Florida governor signs law so he can run for president

[Pcdunn]

-- while remaining governor. If we thought DJT was egocentric, DeSantis seems to be verging into Napoleon crowning himself Emperor terrority.

DeSantis signs law allowing him to run for president while remaining governor

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/05/24/desantis-florida-election-law/

[Pcdunn]

Apparently DeSantis's announcement of his campaign for President on Twitter was spoiled by glitches and lost audio:

https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/25/politics/desantis-embarrassing-campaign-launch/index.html

[Lewis C]

Here's a critique that I like of a recent DeSantis statement about destroying leftism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79AS_RSaO0s

[Al Bundy's Eyes]

Recent events in Florida are truly terrifying, but outside the US it's getting very little notice. DeSantis and Florida are probably the closest the 'free' west has gotten to supporting a platform for fascism, and the long term prospects need to be heeded seriously. It's not just DeSantis, it's him, Trump, Boebert and their ilk normalising exclusion of any and demographics they dislike or who oppose their designs on power. It's the enabling and verification of hatred and discrimination, not just allowing it but actively encouraging it that could pose long term problems even if they themselves are short lived in their careers. It starts with a bit of good 'ol God loving queer bashing, but you'd be very naive to think it's just about facing the demon of transgenderism. They've already started banning books, and history tells us that's never a sign of a free society. There's a whole lot of terrible people who've found they don't just have a voice, they have permission.

[Pcdunn]

Well said, Al.

"Christian nationalism" is scary, and has little to do with real Christianity. They're pretty much the same as the original KKK (who held book burnings, like Hilter's Nazis.)

As a retired librarian interested in intellectual freedom, I've also noted how a small liberal arts college was "taken over" by conservative board members who made many changes against gays and minorities. (This, too, is similar to Nazi approaches to German higher education institutions.)

[Pcdunn]

Here's a critique that I like of a recent DeSantis statement about destroying leftism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79AS_RSaO0s

Thanks for the link. I used to read Steve Schimdt, and have subscribed to his YT. He's right about DeSantis seeming to misread American politics as much as Trump did, yet lacking Trump's showmanship. Thuggery, indeed!

[jason_c]

Recent events in Florida are truly terrifying, but outside the US it's getting very little notice. DeSantis and Florida are probably the closest the 'free' west has gotten to supporting a platform for fascism, and the long term prospects need to be heeded seriously. It's not just DeSantis, it's him, Trump, Boebert and their ilk normalising exclusion of any and demographics they dislike or who oppose their designs on power. It's the enabling and verification of hatred and discrimination, not just allowing it but actively encouraging it that could pose long term problems even if they themselves are short lived in their careers. It starts with a bit of good 'ol God loving queer bashing, but you'd be very naive to think it's just about facing the demon of transgenderism. They've already started banning books, and history tells us that's never a sign of a free society. There's a whole lot of terrible people who've found they don't just have a voice, they have permission.

I have no doubt many of these banned books are totally age inappropriate. However, the great thing about a Federal system is that those who feel uncomfortable about living in an 'unfree' state can move to a more liberal state. A few weirdo's and grifters may move out of Florida but I'm confident in predicting the gay++ community in Florida will continue to thrive.

[Al Bundy's Eyes]

I have no doubt many of these banned books are totally age inappropriate. However, the great thing about a Federal system is that those who feel uncomfortable about living in an 'unfree' state can move to a more liberal state. A few weirdo's and grifters may move out of Florida but I'm confident in predicting the gay++ community in Florida will continue to thrive.

Hi Jason,

I totally agree, many of the books are totally age inappropriate. Here in the UK, much like the rest of the world, we simply don't give those books to young children.

Two interesting finds, which may only be banned in Indian River County, are 'Of Mice and Men' and 'Draw Me A Star' by Eric Carle. I myself studied Of Mice and Men at 15 years old. Eric Carle wrote 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'.

Unfortunately, not everyone has the luxury of being able to move to a more liberal, or equally, less repressive, state. And while not many would bemoan the loss of a few weirdos and grifters, it's more a concern of what the definition of a weirdo or grifter is, or what it becomes, because as a society becomes less tolerant, the goalposts move.

I'd like to hope that the various communities across the whole US continue to thrive, it's just how much will they have to suffer first?

​​​​​Time will tell, the US is going through something of an identity crisis and will gradually reform, opening a new chapter in it's history. Who, 10 years ago, would have agreed that a mob in military gear and patriotic symbols would have stormed the White House? Who, 40 years ago, would have seen a black President? Apartheid is in living memory, but seems so far removed from the present it's hard to believe that. I hope all our US members can navigate these difficult times in safety and happiness.

[jason_c]

Hi Jason,

I totally agree, many of the books are totally age inappropriate. Here in the UK, much like the rest of the world, we simply don't give those books to young children.

Two interesting finds, which may only be banned in Indian River County, are 'Of Mice and Men' and 'Draw Me A Star' by Eric Carle. I myself studied Of Mice and Men at 15 years old. Eric Carle wrote 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'.

Unfortunately, not everyone has the luxury of being able to move to a more liberal, or equally, less repressive, state. And while not many would bemoan the loss of a few weirdos and grifters, it's more a concern of what the definition of a weirdo or grifter is, or what it becomes, because as a society becomes less tolerant, the goalposts move.

I'd like to hope that the various communities across the whole US continue to thrive, it's just how much will they have to suffer first?

âââââTime will tell, the US is going through something of an identity crisis and will gradually reform, opening a new chapter in it's history. Who, 10 years ago, would have agreed that a mob in military gear and patriotic symbols would have stormed the White House? Who, 40 years ago, would have seen a black President? Apartheid is in living memory, but seems so far removed from the present it's hard to believe that. I hope all our US members can navigate these difficult times in safety and happiness.

Thanks for your reply. Sure, I get that not everyone who wants to move to another state can. However, and this is a very broad brush, the gay+ community is historically more mobile than most. Internal migration still takes place in the US and I think it is possibly increasing in recent years. I tentatively predict in the next census the gay+ community in Florida will have remained stable if not increased. I certainly hope that to be the case.

[Svensson]

pretty sure that sexual preference is not a census question.

[Svensson]

I have no doubt many of these banned books are totally age inappropriate. However, the great thing about a Federal system is that those who feel uncomfortable about living in an 'unfree' state can move to a more liberal state. A few weirdo's and grifters may move out of Florida but I'm confident in predicting the gay++ community in Florida will continue to thrive.

Nonsense. The issue here is not that the De Sanctimonius administration has suddenly decided to ban books that are inappropriate for children from children's libraries, the issue is that the De Sanctimonius administration has now started to remove children's books that do not conform to the administration's ideology.

There has always been a classification system as to what is and what is not appropriate for children. The day before De Santimonius took office in 2018, new books were already classified into what is appropriate for a 12 year old (or 15 year old for that matter).

What has changed since then is that De Sanctimonius passed legislation that
- chidren's books that contain mentioning of same sex parents are to be banned.
- history books that have the potential to hurt white children's feelings are to be banned and let's be honest, as a white boy myself, the only way I could be offended by history is if I had previously been indoctrinated to be the saviour of the human race due to my own race)
- Every citizen now has the right to get involved in the book selection and classification process in the local library.

This means that every MAGA-nutcase south of Jacksonville who almost certainly knows absoltely nothing about children and thier mental capacity to deal with real-world issues now has the power to wreak havoc in the local library. Which is basically what De Sanctimonius wanted becasue the american right is essentially an anti-intellectual movement to ensure that future generations keep voting GOP. And the GOP know that this works. You can just go and look at the ranking of US states by University degree (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_educational _attainment)

The bottom 10 are: West Virginia, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Alabama, Nevada, Oklahoma, Indiana, Wyoming. Those are the states with the worst educational records and they are by and large deep, deep, deep red states.

Conclusion, it is obvious that you need to keep people dumb for them to consistently vote GOP. The GOP know this which is why they books and go after educators and continue to make higher education prohibitively unatainable for the masses and Fox "news" also know this which is why there is so much dumb stuff on their channel.

Cheers.

[jason_c]

Nonsense. The issue here is not that the De Sanctimonius administration has suddenly decided to ban books that are inappropriate for children from children's libraries, the issue is that the De Sanctimonius administration has now started to remove children's books that do not conform to the administration's ideology.

There has always been a classification system as to what is and what is not appropriate for children. The day before De Santimonius took office in 2018, new books were already classified into what is appropriate for a 12 year old (or 15 year old for that matter).

What has changed since then is that De Sanctimonius passed legislation that
- chidren's books that contain mentioning of same sex parents are to be banned.
- history books that have the potential to hurt white children's feelings are to be banned and let's be honest, as a white boy myself, the only way I could be offended by history is if I had previously been indoctrinated to be the saviour of the human race due to my own race)
- Every citizen now has the right to get involved in the book selection and classification process in the local library.

This means that every MAGA-nutcase south of Jacksonville who almost certainly knows absoltely nothing about children and thier mental capacity to deal with real-world issues now has the power to wreak havoc in the local library. Which is basically what De Sanctimonius wanted becasue the american right is essentially an anti-intellectual movement to ensure that future generations keep voting GOP. And the GOP know that this works. You can just go and look at the ranking of US states by University degree (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_educational _attainment)

The bottom 10 are: West Virginia, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Alabama, Nevada, Oklahoma, Indiana, Wyoming. Those are the states with the worst educational records and they are by and large deep, deep, deep red states.

Conclusion, it is obvious that you need to keep people dumb for them to consistently vote GOP. The GOP know this which is why they books and go after educators and continue to make higher education prohibitively unatainable for the masses and Fox "news" also know this which is why there is so much dumb stuff on their channel.

Cheers.

The South is filled to the brim with Scots-Irish, they are hardly troubling the Nobel committee on a regular basis. Their culture has been military and quite frankly criminal for centuries. That's largely why the South is bad at education.

As far as I understand it this law is not a state wide ban of books(it's difficult to get accurate info on this from the likes of CNN, NYT etc). It merely allows local school districts to remove books they feel is inappropriate. The districts are required to report these books to Tallahassee, which at least suggests some sort of transparency in the process. Some local district's will remain fairly liberal, others will have a more conservative stance. What has changed since De Santis became governor is that we now have greater agenda pushing by vested interests. Some of these interests(on both sides no doubt) are worrying.

As I said previously, many of these books will be age inappropriate, not all. Some books will be banned that are unworthy of being banned. That's what happens with legislation, it can and will be misused and abused. We just have to hope these cases are small. That if there are books unjustly banned it will hopefully be in minimal Florida school districts.

As far as I understand it there is a question in the US census about sexual orientation.

[Svensson]

I my mind, there is no confusion about the extend of the legislation. It is not a statewide ban or blacklist. You can still go into a (presumably adult) bookstore and purchase or order these books if the book strore choses to stock them. The ban is specifically for the educational sector and schools in particular. And it comes back to republican parents' inability to confront these subjects. Or confront the facts that these are issues that thier 21st century children will sooner or later be exposed to.

It all has a rather unpleasant whiff of the PMRC about it. They actually had senate hearings because Tipper Gore was unable to process a close-up of Rob Halford's leather crotch-piece on a Judas Priest LP. So this stuff has been going on for decades. it just re-invents itself in a perpetual search for something or someone to demonise.

[String]

The South is filled to the brim with Scots-Irish, they are hardly troubling the Nobel committee on a regular basis. Their culture has been military and quite frankly criminal for centuries. That's largely why the South is bad at education.

As far as I understand it this law is not a state wide ban of books(it's difficult to get accurate info on this from the likes of CNN, NYT etc). It merely allows local school districts to remove books they feel is inappropriate. The districts are required to report these books to Tallahassee, which at least suggests some sort of transparency in the process. Some local district's will remain fairly liberal, others will have a more conservative stance. What has changed since De Santis became governor is that we now have greater agenda pushing by vested interests. Some of these interests(on both sides no doubt) are worrying.

As I said previously, many of these books will be age inappropriate, not all. Some books will be banned that are unworthy of being banned. That's what happens with legislation, it can and will be misused and abused. We just have to hope these cases are small. That if there are books unjustly banned it will hopefully be in minimal Florida school districts.

As far as I understand it there is a question in the US census about sexual orientation.

As I’m of Scots-Irish descent I’m not a criminal or been in the military, I no doubt will not win a Nobel prize but I have a degree hons in computer science. Please keep your racist remarks to yourself.

[jason_c]

As I’m of Scots-Irish descent I’m not a criminal or been in the military, I no doubt will not win a Nobel prize but I have a degree hons in computer science. Please keep your racist remarks to yourself.

As soon as I say every person of Scots-Irish descent is criminal or military I'll happily retract my statement, apologise or keep my views to myself. I will reiterate my opinion; top class education has hardly been a priority in that community for many generations. I'm actually an admirer of the community. A massive strain of anti-intellectualism and anti-government within the Scots-Irish. Without them there is no Revolutionary War.