Ron DeSantis, Sam Bankman-Fried headline Jon Keller's 2023 national turkeys
BOSTON - So many plump, obnoxious turkeys to choose from on the national scene during 2023, so little time.
Sam Bankman-Fried
Here's a question: if someone who looked and acted like Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced bitcoin billionaire "genius" who was recently convicted of fraud, conspiracy and money-laundering, came to your door offering to walk your dog, would you trust him to do it?
No thanks. But an amazing assortment of ostensibly intelligent people saw Bankman-Fried as the wave of the future and a champion of progressive causes instead of what he was, one of the most ridiculous con men ever.
The truth came out too late to spare Tom Brady and other FTX acolytes from humiliation. Too bad they didn't ask themselves a simple question: is this too good to be true?
Ron DeSantis
"We think we're gonna be able to win this thing," said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis last May when he formally jumped into the presidential race.
Better think again. In a matter of months DeSantis went from the political penthouse to the outhouse. And the only bigger turkey than his campaign was its basic premise: "There's an emotional separation with President Trump that voters are going through right now," as Ken Cuccinelli of the big pro-DeSantis PAC put it.
And we'll be seeing evidence of that any time now.
China's spy balloon
Remember the Chinese "spy balloon" that halted commercial air traffic, freaked out NORAD, and scrubbed a long-planned meeting between our Secretary of State and the Chinese premier? For a week last winter, it transfixed the nation.
But after shooting it down, the balloon turned out not to have done any spying. Oops.
Kind of a turkey of an international incident, wouldn't you say?
Mother Nature
But the biggest national turkey of the year might have been Mother Nature.
When she wasn't baking us with record heat waves and torching West Maui she was crushing us with hurricanes and cyclones and, here at home, ruining our summer weekends.
Mother, we love you, but please - make it stop!