2017 Adults Acting Stupid Awards

In the spirit of Robert Burns' 1788 poem entitled Auld Lang Syne ("for old times' sake"), we look back over 2017 for noteworthy displays of allegedly smart people caught acting like complete idiots. The selection process to limit the list to 10 was difficult this year. Many supposedly smart people reacted to the election of President Donald Trump by becoming certified fools. Several natural dunderheads, who were not considered for the list below, displayed inherited genetic, buffoon tendencies. They include Hollywood "celebrities" who grabbed headlines by dissing Trump.

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For example, alleged comedian Kathy Griffin went public holding up a fake severed-head of the President. That wasn't funny, and it wasn't smart. But then, consider the source. Another alleged comedian, Rosie O'Donnell, repeatedly chirped away against Trump on twitter. It's not smart to pick a twitter fight with Big Bird. And then there's Rosie's twin brother, separated at birth, MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell, who went petulantly berserk on camera screaming insults at his studio serfs. All three represent instances of genetic stupidity. Dogs bark and ducks quack--cause it's what they do. By comparison, the 10 Awardees below, purportedly smart folks all, jumped the shark with their alarming stupidity. Here they are:

#10 Dumbest 2017 College Students' Award

It was a big year for college students acting severely uneducated--mostly against the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The winner is...Harvard students who called Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos a "white supremacist" as they protested her visit to their campus. In a Q&A session with DeVos, a Harvard Kennedy School grad student asked, "So, you're a billionaire with lots and lots of investments, and the so-called school choice movement is a way to open the floodgates for corporate interests to make money off the backs of students. How much do you expect your net worth to increase as a result of this?" We wonder--have any of these protesting students visited the Lamont Library on the Harvard campus?

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It's named after its chief benefactor, Thomas W. Lamont. In his book Mussolini And Fascism: The View from America (Princeton University Press, 1972), John P. Diggins wrote, "Of all American business leaders (in the run-up to World War II), the one who most vigorously patronized the cause of Fascism was Thomas W. Lamont. Head of the powerful J. P. Morgan banking network Lamont served as something of a business consultant for the government of Fascist Italy...Though not the most voluble business spokesman for the Italian government, Lamont was clearly the most valuable. For it was he who translated verbal apologetics into hard cash, securing for Mussolini a $100,000,000 loan in 1926." (pp. 147-148) So how about it Harvard? You wanna change the name of Lamont Library? Bet not.

#9 Dumbest Political Pundit Award for 2017

This award goes to Weakly {sic} Standard editor Bill Kristol. Bill began 2017 with a long-standing, intense dislike of Donald Trump. And he ends the year still in that mood. Here's a video documenting his consistency over time. Bill's most adoring audiences these days are Democrat, liberal, media hacks. They love their "conservative" icon. He's become a leftist party trick.

#8 Dumbest Member of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2017

It's a tough call--there's so much stupidity in the Swamp--but this year's winner is Florida Congresswoman Frederica Wilson--the woman who never saw a goofy cowboy hat she didn't buy. She has more of them than a company of rodeo clowns. Frederica picked a fight with President Trump over his condolence phone call to the widow of a U.S. Army Special Forces soldier. In commenting on her remarks, White House Chief of Staff and former Marine General, John Kelley likened the honorable Congresswomen to an "empty drum" that makes the most noise. Checkmate.

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#7 Dumbest Morning TV Show Host Couple

MSNBC's "Morning Joe" co-hosts, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinksi. Joe and Mika, who once limited their rendezvous time to mornings, kept fans wondering about the nature of their off-camera relationship. They turned their three hour "news" show into a soap opera with fans asking "Are they dating? Are they going to marry? Are they still married to others? Are they getting divorced? Does one dominate the other?" High drama. Recently, Mika had to moonwalk back her comments about Mark Halperin's female victims. "Halperin, she said, was 'more than willing to meet with his accusers and apologize with them face-to-face.' Brzezinski added that she 'actually tried to offer him to them,' but the women 'don't want to talk to him.'" Imagine that. Mika's approach didn't play well with Halperin's victims. Oops.

#6 Dumbest Pol-Pundit Duo for 2017

Charlie "The Groper" Rose and "Jihad" Tom Brokaw Charlie got fired from his morning program for being a serial abuser of women. The two female hostesses who shared the set with him, Gayle King and Norah O'Donnell, were stupefied, beyond belief, to learn of his...foibles. "We're shocked," they said, in their best Sergeant Schultz impersonations. Shortly before the 2008 Presidential Election, Tom Brokaw and Charlie Rose publicly displayed their ignorance of Candidate Barack Obama in a classic "dumb-n-dumber" skit. It's worth viewing even today for laughs. Recently, Brokaw declared that a "jihad" is underway between FOX News and the Mueller investigation. Referring to a FOX commentator, Jihad Tom said, "Saturday evening, host Jesse Watters wondered aloud if the FBI investigation, which he said has been 'crooked from the jump,' is strictly political. He added that, if it is, 'we have a coup on our hands in America.'" Who told him? There's still hope Tom'll get a clue. Albeit slim.

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#5 Dumbest Prediction from a Democrat Pol

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer Schumer announced that "Republicans will rue the day" they voted for the tax reduction bill. Right, Chuck. Most of us out here want to pay more taxes to you and the federals. Please make us pay more, Chuck. Take our wallets! Because Chuck's statement is so breathtakingly stupid on its face, it needs no further comment.

#4 Dumbest Now-Former United States Senator

Al Franken is the hands-down victor, or hands up somewhere they're not supposed to be. More than once, as it turns out. So: Goodbye, Al. It's back to the frozen tundra for you, funny boy.

#3 Dumbest Behavior by a big city

It's a tie between San Francisco and Washington D.C. San Francisco: For the decision by a jury of his peers--well, sort of peers--to acquit Jose Ines Garcia Zarate on the charge of murdering Kate Steinle. Washington, D.C.: For plans to erect a statue to the late Mayor Marion Barry. "'The statue is intended to celebrate the life, accomplishments and contributions of Marion Barry,' said D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson'...'The impact that Marion Barry had on the District is invaluable,' said Council member Vincent Gray. 'Washingtonians continue to benefit from his efforts as mayor, a council member, civil rights activist and an incomparable leader.'" In January 1990, after being videotaped smoking crack cocaine, Barry was arrested on drug charges. He served six months in a federal pen, and was then elected to the D.C City Council in 1992. And, then, in 1994, he was re-elected mayor, serving this time from 1995 to 1999. So, reference the statue: What's in his wallet?

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#2 Dumbest Hollywood A-Lister to Deny Knowing of Harvey's Proclivities

The Award goes to (drum roll) Ms. Meryl Streep (applause, applause). Nominated for 20 Academy Awards, one of only six actors to win three or more Oscars for acting, winner of 31 Golden Globe nominations, and awarded 8 Globes. Quoted as having said, "Integrate what you believe in every single area of your life. Take your heart to work and ask the most and best of everybody else, too." Sage-like, Yoda stuff. According to Newsweek, in 2012 Streep received the Golden Globe for best actress in a motion picture drama, thanking "God for giving her the opportunity to star as Margaret Thatcher in 2011's The Iron Lady. But the God she was referring to was not in heaven. 'I just wanna thank my agent Kevin Huvane and God, Harvey Weinstein, the punisher, Old Testament, I guess," Nowadays, Streep refers to "God"--the Harvey one--as a "disgraceful" individual. But back then she knew nothing, saw nothing, heard nothing, and, consequently, said...Harvey's a god.

#1 Dumbest 2017 Employee of the U.S. Department of Justice

Selected from a target-rich environment of duplicity and corruption at the highest levels of the DoJ and its Federal Bureau of Investigation, the 2017 Awardee is...Ms. Sally Yates, former Acting Attorney General of the United States. (High 5's for Sal.) A hat-tip, for documenting Ms. Yates' stellar qualifications for this award, is due the American Spectator for its December 22, 2017 article entitled "Sally Yates, One of the Biggest Frauds of the Year," by George Neumayr, who wrote this (it's long but salient): "[Ms. Yates] deserves a special place in the annals of wholly politicized law enforcement. Were it not for the safety net the media and ruling class held beneath her, the political high-wire act she performed during the transition period after the election would have been unfathomable. Yates was an Obama appointee whose husband had run for the Democrats and donated to the Democrats. Obviously ambitious, she was rooting for Trump's loss and hoping for a plum position in the Hillary administration. That desire thwarted, she then set to work shafting the incoming administration. First, she joined forces with other embittered Obama holdovers and deep-state subversives to entrap Michael Flynn and criminally leak details of the entrapment to the media. Then, out of nothing more than ideological pique, she told the entire Justice Department to block the president on his manifestly constitutional travel ban that even a wobbly Supreme Court has upheld. As acts of political presumption go, those couldn't rank higher." What Ms. Yates did was Deep State Dumb (DSD). And, she did it with the support of many others in the DoJ, because the Swamp is full of such creatures. Happy New Year, if we're lucky.

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