(Permanent Musical Accompaniment To This Post)

Being our semi-regular weekly survey of what’s goin’ down in the several states where, as we know, the real work of governmentin’ gets done, and where the boys finally made it through the wall.

Our new perennial question is now, “What’s the matter with Tennessee?” Seriously, folks, stop electing these people. From The Hill:

A Tennessee state lawmaker introduced a resolution that would “recognize” CNN and The Washington Post as “fake news.” The resolution, which was introduced in the Tennessee General Assembly on Wednesday by state Rep. Micah Van Huss (R), would “condemn” the news outlets “for denigrating our citizens.” The resolution cites one article published by an editor at the Washington Post on Oct. 3. Van Huss in his resolution claimed that the publication "wrote that President Donald J. Trump has cast a spell on the Republican Party and suggested that Trumpism is cult-like.”

Can’t imagine why anyone would think that.

“We recognize that fake news outlets suggest ideas without directly making accusations so that they can claim innocence from their ivory towers; and … it is fascinating to see this latest 'cult-of-Trump' meme coming from the left, because they are the true masters of deploying mobs to demand total conformity and compliance with their agenda,” Van Huss writes in the resolution. "To describe the entire Republican Party as a cult led by President Trump is problematic: If journalists are going to refer to the party as a cult and its supporters as cultists, they must define what 'cult' means; otherwise, they are assuming that a cult is some obvious phenomenon and everyone knows what the word means,” he continues later in the resolution.

This is not the first time Rep. Van Nuss (Why do they always have names like second-tier Bond villains?) has come spiraling into the spotlight. From HillReporter:



Van Huss trying to label these two media organizations as “fake news” is somewhat laughable, as the Republican once cited The Onion, a satirical news company, to justify his opinion on college hazing in 2018.“I’m reading right here on The Onion a report about Kentucky seniors who hazed freshman basketball players,” Van Huss said in April of that year, per reporting from The Tennessee Journal. Nevertheless, despite his belief in the importance of the issue, Van Huss voted to table a measure that would have addressed it for more study. When confronted about using The Onion as a source, Van Huss tried to justify the citation of it by saying, “You’ll find more real news on The Onion than on CNN.”



Well, if you count Rick Santorum’s occasional appearances as an analyst, yeah.



Quinncy Parke, 17, testifies to the South Dakota House State Affairs committee against a bill that would make it illegal for doctors to give gender-change treatment to children under 16. Stephen Groves/AP/Shutterstock

We move on up to South Dakota, where Republicans in the state legislature are pretending to care about trans kids. From The Hill:



The Republican-controlled chamber passed H.B. 1057 in a 46-23 vote. Under the proposed law, doctors would receive misdemeanor charges if they are caught giving transgender children under 16 years old hormone treatment. The bill also bans them from performing “castration” or vasectomies on children in that age range. State Rep. Fred Deutsch (R), the primary sponsor of the bill, tweeted that after “some of the heaviest lobbying,” the legislature finally passed a bill to “protect gender confused children.” On Tuesday, Deutsch backtracked on a statement he made comparing medical treatment for transgender children to Nazi “experiments.”



Civility, people. Civility is important.



South Dakota is the first state in the nation to take action on such a law this year, though bills have been filed in state legislatures across the nation that would restrict medical intervention for transgender youth.



As Les Nessman, three-time winner of the Buckeye Newshawk Award, once put it in regards to plummeting turkeys, it’s almost like they’re...organized. From The Guardian:



Some legislation uses verbatim language from the “model bills” created by a group called the Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation (CPCF), set up by a former Republican congressman which has a stated aim to “protect religious freedom, preserve America’s Judeo-Christian heritage and promote prayer.” At least 75 bills have been brought forward in more than 20 states during 2017 and 2018 which appear to be modelled on or have similar objectives to the playbook...Opponents warn that the CPCF (which claims more than 600 politicians as members across state legislatures ) is using the banner of “religious freedom” to impose Christianity on American public, political and cultural life.

Jesus has His own ALEC now, just as the gospels predicted.

In Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Louisiana and Tennessee, so-called “In God We Trust” bills have become law since 2017, which will see the phrase emblazoned on public buildings, hung in schools and displayed on the side of public vehicles including police cars. But the Project Blitz playbook sees those largely symbolic bills as just the first stage on the way to more hardline laws. They are presented as measures to preserve religious liberty, but are intended to give businesses, pastors and childcare providers the right to discriminate against LGBT people in line with their “sincerely held religious beliefs”.

In God We Trust. The Washington Post Getty Images

One of the steering team behind Project Blitz is David Barton, the Texas-based founder of an organisation called WallBuilders, which takes its inspiration from the Old Testament in describing a a mission of “rebuilding our nation’s foundations”. In a recording of a call with state legislators, he describes in detail the strategy behind Project Blitz, which he said packages together about two dozen bills in separate categories based on the type of opposition they are likely to receive. There are three categories of bills in Project Blitz. The first category of “In God We Trust” bills are likely to trigger opposition by saying the bills are a waste of time, or the sponsor of the bill “just wants to fight culture wars and divide people”.

Part of the strategy is to pave the way for later political attacks, painting an election opponent as “anti-faith”. Recent attacks on a Minnesota Democratic politician by Republican opponents followed exactly those lines. Barton told legislators on the call: “They are gonna be things people yell at, but they help move the ball down the court, really if we can do this, get this going with all the states, it’s kind of like whack-a-mole for the other side, it’ll drive ‘em crazy that they’ll have to divide their resources out in opposing this.”

Barton is also the famous wingnut “historian” whose previous gig was to drive actual historians and archivists crazy by making up quotes from people like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison that made the Founders sound like weekend hosts on the Fox News Channel. Keep an eye out for these bills as we get closer to November. Remember, back when Republicans were trying to beat John Kerry, anti-marriage-equality bills kept popping up on ballots in crucial states.

Mark Barton, left, poses for a photo with David Barton at a rally for then-presidential candidate Ted Cruz. David Calvert Getty Images

And we conclude, as is our custom, in the great state of Oklahoma, where Blog Official Flapjack Flipper Friedman of the Plains brings us...a sequel! A while back, we checked in on a guy from New Jersey who was accused of smuggling endangered box turtles out of Oklahoma to China. Well, the mills of justice grind slowly, and the turtle-rustler was finally run to earth. From the AP:

William T. Gangemi, 27, of Freehold, New Jersey, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Tulsa after pleading guilty last fall. He was ordered to pay $250,000 in restitution to the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation and a $100,000 fine to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “Gangemi was part of a syndicate of wildlife smugglers that exchanged three-toed and western box turtles back and forth between the United States and China,” said Trent Shores, U.S. attorney for the northern district of Oklahoma. “I can’t say that I ever expected we’d be announcing a turtle-smuggling prosecution, but I’ve learned just how prevalent this criminal enterprise is globally, and the detrimental impact it has on our wildlife population in Oklahoma, not just today but for future generations.

Court documents said the reptiles were shipped via FedEx to New Jersey.



They arrived there as mere shells of their former selves. Yeah, the whole impeachment thing has worn me down.

This is your democracy, America. Cherish it.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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