The GOP stands against environmentalism; GOP defends dark free speech in court

As we all know by now, TTKP (Trump Tyranny & Kleptocracy Party) leadership and elites are staunchly opposed to doing anything to try to reduce global warming, species extinctions or anything else pro-environment. The authoritarian monster also opposes efforts to support green energy, even when green energy is off the table for technical reasons. PBS station WLRN in Miami reports about how TTKP pro-pollution and pro-global warming policies play out quietly with as little publicity as possible:

DeSantis’ office quietly backed Florida ban on wind energy

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office quietly helped write a bill to curtail wind energy in the state of Florida, email records provided to the Tampa Bay Times show.

A version of that bill is now awaiting DeSantis’ signature to become law, which will ban offshore wind turbines in state waters. It also proposes to delete the majority of references to climate change found in state law, the Times previously reported.

Florida lawmakers passed the bills, Senate Bill 1624 and House Bill 1645, in early March, even though the state has no operational wind farms because Florida generally has slower wind speeds.  

The governor’s office did not respond to emails asking about his staff’s involvement and why the governor was interested in banning wind energy. Collins and Altman did not respond to voicemails seeking comment. Neither did Rep. Bobby Payne, R-Palatka, who sponsored the House version of the energy omnibus bill.

This is another garden variety case of radical right authoritarian monsters virtue signaling to the brass knuckles capitalist carbon energy sector and to government haters. The TTKP protects that corrupt special interest sector of the US economy. And as usual in the face of inconvenient questions, the corrupt authoritarians involved are all relying on the popular demagogic KYMS (keep your mouth shut) tactic so the matter will fade away quietly with as little political damage as possible for the responsible, morally rotted scumbag politicians.  

The TTKP hypocrites in Florida (and everywhere else) sanctimoniously claim to oppose government interference in business, but they pass laws that more than simply interfere. They kill businesses they choose to hate and destroy. That is Republican Party style tyranny. 

____________________________________________________

____________________________________________________

The Guardian reports about state TTKP (Trump Tyranny & Kleptocracy Party) efforts to squelch honest speech about research on dark free speech on social media:

Missouri AG sues Media Matters as Republicans 

take on critics of Musk’s X

The attorney general of Missouri is suing Media Matters, a progressive watchdog group, alleging that it failed to turn over internal documents following its 2023 coverage of hate speech on the social media platform X. The head of the group says news outlets could be the next targets.

“Media Matters has pursued an activist agenda in its attempt to destroy X, because they cannot control it,” the lawsuit said, describing X – formerly known as Twitter – as a “free speech platform” that allows “Missourians to express their own viewpoints in the public square”.

The lawsuit, filed by Missouri’s attorney general, Andrew Bailey, on Monday, marks the second time that GOP officials have taken legal action against Media Matters to support Elon Musk, X’s billionaire owner. In November, the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, launched an investigation into Media Matters, describing the group as a “radical anti-free speech organization”.

“These state attorney generals, first Paxton and now Bailey, are directly responding to Musk’s pleas. They are helping him punish critics,” said Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters. 

The rush to defend Musk against the organization, a newly anointed enemy of the right, underscores Musk’s rising profile among Republicans as a free-speech crusader. Carusone worries that the GOP’s embrace of Musk will help the billionaire stifle important criticism of X and the rightwing extremism and hate speech that proliferate there.  

Musk, whose takeover of Twitter began with the reinstatement of neo-Nazi users, courted rightwing leaders by positioning himself as a foot soldier in the fight against “liberal censorship” – in this case, content moderation policies on his own social network.

Again, we see the blatant double standards that America’s radical right anti-democracy authoritarians increasingly use to bludgeon inconvenient facts and truths, and political opposition. Free speech is for their speech, not for political opposition. This is what the TTKP deep state will do in spades if DJT is re-elected. This is what fascism looks like when corporate interests and government power combine to steamroll anything that looks even vaguely threatening to America’s radical authoritarian wealth and power movement.