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   Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 27-Sep-2024 01:14:42 JST Paul Cantrell

   Surprising no one, the recent wave of anti-protest laws is a coordinated effort by monied interests to weaken democracy.

   Not surprising, but still…it’s wild how naked this stuff is. The petrochem industry is just straight-up drafting bills for legislators to protect their wealth by suppressing dissent. Not indirectly, not obliquely, not in a POSIWID kind of way — just “let’s email each other about how best to strangle democracy.”

   https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/26/anti-protest-laws-fossil-fuel-lobby

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 27-Sep-2024 02:55:51 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Don Whiteside

     @donw
     Yes, bills drafted by lobbyists is normal. Bills to •destroy democracy• drafted by lobbyists is…more notable.

     In the Gingrich days, a petrochem corp might draft a watered-down limit on pollution, say. But directly writing a bill to illegalize protest? That would have felt pretty damn shocking in the 90s.

   • Embed this notice
     Don Whiteside (donw@mastodon.coffee)'s status on Friday, 27-Sep-2024 02:55:53 JST Don Whiteside

     in reply to

     @inthehands Bills drafted by lobbyists is a thing that happens across the board. It’s in large part a function of how Gingrich and his ilk cut huge quantities of the support staff in Congress as well as fucking up pay such that it’s hard to retain skilled staff. Where thirty years ago the offices would have people inside to turn to to write legislation, now they’re much more reliant on outside resources.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 27-Sep-2024 03:15:47 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Don Whiteside

     @donw
     All that. Incredibly, we still have remnants of the press able to find those needles in haystacks! But as you point out, nary a ripple.

   • Embed this notice
     Don Whiteside (donw@mastodon.coffee)'s status on Friday, 27-Sep-2024 03:15:48 JST Don Whiteside

     in reply to

     @inthehands I can no longer count the things that were disqualifying and now are just Tuesday. It’s mind boggling to imagine we bounced cabinet members because they didn't pay taxes on a nanny. I’m not sure keeping a nanny as an involuntary unpaid prisoner would stay in the news 3 days anymore.

     I just meant to point out that the attack vector here is a very foreseeable result of that 90s era action that continues to cause problems to this day. It's easier to hide something in a haystack.