Fascism Watch for 17 May 2023: the Sidling Up For Street Violence and Sorting by State edition

Republican Georgia is putting cops in hospitals. That’s not a great solution to rising hospital violence, but it’s all the Republicans know how to do so they’re going to do it. While this article doesn’t say say it, a lot – a lot – of this violence in previous coverage has been rightist, be it anti-vaccination, anti-COVID, anti-reproductive-healthcare, anti-LGBTQ healthcare, see also the series of bombing threats across the country against children’s hospitals over the last year.

Conservative pundits are increasingly open about who they think should be killed. It’s a big list. “Just kill them all” has become a theme.

And in this context, Trump and DeSantis are busily trying to out-Christian-Nationalist each other, including supporting vigilante violence against social and political enemies. DeSantis himself is sending national guard troops to Republican Texas, along with other personnel, for more ‘secure the border’ anti-refugee bullshit.

I’m not sure how to cover white nationalists marching in DC, but it was a few days ago, 150ish people, based on that turnout I’d say they had to bring people in from several states to manage it. It’s the usual Khaki Klown Krew, the ones who got busted in a U-Haul a couple of years ago. Remember: they always want to look big, when they really, really aren’t.

Meanwhile, in Kansas, Republicans are working on how to purge the state of political opponents, so that’s fun:

“If you can make it hostile to that group of people, that small sliver of society, and have them move elsewhere, that does a huge amount to shut this down,” Peters said. “It’s both sides of it: You need to attract the good people here, and you also need to make it clear to the bad people, this isn’t gonna go well for you.”

Adam Peters, Reno County Republicans, Kansas

I’m not going to play bookie here, but when I see headlines like McCarthy says White House wants ‘default more than a deal’ and realise that it’s always, always projection with these guys – which means we could legitimately have a default on our hands. I mean, they really do want to crash the economy going into the 2024 elections – they made that clear with the “budget” they passed and then immediately disowned. From an everyone-else standpoint, there’s no winning either way; either that budget or an extended default will trainwreck the economy and that’s all there is to it.

The New York Times has been a cheerleader for anti-trans activism, helping to foment as much of it as they can, really. Not long ago they ran an article on “de-transitioners” – we’ve talked about that before, you can check previous updates. Their big “trans-friendly” de-transitioner was Carey Callahan. Problem is, she’s not trans-friendly; she’s buds with TERFs and conversion therapists like Lisa Marchiano and anti-trans political activists like Jessie Singal. Receipts.

Do I think the Times knew this? Yeah. I do. Do I think they let her present herself as “trans-friendly” when she’s absolutely fucking not? Yes. I do.

Meanwhile, the Washington Free Beacon is showing how Republicans are going to move next, calling even purely social transition “irreversible interventions,” which means it’s another thing they’ll start banning soon.

North Carolina’s Republican supermajority overturned the governor’s veto, thanks to the stealth candidate who ran as a pro-choice Democrat in a strongly Democratic district then flipped to Republican once the legislative session started. And yes, she voted to override the veto. Given these results, this will be more of a thing in the future, so watch it.

Missouri’s Republican attorney general abruptly dropped his “emergency” executive order functionally banning trans health care in the state for adults as well as trans kids. They’re not saying why, but it might’ve been a word from the lawyers. Either way, the law banning health care for trans kids in state is on the books now.

Alabama Republicans are moving to charge women with murder for abortions, and in a lot of cases, for miscarriages if some fash asshole decides the miscarriage wasn’t enough to punish the bitch for being a woman, and yeah, that is how I think they see it.

A big reason Florida went so very red relatively quickly has a lot to do with the way a lot of people in the country are voting with their feet, sorting out Democrats and Christian Nationalists/white nationalists/authoritarians. The Hill has the numbers, and The Miami Herald has the consequences, writing that DeSantis has made Florida “an intolerant and repressive place that bears scant resemblance to the Sunshine State of just a few years ago.”

Talking of Florida, here’s a news roundup:

• Republican DeSantis signs bills banning various topics from being taught, allows expanded hiring/firing by his political appointees, and bans diversity/equity/inclusion spending as much as he legally can
• Republican DeSantis signs bill letting him stay on as Florida governor while campaigning for president; it also shields not just his travel records but also who he meets with from the public
• Florida is investigating a teacher who showed a Disney movie to her class after a day of standardised testing because it had a gay character in it. The chaser is that she had explicit permission from the parent now trying to get her fired. Is the parent a member of the Moms 4 Liberty cult? Why yes. Yes, she is. Bad faith all the way down.
• Florida Agencies Manipulated Research To Ban Trans Care And Coverage, because that’s what the fundamentalist movement did, and that’s who is running the Republican show now.
• DeSantis’s office has received SB254, the bill to let the state intervene in custody cases against trans-supportive parents. He doesn’t have to sign it for it to go into effect, so it’s only a matter of curiosity whether he’ll specifically sign it or just it become law on June 1st. eta: He signed it, along with a fleet of others, chanting every TERF and anti-LGBT propaganda talking point in his news release. They’ll make all of us illegal again if they can.

Meanwhile, in Texas: A Black woman appointed by Democrats to the Ware County Board of Elections in South Georgia has been removed from her seat under a new state law backed by Republicans. Her replacement is a conservative known locally for defending a Confederate memorial in downtown Waycross.

And on Musk Twitter and other bad social media:

Elon Musk has gone full-bore anti-semite, using Twitter to cast the favourite anti-Semite boogeyman George Soros as an evil supervillain who hates humanity, using anti-Semitic tropes. See also, and see also. He’s also doubling-down on his support of pro-authoritarian censorship, saying it’s “his choice” – presumably not to fight the censorship orders, unlike old Twitter, which often did and often won. The Street is calling Musk’s choice of successor as CEO a “humiliating defeat,” but we’ll see about that. I do not want to see people saying “lol we won” and going back to business as usual, because it is not business as usual. She may be an advertiser and knows what Twitter needs to do to get advertisers back, but personally, her politics are pretty damn fash.

It could be worse than Twitter, though: Omegle is letting fascists abuse, harass, and tell queer and Jewish kids to kill themselves while actively recruiting for neo-nazi movements. It’s very much a “block the entire site” moment.

Finally, as is all too often the case, The Onion really sums up the complete nonsensical bullshit of the anti-trans “sports” lie: Trans Teen Hatches Nefarious Plot To Undergo Years Of Medical Treatments And Counseling To Win At Swimming. It’s just so fucking stupid, and yet, all these idiots insist that it be taken seriously. Why do people go along?

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