DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Palus Politicus Cuckoo Republicans, what they have become pt.8

Plus the stats in the article go all the way back to 1982.
I would love to see the data just from this century

You said "Cuckoo Goper wants to make a weapon of choice for mass murders a National Gun?" Weapon of choice would be "most used".

It was pointed out that it was not the "weapon of choice" handguns are. That's not deflection that is correcting your wrong statement.

Gotta hate the AR-15 because you've been told to by those that pander to your base. Make sure you send em more money.

A 2004 report commissioned by the Department of Justice on the effects of the assault weapons ban concluded that the law was largely ineffective at limiting access to weapons with the power of the AR-15. According to the report, the ban focused on “features that have little to do with the weapons’ operation, and removing those features is sufficient to make the weapons legal.” The report noted that several semi-automatic rifles were functionally equivalent to the AR-15 and untouched by the ban.

The review for the DOJ concluded that bans on specific models or features of assault weapons had little to no discernible impact on gun deaths. If the law had any effect, the report said, it was most likely the result of bans on large-capacity magazines, which contain 10 or more rounds. (Large magazines allow shooters to keep firing without pausing to reload, a point at which their targets could run or fight back.) Calculations based on homicide reports in Jersey City, New Jersey, suggested that restricting large-capacity magazines might lower the number of gunshot victims by up to 5 percent. However, there are a huge number of high-capacity magazines already in circulation. The report authors concluded that a ban on them probably wouldn’t make it hard to keep a determined shooter from legally buying a pre-ban magazine and pairing it with an AR-15 equivalent.


https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/pu...C1538C8B7FE50B3A94A.penn-study-koper.pdf

furthermore, the reason these mass-murderers use an AR is that the media is telling them that all mass-murders use them.


If the media started saying that handguns were actually the weapon of choice... that is what they would use.

Lastly...

If we made handguns illegal, murders would drop by almost 60% according to everyone's thinking.


Not sure why everyone is trying to ban a rifle.

The fact anyone is writing up legislation for making a gun a ‘National weapon’ instead of actually doing something to help their constituency is the real problem with todays government. Hey let’s talk about what the National cheese should be… OR WE COULD FIX OUR RAILWAYS!!!
This country is a mess. Both sides.
So glad I didn’t have kids.
What a mess. It won’t get better. It’s too far gone.

Yep. It's all distraction from the crap that is happening and the GOP is complicit. This government is non-functional since Trump ruined the world. Dems are doing all they can, but GOPers are MIA for America and her values. They woiuld rather sit around stewing over Trump crap, covid, crt, the border, or just about any other damn thing except helping out.

Actually., FrankZ is correct.. rechnically! Hand guns are the most used weapons in shootings.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/476409/mass-shootings-in-the-us-by-weapon-types-used/

But if you want Body count per shooting, Auto and Semi auto rifles win that award hands down.

SO, while Frank is right, he's also wrong if you wanna talk body count.

"autos"? Do you mean automatics? They are so highly regulated they can't possibly be used for ill intent. I mean, laws and bans and all.

You knew exactly what he meant.

Leaking footage that shows secret areas of the Capitol building. That’s a National security breach. cuckoo Goper’s making America more and more unsafe for everyone once again.

And "choosing" FOX News to release it to. That way they can cut, slice and edit it to present what they want to show and how they wish to present it while no other media outlets have it to rebut what they claim. And it's the right who claim the left uses the media as a tool. This couldn't be any more clear.

I asked for clarification because all to often antigen nonsense tries the bait and switch. But you know it and support it.

I support people not try to cloud topics with nonsense. Trying to nitpick every word someone posts seems to be a theme with you. You do realize people can see that, right?

You do realize you haven't actually added anything to the topic right? You do realize people can see that right?

If someone lumps in "autos" like that they are doing so to either make it sound more scarier or they have no clue what they are talking about and are simply parroting someone that is trying to make it more scarier sounding b

But you'd argue it was dark during the day just to see your words in print.

Get you last word now. I give you permission.

I've never needed your permission for anything and I don't need it now. I know you think people do because of your superiority complex, but they don't.

Did you really wanna ask me that stupid of a question... REALLY?

What I wanted was clarification.

Do you know the difference? Apparently not. Bet you think they all take clips, too.

Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, has something in common with America's deadliest massacres - the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle. Variations of the AR-15 were used in this month's massacre at a Buffalo supermarket; at a Texas Walmart in 2019; a Florida high school in 2018; a Texas church and a Las Vegas concert in 2017; and Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. The AR-15 style weapon is the most popular rifle in America with well over 11 million. And they are rarely used in crime. But, the AR-15 is the weapon of choice of the worst mass murderers. AR-15 ammunition travels up to three times the speed of sound. And as we first showed you in 2018, we're going to slow that down - so you can see why the AR-15's high velocity ammo is the fear of every american emergency room.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ar-15-mass-shootings-60-minutes-2022-05-29/

And cuckoo republicans want to make this the National Gun. Pffffft.

Yep, and crickets from the trump brigade. Interesting.

It really isn't just about velocity.

Exclusive: How a box with classified documents ended up in Trump’s office months after FBI searched Mar-a-Lago

The Justice Department wants to know how a box containing a handful of classified records scattered among copies of presidential schedules turned up at Mar-a-Lago late last year, well after several rounds of searches of the property by federal agents and aides to former President Donald Trump, according to people familiar with the matter.

Investigators working for special counsel Jack Smith in recent weeks have interviewed a Trump aide who copied classified materials found in the box using her phone to put them onto a laptop. After a voluntary interview with the aide, prosecutors subpoenaed the password to the laptop, which she provided, according to one of the sources.

The classified documents contained in the box were discovered in December, after the Justice Department told Trump’s legal team to conduct yet another search for documents at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.

People familiar with the Trump legal team’s efforts to locate documents describe a confusing chain of events that delayed discovery of the box, including having its contents uploaded to the cloud, emailed to a Trump employee, and moved to an offsite location before finally ending up back at a Mar-a-Lago bridal suite that is now Trump’s office – the very place that the FBI had searched just weeks earlier.

Trump’s legal team has acknowledged in recent weeks they turned over to the special counsel the box and a laptop containing its scanned contents. But prosecutors have continued asking why it wasn’t given to the Justice Department earlier, and what if any role or knowledge Trump may have had about its movements, sources said.

The odyssey of the box has been a recent focus of Smith’s investigation into the mishandling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, according to people familiar with the line of questioning from federal prosecutors. The haphazard handling of documents that ended up online, on computers and moved around to multiple locations could further complicate Trump’s case in an investigation with criminal implications.

One person who described the box’s movements and the special counsel’s inquiry into it described federal investigators as suspecting a “shell game with classified documents.” The person said Trump’s daily movements and instructions to staff are a core part of prosecutors’ questions as well.

Tim Parlatore, an attorney for Trump, said in an interview with CNN earlier this month that the aide had not seen the classified markings.

“After we did the search in December and found within this box of thousands that there were a couple of pages that had a little marking at the bottom, which we turned over, after that, we found out that she had scanned the box so that it would be digitized,” Parlatore said. “She had no idea that there was any classification markings on anything. And as soon as we found out about that, we called up the DOJ to let them know and immediately provided them access to it.”

A spokesman for the special counsel’s office declined to comment.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/24/poli...hEpNbxIYwdEzYWa0A3XOePY-3Y5PWG2VVHSLfBak

Michigan election denier who has yet to concede her 2022 loss will chair state GOP

Michigan Republicans have chosen Kristina Karamo, who has yet to concede last year’s secretary of state race, as their next chair, putting an election denier at the head of the party in a crucial battleground state.

Karamo tweeted Sunday that she was “honored to lead the Michigan Republican Party.”

On the heels of the GOP’s midterm losses in Michigan last year, the state party backed Karamo at its Saturday night convention over Matthew DePerno, who had former President Donald Trump’s backing in the race. DePerno ran unsuccessfully for attorney general last year.

Trump congratulated Karamo on Truth Social Sunday, calling her a “a powerful and fearless Election Denier, in winning the Chair of the GOP in Michigan.”

“If Republicans (and others!) would speak the truth about the Rigged Presidential Election of 2020, like FoxNews should, but doesn’t, they would be far better off,” he said.

Karamo, a former community college professor, rose to prominence in Michigan after the 2020 election when she alleged to have witnessed fraud as a poll challenger during the state’s count of absentee ballots. She has falsely claimed Trump was the true victor in Michigan in 2020 and has spread the conspiracy theory that left-wing anarchists were behind the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

Trump had backed Karamo in the 2022 secretary of state race, which she lost by 14 points to incumbent Democrat Jocelyn Benson.

A CNN review in November 2021 of Karamo’s podcast and writings on her now defunct personal website revealed her declaring herself an “anti-vaxxer” in 2020 even before the Covid-19 vaccine became a political flashpoint. She opposed teaching evolution and called public schools “government indoctrination camps.”

CNN’s KFile reported last year that Karamo called abortion “child sacrifice” and a “satanic practice.”

https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/20/politics/kristina-karamo-michigan-gop-chair/index.html

Michigan GOP leader: state is ‘ground zero for the globalist takeover’

Three days after delegates elected her to lead the Michigan Republican Party, Kristina Karamo reaffirmed her belief in a conspiracy theory, claiming shadowy forces are working to achieve global domination right here in Michigan.

“What prompted me to run for chair of the Michigan Republican Party is the fact that Michigan has become ground zero for the globalist takeover of the United States of America,” she said in the interview.

Karamo was a guest on the podcast Bannon’s War Room Feb. 21, which is hosted by former President Donald Trump’s one-time strategist Steve Bannon. A study from the left-leaning Brookings Institution found his program was the top spreader of misinformation among popular podcasts since 2020. Nearly 20% of the episodes reviewed by researchers contain claims categorized as false or misleading by independent fact-checkers PolitiFact and Snopes.

President Joe Biden, Karamo said on the show, is a “known traitor” and “illegitimate president” who “needs to be impeached.”

“This is not me being emotional and dramatic and trying to just rally the troops — these are facts,” Karamo said. “These are facts that these people’s actions are consistent with people who have one agenda, and that is to intentionally implode the United States of America.”

The theory Karamo alluded to became popular in fringe conspiracy circles during the COVID-19 pandemic. It claims the World Economic Forum and the United Nations are in cahoots, working to establish a single, global government. Former Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey echoed the same beliefs in his farewell speech last December.

“The intent behind these little-g gods is to achieve one world governance, one world religion, one world healthcare, one world currency and one world control and the elimination of sovereignty,” Shirkey said on the floor of the Michigan Senate.

Karamo told Bannon she’s concerned the presence of the World Economic Forum’s centre for advanced manufacturing in Michigan, along with the use of a logo referring to the United Nations’ sustainable development goals on some county government letterhead.

As the Republican party’s nominee for secretary of state in 2022, she lost to incumbent Jocelyn Benson by nearly 14 percentage points, or 615,000 votes. Her number one priority as chair, according to her platform, is to ensure Republicans win future elections.

“What you’re going to see uniquely from our administration, is we’re going to be growing our party without compromising our values,” she said. “What we found during the time when I ran for secretary of state that there are lots of people who don’t identify as Republican but share our beliefs and values.”

https://www.mlive.com/politics/2023...und-zero-for-the-globalist-takeover.html

We see Republicans claiming people such as her are the outliers. The minority of their party that do not speak for them. Yet what we witness is they are being chosen to be the leaders of their party.

Trumpian Fascism won't die easy. We may still have to CUT it out to eliminate it.

Pay zero attention to what they say.
By their deeds, shall ye know them.

Ij/c:

It's such a shame that the political divide in this country is retarding progress and we are stuck at pointing fingers instead of thumbs. It's a shame that we don't want to work together.

We live in a time where it's so wrong to stamp qualifiers on minorities, gays, women, transgenders, etc. Rightfully so. Yet, it's cool to slam people for their political beliefs.

Attaching labels to entire groups of people sounds hypocritical and ignorant to me. But, here we are.

I remember seeing Pink Floyd in Anaheim, CA back in 1977 or so. I was w/friends in the infield. Right by the stage, there was a huge brawl and David Gilmour looked out at them between sets and said "silly people, what do you think you are solving?" I feel much the same way about those of you who so strongly identify w/one party over another that you resort to constantly belittling one party while excusing the other on a consistent basis and then trash anyone who thinks differently.

Silly people...

We simply point out what's going on. Some people would rather turn their heads and not pay attention. Kevin McCarthy just released over 44k hours of January 6th footage to Tucker Carlson allowing none to any other media outlets. But in your wisdom I suppose we should just stay silent about what's going on right in front of us. Michigan just appointed an election denier and NWO conspiracy theorist to lead their state party. According to you people should just stay silent about it. We won't.

🤔

Election deniers turn their focus to state GOP posts after failing at polls

PARKER, Colo (AP) — In a basement event space in the Denver suburb of Parker, Tina Peters surveyed a crowd of Colorado Republicans last week and made an unusual pitch for why she should become chair of their beleaguered party: “There’s no way a jury of 12 people is going to put me in prison.”

Peters was referring to her upcoming trial on seven felony charges related to her role in allegedly accessing confidential voting machine data while she was clerk in western Colorado’s Mesa County. The incident made her a hero to election conspiracy theorists but unpopular with all but her party’s hardest-core voters.

Peters, who condemns the charges as politically motivated, finished second in last year’s GOP primary for secretary of state, Colorado’s top elections position.

Now Peters has become part of a wave of election deniers who, unable to succeed at the polls, have targeted the one post — state party chair — that depends entirely on those hardest-core Republicans.

Embracing election conspiracy theories was a political albatross for Republicans in states that weren’t completely red last year, with deniers losing every statewide bid in the swing states of Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. But the movement has focused on GOP state party chairs — positions that usually are selected by only dedicated activists and have the power to influence the party’s presidential nominating contest and some aspects of election operations, such as recruiting poll watchers.

“The rise of this dangerous ideology nationwide and the rise within party machinery are ominous,” said Norm Eisen, a prominent Washington lawyer and former ambassador who is executive chair of States United Democracy Center, which tracks election deniers. “It’s an outrageous phenomenon.”

Kristina Karamo, a former community college instructor who lost her bid last fall to become Michigan’s secretary of state by 14 percentage points, won the chair of the Michigan Republican Party a week ago. She beat a fellow election denier, failed attorney general candidate Matthew DePerno.

In Kansas, Mike Brown, a conspiracy theorist who lost his primary bid for secretary of state, was named chair of the state party.

Peters is just one of multiple candidates for the Colorado position who have repeated former President Donald Trump’s lies that President Joe Biden did not legitimately win the 2020 election.

“We can’t just say, ‘Oh, it’s time to get over 2020 and be done with that,’” said Aaron Wood, a self-described Christian conservative father also running for Colorado GOP chair, who organized a slate of candidates to take over the party’s top posts. “Until I have 100 percent confidence that the election has integrity, I will not be done with that.”

The wave of election deniers follows a push by Trump during his administration to stock the roster of party chairs with loyalists, several of whom supported his attempt to overturn the 2020 election and remain in the White House. Of those, Kelli Ward, the chair of the Arizona GOP, did not run again and was replaced by another Trump loyalist, former state Treasurer Jeff DeWitt. In Georgia, chairman David Shafer has announced he won’t seek another term this June, amid scrutiny over whether he could be indicted for efforts to help Trump overturn the 2020 election.

As in most states, the new Georgia party head will be selected by leaders of local county parties. Many of those are Trump loyalists who also backed Shafer’s bid to overturn Trump’s 2020 loss in the state. But Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who defied Trump’s request and easily beat a primary challenger last year backed by Shafer, has marginalized the state party, creating a parallel structure to raise money and turn out voters.

That’s an example of how the once powerful post of state party chair has changed.

“It used to be adjacent to public service, to be the state party chair, and now it’s something where you get to dunk on Democrats on Twitter,” said Robert Jones, a Republican pollster in Idaho.

In that state, Dorothy Moon, an election denier and former state representative who made an unsuccessful primary run for secretary of state, became the Idaho GOP chair last year.

Still, Eisen noted that state parties have important roles in appointing poll workers and poll watchers in many states. A perennial fear has been that conspiracists could fill those positions and disrupt elections, though that did not happen in 2022 despite a prominent conservative effort to find more poll watchers.

“Maybe the Karamos and the Browns and the Moons will implode,” Eisen said. “There is a kind of incompetence that goes with this ideology. But it’s a concerning trend given the power these state parties have.”

Parties also have a major role in structuring their primaries. In Michigan, the party apparatus that Karamo now leads has the power to move its nominating contest to a closed convention, where activists select the winner.

“Donald Trump would love there to be a convention for Michigan’s delegates,” Jason Roe, the former executive director of the state party, said in an interview.

Ironically, Trump had endorsed DePerno, a lawyer who unsuccessfully sued to force a new count in 2020. Instead, Karamo, whom the former president had supported in her secretary of state race, won. She has described abortion as “child sacrifice” and Democrats as having a “Satanic agenda.”

Last week, on the podcast of Trump adviser Steve Bannon last week, Karamo said Michigan was “ground zero for the globalist takeover of the United States of America.”

In Colorado, many Republican strategists say they are prepared for Peters or another election denier to win the party chair position next month.

“People seem almost resigned that the party is going to fall into the hands of this crowd for the next two years,” said Sage Naumann, one of the operatives, who said usually a chair’s impact on elections is “neutral,” but that could change.

“If they’re constantly making controversial statements, then they can be detrimental,” Naumann said.

The insurgent candidates running for Colorado’s chair argue things can’t get worse for the GOP in the state. Republicans lost every statewide race by double digits in November and have their smallest share of seats in the Legislature in state history.

The candidates for party chair claim the Colorado GOP has been too timid and needs to be more outspoken and conservative — a risky bid in a state that has been rapidly moving to the left. As part of that, they seek to restrict the primary to only registered Republicans, shutting out voters not affiliated with any party who have been eligible to participate. That would require overturning a voter-approved ballot measure, which activists failed to do in a lawsuit last year. They hope to have a better shot with the party chair’s support.

At the debate last week in Parker, former state Rep. Dave Williams said: “It’s time we had a warlike leader who is going to go toe-to-toe” with Democrats.

Williams later added: “Joe Biden is not a legitimate president.”

Only one candidate, Erik Aadland, a military veteran who unsuccessfully ran for Congress last year, cautioned about the election denier rhetoric. He noted that Democrats effectively used a tape of him questioning the validity of the 2020 election against him in his race. In an interview, he said specifically that he worried about Peters’ candidacy.

“It’s not healthy, the words we’re using, the rhetoric we’ve been using,” Aadland said. And, he added, “I don’t think it’d be healthy to have a chairwoman under seven indictments.”

Peters, however, reveled in her national profile. She noted that she had just started a podcast that had 60,000 downloads on its first day and that she raised $250,000 to fund a recount in three days after the 2022 primary —a recount that confirmed her loss.

During a separate debate Saturday, she demonstrated the appeal of her message to voters whose beliefs are increasingly unpopular in a liberal state.

“It’s not your fault that we lost this election in 2022. It’s not my fault that we lost this election in 2022,” she told another crowd of Republican voters at a suburban pizzeria. “It’s because of the machines.”

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politi...Kq4jdLgtkT8DtZuyaiE5GFK6VG3d-qesyoHnogeY

What a nutjob. https://www.wptv.com/news/political/ultimate-cancel-act

Florida Sen. Blaise Ingoglia wants to 'cancel the Democratic Party' for previously supporting slavery
Republican lawmaker files 'Ultimate Cancel Act' that would strip party of its voting status

Few are feeling the Election Day hangover worse than Florida Democrats. The party suffered devastating blows Tuesday night as Republicans won races up and down the ballot.
By: Peter Burke
Posted at 4:30 PM, Feb 28, 2023 and last updated 5:12 PM, Feb 28, 2023
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A Florida lawmaker has filed the so-called "Ultimate Cancel Act" that would call on the Division of Elections to cancel the filings of any political party that "has previously advocated for, or been in support of, slavery or involuntarily servitude."

State Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, filed SB 1248 on Tuesday.

If passed, the legislation would also impact voters of any such political party, automatically changing their status to "no party affiliation."



Since Florida is a closed-primary state, any registered voter of a canceled party would be shut out from participating in a primary election unless he or she changed party affiliations.

Under the proposed law, any canceled political party would be required to reregister no later than six months before any election in which a party seeks to nominate a candidate for office.

"For years now, leftist activists have been trying to cancel people and companies for things they have said or done in the past," Ingoglia said in a statement. "This includes the removal of statues and memorials and the renaming of buildings. Using this standard, it would be hypocritical not to cancel the Democrat Party itself for the same reason."

A news release from Ingoglia's office announcing the filing of the legislation claims the Democratic Party adopted pro-slavery positions into their platforms during the party's 1840, 1844, 1856, 1860 and 1864 conventions.

"Some people want to have uncomfortable conversations about certain subjects," Ingoglia said. "Let's have those conversations."

Former Florida Agriculture Commissioner and failed gubernatorial candidate Nikki Fried told reporters she's not surprised by the new legislation. Fried was recently selected to serve as chair of the Florida Democratic Party.

Nikki Fried denounces Florida Sen. Blaise Ingoglia's 'Ultimate Cancel Act' bill, Feb. 28, 2023
Zoom
Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried criticizes state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, for filing his "Ultimate Cancel Act" bill. "This is what a dictator does," she says. "This is what a fascist does."
"Shame on the radical Republican party for initiating some type of a piece of legislation of this magnitude," Fried said. "This is what a dictator does. This is what a fascist does."

If passed, the law would take effect July 1.

Copyright 2023 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


Of course this is just a political stunt and a complete waste of time and money. However I did get a chuckle out of it.

I know it's a stunt, but as braindead ignorant as Florida GOPers have become, I still wouldn't put it past their supermajority to pass it. Of course, the SCOTUS would then be obliged to reverse... but they are corrupt af, too, since Trump stacked them with evil.

I'm still wondering why it's a situation where politicians and courts need to be involved at all.

For me it's a family decision that should involve the medical professionals and if your so inclined, your church.

I also don't think we should forget the other party involved with a pregnancy... The Male.

I just don't believe it's something the Law has any right to deal with.

But that's just me I guess

Tennessee governor signs first-of-its-kind bill restricting drag shows

The measure will prohibit drag performances on public property or at locations in the state where they can be viewed by minors.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a novel bill into law Thursday that will criminalize some drag performances.

The first-of-its-kind legislation will ban “adult cabaret entertainment” on public property or in locations where it can be viewed by minors. Such entertainment, according to the measure, includes “topless dancers, go-go dancers, exotic dancers, strippers, male or female impersonators, or similar entertainers.”

The law, which takes effect April 1, calls for first-time offenders to be slapped with misdemeanors. Subsequent offenses would be classified as felonies and could result in prison sentences of up to six years.

Lawmakers in at least a dozen other states have proposed measures that would similarly restrict drag performances, according to an NBC News analysis.

Supporters say the legislation is necessary to safeguard children against exposure to inappropriate entertainment.

One of the bill’s Republican lead sponsors, Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, did not respond to a request for comment. Instead, he celebrated the signing on Twitter.

“The bill gives confidence to parents that they can take their kids to a public or private show and will not be blindsided by a sexualized performance,” he wrote.

Asked for comment, Jade Byers, the press secretary for the other lead sponsor, Rep. Chris Todd, wrote, in full, “The Governor signed the bill today and appreciates the work of Leader Johnson to protect children.”

Several drag performers in the state argue that the legislation broadly paints drag as overtly sexual and unfairly targets the underground art form, which has deep roots in the LGBTQ community.

“Drag has never turned a child into a prostitute or anything negative — it just gave them a chance to express happiness,” said Denise Sadler, 38, who has been performing as a drag queen for over 20 years in Nashville. “If happiness is against the law, then what kind of world do we live in?”

Some also note that the state already has obscenity laws.

“For them to pass further legislation governing this ‘obscene’ art form of drag, it doesn’t serve any purpose other than to stir up the people who already hate us and make it harder for us to just exist out in the world,” said Luke Conner, a Memphis drag queen whose stage name is Anyanka. “It’s not about protecting children anymore. It’s about silencing an entire group of people.”

LGBTQ advocates also worry that police will enforce the law against transgender people walking around in public, falsely painting them as “male or female impersonators.”

“Y’all are giving the police every right … to attack me and come at me when I’m not doing anything but living my life,” said Sadler, who is transgender. “For this to be the land of the free, I shouldn’t have to walk around being scared because I’m Black or because I’m trans.”

Regina Lambert Hillman, a law professor at the University of Memphis who was part of a legal team that challenged Tennessee's ban on same-sex marriages in 2013, similarly described the bill’s language as “intentionally vague” and said she understands the trans community’s concern. However, she said, the law cannot prevent trans people from dressing in their lived genders in public.

“You still have First Amendment protections,” she said. “What that means is how a person dresses or what a person says, that does not change. The government cannot suppress speech, including expressive conduct, just because they find it offensive or they don’t like the content.”

Hillman said that in her view, the law’s purpose is to “put people on notice.”

“This is more like you’ve got a law looking for a problem instead of a problem looking for a law,” she said.

Tensions surrounding the legislation flared further over the weekend after an image that appears to show Lee, the governor, in drag as a high school student was shared on Reddit and Twitter.

Answering reporters’ questions Monday, Lee neither confirmed nor denied whether the image — which appears to show him in a short-skirted cheerleader’s uniform, a pearl necklace and a wig — was indeed of him.

“What a ridiculous, ridiculous question that is,” he said in an exchange that was recorded and shared on Twitter by The Tennessee Holler, a local news site. “Conflating something like that to sexualized entertainment in front of children, which is a very serious subject.”

After the photograph surfaced, Lee was met by protesters in Memphis on Tuesday. Two people were detained.

Marina Pepe, 32, who co-runs a weekly drag brunch with Sadler in Nashville, said she worries the new legislation will lead to further unrest and feed the recent rise in acts of violence against drag performers.

“When that window is opened, especially from a higher voice, if someone feels like, ‘OK, well that government or the politicians, they said this is wrong and it’s OK to act out against,’” Pepe said. “People act on that.”

There were more than 140 protests and significant threats aimed at drag events in 47 states last year, according to a report by the LGBTQ media advocacy group GLAAD. In an extreme case, a donut shop in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was firebombed with a Molotov cocktail in October after it hosted a drag event, according to KFOR and KJRH, the NBC affiliates in Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Anti-drag protesters have even found a place in liberal enclaves, such as New York City, in the last handful of months.

NBC News previously reported that the incidents, coupled with the mass shooting at a Colorado LGBTQ nightclub, Club Q, in November, prompted several high-profile drag performers to beef up their security apparatuses. Several previously disclosed that they have hired armed guards to escort them on tour.

Pepe said she is also considering hiring full-time security staffers for her show’s weekly performances at a Nashville bar.

Aside from legislation that would limit drag, state legislators across the country have introduced more than 300 bills that target LGBTQ rights, according to a tally by the American Civil Liberties Union.

A large proportion of the bills seek to ban transition-related care for transgender minors, including one Lee also signed into law Thursday. Tennessee is now one of seven states — in addition to Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, South Dakota, Utah and Mississippi — where governors have signed such measures into law. However, the laws have been temporarily blocked by judges in Arkansas and Alabama, pending the outcomes of lawsuits.

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc...IIQx9p_Vvsi_7rOSOBa9FgTNdMm58FsP2-J3zpR0

Create distractions. Build outrage over distractions. Create laws covering distractions.

An unburdened Rep. Gaetz calls for abolishing the FBI, CDC, ATF

The Florida Republican celebrated end of his investigation, says agencies should close if they don't "get back on our side."

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz sprung onto the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference and took a victory lap after federal authorities recently informed him that he would not be charged in a sex trafficking investigation.

“If you don’t mind me saying so, I think vindication looks pretty good on me!” Gaetz said to a cheering crowd.

Minutes later, Gaetz, now serving on the select committee investigating the so-called weaponization of the federal government, suggested eliminating federal investigative agencies.

“I don’t care if it takes every second of our time and every ounce of our energy, we either get this government back on our side or we defund, get rid of, abolish the FBI CDC, ATF,” Gaetz said to applause.

Gaetz had been under investigation for underage sex trafficking allegations that looked at his role in a larger scheme that led to the sex trafficking of a 17-year-old girl.

The core of that investigation included testimony from a former Gaetz associate, Joel Greenberg. Greenberg previously pleaded guilty to six charges, including sex trafficking of a minor, identity theft, stalking, wire fraud and conspiracy to bribe a public official, and agreed to cooperate with federal investigators as part of his plea agreement.

https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-pr...WipcKNVtjlGGehH7rh-qlnb114PBh0qMTQ6P6Wpg

You forgot the last step for the policritters. Get the media to spin the distraction.

That completes the political circle of life.

I'll never understand how Gaetz avoided being charged. He was blatantly guilty from the evidence we knew about year ago. How does that go away? He flew underage girls out of state and had sex with them. That was all supposed to be fact; how does that not end up in charges?

GOPers want the LGBTQ community BACK IN THE CLOSET.