Every day there is something new that DeSantis or his henchmen have done to further stifle civil rights, human rights. The latest is the board of trustees 9-3 vote to shut down one college’s diversity office. Others will no doubt follow. Seems to me that we can all see where this path ends.
Also in Florida there is Senate Bill 1316, titled Information Dissemination. The bill would, in part, require political bloggers such as myself and some of you, to register with the Florida Office of Legislative Services or the Commission on Ethics, else be subjected to a fine. WHOA … think about that one for a minute. Freedom of speech??? First Amendment???
Within the next 18 months, it is almost certain that DeSantis will have turned Florida into an authoritarian state where only straight, white, male, Christian people are welcome. Why not just do it all at once? Why doesn’t he just step up to his podium and say to the world …
“I hereby declare that the people of Florida are no longer free citizens, but wards of the state who will be strictly guided by the rules I and my brownshirts impose. Those found in violation will suffer the harshest of penalties. All federal laws are hereby revoked in the state of Florida and I will make all decisions from this point forward.”
Given his popularity in Florida and elsewhere, it would seem that a good number of people in this country are yearning for exactly such a dictatorship.
Meanwhile in Texas, U.S. Representative Tony Gonzales is facing censure by the Texas Republican Party. Why? Because he voted in support of the gun legislation last year that received bipartisan support in the wake of the mass shooting of children in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 children and two teachers. Gonzales may also face ‘censure’ for his support of a bill to codify same-sex marriage. I guess Texas plans to join Florida in being “the place ‘woke’ goes to die.”
Is all of this really what the people of this nation want? If not, then why aren’t the people of Florida holding protests daily in front of the Governor’s mansion in Tallahassee? Why aren’t they writing countless letters to their newspapers, peacefully making their voices heard? By the time the nation wakes up, it may be too late.
Filosofa's Word 
*snark It’s all about the freedom, folks. Can’t have public citizens just exercising free speech. Not when they’re writing about the government or their elected representatives. *snark end
Florida’s Republican-led state government is a cancer on the US Constitution and Bill of Rights.
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You snark just as good as I do!!! Sometimes it just comes naturally, doesn’t it? Yes, they are, but at some point I think the courts will put the brakes on him. I hope so, anyway.
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I just had to drop in and see how angry the blog had gotten and, as usual, it hasn’t disappointed. Everything with you is anti-white, anti-straight, anti-christian. it’s like listening to a broken record that repeats over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over forever and ever and ever.
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So … why do you keep coming back, Scott?
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I think all of your blog entries about the governor of Florida are just copy and pasted from the same original entry. the wording and tone are all the same, nothing different, nothing creative about them. but sometimes bloggers need to take shortcuts, I understand. well at least the good people posts are creative and inspiring so that’s something.
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When I “copy and paste” it is duly noted. No, Scott, I don’t take shortcuts … I work very hard on my blog, often 10-12 hours a day, between research, writing, answering comments, and visiting other people’s blogs. Again I ask … if my blog is such garbage to you, why do you keep coming back? I think just to harass me.
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So are you..angry, hostile and blindly against reason even if there is proof.
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no, not in the least. but the assersions in these posts are just by themselves, never sited with any external references or anything. As much time as she claims to research these topic how hard would it be to provide at least some of the links so we can look at those same sources? I’ve made such requests several times over the years and they are met with stunning silence. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to provide source material but maybe that’s just me.
I hope you’re doing well.
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Why don’t you subscribe to Heather Cox Richardson. She is a highly regarded historian, a professor and writer. She posts everyday through her newsletter and always has a lengthy list of links.
Might do you good to open up your mind.
Oh and Jill could link anything she posts and often does or if you are in doubt, you could simply Google it and there would be numerous sources.
There are lots of ways to find out the truth if you are truly interested and not simply wanting to be the contrarian.
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I am honored to be a contrarian, it means I have different opinions than the masses and am simply not another reflecdtive surface for the echoes to bounce off around here.
Thanks for the link, I’ll check it out.
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Well of course you are..it goes with the territory
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Heather Cox Richardson is a great source … I hope you do check it out!
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Why the fuck do you not point out where the post is wrong, we all know Jill does research and only presents facts that she may decide to have a personal comment on, unlike yourself who I challenge to present contrary facts from a legitimate news source, and I do mean LEGITIMATE .
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Thank you, sklyjd. I do try my best to get the facts right, to use only legitimate sources, and when I get it wrong I recant. But there will always be at least a few who will challenge me just to be doing so. If I said grass is green, I think Scott would have a rebuttal!
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Jill, since many of the actions of the current
governor of Florida tend to be autocratic in nature, maybe we should consider a new name for him, Vladimir DeSantis. Maybe when the State of Georgia formally indicts the former president for election interference, the newly named Vladimir will invade Georgia. Keith
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Good one, Keith! Yes, it fits, sadly. If he tried the heavy-handed bigotry in a northern state, he’d be run out of town on a rail. Floridians seem okay with it, though I do not understand it. Hmmmm … food for thought there. You know how some counties in Oregon are trying to become part of Idaho? I can see DeSantis trying to rally certain Georgia counties to become part of Florida! An effort that would be naught but a waste of time and money, but politicians don’t seem to mind wasting both.
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Jill, the talk to succeed from the union and states are just idle chatter. To be honest, people have too many day to day problems to deal with than bother themselves with such BS. As for DeSantis, like Trump, he tends to be vindictive in nature and attack those who criticize him. A Republican Congressman once observed Trump keeping a list of Republicans on his desk who chose to vote against something he wanted. He was out to punish them. The actions of DeSantis reminds me of that. Keith
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I agree that it’s unlikely to go anywhere, but it’s still something we should be aware of and keep an eye on. Now, Marge Greene’s “divorce” proposal is pure nonsense and everyone with half a brain knows it, but the movement in Oregon has gained some momentum over the past year and if they can jump through all the hurdles, could ultimately change the U.S. map, though I think it’s a long shot. Nan tells me their main purpose is to have more access to guns … and that is a scary thought.
Agreed that DeSantis has a thin skin like Trump did and is equally cruel and bigoted. What’s with the Republican Party … can they no longer find people with a heart and a conscience??? As for Trump’s “hit list” … I’m not one bit surprised. Did you know that Richard Nixon once wanted to have columnist Jack Anderson murdered? A plot was actually devised by some of Nixon’s staff, but fortunately never carried out. Scary, yes? Rather like some of Putin’s antagonists falling down stairs and dying, or out of tall buildings.
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Ga. would probably go for it..as would Ala, Miss and maybe SC…probably not NC.
I have a friend in Wisc. and it’s just as crazy there…lots of Trump supporters..mostly smaller towns, rural areas..not Madison, I’m sure.
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Yeah, but Georgia already has a Six Flags, so I don’t imagine it would give them as much of a boost economically as it would another state. Yes, I’ve heard of some of the craziness in Wisconsin, too. In most states it is the rural population who have gone maga-mad. Sigh. How to open their eyes??? That’s the big question.
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Why are they closed in the first place?
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That, my friend, is the $64 million question. There are lots of contributing factors, I suppose, and others are far more qualified to answer it than I, but off the top of my head, I’d say they were bored. Bored with the status quo, bored with their own lives, and when Donald Trump brought the perpetual circus show to town, it livened up not only their lives, but the very foundation of the nation and it excited them. Lack of education, lack of experience outside their own little world, lack of compassion for people who don’t think, act, or look like them?
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Yes, boredom, anger and frustration at their own lives and a desire to blame others. Blame leads to hate and trump and some of the republicans and Fox News and their ilk feed them more hate and anger and it grows. And hate leads to violence and that’s where we’re at.
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Yes, Fox ‘News’ and the loudest of the Republicans, the magats, feed them, keep pouring fuel on their fires, and ensure that they will not bother to listen to the voices of reason.
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Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
“Every day there is something new that DeSantis or his henchmen have done to further stifle civil rights, human rights.” … I know, I painfully, fully know … I live in FloriDUH!!
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Thank you so much for the reblog, mi hermana! ❤
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De nada, mi hermana!! Saludos y abrazos!! 🫂
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🤗
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No, De Santis won’t say that. He needs people to continue to have the illusion that they are still free citizens, even while he is removing that freedom.
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You make a good point … agreed. And sadly, it seems they are satisfied with the illusion and have no desire to look past the rhetoric.
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I hope that the peaceful voices get more and louder. It is unbelievable that such a development is really happening.
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So do I, but I don’t see it as likely at the moment. It is unbelievable … like something written by George Orwell! Sigh.
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I understand you completely, Jill. Sometimes we just need to be careful not adjust to the bad things we see but don’t want, but make the good things we want to see adjust to us.
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Agreed, but we can never turn a blind eye to the bad things, either.
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Exactly! That is what needs to be changed.
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Heather Cox Richardson has a lot to say about DeSantis..none of it good.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-2-2023?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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Yes, I read hers last night, and Robert Hubbell’s was excellent, too!
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Yet people are flocking g to Florida like flies. I live here and in my area alone, 80,000 people moved here last year. Building homes all over the place and of course ruining the wildlife areas, roads or swollen with constant traffic…unbridled growth. And why? Older people in particular move here and I think it’s weather, no state tax and they like the republican agenda because they think the same.
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I’ve long heard that many retirees from up north head to Florida in the winter, but back home in the spring … I can’t understand why they would choose to stay, especially now! Perhaps you’re right, and the lure is the Republican agenda. A sad statement about people, isn’t it?
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I think the biggest lure is the weather, beaches, wetlands wildlife, Disney, no state tax..stuff like that.
But the republican BS is a plus for some..
Remember lots of old people 55 and up and they are prone to Fox, trump and the far right.
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I’ll never understand it, but yeah … you’re right.
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Now, the residents of Florida will, be living with their, right to the press, free speech, taken away, and, the bad wind is, surely going to take over, all of the, Republican-ruling states too, I suppose…
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I suspect that at some point, someone will take umbrage, fill a lawsuit, and the courts will step in.
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I heard (from you?) that DuhSantis is making it illegal to be a member of the Democrat Party. That’s one way to never lose another election.
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You didn’t hear it from me, and it isn’t specifically DeSantis who is proposing it, though I’m sure he’s fully supportive of it. Its a bill called “The Ultimate Cancel Act” that was proposed by state senator Blaise Ingoglia. It is just one more attention-getting device that is on a train bound for nowhere, for it’s blatantly unconstitutional and the courts would strike it down in 10 seconds time.
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I cannot see anything getting this far without a DeSantis stamp on it. Something like this he is likely to delegate, so if it goes south he can distance himself. To me, it is his idea. And in the right courtroom, who knows what can happen these days.
That case in Texas right now that is going in front of a chosen judge says to me the Justice Department has lost control of its impartiality. DeSantis has a lot of power in Florida. He is capable of tipping scales in nis favour!
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Yeah, as I said, I’m sure DeSantis is aware of it and has given it his seal of approval. You are right that our court system is compromised, but as we’ve seen in the last two elections, there are still a majority in this nation with democratic values, and the courts wouldn’t dare allow one of the only two viable parties in the nation to simply be delegitimized by the other. DeSantis is evil, he is a racist, a homophobe, and a misogynist, and he is a danger to our country, but even he cannot rewrite the Constitution.
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Let’s hope!
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He can with the help of far right republicans..is doing it in the state and if he is elected president, will do it to our country and constitution. They can always amend it.
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I wish I could say with confidence that there’s no way he’ll sit in the Oval Office, but … in 2015-2016 I sad that about Trump, and look where that got us. Sigh.
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Now here is an interesting thought experiment.
Disney as we know has a great deal of money.
Disney invested a great deal in Disney World, Florida.
Florida is just one state, with an extremist government.
If it is too expensive for Disney to upsticks and move their operation to a liberal state. Then maybe Disney starts by convoluted means of funding candidates to replace De Santis with folk more ‘Disney’?
Just a thought, of course.
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I’ve had the same thought! Florida’s economy is dependent on the tourist industry, and to a large extent, Disney IS the main attraction for tourists, aside from the beaches. The beaches, however, are overcrowded and tacky. I much prefer the more isolated beaches of North Carolina to those of Florida. If Disney were to pull out of Florida, both Florida and DeSantis would be fighting for their very existence!
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Originally this song by the Boomtown Rats, ‘Banana Republic’ was Bob Geldorf’s views on his native Ireland.
That said with a bit of tweaking of images it seems to be where Florida is going
Lyrics:
Banana Republic
Septic Isle
Screaming in the Suffering sea
It sounds like crying
Everywhere I go
Everywhere I see
The black and blue uniforms
Police and priests
And I wonder do you wonder
While you’re sleeping with your whore
That sharing beds with history
Is like a licking running sores
Forty shades of green, yeah
Sixty shades of red
Heroes going cheap these days
Price, a bullet in the head
Banana Republic
Septic Isle
Suffer in the Screaming sea
It sounds like dying
Everywhere I go
Everywhere I see
The black and blue uniforms
Police and priests
Take your hand and lead you
Up a garden path
Let me stand aside here
And watch you pass
Striking up a soldier’s song
I know that tune
It begs too many questions
And answers too
Banana Republic
Septic Isle
Suffer in the Screaming sea
It sounds like dying
Everywhere I go
Everywhere I see
The black and blue uniforms
Police and priests
The purple and the pinstripe
Mutely shake their heads
A silence shrieking volumes
A violence worse than the condemn
Stab you in the back, yeah
Laughing in your face
Glad to see the place again
It’s a pity nothing’s changed
Banana Republic
Septic Isle
Suffer in the Screaming sea
It sounds like dying
Everywhere I go
Everywhere I see
The black and blue uniforms
Police and priests
Banana Republic
Septic Isle
Suffer in the Screaming sea
It sounds like dying
Everywhere I go
Everywhere I see
The black and blue uniforms
Police and priests
Banana Republic
Septic Isle
Suffer in the Screaming sea
It sounds like crying
Everywhere I go
Everywhere I see
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