Made to look kind of like the civilian version of an m4 rifle but sized down so like toddlers can use them. Not toy guns, not like supersoakers, squirt guns, not bb guns, not cap guns, real guns that fire real bullets. You have heard of the ar15. Now meet the jr15, as in the junior ar15. The company that makes it is just super cute about the whole thing. They call themselves wewon, tactical. They the logos for the little girls and little boys version of this gun for babies. The logos were this little kids Skull And Bones pacifier with a cross bone and this one for girls. Because why should any kid have to wait until theyre done with the teething process before they can start carrying their own Assault Rifle . They advertise the jr15 as smaller, safer, lighter. They apparently recently did drop the pacifier logos and the scoobydoo cartoon font in some of their advertising. But its not like theyre no longer claiming this is an Assault Rifle for babies. I mean, they could change their marketing of it. They could say this is for a different purpose. They could have started to say theyre making this mini sized Assault Rifle for people with unusually short arms. Are you built like a t. Rex, have we got the Assault Rifle for you . Or they could market it for people with low upper body strength. Cant handle a gun that weighs more than two pounds . Find yourself unable to lift a carton of milk anymore . Dont worry, it doesnt mean you shouldnt have a Semiautomatic Rifle of your dreams. Its specifically designed for you, great great grandma. When they dropped the pacifier logo explicitly targeting the gun to the teething toddler market, that might have seemed like it was signaling that they were abandoning the whole idea of Assault Rifles for kids, but no, it turns out they just dropped the pacifier logos and the cartoon font but theyre making clear that it is not just for people with little tiny arms or not just for people with very poor upper body strength. Its still definitely for preschool. And the reason you can tell that its still their targeted market for this gun is because this is the image that pops up on the splash page at their website. Clear enough . Heres another view of the same target consumer, maybe shes, what, 5 . Think shes 5 . And if america is now marketing smaller, lighter, fully functional semiautomatic Assault Rifles for 5yearolds, i mean, whats next . Why would we stop there . If they really want to get the full market share, maybe they could do a littler one that babies can use in the crib. Maybe they could fire it with their feet or something. The junior ar15, the jr15 for toddlers is a real thing. For its part, the company who makes this kid gun says the reason its so great for kids is not only because it only weighs two pounds and is sized for little fingers and little arms and little hands, but theyre very hot to tell you it has Special Safety Features. The Special Safety Feature appears mostly to be just a second deliberately awkward safety knob on the other side of the gun from the regular safety. Because surely, kids wont be able to figure that one out on their own. The website snopes. Com, which debunks fake things, they had to do a snopes post not long ago assuring people this is not a projected plot line from the simpsons or a borat movie to dramatize how insane things can get in this country, no, this is a real thing. Is it designed for children . True, yes. Its in the news today because in the great state of illinois, where there is a Pugnacious Democratic governor named j. B. Pritzker, in illinois, theyre about to pass a new law that would ban gun marketing, Gun Advertising that specifically markets guns to kids. This is sort of a poster child kid Assault Rifle for that new law. Now, of course, theyre not banning the gun itself. Heaven for fend, we cannot do this in this country, but theyre at least trying to ban the advertising of these Assault Rifles for babies. California passed a law along the same lines last year. Now other blue states including illinois are following suit. Gun Rights Groups and their republican supporters are absolutely outraged. Theyre absolutely against any such move. Why on earth would you want to limit any sort of communication or marketing targeting children with this sort of thing . I mean, from their perspective, hey, what could possibly go wrong . To this day, people dont believe me when i tell them what it is that republicans did first the last time they got full control in washington. The last time they got control of both the white house and the congress. You remember when that was, right . That was the result of the 2016 election. And there was so much shock and consternation over what candidate donald trump had said he was going to do with the presidency and what he had campaigned on. There was so much shock and surprise over the election that the election outcome, particularly at the president ial level, but the election outcome was that republicans not only got the white house, they also got the house and senate. But amid all of the consternation and shock and the rapid change that portended, no one remembers what they actually did with that power once they got it. But its true, it is as real as the ar15 military style Assault Rifle sized down for preschoolers. The first substantive thing the new Republican Congress did in 2017 when they got full control in washington was the republicans passed legislation that would facilitate access to firearms for people who had been formally adjudicated to be mentally ill. Not just like people who seem a little off, but like people who were formally adjudicated by the government to be mentally ill and unable to handle their own affairs. The first thing republicans did with full power in washington was literally make it easier for officially crazy people to get guns. To this day, people still do not believe it, but look it up. It is true. And now, naturally, along that same plot line, now we have kidsized fully functional semiautomatic military style Assault Rifles that fire real bullets. California last year and illinois now are trying at the state level to at least block the marketing of those. But the guns exist. And gun groups and their republican supporters are very much opposed even to trying to regulate the advertising around this new product. I understand, i think i understand perhaps as well as anyone, im going to guess, that National LevelAmerican Politics is hurlyburly right now. But i am also here to tell you whats going on in the states in many cases, it is just as wild. And it doesnt get enough attention, i think, even when it directly illuminates or relates to or is the manifestation of whats going on at the National Level. So take the fully functional military style Assault Rifle for children example, for one, take also florida, for example, where the Florida Republican governor is not running a great president ial campaign, but he is trying, and hes so far doing better than any other republican at mounting some kind of showing against former President Donald Trump. The strongest wind in ron desantis sails in this republican primary, the strongest wind in his sails for the purpose of motivating the conservative Republican Base has been his claim that he would make america more like florida. Make America Florida again. Ron desantis pitch for the presidency has basically been at its most successful, that his leadership in florida is a success story. Hes been elect orally successful in florida. Hes won reelection by a lot there. If you put him in charge in washington, he would do the same thing for the whole country and he could put in place the kind of governance hes been able to pursue in florida because hes been so successful there. That has been the sort of best version of ron desantis pitch to be president of the United States. The problem is that part of the reality of whats actually going on in florida under ron desantis is leprosy. Now they have got leprosy. Not a metaphor, actual leprosy. Headlines, Central Florida is a hot spot for leprosy, report says. Headline, whats behind the increase in Leprosy Cases in florida. Headline, as Leprosy Cases rise in florida, what you must know about the infectious disease. So florida has a leprosy problem, florida also has a malaria problem. Headline, alert issued after locally acquired Malaria Cases confirmed in florida. Headline, malaria confirmed in florida. Mosquitoes after several human cases. Headline, Health Officials say florida Malaria Cases contacted and transmitted in sarasota which hasnt happened since the 1950s. So poor florida. Not good news, right . Leprosy and malaria both, a, in america, b, in the 21st century, and c, in the same state at the same time. Terrible news for florida. But particularly terrible news because its happening at a time when ron desantis is the governor of florida, because under ron desantis as governor of florida, Florida State government is missing its top two public Health Officials who would be responsible for containing outbreaks and dealing with emerging epidemics. Florida doesnt have anybody in those jobs anymore. Because who on earth would want to be a Public Health official working for governor ron desantis, whose whole make America Florida gambit is largely based more than anything else on him being a covid contrainian, who insisted covid wasnt a thing, and handpicked a Surgeon General for the state after the man came forward as a group of quacks who insisted some disease is caused by sex with demons and if we could just get a handle on that problem, then why would you need vaccines. Stop it with the demon sex, you perverts. Ron desantis is running for president in large part on the basis of his far sighted wisdom on covid in florida. His handpicked Surgeon General in florida came out and made it the official recommendation of the state of florida that young men definitely shouldnt be vaccinated against covid. Why . Because its so dangerous. He was later found to have falsified the data that supposedly justified that conclusion. He remains the Surgeon General of florida today. And why wouldnt he . Ron desantis loves him in that job. Dont worry, though, now that its leprosy and malaria in florida, im sure theyll do great with it. And ron desantis will then take that model to the whole country, gulp. Were also seeing some interesting stuff in the states even as it relates to the most hurlyburly thing in National Politics, which is the legal problems of the republican president ial frontrunner. Well have more on this coming up later on in the show, but even as former President Trump is charged federally for among other things allegedly overseeing a plot to sneak fake votes into the Electoral College count, the local republicans who signed up to be those fake electors in seven states, they are now facing an array of criminal investigations and in some cases charges themselves. In three states now, we have either overtconfirmation or clear indication that the fake republican electors are the subjects of open criminal investigations at the state level. Thats arizona, new mexico, and georgia. In one other state in wisconsin, the Attorney General there wont say either way whether theres an open criminal investigation. And still another state, in michigan, all 16 fake republican electors have been now charged with felonies under state law. I mean, depending on how things proceed in all of the other states, were looking at potentially dozens of local republican activists and minor officials, the trumpiest of all, right, people who absolutely devoted to donald trump, who could be looking at felony criminal charges for their part in the fake elector scheme that the Trump Campaign told them to carry out. There were 84 people who signed up to be fake electors. And just as its possible to look at donald trump as the 1,090th defendant to be charged in the january 6th investigation, as Jonathan Karl has been saying, we may also end seeing trump as the 85th person involved in the fake electors scheme to also face potential criminal liability for having jumped off that particularly illadvised legal high dive. Everybody else is going to have to face trial for this stuff, but hes not . I mean, the way these things are being charged at the federal level, it really looks like whats going to happen on the fake electors thing in terms of criminal charges is going to happen in the individual states, where republicans tried to steal the vote this way. There are open pending Law Enforcement decisions on this now in wisconsin, in arizona, in new mexico, in georgia, which means that part of the overthrow the Election Criminal Liability Saga is really worth watching, not just at the federal level, but in those individual states. So this is my pitch for watching whats happening in the states. Again, both as a reflection of and in some cases as the most sort of Peeked Manifestation of whats happening in National Politics. Of all the states, if youre picking a single one to keep an eye on as in tonight and tomorrow, the one to watch i think is ohio. And again, this is a fascinating story about ohio, but it is also national news. Because ever since the conservatives on the u. S. Supreme court Overturned Roe last year, last june, republicans all over the country have been tempering their glee over that long sought achievement, finally, now they can ban abortion. They have been tempering their glee over that with their worry over how much the country hates that. Because however much they, republicans, want to ban abortion, the country really broadly does not want that. And most worryingly for republicans, this is something americans are proving their willingness to commit to in the voting booth. And you can see it in the plain numbers. Since republicans got their wish and Overturned Roe, there have been six states in which theres been a statewide vote on Abortion Rights. Six of them. In all six, Abortion Rights have won by a lot. Its happened in swing states like michigan, its happened in liberal states like california and vermont, in conservative states like montana and kentucky and kansas. Every single state where theres been a statewide vote on Abortion Rights since they Overturned Roe, every time voters have voted, been able to vote on this issue, they have voted for Abortion Rights and against republican Abortion Bans. Over and over and over again in all the states that have voted on it. And that is about to happen again in the great state of ohio. This november, this upcoming november, ohio voters are set to vote on a statewide Ballot Initiative that would amend the State Constitution so it protects Abortion Rights. Now, republicans in the Ohio Legislature and the republican governor in ohio, they have instituted an all but total abortion ban in the state, and ohio voters dont like it. And ohio voters are very likely going to overturn, theyre going to vote to overturn ohios abortion ban when they go to vote on it in november. Everybody knows that. Ohio pro choice people know that, ohio pro life people know that. People voted against republican Abortion Bans in every state where anybody has voted on it since dobbs, including in states like kansas and kentucky. So its safe to say that voters are going to vote against republican Abortion Bans when they get the chance to do so in november in ohio. Unless unless Ohio Republicans can rig it somehow. Unless they can figure out a way to change the rules so ohio voters wont be allowed to do that. And that is why theres this big important vote tomorrow that is really worth watching. Tomorrow, weird day for an election, right . August 8th. But yeah, thats on purpose. Ohio republicans have put forward a single issue Ballot Measure that will raise the threshold for amending the State Constitution from what it has been for over a century, 50 , so instead it now has to be 60 . Its the only thing on the ballot tomorrow. Its the first time in nearly 100 years that a single issue