On the 5th of September, at a sparsely populated meeting of the Polk County, FL school board, book burners came out of the woodwork. They are working from a script by so-called “Moms4Liberty” in which they find a book with the most “pornographic” passage they can, and read it out of context in school board meetings seeking to get the books banned. One of them even whined about how Polk County is behind many other counties in banning books!

They were countered by LGBTQ speakers, one of whom called them out as the Nazis they are, warned of the danger posed by the GOP’s “Project 2025,” and called out school board member and felon Rick Nolte for his role in recent Fascist proposals before the Board

As part of their “Project Pipes” campaign to shut down Washington Gas instead of giving them a $5 billion subsidy to replace their leaking pipes, Extinction Rebellion DC (XRDC) researched their ownership. On turning over a rock, XRDC uncovered a toxic mess: turns out Washington Gas is owned by Michigan-based AltaGas, an investor in the infamous Mountain Valley Pipeline or MVP.

Looks like XRDC is jousting against a much bigger opponent than they originally suspected! The MVP has been delayed for years by repeated “goal line stands” using heavy-duty civil disobedience and more to buy time for lawsuits to win more delays. Over and over permits have expired or simply been denied. The MVP was supposed to be dead, but Joe Manchin forced Federal permit expedition into the summer debt ceiling budget deal, so back to the trenches go land defenders.

Activists have known for some time where Joe Manchin lives: his “Almost Heaven” houseboat at Washington Marina was the subject of kayak protests and dockside visits back in 2021. At one of them “Masarati Manchin” used his Masarati parked in a garage at the Marina to push his way through early AM protesters.

Now activists know where Washington Gas’s bosses live too-in Michigan not DC, MD, or VA. Details should not be hard to find. Whatever the financial and environmental comparisons of replacing Washington gas’ $5 billion worth of leaking, rusty, and unfit for further use gas pipes vs replacing every gas stove and furnace in DC with electric, there is no question that all the corporate parasites behind the Mountain Valley Pipeline need to be shut down and NOT replaced.

Photographic proof exists but I do not know how to upload photos with the current “block editor,” see https://dcindymedia.org/node/4287 for the screenshot of Altagas’ website

On the 2nd of September, hard Nazi groups Blood Tribe and GDL never made it into Orlando proper, instead terrorizing people in Crane’s Beak Park near their staging area where they left their cars. The walk to Orlando was too much for these “store bought tridents” to consider. Black Lives Matter marches in DC have sometimes walked over 10 miles, neo-Nazi losers apparently are not up for this.

Instead, the hassled the park, then gathered on an I-4 overpass near Orlando (as close as they got) chanting “Sieg Heil” and even “Jews Will Not Replace US,” the chant made infamous by the violent Charlottesville torch march Aug 11 2017. Also they directly threatened our Jewish friends with death, chanting “Jews get the rope,” a variation on their “pedophiles get the rope” which is actually aimed at everyone except strictly cishet folks.

After the highway overpass blustering, the neo-nazi bigots retreated towards their cars, the media in pursuit. They managed to lose the overt media tail with direct threats, but angry bystanders recorded them near their cars, and someone even got a partial Texas tag from one of them.

Video credits Ford Fischer, plus an activist who shot video for my use at Charlottesville (I was still too hot from the Deploraball to deploy there), and finally some of the bystanders the Nazis pissed off. Edited by Iron Snowflake.

On the 1st of September, protesters gathered at the N Orange Ave office of the Orange County area’s state prosecutor. Protesters called out new prosecutor Andrew Bain’s extreme right, racist, transphobic, and homophobic agenda of hate. This agenda is being imposed on Orlando over the objection of voters, who did NOT choose Andrew Bain. It is the Federalist Society and DeSantis who selected (NOT elected) Bain.

On Aug 9, Florida dictator Ron DeSantis “suspended” the Orlando area’s elected reformist prosecutor Monique Worrel. He installed far-right, Federalist Society affiliated judge Andrew Bain as her replacement. A similar outrage in Tampa was directly responsible for the Tampa 5 case in which 5 peaceful protesters on a university campus against one of DeSantis’ bills were charged with major felonies.