US Politics, March 2023: "We want our own safe space, and we deserve it"

Oh Marge...

"We want our own safe space, and we deserve it" -- Marjorie Taylor Greene pic.twitter.com/WGpTLrjNxe

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 1, 2023

I know there’s a thread for it, but jfc the anti-trans stuff that’s moving through OK and AR right now is so fucked and enraging.

Agreed.

Generally I want to focus more on stuff with a chance of passing than stuff that just happens to be introduced (and which will never make it out of committee).

I am skeptical that even the reddest state is about to delegitimize the very existence of the Democratic party, but I agree that there is some scary shit (like the anti-trans stuff and comparatively trivial anti-drag stuff) that needs to be met and fought.

There's some other, equally bonkers shit coming up in Montana:

House Bill 645 would ban individuals who received the COVID-19 vaccine from donating blood, making it a misdemeanor with a $500 fine to donate or accept blood from vaccinated donors. The bill would also ban people who have had a diagnosis of “Long COVID,” medically defined as “postacute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 due to chronic 27 SARS-CoV-2 viral infection.”

In addition to creating a severe shortage of blood in the state, opponents said there’s no way to test blood for both Long COVID or the vaccines.

now we've got bad blood

Just a note that the anti-drag measures are anti-trans measures, because these Christofascist
numbskulls intentionally conflate the two via the wording of the measures themselves— presenting outside of the gender on one’s birth certificate in public is essentially banned. The purpose of the bills is de facto criminalization of trans people.

That is definitely the purpose of the bills, and more broadly they are part of an all-out assault on queer people and culture, they want it all back in the closet.

Trae Crowder rounds it up pretty well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw9d9eFZ9jk

Crowder otmfm. I wish this kind of content made more of a difference. I hope it reaches some kids while they're still making up their minds about the world.

Trump supporters show up outside Leesburg Mall today to troll Desantis’s book signing. Officer comes out and said he was told that anyone with a Trump sign had to leave. Desantis’s fascist tactics, meet Trump supporters! pic.twitter.com/tgArqEpuY8

— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) February 28, 2023

We will be shutting down low-performing, ideologically-captured academic departments and hiring new faculty. The student body will be recomposed over time: some current students will self-select out, others will graduate; we'll recruit new students who are mission-aligned.

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) February 28, 2023

500K fascist followers (minus the two dozen people who report on him for a living and a couple thousand who prefer to know the enemy)

creepy as fuck

desantis book signing ✔
leesburg, fl ✔
books-a-million ✔
trump flags ✔
laura loomer living her best life ✔

looks like a civil war is brewing between the trumpists and the desantists

hope it gets real, real ugly

about to be some bloody Tupperware parties

hopefully some violent golf cart skirmishes in The Villages

🐦[We will be shutting down low-performing, ideologically-captured academic departments and hiring new faculty. The student body will be recomposed over time: some current students will self-select out, others will graduate; we’ll recruit new students who are mission-aligned.
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) February 28, 2023🕸]🐦

This headline (Daily Mail) is just too good:

REVEALED: Roald Dahl books were neutered by woke consultants aged eight to 30 - led by 'non-binary, asexual, polyamorous relationship anarchist who is on the autism spectrum'

xpost Not the least reason being (as noted in the responses) that graduates of Far Right U are going to be viewed as generally unemployable by anyone who isn't a fellow shitbag. It's all just deeply, deeply stupid.

Maybe the school will just hire them all after graduation.

Who is this non-binary, asexual, polyamorous relationship anarchist who is on the autism spectrum they sound dope

^^Sounds like what Colin Firth introduced himself as in the first Kingsman movie.

the organization FIRE seems to be hinting that it's ready to start suing once HB 999 passes, and is trying to get in touch with educators in advance. also suggesting they disobey the laws.

I have my problems with FIRE, but in 2023 I feel like FDR lusting to get Stalin on my side.

xpost (I hope the 8 year old is the polyamorous anarchist)

I went to high school with Greg Luki4noff, ama

Would be wary of assuming they’re too incompetent to effectively purge higher education on ideological grounds. It seems they’re following the model established in Hungary and it was effective enough there.

500K fascist followers (minus the two dozen people who report on him for a living and a couple thousand who prefer to know the enemy)

We’re still assuming any of the statistics on Twitter represent actual individual human beings?

Not sure if the coverage was posted here of the Israeli firm that creates botnets where one actual person can control something on the order of tens of thousands of distinctive genuine seeming fake accounts on social media? It was all over the Grauniad for a few days but I can dig up a link on request.

but elon promised to get rid of the bots

he actually meant butts

and yet the butts remain. we've been lied to

CPAC 2023 begins with Matt Schlapp describing Jim Jordan as possibly "the most powerful man in Washington DC" lol pic.twitter.com/h4EmLf7HtL

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 2, 2023

man, Jim Jordan has a type, doesn't he

Truer words were never spoken (typed).

when a rightwing reactionary is trying to “trigger” people with a post it’s because they are deeply insecure. the only way to counter them isn’t with logic, but to dig into their insecurities and bully them relentlessly over it

— pudding person (@JUNlPER) March 1, 2023

BREAKING: Gov. Bill Lee has signed a bill banning transgender care for those under 18 and a bill to potentially criminalize drag shows.@WKRN #TNLeg23 pic.twitter.com/8BS7jvQRzx

— Chris O’Brien (@THEChrisOB) March 2, 2023

Good times here, good times.

UPDATE — INBOX: NASHVILLE folks tell us they took down the NAZI SIGN hung on the Chestnut St. bridge, which thanked @GovBillLee for “tirelessly working to fight trannies and fags” adding “we must secure a future for white children”.

How proud you must be, Guv. pic.twitter.com/s8tXmLuQWG

— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) March 2, 2023

I used to feel generally warm toward Tennessee despite its abundant problems — every place has problems — but that is not the case any more. There are people, places and things I love here, but this hard right Christian police state shit is so pernicious and exhausting. And also just dumb, so many stupid and mean people in positions of power.

I’m sorry man. It’s pretty grim. I feel like this if officially A Thing now, that the worst, stupidest most cynical people are in power. In some places it’s worse than others though and Tennessee is right up there.

i'm long overdue to resume donating to ACLU, but now have to decide which chapter given how many states are fucked up.

really sorry tipsy - this country is Hell right now.

BREAKING: Taking away the freedom of families of trans youth to seek critical healthcare, Gov. Lee has signed into law a ban on all forms of gender-affirming care for trans people under 18.

We will not allow this dangerous law to stand.

Our statement: https://t.co/HHbv5oLNje

— ACLU of Tennessee (@aclutn) March 2, 2023

one of the 2024 GOP front-runners who isn't trump or desantis

Nikki Haley: "Wokeness is a virus more dangerous than any pandemic, hands down" pic.twitter.com/YPRrxQ4P6a

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 3, 2023

even the "moderates" are completely off the deep end. what a fucking horrible thing for her to say

lol "America isn't perfect, but our ideals are perfect."

"Ideally, we would be perfect"

I wish just once one of these bozos would define exactly what they mean by "wokeness." I know the Florida AG's office had to do it court a while back and funny how it didn't actually sound that scary when said out loud.

It's like pornography; they all get aroused when they see it.

.@timkaine is as decent, honorable, selfless soul as you will ever meet. A man with the heart of a servant, who is "woke". @HillaryClinton

— Jennifer Granholm (@JenGranholm) July 23, 2016

nikki haley can't think of anything that is different between her and trump. tim scott is also unable, when asked, to think of what he would do differently than trump. desantis is having great success in exporting his policies for punishing everyone who isn't a straight christian to the rest of the red states, but he's an insufferable prick and doesn't do well on television so is probably doomed. trump is an unsufferable prick but he kind of owns that space, and this morning released a song called "justice for all" which combines himself reading the pledge of allegiance with jan 6 insurrectionists singing the national anthem. he's still the frontrunner.

trump wanted to get pence murdered, and pence can't even talk about it. he is the most pathetic person in this race, which is saying a lot. pompeo is just a giant piece of shit

"Socialism" has taken a back seat to "wokeness" as the bogeyman of the hour. They can't define it, because they don't want to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMypXV1YJfw

Half empty hall for Nikki Haley's CPAC speech pic.twitter.com/LMVp9WQWDf

— Alan Fisher (@AlanFisher) March 3, 2023

^^As Rupar pointed out, Big Trump Energy in those empty seats.

Such pessimism. Half full!

most of her stans are out fighting wokeness, they can't be sitting watching speeches while there are wokesters out woking things up

the 'passion' - he knew he was taking one for the team

Nailed it! (I'll get my coat)

baby jesus sometimes shows his junk

O little junk of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie

Silent junk, holy junk

Holy gonads so tender and mild

Um. Anyway. Where were we?

he peaked, it's downhill from there

Um, has everyone forgotten you won't have Nixon to kick around anymore?

never thought I'd see "Holy gonads so tender and mild" itt but i'm happy nonetheless that I did

Andy the Grasshopper set it up. I just tipped it into the basket.

Moving to the right has been a rousing success

“The president notched an approval rating of 38% in the new poll, after 45% said they approved in February and 41% in January. His ratings hit their lowest point of his presidency last July, at 36%” https://t.co/g5AVfoFnfI

— Lisa Mascaro (@LisaMascaro) March 23, 2023

how i wish they'd poll "wet sock" next to biden, just to see how we're doing

bank failures freak people out.

I noticed gas prices are up again, too, take at least 10% more off that number, worst president ever.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/03/24/florida-principal-michelangelo-david-parents/

sigh

Tax dollars going to these schools teaching a right wing fascist curriculum. what a fucking idiotic country

tryign to fund as many legal funds as I can rn because the number of anti-trans/gay bills is going to keep coming. that's not even discussing the 6-week abortion ban in the pipeline.

state is a swamp in a literal and figurative sense.

IT gets better: https://slate.com/human-interest/2023/03/florida-principal-fired-michelangelo-david-statue.html

"Parental rights are supreme, and that means protecting the interests of all parents, whether it’s one, 10, 20 or 50,” the chair of the school’s board, Barney Bishop III, told the paper.

God that is rich

IT gets better: https://slate.com/human-interest/2023/03/florida-principal-fired-michelangelo-david-statue.html🕸

parents - empowered to hide penii, but not to provide gender-affirming care for their children or object to the Governor's curriculum changes

not getting hopes up but: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/23/florida-gender-affirming-care-ban-lawsuit-00088644#

be real nice if we could get a federal ruling nullifying all state bans but if it went to SCOTUS, they'd certainly say "the 14th amendment doesn't apply)

A federal appeals court blocked the Stop WOKE Act, so hope remains. We still fight.

yep saw that, and we will fight it the fuck all.

Michelangelo woke af, did not realise this

Looks like we got a few snowflake parents in Florida!

Who turn off the lights when they pee

I notice conservatives aren't flinging 'snowflake' around quite as much these days. I guess it's a difficult pejorative to employ with a straight face when you're getting the vapors from 500-year-old marble dongs.

lol xpost

"Close your eyes for Jesus!"

loooool

NEW: A trio of @HouseGOP committee chairs say the House could soon take up legislation to strip state and local prosecutors of the authority to prosecute former presidents in response to the potential indictment of former president Donald Trump. https://t.co/lkwqad6JGS

— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) March 25, 2023

nothing the GOP loves more than symbolic bills

what else they gonna do?

idk, be decent human beings

ok i couldn't even type that with a straight face

So Obama could shoot, uh, someone and be immune from prosecution?

they didn't think it through because it will never pass

it's just the usual "we're saying we're doing this thing so that we can blame the Dems for it not passing AND some of our stupid voters don't know how government works and will falsely remember that we passed this thing"

What if Joe tells them to go ahead and pass the bill, then he signs it and sends Obama out to assassinate all of his enemies and pardons him.

Bill Clinton says pass that bill!

That statue thing reminds me when Ashcroft got curtains to cover lady liberties boobs.

strip state and local prosecutors of the authority to prosecute former presidents

this is so cool! every ex-president could have a second career as an superhero avenger, traveling the land, killing bad people for a grateful nation, or in the case of Donald Trump, beating up children for their lunch money.

you're really only get to do white collar crimes because the secret service follows you around all the time

could go hunting and "accidentally" shoot your hunting partner in the face, though

Or invade a country

Honey, I Accidentally Invaded the Marshall Islands!

yeah two death squads of the ex prezs of each party, out hunting political enemies, that is the dystopia flick i'm not waiting for.

hey look not everything can be John Wick

Ballistic: Ex vs. Ex

Well we can surely say that the trio of noble republicans certainly love the Dear Leader, what an example they set!

https://reductress.com/post/quiz-is-he-criticizing-biden-in-a-republican-way-or-in-a-cool-way/

so right now, there is a separate federal case in Washington also involving mifepristone, and being discussed is there's a very real, sizable chance that the judge in Washington and Kacsmaryk in Texas issue federal rulings that directly contradict each other regarding the approval of mifepristone. Which would have to be ironed out in higher court.

but unlike the Kacsmaryk hearing, a hearing happened yesterday, and there's been little to no news about it.

FBI sources inside the Proud Boys -- including one who testified yesterday that he went in the Capitol on Jan. 6 and has never been charged -- say FBI agents never actually asked them for information on the Proud Boys https://t.co/DCz0k7L7F0

— Rachel Weiner (@rachelweinerwp) March 30, 2023

Thee Oh Sees "The Dream"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mZqGxkYOFY

Just like Mötley Crüe's "Kickstart My Heart".

WRONG THREAD. HI DERE.

IS IT?

what thread did you mean to post that in? that ocs album is my making chili music for some reason