This week's edition of the West Coast, Messed Coast™ report importantly does not come from the state of California where Gavin Newsom has just signed a law outlawing using artificial intelligence to maliciously claim that Governor Hair Gel wore deep fake poopy pants while signing this bill or that he presides over a magical political kingdom or rainbows and unicorns where nobody makes AI videos mocking Donald Trump Democrats.

Misdirection

We've been worried that our buddy and colleague VodkaPundit may get rolled up in Newsom's AI dragnet. 

We're worried about our own @VodkaPundit getting rolled up in Newsom's dragnet.

"Arrest Me: I Just Broke Election Law in California With This AI Image."https://t.co/KsgRubwc0e@MrReaganUSA

— Victoria Taft, The Adult in the Room, FITF Squad (@VictoriaTaft) September 20, 2024

The following video, which was clearly labeled satire and parody, always First Amendment-protected speech, was not exempted from Newsom's political AI laws. Indeed, Newsom vowed to outlaw this video in particular.

The governor of California just made this parody video illegal in violation of the Constitution of the United States.

Would be a shame if it went viral. https://t.co/OCBewC4vOb

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 18, 2024

The video's creator, Christopher Kohls, who goes by Mr. Reagan on X, is suing to halt this legislation in its tracks in federal court in California on First Amendment grounds "Because the bills use undefined and vague statutory language" [and] they grant California broad discretion to determine what constitutes impermissible 'materially deceptive.' This creates a chilling effect on free speech, particularly for political commentators like Kohls..."

The Hamilton Lincoln Law Center represents Kohls and stated, "AB 2839 goes into effect immediately and purports to ban all election communication that uses  artificial intelligence (AI) to portray candidates for office as 'doing or saying something that the candidate did not do or say.'" Worse, "While the title of the bill refers to 'advertisements,' in fact it covers all 'election communication...'"

The law firm claims that the legislature worked with Newsom's office to remove exemptions for satire and parody from AB 2839.

     Related: Why Don't We 'Lower the Temperature' on Attacks on Free Speech?

How bad is this law? As the lawsuit points out, the name of the bills are misinformation. "The Acts at issue are AB 2655, the Orwellian-named 'Defending Democracy from Deepfake Deception Act of 2024,' and AB 2839, more prosaically titled 'Elections: deceptive media in advertisements.'”

As VodkaPundit points out in his "arrest me" piece, "The phrases "First Amendment" and "freedom of expression" were nowhere to be found" in the legislation. 

Electronics, pot, graft

Oregon's largest exports are getting a run for their money from graft. Graft isn't a new kind of grass seed grown in the Willamette Valley, it's the product of its state capitol, Salem. 

As I reported earlier this week:

The Oregon Democrat Party's 2022 election coffers were part of the FTX scam. That in itself was a Democrat Party money laundering scheme. "Despite many clues that now-disgraced FTX executive Nishad Singh should be identified as the true donor of the October 2022 contribution," the editorial points out, "party officials attributed the donation to Prime Trust, the Nevada company that handled the wire transfer. But the justice department decided earlier this summer that no criminal charges are merited." 

Government cheese

Democrat candidates in Portland, Ore., have been caught conspiring with one another to game the city's "free money for Democrat candidates" scheme. City Council and at least one mayoral candidate have been working with each other to trade donations to get everyone "qualified" to receive public campaign funds. 

     Related: Even Oregon Democrats Think Oregon Democrats Have Gone Too Far This Time

They're socializing graft in Portland now. 

Prima facie guilt

You may recall the story of the whacked-out man, an Oberlin College student no less, who bit the ear off a hapless man standing at a Portland light rail station in 2023. Then, in an apparent zombie attack, the nut job started biting the poor elderly man's face off. The victim later died. 

Well, as my friend Andy Ngo reports, Koryn Kraemer's day in court has arrived, and the woke District Attorney Mike Schmidt has sentenced the killer to only three years in prison. 

Update: Koryn Kraemer, the former Oberlin College student who bit off an elderly man's ear and part of his face in a gruesome "zombie" attack at a Portland, Ore. train station last year, was sentenced to only 3 years and 4 months in prison in a sweetheart plea deal negotiated by… https://t.co/aDu50uLOlN pic.twitter.com/GhGXMLWS5B

— Andy Ngo 🏳️‍🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) September 19, 2024

Checkmate

The Confederated Tribes of Oregon is suing the feds for preparing to sell leases for windmill farms off the southern part of the Oregon coast. 

The tribe says that the Oregon WEAs are within its ancestral territory, contain critical fish and marine wildlife habitat, offer viewsheds of significant cultural and historic significance, and are important for commercial fishing.

The Epoch Times reports that the objective is to stall the sales of the leases. 

I just had to 

Washington State is running woke, police de-funding, COVID jailer, and vax mandater Bob Ferguson for governor. He's running against former congressman and Green River Killer investigator Dave Reichert.

As the state's attorney general, Ferguson ratified and gave legal cover to all of the outgoing governor's ideas that were woke, made people broke, and made them choke on their higher energy bills. He's the guy who gave the big "olé" to kicking out unfixable perverts from their island lock-up and putting them into neighborhoods too close to children and schools.

I didn't want people to forget his record now that he's running as a "crime fighter."

Freedom is a resource too. You authoritarians destroyed freedom with your sick, unscientific COVID lockdowns, stole peoples’ livelihoods, forced vaccinations, deprived Washingtonians of cheaper fuel to keep them warm or cool, instituted crime and punishment regimes by punishing…

— Victoria Taft, The Adult in the Room, FITF Squad (@VictoriaTaft) September 19, 2024

I wrote: 

Freedom is a resource too. You authoritarians destroyed freedom with your sick, unscientific COVID lockdowns, stole peoples’ livelihoods, forced vaccinations, deprived Washingtonians of cheaper fuel to keep them warm or cool, instituted crime and punishment regimes by punishing  the innocent by freeing criminals. 

You want to carve up other people’s children with unscientific and unwise surgeries that make people worse not better,  and  then call yourself noble. 

You advocate for showing porn in classrooms and call people who object intolerant, you openly advocate for killing human beings in the womb. 

If elected governor, you will double down on the worst aspects of the clueless Jay Inslee administration. 

You locked up free people and looked the other way when criminals rampaged and responded by  blaming and defunding the cops. 

You’re not a leader. You’re a follower of the worst instincts of authoritarians. You’re not creative, you’re derivative of the bad decisions of the past. Worse, you have no idea how to change your dyed in the wool beliefs; you just change your words and hope no one notices your lies. 

Leftism has ruined the politics and freedoms of this state. Do NOT vote for this political, Leftist widget. 

Washington can do better. Vote accordingly. Your freedom depends on it.

Thank goodness I write for an opinion publication.

     Related: West Coast, Messed Coast™ — The Left's Great License Plate Shortage of 2024

They haven't ruined everything yet

Now's the time to fight for our free speech and not blame words for the actions of others. If we want free speech, we must accord that same respect to others — and absolutely blast them with words when they are wrong. 

Believe me, we at PJ Media know what it's like to be blasted, censored, and scrubbed from the interwebs. Democrats in the Censorship Industrial Complex don't like our opinion journalism. I got word of another instance of that today. 

That's why we need you to be our force multiplier in this war of words. 

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