069 The Erickson Report for January 26 to February 8, Page Four: Two Weeks of Stupid: Clowns and Outrages [the Clowns]

 Next, it's the much-anticipated return of Two Weeks of Stupid: Clowns and Outrages.

We start, as we usually do, with the Clowns, of which we have three.

First up, we have GOPper Representative Jim Banks of Indiana, who has vowed to start an "anti-woke caucus" to fight what he calls a "woke agenda" in Congress.

He said that the move would help crush the "doctrine" of "wokeness," necessary because, he whined in the most unintentionally-revealing remark in quite some time, "we no longer live in normal America."

Jeez, and they call us snowflakes.

He should call it the "Send in the Clowns" caucus. You know, "Don't bother, they're here."

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Next, we have a twofer. Two infamous anti-LGBTQ+ preachers, each of who has called for gay people to be executed, want their male followers to give up beer.

Steven Anderson, founder of the New Independent Fundamentalist Baptist movement and pastor at the Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona, and Jonathan Shelley of the Stedfast Baptist Church in Watauga, Texas, posted unhinged rants about how drinking beer is risky for men.

Why? Because beer has hops, of course. Uh, what? Y'see, hops contain a minute quantity of a phytoestrogen mimicker and so, according to our two Clowns, drinking beer will make you effeminate.

Friends, that is champion level Clown. And paranoia.

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The third one requires some background. COP, or Conference of Parties, is an annual multinational confab to see who has the best PR campaign claiming to be really really we really mean it committed to staving off climate change. COP28 is to take place in Dubai in late November.

Our clown here is US climate envoy John Kerry, who expressed his approval of the selection of Sultan al-Jaber, the CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil company, to preside over the meeting. Kerry justified his approval of al-Jabar by citing a recent speech al-Jaber gave.

Not very convincing, because in that very speech al-Jaber talked about how COP should “get it done across mitigation, adaptation, finance, and loss and damage” - which is less about preventing climate change than about learning to live with it - and the company he heads plans to increase its output of crude oil.

Activists rightly equated al-Jaber's choice to asking “arms dealers to lead peace talks.”

With John Kerry's approval. The act of a Clown.

069 The Erickson Report for January 26 to February 8

 

Episode 69 of The Erickson Report notes the anniversary of Roe v.Wade with some recent news on abortion rights, goes over how Medicare Advantage programs are actually backdoor ways to privatize Medicare, and reintroduces Two Weeks of Stupid: Clowns and Outrages, with three Clowns and the Outrage that is Florida.

The Erickson Report is news and informed commentary from the radical nonviolent left. It is advocacy journalism, dealing in facts and logic but having a point of view. Sometimes serious, sometimes sarcastic, sometimes even flip but always with the intent to inform and inspire,The Erickson Report strives to be a tool for justice

Reactions and comments are welcome.

SOURCES:

Guns
https://www.wbur.org/npr/1150667373/monterey-park-shooting-what-we-know-californi
https://www.gunviolencearchive.org
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Abortion rights
https://hymnary.org/text/onward_christian_soldiers_marching_as
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/3809346-alabama-ag-says-women-could-be-prosecuted-for-taking-abortion-pills/
https://www.npr.org/2006/02/21/5168163/partial-birth-abortion-separating-fact-from-spin
https://www.alternet.org/minnesota-lawmakers-partial-birth-abortion/
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/08/freedom-speech-mississippi-abortion-rights/671202/
https://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess124_2021-2022/bills/1373.htm
https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and- analysis/blogs/stateline/2022/05/19/some-states-already-are-targeting-birth-control
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/12/13/23505459/supreme-court-birth-control-contraception-constitution-matthew-kacsmaryk-deanda-becerra
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Handmaid's_Tale
https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-comment-nationwide-ban-abortion-introduced-us-senate
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2023-01-19/religious-leaders-sue-to-block-missouris-abortion-ban
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2023%3A27-28&version=KJV
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Medicare Advantage / ACO HEALTH
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/is-medicare-advantage-a-scam
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/09/08/medicare-advantage-profit-scam-time-end-it
https://www.cms.gov/files/document/fy-2022-medicare-part-c-error-rate-findings-and-results.pdf-0
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/11/30/congress-asleep-switch-biden-continues-trump-era-ploy-privatize-medicare
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1G8B012QNk9rzEJvfYaLcPwr2HJdZe_hcrR7KU_mAibk/edit
https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/cms-announces-increase-2023-organizations-and-beneficiaries-benefiting-coordinated-care-accountable
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Clowns
https://www.newsweek.com/jim-banks-plans-anti-woke-caucus-bolster-gops-war-wokeness-1773778
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/01/hate-pastors-now-speaking-beer-say-makes-men-feminine/
https://sdg.iisd.org/events/2022-un-climate-change-conference-unfccc-cop-28/
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-politics-united-states-government-only-on-ap-john-kerry-b5d6482d465dcc8fa5063af9a0e44041
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Outrage
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/florida-blocks-high-school-african-american-studies-class/ar-AA16x9Ds
https://www.commondreams.org/news/ap-african-american
https://floridapolitics.com/archives/574045-in-andrew-warren-suspension-trial-gov-desantis-officials-answer-what-does-woke-mean/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lester_Maddox
https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-releases-results-of-diversity-and-inclusion-report/c-336511848
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/2018/11/09/racism-lingers-for-nhl-players-60-years-after-oree-landmark/38451681/
https://www.rawstory.com/desantis-hockey/
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nhl/nhl-backtracks-after-florida-gov-ron-desantis-office-blasts-league-for-discriminatory-job-fair/ar-AA16kkpL
https://www.queerty.com/florida-flop-ron-desantis-manages-show-off-anti-blackness-queerphobia-one-sentence-20230124
https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/11-black-lgbtq-history-makers-you-should-know-n848631https://www.americanprogress.org/article/black-lgbtq-individuals-experience-heightened-levels-discrimination/

062 The Erickson Report for September 22 to October 5

 

 

062 The Erickson Report for September 22 to October 5

School book bans
https://pen.org/report/banned-usa-growing-movement-to-censor-books-in-schools/
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/education/article/banned-books-in-Texas-school-districts-database-17359043.php
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day-care_sex-abuse_hysteria
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/education/article/Texas-book-bans-driven-by-GOP-pressure-not-parents-17362170.php
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/8/31/2119964/-Republicans-sue-to-force-school-district-private-bookseller-Barnes-Noble-to-remove-two-books

Clowns
https://www.aol.com/news/massachusetts-gop-voters-size-trump-041243830-093431758.html
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https://www.qsaltlake.com/news/2018/07/26/star-parker/
https://www.rawstory.com/women-not-controlling-their-bodies/

Outrages
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/09/12/disgusting-starbucks-help-its-workers-student-debt-unless-theyre-union
https://www.forbes.com/profile/howard-schultz/?sh=41d3889052c6
https://perfectunion.us/exclusive-starbucks-hit-with-charges-over-sweeping-illegal-union-busting-scheme/
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/05/04/smells-illegal-starbucks-ceo-says-unionized-workers-will-be-excluded-wage-hikes
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/06/15/disgusting-starbucks-threatens-trans-health-benefits-union-celebrates-150-wins
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/09/08/abhorrent-and-anti-democratic-outrage-dnc-panel-blocks-vote-dark-money-ban
https://theintercept.com/2022/09/14/dnc-overrule-convention-bylaws/

Climate change
https://www.juancole.com/2022/08/pakistan-emergency-biblical.html
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3192559/typhoon-muifa-lashes-eastern-china-forcing-16-million-people
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/09/16/coastal-alaska-storm-surge-flooding-winds/

061 The Erickson Report for September 8 to 21

 

The Erickson Report for September 8 to 21

Good News

    - "Angels" protect lgbtq+ celebrants

    - Federal court blocks part of Florida's "Stop WOKE Act"

    - 9th Circuit Court upholds ban on "conversion therapy" for minors

 

Two Weeks of Stupid: Clowns and Outrages

    - Clown: Carroll Independent School District

    - Clown: Rep. Mike Johnson

    - Outrage: Mississippi to take student debt relief as income

 

RIP

    - Mikhail Gorbachev

    - Barbara Ehrenreich

 

Some observations on the war in Ukraine

050 The Erickson Report for March 17 to 30, Page Three: Two Weeks of Stupid: Clowns and Outrages [the Clowns]

050 The Erickson Report for March 17 to 30, Page Three: Two Weeks of Stupid: Clowns and Outrages [the Clowns]

Now for the much-anticipated return of Two Weeks of Stupid: Clowns and Outrages. And we start, as we traditionally do, with the Clowns and we have two of them.

This first one requires no explanation as to why it belongs here.

Apparently, some of those truckers still trying to determine why they're wasting a lot of fuel wandering the commuting times around DC were all huffy and teary about the fact that some drivers were giving them the bird.

When they complained that the police were not answering their calls reporting this heinous offense, their feckless leader Brian Blase suggested they "flood" 911. Because, apparently, they think getting flipped off is an emergency.

No need to go on.

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This next one, however, will need a bit of explanation.

On March 15, the US Senate, by unanimous voice vote, passed legislation to make daylight saving time permanent and year-round starting in 2023.

Supporters offered the claimed health and safety reasons for avoiding having to change the clocks twice a year that always got advanced when the idea came up.

So why is this here as the act of a collection of clowns? Because we did this before, folks.

We did it back in 1973 during an oil embargo because it was supposed to save energy. But people forgot then as it seems they forget now that having the Sun set an hour later also means having the Sun rise an hour later and the enthusiasm for the idea lasted as long as it took for parents the following winter to see their children waiting for the school bus in pitch dark and for people working the night shift to realize that arriving for work in the dark and then traveling home also in the dark was not how they wanted their days to go.

Maybe I'll be wrong, but I have a feeling if this passes the House, we'll see the same pushback around the same time, this time. Until I'm shown wrong by experience, I say this is the work of clowns.

050 The Erickson Report for March 17 to 30

 

050 The Erickson Report for March 17 to 30

Good News: Relief for the USPS
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/03/08/usps-senate-biden/

Ukraine: "The War Drags On"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeH5rVUgios
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/3/10/2085119/-Ukraine-update-A-war-on-the-concept-of-civilization-itself
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22967674/russia-ukraine-no-fly-zone-limited-nuclear-war
https://twitter.com/MMazarr/status/1501688603042361346
https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2022/03/no-fly-zone-test/363099/
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-zelenskyy-kyiv-europe-congress-058c8b72b81044f861b30b7ceb500a15
https://www.politico.eu/article/zelenskyy-peace-talks-russia-realistic-accept-compromise-nato/

Two Weeks of Stupid: Clowns and Outrages
Clowns:
    DC "truckers convoy"
    https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/3/11/2085314/-D-C-freedom-truckers-threaten-to-abuse-911-system-if-Washingtonians-don-t-stop-flipping-them-off
    US Senate
    https://www.aol.com/news/u-senate-approves-bill-daylight-184244252-204613821.html

Outrage:
    Illegitimate "state secrets privilege" used to conceal torture and spying
    https://freedom.press/news/supreme-court-entrenches-state-secrets-privilege-dealing-a-blow-to-accountability/
    https://www.aclu.org/other/background-state-secrets-privilege
    http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2004/04/must-read.html

Julian Assange closer to being extradited
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/03/14/uk-top-court-rejects-assanges-request-appeal-extradition-decision
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/06/13/worlds-most-powerful-imprison-julian-assange-his-virtues-not-his-vices
https://rsf.org/en/news/uk-home-secretary-gives-green-light-extradite-julian-assange-us
https://www.cnn.com/2010/US/12/06/wikileaks.investigation/index.html
https://collateralmurder.wikileaks.org/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rXPrfnU3G0
https://whoviating.blogspot.com/2010/12/once-more-into-breach.html
https://theintercept.com/2021/09/28/assange-kidnapping-wikileaks-cia-senate/
https://news.yahoo.com/kidnapping-assassination-and-a-london-shoot-out-inside-the-ci-as-secret-war-plans-against-wiki-leaks-090057786.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2010/12/once-more-into-leak.html
https://whoviating.blogspot.com/2017/06/245-news-on-chelsea-manning-and-julian.html
https://rsf.org/en/news/uk-rsf-calls-home-office-block-assange-extradition-following-supreme-court-refusal-consider-appeal
https://freedom.press/news/appeals-court-says-that-nixons-attempt-to-prosecute-pentagon-papers-reporter-must-stay-secret-50-years-later/

045 The Erickson Report for December 29 to January 12, Page 5: A Year of Stupid Special Merit Award

045 The Erickson Report for December 29 to January 12, Page 5: A Year of Stupid Special Merit Award

But there is one more award, an award for the achievement of combining stupidity, jackassery, and outrage in one package. So herewith a Special Merit Award to someone who wasn't even nominated this year but whose contributions to the spirit of these awards can't be overlooked.

So congratulations to "President" Joe Manchin.

Joe Manchin makes me miss Lyndon Johnson. LBJ would not have put up with his crap. Her would have dragged - not invited, not asked, dragged - Manchin into the Oval Office, reamed him a new one and said "You know that money you wanted for that project in West Virginia? Get in line or forget it."

For those who say that's not fair and he can't do more because he's from this incredibly red state, let me start by reminding you of the many times he shifted the goal posts, always suggesting that if we just got rid of this or adjusted that he could support Build Back Better only to have a new this or that when he got what he wanted.

And let's not forget that it appears his real issue with the bill is the inclusion of the Child Tax Credit, which significantly cut child poverty, because this multimillionaire twerp who lives on a yacht and drives a Maserati while together with his wife sucking down a million bucks a year from the coal industry for doing and creating nothing thinks that poor people will just blow the money on drugs - because, y'know, poor people.

But more directly, the idea that he can't sell the bill to his constituents is bull. First, he is popular, well-connected, and well-known. He has a 61% approval rating and 70% of West Virginians say he's an "independent voice," a substantial shield against any threat to his political future a "yes" vote could raise.

Second, the polls in West Virginia on the bill are all over the place depending heavily on the way the question is phrased - for example, one phased the issue as "Joe Biden's trillion-dollar spending plan" and got 70% opposition while another phrased it in terms of some of the provisions and got 68% support.

And even ignoring all that, the fact remains that even if supporting BBB, doing the right thing for the people of West Virginia, even if it were to cost him his seat, it is still the right thing to do. No excuses.

Finally, for those who say we can't go the LBJ route, we can't do that, we can't push him or he'll just switch parties, and then where will we be: He's not going to switch parties, at least not before the midterms. No way. Right now, his entire power, his entire influence, the thing that gets him on TV most every night, is the fact that it's a 50-50 Senate. Period. He switches parties and it goes to 51-49 GOPper and he is back to "Joe who," just another schmuck in Fishface McConnell's army.

Joe Manchin may be a self-centered, egomaniacal, glory-hunting creep on a power trip, and he is, but he is not stupid.

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.

045 The Erickson Report for December 29 to January 12

 

045 The Erickson Report for December 29 to January 12

- Good News on the minimum wage

- Thoughts prompted by the Kim Potter verdict 

- Clowns of the Year: Louis Gohmert and Dave Chappelle

- Outrage of the Year: vaccine selfishness 

- Special Clown/Outrage Award: "President" Joe Manchin 

- RIP: Desmond Tutu 

- And Another Thing: James Webb Space Telescope takes off; Parker Solar Probe "touches the Sun"

043 The Erickson Report for December 2 to 15, Page Four: Two Weeks of Stupid [the Clowns]

We wrap up this time with Two Weeks of Stupid: Clowns and Outrages, starting, as usual, with the Clowns.

The Library of Congress has begun what amounts to a routine re-cataloging task of changing the dehumanizing terms “aliens” and “illegal aliens” as subject headings to the neutral “noncitizens.”

And guess what, to no one's surprise, our favorite bag of grease, Sen. Ted Ooze was very very upset. This was, he bloviated, a “politically motivated” move, an “Orwellian attempt to manipulate and control language.”

Which, apparently, labeling upwards of 12 million of our fellow residents as The Other for thepusposes of faer-mongering and fundraising is not.

Ted Ooze: always good for a clown show.

As a footnote, the Blahden administration has made some efforts in this direction, including a memo ordering Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection to drop "illegal alien" in favor of "undocumented noncitizen."

Dealing with dehumanizing language brings us to our next clown - supposed comedian but certainly homophobe and transphobe Dave Chappelle.

=

You know about this, I'm sure, but still it bears sneering.

Chappelle got return fire after his new special was released the beginning of October because of the offensive transphobia it included, sparking a walkout by some employees of Netflix.

He responded by saying "I said what I said, and boy I heard what you said. My god. How could I not? 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." In other words,  he followed up being offensive by claiming he is the actual victim.

Classic clownishness. But wait, there's more.

On November 22, at the 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 in case there was any doubt that he has learned nothing and doesn't want to.

Actually, that 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.

I'll end with this, addressed to Dave Chappelle: One of the things you said in that special was "Gender is a fact."

Yeah, it is, but not in the way you think, you ignorant dolt. Your sex might be defined biologically, but your gender is who you are, it's your sense of self, it's who and what you feel yourself to be, which may or may not line up with your outward appearance. The fact that difference between sex and gender can exist is what raises the entire issue of being transgender. The technical term for the mental stress and suffering some experience as a result is gender disphoria.

You'd think that growing up as a black person in the US you had to deal with some issues of personal identity. So you'd think that you'd be able to have some understanding of the feelings of others dealing with a similar sort of question. It's called empathy. Look it up.

But you won't - because you find it easier and more profitable to take cheap shots. Which is just more proof that you are a thoroughgoing Clown.

041 The Erickson Report for November 4 to 18

 

Good News:
- Court throws out Tweetie-pie era water rule
- Supreme Court upholds Maine vaccine mandate

COVID-19 deaths worldwide pass 5 million

A Closer Look at critical race theory

Noted in Passing
- The reactionary smirk
- Dem House leadership tells progressive members to pretend they are winning
- Kavanaugh, Barret seem skeptical of Texas anti-choice law
- RIP Mort Sahl

Two Weeks of Stupid: Clowns and Outrages
- Clown: teacher tells Arab student re math assignment "We don't negotiate with terrorists"
- Clown: Premier Joe Manchin says all emissions are coming from Asia
- Clown: Texas legislator "investigating" if school libraries hold any of a list of 850 books
- Clown: Missouri governor threatens to prosecute reporter as "computer hacker" for obtaining publicly-available information
- Outrage: Israel labels six Palestinian civil rights groups "terrorists"
- Outrage: judge rules prosecution can't call those shot by Rittenhouse "victims" but defense can call them "rioters" and "arsonists"

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.

=

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.

=

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.

035 The Erickson Report for April 8 to 21

035 The Erickson Report for April 8 to 21

This week:

A Longer Look at healthcare

Two Weeks of Stupid: Clowns and Outrages

033 The Erickson Report for March 11 to 25, Page 3: Two Weeks of Stupid: Clowns and Outrages [the Clowns]

033 The Erickson Report for March 11 to 25, Page 3: Two Weeks of Stupid: Clowns and Outrages [the Clowns]

Next thing here is our recurring feature, Two weeks of Stupid: Clowns and Outrages. And we start, as usual, withe the Clowns.

On March 2, the state legislature of Idaho rejected a $6 million federal grant designed to improve early childhood education. And one Clown applauding that decision is Rep. Charlie Shepherd, who declared the grant would hurt "the family unit."

How? Quoting him: "I don't think anybody does a better job than mothers in the home, and any bill that makes it easier or more convenient for mothers to come out of the home and let others raise their child - I don't think that's a good direction for us to be going."

Hey Shepherd: The 1950s called; they want their brain back.

But if you want full-blowm wacko, we have to go to Rep. Tammy Nichols, who opposed accepting the grant because, quoting, "The goal in the long run is to be able to take our children from birth and be able to start indoctrinating them, and teaching them to be activists, and to do the things that we feel as parents are inappropriate."

Yeah, and the ERA is about women becoming lesbians and leaving their husbands.

Shepherd later apologized on the House floor, saying, "I realize how my remarks sounded derogatory, offensive, and even sexist toward the mothers of this state."

No, they didn't sound derogatory, offensive, and sexist, they were derogatory, offensive, and sexist and your refusal to face that just means you're doubling down on being a Clown.

=

Next up, on February 26 the Oklahoma House of Representatives passed a bill that, according to its supporters, would allow the state legislature to declare federal laws it disagrees with unconstitutional.

The bill would let the legislature ask the attorney general to challenge federal laws in court. Should the AG decline to do so, the legislature could declare federal laws unconstitutional.

Rep. Jay Steagall, a supporter, said "We're a sovereign state, and we have authorities as a state."

Yes you do - but overruling the federal government is not among them. Didn't people in Oklahoma read the fine print when it became a state?

Clowns upon Clowns who are only going to enrich some lawyers and cost the state some hefty legal fees - once people stop laughing.

=

Finally for this time, our winner Clown is an unknown somebody at Shallowater High School in Lubbock County, Texas, who recently decided to have a “Chivalry Day” to show "how the code of chivalry and standards set in the medieval concept of courtly love carries over into the modern day." You can probably guess it didn't go well.

Boys and girls were each given a list of rules to follow with points awarded for each rule they demonstrated in practice.

Boys were told, for example, to dress in jackets and ties, “assist ladies who may have dropped an article by picking it up for them,” address women as “milady,” bow when greeting women, and rise when they enter the room.

But if you really want creepy, the girls - excuse me, the “ladies in the class” - were told “dress to please the men,” “address all men by title, with a lowered head and curtsy,” “do not initiate conversations with males,” do not show "intellectual superiority," "never criticize a man," do not "complain or whine," either "walk behind men" or "daintily, as if their feet were bound,” “clean up after the men” “obey any reasonable request of a male,” and a couple more.

The school quickly had the assignment canceled after parents made the entirely appropriate fuss about it.

Which only leaves one question: Who the hell ever thought this was a good idea? Whoever it was, definite champion Clown material.

033 The Erickson Report for March 11 to 25

 

The Erickson Report for March 11 to 25

This episode:

Recent news on climate change
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-change-atlantic-ocean-gulf-stream-system-amoc-weakest-1600-years/
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2004/03/warm-up-to-main-event.html
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/01/26/president-biden-us-capable-too-europe-generates-more-electricity-renewables-fossil
https://thinkprogress.org/forget-coal-both-solar-and-wind-are-now-cheaper-than-new-natural-gas-plants-e281f5485e5f/
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/27/largest-ever-climate-poll-shows-64-global-public-believes-warming-planet-emergency
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-28/biden-s-early-climate-blitz-goes-faster-further-than-expected?utm_source=digg&utm_medium=email
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/2/3/2013746/-Scientists-say-2-trillion-investment-can-decarbonize-energy-by-2050-paid-for-with-a-carbon-tax
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/03/02/green-new-dud-progressives-warn-house-climate-bill-fails-grasp-fundamental-truth
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/28/climate-campaigners-say-listen-science-new-study-shows-earth-now-warmer-any-time
https://climate.nasa.gov/news/3061/2020-tied-for-warmest-year-on-record-nasa-analysis-shows/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/12/09/carbon-footprints-climate-change-rich-one-percent/

Updates on attacks on LGBTQ+ rights
https://19thnews.org/2021/02/wave-of-anti-trans-bills-are-hitting-statehouses/
https://19thnews.org/2021/02/36-anti-lgbtq-religious-freedom-measures-are-in-covid-church-bills/
https://www.rawstory.com/republicans-anti-lgbtq-bills/
https://www.them.us/story/virginia-ban-anti-lgbtq-panic-defense-danica-roem
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/25/us-house-equality-act-lgbtq-americans-discrimination

Two Weeks of Stupid: Clowns and Outrages [Clowns]
https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-early-childhood-education-education-boise-bills-581517bc89b86666887396ae8ecce4ce
https://www.koco.com/article/oklahoma-house-passes-bill-allowing-legislature-to-declare-federal-laws-unconstitutional/35661454
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/texas-school-chivalry-assignment_n_6041bfc6c5b660a0f387697e

Two Weeks of Stupid: Clowns and Outrages [Outrages]
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2021/02/26/syria-bombing-biden-airstrikes-mark-test-us-role-worlds-police/6831034002/
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/02/26/syria-bombings-biden-airstrikes-deliver-message-more-than-damage/6834550002/
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-50998065
https://apnews.com/article/biden-retreats-saudi-arabia-sanctions-khashoggi-killing-d91d31edece5db07112d1c2d4dd3be33

032 The Erickson Report for February 25 to March 10, Page 6: Two Weeks of Stupid: Clowns and Outrages [the Clown]

032 The Erickson Report for February 25 to March 10, Page 6: Two Weeks of Stupid: Clowns and Outrages [the Clown]

Now for our recurring feature, Two Weeks of Stupid: Clowns and Outrages. I only have time for one of each this time out, so let's start, as usual, with the Clown.

Earlier, I noted that various states are considering bills to restrict or ban medical treatment for transgender youths. One in Kentucky merits a special mention. It employs the right-wing's latest go-to excuse, the "conscience" exemption, where a medical professional can refuse to act in the best interests of the patient based on a claim that it violates their convictions.

I am a sincere and deeply committed advocate of the right of conscience, but of course this has nothing to do with conscience and everything to do with enabling anti-trans bigotry. To see that, we need only look at the words of the bill's sponsor and our Clown, one Rep. Stephen Meredith. Quoting him:

You have a 12-year-old girl who's a tomboy. And her parents, who are misguided, think that she's really a girl trapped in a boy's body. And they don't want to see her go through the rest of her life miserable. So they're going to go and transition her.

So not only does he not even understand the terms of the discussion, since the parents would be seeing her as a boy trapped in a girl's body, not the other way around, his vision is that of parents taking a 12-year-old girl to be forcibly surgically altered to male without her desire or consent.If that wasn't insane enough, in the real world transitioning is a long and complex process even if there is no surgery, which only occurs about 25% of the time, a process which involves counseling and years of hormone therapy, across all of which time we are supposed to think that neither parents nor counselors nor surgeons would notice that she doesn't want to do this.

That, according to him, is the sort of realistic scenario that we must allow for bigotry in order to guard against.

If it is true that ignorance in bliss, Rep. Stephen Meredith of Kentucky must be one extremely happy Clown.

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.

031 The Erickson Report for February 4 to 17

031 The Erickson Report for February 4 to 17

Good News
private prisons
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/26/politics/executive-orders-equity-joe-biden/index.html
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/biden-to-limit-private-prisons-military-equipment-police_n_601017aec5b634dc37385e66
=
the ERA
https://www.aol.com/news/2021-could-women-full-constitutional-104500716.html
=
LGBTQ+ rights
https://www.aol.com/news/alabamas-trans-id-law-requiring-093251908.html
=
Georgia COVID protocols
https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/georgia-republicans/

Clowns
SCOTUS
https://www.aol.com/news/supreme-court-ends-trump-emoluments-145628882-151217164.html
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/25/politics/emoluments-supreme-court-donald-trump-case/index.html
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-emoluments-cases-why-the-supreme-court-didnt-want-to-hear-them/ar-BB1d5mzk
=
Leon Cooperman
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/29/cry-me-river-sanders-hits-back-billionaire-investor-whines-about-potential-tax-hikes
https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/hedge-fund-billionaires/
=
Jaime Allard
https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/nazi/
=
Terry Jones
https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2021/01/19/a-north-dakota-gop-lawmaker-filed-an-absolutely-insane-anti-lgbtq-bill/

Outrage
Biden foreign/military policy
https://www.aol.com/news/biden-seen-likely-keep-space-052951856-144408237.html
https://news.yahoo.com/biden-struggle-cut-defense-spending-210710322.html
https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2020/09/11/biden-not-planning-defense-cuts-but-they-may-come-anyway/
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-admin-us-troops-afghanistan-amid-escalating-violence/story?id=75547504
https://theintercept.com/2020/11/22/biden-drones-endless-wars/
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/1/28/biden-to-israel-palestine-the-show-must-go-on
https://news.yahoo.com/biden-administration-lays-policies-israel-181759037.html
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-biden-state-venezuela-idUSKBN29O2PE
https://www.codepink.org/pbsvenezuela

Rules for Rightwingers
personal observations over time

030 The Erickson Report for January 21 to February 3, Page 3: Two Weeks of Stupid, Clowns and Outrages [on the cusp]

030 The Erickson Report for January 21 to February 3, Page 3: Two Weeks of Stupid, Clowns and Outrages [on the cusp]

These next two lie in the gap between Clown and Outrage. I wasn't completely sure where to put them, so here are, somewhere between. Consider them a segue from the Clowns to the Outrages.

The first is one that in an even slightly saner time would be laughed at for being so bone-headed stupid. But now, we can't afford to laugh.

Terry Jones is a GOPper member of the North Dakota legislature. Under a bill he has introduced, any state form that asks for racial information would be required to list "American" as the first choice.

Why? Because, he says, he's "disgusted" with how race is used by bad actors to divide the country. "Bad actors," I expect, refers to people such as the Black Lives Matter movement who point out the racism in US society because, jeez, if we would only just all call ourselves "Americans," all that rac - I mean all that "division caused by bad actors" - would just disappear. Obviously.

Asked how "American" can be a race, he answered by defining the word as "a group of people that has lived under common laws for mutual benefits." How that differs from "nationality" went unexplained.

He did even worse in asserting his bill would unite the country, claiming not only that people of all backgrounds are proud to be Americans, but Black Americans are "glad their ancestors were brought here as slaves." He knows that because he remembers reading an article in the Reader's Digest 30 or 40 years ago where in that one article one black doctor said something more or less to that effect. And with evidence like that, who could argue with him?

Rep. Gretchen Dobervich another member of the North Dakota House, said "I don't think (the bill) is meant to be racist, but the optics are not good."

Okay, screw the optics business, but I agree. I don't think it is meant to be racist; I doubt Jones was thinking "This will stick it to those" fill in the racial epithet of your choice.

But that's the point! That's the problem! The kind of routine, unaware, ingrained,  unconscious racism endemic to our society that can move someone to dismiss both the past and the present pain and damage and suffering wrought by that racism and convince themselves that the problem is not racism but divisions created by "bad actors" and so imagine all we need is to engage om some greeting card sentimentality. That is the problem.

As I said, the desire is to laugh at how astonishingly stupid this is. But we can no longer afford to. It's an outrage.

==

This also lies in the space between between Clown and Outrage, because there is a clownish aspect to it, but this one clearly sits on the Outrage side of that gap.

Okay. On January 15, Tweetie-pie received Morocco's highest award for his work in advancing a normalization deal between Israel and Morocco.

That's the Clown part: the idea of Tweetie-pie deserving any kind of peace award, especially on the Middle East, especially after his sycophantic support for Israel's oppression of Palestinians.

The Outrage part is everything else about this, centered on the fact that Tweetie-pie secured the deal by making the United States the first western nation to recognize Morocco’s illegal annexation of Western Sahara.

Western Sahara had been a colony of Spain for over a hundred years until Spain withdrew in 1975. I, fact, I own a world atlas from 1969 that shows what it called Spanish Sahara as a separate country.

Immediately after the Spanish left, Western Sahara was invaded - by Morocco from the north and Mauritania from the south, both seeking control over the natural resources to be found there. Morocco sent not only troops, but hundreds of thousands of civilians to settle in and occupy the area.

Mauritania withdrew in a few years, but Morocco is still there, 45 years later. The invasion touched off a 16-year war with the Sahrawi liberation movement known as the Polisario Front, the Sahrawi being the native people of the area. With US military aid, Morocco drove the resistance to Western Sahara’s Eastern Desert, then created world’s longest minefield and a 1700 mile wall to trap them there, dividing Sahrawis into those under occupation and those who fled into exile.

In 1991, the UN brokered a ceasefire to end that 16-year war and promised the Sahrawis a referendum on self-determination. For the 29 years since, Morocco has blocked attempts to organize the vote and the Security Council has refused to act even as the Moroccan government continues torture, disappearances, killings, and repression against pro-independence Sahrawis.

Human Rights Watch, in its World report 2021, describes how the government continued in 2020 to "systematically prevent gatherings supporting Sahrawi self-determination, obstruct the work of local human rights organizations, and beat activists and journalists in their custody and on the streets."

That's what Tweetie-pie has just endorsed as US policy - and did it, obscenely, on December 10: Human Rights Day.

An obscene outrage.

Parenthetically, this is even without noting how the Morocco, labeled by Freedom House's ranking system as the 7th least free country in the world, systematically represses any criticism of the monarchy and subjects women and LGBTQ people to bigotry.

030 The Erickson Report for January 21 to February 3, Page 3: Two Weeks of Stupid, Clowns and Outrages [the Clowns]

030 The Erickson Report for January 21 to February 3, Page 3: Two Weeks of Stupid, Clowns and Outrages [the Clowns]

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

Following the deadly Capitol riot on January 6, Twitter announced it was suspending thousands of QAnon-related accounts for using the platform to incite violence.

On January 10, Sarah Huckabee Sanders whined that she had lost over 50,000 followers and tweeted a screenshot from Secretary of State Mike Pompous claiming some right-wingers had lost followers while Blahden, Harris, Pelosi, and Schumer had gained - which to her was proof that right-wingers are being censored by the far left in cooperation with giant telecommunications corporations. (Strange bedfellows, indeed.)

AOC observed that Sanders was implicitly acknowledging that her followers were "Neo-Nazis and violent insurrectionists" being kicked off the platform, while for my part I wondered why it was such an unfathomable concept to her that people connected to an outgoing administration losing followers while those leading an incoming administration were gaining them.

Either way, major clown material.

=

Last week, fanatical evangelical pastor Robert Henderson angrily deranged* that Joe Blahden couldn't have won the 2020 election legitimately because God wouldn't have allowed it to happen.

"You're going to tell me that a man that has been the best friend that Christianity and the kingdom of God has had is going to be removed by God and replaced by a baby-killing socialist?"

Leaving aside the fact that Henderson is elevating an inveterate liar and serial adulterer who has, Jesus said, less chance of getting into heaven than a camel has of passing through the eye of a needle, he is actually arguing that God wanted Blahden to lose but was incapable of doing anything about it. Which puts a kinda weird twist on the evangelical view of God.

But not too weird, it seems, for a clown like Robert Henderson.

=

But our winner this time took us on a double-barreled excursion into paranoia town.

On January 5, the day before a riotous mob attacked the Capitol, newly-elected Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, best known as the Congresswoman from QAnon, appeared on extremist rightwing lie channel Newsmax to decry a "fraudulent, stolen election" and describe the next day's rally as "our 1776 moment."

But in the wake of that clownish failure of an attempted insurrection, Greene, like most of her ilk, turned coward and ran away from her own words and was all about "peaceful and patriotic" opposition.

Which makes her a good example of every right-wing bozo out there. But wait, there's more:

Back on Newsmax on January 13, Rep. TheColorofNausea said she plans on filing articles of impeachment against Joe Blahden on his first full day in office because "the American people will not tolerate this" - without being able to specify any actual charges to be included.

Which again makes here a pretty good example of the rightwing.

By the way, during the first week of the House session, she appeared on the floor wearing differing COVID masks with slogans of the paranoid right on them. Y'know what? As long as she wears the damn mask, I really don't care. Blather on, bozo.

*I happily claim credit to originating the use of "derange" as an intransitive verb.