Today is Sunday, July 31, 2022, the last day of July. Today marks 100 days until the midterm elections which really pits democracy against autocracy. There is no other way to portray it: it will be a consequential contest between those espousing democratic values and those espousing the “Big Lie” under a would-be autocrat who has still to be held accountable for his actions on January 6, 2021, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. To illustrate how crazy this party is and the type of candidates that are running on the GOP ticket, I present you with one contest in Maryland and the Republican Party’s nominee for attorney general. In an online article for CNN by Em Steck and Andrew Kaczynski entitled “Republican nominee for Maryland attorney general hosted 9/11 conspiracy radio shows,” the alarming qualities of this candidate for high office are detailed herein.

The candidate’s name is Michael Peroutka who hosted a series of five radio shows in 2006 devoted to arguing in support of 9/11 conspiracy theories questioning if the terrorist attack was the work of an “elite bureaucrat” who had demolition charges in every building in New York City and even suggesting if those who died after a hijacked plane hit the Pentagon were killed elsewhere. All I can say after hearing this is “Huh!” “Is this guy for real?” one could reasonably ask. But this guy is running for attorney general of Maryland. It’s just downright scary.

Peroutka is best known for his ties to neo-Confederate organizations and made his remarks on The American View, a radio show he cohosted, in October 2006 while discussing the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack.

It’s been determined that Peroutka’s theories echo the widely debunked conspiracy theory that the Twin Towers and 7 World Trade Center, the smaller building within the vicinity of the towers, were wired with explosives and detonated in a series of controlled demolitions. The attorney general candidate went even further with his theory when he speculated that every building in New York City could have preset charges awaiting detonation by some “elite bureaucrat,” who is never identified by Mr. Peroutka, by the way. Peroutka speculates that all people are in harm’s way by some elite bureaucrat who might decide to blow up any building at any time. Is this man certifiable or not? And he’s running for elective office? The dangerous candidate for Maryland’s attorney general also believed that the terrorist attacks on September 11 were an “inside job,” since “you can’t have an explosion in the basement that’s done by the hijacker on the airplane” and claimed that the official account of the 9/11 assault was the real “conspiracy theory.” Again, one must question this man’s unworthiness for the job just based on his theories from 16 years ago. One must also wonder how this idiot got this far, even, in the race!

Outgoing Maryland GOP Governor Larry Hogan had the perspicacity to call out the loony Peroutka for his fringe ideas, saying today, “These disgusting lies don’t belong in our party.” He continued his criticism of the attorney general candidate, saying, “We know who was responsible for 9/11. Blaming our country for Al-Qaeda’s atrocities is an insult to the memory of the thousands of innocent Americans and brave first responders who died that day.”

Another glaring illustration of this candidate’s far-out leanings was his running for president in 2004 as the nominee of the Constitution Party in which he posted on his website an endorsement from the League of the South – a new-Confederate organization that advocates southern secession. This other fact is even more troubling: Peroutka also promoted his candidacy to the Council of Conservative Citizens, which is a self-described white-rights group that opposes nonwhite immigration and advances white nationalist ideology. This aspect of this candidate should really raise red flags because of his ties to white nationalist organizations.

This is your repugnican party, circa 2022, folks, and all candidates running on the ticket need to be rejected by all voters this coming November – or we face national ruin.

Peroutka’s opponent is Democratic Rep. Anthony Brown who would be the first Black attorney general in the state if he wins the election, which he must, given the irrational opponent he has in Michael Peroutka. A good sign of the possible way that the election could go is that Maryland has not had a Republican attorney general since 1952, when one was appointed. The last Republican attorney general elected in the state was in 1919!! So given that history, it would appear that Brown will be elected by a plurality of the electorate this November.

Peroutka is but one name in the crazy GOP salad of nominees for state or national office who distinguish themselves by their extremist and lunatic views, with one particularly dangerous individual in the form of Doug Mastriano who is the GOP nominee for Pennsylvania governor in the 2022 election. A lot has been written about this man as well – that he is an American conspiracy theorist like his friend Peroutka and is a far-right politician; he is a prominent figure in fundamentalist Christian nationalism and has called the separation of church and state a myth. It would be a disaster if he were elected governor of Pennsylvania instead of Josh Shapiro who is running on the Democratic ticket.

So let’s be clear: the November midterm elections will determine if we continue to have a democracy or if we lurch toward an autocratic form of government.

Concerning our newest alarming health emergency in monkeypox, I heard on my Sunday morning podcast called The Banter, hosted by Ben Cohen, Justin Rosario, and Bob Cesca what Fox News asshole “Fucker” Carlson has already said about this emerging epidemic. He supposedly polled his asinine viewers to come up with a novel name for the disease and, I believe, he came up with – in conjunction with his viewers – something like “schlong COVID” or something to that effect. The man is shameless, don’t you think? Here is someone ridiculing a very painful and potentially scarring condition that has been seen generally in LGBTQ+ circles and he doesn’t even care how insensitive he comes across. We all know that the network will never, ever restrain this paragon of superciliousness for what he says on his program because he’s a ratings darling! It’s a crying shame, though. In the past, commentators had to say something much less horrible in order to be disciplined by network honchos. But in Carlson’s case, the more terrible, the better.

Anyway, thank God Carlson is not yet running for political office. That could come next, God help us!

So have a good week, even though it might be warm once more.

Stay safe and be well.