1/ Think tank policy and the 67th Montana Legislature montanafreepress.org/2021/06/04/ale… GQP legislators this session tackled issues that #ALEC, the Heritage Foundation and Americans for Prosperity pushed nationwide with model bills. Many are now law in Montana and dozens of other states.
2/ ALEC appears to have taken notice of the state’s embrace of its agenda from transgender rights to the environment, as evidenced by a recent announcement that #ALEC staff will be traveling to Montana this summer to “discuss the issues that matter to you and your communities.”
3/ Montana HB218 aimed to eliminate so-called free speech zones on university campuses. HB349 prohibited universities from limiting a student group’s access to funding and campus facilities. These were based on #ALEC’s 'Forming Open and Robust University Minds Act' model policy.
4/ Two separate lawsuits have been filed in Montana to terminate same-day voter registration, narrow photo identification requirements for registrants, and mandate annual updates to county voter rolls - provisions squarely in line with recommendations by the Heritage Foundation
5/ Last year, #ALEC wrote the 'Liability Protection for Employers in a Declared Disaster or Public Emergency Act'. Montana’s own liability shield, Senate Bill 65, may "echo" ALEC model policy, but was claimed to be largely homegrown.
6/ ALEC's 'Emergency Power Limitation Act', broadens legislative oversight of executive orders and actions taken in response to emergency situations. Montana's HB 230 did that “based on the same or substantially similar facts and circumstances” - a quote taken from #ALEC's bill
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2/ Kacsmaryk's former boss was Kelly Shackelford, Founder, President, CEO, chief counsel of the First Liberty Institute, and a longtime member of the Council for National Policy. #CNP
3/ Shackelford delivered a presentation “An Update on the Judiciary” at the #CNP February 2020 meeting. “Some of us literally opened a whole operation on judicial nominations and vetting...to make sure the President picks the best #judges.”
The Right Wing's Dirty War Against History and Education laprogressive.com/education-refo… The politics of disappearance at work currently in the U.S. takes place under the cover of state legislative policies that erase the histories of marginalized groups and other displaced populations
Public Education, 'School Choice' Debate: Defeat of a School Voucher Program Reveals the Truth laprogressive.com/education-refo… “Vouchers take money out of the budget [meant] for public schools and route it to various recipients that include private schools and homeschooling businesses”
"the far right GOP has deemed #education to be the most powerful tool for creating a public that is neither informed nor willing to struggle to keep a #democracy alive"
1/ Who is to blame for America’s gun madness? The answer is simple sltrib.com/opinion/letter… "GOP politicians on the take, greed driven gun manufacturers without a heart or soul, #ALEC, the #KochNetwork and a small minority of truly sick #gun addicts all have blood on their hands"
2/ "When #Koch became a leader of #ALEC back in 1995, ALEC's publications proudly touted its #gun agenda and the #SecondAmendment right to bear arms, in contrast to it's recent attempts to distance itself from this agenda." prwatch.org/news/2012/05/1…
3/ In 2005, #NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer pushed the "Castle Doctrine" bill to create legal immunity for shooters claiming self-defense. It was "unanimously adopted by the private and public sector members at that meeting."
#KochNetwork to back alternative to Trump after sitting out recent primaries washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/… resources include "a million grass-roots activists across all 50 states, data targeting technology known as i360, and the Latino outreach organization Libre"
My question: with an organization already set up in so many states, why support any other than their own candidate on the (#KochNetwork ) Stand Together Party ticket? AFP is already America's 3rd political party. washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/w…
"What do you call an organization that operates in multiple states, staffs up for elections, and does local endorsements for political campaigns? You call it a political party. And by that measure, the Koch brothers' AFP is the third-largest political party in the U.S."
1) Trump won't be able to terminate the US Constitution but a Republican-led effort to rewrite it continues news.yahoo.com/trump-wont-abl… Trump's "allies are busy pushing an unprecedented rewrite of the foundational document that would fundamentally alter Americans' daily lives."
2) "In 2022, a group with ties to Trump's orbit was able to get four more states to join its efforts."
GOP proposal calls for convention to amend U.S. Constitution bit.ly/3D0VH0J "In 2021, it came within 2 votes of passage in the #Montana Senate...This session, Democrats control three fewer Senate seats and several GOP defectors are no longer in office" #NoConCon
"#ALEC’s proposed Free Speech in Higher Education Act debated by members this week would ban public universities from using bias reporting systems to prevent or punish “offensive” or “unwanted” speech by students, faculty, staff, or guests." exposedbycmd.org/2022/11/30/ale…#HigherEd
#ALEC’s FORUM Act "has passed in multiple states with the help of the hate group Alliance Defending Freedom, aims to address the manufactured free speech “crisis” being hyped by the Right, often by sending extremist provocateurs to speak at colleges and universities." #HigherEd
The real reason for the attack on libraries dailykos.com/stories/2022/1… This "has always been about keeping people uneducated and ignorant. Suppressing diverse ideas has always been the hallmark of conservatism, and free libraries stand in the way of their goal."