There’s a Shady Conservative Coven Influencing Oklahoma State Politics

(Permanent Musical Accompaniment to This Post)

Being our semi-regular, weekly survey of what's goin' down in the several states where, as we know, the real work of governmentin' gets done, and where you can't even hear the murmur of a prayer. Let's begin in Michigan, with this guy, say ... Young Josh planned to follow his blue nose all the way to glory, until ... wait for it ... HEY, I SAID WAIT FOR IT! Oh, hell. From the Metro Times:

State Rep. Josh Schriver, R-Oxford, who has called porn a “scourge” and compared it to heroin, introduced legislation in September to ban online pornography statewide. But data reviewed by Metro Times show that an account linked to his personal AOL email address appeared in a data breach from Fling.com, a pornographic dating site that features live web cams and promised users they could “find sex” and “get laid tonight.” An archived version of the site shows it provided access to explicit photos, videos, and live sex webcams.

Schriver denied the story. He claimed that the records viewed by the Metro Times were "forged." But there seems to be substantial cyber-evidence to the contrary.

The leaked information, verified by the cybersecurity database SnusBase, lists Schriver’s email address and a profile indicating sexual interests including “fetish” and “groupsex.” The account was last accessed on Sept. 11, 2010, according to breach data The records also suggest the account was authentic. The same email address and password appear in multiple other breaches linked to Schriver’s verified personal accounts, including MySpace and Chegg, a homework help platform. The birthday and IP address in the Fling.com records align with Schriver’s March 1992 birth date and his time as a student at Michigan State University in East Lansing, where he graduated in 2015.

Meanwhile, out in California, former Rep. Katie Porter has hit a speed bump in her heretofore frontrunning campaign for governor. Two videos of Porter losing it have emerged. One shows her getting testy with a TV reporter and the other shows her dropping an F-bomb on an unfortunate staffer who interrupted a live shot. As is customary, Politico is on the job with all the gossi ... er ... news.

The two clips [are] fueling long-simmering concerns about her temperament and judgement and raising questions about just how durable Porter’s lead in California’s gubernatorial race really is. “Is this a disaster? Yes,” said Gale Kaufman, a veteran Democratic strategist based in Sacramento. “And the reason it’s a disaster is because it amplifies what her reputation already is."

It rings a little hollow to make intemperate remarks a dealbreaker in an age in which the president is a public maniac, and when the House has a full battalion of them. But never underestimate the ability of "veteran Democratic strategists" to screw up a free lunch.

We move along to ... where? Oklahoma? Where the governor is making sense? In The New York Times?

His comments, in an interview with The New York Times, marked the first time a Republican governor has questioned the interstate deployment of National Guard troops over a governor’s objections. Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois and other Democratic elected officials have been strongly critical of the move and have implored Republican governors to join the opposition. Mr. Stitt on Thursday said, “We believe in the federalist system—that’s states’ rights,” adding, “Oklahomans would lose their mind if Pritzker in Illinois sent troops down to Oklahoma during the Biden administration.”

Mr. Stitt stressed that he supported President Trump’s efforts to protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and ensure “law and order” in cities like Chicago and Portland, Ore. But he worried about the precedent that was being set by the guard deployment and how it could be used by a president from another party.

Is this guy really the only one who sees these problems clearly? This guy, who let Christofanatic education czar Ryan Walters loose on his state? This guy, who pushed to reopen the state during the pandemic, and then came down with COVID himself? I'm going to sit down until the dizziness passes.

As long as we're here anyway, we conclude, as is our custom, in the great state of Oklahoma, whence Blog Official Sooner Escapee Friedman of the Plains brings us the story of a conservative coven with the Oklahoma state house. From the Oklahoman:

Two more Republican senators have been identified as members of the secretive Oklahoma Freedom Caucus, a hyper-conservative group working to move state policy further to the right. The group now has 11 known members, including nine in the Senate alone. Sen. Shane Jett, who leads the group, says the actual number of members is larger, because some lawmakers are still keeping their membership hidden.

Do they all have cool nicknames? Do they wear capes? Secret identities? I have to sit down again.

This is your democracy, America. Cherish it.