A formerly well-connected GOP donor convicted of giving teenage girls gifts, alcohol and money in exchange for sex was sentenced Wednesday to 21 years in prison on sex trafficking charges.

    • kescusay@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I don’t see it as actually working. The attempts to smear LGBTQ+ people as groomers only resonate with revolting bigots who want to believe that shit anyway. Everyone else seems to be recoiling from it in horror, especially the younger generations.

        • kescusay@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          What I was trying to get at is that the younger generations don’t seem to be as susceptible to it, but I see your point. We need to work our asses off to make the next election an overwhelming rejection of the hateful shitheads pushing this crap.

          • Hazdaz@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            the younger generation don’t seem to be as susceptible

            Hard disagree. I’d go so far as to say they are more susceptible, quite frankly. You might be surrounded by people who follow the news and track politics. Those type of people are NOT typical. At all. Like, at all at all.

            Plus there have been the stories in recent days of how a large number of young (teenagers) white males are joining right wing causes. That meam theyve been bamboozled.

        • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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          1 year ago

          The difference is that the Left would have to stoop to their level to be effective at this game. It’s the same reason I think we’re ineffective at pushing back on rightwing violence. Only a handful of us are willing to commit violence.

          While I support nazi-punchers, I myself do not punch nazis. I’d like to think I would, but I honestly wouldn’t unless I feared for my safety. And for those who do it to protect the safety of marginalized groups, I applaud.

      • stereofony@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Speak for yourself. As a trans person, I stopped using Instagram entirely because it got to a point where every top level comment, regardless of the subject matter, was a transphobic one (even ones not even REMOTELY related to LGBTQ+ issues).

        It was never like this before the recent GOP push in anti-queer rhetoric. It’s the worst it’s been in my life, tbh. Worse than when my peers used to casually call things “gay” as an insult. Because this time, the rhetoric is genocidal.

        • kescusay@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I didn’t mean to downplay the harm caused by the hateful garbage they’re spewing. My son is trans, and sees the same stuff you do on his Instagram.

          All I was trying to express is that as aggressive and awful as it is, I see a lot of hope in the fact that the younger generations seem to be disgusted by it, rather than susceptible to it.

          But I’ll defer to your personal experience on this, though I desperately hope the next election will be a resounding rebuke against the “groomer” shit.

      • Hazdaz@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I think I’ve seen that list and it only gets longer every year. And yet with all that information, the Left can’t come up with a good attack on these guys and taint their entire party as being a bunch of creeps.

        • EssentialCoffee@midwest.social
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          1 year ago

          Partly because the people supporting them are okay with this. Because it’s their people doing it and their people are going to hurt the right people.

          You can’t logic someone out of a position they didn’t logic themselves into.

    • Bone@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I think the Bill Clinton saga and guys like Anthony Weiner, to a much lesser degree, provided just enough ammo on this topic that the GOP was able to make a reverse argument. Not that it applies, the way they argue it. There’s still a messaging problem, however, as you’ve mentioned clearly.

      • Hazdaz@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The way Democrats handle some of these issues typically only makes things worse. Look at how they bungled the Al Franken issue and forced the poor guy to step down even though he was a great communicator for the party and was one of the few Democrats that was quick on his feet to go on the offensive (not surprising since he was a comedian). Not saying the party should simply brush things under the rug, but for fucks sakes they over do things because of political correctness bullshit.

    • PanaX
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      1 year ago

      Gaslight

      Obstruct

      Project

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 year ago

    What a creepy looking guy. Also, what a creepy attitude:

    “I take a lot of offense to the government and court’s notion that I perjured myself in this trial. … Grooming behavior is the word you used,” he said. “If that’s the case, then I suppose anyone who gives someone a gift, whether it be a cheap gift or a million dollars, is grooming their companion for sex. OK? If that’s the standard that we’re going to apply, then I don’t know how there’s any standard to apply.”

    No remorse.

  • Haus@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    But his arrest fueled outrage among party activists.

    TBF, the sun coming up in the morning fuels outrage among GOP activists.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    They likened Lazzaro to financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was arrested in 2019 on federal charges accusing him of paying underage girls for massages and then abusing them at his homes in Florida and New York.

    Lazzaro’s indictment in 2021 touched off a political firestorm that led to the downfall of Jennifer Carnahan as chair of the Republican Party of Minnesota.

    Prosecutors argued during his trial that Lazzaro enlisted Castro Medina, who he initially paid for sex, to recruit other teenagers — preferably minors — who were white, small, vulnerable or “broken.” He often sent cars to take the girls to his luxury penthouse condo at the Hotel Ivy in downtown Minneapolis, they said.

    Lazzaro also helped run the campaign of Republican Lacy Johnson, who failed to unseat Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, of Minnesota, in 2020.

    Several recipients quickly donated those contributions to charity after the charges became public, including U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer, of Minnesota, who received $15,600 but suffered no repercussions.

    The government put his net worth in a bond report at more than $2 million but said its calculations didn’t include his “extensive” but hard-to-trace cryptocurrency holdings.


    I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • TokenBoomer@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    My love for you is like a truck, Lazzaro

    Would you like some making f*ck, Lazzaro

    My love for you is like a rock, Lazzaro

      • Spendrill@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        And I shall go you one further, the fact that a lot of people think that prison rape is some kind of justice is directly linked to the poor recidivism stats we have. (I’m in the UK and would like to see more Nordic style rehabilitation type policies.)

      • havokdj@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Oh he sucks all right, you can ask BUBBA how much he sucks ;)

        In all honesty though, he would probably be killed before raped in prison. PREA is considered a worse violation than murder in today’s prisons.

  • Razputinsgirth@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    That doesn’t sound like the trafficking I think of. Anyone know the legal definition in this case? Still a pos of course but doesn’t sound like he’s like selling them as sex slaves… Just statutory prostitutes. In any case, fuck im