The Erickson Report, Page 3: Clown of the Year, Total Jackassery category

The Erickson Report, Page 3: Clown of the Year, Total Jackassery category

Moving on the the Total Jackassery category, our second runner-up is the Department of Energy.

Back in May, the agency issued a press release announcing approval of more exports of LNG - liquified natural gas - by a Freeport LNG terminal off the coast of Texas.

In the release, the fossil-fuel-sucking bureaucrats declared the expansion of such exports to be "critical to spreading freedom gas throughout the world" and that more such exports will allow for "molecules of US freedom to be exported to the world.”

So it’s kind of like freebasing but without the kick.

Our first runner-up is a perennial champion, always a threat to take the top spot, but this year he fell just short. It's our old friend Tucks Carlson.

On one show in June, he deranged - which I made up as a verb because it fits cases like this so well - he deranged that "Almost every nation on Earth has fallen under the yoke of tyranny." Only the brave and noble US has resisted!

And what is this yoke of tyranny, what is this horrendous worldwide oppression?

Quoting again: "From Beijing to Buenos Aires, from Lusaka to London, the people of the world have been forced to measure their environment in millimeters and kilograms."

Yeah, the tyrant is the metric system. Indeed, a world in chains.

He made a last ditch attempt for the crown, declaring on a show two weeks later that - and I'm not exaggerating, this is a quote - he actually said "If white supremacy were a huge problem in America, how did Cory Booker become a senator?"

Of course if white supremacy is not a huge problem in America, why is Cory Booker being a senator so worthy of note, but that level of thought is beyond his reach.

What could top that double-barreled action? Our winner is another repeat offender, conservative radio host and poster boy for privilege Ben Shapiro.

First, in August he said on his radio show that people who have to work two jobs are actually just, well, stupid: Quoting: "If you had to work more than one job to have a roof over your head or food on the table, you probably shouldn’t have taken the job that’s not paying you enough. That’d be a you problem."

Ben Shapiro

That is, if your primary job doesn't pay enough to live on, well, you just should have taken a different and higher-paying job, you moron.

Then in September, again on his radio show, he praised America’s healthcare system by touting the country’s life expectancy. Now, the US ranks 34th among the nations of the world in life expectancy, and our life expectancy has actually declined the last three years in a row.

But no matter, Shapiro praised it as “pretty good when you take out all the confounding factors” such as auto accidents, murders, and suicide. Note that gun deaths and suicides are both considered public health issues.

In other words, Shapiro was saying, our life expectancy is great - as long as you ignore a lot of the people who died. A master class in venal inanity.

Ben Shapiro, Clown of the Year, Total Jackassery Category.