Fascism Watch for 25 June 2023: the Wait What and the Party of Lies edition

[solarbird]

Leading again with some good news: Florida’s anti-drag law is likely unconstitutional, federal judge rules. The judge striking down Arkansas’s law against trans health care ruled heavily on the actual facts, correctly finding the anti-trans fundamentalist propaganda of cardboard science groups like the American College of Paediatrics meritless. The Advocate has an article on various meaningful LGBT-rights victories so far in 2023.

Also, holy shit what is this, reality? Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) this week said he opposes state laws that ban gender-affirming health care for transgender young people, distancing himself from other Republicans on what is already shaping up to be a key issue in the race for the White House in 2024. I honestly don’t know what to say. Maybe it’s related to this set of polls showing that all the anti-trans backlash is really mostly contained within the fundamentalist evangelical community.

Now, back to hell:

House Republicans in a party-line vote censure Adam Schiff (D-CA) for leading the first impeachment against Donald Trump, and for investigating Russian collusion in the 2016 campaign. Democrats in the House protested throughout and after the vote. As for Schiff, he’s proud of their censure, saying:

You honor me with your enmity. You flatter me with this falsehood. You, who are the authors of a big lie about the last election, must condemn the truth-tellers and I stand proudly before you. Your words tell me that I have been effective in the defense of our democracy and I am grateful.’

Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA)

Meanwhile, of course, they’ve started work on impeaching Biden for, well… being there. Or something. They’ll figure it out, while also trying to figure out how to un-do Trump’s two impeachments.

American politics does not share a common set of values, and Dahlia Lithwick and Michael Podhorzer at Slate say it’s about time people realised that:

The DOJ/White House wall of separation is just one of many, many “norms” that Democrats have honored and Republicans have continuously, flagrantly violated—alongside blue slips for judges, or the use of the filibuster, or abiding by the Hatch Act, or the norm that says you seat a Supreme Court justice, even in an election year… it’s long past time we come to our senses and realize that their norms are not ours, and never have been.

That “Moms for Liberty” newsletter going around with the Hitler quote? It’s real, as is the Indiana chapter behind it. Indiana is full of nazis. The national founders have disowned it, but it’s all real.

There’s also that whole thing where the GOP want to rewrite history to eliminate … well, history. McCarthy is on board, of course. But in particular the realities of racism and LGBT existence, the latter both in the past and in the future. It’s all part of the general GOP’s war against truth.

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley recently said that if Moms4Liberty is a hate group, add her to the list, so sure, I’ll add you to the Hitler-lover list, no problem.

Republican presidential candidate DeSantis’s anti-“woke”/LGBT-hate campaign philosophy is longstanding fundamentalist demonology, only lightly repackaged to make his evil lunacy more palatable. Whitney Phillips, Mark Brockway, and Abby Ohlheiser take it apart for you on MSNBC. See also: Assigned Media’s breakdown of rightists screaming about “trans indoctrination camps.”

Fake Democratic presidential candidate RFJ Jr. is busily thanking Tucker Carlson for spotlighting him on his pretend show on Twitter. (He’s a simp for Putin in Ukraine too, as if there was any doubt.) Also, turns out his superPAC is has big ties to MAGAts such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, George Santos, and Herschel Walker.

What the actual cheeto-salted fuck: A Delaware city is set to give corporations the right to vote in elections. That’s not The Onion, that’s hideously, horribly real.

Remember how I’ve talked about states losing OBGYNs, hospitals dropping childbirth services, young doctors unable and refusing to start residencies in red states? ABC News have noticed the exodus.

Iowa meteorologist quits after 18 years after being repeatedly harassed and threatened with death for talking about climate change. ETA: Guess what? He’s on Mastodon and just floated by in my timeline, holy shit

The Foundation for Government Accountability, backed by billionaire Richard Uihlein, is working in at least Ohio, Missouri, South Dakota, and Arkansas to change state laws to ensure Republican rule from the minority.

Threats against Norway’s Pride festival rise following deadly 2022 attack.

In Social media news:

Naturally, noted transphobe multi-millionaire J.K. Rowling is all-in with Musk on “cisgender is a slur,” and lying about gender again, like she does.

We all know the Twitter Files are bullshit – even Twitter have now said so, when under oath. But the Washington Post acquired video of internal meetings before January 6th where the company demonstrates it was intent upon keeping even violent pro-Trump tweets up and visible.

I love the way this is phrased: “Twitter has agreed to comply with tough new EU laws on fake news, Russian propaganda and online crime after a team of officials from the European Commission entered its headquarters to stress test its capacity to operate legally in Europe.” Twitter has agreed to comply?! It’s fucking laws, mate. They don’t have a choice.

In Schools news:

The Republican North Carolina legislature has sent a ban on trans athletes to the governor’s desk. It will be signed into law.

A Georgia teacher has been fired for reading a children’s book about acceptance in class. The school wouldn’t tell her what part of the book violated the rules; it was chosen by her students.

The national organisation for Kappa Kappa Gamma – the sorority whose Wisconsin chapter is being sued by six of its own members for allowing trans women to join – have joined the local chapter in court, rebutting the claimants, saying the claimants do not have a “right” to force their organisation to exclude trans women.

Rightists and other conspiracy theorists were passing around more “students identifying as cats” bullshit this week; the school has shot it down, though I’m sure that just proves the conspiracy or some other such bullshit.

Three New Jersey school districts implemented rules requiring schools to notify parents of trans feelings and/or changes in pronoun use; the state is suing them to stop it.

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

Comments

[conuly]

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) this week said he opposes state laws that ban gender-affirming health care for transgender young people, distancing himself from other Republicans on what is already shaping up to be a key issue in the race for the White House in 2024.

When I heard this, I reminded my sister, who was the one who told me about it, that our grandmother was a registered Republican for as long as she was a citizen. Not because she ever was a Republican, no - she just wanted to vote in their primaries!

Three New Jersey school districts implemented rules requiring schools to notify parents of trans feelings and/or change sin pronoun use; the state is suing them to stop it.

Did you mean to say "change sin pronoun use"?

[solarbird]

Obviously, a misplaced space. I have corrected it.

[conuly]

This is embarrassing to admit, but it wasn't obvious to me what the error was. I spent a few very long seconds trying to figure out what you were intending to say.

[solarbird]

Oh, okay.

Been there.