I Briefly Turned My Back on the World

and wow

I’ve been completely offline for a few days, isolated in the Oregon woods for the Tell Me How This Ends camping trip, a highly enjoyable event that ended without deaths or arrests. Fellow campers were stunned by the culinary miracle of my best campground recipe, “hot can of beans with meat thing.” A package of cheese from the Yreka Walmart was also provided. Today I drove home — 730 miles, NOT THAT I COUNTED — and fired up the sewage box to check in on the stories that I missed by ignoring the news for a few days.

I knew, as I hammered down ridiculous amounts of gas station coffee, that I was missing the presidential “debate.” Had I not been traveling, I would have needed to find another way to avoid watching. The idea that there’s a “debate” to be had, at this very late point — like, man, Joe Biden made some really great points tonight, I guess I really should consider voting for him! — is too stupid to play along with, and the upcoming election has been a settled matter for me since roughly the morning of January 21, 2021. Or maybe a little before that. But apparently Biden was weak and semi-coherent, and then California Governor Patrick Bateman suddenly got a lot of post-debate attention, as if his political stock just went way way way up, and imagine my shock.

The timing of the very surprising incipient national ascent of Governor Bateman is welcome news for California parents, because the abhorrent AB 1955 got its final legislative vote today, and is on the way to the governor’s desk. That’s the parental secrecy bill, which is designed to prohibit schools from notifying parents about the sexual discussions teachers and counselors are having with their children:

This bill would prohibit school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, and the state special schools, and a member of the governing board or body of those educational entities, from enacting or enforcing any policy, rule, or administrative regulation that requires an employee or a contractor to disclose any information related to a pupil’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to any other person without the pupil’s consent unless otherwise required by law, as provided.

It’s a don’t worry, mommy and daddy don’t need to know about the special sexy discussions we have together in this classroom bill. If Bateman signs this shameful bill into law, he’s done. It’s the end of any national ambition he has. So Slow Joe’s predictable implosion is well-timed. The one thing limits the possibility of the other thing: a governor who wants to become the late-season “surprise” Democratic presidential nominee must veto the sexy K-12 secret grooming bill.

Outside pressure from national politics is the only hope for California, because the legislature has gone full Jacobin. Republican Assemblyman Bill Essayli was silenced on the floor of the Assembly on Thursday, which is becoming a theme, and the Assembly’s least plausible tough guy — yes, Corey Jackson — leapt to his feet and squared off to fight him in the middle of the debate, before other legislators dragged him away.

I’ll get into all of these developments more fully tomorrow, but details and video here.

The California legislature has been a nuisance for decades, and dangerous for years, but we’re nearing something new. They will not hear opposing arguments, and they will not yield in their drive to sexualize childhood and separate children from their parents. Even in California, these are wildly unpopular policies. They don’t notice. They just keep going. The alleged elected representatives of the people don’t care at all what the people they represent actually think, and they also aren’t hiding it at all. As I said last week, this development is not just a California problem.

More to come.