Another example of the system functioning exactly as intended. Which is another reason why the system has gotta go.

Arkansas Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson defended his decision to veto legislation that would have made his state the first to ban gender-confirming treatments or surgery for transgender youth in a fiery exchange with Fox News host Tucker Carlson Tuesday.

“The Tucker Carlson Tonight” host explained to viewers that the bill nearly passed with Hutchinson’s support until the governor rejected the legislation that would have prohibited doctors from providing gender-confirming hormone treatment, puberty blockers or surgery to anyone under 18 years old, or from referring them to other providers for the treatment.

Hutchinson accused Carlson of misrepresenting the bill, explaining: “If this had been a bill that simply prohibited chemical castration, I would have signed the bill.”

Instead, he said, the bill presented to him was “was overbroad, it was extreme. It went far beyond what you just said.

“This is the first law in the nation that invokes the state between medical decisions, parents who consent to that and the decision of the patient. And so, this goes way too far. And in fact, it doesn’t even have a grandfather clause that those young people that are under hormonal treatment,” he argued.

When Carlson questioned whether Hutchinson was in contact with corporate interests in the state of Arkansas about the bill, the governor replied forcefully, “I answered that question and I said, no, I have not. Do you have another question?”

Ace takes a Viking broadaxe to that outrageous lie.

Shaw notes that Hutchinson is “term-limited” and therefore politics are not a reason for this.

No, but the fact that he’ll be needing a new high-paying job next year very much holds a clue to his behavior.

For anyone who’s a governor, the only possible future career paths are the presidency, the academy, or, of course, serving on the boards of corporations.

Sure, mere Congressmen can become sleazy lobbyists, but that’s too low-rent for a former governor.

Hutchinson has never been discussed as a potential president and has no entree into academia. Particularly now that the academy has purged all non-Marxists. Certainly you can’t be a Republican serving in a university’s administration.

That leaves the Corporate Parachute for Asa.

Now, you’re not going to believe this wild coincidence, but one of the largest retailers in human history, Walmart, just happens to have its headquarters in Arkansas, and, you’re definitely not going to believe this next coincindence, Tom Walton, an heir to the Walmart fortune, has very strong — oddly strong! — opinions on the gender of children.

Could there possibly be some connection here? Certainly Tucker Carlson seems exceptionally skeptical — he says as much — when Hutchinson claims he was not contacted by any corporate interests, not a single one, on this issue. Including, specifically, Walmart.

And yet Hutchinson knows Tom Walmart and Tom Walmart is extremely interested in children’s putative right to participate in genital cosplay.

The Ruling Class, like the Ruling Class all throughout history, is extraordinarily focused on the sexual liberation of children.

And as was almost surely the case with Kristi Noem — the word was passed to Hutchinson that his future corporate career could be derailed in a hurry if he didn’t play ball with the trans lobby.

Whether the word is being passed by a corporate donor himself — doubtful — or, more likely, one of his lobbyists or lawyers, the word is being passed. Big money if you veto this bill, no job prospects if you don’t.

This is a system of direct bribery of high public officials by megacorporations and it must be stopped.

It most certainly is, and every Normal American must shoulder a share of the blame for ever allowing such a system to develop, take root, and flower in the first place; its very existence amounts to a stark admonishment, and a disgrace. Backup for the shitlib spawn of Sam Walton’s open endorsement of child mutilation in the name of the Left’s bizarre obsession with the “transgender” subterfuge, for anybody who might need it:

Statement on Recent Arkansas Policy
“We are alarmed by the string of policy targeting LGBTQ people in Arkansas. This trend is harmful and sends the wrong message to those willing to invest in or visit our state. We support Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s recent veto of discriminatory policy and implore government, business and community leaders to consider the impact of existing and future policy that limits basic freedoms and does not promote inclusiveness in our communities and economy.

Our nation was built on inalienable rights and strengthened by individual differences. Arkansas has been called the land of opportunity because it is a place where anyone can think big and achieve the extraordinary. Any policy that limits individual opportunity also limits our state’s potential.”

– Tom Walton, Home Region Program Committee Chair – Walton Family Foundation

I started to fisk my way through that patent horseshit line by line but then decided, why bother? It would be a waste of wear and tear on my crippled old typing fingers: the statement’s blibbering absurdity is as transparent as the agenda driving it, for all who have eyes to see. And the people who will approve of it aren’t susceptible to persuasion by appeals to logic or simple human decency anyway.

Tom Walton’s extreme wealth places him beyond all reach, as he well knows, providing a highly effective shield against consequences for his advocacy of pure, unleavened evil. Not so much with Hutchinson, who should be hounded and harrassed without mercy or surcease from this day onward. On his very first walk through the doors to his opulent Wal Mart sinecure right on up to his last, he should find himself forced to run a gauntlet of angry protestors shouting epithets and calumny at his retreating backside. That still isn’t punishment enough to suit me, but the despicable scoundrel will certainly receive the eternal reward for all such self-serving treachery in good time.

UNEXPECTED update! Boy, the wheels sure came off THAT cart mighty fast.

During an appearance with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson on Tuesday night, Arkansas Republican governor Asa Hutchinson vociferously denied that he had been in contact with corporate interests in his state about the “Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act” which bans transition surgery, as well as hormones and puberty blockers, for Arkansas minors.
 
“I answered that question and I said, ‘no, I have not.’ Do you have another question?” Hutchinson told Carlson, who admitted he was “skeptical” of the denial. The interview came one day after Hutchinson vetoed the bill…

But in the fallout from those bills, and in the buildup to the SAFE Act, Hutchinson admitted in a March 31 appearance on Fox News that “some major global corporations here in Arkansas” are “certainly worried about the image of our state.”

While it remains unclear whether the Walton family personally lobbied Hutchinson on the bill — neither Hutchinson’s office nor the WFF returned requests for comment — the two have ties. Per FEC records, the Waltons are longtime financial supporters of Hutchinson’s political career, as is Walmart. Sam Walton’s brother, Steuart Walton, is a current board member at Walmart and was tapped by Hutchinson last April to chair the state’s “Economic Recovery Task Force.”

Ace sinks the putt:

How did Hutchinson know there was corporate worry about the image of Arkansas about these bills if no one from any corporate interests contacted him about them?

The idea that Tom Walton has such passionate feelings about the sexual autonomy of children, and yet wouldn’t call up his family’s pet governor to make these Frenchian passions known, is too absurd to credit as possible.

He’s lying. He told corporate interests that he would triangulate on these bills by signing two of them but vetoing the third.

They’re all fucking liars and it’s time to turn them out into the streets.

A half-decent start, maybe, but far too lenient by itself. There are several other corrective actions available for consideration. Y’know, while we’re all out in the street and all.