US Politics, March 2023: "We want our own safe space, and we deserve it"

Give 'em time

After all, I live in Florida.

I will say ... a 40-person city council sounds like a nightmare

Yeah, part of Nashville's problem with fighting that was that basically everybody thinks their Metro Council is too big. But the real issue obviously is state pre-emption of local government, which red states just fucking love doing to blue cities. And it's for such a petty political reason, because the Council didn't want Nashville to host the Republican convention.

Meanwhile, good Pro Publica piece about yet another well-funded super-creepy right-wing influence group: https://www.propublica.org/article/leonard-leo-teneo-videos-documents

I do think that Leo and the Thiel-ites are being pretty naive thinking they can apply the Federalist Society model to more amorphous areas of politics and culture. The reason the Federalist Society has been so effective is that it's operating in a very rarified, elite realm of judicial appointments. That's a small pool to start with, with very narrow and influenceable pathways to power. Taking the same approach to Hollywood or Silicon Valley or whatever seems a lot harder. Still, whatever they do won't be good.

“The billionaire says: ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if middle school kids had free access to sex-change therapy paid for by the federal government?’” Baehr continued. “Well, the filmmaker says, ‘I’d love to do a documentary on that; it will be a major motion film.’ The Harvard professor says, ‘We can do studies on that to say that’s absolutely biologically sound and safe.’ And the New York Times person says, ‘I’ll profile people who feel trapped in the wrong gender.’ ”

Yup, that's the Big Lib Conspiracy in a nutshell

Yeah, kind of hilarious projection there.

if people oppose those policies why are they supporting the politicians who have made those policies their primary issues

Because only in left spaces are those the "primary issues" for someone like DeSantis. His campaign is "I won't impose Hugo-Chavezism on Florida, I won't abolish the police, and I won't require your 7-year-old to go to gender re-education camp" and is backed by a fervent campaign to convince voters of the hilarious false claim that elected Democrats are in fact going to bring about those things.

“Major motion film”

I noted that as well lol

Re the NY Times Child labor investigation mentioned in that xpost Guardian link, reporter Hannah Driver says on latest The Daily that after recent coverage and resulting Fed pressure, suppliers are firing kids, who then tend to go on to other sketchy work situations---she's stayed in contact with several---these are the kids who don't have the xpost work certificates, signed by parent or guardian, that would allow them to take better jobs. Driver says that certification can be a fairly complicated process, involving lawyers in at least some instances, which is Sarah Huckabee Sanders' point exactly!

Here's link, sorry: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/09/podcasts/the-daily/migrant-child-labor-america.html

She also says that guardians weren't vetted very consistently in recent years, if ever, because of Fed pressure to get kids out of custody.

I’ve spent the last week in the wretched hive of scum and villainy that is Daytona Beach Florida during Bike Week (long story) feeling pretty dystopian about all this bullshit legislation but during that time my home state of Michigan has passed bills:
- reinstating prevailing wages for state contracts
- repealing right to work
- adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the state civil rights laws
- repealing the still on the books law against abortion - requiring universal background checks for guns.

Apparently this is what happens when Democrats control the both the house and senate for the first time in 40 years and I’m totally into it.

Bravo!

My condolences re: Daytona

oh my goodness -- this local TV report about Tennessee Republican Lt. Gov. Randy McNally liking gay posts on Instagram is brutally awkward. You can see the full thing here: https://t.co/QOSVEfrLDC pic.twitter.com/e3PeKskm97

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 10, 2023

"mistakes were made"

Mr Creosote

OK so first of all on that Randy McNally story, he's MY ACTUAL STATE SENATOR. Most of his district is the next county over, but part extends into my county and our neighborhood got drawn into it this past time around. He's been Senate speaker/Lt. Gov. for the last four years, so he has a lot of power but he's a super low-key guy. Obviously his voting record is normal Tennessee Republican, i.e. totally horrible, but one of these guys who basically everyone thinks is a "good guy," personable, never heard any bad behavior about him. Not that there's anything bad about these reports! But he's a 79-year-old great-grandfather/retired pharmacist, longest-serving member of the Legislature, like just not at all somebody who you think would be posting fire emojis to twinks on Instragram.

The story has completely blown up here, of course, people are agog. Although I will say I heard from a gay friend that this isn't news to a lot of people he knows, McNally's been hearting 'gram posts for years and there are vague rumors of more direct kinds of activities. All of which would just be kind of titillating if not for him overseeing a relentless slate of anti-LGBTQ legislation. Anyway, there's a lot of speculation that he's going to have to resign or at least step down from the speakership because while to liberals the problem is the hypocrisy, to conservatives the problem is hearting the twinks. The governor in drag at a powderpuff football game was one thing, but this gets into Actual Queer territory.

Anyway, Tennessee, what a place.

I will say this for him, he didn't try to pull any "I must have been hacked" bullshit.

issuing correction on a previous post of mine, regarding the terror group ISIL. you do not, under any circumstances, "gotta hand it to them"

— wint (@dril) February 15, 2017

lol I admit to having a low bar of expectations for my local Republican legislators to get over.

tipsy - was he actually replying with the official Lt Gov's insta account, or some kind of secret alias? If the former, that's just bonkers and showing poor judgement

or maybe he just doesn't know how public these posts become

Iirc, it was the official account!

Amazingly, Rod Dreher's insane American Conservative column has been entirely funded for the last 12 years by one rich maniac, but said maniac has finally decided ol' Rod is just too weird for him, and is pulling his funding.

Dude giving off Matt Berninger vibes in that pic.

Live by the right-wing rich dude, die by the right-wing rich dude. Sounds like a Succession subplot.

And yes, it was indeed our Lt. Gov.'s official check-marked account. This was the best of his comments right here.

"You can turn a rainy day into rainbows and sunshine."

As Tennessee passes anti-LGBTQ legislation, Lt. Gov. Randy McNally (R) has been commenting often on a gay man's racy Instagram pics.

Lt. Gov's McNally's office said "he enjoys interacting with constituents." pic.twitter.com/Tq5xghy7VI

— The Recount (@therecount) March 9, 2023

Here's our own coverage of it from today, fwiw:

Whatever headlines you might have expected out of the Tennessee Legislature this year, we're guessing this wasn't among them: "Republican Lt. Gov. Vows to Keep Thirsting After Queer Instagram Nudes." That was from Rolling Stone. Somewhat more restrained, from national NBC News: "Tennessee lieutenant governor, 79, comments on young gay man's racy Instagram photos."

Both, of course, refer to our own Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, who represents Anderson and part of Knox counties. In less than 24 hours after his Instagram liking, commenting and emoji-posting habits were first brought to light by the progressive news site Tennessee Holler, the retired pharmacist and longest-serving member of the Legislature became something of a national figure, though not necessarily in a way he might have preferred.

Others picking up on the story included the Daily Beast, People and the U.K.'s Independent newspaper. All of the stories noted McNally's enthusiastic comments on posts by a young, gay Knoxville native who goes by Franklyn Superstar on social media and often appears nearly nude and/or wearing lipstick and makeup.

Unlike many public figures caught in awkward social media activity, McNally has not claimed his account was hacked or that the screenshots were faked. Instead, he sat down with reporter Phil Williams of Nashville's WTVF Channel 5 yesterday and said he just likes being supportive of people on social media.

"I'm really, really sorry if I've embarrassed my family, embarrassed my friends, embarrassed any of the members of the legislature with the posts," he told Williams.

Williams noted that in one of the posts McNally had liked, Franklyn Superstar had written that he was "not a WHORE" but "a HOE," adding, "I'm the one that gets free weed for giving head!"

"I don't recall reading the part about the weed, I know that," McNally told Williams. What about the part about the man being a "prostitute," Williams asked. "I might have read that," McNally responded.

Of course, a big part of the reason the story went viral is the backdrop of the Legislature passing two bills last week widely perceived as targeting LGBTQ people for discrimination: a restriction on all-ages drag shows, and a prohibition on gender-affirming care for transgender people under the age of 18. Human Rights Campaign, a national gay rights group, says Tennessee has passed more anti-LGBTQ legislation since 2015 than any other state.

McNally's Instagram kerfuffle also comes just a week after a high school photo of Gov. Bill Lee in drag also made national and international news. So far, House Speaker Cameron Sexton — the third member of state government's Republican power trio — has avoided drawing such unlooked-for attention.

(Anecdotally, we can report that McNally has inadvertently sparked young people's interest in civics — teenage boys were talking animatedly about the story in an overheard conversation at a local pizzeria yesterday.)

can we crowdfund Rod Dreher?

sheesh "Randy McNally" even sounds like a drag name

Biden seems likely to allow a private corporation to despoil the largest stretch of pristine wilderness in Alaska for…. 20 days worth of oil, given our current burn rate.

quality burn tbh

It’s been a long time since the days I was at recess, John. But I remember two things. 1) I was on my way to playing college ball on a scholarship. And 2) that was the last time you had a hit.

Cheers to the past! https://t.co/fIVh2SpU1h

— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) March 11, 2023

That's awesome.

These kids look pretty stoked about it https://t.co/0XHsMKawFr

— eve6 (@Eve6) March 11, 2023

What kind of labor are these kids going to be doing exactly? Day trading?

White kids wont be the ones working, it’s migrant children.

White kids can be bosses, don’t trample on their dreams.

Paul Gosar says he expects there to be criminal referrals coming from the House seeking the prosecution of Liz Cheney, other Members of the J6 Committee, and for some military officers. pic.twitter.com/6s0u41B9Yl

— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) March 12, 2023

this guy was one of the congressmen trying to make january 6 work

Gosar's affect is so weird. He 100 percent gives off "crazy guy at public forum" vibes, like he's about to whip out a handwritten manifesto and read you VERY SERIOUS ALLEGATIONS.

he seems a bit drunk

"are you prepared to suggest something incredibly dumb while pretending that you're a hero?"

Gosar: "i will do you one more, i will do something incredibly dumb ten times, and i am a hero"

*head involuntarily swings like a pendulum to one side*

i forgot, gosar was the guy whose family spoke out against him because he sucked so badly at everything except being a dentist

In September 2018, six of Gosar's nine siblings spoke out against their brother and endorsed his Democratic opponent, David Brill, in a series of television campaign ads that drew national and international coverage.[44][45] In the first ad, sisters Grace and Jennifer, both identified as health care providers, told viewers that their brother did not care about people in rural Arizona. In another ad, called "A family defends its honor," brother David Gosar, a lawyer, declared, "We've got to stand up for our good name. This is not who we are." Paul Gosar responded to the ads on Twitter, describing his siblings as "disgruntled Hillary supporters" who "put political ideology before family".[46]

Gosar defeated Brill in the November 2018 general election with 68.2% of the vote.

cool, good luck with those criminal referrals that will result in no charges.

Pretty sure Gosar has some degenerative disease (which he has not publicly acknowledged). Parkinson's or something.

No he's a degenerate with a disease

the whole point of gosar saying that was just to remind the faithful that anyone who questions the trumpist party line on January 6 is a traitor and an enemy for whom hanging is too good. no referrals will be forthcoming because what could evidence of crimes they refer to?

er, make that: evidence of crimes could

I was watching some hearing recently and Gosar was trying to be all confrontational and damning, but his gotcha questions kept falling flat because he had his head down reading them stumblingly off a script instead of speaking into his mic, and his victim kept blandly asking "sorry, I couldn't hear you, could you repeat the question?"

I used to joke that the incoming Supreme Court would eventually do away with those pesky child labor laws.