Ron DeSatanist and the Florida Republicans

[LFC]

The DeSatanist / Florida state legislature stories are like a fire hose, and the pace is only increasing, so I'm creating one place to follow them.

First up, we have the defunding of all DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programs at all state universities. They won't be happy until the entire state school system consists of nothing but Hillsdales and Liberties.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday signed legislation to defund diversity, equity and inclusion programs at all state universities, which he called a “distraction from the core mission.”

“This is better viewed as standing for discrimination, exclusion and indoctrination, and that has no place in our public institutions,” DeSantis said at a news conference in Sarasota.

“If you want to do things like gender ideology, go to (the University of California) Berkeley,” DeSantis added. “There’s nothing wrong with that, per se, but for us with our tax dollars, we want to focus on the classical mission of what a university is supposed to be.”

Under the law, Florida state universities are barred from spending state or federal funds to promote, support or maintain any programs that “advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion, or promote or engage in political or social activism.”

“What this does is reorient our universities back to their traditional mission and part of that traditional mission is to treat people as individuals, not to try to divvy them up based on any type of superficial characteristics,” DeSantis said.

The law also demands that general education courses “may not distort significant historical events or include a curriculum that teaches identity politics” based on “theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States and were created to maintain social, political, and economic inequities.”

DeSantis signed the legislation at the liberal arts New College of Florida, where he has been steering a conservative takeover. Earlier this year, DeSantis replaced six members of the college’s board of trustees with conservative allies.

In addition, the law gives university presidents and boards of trustees more hiring power.

[LFC]

By all means, let's protect criminals who use guns. So much for "why are you worried if you didn't do anything wrong?" that they were all about before.

Just weeks ago, Ron DeSantis made it legal in Florida to conceal-carry a gun without a permit, training, or even a background check.

And on Friday, he signed a bill to prevent credit card companies from tracking the sale of firearms and ammunition. The bill stops companies from helping track suspicious weapons purchases—an increasing concern while the United States is flooded with random shootings and mass shootings essentially every few hours.

Instead, DeSantis in rapid succession has made it easier for potentially violent people to conceal-carry guns with abandon, while making it more difficult for law enforcement to proactively respond when those carriers may have nefarious intentions.

Companies found in violation of the bill will be fined up to $10,000.

Credit card companies had expressed willingness to adopt the gun-tracking practice, which pretty much involves ascribing a distinct four-digit “merchant category code” for sales at gun businesses. Such codes are already used to distinguish purchases from oft-frequented places like grocery stores, gas stations, and restaurants.

Consequently, while DeSantis claims the bill is a defense against big government, it really is just a stake he is laying on the issues of guns. If he was really so concerned about government overreach or mass data surveillance, he would ban the use of such codes outright. But the very limited purporting of principle is DeSantis’s entire brand. Also this week, he again escalated his war against Disney and its monorail, going not against universal corporate immunities or misdeeds but just Disney specifically—because he doesn’t like that it spoke out against his infamous and repressive “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

[LFC]

The legislature handed DeSatanist a big, fat, taxpayer funded war chest to defend against the onslaught of court cases as he continues to crush everything in Florida he disagrees with.

ov. Ron DeSantis has been fortified with millions of dollars in taxpayer money for legal fights stemming from his polarizing legislative agenda, with the scene now shifting from the Capitol to the courthouse.

Republican supermajorities in the House and Senate tucked an unprecedented almost $16 million into the state’s $117 billion budget for litigation costs to defend policies DeSantis just advanced or to cover battles already underway, like his yearlong clash with the Walt Disney Company.

The state’s largest teachers union, the Florida Education Association, filed the first lawsuit from the recently completed 2023 legislative session Wednesday, a day after DeSantis signed into law a bill imposing new restrictions on public employee labor unions, mostly targeting those allied with Democrats.

FEA and other unions claim in their federal lawsuit that the governor is violating their free speech, among other constitutional rights.

“He’s using taxpayer dollars to fund the legal defense of his poor choices,” said House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell of Tampa. “It’s just waste.”

[LFC]

They're still clawing at Disney. Anybody who doesn't think this is fascism in all its glory needs a history lesson. Actually they need a LOT of history lessons.

The puppet board appointed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in his ongoing war with Disney has now made, perhaps, their pettiest move yet: threatening to impose code enforcement fines on Disney subject to foreclosure, meaning they could theoretically be used to seize Disney’s property.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, DeSantis’ board has “created a code enforcement system that could issue fines to Walt Disney World, which is known for meticulous care of its grounds,” which would include imposing fines for code violations of up to $500 per day, all determined by a group of newly-appointed code enforcement officers, who would answer to the new administrator the board had selected (along with a substantial pay increase). The new program “would also authorize foreclosures on any liens.”

[Bact PhD]

Unfortunately, I get to call this “my local newspaper.” When I’ve had the opportunity to look at it lately, it’s really too damn depressing. As you all are probably coming to realize, the Legislature is ALL IN with these antics—in truth, a number of these legislators are ecstatic (will refrain from crude metaphors) that they finally have “their man” to sign their pet legislation.

I’m not sure what the way out is, or if there even is one…

[goldenvalley]

May 15, 2023 20:22:14 GMT LFC said:

By all means, let's protect criminals who use guns. So much for "why are you worried if you didn't do anything wrong?" that they were all about before.

Just weeks ago, Ron DeSantis made it legal in Florida to conceal-carry a gun without a permit, training, or even a background check.

And on Friday, he signed a bill to prevent credit card companies from tracking the sale of firearms and ammunition. The bill stops companies from helping track suspicious weapons purchases—an increasing concern while the United States is flooded with random shootings and mass shootings essentially every few hours.

Instead, DeSantis in rapid succession has made it easier for potentially violent people to conceal-carry guns with abandon, while making it more difficult for law enforcement to proactively respond when those carriers may have nefarious intentions.

Companies found in violation of the bill will be fined up to $10,000.

Credit card companies had expressed willingness to adopt the gun-tracking practice, which pretty much involves ascribing a distinct four-digit “merchant category code” for sales at gun businesses. Such codes are already used to distinguish purchases from oft-frequented places like grocery stores, gas stations, and restaurants.

Consequently, while DeSantis claims the bill is a defense against big government, it really is just a stake he is laying on the issues of guns. If he was really so concerned about government overreach or mass data surveillance, he would ban the use of such codes outright. But the very limited purporting of principle is DeSantis’s entire brand. Also this week, he again escalated his war against Disney and its monorail, going not against universal corporate immunities or misdeeds but just Disney specifically—because he doesn’t like that it spoke out against his infamous and repressive “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

Because any idiot who can buy or steal a firearm should be able to do so...

[LFC]

Strap in. Floriduh is bubbling over with crazy and fascism. First we have a couple of stories about edumication in the state.

FL Students Raise $100K For Private Graduation Event After Anti-Vaxxer Is Named Commencement Speaker

Organizers of the New College of Florida graduating Class of 2023 student-led “Commencement On Our Terms” have announced civil rights leader and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights Maya Wiley as the keynote speaker at the alternative graduation event on Thursday, May 18. New College graduating seniors and Nova Alliance alumni will host Wiley during the private graduation ceremony offered to this year’s New College graduates.

Dr. Scott Atlas will be the commencement speaker for the regular graduation ceremony on Friday at the Ringling Mansion. Atlas, a radiologist, is the Robert Wesson Senior Fellow in health policy at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. He was a controversial figure in former President Donald Trump’s administration, serving as a special White House advisor during the COVID-19 pandemic. His views often contradicted the prevailing medical advice on how to combat COVID.

How does Richard Corcoran’s New College of Florida salary compare to other school leaders?

Officials this week are expected to officially name former education commissioner Richard Corcoran the interim president at New College of Florida, with a contract that will put him near the top of the pay scale among his peers at other schools.

The Sarasota school’s new board of trustees last week approved a bump of about $400,000 for Corcoran to take the interim job, and the state Board of Governors is poised to ratify the terms at its meeting on Wednesday.

Corcoran, 57, stands to earn a base salary of $699,000 per year as president of the small liberal arts college that has been at the center of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ plans to change higher education.

That number will make New College an outlier among Florida’s 12 public universities when it comes presidents’ pay, especially given the school’s small size. It’s also more than double the $276,000 salary Corcoran made in 2018 when DeSantis picked him to serve as education commissioner, overseeing 67 school districts with more than 2.8 million students.

[LFC]

This is what happens when you don't think things through.

Ron DeSantis’s immigration law is already leading to worker shortages

Dozens of videos on social media show empty construction sites and farms even before a new law goes into effect.

The videos from Florida aren’t hard to find: Dozens of clips of empty fields, abandoned construction sites, and scores of truck drivers calling for boycotts of the state have racked up hundreds of thousands of views on TikTok and Twitter over the last month. The common thread? Fear and frustration over the state’s newest anti-immigrant law, signed a week ago by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, which mandates that businesses with 25 or more employees verify the citizenship status of workers through the federal online portal E-Verify or face stronger penalties, among other new restrictions.

[LFC]

Once again, the cruelty is the point.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a horrifying bill Wednesday that will let the state take transgender minors away from their families if they are receiving gender-affirming care.

The new law will allow the state to take custody of a child if they have been “subjected to or [are] threatened with being subjected to” gender-affirming care, which includes puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy. Florida courts could modify custody agreements from a different state if the minor is likely to receive gender-affirming care in that second state. The text refers to gender-affirming care as “sex-reassignment prescriptions or procedures” and qualifies this care as a form of “physical harm.”

Medical facilities would have to give the state Department of Health a signed attestation that they neither provide gender-affirming care to any patients under the age of 18 nor refer people to providers that do. Their medical license renewal is contingent upon sending in this attestation.

But the bill also targets trans adults: Only physicians are allowed to offer gender-affirming care (not nurse practitioners). Anyone who violates the law could be charged with a misdemeanor.

Minors who have already begun transitioning will be allowed to continue to do so, but they are no longer allowed to receive care via telehealth, including for prescriptions. Their doctors have to tell them about the “risks” of gender-affirming care, and patients will have to sign an informed consent form, which the ACLU has pointed out often contains misinformation. Doctors who violate any of these new rules could be charged with a felony.

[LFC]

DeStainist just cost the state a $1B investment and 2,000 jobs. How? He made it abundantly clear that he's a fascist who will continue to use the power of the state government to target Disney for their crime up bein' uppity.

During the post-lockdown wave back to the office, the Walt Disney Company planned on relocating employees from its theme parks and experiences Imagineering division in Southern California to a new campus in Lake Nona, Florida. Those plans are now canceled, as reported by the New York Times, with Disney effectively striking a blow back against Governor Ron DeSantis by not bringing more jobs and construction dollars to Florida.

Let’s take it back to the initial plans for the move, set in motion during the rocky tenure of former CEO Bob Chapek. Disney employees cited concerns with the growing threat against LQBTIA+ families as Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” legislation was being put in place. The company’s initial reluctance to take a stand was not well-received, and neither was the expectation that 1,000 employees and their families would relocate somewhere that could potentially endanger loved ones.

About 200 employees and families have since made the move to Florida; as the Times reports, Disney Parks chair Josh D’Amaro sent an email to employees saying the company will explore “the possibility of moving you back.” He also explained the Lake Nona plans are being terminated due to “changing business conditions.” Originally, the move was meant to cultivate Disney’s relationship with Florida through the construction of a $1 billion office complex, which would have brought 2,000 jobs to the region—before DeSantis decided against the best interest of his state’s economy and people.

[pnwguy]

May 16, 2023 0:55:17 GMT goldenvalley said:

Because any idiot who can buy or steal a firearm should be able to do so...

That's not enough.  What about idiots that don't make enough money to buy their AR-15, which God(R) and his Divine 2nd Amendment guarantees?  Florida needs to provide gun vouchers!  How can rural righteous white folk living in their trailers afford The Rod Of God, when all these Woke businesses are giving raises and job preferences to gay rapist immigrants swimming onto the shores of Florida from Haiti and Mexico?  

[LFC]

This will give you an idea of how insane the Christo-fascist book bannings actually are.

On March 8, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) conducted a press conference in which he purported to debunk the "book ban hoax." During the event, DeSantis claimed that Florida schools, under his leadership, were not banning educational materials. Rather, they were simply removing "pornography" from school libraries and classrooms. DeSantis claimed the notion that Florida was involved in book banning was "a nasty hoax because it’s a hoax in service of trying to pollute and sexualize our children."

"Removing clear instances of pornography and sexually explicit materials, often within arms reach of our youngest kids, is not book banning," Florida Department of Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, Jr. added.

But new records, obtained by Popular Information, shows the reality is starkly different. Few of the books removed from Florida school libraries were deemed pornographic or sexually explicit. And many books that did receive that label do not meet the definition of pornography — or anything close — under state or federal law.

DeSantis touted data collected by the Florida Department of Education from a survey of 23 school districts that removed books from their libraries. He claimed that "of the 175 books removed across the state…153 (87%) were identified as pornographic, violent, or inappropriate for their grade level."

DeSantis stressed that teachers who distribute pornographic materials to students could and should be prosecuted for a felony:

In terms of the pornographic material. There were reports saying, oh, teachers are so worried, you know, they may end up being charged with third degree felony for having books in their classroom… longstanding Florida law says that it's unlawful for adults to provide pornography for minors. Does anybody disagree with that?... I don't think it's ever been appropriate in the history of Florida for adults to be providing pornography to minors.

Notably, DeSantis did not release the full results of the survey. Florida Freedom to Read, an activist group seeking to combat censorship in Florida schools, obtained the full results of the survey through a public information request. The full results of the survey reveal that DeSantis' remarks in March were wildly misleading.

Look at the first book they cover, called "Houses and Homes." There's one image of a little child in Africa with their butt showing. Apparently that's a pornographic image. I think we need to start digging through these people's social media to see just how much child pornography they've been trafficking with photos of children and grandchildren.

[LFC]

Nothing to see here. If you're going to be a fascist, you need to hide your personal spending of public dollars.

The governor said it wasn’t his bill, but he was plainly happy to sign it. Not long after a few strokes of his pen, he flew off into a new darkness.

The news media promptly found Ron DeSantis in Iowa, where he was campaigning full-tilt for the Republican presidential nomination, having yet to actually announce that he wants it.

He left behind in Tallahassee a new law that draws an iron curtain of secrecy over where he and certain other state officials travel and who they might be seeing on their trips and at home.

CS/SB 1616, enacted by the ruling Republican supermajority in the Legislature, forbids the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and other police agencies from releasing any records pertaining to those officials’ travels or security arrangements. DeSantis is the most conspicuous beneficiary.

Those documents have been the public’s go-to resource when governors have failed to post their travel itineraries and visitor logs. DeSantis is the most secretive governor yet.

The new law also shields, at their request, the comings and goings of the lieutenant governor, elected members of the Cabinet, the chief justice and the House Speaker and Senate President. It extends to anyone else they may designate. The entire bill is retroactive in its application.

So if the public wants to know, for example, who may have provided private corporate air travel to Florida’s public officials, it will be harder than ever to answer that question. The failure to report such freebies would break other laws, of course, but there is now one fewer way to expose potential violations of law

The travel secrecy bill, enacted on the fraudulent premise that to disclose where people have been would endanger their future security, is just the worst of the 18 new exemptions from the public records and open meeting laws enacted during the 2023 legislative session. That is the most since the 2014 session, when there were 22. The Legislature also renewed nine other exemptions, an action required under the Open Government Sunset Review Act.

The Constitution emphasizes the importance of Government in the Sunshine by requiring a two-thirds vote in each legislative house to enact or renew an exemption. But virtually all of the proposed exemptions pass unanimously or nearly so to oblige politicians and bureaucrats who dread sunlight like fictional vampires fear the dawn.

[LFC]

DeStalinist welcomes corrupt, violent psychopaths into his police force. Hell, he's trolling for the worst of the worst plus he's paying extra for them!

In July 2021, the son of a high-ranking New York Police Department (NYPD) deputy allegedly plowed his car into Black Lives Matter protesters in New York City, injuring a teen. The protesters were calling for the firing of a cop who hurled homophobic slurs at a suspect while beating him.

A year later, Justin Burgos, arrested and charged with reckless endangerment that night, was hired by the Apopka Police Department outside Orlando, Florida

In addition to the job, Burgos got a bonus: $6,693.44, a check for coming aboard, offered by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) to recruit cops to the Sunshine State, where they could work in a state where mantras like “defund the police” weren’t being chanted by protesters.

Burgos isn’t the only officer to take the money. In response to a Daily Dot FOIA, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity provided a list of the over 1,700 officers who received nearly $9 million.

The issues with officers don’t stop with Burgos either.

In response to DeSantis’ call, the Daily Dot found officers who since joining Florida police departments have been arrested for kidnapping and murder and officers who, before they moved to the Sunshine State, had numerous complaints against them, ranging from excessive force to false imprisonment to sexual extortion.

Josh Bogwandas was hired by the Miramar Police Department in December of 2022. He too received the same $6,693.44 check.

Six months later, police came to his door, a woman calling 911 after escaping from his alleged abuse. According to reports, he choked her and pulled her by her hair, chasing her after she escaped the house and dragging her back in. The victim, who wasn’t named, suffered “several bumps, marks, scratches, and cuts, including on her forehead, lip, right arm, and neck,” reported Mirimar News 10

Bogwandas was charged with domestic battery and kidnapping and the charges are still pending.

The Miramar Police Department cut ties with him after.

Chloe Davidson joined the Escambia County Sheriff’s Department on August 5, 2022. Five months later, Santa Rosa County Police came to her door, after responding to a domestic disturbance.

Her husband had been shot dead, and Davidson was booked on felony murder charges after police found no evidence she acted in self-defense.

She, too, received a nearly $7,000 check from DeSantis. The charges against her are still pending.

The money is part of HB 3, legislation designed to improve policing in Florida. DeSantis dubbed it the “strongest law enforcement recruitment and support initiative in the nation.” It provides funds for officer pay raises and training programs, and features a signing bonus for new members of Florida’s police departments.

DeSantis claims this policy is taking a stand for neglected officers across the nation.

[pnwguy]

May 24, 2023 16:44:31 GMT LFC said:

DeStalinist welcomes corrupt, violent psychopaths into his police force. Hell, he's trolling for the worst of the worst plus he's paying extra for them!

In July 2021, the son of a high-ranking New York Police Department (NYPD) deputy allegedly plowed his car into Black Lives Matter protesters in New York City, injuring a teen. The protesters were calling for the firing of a cop who hurled homophobic slurs at a suspect while beating him.

A year later, Justin Burgos, arrested and charged with reckless endangerment that night, was hired by the Apopka Police Department outside Orlando, Florida

In addition to the job, Burgos got a bonus: $6,693.44, a check for coming aboard, offered by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) to recruit cops to the Sunshine State, where they could work in a state where mantras like “defund the police” weren’t being chanted by protesters.

Burgos isn’t the only officer to take the money. In response to a Daily Dot FOIA, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity provided a list of the over 1,700 officers who received nearly $9 million.

The issues with officers don’t stop with Burgos either.

In response to DeSantis’ call, the Daily Dot found officers who since joining Florida police departments have been arrested for kidnapping and murder and officers who, before they moved to the Sunshine State, had numerous complaints against them, ranging from excessive force to false imprisonment to sexual extortion.

Josh Bogwandas was hired by the Miramar Police Department in December of 2022. He too received the same $6,693.44 check.

Six months later, police came to his door, a woman calling 911 after escaping from his alleged abuse. According to reports, he choked her and pulled her by her hair, chasing her after she escaped the house and dragging her back in. The victim, who wasn’t named, suffered “several bumps, marks, scratches, and cuts, including on her forehead, lip, right arm, and neck,” reported Mirimar News 10

Bogwandas was charged with domestic battery and kidnapping and the charges are still pending.

The Miramar Police Department cut ties with him after.

Chloe Davidson joined the Escambia County Sheriff’s Department on August 5, 2022. Five months later, Santa Rosa County Police came to her door, after responding to a domestic disturbance.

Her husband had been shot dead, and Davidson was booked on felony murder charges after police found no evidence she acted in self-defense.

She, too, received a nearly $7,000 check from DeSantis. The charges against her are still pending.

The money is part of HB 3, legislation designed to improve policing in Florida. DeSantis dubbed it the “strongest law enforcement recruitment and support initiative in the nation.” It provides funds for officer pay raises and training programs, and features a signing bonus for new members of Florida’s police departments.

DeSantis claims this policy is taking a stand for neglected officers across the nation.

To become a great fascist, DeSatanist perhaps has been rewatching different WW2 movies.  Maybe he got the idea from The Dirty Dozen and wants his own Project Amnesty.  These new recruits can parachute down on Wokeness!

[AnBr]

[LFC]

From a few months back, DeSatanist hired a far right speech-writer who praised white supremacist and misogynist Nick Fuentes. Like Trump he's hiring white nationalists. Welcome to the new KKK.

This week the writer, Nate Hochman, revealed himself in the very online way one might expect of a Gen Z wannabe power staffer—by updating his Twitter bio:

Earlier this month, it was reported that Hochman had gone to work for the Republican Party of Florida; his updated bio indicates that he won’t be just on the comms team, but will be crafting the words that come out of the governor’s mouth. (I reached out to DeSantis’s office for comment on the hire but have not heard back by the time of publication.)

Hochman, a conservative writer who has earned more ink by the age of 25 than anyone this side of Justin Bieber, has garnered a reputation as a young MAGA whisperer. The New Republic tagged him as one of “the radical young intellectuals who want to take over the American right.” He’s written for the Dispatch, National Review (where he was on staff), the Claremont Institute’s American Mind (where he interned), and more. Heck, even the Gray Lady turned to Hochman for a think piece about the secular culture war.

But like every MAGA intellectual (or “intellectual”) before him, Hochman, has found it necessary to cozy up to the movement’s gutter-dwelling racists in order to climb the ladder of influence.

As first reported by the Dispatch last year, Hochman participated in a Twitter Space with white nationalist virgin Nick Fuentes—and lavishly praised him. “We were just talking about your influence and we were saying, like, you’ve gotten a lot of kids ‘based’ and we respect that for sure,” Hochman said. “I literally said, I think Nick’s probably a better influence than Ben Shapiro on young men who might otherwise be conservative.”

He went on to discuss the merits and demerits of one of America’s most vile humans, saying the fact that he has said “super edgy things means that there’s a pretty strong ceiling to what you can actually accomplish in politics.”

“Edgy” is definitely one way to describe Holocaust denial!

When the Dispatch asked him about his Fuentes remarks, Hochman acknowledged that he said some “really stupid things, which I don’t actually believe”—but did not apologize.

Oh! A version of the "I was only joking" defense. How original.

[AnBr]

[LFC]

OK, there's something even more fundamentally wrong with this asshat than even I believed. He and his campaign refuse to even answer how his name is pronounced, after he apparently has pronounced it both dee-santis and deh-santis. Seriously, how did the pronunciation of one's own name become an issue? And Trump, of course, is jumping all over it.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' campaign team is bizarrely refusing to confirm the correct pronunciation of the presidential contender's last name.

The conservative candidate has gone back and forth on the pronunciation of his name for years, switching between "Dee-Santis" and "Deh-Santis," Axios reports.

In his first week as a candidate, the Florida governor used "Dee-Santis" in his presidential campaign announcement video and a radio interview he did in South Carolina urging listeners to visit his website. But last week, he pronounced his name "Deh-Santis" during press appearances with Fox News, Glenn Beck, Erick Erickson, and Mark Levin. His wife, campaign and the independent super PAC backing him also all use the latter pronunciation.

When questioned about the proper way to pronounce DeSantis, the governor's campaign did not answer, and the super PAC refused to say.

"It is odd, I have to say, that the DeSantis campaign won't confirm one way or another, how to say his name," MSNBC host Willie Geist said during Thursday's edition of "Morning Joe."

"We're happy to say it however it's meant to be said, but we've heard so many different versions of it, and it goes back and forth from one event to another," he continued, emphasizing that he is "genuinely not quite sure how to say the governor's name."

Here is going full metal smarmy and looking profoundly unserious as he does it.

[pnwguy]

Jun 2, 2023 18:29:37 GMT LFC said:

OK, there's something even more fundamentally wrong with this asshat than even I believed. He and his campaign refuse to even answer how his name is pronounced, after he apparently has pronounced it both dee-santis and deh-santis. Seriously, how did the pronunciation of one's own name become an issue? And Trump, of course, is jumping all over it.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' campaign team is bizarrely refusing to confirm the correct pronunciation of the presidential contender's last name.

The conservative candidate has gone back and forth on the pronunciation of his name for years, switching between "Dee-Santis" and "Deh-Santis," Axios reports.

In his first week as a candidate, the Florida governor used "Dee-Santis" in his presidential campaign announcement video and a radio interview he did in South Carolina urging listeners to visit his website. But last week, he pronounced his name "Deh-Santis" during press appearances with Fox News, Glenn Beck, Erick Erickson, and Mark Levin. His wife, campaign and the independent super PAC backing him also all use the latter pronunciation.

When questioned about the proper way to pronounce DeSantis, the governor's campaign did not answer, and the super PAC refused to say.

"It is odd, I have to say, that the DeSantis campaign won't confirm one way or another, how to say his name," MSNBC host Willie Geist said during Thursday's edition of "Morning Joe."

"We're happy to say it however it's meant to be said, but we've heard so many different versions of it, and it goes back and forth from one event to another," he continued, emphasizing that he is "genuinely not quite sure how to say the governor's name."

Here is going full metal smarmy and looking profoundly unserious as he does it.

Did he misspell and mispronounce Whiner? 

[LFC]

Waddya' know. These asshats admitted they and the rest of the Republican clowns f***ed up, expressed regret, and admitted that they passed a bill for nothing more than political gain and intimidation.

Florida Republicans passed a bill criminalizing the transport of undocumented people into Florida, requiring hospitals to ask about immigration status on intake forms, invalidating out of state driver’s licenses or other forms of government ID issued to undocumented people, and preventing local governments from issuing identification cards to undocumented people.

Now, after sparking backlash among thousands of immigrants (who make up a great deal of Florida’s economy), some Florida Republicans are trying to backpedal and do damage control.

On Monday, Representatives Alina Garcia, Rick Roth, and Juan Fernandez Barquin appeared at an event sponsored by Hialeah Mayor Esteban Bovo, also a Republican. The trio, all of whom voted to pass the anti-immigrant bill, clumsily attempted to appeal to the thousands of people their party has alienated.

“This bill is 100 percent supposed to scare you,” said Roth. “I’m a farmer, and the farmers are mad as hell. We are losing employees. They’re already starting to move to Georgia and other states. It’s urgent that you talk to all your people and convince them that you have resources, state representatives, and other people that can explain the bill to you,” he added, essentially begging Florida’s labor force to not leave the state that cares little for them.

“This is more of a political bill than it is policy. It does give more police state powers going forward to deal with immigration, but still this is mainly a political bill,” Roth concluded incoherently. It’s just politics and messaging, but also it ramps up the police state, but also it’s just all politics. OK.

“We had the best president in my life, the last 30 years, and I’m still supporting Donald Trump,” Roth continued. “I love my governor. He’s the greatest governor,” he said of Ron DeSantis, who led the charge to pass a bill stigmatizing and targeting the some 772,000 undocumented workers, students, and community members in Florida.

“I really didn’t prepare anything,” Garcia said while beginning her remarks, adding that she agreed with everything Roth said. “This is a bill basically to scare people from coming to the state of Florida, and I think it’s done its purpose.”

[Bact PhD]

(bold mine)

“This is more of a political bill than it is policy. It does give more police state powers going forward to deal with immigration, but still this is mainly a political bill,” Roth concluded incoherently. It’s just politics and messaging, but also it ramps up the police state, but also it’s just all politics. OK.

Suuuure. It’ll all be “just politics” when the SWAT team bursts in…

[jackd]

Apparently when the SWAT team breaks in, the suspects will be in Georgia.

[LFC]

WTF, Ron?

DeSantis, whose presidential campaign is going great right now, decided to take a break from harming children and marginalized communities to do something nasty to his own base of right-wing Republican white women. He signed a measure that bans permanent alimony and rewrites the formula for other kinds of alimony. Only existing non-modifiable agreements are not subject to the new terms. If they are modifiable, as many are, that means a flood of cases in Florida are about to be reopened and will overwhelmingly harm Florida women.

'This is a death sentence for me': Florida Republican women say they will switch parties after DeSantis approves alimony law.

“He (DeSantis) has just impoverished all the older women of Florida, and I know at least 3,000 women across the state of Florida are switching to Democrat and we will campaign against him, all the way, forever,” Camille Fiveash, a Milton Republican who receives permanent alimony, said in a phone interview Friday.

Fiveash, a 63-year-old with serious medical conditions, said she can’t afford another legal fight over alimony.

The law also includes a provision that would make it more difficult for judges to award alimony payments that exceed 25% of the payer’s gross monthly income.

Jan Killilea is the founder of the “First Wives Advocacy Group” whose members mostly receive permanent alimony. She had praise for DeSantis when he vetoed a similar measure last year. But as you may recall, last year was an election year. DeSantis doesn’t care anymore.

[LFC]

DeSatanist built this. Or more like he's in the process of destroying it.

The Florida Phoenix reports:

Noting the “escalating waves of hostile actions and legislation coming out of Florida,” the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) is ditching its scheduled annual conference at the Hyatt Regency Miami later this year and instead will hold it in Chicago.

The Orlando Sentinel reports:

Black engineers and “Game of Thrones” fans are the latest groups canceling Orlando events and attributing their decisions to Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida’s political climate. The Con of Thrones, which typically draws 3,000 to 4,000 fans of the “Game of Thrones” books and television shows, also announced this week it was pulling the plug on a gathering planned for this Aug. 25-27 at the Hyatt Regency Orlando.

The National Society of Black Engineers’ 50th conference would have brought up to 15,000 visitors to the Orange County Convention Center in 2024 and generated millions of dollars in economic impact, the group’s CEO Janeen Uzzell said Friday.

The American Education Research Association, which typically draws up to 15,000 people to its conference, decided to hold its 2025 annual meeting in Denver instead of Orlando, said Tony Pals, a spokesman. Central Florida tourism officials say they are planning to launch a campaign to promote Orlando as a place that is open to everyone.