Iowa Republicans join the ranks of infamy in banning medical care for trans youth, with one Republican saying in response to all the data showing that this care is necessary and important that it’s just wrong – that medicine “made mistakes in the past,” so therefore it’s possible for all the evidence to be completely wrong and we can and should ban health care.
This is also a creationism line, and this is not a coincidence.
Tennessee Republicans are all but certain to pass a bill allowing county clerks to refuse marriage licenses to same-sex and mixed-race couples. They want to take a try at the Supreme Court, of course, to see if they can get marriage equality overturned. The racism and anti-LGBT hate are explicitly on parade.
“A Texas lawsuit vividly shows how abortion bans cause women excruciating pain and even death. Plaintiffs argue that the Texas law inequitably deprives women of the rights to life and liberty without due process of law, contravening the state constitution.” This is, of course, part of the point. They do hate women so very, very, very much, and think this pain and the deaths are justified and good.
A late addition, sorry for that – the Trumpist judge in Texas that has received attention over a lot of far-right rulings has issued a decision banning birth control at Federal clinics in Texas, agreeing with the plaintiff that the mere existence of such clinics violates a fundamentalist man’s religious beliefs and therefore are a violation of his rights.
This is one of the ways they are going after birth control. They’ll make it illegal everywhere, if they can.
Mother Jones has a long article on the group co-ordinating all these attacks, particularly legislative attacks against LGBT people. I mean, we all know this is going to be the basis of the 2024 campaign, right?
Neo-nazis talk about how useful and helpful they find DeSantis’s attacks on LGBT people and Black history in gaining new members. They piggyback on everything he does, and claim it’s a very effective strategy. See also his repeated refusal to condemn neo-nazi activity in his state, including street harassment of Jews.
I don’t think this is a coincidence either.
Andy Ngo is defending right-wing extremist and neo-Confederate Andrew Duncomb, which matters again because Elon Musk listens to and amplifies Andy’s lies and disinformation. Duncomb has a history of violence, particularly against women. Meanwhile, Elon was supporting Tucker Carlson’s lies about January 6th, and attacking Mitch McConnell for calling the lies what they were.
It is, as always, a good day to quit Twitter.
I say it over and over again, but the GOP’s strategy for the last few decades has been “When in power, loot; when out of power, sabotage.” That’s exactly what they’re doing with the debt ceiling and they’re more than happy to tank the American economy to do it.
Another way I like to put it is, “Our country to rule, or no country to rule.” Because yes, they are perfectly happy to take it that far. See also: national divorce.
Directly related to the above, Status Kuo writes on the timing of Carlson’s new disinformation campaign, particularly as it relates to revelations from the Dominion Voting Machines lawsuit that came out, most particularly Carlson’s private comments about how the election fraud narrative was complete bullshit and how much he personally hates Donald Trump. It’s a pretty good case.
Also relatedly, have some deeper thoughts on the fascist/far-right use of genocidal rhetoric to move the Overton window. They absolutely mean what they say, don’t get that wrong – but it’s also about why they’re saying it so plainly.
An unusual bit of good news: Erin Reed reports that Governor Tim Walz made Minnesota a trans refugee state through executive order. He will decline extradition requests, refuse subpoenas, and not allow use of any state resource to enforce bans. Note that being an EO, it’s particularly susceptible to revocation, but it’s a good step and the right idea. Hopefully other states will act similarly.
DAME magazine has an article up about the history of disinformation and the right’s use of it over the last several decades. It’s nothing new to many of the people reading this, but it’s a decent overview for people who are already somewhat aware, but lack depth of knowledge. Probably the most important bit is their explanation of what “flooding the zone with shit” actually does – the intentional overwhelming of critical information processing via mass dumping of contradictory information.
Russia is not being remotely subtle in its threat to the Republic of Georgia on Twitter.
Kenya’s government is launching an anti-gay crusade in schools, via religious leaders and other steps.
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