they had to take it back.

So, if I had to rate AOC and her progressive buddies, I would say they are dumb and somewhat dangerous.

Donald J. Trump, the former narcissist-in-chief, just couldn’t help himself this past week from commenting on his buddy Kanye West’s anti-Semitic screeds.  

So what did Trumpelstilskin say about Ye?  He said Ye made some “rough statements about Jewish.”  Rough? I would say Ye’s hate filled, anti-Semitic rants were disgusting, dastardly and dangerous. And because it’s always all about him, him, him, Trump implied Ye got unfairly slammed for his anti-Semitism because he’s a Trump buddy.  Trump opined, “Would it have been the same thing if he didn’t say all those good things about Trump?  You just don’t know.”

Mr. former President, thanks for not unconditionally condemning blatant anti-Semitism.  Like you’ve said, American Jews don’t appreciate you and we’d better watch out.

The verdict on Trump? Dumb? Well, he’s not nearly as smart as proclaims, but he’s definitely dangerous.

And now, for the final dumbass of the past week, I give you another anti-Semite, Kyrie Irving.  

This deep thinker sent a link of a movie to his approximately 20-million social media followers, a movie replete with anti-Semitic tropes like “many famous high-ranking Jews” have “admitted” to “worship[ing] Satan or Lucifer.”  I, myself, prefer the Angel of Darkness.

He was given every chance, maybe too many chances, to clarify, to apologize, to say he doesn’t really hate Jews.  He even had the ADL bending over backwards, twisting to try to give him an off-ramp.  Don’t want to say you’re sorry?  No worries.  Just say you take “responsibility” and Kyrie and the team will donate a million bucks for anti-bias education.

But no, guy Ky just couldn’t do it, wouldn’t do it.  

No apology, no contrition, no nuthin’.  Until…management suspended him without pay. 

On top of Irving’s self-immolation, the way this entire fiasco was handled by the NBA Commissioner’s office and other NBA players is a disgrace.

It took a week for Commissioner Adam Silver to call out Kyrie by name.  His immediate reaction was to just issue a press release saying the NBA is against hate, blah, blah, blah.

Current NBA players seem to have lost their self-righteous voices and clammed up about Kyrie.  Only the retired guys like Shaq, Barkley and Reggie Miller spoke out and spoke up.  Kudos to them.

So how do I categorize Kyrie Irving?  Dumb but not dangerous?  Not dumb but dangerous? How about dumber than dirt. He must think we’re the morons if he expects us to believe his new found contrition is real, and not a result of him staring at tens of millions of dollars in salary and endorsements being flushed down a Barclay’s Center toilet.  Even the ADL isn’t buying it. Get the Wiesenthal Center on the phone. Kyrie is due for a trip to the Holocaust Museum. 

All this reminds me of a memorable line in that classic movie, Dumb and Dumber.  Jeff Daniels, playing Harry, said to Jim Carrey’s character, Lloyd, “Just when I think you couldn’t possibly be any dumber, you go out and do something…and totally redeem yourself!”

Yes, Kyrie Irving, you certainly did.  You totally redeemed yourself.

As they say on Flatbush Avenue, mazel tov!