First GOP member of Congress calls on Matt Gaetz to resign

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger became the first congressional Republican to call on his colleague from Florida, Rep. Matt Gaetz, to resign in the face of a federal investigation into sex trafficking allegations.

"Matt Gaetz needs to resign," Kinzinger tweeted Thursday night, linking to a Daily Beast article about allegations against Gaetz, the details of which CNN has not confirmed.

The moderate Illinois Republican has been a frequent critic of his own party, especially its embrace of Donald Trump and the former President's lies about election fraud.

No charges have been brought against Gaetz, and he has denied all allegations against him. Staring down those allegations, the Florida Republican has been reaching for a familiar, in-your-face strategy perfected over the last four years by Trump, who fueled his unconventional rise.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/first-gop-member-of-congress-calls-on-matt-gaetz-to-resign/ar-BB1fs3HC

[Treefrog]

1. K and r.

[PJMcK]

2. A lonely voice in the wilderness... (n/t)

[lindysalsagal]

3. Just when I thought there was nothing a GQPer wouldn't allow....

Maybe they could be shamed, using teens for sex, as long as there's no church involved.

https://www.salon.com/2018/03/11/banning-child-marriage-in-america-an-uphill-fight-against-evangelical-pressure/

There’s a famous, though possibly falsely-attributed, quote by Mark Twain: “I want to be in Kentucky when the end of the world comes, because they are always 20 years behind.” That quote felt uncomfortably true over the weekend, while Kentucky was at the receiving end of a lot of bad press for stalling the passage of Senate Bill 48, a bill that aims to prevent child marriage – marriage by a minor under 18 years old – in the state.

Child marriage is a real problem in the United States, one that isn’t talked about much. Like human trafficking, we assume that child marriage is something that happens in other countries, countries with antiquated world views and gender norms. But it happens here all the time – at least 9,247 minors were married in the United States in the year 2010 alone.

And this isn’t a situation of teenagers marrying other teenagers. According to Unchained at Last, a non-profit working to stop forced marriages (which includes child marriages), the majority of child marriages are between teenage (or younger) girls and adult men. Between 2000 and 2015, 86 percent of the reported 207,468 child marriages that took place in the United States were between minors and adults. Only 14 percent were between two minors. Please note that this data is incomplete – eight states did not provide data for the study.

Almost every state sets the age of consent to marry at 18 but most of them also have an exception where a younger child can marry if her parents and/or a judge agrees to it. In 25 states, there is no minimum age to marry if the conditions for an exception are met.

[Shermann]

4. He's that one guy in the audience yelling "YOU SUCK" at the band nt

[crickets]

5. Hmm. Will others bother to speak up? nt