Tag: republicans

Ohio allows child marriage. Some lawmakers are OK with that

Some Republican state senators blocked a bill that would have closed a loophole that allows teens to marry at age 17, which means Ohio might remain among states that permit child marriage.

“All I know is some people in the Republican caucus think it’s OK to have child marriage,” said state Sen. Bill DeMora, D-Columbus, who is co-sponsoring the bill with Sen. Bill Blessing, R-Colerain Twp.

The bill calls for raising the marriage age to 18 and older for all parties.

Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee planned to vote on Senate Bill 341 but senators pulled it off the agenda, along with other pending bills. This week, SB341 isn’t on the committee agenda.

Blessing declined to comment but the bill came off the committee voting agenda after Republican senators held a private caucus meeting.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Nathan Manning, R-North Ridgeville, said advocates will meet with senators to explain why changing the law is needed.

Senate President Rob McColley, who is running for lieutenant governor with Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, said even straightforward issues sometimes need further exploration. “We’ve still got time left in this legislative session.” 

Fraidy Reiss, founder of Unchained At Last, a national organization seeking to end forced and child marriage, said she doesn’t know who in the senate is holding up a bill that had no opposition and would end an abusive practice that harms children.

“It is shameful. It is a slap in the face to girls in Ohio,” she said.

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The FCC Wants Warning Labels for Shows With ‘Transgender’ Content

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is considering new content ratings for TV shows that depict or discuss gender identity. Doing so would be well outside the FCC’s legal authority, and some free speech organizations warn that such a request could constitute a violation of the First Amendment.

At the direction of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, broadcasters developed content ratings for TV shows, patterned after the ones for movies. The TV ratings span TV-Y (appropriate for all children) to TV-MA (mature audiences only), plus more specific content labels for suggestive dialogue, bad language, sexual content, and violence. They also established the TV Parental Guidelines Oversight Monitoring Board (TVOMB) to administer the new ratings.

The government now suggests those warnings are no longer sufficient.

“Recently, parents have raised concerns that controversial gender identity issues are being included or promoted in children’s programs without providing any disclosure or transparency to parents,” per a public notice the FCC filed in April. “Specifically, the industry guidelines that parents rely on are rating shows with transgender and gender non-binary programming as appropriate for children and young children, and doing so without providing this information to parents, thereby undermining the ability of parents to make informed choices for their families.”

As a result, it continued, “We seek comment here on any changes that can or should be made to the current ratings system to ensure that it is responsive to the issues that parents confront today.”

There are several problems with the memo—starting with the fact that the FCC lacks the authority to create or require new content labels.

The 1996 law did call for the government to create a “television rating code” and an “advisory committee,” unless the private sector “established voluntary rules” to do so within a year of the law’s passage. As the FCC acknowledged in its April memo, “Industry representatives chose to set up their own voluntary system, and the Commission in 1998 found that industry’s approach met the relevant statutory criteria.”

Even setting that aside for the moment, the memo’s phrasing also suggests any “transgender [or] gender non-binary” content is potentially inappropriate for children—after all, why else would it matter if parents were sufficiently warned about it?

This broad scope has First Amendment implications. “If what the Commission is in substance proposing is that any program featuring or discussing transgender and gender non-binary persons be flagged with a content warning, that is the stigmatization and marginalization of an entire segment of the population through the machinery of the ratings system, and it is the kind of viewpoint targeting forbidden by the First Amendment,” according to comments filed to the FCC by The Future of Free Speech, a nonpartisan think at Vanderbilt University.

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SHOWDOWN: GOP Senators Make More Demands as DOJ Signals Trump Administration is Dropping Weaponization Fund

Republican Senators were not satisfied with the Justice Department’s statement on the $1.77 billion weaponization fund and demanded a clear statement from Trump.

Recall that the Senate GOP last month delayed the reconciliation vote to fund ICE and Border Patrol – and Senate Majority Leader John Thune admitted it is a political hit against President Trump.

The Republican Senators delayed the reconciliation vote because of the DOJ weaponization fund.

Earlier Monday it was reported that President Trump is going to drop the $1.77 billion weaponization fund created to pay people targeted by the Biden Regime.

The DOJ released a statement on the weaponization fund:

The Department of Justice disagrees strongly with the decision on the Anti-Weaponization Fund put forth by the United States District Court Judge in the Eastern District of Virginia, wherein the Court stated that, under no circumstances, may the Department of Justice proceed with the Anti-Weaponization Fund recently established in order to make up for the tremendous abuse, harm, and hate unfairly shown to so many people. This Fund was open to anybody who was so weaponized, targeted, or persecuted, whether they were Democrat, Republican, Conservative, Independent, or otherwise. The Department will abide by the Court’s ruling.

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Rubio braces for Hill grilling as Republicans join bid to curb Trump’s Iran war powers

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to face tough questions on Capitol Hill this week as Congress threatens to curb President Donald Trump’s war powers, while the administration pushes for an end to the conflict with Iran.

Rubio will testify in four congressional hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday on the State Department’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year. But the Trump official is likely to be grilled on the ongoing negotiations to end the war and whether the U.S. military campaign should continue against Iranian forces and the country’s nuclear capabilities. 

The U.S. and Iran have yet to agree on terms to end sporadic fighting. Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and potential sanctions relief have emerged as key sticking points in negotiations. 

President Donald Trump said Monday that he “couldn’t care less” if the stalled talks were over, in an interview with CNBC.

“I don’t care if they’re over, honestly,” Trump told the outlet. “If they’re over, they’re over. If they’re not, you know, I think they took too much time. Frankly, I thought they started to get very boring.”

The president’s comments followed fresh rounds of fighting over the weekend that tested the fragile ceasefires in place since early April. The U.S. military has shown no signs of ending its blockade of Iranian ports while Tehran has continued to flex its hold over the Strait of Hormuz.

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Florida Governor Calls For Special Session To Eliminate Property Tax For Homeowners

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on May 27 called for a special legislative session to pass his plan to exempt homeowners from paying property taxes on their permanent residence.

The Republican governor revealed his plans to sign a proclamation that would require state lawmakers to convene in Tallahassee and discuss his “Save Our Homes” proposal starting on June 1.

“Taxing something that you own repeatedly, which is a property tax, is the worst way to do taxation,” DeSantis said in a news conference on May 27.

DeSantis said he hopes that eliminating taxes from Florida homesteads could be a bipartisan effort.

“You pay all these taxes to acquire that property, and then year after year, you’re just having to write a check just for the privilege of being able to maintain ownership of something that is supposedly yours,” he said.

The proposal contemplates phasing in the exemption and creating a state trust fund to compensate local governments for lost revenue. Because the measure would involve a change to the Florida Constitution, if it passes the state Senate and state House, which are both Republican-controlled, it would need to be approved by voters in November.

Property tax revenue collected by local governments in the Sunshine State has nearly doubled in seven years, to $60 billion from $32 billion, according to the governor’s office.

DeSantis wants to make local governments use property taxes only for core public needs such as public safety, education, infrastructure, and natural resources.

The proposal would require new Florida residents to maintain residency for up to five years before they can receive the homestead exemption.

The proclamation comes as the term-limited Republican nears the end of his term as governor, set for Jan. 5, 2027.

“I want to make sure people can go and vote for something, and then see something that’s going to be very, very meaningful in their lives, and the way to do that is to focus on the homestead property owners,” he said.

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SURE THEY ARE: Democrat Weirdo James Talarico Claims Republicans Are Secretly Supporting Him

James Talarico, the Democrat freak who’s running for U.S. Senate in Texas and loves trans kids, claims that lots of Republicans are secretly supporting his campaign. Uh huh. Sure they are.

This is the sort of desperate, utter baloney that is usually reserved for later in the campaign cycle. Remember White Dudes for Kamala Harris? How did that work out?

Talarico’s act is already wearing thin. He basically uses Christianity to support far left ideas. In case you haven’t noticed, the only time he ever brings up his faith or his religious beliefs is to defend something the radical left believes.

This bit about Republican voters secretly supporting him is simply not believable.

From The Hill:

Texas state Rep. James Talarico (D) said Tuesday that his campaign for Senate is attracting some support from previous President Trump voters who are becoming more disillusioned with the president’s policies, saying they whisper to him at rallies “like they’re in the witness protection program.”

Talarico argued during an interview on MS NOW that Trump has done “the exact opposite” of what he promised in 2024, pointing to the administration’s initial reluctance to release the Jeffrey Epstein files and the conflict in Iran, among other issues.

“A lot of the president’s supporters in Texas are feeling disillusioned, they’re feeling disillusioned with this extremism and this corruption that is embodied by politicians like Ken Paxton,” Talarico said. “And so, we have a real opportunity to build a big coalition of Democrats, independents and Republicans who are fed up with this extremism and this corruption.”

Talarico is facing embattled Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the November midterms, after Paxton — with a final-hour endorsement from Trump — crushed incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) in the Republican primary runoff Tuesday.

Even if a Trump supporter was disillusioned with Trump, they’re not going to turn around a suddenly support a far left candidate like Talarico.

No one shifts that hard from one side to the other. People on Twitter/X are calling it out.

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Congressman Tim Burchett Introducing ‘DROP Act’ to Bring Back Hanging Executions for Savage Killers

Republican Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett is calling for the return of hanging as a federal execution method in response to one of the most depraved crimes in recent memory: the months-long torture, rape, and murder of 19-year-old Isabella Stroupe in Charlotte, North Carolina.

In a viral X post on Sunday, Burchett directly quoted a detailed account of Stroupe’s horrific death and asserted, “I have a bill to bring back hanging. Let’s see if all the tough talk by Congress holds up. Support the Drop Act.”

Stroupe, 19, was found dead in an east Charlotte apartment in early May.

According to court affidavits and police reports, she had been bound to a bed with a tow strap, wearing minimal clothing, and subjected to months of torture inside the residence she shared with her boyfriend.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police arrested 24-year-old Thomaz Kenon Hamilton on May 5. He faces charges of first-degree murder and first-degree rape.

Hamilton initially called 911, claiming Stroupe was not breathing, but investigators uncovered overwhelming evidence of prolonged abuse, including weapons, blood-stained items, and cell phones at the scene.

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The Republican Party Is Nothing More Than a Cult of Trump

The Republican Party is dead. Long live the party of Trump, which wears the GOP like a skin suit.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump took down libertarian-leaning Rep. Thomas Massie (R–Ky.), to whom he’d taken such a profound dislike that he backed a primary challenger in the form of MAGA stalwart Ed Gallrein. Massie was highly ranked for his voting record by conservative organizations, but so were other candidates Trump pushed out of office—and out of the party. In truth, it’s been years since the Republican Party was a conservative organization; these days it’s a cult of personality around the president.

“Tom Massie of Kentucky, the worst and most unreliable Republican Congressman in the history of our Country, is an even bigger insult to our Nation than Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana,” President Trump snarked on May 17. That was the day Cassidy lost his state’s Republican Senate primary to Trump-backed challenger Rep. Julia Letlow and State Treasurer John Fleming, who now head to a runoff.

By that point, Trump-backed primary challengers had already turned out five Republican Indiana state senators who resisted the president’s drive to gerrymander congressional districts to gain advantage in this year’s midterm congressional elections.

“Good luck to those Great Indiana Senate Candidates who are running against people who couldn’t care less about our Country, or about keeping the Majority in Congress,” the president posted on Truth Social prior to release of the Indiana results. “There are eight Great Patriots running against long seated RINOS — Let’s see how those RINOS do tonight!”

Massie in turn lost this week to Gallrein, who was backed 54.8 percent to 45.2 percent by Republican primary voters responding to the president’s call. Massie had won 99.6 percent of the general election vote in his district in 2024, 65 percent in 2022, and 67 percent in 2020, according to BallotPedia. He was popular until dismissed by Trump, who won 64.5 percent of Kentucky votes in 2024.

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Caucus That Claims Congress Is Silencing Black Voices Silences Black Voices

The Congressional Black Caucus, which frequently complains that Congress is silencing black voices, has denied the application of four congressional black voices.

The four black members of Congress include Reps. Burgess Owens, R-Utah; Wesley Hunt, R-Texas; Byron Donalds, R-Fla.; and John James, R-Mich.

“Unfortunately, for the Left, their priorities are power and profit” Owens told the Daily Signal.

Owens and Donalds pushed to rename the Capitol’s press gallery after civil rights icon Frederick Douglass, a Republican, but caucus members refused to co-sponsor the resolution.

“Democrats know Douglass was a Republican,” Owens said. “They don’t stand up for the things that really should make a difference. They stand up for everything the Democratic Party wants, which means the black community is not always in a good place.”

Owens, who sits on the House’s Education and Workforce Committee, said the Congressional Black Caucus will advocate against the things that could strengthen the black community, such as education.

“That means they are going to vote against school choice,” he said. “Our kids are going down so fast, so far because they’re not getting the right education. … The Black Caucus doesn’t want [school choice] to happen because the Democratic Party doesn’t want that to happen.”

Owens said he grew up in the 1960s deep South, where his community “was doing well” and people believed in faith, family, and the free market. However, he added, the Left doesn’t value those ideals today.

“Marxists and socialists hate faith, family, and free market education because that sense of independence takes away their power and ability to make profit,” he said. “When they make profit on people’s misery, that’s a big business.”

Owens added, “They allow people not to feel good about themselves, feel hopeless, feel desperate, then they depend on you. … And when people have that kind of mindset, and they have no concept of what it is to believe in God or have empathy, they’ll do everything selfishly.”

The Congressional Black Caucus is pushing legislation asking young black athletes to avoid playing college sports for universities in the South, as a method of retaliating against states that redrew congressional maps. Owens, who was the third black athlete to receive a football scholarship from the University of Miami, criticized the effort, saying it’s a move by “black elitists” who want to “take the dreams of young black people away so that they can keep theirs.”

The caucus has received criticism for other decisions, including denying membership to Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., a white congressman who nevertheless represents the largest black community in Tennessee.

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US author and son of Texas politician charged with helping to provide classified information to China

The son of a prominent Texas Republican politician has been swept up in an explosive federal case accusing him of helping funnel sensitive information to China.

Thomas Pauken II, an American author and political commentator who spent years living in China, allegedly acted as a go-between for contacts linked to Beijing dangling cash incentives to influence US policy from inside the federal government.

Pauken is now facing a felony charge alleging he operated on behalf of the Chinese government inside the United States without properly registering with the attorney general.

Federal investigators claim Pauken compiled confidential reports for a Chinese intelligence-linked handler who allegedly told him the material would ultimately be passed up the chain to Chinese President Xi Jinping. 

According to an FBI affidavit filed in federal court, Pauken also delivered electronic devices to another individual seeking work in the Trump administration later offering that same person a lucrative arrangement tied to providing weekly policy-related reports.

The allegations have thrust Pauken, who wrote under the pen name Tom McGregor while working in China, into the center of an increasingly tense standoff between Washington and Beijing over espionage, foreign influence and national security.

Court documents obtained by Politico say Pauken was first confronted by US authorities after returning from China in January 2025. 

But instead of immediately arresting him, investigators allegedly instructed him to continue behaving normally out of concern that abruptly cutting ties could place him in danger from China’s Ministry of State Security.

FBI Special Agent Timothy Healy wrote in the affidavit that Pauken was specifically warned not to alert Chinese officials about his contact with American law enforcement.

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