An image appearing to show Tennessee governor Bill Lee in drag has gone viral on social as he is set to approve a bill that will make drag performances illegal in the state.

The photo was shared on Reddit on the r/PoliticalHumor subreddit. The user who posted it noted in the caption that the image was found in the 1977 yearbook of Franklin High School.

The picture seemingly shows the governor in drag costume posing alongside three other women. "Hard Luck Woman," the image is captioned.

The photo instantly went viral on social media with users calling out the Republican party's hypocrisy, after images appearing to show U.S. Rep George Santos participating in drag shows while he was a teenager in Brazil surfaced last month.


Read more: https://www.ibtimes.sg/bill-lee-image-appearing-show-tennessee-governor-dressed-drag-surfaces-state-moves-forward-69226

---

To our readers,

The Star Tribune has ceased publication of the Dilbert comic strip because of creator Scott Adams' recent comments on YouTube.

Adams' comments were hateful and racist. They violated our core values and standards and reached well beyond our guidelines for open debate.

The comic strip will be removed from StarTribune.com on Monday.

https://www.startribune.com/media-drop-dilbert-after-creators-black-hate-group-remark/600254416/

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 third in last year’s GOP primary to run 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.

Dear Friend,

I’m writing with some big news: on Saturday, March 4, I will formally announce my candidacy for the Democratic nomination for president.

We are not living in easy times, but the times will change when we are willing to change them. I feel my forty years being up close and personal with the trauma of so many thousands of individuals gives me a unique perspective on what is needed to help repair America.

We need a politics that treats not just symptoms, but cause. That does not base itself on the crass imperatives of endless corporate profit, but on the eternal imperatives of our principles and values. Einstein said we wouldn’t solve the problems of the world from the level of thinking we were at when we created them. It's time for a new beginning, and this will only happen if we’re willing to look at the world in a different way.

If we neglect a child today, we should expect to see more prisons later. If we don’t provide for people’s needs today, we should expect a mental health crisis later. If we don’t preserve the blessings of democracy today, we should expect the threat of authoritarianism later.

What is now considered “politically qualified” for the presidency is simply the ability to do what the system does – in essence, to perpetuate itself. My qualification is not that I’m experienced at running that system, but that I’m best qualified to help transform it. Washington is filled with good political car mechanics, but the problem is that we are on the wrong road. As someone who has worked with thousands of individuals and groups – helping them not only to endure chaos but to transform it – I’ve had exactly the kinds of experiences one needs to have had in order to make sense of these times.

Some have already said of course, Well obviously she can’t win. Or Well that’s good; she’ll add to the conversation. But since the election of 2016 it’s odd for anyone to think they can know who can win the presidency. And I’m not putting myself through this again just to add to the conversation. I’m running for president to help bring an aberrational chapter of our history to a close, and to help bring forth a new beginning.

The Times has decided to cease publication of “Dilbert.” Cartoonist Scott Adams made racist comments in a YouTube livestream Feb. 22, offensive remarks that The Times rejects. Further, in the last nine months The Times has on four occasions printed a rerun of the comic when the new daily strip did not meet our standards. It will be discontinued effective Monday in most editions. But because Sunday Comics are printed in advance, “Dilbert” will last appear in the March 12 paper. A replacement title will premiere soon. The Comics pages should be a place where our readers can engage with societal issues, reflect on the human condition, and enjoy a few laughs. We intend to maintain that tradition in a way that is welcoming to all readers.

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2023-02-25/los-angeles-times-ceases-publication-of-dilbert

Conspiracy theories aren’t a new thing, and for as long as they’ve been around they’ve ranged from the benign to the absurd. From the six moon landings being faked to the Earth being flat, to our ruling class being lizards, we’ve all probably come across them in one form or another.

Yet, in a surprise twist, the hottest conspiracy theory of 2023 comes from an unlikely corner: town planning. This relates to the idea of “the 15-minute city” and has even gone so far as to be mentioned in UK parliament by an MP who called the idea “an international socialist concept” that will “cost us our personal freedom.”

As town planning academics who have published research on 15-minute cities, we know this is nonsense. But what actually is the 15-minute city? And what’s the fuss about?

The 15-minute city itself is a simple idea. If you live in one, it means that everything you need to go about your daily life—school, doctors, shops, and so on—is located no more than a 15-minute walk from your house.

The concept, which originated from the French-Colombian urbanist Carlos Moreno, is the current zeitgeist in planning, and calls for city design that is centered on people and their needs rather than being designed for cars. It gained international attention when the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, announced her intention to make Paris a 15-minute city following her reelection in 2020, with the plan to enhance neighborhoods across Paris while ensuring connections between them. The idea flourished in the wake of COVID, when lockdowns and working from home had more of us ditching the car and recognizing the need for well-served local neighborhoods.

Yet this connection to how our towns and cities are changing in the wake of COVID-19 is also probably the reason that 15-minute cities are now a hot topic in the conspiracy world. Among other things, the charge sheet against 15-minute cities is that they are a “socialist,” or even “Stalinist,” attempt to control the population by actively preventing citizens from straying more than 15 minutes from their homes.