morally bankrupt
past the point of no return
unhinged entirely

I asked ChatGPT to give me words that describe someone who has finally gone too far, gone past the limit.

ChatGPT responded!

Here are words and phrases that capture the idea of someone who’s finally crossed the line / gone past the limit, grouped by tone and nuance:

Blunt / Strong
Unhinged
Out of control
Over the edge
Beyond saving
Past the point of no return
Too far gone
Irredeemable

Psychological / Emotional
Unraveled
Broken
Fractured
Unstable
Snapped
Lost
Unmoored

Moral / Ethical
Corrupted
Depraved
Debased
Morally bankrupt
Tainted
Fallen

Poetic / Dramatic
Crossed the Rubicon
Burned the last bridge
Stepped into the abyss
Past the brink
Overreached
Damned
Claimed by the dark

Colloquial / Modern
Off the rails
Went feral
Lost the plot
Unchecked
Unhinged entirely

Quiet but Heavy
There’s no coming back
Something in them broke
They chose the wrong side
They crossed a line they can’t uncross

I ask you, which of these terms has NOT been used in a headline at sometime, somewhere in the last year to describe some action by the current person in office and his administration?

Then, I ask you, when will enough be enough?

Famously, Senator Joseph McCarthy also met this grading scale and most of these terms were used to describe his actions and his list of 205, 57, no 81, to finally, 1 known communist in the State Department is 1 too many.

According to Wikipedia:

While he never produced a verified list of communists, his investigations had significant consequences:
> 500+ people were called to testify before his subcommittee.
> Over 2,000 government employees lost their jobs as a result of his investigations and the general climate of the “Red Scare”.
> Zero of the individuals he publicly named were ever convicted of subversion or espionage.

The Senator kept at it until finally, in the famous televised Army-McCarthy hearings (televised by the way, because network newcomer ABC had such a weak afternoon programming schedule they could afford to broadcast the hearings live), Joseph Welch, the defense attorney appearing for the US Army looked at the Senator and on live TV asked, “At long last, have you no decency?”

If you have ever seen the movie, Anatomy of a Murder, set in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Joseph Welch was hired by the director Otto Preminger as a legal consultant and Preminger ended up casting Mr. Welch as the mild mannered Judge in the movie.

This quiet, unassuming man, looked at Joe McCarthy and said in his quiet, unassuming voice, “At long last, have you no decency?”

And he held up a mirror to the country and the country said, BLEEECHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, where did this McCarthy guy come from?

Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?
Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you …

tyrants remember
hurrah for flag of the free
it waves forever

Other nations may deem their flags the best
And cheer them with fervid elation
But the flag of the North and South and West
Is the flag of flags, the flag of Freedom’s nation.

Hurrah for the flag of the free!
May it wave as our standard forever,
The gem of the land and the sea,
The banner of the right.
Let tyrants remember the day
When our fathers with mighty endeavor
Proclaimed as they marched to the fray
That by their might and by their right
It waves forever.

The Stars and Stripes Forever, music AND LYRICS by John Philip Sousa.

By a 1987 act of the U.S. Congress, it is the official National March of the United States of America.

Goodness gracious but remember the times when Congress used to ACT and we didn’t have to take to streets to protest on behalf of Democracy, Life and Liberty?

Sing out for liberty and light,

Sing out for freedom and the right,

Sing out for Union and its might,

It waves forever.

an attack on law,
order, puts officers at risk
every single day

“This was an attack on law and order. This was an attack on the American people,” said Vance, who maintained it has not been portrayed that way by many journalists.

“The way that the media, by and large, has reported this story has been an absolute disgrace,” he added. “And it puts our law enforcement officers at risk every single day.”

“What you see is what you get in this case,” Vance said, downplaying ambiguity about the circumstances that led to the shooting.

The officer was clearly acting in self-defense, Vance said. He framed Good as “a victim of left-wing ideology” who was spurred by an alleged network of politically motivated groups to interfere with law enforcement.

“I can believe that her death is a tragedy while also recognizing that it is a tragedy of her own making,” Vance said.

JD Vance as quoted describing recent events in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the article Vance blames victim of fatal ICE shooting at White House briefing (Associated Press 1/8/2026).

Taking a wide angle view of events and reactions, it’s lucky that the ICE officers of today were not on duty back on January 6th at the US Capital.

I am reminded of an exchange on the old tv show, Northern Exposure between Dr. Dr. Joel Fleischman and Morning DJ Chris Stevens.

Chris Stevens: “Joel, I think that you’re confusing the truth with facts.”
Dr. Joel Fleischman: “No, the facts change, Chris. The truth is constant.”
Chris Stevens: “Oh, on the contrary, my friend: The truth changes. The truth about Custer. Hero or villain? Civilizer or agent of genocide? The truth slips and turns. The facts remain the same.”
Dr. Joel Fleischman: “Yeah? What about light? Particle or wave? I mean, it exhibits qualities of both. When the truth is finally known, the facts will be made to accommodate the truth.”

folly to assume
the demands of his ego
will be satisfied

Trump is a vain and petty man, and it is easy to impute psychological motives to his actions. But it is folly to assume the demands of his ego will be satisfied by symbolic victories. Revulsion and desire are two sides of the same coin, and it is clear that Trump covets the kind of unaccountable power Maduro enjoyed — to enrich his family and cronies, to intimidate political opponents, to muzzle the press, to flood the streets of his country with armed men who do his bidding. Trump has managed to do a measure of all of these things. No doubt he intends to do more.

From the New York Times Opinion piece, This Is Trump’s Small Trick to Destroy American Democracy by Lydia Polgreen.

I am reminded of the bully in the movie, A Christmas Story.

The movie, A Christmas Story was based on the book, But In god we trust all others pay cash by Jean Shepherd.

It is interesting to point out that the evil bully, Scut Farkus is not the bully in the book.

Grover Dill is.

Of Grover Dill, Jean Shephard writes, “Dill was a Running Nose type of Bully. His nose was always running, even when it wasn’t. He was a yelling, wiry, malevolent, sneevily snively Bully who had quelled all insurgents for miles around. I did not know one kid ‘who was not afraid of Dill, mainly because Dill was truly aggressive. This kind of aggression later in life is often called “Talent” or “Drive,” but to the great formless herd of kids it just meant a lot of running, getting belted, and continually feeling ashamed.“

Farkus shows up in Jean Shephard’s second book of growing up in Indiana memories titled, “Wanda Hickies Night of Golden Memories and Other Disasters.”

Again and again, something a supporter of the current feller in the Oval Office said.

“He fights my battles for me.”

Dill or Farkus, the movie, Ralphie says, “In our world, you were either a bully, a toady or one of the nameless rabble of victims.”

I was part of the nameless rabble of victims.

Difficult for me to imagine being a Grover Dill or Scut Farkus fan.

I mean, really?

I support the Scut Farkus and the Grover Dill people of this world.

They fight my battles for me.

Really?