Missouri's Attorney General Andrew Bailey Saga Part II: Return of Despot Bailey.

"He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. " --Thomas Paine Just like a bad penny that keeps turning up, Missouri's Attorney General Andrew Bailey is back into the news cycle. Be it for his ridiculous stunt by jumping court jurisdictions to campaigning off the taxpayers' dime with GOP culture wars--With the hopes he can fast-track his way in the front of the Supreme Court. But today's news painted a different picture compared to his normal idiocratic stunts. The picture he painted was like a scene from the "Fourth Reich". So, you're probably wondering what he did to make everyone in the state raise an eyebrow. Well, Bailey wrote a letter to the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners informing them that they are "Constitutionally bound" to enforce the bans on transgender health care for children. Aside from it being it being a draconian ban is completely problematic in nature, the real problem is that these bans haven't 'even been signed into law by Governor Parson yet. Yes, you read that right. Bailey wanted the cops to arrest and prosecute people for crimes they haven't committed, or at least until the bans take effect. There are no words that can be properly articulated that don't get into "Sailor" language with a heavy "construction worker" accent over this clear violation of the 4th and 5th Amendments of the US Constitution. However, it does give a more pristine image of the intentions of the state and how far they are willing to go to push "true" fascism in Missouri. While Bailey made a whole Twitter thread on how he was going to enforce these bans with the full weight of this office to terrify folks and drive them out of the state--What is not being seen is the fact, Bailey tried to test the waters of the idea of "Constitutional Sheriffs" to see if he could get any bites. Naturally, he didn't come up with this idea on his own-The idea has been thrown around in "MAGA" -controlled states since 2016. Most recently it was tossed around in the Missouri Senate but died when it when reached the House because the Missouri GOP crazies ran out of time before it could be finalized to become a ballot measure. And this particular idea is scary as hell, because "brown/black" shirts are created from this very idea of localized power of authority through the state. If you don't know what "Constitutional Sheriffs" are you're in for a surprise because there's nothing Constitutional about them. So, let's get into it a little bit. "Constitutional Sheriffs" or "Sovereign" Sheriffs- is an idea that "all federal oversight agencies like the "alphabet agencies" (FBI, ATF, NSA, HS, etc) are unconstitutional and have no authority to oversee the local law enforcement agencies. It basically gives the elected sheriffs the authority to do whatever they want to do with the state's blessings. If that means taking over a federal case or deciding what's constitutional and what's not-- Local sheriffs would have the authority to do so. It's kind of like the scene from the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, where Gandolf told King Theodon "he had no power here'. Only it's in reversed roles and Sarumon is in charge. I mean what could possibly go wrong with this idea? Yes, that is a rhetorical snark question, that we all should be asking. In short, this movement was started by the far right-wing group, Oath Keepers to infiltrate law enforcement in 2011. But it didn't gain traction until 2020 while Trump was still in office. So, what's all of this got to do with "Despot" Andrew Bailey? So glad you asked that question because to keep it short-Bailey is like the Missouri version of DeSantis, and extremely fascist. It's no secret that our appointed Attorney General loves to bypass the Constitution at every chance he gets to see what he can get away with. He helped create SAPA (Second Amendment Preservation Act) that invalidated any and all federal gun laws in the state. Although his victory on that was short-lived due to the Missouri Supreme Court smacking down the law as unconstitutional due to the "Supremacy Clause" in Articles 1-3 of the US Constitution. Then he decided to play "lawmaker" and made a rule about trans folks--Which he had to withdraw his case after the bans were passed by the state house. And now he's trying to get police departments to arrest folks that weren't breaking the law. It's clear that Bailey doesn't actually care about the Constitution (Well most MAGA don't in general), but it's also clear as daylight that he is trying to set a very dangerous precedent just to satisfy his thirst for power. What I'm saying is, he's an absolute danger to our state and democracy. Because he will be the reason that Fascism will be ushered in at the end of the day if he can ever get one of his insane "word salad" arguments in front of the SCOTUS. But for now, let's work to make sure he doesn't get elected to the AG seat. He's done enough to folks in the state of Missouri. As always, take care, and take care of one another, much love, Jojo