solarbird | Fascism Watch for 26 March 2023 (Reply)

I’ve talked a lot about Wisconsin, and how the Republican Party have made it one of their test states, and how the Republican Party essentially cannot be voted out of power. They’ve lost popular votes by wide margins in last few years – and kept a supermajority in the state legislature despite that.

I’ve also talked about the Wisconsin Supreme Court special election coming up in a couple of weeks. This is an incredibly important election, as it’s literally a MAGAt vs. a sane person, and will decide the shape of the court at this incredibly critical time. It might be the last real shot at restoring representative democracy in Wisconsin for years.

So if you have something you can do here – even if it’s just throw money at Wisconsin Democrats for their GOTV effort – now is the goddamn time. If you know anyone in Wisconsin, make sure they’re aware and keep them aware.

Critical elections never happen in April, but this year they are, so go. Make it happen.

In other news:

Kellie-Jay Keen, sometimes Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, a.k.a Posey Parker, one of Britain’s loudest and most vicious TERFs, has been associated with fascists in general and Nazis in particular many times through her career, including using a barbie doll dressed up in Nazi uniform as a personal avatar. (If you think that’s not such a big deal, count the number of Nazi-uniformed anime girls used by online fascists. Different media icon, same fash bullshit.)

Anyway, one of her best buds and even-more-famous TERF J.K. Rowling has been out in strident defence of her today (Saturday, March 25th) after she’s been receiving yet another round of criticism for generally being just fine with literal Nazis doing “white power” chants and throwing Nazi salutes as supporters at another of her rallies in Australia. J.K. has gone a variety of ways with this in the past, including alleging that all the Nazis that show up at Posie’s rallies are secretly trans women disguised as Nazi men, in much the same vein as the “the January 6 violence was actually ANTIFA” lie.

Kentucky Democratic Governor Beshear, the only statewide Democrat in Kentucky, vetoed the Republican legislature’s sweeping anti-trans legislation. Having a supermajority, the legislature will have opportunity to override his veto. Kentucky Republicans are already using it against him and his upcoming re-election campaign, so this is meaningful, even if his veto is overridden.

As many of us have said, and as has been happening, rightists were never going to stop with queer kids, and in fact most definitely aren’t, as anti-trans and anti-LGBT-in-general bills are being expanded to target adult queers as well. It’s never been about “protecting” children – abusing children, maybe, but certainly not protecting them. See how the same Republican Party is working across the country to bring back child factory and mine labour.

Yeah, you read that right. It’s who they are. Make sure your str8 friends – particularly parents – know this is what they do.

Historian Jon Meacham discusses Trump’s dangerous hold over the GOP: “Let’s be very clear here: The Republican party, in the grip of Trump, is not a functioning part of the constitutional order. It’s just not.“

Section 230 is what makes communication over the Internet functionally possible. It’s what makes us, and only us, responsible for what we say online; it gives “common carrier” status to internet providers, the same way as it’s given to phone companies, including cell-phone companies. Without it, no common carrier can function.

It was also how we took the internet back from the so-called Communications Decency Act. If it goes away, the whole internet in the US is fucked, and not in a good way.

Here’s PBS talking about the background, and what the Supreme Court might be about to do to it. Hopefully not. But it’s quite possible, so keep an eye on this. There may soon be some severe damage to repair.

Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.