041 The Erickson Report, Page 4: Noted in Passing

041 The Erickson Report, Page 4: Noted in Passing

Next up, we turn to an occasional feature, Noted in Passing, which is where we run through a few things quickly to make sure they get mentioned without spending a whole lot of time on any of them.

First up, the picture below is of Eric Zemmour, a rabble-rousing television pundit in France who is finding fervent audiences for his anti-Islam, anti-immigration invective and may run for president.

The sickening similarities to Tweetie-pie aside, what I wanted to point to was his for lack of a better term smile. Does it ever strike you that all of these reactionary bigots, no matter who they are, no matter where, all seem to have the same sort of supercilious, self-satisfied smirk, that creepy haughty expression that looks like Hannibal Lecter after a good meal?

Seriously. Watch for it.

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Here's something to cheer you up - not.

It seems that in a closed-door meeting on October 26, Democratic leadership advised House progressives that even as Build Back Better was on the verge of "being gutted beyond recognition" they better start acting like they are getting a major win whatever shreds of tattered cloth finally emerge.

"If we don't act like we are winning, the American people won't believe it either," said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. So progressives should, according to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, "Embrace this and have a narrative of success."

Eric Zemmour

In other words, instead of campaigning against the lobbyists, the grifters, the corporations, and their enablers :cough: Manchin Sinema :cough: just lie and proclaim "there's an awful lot good in this package" even though you'd be hard put to find anything that impacts the corporations or the rich, that is, anything that they didn't want there.

That is, we can have whatever small gains or incremental improvements we want so long as the interests of our overlords continue to get priority.

It can be really depressing.

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Quickly noted because it's a topic that requires and deserves a fuller treatment, but I wanted to note that during oral arguments at the Supreme Court on that insane Texas anti-choice law - you know, the one that says you can't sue the state to stop it because the state isn't the one enforcing it, it's a vast sea of potential plaintiffs suing anyone in any way connected with an abortion so you'd have to deal with them one at a time - a couple of the justices who voted in September to allow it to go into effect appeared to be having second thoughts.

Brett Accused Rapist Kavanaugh and Amy Bugs Bunny Barrett both had skeptical questions for the lawyer for Texas - and with John Roberts, who I still think looks at cases with an idea of how the Roberts Court will look to history having in September voted to block the law while appeals continued, a switch by either of those Trumpite wackos would block it.

That wouldn't be the end of it since there's no time frame for a ruling and who knows how many lives will be ruined in that time - but at least it should put a damper on other states such as Ohio already considering their own version of a "ha ha can't touch us" ban.

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Finally, we have an RIP.

Mort Sahl

Mort Sahl, a trailblazing political satirist with a biting wit whose rapid-fire monologues earned him the nickname “Rebel Without a Pause” died October 26 in Mill Valley, Calif. He was 94.

In 2011, his live 1955 recording “Mort Sahl at Sunset” was cited as the first standup comedy album and was named by the Library of Congress to the National Recording Registry.

Unhappily by the 1970s, Sahl had been labeled a conspiracy kook and had lost most of his audience, particularly after he worked for New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison, whose claims about a wide-ranging conspiracy among anti-Castro activists and the CIA to assassinate John Kennedy eventually came down to a single indictment against a businessman named Claw Shaw, who was acquitted in less than one hour. Sahl didn't return to Broadway until a one-man show in 1985 - but he remained defiantly contrarian until the end of his life.

A favorite quote from Mort Sahl: “Liberals feel unworthy of their possessions. Conservatives feel they deserve everything they’ve stolen.”

Indeed. RIP, Mort Sahl.