A blog opinion piece which outlines DeSantis' authoritarian streak... Ron DeSantis Sends an Authoritarian Message: Submit To Me Or Else Making an example of Disney, Sports Teams, and the Special Olympics https://lucid.substack.com/p/ron-desantis-sends-an-authoritarian
'Faintest praise ever': Conservative rates Ron DeSantis slightly less ‘authoritarian’ than Donald Trump If Ron DeSantis is Actually Less Dangerous Than Trump, Maybe He Should Say So He supported Stop the Steal. Why assume he wouldn’t follow in Trump’s anti-democratic footsteps? https://www.thebulwark.com/if-ron-d...-dangerous-than-trump-maybe-he-should-say-so/ There’s a weird proxy debate happening right now in the pundit class regarding the hypothetical Trump vs. DeSantis death match, a contest that is looking more and more likely following the former guy’s reveal about his intentions during an interview with Olivia Nuzzi, published yesterday. The question at hand is whether Ron DeSantis would be less dangerous, less anti-democratic, and/or less authoritarian than Trump. On one side of this debate you have the Trump-skeptical conservatives, ranging from good faith Never Trumpers trying to navigate this question, to not-so-good-faith Trump apologists who have spent seven years kicking and subtweeting—but who always seem to find their way back into Trump’s ample embrace. They argue that Trump is clearly more dangerous than DeSantis; some demonstrate disdain over the notion that this is even a question. (In the case of the anti-anti-Trumpers it turns out that some of them are finally willing to admit that Trump was dangerous—but only as a way to own the libs by plumping for DeSantis.) On the other side you have the TDS-afflicted, the liberals, the people who don’t think it’s a great sign that King Ron is using the power of the state to force gay teachers back in the closet. They worry that DeSantis might be a more effective autocrat than Trump. Honestly, I think a reasonable case could be made for either view. You can peruse the various links above if you want to decide for yourself. As for me, gun to my head, I’d side with the people saying DeSantis would be less of an existential threat. To be clear—saying someone is less of an existential threat to democracy than Donald Trump might be the faintest praise ever uttered in American politics. It doesn’t carry with it any rejection of the many legitimate concerns that we small-“l” liberals have about a potential DeSantis administration. It merely acknowledges that Trump’s psychopathy is so extreme as to put him in a category all of his own. And as such, anything that keeps him from darkening the halls of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue again is almost certainly an improvement. But what has struck me about this debate is less the hypotheticals than what is missing from it: any acknowledgement from Ron DeSantis or his staff that they believe he would be less dangerous than Donald Trump. If it’s true that DeSantis is not a threat to our democracy, then why is this a proxy debate and not an explicit one? As recently as eighteen months ago it wouldn’t have seemed like too big of an ask for a politician to be on the record in their opposition to a president fomenting a violent coup attempt that aimed to overthrow the legitimate result of an American election. In fact throughout my entire [redacted] years on this earth, I don’t believe there was a single politician in either party who was silent on the matter of insurrection. And yet Ron DeSantis has never even stepped over this lowest of bars. He has condemned the “violence,” but offered nary a word about the rioters’ intent. Here’s a Newsweek roundup of what he has said on the record . . . which ain’t much. Worse, DeSantis actively stoked Trump’s attempt to overthrow the election by pushing the alternate slate of electors option which was then being promoted by the White House. Here he is on Fox suggesting that viewers donate to Trump’s preposterous Stop the Steal legal fund and telling residents of Pennsylvania and Michigan to “call your state representatives and your state senators. Under Article II of the Constitution, presidential electors are done by the legislators and the schemes they create . . .I would exhaust every option” [emphasis added]. Not great! In fact, DeSantis sounds much closer to Rudy Giuliani than Bill Barr! A year later, on the anniversary of the Jan. 6th insurrection, there was Ron DeSantis suggesting that, ackchyually, the FBI might have been behind the riot and then arguing that it wasn’t really that big of a deal. To this day DeSantis and his staff continue to cavort with convicted insurrectionists and at the same time that they court right-wing media members who have perpetuated the Big Lie narrative. To my knowledge there have never even been reports that DeSantis admonished Trump privately—you know, like one of those adults in the room trying to land the plane—in the days after a MAGA mob spilled blood on the Capitol. He hasn’t been featured in any of the books about “privately concerned” Republicans acknowledging—when they’re in a safe space—that they understand the truth. So the argument that DeSantis presents less of a threat to democracy rests on a very thin reed. We are being asked, without evidence from DeSantis himself, to trust that he won’t support the kind of anti-democratic insurrection that he encouraged last time. We have to just assume he “gets the joke.” Under this best-case, most-charitable, reading, we are asked to accept that DeSantis privately knows right from wrong, but that either (a) he is too weak and compromised to insist on it publicly; or (b) the Republican electorate is so far gone that they will not accept pro-democracy arguments from anyone and thus there should be no expectation that a candidate speak truth. Yikes. I mean . . . if we’re going to trust that DeSantis is better than Trump, couldn’t we at least get him to blink twice to signal that he’s against coups? Is that too much to ask? Apparently. ********************************************************* And even if DeSantis is on the side of the angels, what does it mean for the country if the reason he stays silent in the face of this unprecedented threat to our democracy is that he feels it is the only way he can win over pro-coup voters in the future? A hypothetical: Let’s say Ron DeSantis is the GOP nominee in 2024 and he loses a close race. This result is not accepted by the various Stop the Stealers who were swept into power by a 2022 red wave. For example, a hypothetical Pennsylvania Gov. Doug Mastriano sends an alternate slate of electors to a GOP-controlled Congress in 2024—which is exactly the plan DeSantis publicly endorsed on Laura Ingraham’s show in 2020. And let’s pretend that the voters DeSantis is cultivating demand that “he fights” for his rightful presidency. We are supposed to assume that in such a situation DeSantis will just . . . do the right thing? That tomorrow he’ll stand up to the same voters he’s too scared to tell the truth to today? And we are being told we must accept this by the very people who were wrong about Trump every step of the way and now condescendingly insist that anyone who is concerned about this potential scenario is deranged. Their view now seems to be that DeSantis must be supported because our whole democracy rests on trusting that when push comes to shove, Ron will be a very good boy, unlike Don. Even if you are inclined to buy this pitch, you’ve got to admit that the DeSantis crowd is asking us for a lot of faith on very little evidence. I’m not sure that they’ve earned it.
I think we all know how the dem script will work. It is not all that complicated. As long as it looks like Trump is the frontrunner, then they will argue that he is the most dangerous person on the planet. Then if/as DeSantis pulls ahead of Trump, the they/you will argue that DeSantis is even more dangerous than Trump. Surprize that? NOT. You clowns worry about both of them being authoritarian. Meanwhile, you hand the entire country over to Emperor Fauxci and never gave it a second thought. And you hand your kids over to the teacher's union.
DeSantis did every possible to prevent children from getting vaccinated -- while trying to claim that kids could simply go to their doctor and get the Covid vaccine. In his authoritarian paradise this has not turned out to be true. It is now weeks after the launch. Kids’ coronavirus vaccines are hard to find in Fla. Many blame DeSantis. The governor told parents they were ‘free to choose.’ But many say they’re struggling to find the shots. https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/07/17/pediatric-vaccines-florida-desantis-ladapo/ "Many are struggling to find places to vaccinate their children, and they blame DeSantis — noting he was the only governor to refuse to preorder the vaccines, andto prohibit county health departments from distributing or administering the shots. Waitlists at pediatrician offices stretch for weeks. Doctor’s offices that have managed to get doses are fielding calls from parents hundreds of miles away. Families debate road trips to neighboring states in the hope of finding shots for their kids."
Let's see what the Florida local papers have to say about the authoritarian DeSantis. Trump’s grip weakens, but that’s bad news for Florida https://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinio...0220719-jfbtjt423bhktbog62qgafkyai-story.html Ron DeSantis was Ron who? — a back-bencher in Congress with little hope of political stardom — when Donald Trump enthusiastically endorsed him more than four years ago. One Trump tweet changed Florida history. Now, as the ex-president sees DeSantis emerge as his biggest rival, Trump must have buyer’s remorse. You can practically hear the dishware breaking at Mar-a-Lago. The recent (and welcome news) that Trump’s grip is weakening with Republican voters also positions DeSantis as his strongest potential rival for the party’s 2024 presidential nomination. That’s bad news for the country. According to a New York Times/Siena College poll, nearly half of Republican primary voters don’t want Trump to run again. Florida’s governor was their second choice at 25%, the only rival with more than 10% support and the favorite among younger Republicans, those with college degrees and those who claimed to have voted for President Biden, not Trump. A University of New Hampshire poll found Trump and DeSantis statistically tied in that first-primary state. DeSantis continues to play coy, but his intentions are obvious. He’s raising money out in Utah this week. He recently hosted a select, very private gathering of other Republican governors in Fort Lauderdale, the sort of thing that would-be presidents do. Some in the national media tout DeSantis as a wholesome and intelligent alternative to Trump. Others are alarmed. No less dangerous “Just because DeSantis is smarter than Trump doesn’t mean that he is any less dangerous. In fact, he might be an even bigger threat for that very reason,” wrote columnist Max Boot in The Washington Post. That’s right. Anyone who admires DeSantis from afar should come to Florida with eyes wide open. After winning by just 32,463 votes, he has governed with total contempt toward the 4 million people who didn’t vote for him. He’s as authoritarian as Trump, just as disdainful of democracy, no less polarizing and openly hostile to scientific evidence that doesn’t conform to his narrow agenda. Although DeSantis didn’t endorse Trump’s Big Lie of a stolen election, he is not willing to refute it and he still won’t say whether Biden was fairly elected. He has scorned the House committee’s brilliant investigation into Trump’s attempted coup. Bully in the mansion DeSantis is a bully. No Florida governor has been as ruthless or effective in dominating his state, owning the legislature and trampling dissent. The governor who boasts of empowering parents mocked school kids in his presence for wearing masks to protect themselves against the coronavirus, as their parents had told them. Calibrating his political appeal to voters who put selfishness over social responsibility, DeSantis appointed a quack physician to run the health department. The quack refused to order vaccines for children under age 5 and intends to deny gender dysphoria treatment to young people who depend on Medicaid. DeSantis and his drones in the Legislature ruthlessly put down school boards and local governments that sought to save lives with masks, vaccines and social distancing requirements. It’s terrifying to contemplate DeSantis in the Oval Office when the next pandemic inevitably comes along. When Nazis picketed at Orlando, he was silent. Exploiting society’s vulnerability to cultural warfare, DeSantis has prohibited schools, colleges and even private businesses from dealing honestly with racism and its ugly history. His law labeled “don’t say gay” by critics openly caters to homophobia, chilling sex education in schools and putting students at risk of being outed to their parents. For Disney World’s mild opposition, DeSantis got the Legislature to repeal its taxing district, putting the company at risk and threatening to bankrupt two counties that might inherit Disney’s debts. He carried his culture warfare into the selection of public school textbooks. A new civics training course for teachers maintains that the Founders did not intend to separate church and state, which is grossly false. A ruthless gerrymander When the Legislature tried to honor the Fair Districts amendments to Florida’s Constitution, DeSantis demanded, and got, a ruthless Congressional gerrymander calculated to replace two Black Democrats with white Republicans. He signed a 15-week abortion ban that openly flouts Florida’s constitutional right to privacy, secure in the belief that a Supreme Court turned flagrantly reactionary by his appointees will be just as contemptuous of the Constitution. He has boasted of packing the appellate bench with fellow ideologues from the Federalist Society. He spends $120,000 a year of our tax dollars on a press secretary whose principal duty seems to be slandering his opponents. Anyone opposing his anti-gay bill, she said, was probably a “groomer” — a sexual predator. DeSantis notwithstanding, governors make credible presidential nominees because they have far more opportunities for hands-on accomplishments than do members of Congress. The present Republican Party has no shortage of qualified governors or ex-governors to nominate: Larry Hogan of Maryland, Charlie Baker of Massachusetts and Chris Christie of New Jersey all won election or re-election in blue states by governing from the center, not from the dark extremes. The party’s post-Trump future rightfully belongs to people like them — not to the intentionally divisive, polarizing and humorless DeSantis. Voters in America’s 49 other states, take note.
This is how Authoritarians do things... The Republican Party of Florida excluded numerous journalists from covering a fundraising dinner starring Gov. Ron DeSantis: 'This is not normal' https://www.businessinsider.com/maj...esantis-excludes-several-media-outlets-2022-7
Welcome to DeSSantis Country... Photos: Neo-Nazis gather outside Turning Point USA summit at Tampa Convention Center https://www.cltampa.com/tampa/photo...convention-center/Slideshow/13849084/13850162 The second day of Turning Point USA's Student Action Summit brought neo-Nazis to downtown's Tampa Convention Center. The extremist groups arrived after more than 100 protesters marched from Lykes Gaslight Square Park to the convention center to speak out against recent actions by the Supreme Court, especially the overturning of Roe V. Wade. Creative Loafing Tampa Bay photographer Dave Decker caught photos of the neo-Nazis waving swastika flags, along with flags that read "DeSantis Country." The group distributed flyers, one of which said "every single aspect of abortion is Jewish." The flyers say they were distributed by the Goyim Defense League, which the anti-defamation league describes as an extremist terrorist organization that was responsible for at least 74 anti-semitic propaganda incidents in 2021. Turning Point spokesperson Andrew Kolvet told CL that TPUSA had no idea who the Nazi groups were or why they turned up outside the convention. "They have nothing to do with TPUSA, our event, or our students. Our students took the mature route and vacated the space the Nazi flag holders were in. Once that happened, they left," Kolvet said, adding that TPUSA students also argued with the Nazis before disengaging. Florida has seen a rise in fascist activity in recent months. In Orlando, the Nazi group Atomwaffen assaulted civilians during a demonstration, and a neo-Nazi group made a bomb threat in Daytona Beach. Today's summit counter protestors, which included members of Women's Voices for Southwest Florida and Tampa Bay Community Action Committee, among others, called TPUSA fascist in its rhetoric, and urged the need to confront fascism anywhere it exists. The two groups clashed over the Roe V. Wade issue and more when the protestors marched to the Tampa Convention Center, where the TPUSA summit is being held. As the protest crowd approached, right wingers holding signs that read "Free the J6 Political Prisoners" shouted "keep moving commies!" as the protestors shouted "racist, sexist, anti-gay, Ron DeSantis go away!" When the protest crowd arrived in front of the convention center, the right wingers entered the crowd and began antagonizing protesters. One man dressed as Uncle Sam entered the crowd and attempted to put his hat over a woman's face and megaphone, thus striking her with his hat. Uncle Sam popped up again later when he pushed his way into the crowd, leading to a clash. Near the very end of a video from Women's Voices of SW Florida, Uncle Sam can be seen standing above a member of Tampa Bay Community Action Committee who had been pushed to the ground. Tampa Police let the Uncle Sam impersonator go and did not comment on why they released him. A right wing self-described "comedian" named Alex Stein also entered the crowd and called all of the protesters "baby killers" as he ripped signs out of women's hands and pushed his way into the crowd. He even posted video of him doing this on Twitter. TPD removed Stein from the crowd and one officer told him, "You can't be physically fighting people," but still refused to take action against him. When asked why TPD just let him go with little incident—even with several witnesses, victims, and video of him instigating—officer D.J. Rhodes noted that protestors were on the walkway. "Is it a crime for [him] to kinda walk down and kind of scoot by?" Rhodes asked before saying that the protesters were blocking the sidewalk. After demonstrating for about a half hour, the protesters marched back to Gaslight Park, and were trolled on the way back by white men with cameras. The trolls trailed off, and at the park, the protestors were able to give each other words of encouragement and support before the event ended. In a text message to CL, City of Tampa Spokesperson Adam Smith said, "The First Amendment applies to everyone. It's a sad time for our country when people from the darkest fringes of society feel comfortable openly expressing their vile hate, but it's understandable why many media outlets refuse to do their bidding by publicizing this garbage." But Sen. Janet Cruz—whose daughter is partner to Smith's boss, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor—struck a different tone and wrote that Tampa was founded on diversity and inclusion. "I’ll be dammed if Nazis and Proud Boys waltz through our City and spew such repulsive speech. Words have power and we will NOT accept this in our backyard. All of us must stand up and make clear that we reject this bigoted display," she wrote on Twitter. Actually addressing hate groups in some of Tampa's busiest entertainment districts is a change from recent inaction by the city. In May 2021, when Trump floatilla organizers flashed "white power" signs in an Ybor City Bar, Mayor Castor's office twice ignored requests for a comment beyond a generic "hate has no home here." Two months later, Smith similarly declined comment after Proud Boys marched through downtown Tampa flashing "white power" symbols. Turning Point USA's downtown Tampa summit continues this evening with Trump Jr. and his dad, Congressman Matt Gaetz, Rep. Anthony "Blackface" Sabatini and others. Mike Igel, Chairman of the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg, called the display of the Nazi and SS flags an "indefensible act of pure hatred." He called on everyone, regardless of political affiliation, to condemn the blatant anti semitism in the strongest possible terms. The convention wraps tomorrow with an agenda that includes a panel called "Queer Theory and the Post Truth Progressives," an appearance from Academy of the Holy Names alum and former Trump Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, plus others.
Is DeSantis targeting/firing/doxxing doctors that speak from expertise in favor of abortion procedures yet?
So after DeSantis stirs up all the fuss to promote his political career by sticking it to "woke" Disney -- Florida is merely going to quietly re-establish the RCID under a slightly different name after seeing the state has no other options. And after the lenders made it clear how deeply unhappy they are with the state of Florida and how they were going to stick it to the state. Florida’s Bond Chief Sees Disney District Being Re-Established https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...isney-district-being-re-established#xj4y7vzkg
that's some low rent Trumpy behavior from DeSantis et.al. "Let me make a mess out of NAFTA and rename it." "Let me jail toddlers and then say I stopped it" "Let me say Obama's a foreign Muslim and then say I finished the controversy around it"