035 The Erickson Report for April 8 to 21, Page Two: Two Weeks of Stupid: Clowns and Outrages [the Clowns]

035 The Erickson Report for April 8 to 21, Page Two: Two Weeks of Stupid: Clowns and Outrages [the Clowns]

Last time out, in discussing the killings in Atlanta and Boulder, I mentioned that an impediment to Congress doing anything is Joe "I'm a responsible gun owner" Manchin. What I didn't do is note just how much of a Clown he is on the issue.

The House of Representatives passed two gun control bills in March, one of which extends background checks to all gun sales and transfers. It actually contains carveouts for transfers between family members, responding to an immediate threat, or temporary transfer for hunting - but that's not a big enough loophole for Mr. Responsible Gun Owner. He wants private gun sales between people who know each other to also be exempt from background checks.

So in effect we had the gun show loophole, the on-line loophole, and now we can have the friend loophole. Can't buy a gun because you can't pass a background check? Just have somebody you know who can, go buy it for you and then sell it to you. Consider it a new version of "friends with benefits."

And consider Joe Manchin a Clown.

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There have been a few people who got pretty much retired from the Clown Award because they were repeated winners to the point where it seemed unfair to other aspirants. Tucks Carlson was one such example.

Well, we now have someone who may well become the quickest retiree ever. Rep. Marjorie Taylor ColorOfNausea.

On March 31, this bonkers bozo ranted on a Facebook Live video in a way that even made some of the Q-Anonsense she spouts seem, well, vaguely coherent. Sorta. Maybe.

Anyway, she was reacting to the idea of a "vaccine passport," a document that would be carried to prove the bearer had been vaccinated against COVID as a means of for example being able to travel without restrictions or gain entry to a concert or some such event.

Now understand, there are legitimate questions that can be raised about them; privacy advocates, for one, have major reservations.

But those are sane objections and so are of no interest to Rep. ColorOfNausea. Instead, she said they are "like Biden's Mark of the Beast," thus labeling Joe Blahden as the antichrist of Revelation before ranting on that "It’s still fascism. Or communism. Whatever you want to call it, but it’s coming from private companies." And here's the good part, "I call it ‘corporate communism.'"

So it's fascism. Except it's communism. Or capitalism. Or corporate communism. I know! It's fascist corporate communism!

It's the mark of the Clown.

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We end with a quickie:

Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, reacting to accounts of proposals from Democrats to raise taxes on the rich, said "Biden wants to allocate the tax responsibility in this country on a basis of class. That's a hell of a way to make tax policy."

Um, Senator? That's how it's supposed to be made: The richer you are, the more you pay. That's the whole idea of a graduated income tax. It was even the original idea some centuries ago behind property taxes, the idea being that the is a direct relationship between how rich you are and how much land you own.

Y'know, the original idea behind the Clown Award was that it was given for demonstrating meritorious stupidity. Senator John Kennedy brings it back to its roots.