Tontos Inútils

There is an expression, supposedly originally linked to Vladimir Lenin, to refer to individuals who unwittingly help some organization or cause without intending to: useful idiots (Корисні ідіоти) .  Several come to mind, such as the long-winded display by Ted Cruz or the judge who sentenced the Montana rapist.  Ted Cruz, by his useless squandering of Senate time to no avail made the case against Obamacare (which I'm not sold on) look petty and mean-spirited.  And the judge, by giving the convicted rapist a 31-day sentence, clearly showed a mass of Americans that the crime of rape (in this case a 14-year-old child) is sometimes not taken as seriously as it should.  If I was in Montana, would this kind of slap on the wrist penalty given to this type of offender make me feel safe to walk the streets?  I hope like heck that it galvinizes people to take things like that seriously, and develop some serious deterrents.  Maybe a long sentence followed by periodic mandatory medhydroxyprogesterone acetate injections, which serve as a chemical castration!

In other words, "You serve big time first, and then no hard-ons for you afterwards, Coover."

Anyway, having let off my steam about those yo-yos, let me now turn to all of Congress: a bunch of useless idiots.

Clearly, only part of the term useful idiots would apply to them; anyway, it would be hard to sell the term to Congress itself, much less the polarized media: the NY Times, the WaPo, Fox News, National Review, the New Republic, and others.  But there is a way:  why not call them tontos inútils (useless idiots)?

They might think that they are compared to the Lone Ranger's faithful companion, Tonto! 

Incldentally, did Jay Silverheels, the actor who originally played Tonto, ever find out that Tonto meant "dumb" or "slow" in Spanish?

And our illegal immigrants (or undocumented workers; take your pick) would be laughing and our movers and shakers would not understand why!

We have 97% of genes in common with chimpanzees.