Illinois Sheriffs Refuse to Enforce the State’s New Gun Law.
Illinois Sheriffs Refuse to Enforce the State’s New Gun Law.
Plus, Dark and Nasty Republicans Propose Drag Brunch (and Maybe Gay Pride) Bans in Several States.
Recently in The Bulwark:
CHARLIE SYKES: The Brutality Is the Point
JVL: If You Just Do What The Police Tell You . . .🔐 and Charles McGonigal and the Deep State.
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TIM MILLER: Dark and Nasty Republicans Propose Drag Brunch (and Maybe Gay Pride) Bans in Several States.
The drag panic of 2022 has exploded into a frightening and revanchist nationwide movement to menace and ban drag performances, pushed by activists and politicians whose insides are dark and nasty.
Protests targeting drag queens have sprouted up all across America, surging in the latter part of last year, according to analysis from Counting Crowds. In the two months since a deadly attack on a drag show in Colorado Springs, a gay New York City council member’s apartment building was breached by protesters; a Unitarian-Universalist church in Ohio canceled an event due to protests by militia members; armed activists gathered outside a theater in San Antonio; a Massachusetts library story time featuring a drag queen dressed as a princess was interrupted by adult males shouting profanities; and in Cookeville, Tennessee, a group of masked men carrying a Nazi flag threatened attendees of a drag brunch.
And that’s just a random sampling from their recent rolodex of hate.
Training and diversity are not enough — cops who break the law must be prosecuted. Plus, the normalization of political violence around Jan 6 and the attack on Paul Pelosi, and Steve Bannon goes deeper on election denialism. Will Saletan joins Charlie Sykes for Charlie and Will Monday.
Sonny is joined by Dean Devlin, whose work in movies like Universal Soldier, Stargate, and Independence Day he grew up loving. He works mostly in television now on series like The Librarians and Leverage, and has a new one out on SyFy debuting February 3: The Ark. They talk about his new show, how the business has evolved these last 30 years, and more on this week’s episode.
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New from Me: Illinois Sheriffs Refuse to Enforce the State’s New Gun Law.
Following last summer’s horrific mass shooting at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois, which left seven people dead, nearly fifty others wounded, and a 2-year-old orphaned, the Illinois General Assembly swung into action.
The result is the Protect Illinois Communities Act (PICA), which on January 10 was passed by both houses of the legislature and signed into law by Governor J.B. Pritzker. The new law’s supporters argue that it will save lives. Its critics say that it is unconstitutional and that it will be very hard to enforce.
PICA does a few things, the biggest of which is a ban on the sale or transfer of certain rifles deemed to be “assault weapons.” People who already own such firearms will be required to register them with the state government by January 1, 2024, once a system for registration has been created later this year.
🚨OVERTIME 🚨
Happy Monday! I was off for most of the day, so a special thank you to Ben Parker for assisting with some links in today’s Overtime.
🎵 On the Jukebox… Don’t Give In by Snow Patrol.
The story of Lilo and her family… A heartwarming story out of Tennessee, but depressing when you consider that there are tens of thousands of our fellow citizens in similar dire straights.
Yes, you have to be smart to play Jeopardy! But, former champion Tom Nichols writes, it’s a peculiar kind of smart. I enjoy LearnedLeague, but never got past the digital test! :(
Calling George Santos’s top donors… Mother Jones did, and many of them appear not to exist. The DOJ has told the FEC to stand down, since, well, it appears the prosecution train is coming down the tracks.
This Maryland teen… Visited every single DC Metro station, setting an apparent world record.
Along front-line river… This deadly road shows toll of Russia’s war.
How wifi signals… Are useful for spies.
Happy birthday Gene Hackman.. Told he couldn’t hack it at first, the happily retired actor is 93.
An historic Super Bowl… Football may be dead to me as a Browns fan, but for the first time in history, two black QBs will face off to see who will hoist the Vince Lombardi trophy.
Hide and seek champion? This kid wasn’t found for days, effectively winning and worrying his family and friends.
That’s it for me. Tech support questions? Email members@thebulwark.com. Questions for me? Respond to this message.
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Editorial photos provided by Getty Images. For full credits, please consult the article.