“We came to a very Black, queer, trans, antifascist place with a reputation for beating up Nazis, that explicitly told us not to bring our hateful anti-Black, anti-queer, anti-trans, book-banning fascist rhetoric into their city… and they were mean to us!!!” https://t.co/9qozADdyWn — Kim Kelly (@GrimKim) July 4, 2023 But they’re concerned! And they’re mommies! …
Late Night Open Thread: ‘Moms for Liberty’, a/k/a ‘Mary KayKayKay’Post + Comments (67)
The dance party continued throughout the weekend. Protesters decamped to the Marriott for the next three days of the conference, where more barriers and an endless stream of bored-looking cops tried to insulate the attendees from the actual city. That didn’t always work, either. A delightful video began circulating on social media on Friday after a local encountered a few errant moms in Reading Terminal Market, and helpfully ushered them out with a few choice exhortations—“Racists have never been welcome here, ever! And you’re still not welcome here!” The moms in question seemed shocked that anyone would dare oppose them. That indignant air accompanied them whenever they were forced to actually interact with a Philadelphian that weekend. Perhaps simply not enough people have been telling them to their face that their hateful agenda was not welcome, so Philly was happy to oblige. While I was there on Friday afternoon, the cops forgot to barricade off an exit path between the Marriott and the parking garage across the street, forcing conference attendees to come face-to-face with the protesters. All of a sudden, panicked fascists were getting chased down the street and up into the parking garage, heckled and jeered at, and told in no uncertain terms how the city felt about them. The cops scrambled to regain control, and the dance party continued. Making fascists feel unsafe is as much a Philly specialty as a cheesesteak from John’s Roast Pork or Irish potatoes, and it felt awfully nice to indulge…
… ACT UP Philadelphia was adamant that the dance party and associated events remain peaceful, and they did; whenever things began to heat up, organizers would grab the mic and calm everyone down. The tagline, “They can’t stop trans and queer joy!” underpinned the dance party protest, and that joyful resistance was in full bloom. The kid-centered events were especially sweet, and the protests maintained a family-friendly vibe throughout, as long as your kid could handle a few (thousand) swear words…
Moms for Liberty has morphed into a sprawling organization that aims to fight for what it sees as parental rights, but that critics label anti-government extremism. https://t.co/c1fcNHf0NX
— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) July 2, 2023
One hand back-scratches the other:
… “Never apologize. Ever,” said Christian Ziegler, the chairman of the Florida Republican Party. “This is my view. Other people have different views on this. I think apologizing makes you weak.”…
Moms for Liberty, which says it is nonpartisan, has grown into a conservative powerhouse, boasting 120,000 members in 285 chapters across 44 states. The group started in Brevard County, Florida, in 2021, initially to fight Covid restrictions and mask mandates.
It has morphed into a sprawling organization that aims to fight for what it sees as parental rights but that critics, including the left-leaning Southern Poverty Law Center, label anti-government extremism. Its members have removed books they deem inappropriate from public school libraries and have pushed to end what they see as the “indoctrination” of children on such topics as race, gender and sexuality.
The group [held] its second annual national conference [in Philadelphia last] week, drawing the five GOP presidential candidates, including former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Ziegler conducted his training during a breakout session, giving more than 100 attendees a lesson in how to deal with the media as the activists attract more attention and scrutiny.
He is the husband of Bridget Ziegler, one of the co-founders of Moms for Liberty, who later left the organization in an official capacity and was appointed by DeSantis to his Disney oversight board this spring. She introduced her husband at the session…
“They’re lazy,” Ziegler said of reporters. “They have no idea what’s going on at school board meetings. Oftentimes they don’t even know how local government works.”
[Okay… he’s not wrong, there…]
He also told attendees to give priority to local news interviews instead of going to national media.
“That’s where you reach the undecideds,” he said, adding that people who watch Fox News or MSNBC probably know how they’re going to vote but that consumers of local news may not.
Ziegler told attendees to look for opportunities to rattle their opponents, and he shared as an example a tactic to mess with a political opponent’s head. It involved printing out a direct mail piece that goes to 50 of the opponent’s friends and neighbors — but that the person will believe went to the whole town.
“They’re totally paranoid,” Ziegler said. “And they’ve burned three days of productivity” because they’re spending time worrying about a mailer that went out to only a few dozen people.
In an interview later, Ziegler described the mailer discussion as “an off-the-cuff example for campaigns that has nothing to do with the media training.”...
We prefer to do all our rat-fornicating in private, thankyouverymuch!
In some ways, Florida is uniquely suited to the sort of ‘Fascist Magic Kingdom’ politics that Ron DeSaster has so far succeeded so well by using; there’s a local tradition of self-sealed communities — from Disney World to The Villages — where people can cosplay their own little fiefdoms. Take the fan convention to a place with different traditions, well…
Never gets old, does it https://t.co/JcSDUOT69v pic.twitter.com/jDuMVMkxZ8
— Ragnarok Lobster (@eclecticbrotha) July 5, 2023
Joyful Warriors!
Tonight in Philadelphia, Moms for Liberty's summit is opening — So, I’ve been digging into the group's far right anti-LGBTIQ connections, and building a network analysis.
This is an interactive visualization of the sponsors and exhibitors of the Joyful Warriors National Summit. pic.twitter.com/yT9PbkayNM
— Teddy Wilson ????? (@reportbywilson) June 30, 2023
Interesting way to report on a hate group. https://t.co/YUuSplv3fS
— Soledad O'Brien (@soledadobrien) July 2, 2023
Credit where due:
Moms for Liberty is Mary KKKay. https://t.co/rLrZiCDB0B
— Marmel (@Marmel) July 1, 2023