Fascism Watch for 18 April 2023

So here’s a bunch of lines connected for you about Florida Republicans on Mastodon by Danielle Foré:

• Florida Republicans just made giving the death penalty not require a unanimous jury. 8-4 will be good enough.
• Florida Republicans previously passed a bill making sex crimes against children punishable by death.
• Florida Republicans are actively working on figuring out how to make existing as trans where children can see you into a sex crime, as Republicans have been trying to do in various other states, sometimes pretending it’s about “Drag” but writing the laws loosely enough to cover transgender people, and sometimes just going straight to it.

Do you see step four or do I need to spell it out for you? Wait for it…

They will make ALL OF US illegal again if they can, and then they will kill those of us they can find.

Meanwhile…

Separately moving to outlaw health care for trans youth, Missouri Republicans have just, through emergency AG order, banned gender-affirming health care for both trans adults and children. It pretends not to be an outright ban, but as written requires immediate cessation of existing care including medication, before laying out a series of requalification steps that include an 18-month minimum waiting period that’s really three years and involves at least 15 sessions with a full psychiatrist or physiologist, as well as a broad list of other requirements and disqualifications clearly intended to be impossible to meet. It is a ban that does not use the word “ban,” but it is a ban on adult treatment.

The Republican Attorney General had already launched a “Transgender Centre Concerns” reporting form. This will be used to destroy health-care providers. It should of course get flooded with nonsense and bullshit. I mean, that’s what will happen anyway, just from the people using it to try as intended to destroy trans people.

Missouri is now a no-go state for a lot of people. DO NOT GO TO MISSOURI.

The Oklahoma Sheriff and Republican officials caught on recording talking about killing reporters and lynching Black people has launched an investigation against local media who reported on his commentary. It’s local, but it’s bad out there.

Idaho Republicans passed – but astoundingly found themselves unable to override a veto by a single vote – basically setting up a bounty system on libraries, which would’ve had the de facto effect of barring anyone under the age of 18 from having access to any public library. Parents would’ve been allowed to sue for $2500 for any material they found objectionable. The bill specifically included any mention of LGBT people in any context as being grounds for suit.

But surprisingly, the veto wasn’t overridden and their fascist legislature is done for the year.

Republicans in Louisiana are working to ban teaching about racism at Louisiana universities. They’re also working to ban any and all “diversity, equity, and inclusion departments.” Because they’re authoritarians and that’s one of the things authoritarians do. Small government was always a filthy lie.

From Rolling Stone: “A British research group that typically investigates war crimes and human rights abuses has turned its spotlight on Portland law enforcement, releasing a damning report on the use of chemicals against demonstrators by the Portland Police Bureau during the 2020 George Floyd protests.”

Republican Nazi Representative Paul Gosar of Arizona used his federal franking rights to send people to a Holocaust-denying Hitler-praising Nazi website. I’m going to keep using “Republican” when referring to him, but I’m also always going to include “Nazi,” because HE IS A FUCKING NAZI.

Back in Florida, Little Hitler DeSantis is threatening Disney with building a state prison right next door, and Disney responded with announcing an LGBTQ event night at Disneyland in California.

In “of course, of course” news, Creationist Theme Park Pal Charged with Child Sex Abuse—Again and Stop the Steal’ Organizer [Ali Alexander] Apologizes After Being Accused of Asking Teen Boys for D*ck Pics, because of course, that’s how they roll.

Finally, here’s Musk Twitter at work:

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

progress! at KUOW

I’ve sent notes to KUOW before about joining Mastodon/Fediverse but this is the first response and it’s short but positive. Cascadians, this is the time to be thanking them for leaving Twitter and urging them to set up on Mastodon!

“Thank you for your considerate and enthusiastic suggestion. I’ve passed it on to our digital and marketing teams…”

The text of my message follows, if people want ideas. DO NOT COPYPASTA, USE YOUR OWN WORDS. But here’s what got a response:

I’ve contacted you about this before, but now that you’re off Twitter – good, it’s overdue – I hope you and NPR generally will join the “Fediverse” by setting up a Mastodon instance. I’m a sustaining member of KUOW, and am also on Mastodon – in fact, I run a small local instance in [western Washington State].

I realise that the management process for joining any social network is nontrivial, but the technical requirements are simple.

Moreover, I genuinely feel that nonprofit community-funded radio is a tremendously good match for nonprofit community-funded distributed social media. Honestly, if I’d asked myself, “What would public radio set up as public media?” 10 years ago, it would’ve been something like this.

And if not that, then at very least, I hope you will set up an account or two at one of the journalism-specific host sites such as journa.host or newsie.social.

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