So I said... #24 - for June 12-26

So now the next in my what I said is “more or less weekly”- so don’t give me grief about it being nearly two - compilations of various thoughts and comments on various sites. As always, comments and reactions are welcome, with gushing, effusive praise the most fun but in most cases not the most instructive.

As a quick reminder, comments are separated by “==” while those separated by “—” are a thread. Text in italicized braces (“[ ]”) are added here for context, while any in non-italicized braces were in the original comment as posted.

I’ve made you wait long enough. Let’s get to it.

2026-06-12
[And we start off with one I forgot to include last time. Oddly, it’s about memory.]

It’s the 43rd anniversary of the June 12, 1982 rally in Central Park, NYC, against nuclear weapons - the largest peace demonstration in US history, with an estimated 1,000,000 participants.

Just a reminder those weapons have not gone anywhere.

==

2026-06-15
[Submitted to the National Park Service Planning, Environment and Public Comment System]

I write in opposition to the proposed “Triumphal Arch at Memorial Circle.”

Contrary to the description, this proposed arch celebrates not our founding principles but rather a parody of them. It is “monumental” for the sake of being monumental, its size substituting grandeur for grace, expansiveness for elegance.

It is, to put it simply, big just for the sake of being big, not for any artistic or even memorializing purpose; it’s an expression not of pride but of pridefulness.

Which is why it seems oddly appropriate that the proposal is “drawing on the historic Roman precedent of erecting freestanding arches,” reaching back to a time of emperors and empires, of “bread and circuses” and gladiatorial contests to find inspiration for architecture as well as for fights on the White House lawn.

It is particularly improper for this latest outgrowth of Donald Trump’s desperate desire to be remembered as someone of oversized importance to be intended as an entrance to Arlington National Cemetery, where if it has any effect at all it will be to disrupt and distract from the solemn air, the contemplative atmosphere, of the site.

If it is to be built anywhere, let it span some side avenue somewhere, where it can, in time, come to be seen like the monuments and arches peppering London, as a pretty but ultimately quaint and otherwise unimportant reminder of times when some leader’s sense of self-importance outran their self-awareness.

==

2026-06-16
[Some guy who was supposed to be an FBI agent asks someone about their social media posts.]

Dunno about the assumptions he’s a fake, but if I make it out correctly, the shirt says “FBI Newark” so I wonder is the post was about the subhuman treatment of detainees at Delaney Hall.

EDIT: Okay - I just looked at it again and I’ve joined the “Fake!” brigade. The shirt does say “FBI Newark” but the emblem is a freaking World Cup logo and the shirt has a Nike swoosh on the sleeve.

If this dude was for real he dang well ain’t dressed for the occasion.

ANOTHER EDIT: It also occurs to me that he never actually said he was with the FBI and falsely claimed he’d already given his name - and while I don’t know for sure, I really doubt an agent would open a conversation with a warning about lying.

==

2026-06-20
[OP: Those arrested for plotting the attack on the UFC fight were driven by a version of right-wing Xianity.]

“Pure TDS.”

What is? The plot? The reports (both police and press)? The presence/absence of the Christianity-related aspect in them? What?

The notion among some extremists, underpinned by some version of “Christianity” (the quotes are deliberate), that “the US government is run by an elite group of individuals who sacrifice and consume infants” is neither new (Have we already forgotten “Pizzagate?”) and its targets are every bit as likely to be (and have been) Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama as our current Orange Overlord.

In fact, it and its antisemitic roots go at least as far back as “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” and indeed much further (as that volume is a collection of previously existing antisemitic slurs).

So while this plot may well have had no connection with the administration’s own embrace of its version of radical Christian fundamentalism, the dismissive notion that this was “pure TDS” with the unsubtle implication it was a bunch of crazy lefties denies both the history and the facts. I call BS on TDS.

==

2026-06-23
[“Labour’s declining fortunes are unrelated to its rejection of trans rights and GAC access.”]

I can and do accept all of that as true, but it utterly misses the point, which is that throwing trans folks under the bus didn’t do the party a flipping bit of good.

Indeed, rather than question the argument, it reinforces it: Abandoning trans rights with the idea it will improve your electoral chances is foolish - and, I believe, perhaps even self-defeating because I suspect it may have hurt Labour (although perhaps only a little) through loss of enthusiasm among those who hoped for an overall more progressive posture than they got.

==

2026-06-23
[A Kansas transwoman changed her driver’s ID to conform to state law and then got threatened with prosecution for having a “false” ID.]

What I find surprising here is not that it happened, but that it was the first time. This is exactly what many of us predicted when the law was passed: You don’t change your gender marker, you’re risking being charged with carrying a “fake ID.” You do change your gender marker, you’re still liable to be accused of having a “fake ID.”

Like all such laws and their kin, it has nothing to do with identification. It has to do with forcing trans folks into the closet, so far into the closet they couldn’t find the door with a flashlight.

A quick not-really-relevant sidebar on a little thing that bugs me: I wish we’d stop referring to our “preferred gender,” like our gender was a choice, a preference like our favorite color or favorite cuisine. It’s not one’s “preferred” gender, it’s their gender. I realize I could be hit with a flood of complexities, but I‘m referring to one narrow point: Your gender is you, it’s who you are, not a mere “preference.”

I expect others might think I’m making too much of it and perhaps I am, but I keep thinking of the term in the mouth of a hater: “They know it’s not real, they say it themselves: They just ‘prefer’ to call themselves that.”

==

2026-06-23
[A troll turned up in comments whining that the same article as the above hadn’t referred to the transwoman as “he” and “a man.”]

“That makes me a transphobe?”

Yes, Because it’s transphobic (fear of trans people) to be “opposed to discrimination” so long as it’s limited to areas “out there,” all safely legalistic and hypothetical, that do not involve you having to interact with real people living real lives.

I realize that “sex realist” is the term now favored by a number of terfs, but that does not make it a sensible one. Anyone truly realistic about the concept of sex would know that it’s a good deal more complex than both the “XX vs. XY’ you learned in some high-school biology class and the “biology is destiny” you absorbed from the society around you - and you would at least know and accept the basic concept that sex (relating to reproduction) and gender (sense of personal identity) are not the same thing.

I see where below you say “we’ll call it quits” om arguing, so I’ll leave it there with the hope you remember the old warning about a little knowledge being a dangerous thing.

==

2026-06-24
[A Rastafarian who had his dreadlocks shorn by prison guards in violation of federal law saw his suit tossed by SCOTUS on the grounds that the guards hadn’t agreed to be sued and yes you read that right.]

“It’s fair to wonder if the outcome would have been different here if a Christian”

No, it’s not.

Because there is no wondering involved.

Of course it would have been different. The emerging theocracy would allow for nothing else.

-

2026-06-24
[“Yet it’s Christians who continue to claim persecution”]

I wrote recently that they need to feel persecuted because they regard that as a sign that are right with Jesus and so are among the “elect” to be brought to eternal life and spared.

-

2026-06-26
[“It’s designed that way. The persecution complex is part of their brainwashing.”]

I dunno that I can go with “designed” and “brainwashing,” as they imply that the designers and brainwashers deliberately created it knowing it’s bullshit.

But the idea that suffering is proof of validation is a thread in the Bible - e.g., Matthew quotes Jesus as saying “You will be hated by everyone because of me,” Paul wrote “we glory in our sufferings,” and James wrote “consider it pure joy whenever you face trials.”

The notion that being (supposedly) persecuted is proof of righteousness is hardly new and it is neither exclusive to, nor did it originate with, Xianity.

==

2026-06-25
[Armed ICE agents came to a polling place in Syracuse to tell a poll worker to take down an Instagram post critical of ICE.]

Contrary to [host] Jesse [Dollemore], we should hope we are “frog-potted.” When the myth was actively tested in lab conditions, in every case there came a point where the water got too hot and the frog refused to accept it and jumped out - if you will, rebelled.

So I said - semi-regular wrap-up

More comments on various topics posted somewhere online.

2026-01-18
Right-wing hate preacher Greg Locke claims his house was attacked by someone with a machine gun and played what he claimed was an audio of the attack, featuring the sound of 60 shots in three seconds.

Well, the incident was real (and police have arrested a suspect), but Locke's supposed audio was a fake.

It was supposedly from some home security system but sounded fake to me when I first heard it. Even so, I was prepared to chalk it up to the quality of the system’s recording ability until I looked up the info about the weapon.

See, the police said the weapon was a .40 caliber automatic pistol. That is a SEMI-automatic weapon - meaning the trigger has to be pulled for each shot - with a capacity of up to 15 rounds.

So if he did fire 60 shots, he had to fire 15 times, pause to reload (which police said he did), fire 15 times, reload, and so on. No flaming way in hell did he do than in, as Locke claimed, three seconds.

Why he felt it necessary to manipulate or manufacture the audio I can't say; maybe he thought the original didn't sound as scary as he wanted. Whatever the reason, is was a fake.

==

2026-01-18
I've asserted several times that much of the bigotry and hatred around trans folks is actually about discomfort and fear about sex, our societal sickness about the subject. For way too many of us, anything and everything about LGBTQ+ folks in general and trans folks in particular isn’t about who a person is, but about how they “do it," about "what's in their pants," with the unwanted lurid thoughts such notions arouse and the self-loathing guilt they produce turned outward as self-protection.

Here we have another example.

RJ May is - or was until he quit — a member of the South Carolina state legislature.

During his time in office he claimed that children are being "harmed" by "exposing" them to drag shows and "pushing sex changes on toddlers," ranting about “child exploitation.”

And to what should be no one's surprise he has been sentenced to 17.5 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to distributing child sex abuse material, including nearly 500 explicit videos featuring toddlers and young children involved in sex acts and incest between young children and their parents. (He has a seven-year-old child.) 

After his indictment in June, he claimed he'd been framed by his political enemies (of course he did) but wound up pleading guilty to five counts in exchange for the dropping of five others. 

From the article:

Moms for Liberty — the anti-LGBTQ+ extremist group that regularly seeks to ban LGBTQ+-inclusive children’s books as a form of “pornography” and regularly accuses LGBTQ+ people and their allies of “grooming” children for sexual abuse — honored May as their 2023 Legislator of the Year and had him speak at their 2022 event on “Reclaiming Education in America.”

I wonder if they'll take back the honor.

Actually, I doubt it. Just like I doubt there aren't a lot more just like May among the haters.

==

2026-01-19
It is time for Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk to be disbarred for judicial misconduct for accepting and ruling on issues where he clearly has a profound personal bias.

==

2026-01-21
A post suggested that The Orange Overlord's desire for Greenland is because the area distortions inherent to the Mercator Projection map makes it look much bigger than it actually is.

The post is interesting and worthwhile but have to contest that starting point as I rather doubt that has much if anything at all to do with it. I think it’s much more to do with TOO’s vision of a “greater America,” the same vision that drove the business of Canada being “the 51st state” - something that still sits in the back of his head; note that he recently referred to Greenland becoming the “52nd state.”

(And people in Puerto Rico went “um, hey!”)

What matters here is that he thinks in 19th-century sphere of influence terms, with one nation dominating it’s own: China in Asia, Russia in Europe, and the US in the Americas. In that view, each of those dominant nations should be free to do pretty much what it wants within their own sphere so long as it does not intrude into one of the others.

In that way of thinking, expanding our borders would be the ultimate establishment in the historical record of the US being a great power and him a great leader, something he so desperately desires (which, parenthetically, I think relates to his practice of plastering his name on things and his pathetic desire for a Nobel Peace Prize, ways to be seen and remembered as someone worthy of note). It’s not so much the size of the expansion per se (although it would be significant, increasing the area of the US by about 22%) as the sheer fact of it that provokes his dreams of grandeur.

Footnote: Post author Christopher Lockett protested (with a smile) that he didn’t say that’s why TOO was saying that, rather it was just an excuse to “nerd out about cartography.” To which I replied, that’s okay, I was doing the same thing: using a remark as a hook for my own rant. And that I enjoyed the article.

==

2026-01-21
[To my Congressional reps after the release of the elated budget proposal to the floor of the House.]

The public, not to mention Congress, being given just days to consider and react to funding for DHS in general and ICE in particular is disturbing at best, evasive of public response at a time when those agencies are significantly unpopular more likely.

I call on you to vote NO on any appropriations for DHS or ICE until after - repeat, after - major reforms are agreed to and acted on.

DHS, a product of post-9/11 paranoia, should be dismantled. ICE should be stripped down and rebuilt from scratch with strict controls; to steal a phrase, it should be "repealed and replaced." Until then, they should  get nothing.

On this, I will not be satisfied with less.

==

2026-01-23

[Background: A commenter on an article at Erin in the Morning said the people behind anti-trans laws should be imprisoned and fined and barred from seeking office “until they are as politically dead as the Whigs.”

NOTE WELL: The writer’s responses to me in this exchange have been edited. While I think they still reflect what was argued, to be completely fair, you should see the whole exchange, which can be found here.

 

I hate to be a downer, but what you're suggesting is an incredibly heavy lift.

 

The first citation [42 USC §1983] is about suing public officials, the second [18 USC §241] is about conspiracy, the third [18 USC §242] is about wrongful official actions under color of law. What all have in common is that they involve violations of rights secured either under the Constitution or by federal law.

There is no federal law establishing a right to GAC (or any health care, for that matter - note that Medicare, the ACA, and the like are about access to care, not a right to it). Even the Biden-era protections for trans folks were an Executive Order based on an interpretation of Title IX and rescinded by The Orange Overlord.

Nor is there any established Constitutional right to GAC or even just to being transgender. In fact, in US v. Skrmetti, upholding a Tennessee ban on GAC for youth, the Scurrilous Six majority said the ban is valid because it merely "removes one set of diagnoses," that is, gender dysphoria, "from the range of treatable conditions” so no violation of rights was involved. I expect any claim that denial of access to GAC violates a Constitutional right would likely be treated dismissively.

The closest I think we could come now is Bostock v. Clayton County, but since that was about employment, not health care and preceded Skrmetti (2020 vs. 2025) I doubt it would be persuasive.
-
2026-01-24
[There are laws on state and federal interference with rights to property, commerce, etc. Rights don’t need to be in the Constitution; rather, there must be government power to limit them, otherwise they are plenary.]

 
On the first point, the established power of a state to regulate commerce, in this case the practice of medicine, is exactly what SCOTUS relied on in Skrmetti, arguing that's what Tennessee did: regulate the practice of medicine.

On the second, it's true that the 9th Amendment refers to "enumerated" rights and that a right not being listed does not mean it doesn't exist. But that does not mean that any given non-enumerated right exists legally, rather it must be discovered, usually by implication of those that are.

For example, a right of married couples to obtain contraceptives was found in to exist within the "penumbra" of the 4th Amendment's relation to personal privacy. The principle was later extended to cover unmarried couples and still later to strike down sodomy laws, but legally, that right didn't exist until 1965.

So it seems to me the only way to pursue the suits and prosecutions you suggest is to establish an overall right to health care and then have GAC be an accepted right within that, so that it could not be regulated out of bounds.

Like I said, an incredibly heavy lift.

And as a footnote, all this is without considering the impact of the Constitution's ban on ex post facto laws on your hoped-for prosecutions.
-
2026-01-24

]These laws are constitutionally impermissible attempts to mandate that transgender youth be abused with their own sex. Child abuse is already illegal. Those in favor of these laws have no case. And you have no idea what ex post facto means.]

 
I was addressing the legal landscape facing the course you argued for. I stand by it.

Now you are arguing that laws barring GAC (particularly puberty blockers) are "constitutionally impermissible" even though Skrmetti, by virtue of upholding Tennessee's ban, said they are valid.
So at least you have to overcome that barrier. That alone makes it a heavy lift. Doesn't mean it can't be done, but do not pretend it would be anything short of that.

As for ex post facto, you are proposing criminalizing actions that were not considered criminal at the time they were performed, which at the least raises ex post facto concerns. While child abuse laws already exist, the application of them to deny access to GAC doesn't; in fact, it is far more common to hear the opposite, to hear the transmisics and reactionaries screaming that GAC is itself "child abuse" and some places - Texas, for example - have proposed prosecuting parents on just that basis.

Morally and ethically, as you say, "those in favor of these laws have no case."  But unhappily, as someone (I don't recall who) said, "The law is not about justice. The law is about the law." And that is what we're dealing with here.

Bottom line and I think the end from my side: Not impossible. But know how hard it will be to get there and the obstacles to be overcome.
 

==
 

2026-01-24
[Background: Dr. Kirk Milhoan is the head of RF (my father would be ashamed of me) Kennedy Jr's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. He is also an evangelical Christian pastor with no background in immunology who says vaccination should be voluntary.] 

 
So Milhoan is "returning individual autonomy to the first order, not public health, but individual autonomy to the first order," even though "declin[ing] a vaccine may also affect others," is he?

How does he feel about speed limit laws? Sure, speeding "may affect others," but if "individual autonomy" can outweigh public health, why not public safety? 

By the way, is he a flat-Earther? I mean, he says “I don’t like established science” and “Science is what I observe.” Central arguments of flat-Earthers revolve around the "observation" that "Hey, it looks flat" and how you can't trust "the scientific establishment." Sounds pretty flerfy to me.

Sometimes pushback works

Nice to know some people still believe freedom of expression does not require universality of opinion.

The board of the Adelaide [Australia] Festival runs as part of the overall event Adelaide Writers Week, the nation’s largest free literary festival .

On January 8 the board announced that they had disinvited Australian-Palestinian writer Dr. Randa Abdel-Fattah from the event. They cited “her previous statements" and the "cultural sensitivities“ surrounding the antisemitic mass shooting at Sydney’s Bondi Beach - even as they admitted her writings don't “have any connection with the tragedy.”

They didn’t cite any specific statements by Abdel-Fatah, but we can safely assume they are to referring to her support for Palestinian rights and her denunciation of the Israeli genocide in Gaza, especially given that her exclusion came as the result of lobbying by the Jewish Community Council for South Australia and South Australia state premier Peter Malinauskus.

The upshot? By January 13, 180 speakers - amounting to about 70% of those invited - had withdrawn as had some sponsors of the event, the Festival’s director had quit, the whole event had been canceled, remaining board members were to resign, and the future of the wider Adelaide Festival was in question.

There is to be a new board, hoping to keep the wider festival, now in its 40th year and a major draw for the state of South Australia, going.

Footnote: The statement announcing the cancellation offered Abdel-Fattah a non-apology apology referring not to the actual decision but only to “how the decision was represented” while claiming "this is not about identity or dissent."

Yeah, sure. Whadevah you say, Mac.

064 The Erickson Report for October 27 to November 10, Page 1: Attacks on transgender youth

064 The Erickson Report for October 27 to November 10, Page 1: Attacks on transgender youth

Let's start here with a basic fact: Treatment for gender dysphoria, that is, gender-affirming treatment and care, has deemed medically appropriate by literally dozens of health-related organizations including every major pediatric institution in the country, including:

the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
the American Academy of Pediatrics
the American Medical Association
the American Psychiatric Association
the American Psychological Association
National Association of Social Workers
the Pediatric Endocrine Society
the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine
and more than a dozen others.

Despite that, using the same devotion to facts and logic that enabled them to claim COVID was "just the flu" and to encourage infections by opposing mask mandates - the current death toll is approaching 1.1 million - GOPpers and other assorted proto-fascists have over the past two years directed levels of viciousness toward transgender youth that are nothing short of barbaric.

And it's gone from sneering to attacks about school sports to witch hunts about "grooming" to have reached levels of outright eliminationism.

Gender-affirming care is banned in Arizona and Arkansas; gender-affirming surgery for minors is a felony in Alabama; in Texas, state agencies are required to consider gender-affirming health care to be child abuse and anyone who provides it or supports children in accessing it a potential abuser. A bill passed the Idaho House to sentence health care providers who offered gender-affirming care to life in prison.

Note that some of these provisions and some of those in other states have been blocked by courts from going into effect, at least not yet, but that cannot deny either the intensity or the intent, marked perhaps most clearly by South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who celebrated the passage of an anti-trans school sports bill by by directly comparing support for transgender rights to terrorism.

Meanwhile, in Congress, 50 House GOPpers, lead by QAnon butt-kisser Marjorie Taylor Greene, the brainiac who's against solar power because she thinks it doesn't work at night, are pushing a bill to outlaw gender-affirming care for minors nationwide, including a ban on any federal money for any form of such care, banning any coverage under the Affordable Care Act, and even requiring institutions of higher education not to offer any training on such care and accrediting agencies to refuse to accredit any institution or association that offers such care. Criminal penalties can range up to 25 years in the federal slammer. 

But on October 13, a group of Michigan Republican state representatives went all the way, introducing a bill that would see parents and health care professionals facing the treat of 25 years to life in prison for providing gender-affirming care to a minor. The bill would change the very definition of child abuse to explicitly include anyone who “knowingly or intentionally consents to, obtains, or assists with a gender transition procedure for a child.” "Procedure" is defined as including not only to gender-affirming surgery - which is very rare for teens - but also to hormone treatments and puberty blockers, even though such treatments are both harmless and completely reversible: You start to transition, decide you don't want to, just stop taking the meds and your body takes care of the rest.

GOPpers are the majority in the Michigan House and they are expected to throw full support behind the bill. The only sort of good news here is that if it passes both the House and the Senate, also controlled by GOPers, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer would likely veto it - assuming she survives the dark money-funded assault from GOPper and all-around definition of right-wing fakery Tudor Dixon.

But that's not the worst, as the bill goes beyond that. It not only bars the provision of new treatment, it mandates that trans teens in the state who are currently receiving gender-affirming medical care be forced to stop their treatments and undergo compulsory medical detransition.

This is outright eliminationism. This is saying to trans youth "You are not allowed to be that way and we will force to you not be that way. You are not allowed to exist."

This at a time when the Trevor Project’s 2022 survey on the mental health of LGBTQ+ youth determined that more than 60 percent of LGBTQ+ youth said their mental health has deteriorated as a result of these sorts of attacks. Nearly one in five transgender and nonbinary youth attempted suicide in the past year, while 42% of youth who identified as LGBTQ+ contemplated suicide - a figure that rose to 52% for trans kids in particular.

And every one of those figures is worse for LGBTQ+ youth of color.

These laws, despite all their screeching about "Protect the children!" are going to see children die.

And you know, it's always about "The children! Think of the children!" It's what this sort of moral panic seems to be always about. From the Salem witch trials right up through in my lifetime comic books, rock and roll, day care centers, Dungeons and Dragons, video games, and the Internet, it keeps being about "Omigod the children!"

But there is a difference in this case. Most moral panics seems to emerge sort of organically. Somehow, a few people get an idea about something, it gets talked about so a few more hear about it and for some reason invariably related to broader social fears and stresses, it catches on and grows by feeding on itself in a feedback loop until at some point it burns itself out.

Not this one. There is nothing natural or organic about this one. This anti-trans panic has been manufactured, created, consciously and deliberately, top-down, by right-wing and repressive forces and their associated think-tanks to create fear and then exploit that fear purely for their own extremist self-interest.

David Neiwert has looked at and followed the topic of eliminationist rhetoric - that is, the use of expressions of "You do not have the right to be here" or even "You do not have the right to exist," for reactionary political gain - for years. He says "the entire point of such rhetoric is to create permission to direct violence freely at the targeted minority group."

Or, as in this case, the targeted group plus "anyone in the general vicinity," such as supportive teachers, parents, and health care professionals - and more recently, performers at drag shows reading to children - who are all either "groomers" or outright pedophliles or predators or all three, or in the case of drag show performers, also "perverts." And do not think for an instant that the overt physical intimidation directed at those drag shows by such as the Proud Boys, whose pride lies in being right-wing thugs, is not a manifestation of this eliminationism

For evidence this is all deliberate, we can look to a report from August out of The Human Rights Campaign and the Center for Countering Digital Hate looking at the increasing anti-LGBTQ+ hate rhetoric on social media and by the way thanks to David Niewert for the link and for more background on the issue.

The groups looked at tweets containing slurs like "groomers" or "pedophiles" in the context of conversations about LGBTQ+ people between January and July of 2022. There were nearly 990,000 of them - plus an additional 130,000-plus using the dismissive smear "ok, groomer."

One key finding was that after Florida Gov. Ron DeSandTick got his "Don't Say Gay" bill through, the rate of hateful tweets more than quadrupled, apparently because, I'd say, the bill's passage was felt to somehow legitimize the bigotry.

More significant, however, is the finding that much of the hate is being generated by a handful of well-known right-wing influencers. The researchers determined the 500 hateful “grooming” tweets had been viewed the most times had been viewed an estimated 72 million times and 2/3 of that total - 48 million views - were generated from just 10 people.

The top four contained no surprises:

Marjorie Taylor ColorOfNausea-Greene
James Lindsay, an “anti-woke” activist who described the pride flag as that of a "hostile enemy"
Lauren "Pistol-packin' mama" Boebert
and Chaiya Raichik, the sniggering clown behind the “LibsofTikTok” account.

Among the rest we find Ron DeSandTick press secretary Christina Pushaw, who pulled language right out of QAnon to take the "groomer" crap mainstream, two pundits for the far-right outfit Turning Point USA, one from BlazeTV, which is where you go if you ever wonder what the hell happened to Glenn Beck, and one from The Daily Wire, the reactionary "news" source founded by poster boy for privilege and winner of The Erickson's Report Clown of the Year 2019, Ben Shapiro.

In other words, a pretty standard collection of right-wing grifters, greedheads, and gasbags, backed by the usual band of bullshitters like the cretins at Faux News, which ran a series of shows on pedophilia in March and April, which included a guest on Fox and Friends claiming children were “being ripened for grooming for sexual abuse by adults” and another on America Reports insisting that affirmative care for trans children “goes beyond predatory grooming” into “psychological torture.”

The fact is, reactionary groups and movements like Christian nationalists - including fundamentalist preachers demanding that gay people be lined up and shot in the head - and neofascist white power groups like Patriot Front, with their individual ranges of ideological focuses, have banned together to wield “groomer” rhetoric like a bludgeon for one purpose only: As put by Justin Unga, the Human Rights Campaign's director of strategic initiatives, "pure politics," adding "It is no coincidence that people have inflamed and used this rhetoric during the period of the primary elections. They are," he said, "inflaming the most extreme elements of their fan base to gain notoriety, to build a brand that they see as politically and financially profitable."

In other words, it is about what the right wing is always about: greed, selfishness, egotism, and power-hunger.

These people don't give a single flying damn about the children they claim to be protecting. They don't care about the bullying, about the harassment, about the violence, about the suicides. They don't care about the prospect of children being ripped from supportive parents precisely because of that parental support - remember, in Texas and not only there, that's called child abuse. They don't care about the increase in hate crimes directed against gender nonconforming people. They do not care.

Because for them, these children aren't real, they are just cartoons, cardboard cutouts, stage props to be named, labeled, and moved around however they think it will produce the desired result in the audience. The realities of the lives of these children don't move them, the realities of their deaths move them even less. It's all about the posturing, the pose, the play.

If Diogenes were to move among these people I expect he would be very lonely and extremely disappointed. They are, in a word, despicable.

064 The Erickson Report for October 27 to November 10

064 The Erickson Report for October 27 to November 10

This episode of The Erickson Report looks at what and who is behind the attacks on transgender youth before discussing the reaction to the letter from the Congressional Progressive Caucus about trying to talk to Russia about Ukraine.

Sources:

- transgender youth
https://www.aclu.org/news/lgbtq-rights/doctors-agree-gender-affirming-care-is-life-saving-care
https://transhealthproject.org/resources/medical-organization-statements/
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home
https://theintercept.com/2021/04/01/trans-kids-rights-arkansas-gop/
https://twitter.com/patriottakes/status/1558596561461968900
https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/equality/3607955-marjorie-taylor-greene-introduces-bill-to-make-gender-affirming-care-for-transgender-youth-a-felony/
https://theintercept.com/2022/10/13/anti-trans-bill-michigan/
https://michiganadvance.com/2022/10/13/parents-providing-gender-affirming-care-for-their-kids-could-get-life-in-prison-under-gop-bill/
https://www.thetrevorproject.org/survey-2022/
https://www.thetrevorproject.org/survey-2022/assets/static/trevor01_2022survey_final.pdf
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/8/11/2115986/--Groomer-rhetoric-s-toxic-spread-on-social-media-revolves-around-10-key-far-right-influencers
https://hrc-prod-requests.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/CCDH-HRC-Digital-Hate-Report-2022-single-pages.pdf
https://twitter.com/anthonyLfisher/status/1539335893189804034
https://www.csusb.edu/sites/default/files/2022-08/Report%20To%20The%20Nation8-4-22.pdf

- footnote
https://www.prri.org/research/americas-growing-support-for-transgender-rights/

- the CPC letter
https://theintercept.com/2022/10/25/house-progressives-letter-russia-ukraine-diplomacy/
https://theintercept.com/2022/10/26/obama-ukraine-congress-progressive-caucus/
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/10/26/23423574/congressional-progressive-caucus-ukraine-russia-letter-diplomacy
https://twitter.com/McFaul/status/1584921101020209152?s=20&t=nkp2E8WfEDpUTxTvcuHLEA
https://www.state.gov/625-million-in-additional-u-s-military-assistance-for-ukraine/
https://whoviating.blogspot.com/2022/03/050-erickson-report-for-march-17-to-30_69.html
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/05/06/boris-johnson-pressured-zelenskyy-ditch-peace-talks-russia-ukrainian-paper
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2022/04/09/is-the-us-hindering-much-needed-diplomatic-efforts/

The Erickson Report is informed news and commentary from the radical nonviolent American left. Comments and questions are welcome. Please observe rules of courtesy.

045 The Erickson Report for December 29 to January 12, Page 3: A Year of Stupid: Clowns of the Year

045 The Erickson Report for December 29 to January 12, Page 3: A Year of Stupid: Clowns of the Year

We are going to skip the Two Weeks of Stupid this time - which in a way is too bad because we had a good one for Clown: Candace Owens, the right-wing talk show host who got owned by Tweetie-pie about vaccines on her own show and then tried to whine it away by tweeting that he's an old guy from before the time people could "do their own research."

Instead, as this is the last show of the year, it's a good time for one of those yearly wrap-ups. So I'm going to use the occasion to give out awards for Clown of the Year and Outrage of the Year. This was a shortened year for various personal reasons so we don't have as many nominees as we normally would, but we still have some worthy winners.

For Clown, there are two categories: Basic Stupid and Total Jackassery. And in the category of Basic Stupid, the Clown of the Year is the man who put the "gomer" in Gohmert - Representative Louis Gohmert of Texas.

At a June 8th hearing of the House Natural Resources Committee he put this question to Jennifer Eberlin, the assistant deputy chief of the National Forest System, quote:

"I was informed by the immediate past director of NASA that they found that the Moon's orbit is changing slightly and so is the Earth's orbit around the Sun. We know there's been significant solar flare activities and so is there anything the National Forest Service or the Bureau of Land Management can do to change the course of the Moon's orbit or the Earth's orbit around the Sun. Obviously that would have a profound effect on our climate."

And apparently this is not sarcastic; he was serious about this. Louis Gomer was actually raising the idea of changing the orbit of the Earth in order to deal with climate change. He is hands down the Clown of the Year, Basic Stupid category.

A quick science aside here because this is just the thing to demonstrate the Dunning-Kruger effect, where in effect the less you know about something the more you think you know.

It is true the Moon's orbit is changing slightly. That has to do with interaction with the tides on Earth. It's also true that the Earth's orbit is subject to some for lack of a better term wobbling and those cyclical shifts in the Earth's motion and the resulting change in its position relative to the Sun can be a driver of long-term climate change, including things like triggering the beginning or the end of glaciation periods or ice ages.

The thing is, those cycles run on time frames ranging from 24,000 to over one hundred thousand years and the warming we are now seeing is from a time frame of maybe one hundred-fifty years. Those cycles and the warming we're seeing now have absolutely nothing to do with each other and Louis Gohmert really really really is a Clown

Okay, moving to the Total Jackassery category, we have another clear winner: smug transphobe Dave Chappelle.

Chappelle released a new special the beginning of October and got flak over the offensive transphobia it included, up to and including a walkout by some employees of Netflix, where it was streamed.

He responded by claiming he is the actual victim, saying "You said you want a safe working environment at Netflix. Well, it seems like I'm the only one that can't go to the office anymore."

Then, at the November 22 screening of his new documentary, Chappelle tossed around the "f-word," made jokes about people’s use of various pronouns, and pretended to identify as a woman to get a cushier prison cell, proving to one and all that he has learned nothing and doesn't intend to.

Which actually had been clear from the start. Back in October, he supposedly offered to meet with members of the transgender community, but, he said, "You will not summon me. I am not bending to anybody's demands." But he'd meet - under certain conditions. Quoting:

"You cannot come if you have not watched my special from beginning to end. You must come to a place of my choosing at a time of my choosing." (In other words, "You will not summon me; I will summon you.") "And thirdly, you must admit that Hannah Gadsby" - another comedian and a member of the LGBTQ+ community - "is not funny."

An "offer" which doesn't even attempt to hide the fact that is neither serious nor sincere.

You'd think that growing up as a black person in the US Chappelle had to deal with some issues of personal identity, so he'd be able to have some understanding of the feelings of others dealing with a similar sort of question. But he doesn't and he won't - because he finds it easier and more profitable to punch down with cheap shots. Dave Chappelle is a Total Jackass.

043 The Erickson Report for December 2 to 15, Page Two: More on Critical Race Theory

We have an update or continuation of my discussion about Critical Race Theory.

This was prompted by the fact that Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg recently gave a good example of the kinds of things CRT examines when he noted that systemic racism in the design and location of highways in American cities and suburbs continues to adversely affect low-income neighborhoods and communities of color.

As a specific example, he pointed to underpasses along the parkways in the Long Island suburbs of New York City that were deliberately designed to be too low for buses for the specific purpose of keeping buses from bringing low-income - mostly non-white - city residents to Jones Beach.

Right-wingers first denied that was true and after having to admit it was, dismissed it as irrelevant because those underpasses were built 92 years ago.

But they're still there! That's the point: The racism of 92 years ago is still impacting people today.

They don't get it - and the truth is, they don't want to.

It's already become clear that the MAGA meatheads who rant and rave about CRT have no notion what it is, they can't explain it or describe it, they just know it's being taught in public schools and they are flat out against it, dagnabit - whatever the heck it is.

What's also becoming clearer is what the actual objection is. And it's not to CRT.

A Washington Post/ABC News poll a couple of weeks ago asked respondents: “How much do you think public schools should teach about how the history of racism affects America today?” Some 70% of the public said "a great deal" or "a good amount" while a majority of Republicans - 53% - said it should be taught "not so much" or "not at all."

As Laura Clawson of DailyKos putit, "That’s not an objection to critical race theory" but "an objection to kids learning that definitely within their grandparents’ lifetimes, the US had explicitly racist laws that have continuing effects today."

Hell, you don't even have to refer to continuing effects. A Monmouth University poll that came out a bit before the Washington Post/ABC News poll asked a slightly different question: "Should public schools teach the history of racism?" 43% of GOPpers disapproved - 34% disapproved strongly. Of just teaching historical reality.

And really, you can't even call it history not just because of the continuing effects of past racism but the reality of present-day racism as a fact of our society. Even leaving that aside, even if you leave immediate present-day considerations aside, it barely constitutes history rather than current events.

I'm going to use my life as a timeline.

- I was 12 when federal marshals had to escort a 6-year-old black child past screaming racist mobs so she could go to a newly-integrated school.
- I was 14 when Medgar Evers was assassinated.
- I was 15 when Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman were murdered in Mississippi for trying to help black people register to vote.
- I was 15 when the Civil Rights Act was passed.
- I was 14 when MLK gave his "I have a dream" speech; 19 when he was murdered.

These events and others, were part of my growing up, they are part of my living memory. I know I'm old, but it still means that in an historical context, in a societal context, they are not that long ago.

And the fact is, at the very least a significant number among those who call themselves GOPpers don't want their kids to know about any of it. They don't want them to know about the segregated lunch counters and restaurants, the segregated waiting rooms, the segregated bus seating, the segregated schools, the segregated neighborhoods, the segregated drinking fountains, for pity's sake. They don't want them to know that as recently as 1967, 16 US states still had laws banning interracial marriage.

Because knowing would hinder their ability to continue to maintain their bigoted fantasy that they are the real victims, they are the truly oppressed, and racism longer exists - except, that is, for the "real" racism, which is directed against them.

It is depressing. And it is frightening.

041 The Erickson Report, Page 5: Two Weeks of Stupid: Clowns and Outrages [the Clowns]

041 The Erickson Report, Page 5: Two Weeks of Stupid: Clowns and Outrages [the Clowns]

Now for a regular feature, Two Weeks of Stupid, Clowns and Outrages. And we start, as usual, with the Clowns.

Our first Clown this time out is President Joe Coal Baron Manchin. After his event at the Economic Club of DC on October 26, three climate hunger strikers confronted him on his demand to cut climate provisions from the reconciliation package.

Manchin replied by asserting “the United States has done more than any other country. All the emissions are coming from Asia.”

So apparently all that West Virginia coal from which he gains a million a bucks a year from investments is being used for what, doing artists' sketches?

=

Next there is Texas Republican state Rep. Matt Krause, who has a 16-page list of roughly 850 books and he intends to "investigate" to see if Texas school libraries might be harboring any of them.

Krause has used his position as chair of the House Committee on General Investigating to dispatch a letter wanting school districts to report whether they have any copies of any of the named books and if so, to report how many of them and how much money the district spent to get them.

Beyond such titles as The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron and Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, the list, not at all oddly, seems obsessed with LGBTQ+ titles and ones about reproduction.

A peek under Krause's mattress might be interesting.

=

Then there is the case of a reporter at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch uncovering a flaw in the website of Missouri's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education that left the Social Security numbers for 100,000 staff members vulnerable. The information was contained in the html source code for the site.

The paper notified the agency and held the story until the agency had a chance to correct the error.

But it seems true that no good deed goes unpunished, because Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, apparently jealous of all the other GOPpes who've been awarded The Order of Big Red Nose, is vowing to prosecute the staff of the paper, charging they are "hackers" who "decoded" the source code to uncover the data. He claimed such an investigation would cost taxpayers $50 million.

Now, not only is that figure manifestly absurd, the thing is, the source code for a website is easily available to anyone with at most a couple of clicks because your own computer must have access to that information in order to display the web page correctly. Try it. Look for the Tools menu in your web browser, where you should find something listed like "View source code." In fact, if your browser is Firefox, just do control-u.

In other words, all this proves is that Mike Parson has absolutely no idea what hacking is.

I love this one because it gets back to the true meaning of Clown.

=

But finally, sometimes it's hard to say if something is a Clown or an Outrage, it straddles the line between. Here's an example.

It's an unnamed teacher at Ridgefield Memorial High School in Ridgefield, New Jersey.

On October 18, Mohammed Zubi, A Muslim Arab-American senior at the school, asked for an extension on completing a math assignment. The teacher responded with 'We don't negotiate with terrorists."

Shortly after making the comment, the teacher supposedly told Zubi he did not “mean it like that.”

Excuse me, teacher person, but just how the hell did you mean it?

A supporting Clown award goes to the school administration which initially dismissed it as a “personal matter.” Only after the incident became known through social media did school board members take it seriously. In a statement a couple of days later, the district said it is conducting a full investigation and that the teacher in question has been suspended until further notice.

036 The Erickson Report for April 22 to May 5, Page Three: Noted in Passing

036 The Erickson Report for April 22 to May 5, Page Three: Noted in Passing

Next, an occasional segment called Noted in Passing, where we touch on a couple of things we wanted to make sure got mentioned even if only quickly.

First up, the Ohio legislature is considering a GOPper-backed bill to change the name of an Ohio state park from Mosquito Lake State Park to Donald J. Trump State Park.

So basically changing the name from referencing one disease-carrying pest to another. Doesn't seem like much of a change to me.

It does remind me of the earlier efforts by GOPpers to have something named for Ronald Reagan in every single county in the US. But at least they had the decency to wait until he was dead.

-

And here we go again: Sen. Witless Romney is proposing legislation to deal with the - according to the right-wing - supposed looming financial crisis of Social Security and Medicare, a disaster that is forever imminent but never actually arrives.

This time it's to be bipartisan 12-member "Rescue Committees," one for each of the trust funds with a deadline of 180 days to draft legislation to "improve" each program while securing long-term funding, with any such legislation receiving "expedited consideration" in, that is, to be rushed through, Congress.

It's claimed that this is a "bipartisan" effort because three of the 12 co-sponsors in the Senate are Democrats. The three are Joe Manchin, Kyrsten Sinema, and Mark Warner. Truly a varied group.

Oh, and we have long known the way to secure the long-term funding for SS and Medicare: remove the cap on income subject to the taxes, a change that would only affect those making over $143,000, that is, the richest 8% of Americans.

 

But wait, that's the rub: It would mean taxing the rich, so that's obviously off the table.

-

Elizabeth Warren

On a happier note, here's another sign that Israel is finally losing its stranglehold on US policy in the Middle East, as progressives and even liberals become more open to questioning the so-called "special relationship."

On April 19, Elizabeth Warren, while continuing to support military aid to Israel, proposed conditioning the aid on none of it being used in the occupied territories. Quoting her: "By continuing to provide military aid without restriction, we provide no incentive for Israel to adjust course."

Not a very radical proposal by any means - personally, I would simply end military support altogether - but it wasn't that long ago that even suggesting Israel had to "adjust course" was beyond the pale.

-

On an unhappy note, the Arkansas House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed a resolution specifically allowing the teaching of creationism in public schools.

Federal courts - including in a case directly involving Arkansas - have repeatedly held that teaching creationism in the public schools is unconstitutional on the grounds that it is religious instruction, a fact to which the bill's main sponsor responded by saying she hoped the newly reactionary SCOTUS might feel differently.

-

Finally, while most Americans have weathered the pandemic financially, about 38 million say they are worse off now than before the outbreak began in the US.

Overall, 55% of Americans say their financial circumstances are about the same now as a year ago, and 30% even say their finances have improved, but 15% say they are worse off.

Not surprisingly, the problem is more pronounced at lower income levels and among non-whites. Some 29% of Americans living below the federal poverty line say their personal finances now are even worse that they obviously were a year ago, while 47% of Hispanics and just 39% of Black Americans say they have been able to put aside some money recently, compared to 57% of whites, and. Black and Hispanic Americans are about twice as likely as white Americans to say they have come up short on bill payments.

Despite some recent degree of recovery, the United States still has 8.4 million fewer jobs than it had in February 2020, just before the pandemic struck.

036 The Erickson Report for April 22 to May 5

036 The Erickson Report for April 22 to May 5

This episode:

- Some thoughts prompted by the Derek Chauvin conviction
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/20/watch-live-jury-delivers-verdict-in-derek-chauvin-murder-trial.html
https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2021/4/15/22383392/adam-toledo-shooting-video-released-chicago-police-bodycam
https://theconversation.com/being-skeptical-of-sources-is-a-journalists-job-but-it-doesnt-always-happen-when-those-sources-are-the-police-159173
https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/officer-who-fatally-shot-daunte-wright-police-chief-have-resigned-n1263949
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/minnesota-police-chief-says-he-believes-officer-meant-grab-taser-n1263817
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/how-veteran-officer-could-have-mistaken-glock-taser-fatal-shooting-n1263976
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-similar-to-duante-wright-shooting-other-cops-have-claimed-gun-taser-mixup-20210412-7b34zo47kzhtpj4n3rxjl37mze-story.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/12/us/brooklyn-center-police-shooting-minnesota.html

- Afghanistan
https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2021/04/us-nato-troops-withdraw-afghanistan-911-us-official-says/173326/
https://apnews.com/article/world-news-afghanistan-troop-withdrawals-islamabad-015703a459088547531a755819897040

- Noted in Passing
https://www.aol.com/news/ohio-republicans-aim-rename-state-174607622-163054145.html
-
https://www.aol.com/finance/romney-introduces-legislation-tackle-social-163327974.html
https://dqydj.com/income-percentile-calculator/
-
https://theintercept.com/2021/04/19/israel-aid-elizabeth-warren-j-street/
-
https://ncse.ngo/creationism-bill-advanced-arkansas
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/mclean-v-arkansas.html
-
https://www.aol.com/finance/poll-15-americans-worse-off-120630775-134039730.html - And Another Thing
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/may/12/100-years-on-eclipse-1919-picture-that-changed-universe-arthur-eddington-einstein-theory-gravity
https://www.alternet.org/2021/03/black-hole/

031 The Erickson Report for February 4 to 17, Page Two: Two Weeks of Stupid: Clowns and Outrages [Clowns]

031 The Erickson Report for February 4 to 17, Page Two: Two Weeks of Stupid: Clowns and Outrages [Clowns]

Now it's time for Two Weeks of Stupid: Clowns and Outrages and we start, as we usually do, with the Clowns.

Our first Clown is the US Supreme Court.

On January 25, the Supreme Court simply and it appears without dissent threw out everything related to suits over Tweetie-pie having violated the emoluments clause of the Constitution, that is, having profited off his presidency. Which he clearly did, maintaining an interest in his businesses and profiting off the numerous foreign and domestic officials who sought to buy his favor by staying at the Trump International Hotel.

But the Court just didn't care about that. The justices did three things: They threw out Trump’s challenge to lower court rulings that had allowed the two related lawsuits to go forward, plus they ordered those lower court rulings also be thrown out, plus they directed the two involved appeals courts to dismiss the suits completely.

Why? Because, the court said, Tweetie-pie is no longer in office so the whole matter is moot, there is no longer an issue in dispute, there is nothing for us to decide.

This is stupid.

According to Steve Vladeck, a CNN Supreme Court analyst and professor at the University of Texas School of Law, "Ordinarily, the Court pursues such a step only when the prevailing party moots a case while the appeal is pending." That is, it's usually done when the side which won in the lower court does something that removes the cause of the dispute. Which clearly is not what happened here.

What's more, there clearly is still is an issue in dispute. Walter Shaub, former chief of the Office of Government Ethics, who called the decision "insane," noted that Tweetie-pie still has the money, saying in a tweet that "When any other federal employee violates the emoluments clause they have to forfeit the money."

Calling this case moot because Tweetie-pie is out of office is like investigating a bank executive suspected of embezzling money and then saying you're going to drop the whole thing because they've taken a different job.

So why was it mooted? According to Vladeck, it shows that the court is "increasingly willing to invoke this doctrine to avoid highly charged political disputes." In other words, because they don't have the guts to make the decision.

What makes this even more idiotic is that there's another pending suit charging that Tweetie-pie violated the First Amendment right of people to petition the government by blocking them from his Twitter account and some experts are saying that the Court will not use mootness to wipe away a lower court ruling that went against Tweetie-pie because Blahden also has a Twitter account.

What, and no future president will have business interests? No future president can violate the emoluments clause? And those that do can just keep the money?

The Supreme Court has acted like a bunch of damn Clowns.

=

Next, on Janury 28, hedge fund manager Leon Cooperman, with an estimate net worth around $3 billion, reacted to the retail investors who banded together to drive up GameStop shares and so wreck a plan by short-selling hedge funds to profit by the company's expected failure by sneering at people "sitting at home, getting their checks from the government, trading for no commissions." In other words, those damn unwashed, non-elitist masses. How dare they mess up our game.

He also denounced a financial transaction tax and other measures to battle inequality, calling the idea of a "fair share" as "a bullshit concept" and "just a way of attacking wealthy people."

Yeah, well at least in going after a Clown like Leon Cooperman, they're aiming at the right target.

=

Meanwhile, the Stultifyingly Dense championship has been won by Jamie Allard, a member of the Alaska legislature who defended a license plate with the legend "3REICH."

In a Facebook post, Allard said "If you speak the language fluently, you would know" the the English translation is "realm." Actually, "empire" is a better in-context translation, but no matter, as she continued by saying "The progressives have put a spin on it and created their own definition."

Allard is a now former member of the Alaska State Commission for Human Rights.

Allard insisted she was the victim of unfair attacks but agreed to resign in order to spend more time with her fam- I mean spend more time on her Assembly duties.

A trip to the Holocaust Museum might also be a good use of her time.

=

Finally, I had to include this one. Just last time, I cited Terry Jones, a GOPper member of the North Dakota legislature, who introduced a bill under which any state form that asks for racial information would be required to list "American" as the first choice. He claimed that would unite people, including black Americans, who are, he said, "glad their ancestors were brought here as slaves."

It turns out he's not a one-hit wonder.

He has also introduced a bill that pretty much rewrites the dictionary in order to control how the state deals with LGBTQ+ issues.

What the bill does, essentially, is to declare that the idea of LGBTQ+ rights is based on the supposed "religion" of secular humanism and therefore any assistance to or even acknowledgement of the existence of LGBTQ+ people in any way is an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.

It’s all just, as someone called it, a conservative Christian bigot’s fever dream - which is, admittedly, a natural product of a Clown.

The Erickson Report for November 11-24, Page 1: Heroes and Villains

The Erickson Report for November 11-24, Page 1: Heroes and Villains

We start this time with an occasional feature we call Heroes and Villains

The Heroes this time are the voters of Nevada.

In 2002 a referendum amended the Nevada state constitution to define marriage as between “a male and female person.”

But this year, that amendment was overturned in favor of an amendment recognizing marriage “as between couples regardless of gender.” It makes Nevada the first state to put the right to same-sex marriage in its constitution.

It wasn't even close; the proposal passed 62 to 38.

That state already had a domestic partnership law since 2009 and of course the historic Obergefell v. Hodges decision in 2015 invalidated same-sex marriage bans nationwide, but this is still more than a mere formality both for symbolic and legal reasons.

Between 1998 and 2012 at least 30 states passed a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Obergefell obviated all those provisions, but they still exist. This way, the people of Nevada are protected even if Obergefell is overturned - and even though public acceptance of same-sex marriage now stands at 70%, according to an October poll by the Public Religion Research Institute, that event would mean having to re-fight those battles state by state. But not in Nevada.

Which brings me to the Villains.

As I mentioned last time at least two members of the federal Supreme Court - Clarabell Thomas and Sam the Sham Alito, doubtless eagerly looking forward to the addition of Amy Bugs Bunny Barret, are itching for a chance to take a second shot at making anti-LGBTQ bigotry constitutional by overturning Obergefell.

But again as I said last time, it's doubtful that ruling would be directly overturned; it's more likely that rights attendant to same-sex marriage would be chipped away until the right is just a shell of what it was.

And we are seeing the first signs of that.

On November 4, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Fulton v. City of Philadelphia.

The city of Philadelphia contracts with various agencies to arrange for foster care for children who need it. As part of that contact, it requires those agencies not to discriminate.

Now comes Catholic Social Services, which is affiliated with the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, saying its religious views keep it from certifying same-sex couples as foster parents - while at the same time arguing that it can't be locked out of more foster care contracts with the city. In short, they are arguing that they must be free to actively discriminate against same-sex couples while still getting the money they get from the city for foster care services.

Catholic Social Services lost at both the district and appellate levels - but according to court observers, the right wing majority of the Supreme Court seems likely to agree - likely to agree, that is, that the city of Philadelphia can be required to accept bigotry.

It would seem to me that even though this involves a contract not a law, the principle that religious beliefs do not exempt you from "laws of general applicability," something else I mentioned last time, should apply here. But apparently not when it's the religious beliefs of the justices - seven of the nine are either Catholic or went to Catholic school or both - are involved.

A few of the justices got near but never actually got to the sort of questions I kept thinking: What if the agency refused to deal with previously divorced people? Catholic doctrine says marriage is indissoluble. If you divorced and remarried, could Catholic Social Services say "your relationship is contrary to our religion, we refuse to deal with you?"

What if it was an interracial couple? It wasn't until 1967 that US laws against that were finally all struck down, but you still find ultra-conservative churches saying it's against God's law. Would the city have to say that's no bar to a contract?

What if a conservative Jewish organization refused to deal with a couple because one was Jewish and the other not? Would the city have to contract with them if they applied?

Or does only Christianity or more specifically Catholicism get the pass?

This circumscribing of rights of same-sex couples beyond the marriage itself - in this case hindering their ability to be foster parents - is exactly the sort of concern that Clarabell and Sam the Sham have provoked. I guarantee this will not be the last example.

The Erickson Report, Page 1: Following Up

The Erickson Report, Page 1: Following Up

We start with a quick follow-up on something I mentioned last time, that Puerto Rico was still waiting for billions of dollars in aid authorized by Congress for relief in the wake of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017.

It seems that Tweetie-pie has finally been pressured enough that on January 15 he released $16 billion of that amount - but only with conditions attached that appear intended to continue to sabotage the relief and repair.

For one, there is a ban on paying Puerto Rico's minimum wage, $15 an hour, on the projects the federal money funds. What's more, none of the money can be used to restore the island's power grid.

Laughably, these are claimed to be "anti-corruption" measures - because, obviously, paying the local minimum wage is corrupt.

So even after they ran out of stalls, the white supremacists populating the White House still searched out for ways to make it hard for Puerto Rico to recover.

As Hunter, a staff writer at Daily Kos noted, "The reasons for these acts can only be speculated on but are not, in the slightest, hard to imagine."

The Erickson Report, Page 5: Two Weeks of Stupid: Clowns and Outrages [the Outrages]

The Erickson Report, Page 5: Two Weeks of Stupid: Clowns and Outrages [the Outrages]

And now we go to the Outrages and we're a bit short of time so there will only be two of them.

First, some outfit called stopantisemitism.org has announced its Anti-Semite of the Year. And with the evidence of an upsurge in antisemitism to be found in any day's news - and the group offers plenty of examples - it should be easy to find someone truly deserving of the title of biggest anti-Semite of 2019.

But who did they come up with? Congresswomen Ilhan Omar, the "evidence" for this, if I can stretch the word that far, consisting mostly of a list of dredged-up and long-settled bull about statements she made last spring, statements which did reveal an embarrassing lack of knowledge about the history of anti-Semitism on her part but revealed no actual anti-Semitism, especially considering she apologized for that lack of knowledge and in fact thanked people for pointing it out to her.

One claim reprised here which I always thought was nonsensical was that it was anti-Semitic of her to suggest that Jewish groups try to buy political influence with money. Of course they do! Just like any other interest group! Do you think that when the health insurance industry gives big bucks to Pete Buttigieg they are not trying to buy influence with his campaign? Do you think that when the big telecoms spread cash around to various candidates they are not trying to buy influence with those campaigns and subsequently with what bills those candidates do and do not support? If I point that obvious truth out, does that mean I am anti-health care or anti-telecommunications? Don't be stupid.

Instead, let's be truthful: Ultimately, this is not about a handful of unrevealing tweets. This is all about her support of the BDS movement and Palestinian rights. That's the point of this smear, that's the purpose of this smear, that's why she is being labeled a huge anti-Semite. It's about equating the BDS movement and Palestinian rights with anti-Semitism.

Ilhan Omar

That isn't attacking anti-Semitism, that's weaponizing anti-Semitism for political purposes and that is a  outrage. What's revealed here is nothing about Ilhan Omar but rather that antisemitism.org, which says it is part of a non-profit foundation but doesn't say what one and which itself engages in the anti-Semitic trope of "the self-hating Jew," is part of that reactionary right-wing core that wants to establish the idea that any criticism of Israel or Israeli government policy is by definition antisemitism.

Which doubtless makes me an anti-Semite in their minds, because I do support Palestinian rights and I do support the BDS movement (without feeling, I note, obliged to support all of its leaders). And when 2019 saw a 45-percent increase in demolitions and confiscations of Palestinian homes in the West Bank over 2018, I find a lot about Israel and Israeli policy to criticize.

Footnote: On January 6, citing the group's report, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, directly meddled in US domestic politics, encouraging "action" against Omar. Oddly enough, one of the things Omar was accused of was making an accusation of "dual loyalty" because she objected to the notion that intense support of Israel is effectively a political requirement for gaining and holding office in the US. Apparently that kind of support is exactly what Ambassador Danon expects.

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https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/trump-accused-of-disgraceful-abdication-of-duty-for-proposal-to-neuter-landmark-environmental-law/
One more for the road: On January 3, the New York Times reported that the Tweetie-pie White House is about to expand its open war on environmental protection by going after its bedrock law, the law that has been called the Magna Carta of environmental legislation.

It is the National Environmental Policy Act and it is 50 years old, having been signed into law on January 1, 1970. This landmark law charges the federal government and its agencies with a responsibility to promote environmental protection, preservation, and restoration, and notes the responsibility each generation has to act as trustee of the environment for the generations to follow.

For fifty years it has provided the legal basis for environmental review of, and public input on, projects that impact the environment.

And now Tweetie-pie is planning to wreck it by redefining what the law does and does not do by:
- narrowing the definition of what type of project requires an environmental review,
- expanding the number of project categories that can be excluded from review,
- allowing companies or developers to conduct their own environmental assessments, and
- dropping entirely any requirement to consider cumulative, rather than just immediate, impacts - meaning not only that you could, for example, build a road without considering the effect of traffic or a pipeline without addressing the risk of a spill, but that any effect on climate change would be clearly beyond the law's reach.

Outrageous and nauseating.

And by the way, Australia is still on fire.

The Erickson Report, Page 3: Noted in Passing

The Erickson Report, Page 3: Noted in Passing

Now we move on to Noted in Passing, where we spend a minute or two on items that are just interesting or which deserve more coverge than we have time for but which we can't let pass without mention.

First up, some good news in the form of one more little step : As of January 1, New Hampshire residents who don't identify as either male or female can have their driver's licenses indicate their sex as X instead of M or F.

At the same time, even as acceptance increases, there is still much ground to be gained, as can be seen in the fact that the United Methodist Church, the nation’s third-largest religious denomination, is expected to split, spinning off a "traditionalist" denomination as a home for the too-many church leaders and members who, even at this late date, refuse to accept same-sex marriage and refuse the ordination to LGBTQ clergy.

The plan is expected to be approved at the church's worldwide conference in May.

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Meanwhile, on January 3, the American Dialect Society held its 30th annual “Word of the Year” vote, which this year also included a vote for “Word of the Decade.”

The winning word of the decade was "they," particularly as it applies to and is referenced by, people with nonbinary gender identities but also because of its increasing use and acceptance in referring to a single person of unknown gender.

Pronouns, along with conjunctions and prepositions, are generally considered a “closed class” - a group of words whose number rarely grows and whose meanings rarely change. So having "they" have an expanded meaning and use was a real treat for linguists.

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This is kind of interesting: Tens of thousands of parking meters, thousands of cash registers, and even at least one video game are among computerized systems that have fallen foul of a computer glitch related to the notorious Y2K, or millennium, bug. Known, appropriately enough, as the Y2020 bug, it's a long-lurking side effect of attempts to avoid the Y2K bug.

Both bugs stem from the way computers store dates. To save memory, many older systems express years using two numbers - such as 98 for 1998. The Y2K bug was a fear that when the year rolled over to 2000, computers would treat it as 1900, rather than 2000.

Programmers wanting to avoid the Y2K bug had two broad options: entirely rewrite their code, or adopt a quick fix called “windowing,” which would treat all dates from 00 to 20 as being from the 2000s, rather than the 1900s. An estimated 80 per cent of computers fixed in 1999 used this quicker, cheaper option - but all it did was kick the problem down the road.

Coders chose 1920 to 2020 as the standard window because of the significance of the midpoint, 1970. Many programming languages and systems handle dates and times as measured by seconds since January 1, 1970, a method known as Unix time or "epoch time." It's seen as a standard because of the widespread use of Unix in various industries.

The idea was that these windowed systems would be outmoded and replaced by the time 2020 arrived - which was the same thing the programmers of the 1960s thought about the year 2000.

Those systems that used the quick fix have now reached the end of that window, and have rolled back to 1920 with the attending glitches.

Fixes have been issued but exactly how long these will last is unknown, as companies haven’t disclosed details about them. If the window has simply been pushed back again, the error may well crop up again.

And there's another date storage problem, one which faces us in the year 2038. The issue again stems from Unix’s epoch time: The data is stored as a 32-bit integer, which will run out of capacity at 3:14 am on January 19, 2038.

Something to look forward to.

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Now we come to a trio of things that I won't do more on at least now because frankly they hurt my heart.

Monday, January 6: A 5.8 magnitude earthquake hits Puerto Rico.
Tuesday, January 7: A 6.4 magnitude earthquake hits Puerto Rico; it's the largest one in a century.
Three hours later: An aftershock of 6.0 magnitude hits
Saturday, January 11: A 5.9 magnitude earthquake hits Puerto Rico

Hundreds of millions in damage, at least one dead, hundreds losing their homes, thousands in shelters, hundreds of thousands more without power.

And don't forget, Puerto Rico is still waiting for $18B in federal aid for relief and repair work related to the disasters of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017.

Next: An outbreak of measles in the Democratic Republic of the Congo which began early last year has lead - so far - to over 6,000 dead and a total of an estimated 310,000 cases. The death toll was more than double that from a concurrent outbreak of Ebola.

This past year saw a huge measles outbreak across the planet. Madagascar saw over 1,200 people die. Places like Somalia, Ukraine, Brazil, and Bangladesh reported thousands of cases.

Here in the US we also had an outbreak of measles. While the numbers were smaller - nearly 1300 cases and no deaths - it was still the worst outbreak since 2000, when measles had been declared by the WHO to have been eliminated in the US.

And yet we still have these idiot anti-vaxxers spewing their bullshit about vaccines. It really hurts my heart.

And if you're still not depressed, here's number three: The active Taal Volcano in the Philippines violently erupted on January 12, launching ash and steam several km into the atmosphere and causing ash to fall in surrounding heavily populated areas.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology raised the status of the Taal Volcano to Alert Level 4, indicating a strong likelihood of more violent eruptions within the next couple of days. The agency is calling for everyone within 14km - a little less than 9 miles - from the volcano to evacuate. That's about 500,000 people.

Taal is located about 70 km, about 45 miles, south of Manila.

Oh, and by the way, in case you'd forgotten: Australia is still on fire.

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Finally, to cheer myself up a bit, here's something I find interesting and in fact rather encouraging.

Benjamin Bergen is a Professor of Cognitive Science at UCal San Diego. Every fall since 2010, he has surveyed about 100 undergraduates in his introductory language class, asking them how offensive various words are.

What he has found is that among young adults today, vulgarities of various sorts are significantly less offensive than they were thought to be back in 1972, when George Carlin did his now-famous routine about the "seven dirty words you can't say on television."

At the same time, various slurs are found considerably more offensive. So various vulgarities that used to generate gasps of shock are now met with a shrug while various racial, ethnic, sexual, and other sorts of slurs that used to be part of everyday conversation are now found offensive.

I find that to be a very good thing.