What's happening in DeSantistan 2.0

For me it was Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer in 6th grade. Dunno where I got it but I haven’t been the same since.

 

I was wrong. It’s really two people who determine what others can read in Florida, two demented people. Reported before, and updated

Of the roughly 1,100 complaints recorded in Florida since July 2022, more than 700 came from two counties — Escambia in the western Panhandle and Clay near Jacksonville. Together the two districts make up less than 3% of the state’s total public school enrollment.

About 600 of the complaints came from two people — a Clay County dad and a Pensacola high school teacher.

The data illustrates how a tiny minority of activists across the state can overwhelm school districts while shaping the national conversation over what books belong on school library shelves.

Florida schools got hundreds of book complaints — mostly from 2 people

 

"Roomer" from a "reliable" source - DeSantis dropping out to run against Rick Scott. FWIW

 

I don’t have the words for those type of people. I feel disturbed just thinking of them out there

 

And in positions of power.

 

And then there is this. In an effort to blunt the benefits of the Inflation Reduction Act, DeSantis is refusing in Florida to take the money for the clean energy incentives. Leaving Florida consumers worse off, the climate worse off, and eliminating the benefits to the economy. Horrible human being. DeSantis tells Biden: Keep your IRA money

 

Weird that DeSantis is calling it Biden's money, when it is really money taken from Florida taxpayers.

 

Don’t forget, not only did he refuse the money’ it only does he reject clean energy initiatives, he ran to the far, disproportionate extreme by handing our free TAX BREAKS to gas stove manufacturers BECAUSE the gas was not as clean as electrical, thus rewarding the gas manufacturers, punishing electrical manufacturers and causing a competitive imbalance in the marketplace because of the tax breaks.

Look at how he “wins.” Disgusting.

 

I just cannot get inside the head of those he is appealing to.

 

Ancient oak tree may not survive at guvnr mansion.

desi ...All good, more room for me and my kids to play baseball so it works for me.

 

At some point you would think this may actually piss off somebody that voted for him.

I mean how stupid can voters be. First turn down Medicaid expansion money and now this.

 

Pay $100K to play a round of golf with DeSantis and get a rate hike. Give him a $30K golf game and get an advantageously located interstate interchange near your housing development.

 

yeah, but he never backs down.

 

Yeah we pay more for health care and solar panels, but finally somebody is airing the upside of slavery!!

 

Jason Garcia tracks an amazing admission before the 11th Circuit by one of DeSantis attorneys. Not amazing in terms of revealing the true intent behind the STOP WOKE Act or how these people actually think. Only amazing in that what should be a very accomplished appellate advocate openly admitted to an obvious legal violation in response to a softball question from a sympathetic judge.


I think the fact that DeSantis’ attorney felt comfortable just admitting an obviously illegal motivation behind the legislation is explained by a combination of two factors. First, they feel so comfortable before the 11th Circuit that they think it doesn't matter. DeSantis often will say that he knows he will win before the 11th Circuit. He is usually correct, but it puts those judges is in a very uncomfortable vision, one I'm sure they don't appreciate, as shown in this exchange. Second, I think it speaks to the insularity of the DeSantis team. They hang around so many similar thinking Hillsdale type individuals that they don't realize how ridiculous their beliefs sound when stated out loud before anyone outside that circle.



Late in the hearing, one of the three judges presiding over the appeal — Judge Andrew Brasher, a Donald Trump appointee — began to press DeSantis’ lawyer on whether the Stop WOKE Act really is the least restrictive way to achieve the state’s goal of — as DeSantis himself said when he signed the law — saving people from having ideas “imposed” upon them “without their consent.”


Ohlendorf: So I don’t think so, Judge Brasher. And I think this idea of whether the speech has caused some kind of mental distress is kind of a fiction created by the plaintiffs. There’s no indication that that is what the state was aiming at here. The state, I think, has an interest in protecting people from racist and offensive speech even if they would, misguidedly, welcome it. Now, here —

Brasher: Really? Really? That’s interesting. So the state has an interest in protecting me from hearing things that I want to hear?

Ohlendorf: I think so, your honor. I don’t see why whether the employee welcomes hearing that they are a morally inferior race goes to the state’s interest.


This confession seemed to stun the judges. Another one on the panel — Judge Britt Grant, who, like Brasher, is a Trump appointee — jumped in to ask Ohlendorf about a landmark Supreme Court ruling from the 1970s that permitted Nazis to hold a public rally in a village where a large number of Holocaust survivors lived. Ohlendorf stammered for a moment and then went dead silent for a full 10 seconds while he tried to think of an answer.


A lawyer for Ron DeSantis revealed the real motive behind one of Florida's most controversial laws

 

This is rattling through the right wing echo chamber right now, the Daily Mail is probably the most credible source on it, so take it for what it's worth. Says a $50 million pro DeSantis superpac is shutting down, donors are pulling funds.

EXCLUSIVE: Ron DeSantis $50 million super PAC CLOSES after donors were spooked by 'rookie s*** mistakes' | Daily Mail Online

 

I will defer to you on such things. I probably was too quick to make assumptions on some of the larger issues.

I will say two things I feel pretty confident on. First, despite the bad facts, a more competent appellate advocate would not have made such a damning admission. I still maintain that was jaw-dropping.

Second, DeSantis routinely makes statements that any loss at the District Court level will be reversed at the 11th Circuit. That is also highly unusual for one of the litigants to make that statement is to essentially call the Court compromised, which I'm sure those judges do not appreciate.

In terms of the particularities of the panel or all of the full court's history on related subjects, I certainly defer to you. But the way they bent over backwards on the felon disenfranchisement case to reach the obviously wrong result reinforce my existing cynicism. And while I have not been keeping strict score, I believe they have usually ruled the way that DeSantis predicts they will