Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a likely presidential candidate in 2024, scheduled a trip to Ohio … to stump for Senate candidate J.D. Vance, and our reporters were not there because of ridiculous restrictions that DeSantis and Vance placed on anyone covering the event.
The worst of the rules was one prohibiting reporters from interviewing attendees not first approved by the organizers of the event for DeSantis and Vance. When we cover events, we talk to anyone we wish. It’s America, after all, the land of free speech. At least that’s America as it exists today. Maybe not the America that would exist under DeSantis and Vance.
Think about what they were doing here. They were staging an event to rally people to vote for Vance while instituting the kinds of policies you’d see in a fascist regime. A wannabe U.S. senator, and maybe a wannabe president.
Another over-the-top rule was one reserving the right to receive copies of any video shot of the event for promotional use. That’s never OK. News agencies are independent of the political process. We do not provide our work product to anyone for promotional use. To do so would put us in league with people we cover, destroying our credibility.
Yet another of the rules reserved the right to know in what manner any footage of the event would be used. We are news people. We use footage on news platforms. But this rule set up a situation in which reporters could be grilled on their intentions.
A bill that would ban drag performances in all public venues will be introduced in the first days of the next session of the Idaho Legislature in January, Idaho Family Policy Center President Blaine Conzatti told the Idaho Capital Sun.
Conzatti and other conservative activists around Idaho and across the country have protested against events in public spaces that feature drag queens, including drag queen story hour events at public libraries. In September, Idaho Republican Party Chairwoman Dorothy Moon called for people to pressure corporate sponsors of Boise Pride to pull their names from sponsorship at the event over a scheduled “Drag Kids” performance for ages 11 to 18, which was ultimately postponed over safety concerns.
Conzatti said the draft bill is ready to be introduced as soon as the session gets under way but declined to share the text of the bill with the Sun and wouldn’t name the legislators who worked on it with him.
“No child should ever be exposed to sexual exhibitions like drag shows in public places, whether that’s at a public library or a public park,” he said.
Congressional Republicans introduced what some are calling a national version of Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill—or what critics have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana and 32 other Republican members of Congress … introduced the Stop the Sexualization of Children Act of 2022, which would prohibit the use of federal funds “to develop, implement, facilitate, or fund any sexually-oriented program, event, or literature for children under the age of 10, and for other purposes.”
The bill defines “sexually-oriented material” as “any depiction, description, or simulation of sexual activity, any lewd or lascivious depiction or description of human genitals, or any topic involving gender identity, gender dysphoria, transgenderism, sexual orientation, or related subjects.”
Jim Marchant, the Republican candidate for Nevada elections chief, has repeatedly promoted false conspiracy theories about elections in his closely contested state.
Now, with the Nov. 8 midterms fast approaching, Marchant is going further—pushing a preposterous claim that prominent congressional Democrats in California and New York did not legitimately win re-election, though they actually won fair and square by overwhelming margins.
Marchant is one of at least 11 Republican candidates for state secretary of state in 2022 who have rejected, questioned or tried to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. He is the first, though, to run a campaign ad rejecting the legitimacy of the dominant victories earned by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Adam Schiff of California, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York.
Folks, you’ve got to get out and vote, protest, speak out and fight these attacks on freedom. In the not-too-distant future, your life may depend on it.