SAY WHAT? - Amidst an ever-more toxic, loopy MAGA world, it turns out fascist-flag-flying, puerile-grudge-holding, venomous avatar of angry-white-lady privilege Martha-Ann Alito fits right in. In new undercover recordings, the bigoted wife of SCOTUS miscreant Sam Alito implausibly sounds worse than he is. She whines, "I have to look at the Pride flag for the next month," boasts of her deeply vindictive Nazi roots, and vows, "You come after me, I’m gonna give it back to you." Sweet Jesus these are ghastly people.
Oblivious of their own ghastliness, MAGA lickspittles were nauseatingly happy to welcome their 34-felon leader for a "pep talk" in his first visit to the capitol since he tried to burn it down. After they serenaded him with "Happy Birthday," he reportedly rambled like a "drunk uncle": He called Milwaukee, site of this year's GOP convention, "a horrible city," and claimed one of Nancy Pelosi's four "wacko" daughters suggested, "If things were different, Nancy and I would be perfect together" - to which one daughter, Christine, swiftly responded, "Speaking for all 4 Pelosi daughters – this is a LIE. Trump is unwell, unhinged and unfit" to hold office. Cringey Mike Johnson fawned over His Majesty's visit: “He said very complimentary things about all of us. We had sustained applause. He said I’m doing a very good job. We’re grateful for that.”
Meanwhile, the Grifter-In-Chief sends out endless hyperbolic money pleas - "I Am A Political Prisoner!" "Haul Out the Guillotine!" - that George Conway dubs "astonishing to behold...There does not seem to be any depth to which the Trump campaign will not sink." In response to his whining, Ted Lieu lists the legal status of multiple Trump cronies - campaign manager, political adviser, lawyer etc - "Felon" - and notes, "It is not the fault of the DOJ that Trump surrounded himself with criminals." Also, morons: See shrieky Klan Mom and energy expert MTG, who at a recent rally squawked to the ignorant crowd, "You think gas prices are high now?! Just wait till you're forced to drive an electric vee-hick-ull!" Stunned, bovine pause, followed by loyal "BOOO!" and "NOOO!" to which she lifts her hands in the triumphant air. "Exactly!" she exclaims. "America is sick of it!"
Then came Martha-Ann, whom one astute political observer deems "a straight-up piece of shit." Recently, she and Justice (sic) Alito have faced a firestorm over insurrectionist-and-Christo-fascist-themed flags - nothing to see here - they flew at two of their who-knows-how-many homes; with his usual grace, Sam then quickly threw his wife under the flag-flying bus. Now, thanks to audio secretly recorded by liberal filmmaker Lauren Windsor, posing as a Christian conservative at the annual Supreme Court Historical Society dinner, we know Martha-Ann clearly deserves her fate. Windsor had already posted audio of him declaring the country must return to "a place of godliness," and for that to happen, "One side or the other is going to win" - never mind all that quaint malarkey about equal, impartial, dispassionate justice before the law.
A few days later, Windsor posted the audio of Martha-Ann "unfurled," a vengeful, bitter, unhinged screed evincing what one observer called "a more catty Elizabeth Taylor in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf vibe." It also bore so much haughty, may-I-speak-to-the-manager entitlement many suggested she's "out-Karened all the Karens...We need to give Karens a break and pass the torch to Martha-Ann." First reported by Rolling Stone, Alito responded to Windsor's faux sympathy about media coverage of the flag issue with, "It's OK, because if they come back to me, I’ll get them." Bewailing, "I have to look across the lagoon at the Pride flag for the next month," she launched into a furious tirade about all the flags she plans to fly, she told her husband, "when you are free of this nonsense" - a time, we admit, we likewise look forward to.
For years, Martha-Ann has reportedly feuded with other D.C. elites who found her too much of a theocratic nutjob and right-wing ideologue even for them: "It's like you turned National Review into a single person." Her animus runs deep and long: She's nursed a two-decade grudge against a WaPo style reporter who once trashed her outfit, and she allegedly spit on a neighbor who cited their political differences. Somehow, it all comes down to flags. "You know what I want?" she spat to Windsor. "I want a Sacred Heart of Jesus flag. I'm putting it up and I’m gonna send them a message every day...I designed a flag in my head. This is how I satisfy myself. It’s white and has yellow and orange flames around it. And in the middle is the word ‘vergogna.’ ‘Vergogna’- in Italian it means shame. V-E-R-G-O-G-N-A. Vergogna. "Shame, shame, shame on you."
What would Jesus do? Maybe not tell a stranger at a dinner party "there is no negotiating with the radical left," the "feminazis (can) go to hell," and it's time to overturn democracy because they "have to look at a rainbow flag for 30 (days) in a year at one of their houses." Then again, Jesus was Palestinian, not German. "Look at me," she orders Windsor. "I’m German. I’m from Germany. My heritage is German. You come after me, I’m gonna give it back to you. There will be a way they will know. God - you read the Bible. Psalm 27 is my psalm. Mine. 'The Lord is my God and my rock. Of whom shall I be afraid?' Nobody." In the audio, it's unclear if she clicks her jackboots together at the end. What is clear: "The Nazis played the long game and got one of their own installed on the Supreme Court...They are every damn thing they say their enemies are."
"They feel, they don't think," says Alito of those who dare to support abortion or same-sex marriage as she vows vengeance on them by flying flaming flags she designs to "satisfy myself." Of her bonkers "vergogna" rant, Windsor says she "definitely did not see that coming." But she dismisses "pearl-clutching" critics of her covert recording, arguing Alito is a public figure who "gives a window" into the view of one of five theocratic extremists on a Court "shrouded in secrecy" and stubbornly defying accountability in the face of million-dollar ethical lapses. "I am a fan of accountability," she says. "I think (if) people in positions of power...refuse to be held accountable, it warrants taking measures you might not otherwise take (to) force a conversation about what’s at stake." "Fascists," says one pundit, "should never be allowed to rest comfortably among us."
The most important thing in his life - his husband and their kids - "only exists by the grace of a single vote on the Supreme Court," notes Pete Buttigieg. Given their "unbelievable amount of power," it's only reasonable to expect justices to "enter into those enormously consequential decisions that shape our everyday lives with a sense of fairness." Not, of course, today, with a right wing SCOTUS - toss in other right-wing judges, state and federal lawmakers, DeFascist governors, school boards and grievance-laden, take-no-prisoners others intent on doing everything they can to upend decades of progress, impose their hates and fears on the rest of us, and usher in a Christian theocracy to enable their "side" to "win." Joan Walsh on the ugly ravings of Martha-Ann Alito: "She brings vergogna - shame - upon her family and the Court."
(Abby Zimet has written CD's Further column since 2008. A longtime, award-winning journalist, she moved to the Maine woods in the early 70s, where she spent a dozen years building a house, hauling water and writing before moving to Portland. Having come of political age during the Vietnam War, she has long been involved in women's, labor, anti-war, social justice and refugee rights issues. Email: [email protected] This article was first published in CommonDreams.org.)
