The Most Irritating of 2019

With 2019 now in our rearview mirror, here’s my look back at the most irritating Congress in history. From the shallow to the superficial, here are the candidates for the most irritating:

• Speaking of shallow and superficial, there is that previously little known actor Jussie Smollett. His claim to fame was as a character in the FOX TV show “Empire.” Smollett, a gay black man, became a hero portraying, you guessed it: A gay black man. He became irritating by falsely accusing MAGA hat wearing white supremacists of mugging him. It was all proved to be a lie. But shallow and superficial does not rate high on this list and Smollett, like a lanced boil, has mostly disappeared from the scene.

• A second candidate who we all wish would disappear from the scene is the most irritating thing to come out of Scandinavia since Ragnar Lothbrok: Greta Thunberg. This young Swede rose to fame despite her boorish appearances at numerous gatherings of global warming alarmists. The best word to sum up this child is, well; irritating. From her high degree of angst, to her snarling delivery, to her hectoring catch phrase of: “How dare you!, young globetrotting Greta has achieved a high level of fame that could only be attained (and financed) by strong backing from radical millionaire left-wing climate activists. Certainly Thunberg is on anybody’s short list as a high level source of irritation.

• Since the list is wide open to irritating women, how could Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez not make the list? (No, I am not going to call her AOC). If Hollywood wants to do an alternative version of “Mr. Smith goes to Washington,” they could use her as a role model. They could call it: Ms. Alexi Goes to Moscow. But at least Jefferson Smith had the brains to make something of his opportunity, while Cortez is baffled by the functioning of garbage disposals. Hopefully Ms. Alexi will be a flash in the pan and thrown out next November by the embarrassed voters in her district.

• Next in D.C., resembling Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, we have two mismatched tinhorns named Adam Schiff and Gerald Nadler. But unlike the lovable Stan and Ollie, the Adam and Gerry show was, simply put, a source of constant irritation — sans the comic relief. Adam had previously demonstrated himself to be void of facts, unable to support his allegations or hide from a camera. The conduction of his inquisition was reminiscent of the Grand Inquisitor Tomas de Torquemada. Yes, they did vote in his committee and the ayes won.

Gerald Nadler, who never met a conservative he liked or meal he didn’t, was brought in as comic relief after the failure of the Schiff Show in the catacombs of the capitol. Nadler’s goose was cooked when he brought in three “expert witnesses” — each of whom deserve at least an honorable mention.

• But, Adam and Gerry were never doing anything more than responding to strings pulled by Nancy Pelosi. As such, Adam and Gerry are removed from further consideration, only to be surpassed by mega millionairess: Nancy Pelosi. Certainly Speaker of the House Pelosi’s moments in the spotlight were welcomed by her acolytes, while reviled by those possessing common sense, morals and respect for the Constitution.

Before naming the winner we need to define the qualifications. Clearly “irritating” can be seen from two levels: “Source of” and “Reactions to.” Those mentioned above all can be lumped into the category of being the source of irritation to millions of Americans. Those Americans would be the “deplorable” and bitter ones who “cling to guns and religion and in general are detested by the self-proclaimed superiors to we, the general rabble and unwashed masses of the hoi polloi.

The last three mentioned though are all commonly linked, due to their reaction to the real winner, who is undoubtedly the biggest cause of their combined irritation: President Donald Trump.

We have seen in the past year an unparalleled visceral reaction to President Trump. This reaction could be seen from day one in “The Screamer” (www.youtube.com/ watch?v=wDYNVH0U3cs), a clip worth a repeated viewing simply for the schadenfreude of the moment. But the irritation caused by the Trump presidency led to the lies of “Russian Collusion,” the failures of the “Mueller Report” and the Adam and Gerry show. It has now culminated in a vote favoring impeachment, now sitting on Pelosi’s desk waiting for her to “react now or be derelict in our duty.”

As irritating as all of the above have been, Donald Trump excels in the “reaction to” factor. Yet it is in part the reactive irritation of those infected with TDS that serves to unite the 63 million of us that voted for him. To those irritated by the president, nothing will sooth their pain. Not the lowest unemployment in decades, not the return of the manufacturing jobs we were told would never return, not the continued rise in the Dow, the S&P and the Nasdaq and not the increase in tax revenue generated, as promised, from the tax cuts.

The only thing that will end their pain is the elimination of the Trump presidency. The powers that be in D.C. fear it will not happen in November, thus they resort to the shenanigans and illegal actions now undertaken. In doing so they are unwittingly further uniting, while simultaneously creating, Trump supporters.

Given the above, there has been no person in the year just passed that has caused more irritation to so many deserving people than Donald Trump. And for that I thank him, while also looking forward to four more years.

— Dennis Lund/Benicia