Republican Assault on Democracy and March Towards Fascism

[LFC]

The reich-wing continues pushing it's book banning. Notice that the gag orders have become more punitive. This isn't about a few books they don't like, this is about using the power of the state to intimidate people from saying anything these sickos don't like.

I’ve been very worried about the current wave of book bans. I haven’t been worried enough.

As state after state and town after town has made moves in recent years to over-regulate books, the issue has received a lot of media coverage. Alarmed, I’ve written about it (here and here). Still, until now, I haven’t allowed myself to become as alarmed as I should be. Frog-in-pot syndrome is one reason. Another may be that too much false comfort is swaddling the discussion. I want to strip away some of that here.

False Comfort: Book bans are a perennial school issue.
Yes, the main arena for the current wave of bans, as in the past, is schools, where the books being taught and shelved are up for debate. The number of these is exploding, as PEN America has been documenting. School librarians are under pressure to remove books, even displays — a Pennsylvania librarian was told to take down an Elie Wiesel quote he’d posted about the danger of silence. But this wave isn’t limited to schools. The same extremists targeting schools are targeting public libraries. Last week, North Dakota’s legislature began considering a bill requiring librarians to purge books deemed offensive or face prison time. Across the country, public libraries are being threatened with defunding and closure if they don’t remove certain books.
Banned book display at Columbia University, 1954

And it’s not just taxpayer-funded institutions: publishers and bookstores are being targeted. A Virginia state delegate filed a lawsuit against Simon and Schuster and sought a restraining order against Barnes and Noble to prevent them from selling a book to minors. The North Dakota bill would “charge any person who displays these materials at places that children visit.”

False Comfort: Book bans can seem like a red state problem.

Not so. PEN America, which has been tracking book bans and the educational censorship laws that make bans easier, reveals a spreading mania.



The broader, well-financed effort to intimidate educators and librarians is nationwide, as astroturf groups such as Moms For Liberty, with chapters in 37 states as of last summer, inspire and organize vocal minorities even in the bluest districts to stoke fear about books on social media and at school board meetings and to fuel school board runs on the fumes of these fears. And of course the right-wing media feeding panic about indoctrination knows no borders. The result: an increase in “soft censorship” and self-censorship, as Nadra Nittle explained in The 19th, that educators are susceptible to even if their state hasn’t passed draconian legislation.

A new Rand report, “Walking on Eggshells,” revealed a quarter of US teachers have made changes to instruction or curriculum, such as books and other texts and materials, in response to education censorship around race and gender. Importantly, 22% of teachers in districts without explicit restrictions reported making changes. The report used survey data from spring 2022. As more restrictions have been instituted since, today’s number would likely be higher. And it is principals in purple districts who reported the most political conflict and pressure in a recent UCLA survey.

This is just one step away.

[LFC]

Right-wing plaid shirts are once again deciding they are the ultimate authorities in their little worlds. Republicans love this kind of shit, especially if it brings the votes and breathless stories.

A gun control law signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois in January 2023 immediately faced opposition from a group key to the law’s enforcement: sheriffs. They are county-level, locally elected public officials who run jails, provide courthouse security, and, in many counties, are the primary providers of law enforcement services.

In Illinois, and around the nation, some sheriffs also view themselves as the ultimate defenders of the U.S. Constitution and its rights — even though there’s no law and no history giving them that position.

In Illinois, approximately 80 of the state’s 102 sheriffs oppose the Protect Illinois Communities Act, a law that banned the sale and distribution of assault weapons, high-capacity magazines and switches that convert firearms to assault weapons. Anyone who owned those items before the law passed in January 2023 must register them with the state. Most of the sheriffs who opposed it issued statements saying they believe the law violates the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and therefore they will not be enforcing it.

Sheriff Justin Oliver of Brown County, for example, posted a public statement on the office’s Facebook page, on letterhead. The statement says he swore to protect the rights provided in the Constitution and he believes that the act violates the Second Amendment, so “as chief law enforcement officer for Brown County … neither myself nor my officers will be checking to ensure that lawful gun owners register their weapons with the State, nor will we be arresting or housing law abiding individuals.”

In our research surveying sheriffs, in 2012 and again in 2021, we have found that sheriffs are far more likely to support looser gun laws than the public at large. And we have also found that that perspective is linked to some sheriffs’ views that they are the highest level of defenders of the U.S. Constitution and Americans’ constitutional rights.

[LFC]

The corruption and rot of the Republican Party continues, with Qevin doing more than his part. Zero surprise from me.

Victor Shi
@victorshi2020

NEW: Matt Gaetz was SECRETLY added to the Weaponization of Government Subcommittee. Kevin McCarthy submitted the change to the Congressional Journal without any public announcement & it took a CNN reporter to discover the change. This isn’t how Congress is supposed to function.

[LFC]

Ohio's storm troopers are out of control as they perform a full out violation of the press and it's all on video.

A broadcast reporter was pushed to the ground, handcuffed and arrested for trespassing Wednesday while covering a news conference about the derailment of a train carrying toxic chemicals in Ohio.

NewsNation posted video of correspondent Evan Lambert being arrested in the gymnasium of an elementary school in East Palestine where Gov. Mike DeWine was giving an update about the accident.

Lambert was held for about five hours before being released from jail, NewsNation reported.

“I’m doing fine right now. It’s been an extremely long day,” Lambert said after his release. “No journalist expects to be arrested when you’re doing your job, and I think that’s really important that that doesn’t happen in our country.”

At the end of his news conference, DeWine said he didn’t authorize the arrest and reporters have “every right” to report during briefings.

“If someone was stopped from doing that, or told they could not do that, that was wrong,” DeWine said.

A following statement from the governor’s office said DeWine didn’t see the incident because a bank of cameras blocked his view but he did hear a “disagreement toward the back of the gymnasium.”

I saw this on News Nation this AM. Not covered in the article was that he was charged with going after somebody and resisting arrest. The professional taken video clearly showed a) he never moved towards anybody, b) he turned to exit, c) an officer grabbed his arm for no reason and yanked him through the door, and d) he never resisted arrest. Every officer involved in this needs to be immediately thrown off the force. This is fascism at its most classic.

[LFC]

The Special Counsel regulations were put into place after the purely political, partisan hack, perpetually leaking, ethically challenged Kenneth Star "investigations." This author actually drafted those guidelines in an attempt to prevent a future garbage weaponization of a special prosecutor. Barr and Durham ignored them. (Link to skirt NYT paywall.)

The recent revelations about Special Counsel John H. Durham’s investigation of the origins of Robert Mueller’s Russia inquiry paint a bleak picture — one that’s thoroughly at odds with governing law. Those rules, called the Special Counsel Regulations, contemplate someone independent of the attorney general who can reassure the public that justice is being done.

I drafted those guidelines as a young Justice Department official, and there is zero chance that anyone involved in the process, as it was reported on by The New York Times, would think that former Attorney General William Barr or Mr. Durham acted appropriately.

According to the report, Mr. Barr granted Mr. Durham special counsel status to dig into a theory that the Russia investigation likely emerged from a conspiracy by intelligence or law enforcement agencies. That investigation took almost four years (longer than Mr. Mueller’s inquiry) and appears to be ending soon without any hint of a deep state plot against Mr. Trump.

Furthermore, the reporting suggests that the Durham inquiry suffered from internal dissent and ethical disputes as it lurched from one unsuccessful path to another, even as Americans heard a misleading narrative of its progress.

Sound familiar? It's a mini-Ken Starr.

Here's what he suggests that Merrick Garland do, and do now.

At this moment, it is critical for Mr. Garland to use the supervisory powers under the Special Counsel Regulations that govern Mr. Durham to remind Americans of what actual justice, and independent investigations and decision making, look like.
The special counsel regulations say that a special counsel must have “a reputation for integrity and impartial decisionmaking” and that, once appointed, the counsel “shall not be subject to the day-to-day supervision” of the attorney general or any other Justice Department official.

The point of the regulations was to create a strong degree of independence, especially in highly fraught political investigations where the attorney general’s status as a presidential appointee might cause the public to question the appearance of partiality. The appointment of Robert Hur, a former Trump-appointed U.S. attorney, to examine President Biden’s handling of classified documents is a perfect illustration. The special counsel is supposed to be someone who cannot be reasonably accused of laundering an attorney general’s dirty work.

In light of the new reporting, it is hard to view Mr. Durham as anything else. Indeed, no one involved in developing these regulations thought that a prosecutor who has regular scotch-sipping sessions with the attorney general would ever be remotely fit for the job. Yet that was the relationship reportedly developed by Mr. Durham and Mr. Barr, who jetted off to Italy as a team, where they learned of a lead about President Trump and potential criminal acts. Mr. Barr gave that investigation, too, to Mr. Durham, where it appears to have died.

The regulations were set up to avoid a headless fourth branch of government, and so gave the attorney general the power to discipline or fire a special counsel. The Justice Department inspector general, too, should immediately begin an investigation, as members of Congress have recently requested.

The regulations also require Mr. Durham to write a final report outlining his actions. Mr. Garland should call for that report immediately, and if Mr. Durham claims he has some ongoing work to do, he should be told to submit an interim report for Mr. Garland.

[LFC]

Qevin is working hand in hand with one of the leading voices of American fascism.

Yesterday, Mike Allen revealed that Kevin McCarthy had made all the security footage from January 6 available to Tucker Carlson.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has given Fox News’ Tucker Carlson exclusive access to 41,000 hours of Capitol surveillance footage from the Jan. 6 riot, McCarthy sources tell me.

• Carlson TV producers were on Capitol Hill last week to begin digging through the trove, which includes multiple camera angles from all over Capitol grounds. Excerpts will begin airing in the coming weeks.

Why it matters: Carlson has repeatedly questioned official accounts of 1/6, downplaying the insurrection as “vandalism.”

That he did this is not a surprise. As Allen himself writes, McCarthy has been working on this since early February. And the extremists who used McCarthy’s Speakership to demand concessions have been calling for this almost from the start.

Of particular note, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who spent part of the day yesterday calling for the red states (which may no longer include Georgia) to secede, again, like the last time white supremacists grew impatient with living in an aspiring democracy, spent much of the rest of her day taking credit for the release, tying it directly to her support for McCarthy as Speaker.


Let me repeat that: The person who took credit for this release was, just two hours earlier, calling for Civil War.

And McCarthy provided access to this video to the biggest propagandist for those who attacked the Capitol. Starting almost immediately after some of his viewers attacked the the Capitol, Tucker has been running insanely stupid conspiracy theories, claiming the attack was launched by the Deep State rather than his own viewers and allies. Tucker eventually packaged the propaganda into such a slick propaganda film, it led conservative journalists to leave.

This time around, Tucker might opt for instructing his viewers how to succeed with the next attack rather than lying about the last one.

Depending on the terms via which McCarthy made this footage available, it could also be shared with foreign adversaries. Tucker has long been chummy with Viktor Orbán, and he himself revealed he had been picked up on intercepts seeking a back channel with Russia.

The outcome of this release is hard to measure at this point.

It’s bad enough that McCarthy made the unilateral decision to release these. It’s bad enough that he decided to release these to someone who, the Dominion lawsuit just revealed, was willing to undermine the democratically elected government of the country for partisan gain.

But McCarthy released them exclusively to Tucker Carlson, meaning they won’t be used to crowdsource more identifications, but will instead be used solely for the purpose of propaganda.

We have yet to get a full accounting for all the commitments McCarthy made to be elected Speaker. But this decision makes clear that he was willing to sell out the country to get the position.

[goldenvalley]

Feb 22, 2023 19:45:15 GMT LFC said:

Qevin is working hand in hand with one of the leading voices of American fascism.

Oh Carlson of the texts about how he doesn't believe the Big Lie but goes along with it because the Fox stock prices are sliding downward (along with the ratings).  I expect to see video showing people in black clothing and masks (Antifa dontcha know) and guys in FBI jackets leading the charge into the Capitol on an exclusive Carlson report.  It'll be exciting and completely fake, like the Big Lie.

[goldenvalley]

Well what do you know.  The former Arizona Attorney General sat on a report that concluded there was pretty close to nothing that supported claims that Maricopa County's elections were damaged in 2020. (I put in the guest link so you can read the lengthy article.)

Investigators prepared a report in March 2022 stating that virtually all claims of error and malfeasance were unfounded, according to internal documents reviewed by The Washington Post. Brnovich, a Republican, kept it private.

In April, the attorney general — who was running in the GOP primary for a U.S. Senate seat — released an “Interim Report” claiming that his office had discovered “serious vulnerabilities.” He left out edits from his own investigators refuting his assertions.

His office then compiled an “Election Review Summary” in September that systematically refuted accusations of widespread fraud and made clear that none of the complaining parties — from state lawmakers to self-styled “election integrity” groups — had presented any evidence to support their claims. Brnovich left office last month without releasing the summary.

This guy didn't go as far as some did, but he certainly left open the idea that something wrong happened...up until he didn't win the primary election.  Hedging his bets:

Brnovich quickly affirmed then-President Donald Trump’s loss in Arizona in November 2020, angering fellow Republicans. And he went on to resist Trump’s efforts to overturn the vote. Yet he flirted with claims of fraud as he courted GOP support over the subsequent two years, trumpeting his interim report on a far-right radio show and saying, “It’s frustrating for all of us, because I think we all know what happened in 2020.” It was only in the final days before this past November’s midterm election, several months after Brnovich had lost his Senate primary, that he began to denounce politicians who denied Trump’s defeat, calling them “clowns” engaged in a “giant grift.”

[pnwguy]

Every accusation is a projection, right?

[LFC]

Feb 22, 2023 23:56:08 GMT goldenvalley said:

Well what do you know.  The former Arizona Attorney General sat on a report that concluded there was pretty close to nothing that supported claims that Maricopa County's elections were damaged in 2020. (I put in the guest link so you can read the lengthy article.)

Sounds like he graduated from William P. Bill Barr School of Ethics.

[LFC]

Ron DeSatanist continues to weaponize government.

The DeSantis administration now requires events held at the Florida state Capitol to “align” with its mission, a recent change that is sparking concerns that the governor’s office is trying to censor events it doesn’t like.

The Department of Management Services, the administration department that oversees state facilities, over the past few months has changed rules for groups or individuals who want to reserve space inside the Capitol. The changes require organizations seeking to reserve areas to make their requests through specific administration officials or legislative leaders and require they line up with the mission of the state.

“One material change to the Rule is that events must align with state agency missions and applications must come from an agency sponsor,” read the Department of Management Services letter, copies of which were provided to POLITICO by multiple groups trying to plan events at the Capitol. “Once a sponsorship has been obtained, the state agency shall submit the required application to DMS on behalf of the requestor.”

The management services agency has started sending letters to organizations that have long-requested space inside the Capitol for events during the annual legislative session informing them of the changes. The Capitol overall is a common location for demonstrations, especially during the state’s two-month legislative session that begins in March, and the rules will affect events inside the entire building.

This year’s session is expected to be packed with Gov. Ron DeSantis-championed bills that will stoke controversy and outrage ahead of his likely presidential bid.

[LFC]

Fascist traitor Rep. Scott Perry (R-PAls Around With Terrorists) is still fighting to hide his aid and comfort to America's enemies.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals is hearing arguments on Thursday over whether to allow federal prosecutors to access the cell phone of Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA).

The DOJ wants access to Perry’s phone as part of its investigation into President Trump’s attempt to reverse his loss in the 2020 election.

Perry played a key role in the plot. He helped connect Trump with a DOJ official named Jeffrey Bossert Clark, who launched a failed attempt to become attorney general as part of a broader plot to use the DOJ to intervene in the election outcome. Perry also advanced a series of wild claims about the election, including that an Italian defense contractor used military satellites to zap votes away from Trump in swing states.

The case has proceeded under seal until this appeal, when the circuit allowed arguments to be held in the open.

Perry has argued that Congress’ speech and debate clause prevents prosecutors from accessing the phone. FBI agents seized Perry’s phone in June as part of a broader sweep that included searches of Jeffrey Clark’s home as well.

The case is being heard before three appeals judges appointed by Republican presidents — Neomi Rao and Gregory Katsas are Trump appointees, and Karen Henderson was appointed by George H.W. Bush.

I guess we'll see if Trump's judges are traitors too, like Judge "Loose" Cannon.

[LFC]

Welcome to fascist cancel culture and the weaponization of government in one example.

A conservative non-profit group allied with former President Donald Trump urged “Hill staffers and their colleagues” to cut off meetings with any former Jan. 6 committee staffers who have since joined firms that lobby.

In a letter sent to hundreds of recipients on the Hill, the dark money group American Accountability Foundation listed the names of the former committee staffers and their titles — along with their new employers and links to their firms’ clients — all of whom they urged to blacklist.

“AAF has put together a cheat-sheet below outlining their new firms and the firm’s clients so you can be sure you (and your staff) aren’t inadvertently taking a meeting with a company that hires staff that hates your boss,” says the memo sent by Thomas Jones, the group’s president and founder. In his letter, Jones noted recent reporting by POLITICO on the January 6 committee staffers being hired by law and lobbying shops.

“It is important to remember that even if one of these former J6 investigators is not listed as a lobbyist on this specific account, the billings brought in by the clients listed below benefit all staff at the J6 investigator’s new firm,” he added.

[LFC]

DeSatanist, all culture wars all the time.

The University of Central Florida (UCF), one of the state's public universities, has a robust program in Women's and Gender Studies. More than 170 current students have chosen to minor in Women's and Gender Studies, a curriculum that "emphasizes intersectional approaches to the study of gender, race, class, ethnicity, and sexuality in national and transnational contexts." The program's courses include Intro to Gender Studies, Women and Leadership, and Theories on Masculinity.

Under new legislation championed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R), however, UCF's program — and similar programs at other public colleges and universities in Florida — would be banned.

Last week, Florida Representative Alex Andrade (R), introduced HB 999, a sweeping set of restrictions on higher education in Florida. Among other things, the bill would require colleges and universities to "remov[e] from its programs any major or minor" in Critical Race Theory, Gender Studies, or Intersectionality, along with "any derivative major or minor of these belief systems." (The prohibited topics are not "belief systems" but areas of academic study.)

Andrade's bill is the vehicle for a proposal announced on January 31 by DeSantis. "We don't want students to go through at taxpayer expense and graduate with a degree in zombie studies," DeSantis said. In a press release, DeSantis claimed his proposal was an effort "further elevate civil discourse and intellectual freedom in higher education, further pushing back against the tactics of liberal elites who suppress free thought in the name of identity politics and indoctrination."

While DeSantis claims his latest proposal supports "intellectual freedom in higher education," groups dedicated to preserving intellectual freedom in education disagree. PEN America, a group dedicated to protecting "free expression in the United States and worldwide," described DeSantis' proposal as "the most draconian and censorious restrictions on public colleges and universities in the country." FIRE, an organization that "defends and promotes the value of free speech for all Americans" on campus and elsewhere, called the proposal "laden with unconstitutional provisions hostile to freedom of expression and academic freedom."

In addition to banning numerous academic majors and minors, Andrade's bill prohibits the expenditure of any funds "to promote, support, or maintain any programs or campus activities" that "espouse diversity, equity, or inclusion" or "Critical Race Theory rhetoric." Further, under the bill, general education courses at public universities and colleges must define "American history" as "based on universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence." These courses can not include "a curriculum that teaches identity politics." Notably, none of these terms, which would constrain every class and activity on campus, are defined by the legislation.

Julian Davis Mortenson, a law professor at the University of Michigan, said DeSantis was attempting to assert "reathtaking control of viewpoint and content throughout all academic activity in the entire Florida system." DeSantis' proposal, Mortenson argues, is a "road map for wrecking one of our great state systems of higher education."

The piece goes on to say that DeSatanist is well on his way to using state power to make the state university system into a state run mouthpiece of right-wing ideology. He, and the Republicans in the Florida legislature, are (of course) doing exactly what they claimed the left was doing. Welcome to the woke right.

[LFC]

“History doesn't repeat itself but it often rhymes.” --Supposedly Mark Twain (but you know how that goes)

[goldenvalley]

Feb 28, 2023 20:56:07 GMT LFC said:

“History doesn't repeat itself but it often rhymes.” --Supposedly Mark Twain (but you know how that goes)

One thing I learned in touring Auschwitz is that city officials and university professors of Krakow were rounded up along with Jews.  Gee I wonder why that was.

[LFC]

My newest Scadenfreude Meter has also vaporized. And there's video at the link!

Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦
@ronfilipkowski

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!

[LFC]

Floriduh continues to lead the nation in fascism. Texass, Tennessee, Idaho, and so many others must be so jealous.

Sen. Blaise Ingoglia is sponsoring the “Ultimate Cancel Act,” which would eliminate all political parties that once used slavery as part of its platform.

While “Democratic Party” isn’t mentioned in the bill, Ingoglia said that’s his target.

“For years now, leftist activists have been trying to ‘cancel’ people and companies for things they have said or done in the past. This includes the removal of statues and memorials, and the renaming of buildings,” he said. “Using this standard, it would be hypocritical not to cancel the Democratic Party itself for the same reason.”

The measure (SB 1248) would switch Democratic voters to no-party voters or give them the option of choosing another party.

The Democratic Party adopted pro-slavery positions in their platforms during the conventions of 1840, 1844, 1856, 1860 and 1864, Ingoglia noted.

Indeed, the Democratic Party’s beginnings were rooted in states’ rights, including slavery. The party split during the Civil War, with Southern Democrats favoring slavery in all territories and Northern Democrats arguing it should go to a popular vote. That split triggered a long process in which party ideologies shifted from Republicans being the more liberal party to the conservative GOP as we now know it, which culminated in the 1960s through the 80s based, at least in part, on the civil rights movement, as well as ideas on government control and intervention.

A century after the Civil War, it was a Democratic president from the South, Lyndon Johnson, who signed the Civil Rights Act.

The Florida Democratic Party condemned the bill in a statement.

“Presenting a bill that would disenfranchise 5 million voters is both unconstitutional and unserious. Under Ron DeSantis, Senator Ingoglia is using his office to push bills that are nothing more than publicity stunts instead of focusing on the issues that matter most to Floridians, such as reforming property insurance, addressing housing affordability and combating climate change,” the group wrote.

“The sooner DeSantis and his puppets in the legislature learn that Florida is a Democratic Republic and not a Banana Republic, the better it will be for all Floridians.”

According to Ingoglia’s bill, the Division of Elections would decertify any political party that has “previously advocated for, or been in support of, slavery or involuntary servitude.”

You gotta' love this dripping hypocrisy.

Ingoglia said Democrats should be called upon to face their past.

“Some people want to have ‘uncomfortable conversations’ about certain subjects,” he said. “Let’s have those conversations.”

YES! YES! A THOUSAND TIMES YES! Let's have those "uncomfortable conversations" and be sure to include and in-depth look at the Southern Strategy. Then he can add to the bill a ban on any party that actively used racism as a political tool.

[goldenvalley]

Mar 1, 2023 22:19:34 GMT LFC said:

Floriduh continues to lead the nation in fascism. Texass, Tennessee, Idaho, and so many others must be so jealous.

YES! YES! A THOUSAND TIMES YES! Let's have those "uncomfortable conversations" and be sure to include and in-depth look at the Southern Strategy. Then he can add to the bill a ban on any party that actively used racism as a political tool.

Wait a minute.  This uncomfortable conversation would be about history.  I thought that wasn't okay. 

[LFC]

The stank of big, dark money is pouring off of the Federalist Society and, in particular, Leonard Leo who has been up to his ears in shady cash.

This stank has been known of for a long time. It's little more than rich folks buying activist judges and skimming grift at the same time.

[LFC]

More Republican fascism out of Florida. DeSatanist really has made the state America's cauldron of fascism, racism, and non-stop culture wars. He wants to ride that toxic brew to the White House and cement a tyranny of the minority in a nation that was once a functioning democracy.

For Floridians who prioritize civil liberties, rights, and basic democratic freedoms seriously, the last few years have been difficult. As regular readers know, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and his allied legislators have been quite relentless of late, targeting voting rights, reproductive rights, the right to peaceably protest, LGBTQ rights, as well as libraries and higher education in the Sunshine State.

This does not mean, however, that things can’t get worse. NBC News reported overnight:

A Republican state senator in Florida has introduced a bill that, if passed, would require bloggers who write about Gov. Ron DeSantis, his Cabinet or state legislators to register with the state. Sen. Jason Brodeur’s bill, titled “Information Dissemination,” would also require bloggers to disclose who’s paying them for their posts about certain elected officials and how much.

“If a blogger posts to a blog about an elected state officer and receives, or will receive, compensation for that post, the blogger must register” with the appropriate office within five days of the post, the legislation says.

As NBC News’ report added, the measure defines “elected state officer” as “the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, a Cabinet officer, or any member of the Legislature.”

Those who failed to comply could face thousands of dollars in state penalties.

If this approach sounds at all familiar, it might be because Vladimir Putin signed a similar measure — known as the “bloggers law” — in 2014, requiring online writers to register with the Russian government.

At this point, I know what some of you are thinking. “Sure, Steve, this bill exists, and it’s going to generate some attention,” you’re saying to your screen. “But as I’ve seen in several MaddowBlog posts over the years, it’s best not to take these absurd proposals too seriously because they don’t pass and become law.”

And if that is what you’re saying, you certainly have a point. Every year, all kinds of utterly bonkers proposals are introduced in state capitols from coast to coast, and many of them receive national attention — shortly before they wither on the legislative vine. These bills are often offensive, but they’re not genuine threats.

So why take note of the “Information Dissemination” measure in Florida? For one thing, it’s worth pausing to appreciate the unnerving fact that we can no longer say with confidence which ideas fall into the too-nutty-to-become-law-in-Florida-in-2023 bucket. I’m all for shrugging off ridiculous bills that stand no realistic chance of success, but given the state of Republican politics, it’s become far more difficult to make such assessments reliably.

[LFC]

Every place they have control Republicans are increasingly trying to squeeze any independence out of the bureaucracy and separation of powers that provide for a functional democracy. Georgia, who not that long ago passed a bill that the state legislature could just take over running the elections in any district it wished, is now looking to do the same with attorney generals. Republicans are busy building the deep state.

To Fani T. Willis, the district attorney in Atlanta, several bills in the Georgia legislature that would make it easier to remove local prosecutors are racist and perhaps retaliatory for her ongoing investigation of former President Donald J. Trump.

To the Republican sponsors of the bills, they are simply a way to ensure that prosecutors enforce the laws of the state, whether they agree with them or not.

Two of the measures under consideration would create a new state oversight board that could punish or remove prosecutors for loosely defined reasons, including “willful misconduct.” A third would sharply reduce the number of signatures required to seek a recall of a district attorney.

The proposals are part of a broader push by conservative lawmakers around the country to rein in prosecutors whom they consider too liberal, and who in some cases are refusing to prosecute low-level drug crimes or enforce strict new anti-abortion laws.

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida last year suspended a Democratic prosecutor in the Tampa area, Andrew Warren, after Mr. Warren said, among other things, that he would not prosecute anyone seeking abortions. The Republican-controlled Pennsylvania House voted in November to impeach Larry Krasner, the liberal district attorney in Philadelphia. And a Republican-backed bill currently under consideration in the Indiana legislature would allow a special prosecuting attorney, appointed by the state attorney general, to step in if a local prosecutor is “categorically refusing to prosecute certain crimes.”

The debate in Georgia unfolding amid mounting concerns over urban crime, particularly in Atlanta. But Ms. Willis has been a centrist law-and-order prosecutor who has targeted some prominent local rappers in a sprawling gang case.
She is also part of the changing face of justice in Georgia: The state now has a record number of minority prosecutors — 14 of them — up from five in 2020, the year Ms. Willis, who is Black, was voted into office.

And of course, there is the Trump inquiry, the latest accelerant to the partisan conflagrations that have consumed the increasingly divided state for years. The subject of Ms. Willis’s investigation is whether Mr. Trump and his allies tried to flout Georgia’s democratic process with numerous instances of interference after his narrow 2020 election loss in the state.

[goldenvalley]

Mar 6, 2023 16:39:18 GMT LFC said:

More Republican fascism out of Florida. DeSatanist really has made the state America's cauldron of fascism, racism, and non-stop culture wars. He wants to ride that toxic brew to the White House and cement a tyranny of the minority in a nation that was once a functioning democracy.

And if that is what you’re saying, you certainly have a point. Every year, all kinds of utterly bonkers proposals are introduced in state capitols from coast to coast, and many of them receive national attention — shortly before they wither on the legislative vine. These bills are often offensive, but they’re not genuine threats.

So why take note of the “Information Dissemination” measure in Florida? For one thing, it’s worth pausing to appreciate the unnerving fact that we can no longer say with confidence which ideas fall into the too-nutty-to-become-law-in-Florida-in-2023 bucket. I’m all for shrugging off ridiculous bills that stand no realistic chance of success, but given the state of Republican politics, it’s become far more difficult to make such assessments reliably.

I've been thinking about this idea of why give the crazy any air time ever since Trump was running for office in 2015-16.  I thought Trump got far too much airtime in the mainstream media that wasn't exactly complimentary but was in the look at this unusual guy category.  When his rallies became a thing I realized that some people watching the coverage were actually thinking "here's a guy that I can get behind."  At the same time I thought covering his behavior would convince most people of his utter unfitness for the office.  Now I realize that the media sanitized his conduct just enough so they could do a "balanced" coverage of candidates which made him appear more normal.

Now after all this time, seeing MTG etc in action, and the potentially damaging bills being introduced I fall more on the side of show everyone the crazy, not just the crazy things said and suggested but the rebuttal to them.  Show how it is spreading in isolated pockets (see Shasta County, CA getting rid of Dominion Voting Systems) all over the country so that people don't fall into the trap of "oh well, that's just Florida, Arizona..."  Ignoring it doesn't make it go away when the crazies are all linked by modern communications.  We can't starve it of oxygen now, we can only defeat it over and over again in the local governments and legislatures.

[LFC]

Now this is what I consider to be "deep state."

For years, the Department of Homeland Security has run a virtually unknown program gathering domestic intelligence, one of many revelations in a wide-ranging tranche of internal documents reviewed by POLITICO.

Those documents also reveal that a significant number of employees in DHS’s intelligence office have raised concerns that the work they are doing could be illegal.

Under the domestic-intelligence program, officials are allowed to seek interviews with just about anyone in the United States. That includes people held in immigrant detention centers, local jails, and federal prison. DHS’s intelligence professionals have to say they’re conducting intelligence interviews, and they have to tell the people they seek to interview that their participation is voluntary. But the fact that they’re allowed to go directly to incarcerated people — circumventing their lawyers — raises important civil liberties concerns, according to legal experts.

That specific element of the program, which has been in place for years, was paused last year because of internal concerns. DHS’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis, which runs the program, uses it to gather information about threats to the U.S., including transnational drug trafficking and organized crime. But the fact that this low-profile office is collecting intelligence by questioning people in the U.S. is virtually unknown.

The inner workings of the program — called the “Overt Human Intelligence Collection Program” — are described in the large tranche of internal documents POLITICO reviewed from the Office of Intelligence and Analysis. Those documents and additional interviews revealed widespread internal concerns about legally questionable tactics and political pressure. The documents also show that people working there fear punishment if they speak out about mismanagement and abuses.

One unnamed employee — quoted in an April 2021 document — said leadership of I&A’s Office of Regional Intelligence “is ‘shady’ and ‘runs like a corrupt government.’” Another document said some employees worried so much about the legality of their activities that they wanted their employer to cover legal liability insurance.

Carrie Bachner, formerly the career senior legislative adviser to the DHS under secretary for intelligence, said the fact that the agency is directly questioning Americans as part of a domestic-intelligence program is deeply concerning, given the history of scandals related to past domestic-intelligence programs by the FBI.

Bachner, who served as a DHS liaison with Capitol Hill from 2006 to 2010, said she told members of Congress “adamantly” — over and over and over again — that I&A didn’t collect intelligence in the U.S.

[goldenvalley]

A ProPublica report about new group Leonard Leo is involved with that is probably hoping he can work some Federalist Society magic with this group.

Leo revealed his latest battle plan in the previously unreported video for the Teneo Network, a little-known group he called “a tremendously important resource for the future of our country.”

Teneo is building what Leo called in the video “networks of conservatives that can roll back” liberal influence in Wall Street and Silicon Valley, among authors and academics, with pro athletes and Hollywood producers. A Federalist Society for everything.

Despite its linchpin role in Leo’s plans, Teneo (which is not the similarly named consulting firm associated with former officials in the Bill Clinton administration) has kept a low public profile. Its one-page website includes bland slogans — “Timeless ideas. Fresh approach” — and scant details. Its co-founder described Teneo as “private and confidential” in one presentation, and the group doesn’t disclose the vast majority of its members or its funders.

And who are some of the political types involved?

The records show Teneo’s members have included a host of prominent names from the conservative vanguard, including such elected officials as U.S. Sens. J.D. Vance of Ohio and Missouri’s Josh Hawley, a co-founder of the group. Other members have included Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, now the fourth-ranking House Republican, as well as Nebraska’s attorney general and Virginia’s solicitor general. Three senior aides to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a potential 2024 presidential candidate, are members. Another is the federal judge who struck down a Biden administration mask mandate. The heads of the Republican Attorneys General Association, Republican State Leadership Committee and Turning Point USA — all key cogs in the world of national conservative politics — have been listed as Teneo members.

Conservative media figures like Ben Shapiro of the Daily Wire, several pro athletes and dozens of executives and senior figures in the worlds of finance, energy and beyond have also been members.

Leo joined Teneo’s board of directors as chairman in 2021 and has since become a driving force.

Teneo co-founder Evan Baehr, a tech entrepreneur and veteran of conservative activism, said in a 2019 video for new members that Teneo had “many, many, many dozens” of members working in the Trump administration, including in the White House, State Department, Justice Department and Pentagon. “They’re everywhere.”

They seem to think that the "Left" is as organized as the Federalist Society is.

Here’s how “the Left” works in America, according to Baehr.

“Imagine a group of four people sitting at the Harvard Club for lunch in midtown Manhattan,” he said in a 2020 Teneo video: “a billionaire hedge funder,” “a film producer,” “a Harvard professor” and “a New York Times writer.”

“The billionaire says: ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if middle school kids had free access to sex-change therapy paid for by the federal government?’” Baehr continued. “Well, the filmmaker says, ‘I’d love to do a documentary on that; it will be a major motion film.’ The Harvard professor says, ‘We can do studies on that to say that’s absolutely biologically sound and safe.’ And the New York Times person says, ‘I’ll profile people who feel trapped in the wrong gender.’ ”

After a single lunch, Baehr concluded, elite liberals can “put different kinds of capital together” and “go out into the world” and “basically wreck shop."

By the way this guy Baehr worked for Peter Thiel, the guy who backed folks like Masters who ran for Arizona Senate.  Interesting reading.