DeSantis’s Dachau is All About Good Old Florida Corruption

A major DeSantis donor is profiting bigly off of building and running his new concentration camp.

DeSantis used "emergency suthority" to bypass state provurement laws and oversight, such as it is, in order to use a shovel to ladle out state money to a clown that "donated" large amounts to his campaign.

It's good old Florida corruption.

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The three of them are all professed believers in Jesus, who preached about welcoming strangers, feeding the hungry, caring for the sick and the despised. They do none of that.

They are going to all burn in Hell.

And if you are one of those chortling over DeSantis's Dachau, then so will you.

Nepotism and Grift, All in One Blonde Package

Lara Trump will step down as co-chair of the Republican National Committee as she considers a number of potential options with her father-in-law, President-elect Donald Trump, set to return to the White House.

Among those possibilities is replacing Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, whom Trump tapped to be the next secretary of state. If Rubio is confirmed, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will choose who takes the seat through the remainder of Rubio’s term, which expires in 2026.

There's no serious opposition to Rubio as secretray of state. So he formally leaves the Senate, DeathSantis appoints Lara to his seat and then the TOFF dumps Hegseth and chooses ol' shrimp boots for SecDef.

Nepotism, corruption, grifting. All typical shit for what to expect from the Party of Trump.

Never Forget That Meatball Ron is the Sort of Fascist Ruler That Trump Dreams of Being

He is threatening to bring criminal charges against groups who run campaign ads that he disagrees with.

Florida is pretty much an authoritarian wasteland. Those who Ol' Shrimp Boots disagrees with are threatened with criminal prosecution. That includes people who sign petitions that he does not approve of.

Bootsie Didn't Like It When His Plans to Rape Florida's Parks Got Leaked

And so he had the whistleblower fired.

Remember, they were trying to rush through their developmental plans before anybody found out about it. Because it's Florida and if anything is sacred in Florida, it is paving over natural spaces so some skeevy developer who makes oddles of bribes campaign contributions to Florida politicans can make a quick buck throwing up some cheap-ass project before the next Cat-4 hurricane blows through.

Good Old (and Unprovable) Corruption; Meatball Ron Ed.

As his campaign began to sputter and the big-money donors got shy, DeSantis's team began shaking down companies that do business with the State of Florida.

The biggest donors in Republican politics largely shunned Ron DeSantis after his presidential campaign began to falter last summer. So his allies turned to donors the Florida governor still held sway over because of his day job.
...
People involved in the DeSantis fundraising effort described the dependence on donors with business before Florida as part of a strategic shift born of necessity. Lobbyist friends and fundraisers of DeSantis called Florida clients asking them to contribute to the super PACs paying for television ads and field operations — and many of those people gave, according to people familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private discussions. The pitch, according to one person who received a call, was that DeSantis was likely to remain a powerful governor in the state.

Clarence and the Supremes have cut back on public corruption laws to the point that it it's not a blatant pay-to-play scheme, it's all legal. And so, likely, is this shakedown.

But it's corrupt. You know it. I know it. And so does Meatball Ron.

Meanwhile, in the Hellscape Known as Florida

With a brief memo, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo has subverted a public health standard that's long kept measles outbreaks under control.

On Feb. 20, as measles spread through Manatee Bay Elementary in South Florida, Ladapo sent parents a letter granting them permission to send unvaccinated children to school amid the outbreak.

The Department of Health "is deferring to parents or guardians to make decisions about school attendance," wrote Ladapo, who was appointed to head the agency by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose name is listed above Ladapo's in the letterhead.

Measles is one of the most contagious diseases around, yet the medieval-grade witch-doctor who Meatball Ron appointed as surgeon general thinks it's just peachy to send unvaccinated kids into a school where there is a measels outbreak. Because, after all, only a tenth of those who contract measels will lose some or all of their hearing (0.1% will die) and that's an acceptable risk to a political douchebag who prizes ideology over science.

Elect a clown and you get a circus.

Haley Was Right, It's a Two-Person Race, Now.

Meatball Ron is out, so he can spend more time in Florida, oppressing transgendered people, whitewashing American history, and trying to get Disney to leave.

He burned through over a hundred million smackers, going from polling as a serious challenger to roadkill. It was probably the worst showing a Republican nominating process since Giuliani in 2008.

Why Bible Mike, Meatball Ron and the Rest Are Waging Culture Wars, or "Dude, Where's My Recession?"

Because that's all they got. Crime is down. The much-ballyhooed recession didn't arrive.

As for Abbott sending migrants to Democratic cities, maybe it's time for those cities to send them on to Republican cities. Drop off a few hundred in Jefferson City, MO, for example.

Meatball Ron is Really a Gutless Weasel

Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis is refusing to condemn Elon Musk ‘s post endorsing an antisemitic conspiracy theory, maintaining Sunday that he wasn’t familiar with the post despite it prompting major companies to pull advertising from the billionaire’s X social media platform.

“I did not see the comment,” DeSantis, the governor of Florida, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “And so, I know that Elon has had a target on his back ever since he purchased Twitter because I think he’s taking it in a direction that a lot of people who are used to controlling the narrative don’t like.”

I don't buy that he doesn't know what Musk said, not for a second. It's been all over the news for day and anyone running for a major public office pretty much keeps their ears to the ground and their eyes open. He knows, all right. You can bet on that. He's just too gutless to say anything, because he doesn't want to take a chance of pissing off that Nazi-Adjacent Afrikaaner troll who is almost as beloved by the neo-Nazi base as the TOFF is.

ETA: DeSantis seems to believe that he can both play with neo-Nazis and avoid criticism by supporting Israel.

Meatball Ron Is Afraid of a Fifteen-Year Old Kid

A fifteen-year old kid, who wants to be a reporter and isn't afraid of asking political candidates tough questions, was kicked out of a GOP public event after asking DeSantis hard questions.

One of the staffies rounded up four cops to toss the kid out of the event. But, once they realized the optics of kicking a kid out an event for asking questions that any competent reporter should be asking, they let him back in.

So here's a question for DeSantis: If you can't handle questions from a high-school kid, how are you going to deal with tough adults? Or are you planning to roll over and play lapdog to the likes of Kim Il-Jung and Vladdie Putin, like the last president from your party did?

Mandatory Viewing for Those Who Attend School in Florida

It might help counteract the shit they've been fed from Meatball Ron's curriculum (and other states where it is now illegal to upset fragile white people).

It's named "Calling Bullshit".

Meatball Ron Continues Destroying Florida

He pushed through a law to strip local governments' power to protect historic buildings and, sure as shit, greedhead developers are demolishingiconic buildings.

Florida's teachers are leaving, OB/GYNs are leaving, a degree from a Florida state school will soon be about as valuable as one from ITT Tech or Trump U.

It's also become apparent, in recent years, that any lobbying group that has the words "freedom" or "liberty" in their name is focused on restricting people's liberties and freedoms to learn things other than that which is approved by the neo-Nazi wing of the GOP.

One final thought about Meatball Ron: I don't know whether or not, in his heart, he is a racist and a homophobic bigot. But he seems to have grasped that playing one on the political stage is his route to power. It's the same calculation that was made by George Wallace sixty-five years ago.

A MAGA Terrorist At Work

A business owner in California was shot and killed after a dispute over a LGBTQ+ Pride flag displayed outside her store, authorities said.

Officials from the San Bernardino county sheriff’s office said Laura Ann Carleton, 66, was pronounced dead at the scene of the shooting on Friday night.

Officials said that during an initial altercation at Carleton’s clothing store, a male suspect “made several disparaging remarks about a rainbow flag that stood outside the store before shooting Carleton”. He then fled the scene.

Deputies were able to locate the suspect, who was armed, and he was shot dead after a confrontation with the officers. By Sunday, the man had not been identified.

This is on those politicians, like the TOFF and Wrong DeSantis, who have made anti-gay bigotry a central part of their "platform". They are engaging in stochastic terrorism and I believe that they know what they are doing.

A Weasel Who Does the Right Thing Only When All Other Paths Are Closed Off

Mike Pence is making a big deal about defending the Constitution and the threat posed by another TOFF presidency.

Color me unimpressed. Pence fought hard to avoid having to cooperate with the Special Counsel's investigation. He refused to testify to the January 6th Committee. He had to consult with Dan Quayle in order to find the spine to do his job.

So, no, Pence is not exactly an example of bravery in politics.

But the political winds may be shifting away from the TOFF. Wrong DeSantis is now critical of Trump's claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday dismissed the theories of election fraud central to former President Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election as “unsubstantiated.”

Breaking from his usual evasiveness when asked about his stance on Trump’s claims of a “stolen” election, DeSantis rejected the notion without mentioning his leading rival for the Republican presidential nomination.

Ol' Wrong-o is a master political trend-hound. He was all in favor of COVID vaccines until he felt the political ground start to shift. So if he's starting to imply that the TOFF is full of shit, then things aren't looking too good for Cadet Bone Spurs.

Why is Wrong DeSantis Standing Up His Own Militia

There is something seriously wrong about his organizing his own private armed goon squad.

More and more, Florida is becoming a state that is attractive for unhinged fascist lunatics.

H/T

People Who Support Face-Eating Leopards Are Surprised to Find That Leopards are Eating Their Faces

I.E., the Log-Cabin Republicans:

I'm going to pass on noting that using the term "commonsense" in this context is nothing more than a cheap rhetorical trick to cast opponents as irrational (see "common sense gun control").

Hatred of gay people has been a mainstay of the GOP since the early 1990s, when Elder Bush had a homophobic speaker at his convention. Chimpy used "pro-marriage" (anti-gay) state constitutional amendments in 2004 to drive voters motivated by hate to the polls. But the Log Cabin Republicans continue to support their party because money talks. They're no better than the rich Jews and the First World War Jewish veterans who believed that they wouldn't be stuffed into boxcars.

Gays aren't the only people to find out that Wrong DeSantis is eating their faces. Women receiving alimony, including a lot of Republicans, got a shiv in the back. And if you live near a road in Floriduh, it can now be paved with radioactive waste. That waste is supposed to be kept in dedicated stacks so the hazard can be controlled, but good old DeathSantis thinks it's just peachy to pave roads with it. Because rich white people usually don't live right next to highways. As the paving wears, that shit is going to end up alongside the roads and in the aquifers. But rich people don't drink tap water, I guess.

A Thought About Why DeSantis Hates Transgendered People

Maybe he got tired of his name being mangled to Rhonda Santis.

But that didn't explain his white boots.

Which likely came off the sale rack at TJ Maxx:

Bad Situations Make for Bad Laws

First, you should go read this piece on Lawfare about the need for domestic terrorism legislation.

I am against that. First off, I believe that there are enough ways to convict people who are committing crimes in furtherance of political goals.

Second, looking at this issue through the lens of both the January 6th Trumpist Coup Attempt and far-right terrorism yields a distorted result. Remember that, when people were protesting the Wars of the Chimperor, that the Department of Defense labelled the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker peace group, as a terrorist group. The long track record of police surveillance and government spying has shown that the security services of this country, from the local cops up through the Feds, have prioritized keeping tabs on antiwar groups while turning a near blind eye to the far-right. It was to the point that the last president regarded groups like the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys and various neo-Nazis both as very fine people and as his base, while asking if it was possible to shoot protesters in the legs.

Anyone who doesn't believe that a politician like Trump, Abbott or DeSantis wouldn't weaponize the ability to designate groups as domestic terrorist organizations as a tool to crush opponents hasn't been paying attention. The idea of having domestic terrorism legislation is a horrible one.

Proof, Yet Again, That There is No Appreciable Difference Between the American Christian Taliban and Putin's Regime

Whenever the Christian Taliban come up with some batshittery in their culture war, the Russians seem to follow suit.

Deputies in Russia’s State Duma have drafted a bill that would completely ban gender affirming surgeries, according to the newspaper Vedomosti. The bill has not yet been submitted for consideration, but journalists from the outlet have seen its text.

The proposed legislation would reportedly prohibit Russians from performing surgical procedures for the purpose of gender transitions as well as from changing their gender markers and names in official documents.

This is why the far-right has been backing Putin and why DeSantis has been following along. Putin has cast himself as their guy, the one who agrees with crushing freedom in the name of religious rule, and the Talibanistas here just eat that shit up.

No wonder they are so against critical thinking.