This is interesting. It lays the plan of the Christian Nationalists out clearly with their goal of RULING the rest of us. Hugs
Ahn told the faithful that Trump’s victory would be their victory: “We’re going to rule and reign through President Trump and under the lordship of Jesus Christ.” Ahn has long been explicit in his quest to have Christians conquer the mountains of influence — to become the “head not the tail” in directing government and culture. “Once we do get to the head, then all of a sudden we can make decrees and declarations,” he explained in a 2010 interview. “When you get to the top,” he said, “you can start doing some radical things for the Lord.”
Why Are So Many Democrats Backing an Accused Christian Nationalist?
Derrick Peterson claims he’s running “to represent diversity in its purest form,” but his Christian nationalist affiliations suggest otherwise
“I’M NOT A Christian nationalist,” Derrick Peterson, a leading school board candidate in Portland, Oregon, tells Rolling Stone.
It’s an unusual declaration. But Peterson is an unusual politician.
In the biography he touts, Peterson is a career law enforcement officer — a Black man who spent 35 years rising through the ranks of the local sheriff’s department, before making an unsuccessful election bid for sheriff in 2022.
But Peterson has other credentials that he does not trumpet. He’s a commissioned “apostle” in the church of a Christian-nationalist preacher who rejects the separation of church and state as a myth “from the pit of hell,” and who traveled to Washington, D.C., to back president Trump on Jan. 6, 2021.
In 2020, Peterson was also named to the board of that church’s anti-abortion activist organization, 1Race4Life, whose members pledge to always “vote pro-life” and to “defend the sacred covenant of marriage between a man and a woman.” (Peterson now disputes this affiliation.)
This second set of bona fides present Peterson as an uneasy fit in uber-progressive Portland, where abortion access and LGBTQ+ rights are politically sacrosanct. But on the strength of his public credentials, Peterson has been endorsed by a wide swath of the city’s center-left establishment, including by The Oregonian, the Willamette Week alt weekly, as well as by a gay city commissioner, the progressive county DA, prominent local Black politicians, and the Willamette Women Democrats.
Is Peterson a stealth candidate — poised to secure a victory for the religious right in the beating heart of blue-state liberalism?He disputes this notion, telling Rolling Stone: “I have no hidden agendas.” But a leading scholar of the charismatic Christian movement that holds up Peterson as one of its own, calls the candidate’s explanations “hard to square.”
Nationally, school boards have emerged as a front line in America’s culture wars — with high stakes for the hearts and minds of young Americans. Right wingers are pushing into school governance in an effort to stymie evolving social norms on gender and sexuality as well as to block a factual accounting of America’s dark history of enslavement and genocide. School boards can set local standards on everything from banning books; to forcing trans students to use the wrong pronouns or the wrong bathrooms; to muzzling teachers from discussing their own racial and gender identities with students.
This cultural fight goes hand-in-glove with a rising tide of Christian nationalism that seeks to remake America according to fundamentalist biblical standards, in hopes of hastening the second coming of Christ. Christian nationalists have raised alarm at the “grooming” of a younger generation in public schools — a move away from God’s truth orchestrated by what they perceive as “demonic” forces.
For his part, Peterson — a registered Democrat — claims he’s been the victim of a misunderstanding. He hotly contests that he was, in fact, on the board of the anti-gay marriage, anti-abortion 1Race4Life — and that his name and likeness were misappropriated. “I am not affiliated with this group, nor does it reflect my views on marriage equality and reproductive health,” he said in written answers to Rolling Stone’s questions. “My view is that everyone has the right to make their individual personal choice about what they do with their own body. I have also been an active advocate for LGBTQ+ rights.”
Despite appearing on 1Race4Life’s website since 2020, Peterson claims he only became aware of his disputed board membership last week and “took action to have my picture, name, and information removed immediately.” 1Race4Life did not return Rolling Stone’s inquiries about Peterson. (The entire website is currently down at press time, though its social channels are still active.)
1Race4Life is a project of the ministry of Ché Ahn, a leading Christian nationalist, affiliated with the New Apostolic Reformation. NAR preachers come out of the Charismatic or Pentecostal tradition that believes in “gifts of the spirit” — including speaking in tongues and the performance of miracles. NAR ministries also hold that prophecy is not a bygone biblical artifact, rather that we live in a new age of “prophets” and “apostles” who receive direct messages from God and help exert His authority here on Earth. Many adherents believe that it is the job of Christians to seize control of government and culture to bring the world into biblical alignment so that Christ can return and reign over the Earth.
1Race4Life was Ahn’s response to the uprisings after the George Floyd murder — seeking to channel the emotions around the value of life into protecting the unborn. 1Race4Life describes itself as “an apostolic network of ethnically and culturally diverse, pro-life Evangelical leaders committed to seeing the end of abortion on a local, state, and national level.”
Along with Peterson, the 1Race4Life board included top Christian nationalist figures including Lance Wallnau. Wallnau is a chief promoter of the Seven Mountains Mandate, which calls on Christians to attempt a national takeover by capturing the seven pinnacles of culture — including religion, entertainment, government, and education.
“It’s implausible to me that Derrick Peterson had no idea that he was getting placed on this board with all these brand-name people in that independent charismatic world,” says Matthew Taylor, Protestant Scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies who is writing a book on the role of religion in the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Ahn has long been explicit in his quest to have Christians conquer the mountains of influence — to become the “head not the tail” in directing government and culture. “Once we do get to the head, then all of a sudden we can make decrees and declarations,” he explained in a 2010 interview. “When you get to the top,” he said, “you can start doing some radical things for the Lord.”
Ahn was a based Trump supporter who insisted that the 2020 election was stolen through “egregious fraud.” He spoke at the “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 5, 2021, insisting that Trump was going to stay in the White House and that America would be a “red nation in perpetuity.” Ahn told the faithful that Trump’s victory would be their victory: “We’re going to rule and reign through President Trump and under the lordship of Jesus Christ.”
“We are here to change history,” dominionist “apostle” Ché Ahn told “Stop the Steal” rally a day before the insurrection. He predicted that "we’re gonna rule and reign through President Trump and under the lordship of Jesus Christ.” pic.twitter.com/KlqDUqFlYc
Peterson now says, “I do not support the political agenda of Ché Ahn.” He insists: “I do not follow his appearances or have contact with him. This is the first time I heard about his appearance in D.C. I do not condone the acts that happened that day. I support democracy.”
Peterson did confirm to Rolling Stone, however, that he was commissioned in 2020 as an “apostle” in Ahn’s Harvest International Ministry (HIM). Today, Peterson downplays the position as if it were a service award: “I was honored for my community work as an apostle, an honorary title.” He adds: “I was being recognized for the authority I carried based on my position at work, the community, and as a long time DEI instructor. This included my ability to network, galvanize, and bring people together.”
Taylor, the expert in NAR theology, finds this explanation far-fetched. “I can’t speak for Peterson’s perception of it, but HIM does not [commission apostles] ad hoc or willy-nilly. They want to invest in these people as leaders in their network.” Peterson was named a “marketplace apostle” which in the NAR context, Taylor says, is someone who “advances the Kingdom of God outside of church.” It is a designation, Taylor adds, that “puts you in the upper tier of religious leaders.”
Peterson claims his intersection with Ahn was fleeting: “I attended one meeting and have not been involved with that church since.” Yet Peterson has since traded on his “apostle” credential, preaching at churches in the Pacific Northwest directly linked to Ahn, including the New Harvest Church outside of Tacoma, Washington.
That church’s “Statement of Faith” refers to Christians being “empowered to influence” the seven “cultural mountains”; touts “our mission to subdue the enemy and bring the Kingdom of God to the Earth”; and compares gay marriage to incest and pedophilia.
During a guest sermon in September 2020, Peterson gently corrected the church pastor who said Peterson was “not an official ordained minister” by touting that he’d been “officially commissioned as a marketplace apostle.”
Peterson’s sermon that day called on Christians to assert their power: ”It’s time to rise up and take your place — take your authority — walk in the majesty of Jesus Christ, of God, what He has given you.” He called on Christians to “get out of your seat” and begin “knocking” on the doors of power.
The service — held at the height of the George Floyd protests in Portland — closed with the church’s official pastor taking the stage with Peterson and leading a prayer to call on God to “cancel” what the pastor called “the demonic power inspiring those riots.”
Peterson’s name has also been scrubbed from the web page for Ché Ahn’s church that announced his commissioning as an apostle. “Who is he calling to get those pages pulled down, if he really doesn’t know what is going on?” asks Taylor. “The whole thing just doesn’t track.”
Following the money, Peterson’s political ambitions have been funded with donations from a pair of preachers, including a fellow apostle in Ahn’s network, and a Wichita, Kansas, minister who is the lead translator of a controversial version of the New Testament that Ahn touts as “the Bible of choice for the next Jesus people movement.”
For his part, Peterson tells Rolling Stone that his only objective in running is “to represent diversity in its purest form,” adding that “as a school board member, I will be committed to further helping my community, schools, and youth.”
Peterson does have competition in the vote-by-mail race, which wraps up May 16. He faces longtime school teacher Patte Sullivan, who — ironically — threw her hat into the ring before Peterson declared for the race, aiming to prevent Portland from becoming part of the national trend.
“I signed up sort of the last minute,” she said in an endorsement interview with Willamette Week last week, before Peterson’s unusual affiliations became public. “I heard on the radio that there were school board positions opening, and the back of my mind I said, ‘Oh school board — that’s where the right wing sneaks in.’ ”
The authoritative right wing governor who is against woke and pushed through the don’t say gay bills in schools including up to 12th grade (yes no child has internet and heard about gay people by the time they are legal able to vote) has appointed a board to judge each teacher / professor by their ideology. If they are not republican enough, then they get fired or denied tenure. Remember the point of tenure was to ensure that political influence was removed from higher education teaching. That has not worked well for Republicans that are now a dying minority desperate to hold on to power. This is scary as everything DeathSantis has managed to do in Florida has been copied in other red states. Hugs
During a contentious Board of Trustees meeting Wednesday, five professors at the New College of Florida were denied tenure—even though they had already received approvals at every other point in the process.
Those professors are the latest casualties of the culture-war politics that led conservative trustees appointed by Florida governor Ron DeSantis to spearhead a self-declared “hostile takeover” of the college.
The tenure denial prompted the abrupt resignation of Matthew Lepinski, the faculty trustee on the board, who accused fellow members of destabilizing NCF. Lepinski walked out after the vote, announcing suddenly that he was “quitting the college.”
The school’s interim president, DeSantis ally and former state House Speaker Richard Corcoran, said in a memo to the trustees that he wanted the professors’ tenure denied or delayed in part because of the administrative changes and because of “a renewed focus on ensuring the college is moving towards a more traditional liberal arts institution.”
The trustees denied tenure for all five professors on identical 6-4 votes, with the new conservative board members in the majority. Shouts of “shame on you!” came from the audience afterward.
The five professors denied tenure are Rebecca Black and Lin Jiang, who both teach organic chemistry; Nassima Neggaz, history and religion with a focus on Islam; coastal and marine science professor Gerardo Toro-Farmer; and Hugo Viera-Vargas, whose specialty is Caribbean/Latin American studies and music.
— The Chronicle of Higher Education (@chronicle) April 28, 2023
In my 13 years in the Florida State University System I have NEVER seen a Board of Trustees overturn a tenure decision. The justification here were vague "extraordinary circumstances," with one board member citing "questionable publication histories." A 🧵on why that's bunk:
All 5 New College professors going up for tenure were denied today, despite approval from the college's faculty and previous administration. Every academic should be paying attention to what's happening there, now. Florida is very likely your future. https://t.co/9ZyvU7meyP
Tenure isn't just a rubber stamp. It's a years long process involving all levels of university governance, and it's incredibly thorough. These are the steps those candidates would have gone through before the Board decided to overturn it on a whim:
When you're hired to a tenure-track position, you receive both annual performance evaluations and annual tenure appraisals from your department chair. These monitor your progress towards tenure, and provide guidance for hitting the relevant marks.
At the midpoint between hiring and tenure, you undergo mid-tenure review. This involves compiling an exhaustive dossier of your accomplishments, which is appraised by a committee of your colleagues, your chair, and the dean.
All candidates must go up for tenure by their 6th year in a tenure-track position. If you go up early, as all of these New College professors did, it's because your case is a slam-dunk. You also tend to get extra scrutiny from your colleagues for going up early.
The tenure dossier is literally hundreds of pages, and it's a colossal amount of work to assemble. I've been through this process twice, once for tenure, and again for promotion to full professor. It's not fun.
Once your dossier is complied, it goes through multiple levels of review pursuant to established departmental, university, and CBA criteria. Most cases are approved (self-selection), but even then it's not 100%. Rejections happen, and it sucks for everyone involved.
By self-selection, I mean that weaker candidates tend to be weeded out earlier. Their appraisals and mid-tenure reviews make it clear that they are not progressing adequately, and they look for other positions rather than face rejection. Denial of tenure is a really bad look.
Tenure cases are reviewed by external referees, a committee of departmental faculty, the department chair, the dean, the university promotion & tenure committee, the provost, and the university president before ever getting to the Board of Trustees.
The university promotion and tenure committee is where most rejections happen. It consists of faculty from all over the university, and they take their job very seriously. The time commitment is immense, and I have the utmost respect for my colleagues who take this service on.
This basic process is used at every Florida SUS institution, including New College. There are some variations. New College, for instance, has divisions instead of departments, and a provost's advisory committee rather than a tenure and promotion committee, but you get the idea.
So by the time these cases arrived on the desks of Chris Rufo and his fellow partisan hacks, they had already gone through an exhaustive internal and external review process at the university level, and been found to have satisfied all of the relevant tenure criteria.
A note about the Boards of Trustees in the Florida State University System. They consist of 13 members: 6 appointed by the governor, 5 appointed by the SUS Board of Governors, as well as the student body president and the faculty association president.
DeSantis made 6 appointments to the Board back in January. They voted unanimously to deny tenure, and they were the only Trustees to do so. The vote was 6-4 in all five cases. I haven't seen any reporting yet on why three Trustees did not participate in the vote.
So there you have it. Five exceptional academics were voted down by a board of partisans appointed by a governor who's using the nation's highest ranked system of public universities as a political football in his quest for higher office.
Since these professors went up early, they can still apply for tenure again next year. But the more likely outcome is that they'll look for jobs elsewhere, as talented university faculty across Florida are now doing in ever-increasing numbers.
i just got a text from a friend in Florida this morning. Her husband has accepted a teaching position here in Connecticut. She’ll miss the climate, but not the crazy as she so nicely put it.
We had a job opening in our department over the summer. When Dodds was announced multiple people withdrew their applications. It was a nightmare filling the job because multiple people offered the job declined the offer. This after multiple interviews and all that. We wound up with a good hire in the end (which just shows how many qualified people there are for many of these jobs) but his wife did not come here with him so I doubt he’ll stay more than a couple of years.
They want to create Florida’s answer to Wheaton College. There are a few of these schools around the country that are known for indoctrinating students already right-leaning. They want a Florida version of that and creating it. There’s really not much anyone can do to stop them either. I have no idea what the result will be. Will they succeed or (more likely) just make a big mess of things. There are very few of these schools where you can get the liberal arts college experience/education at public school prices, so this and another school in Georgia (I forget the name) and I don’t know of many others. But be clear about this, control it or destroy it…either is fine with the far right.
The real reason faculty need tenure is so they won’t be fired at 50 and replaced with someone right out of school who will ask for less money. That’s the main reason workers fought so hard for things like seniority. I hear people sneer at that, but never anyone who was looking for a job after about 45. Yes, academic freedom is important. Your work should be judged by peers not business people who bought their way onto the board.
As Texas Gov Abbot prepares to pardon a white man & convicted murderer for killing a peaceful BLM protestor—Texas sentences a Black man to 70 years in prison for “spitting at police” to “make an example out of him.”😳
NAPLES, Fla. – A teacher at a Collier County school is facing backlash from parents after they showed a video celebrating “Confederate History Month” to the entire school.
The video aired as part of the morning announcements on Tuesday at Manatee Middle School, according to a district spokesperson.
“If you didn’t know, April is an officially celebrated month here in the State of Florida named Confederate History Month,” the teacher said in the video.
The school district wouldn’t identify who the teacher is but said they are investigating.
“Every year our state celebrates and memorializes that valiant, brave fight and the countless sacrifices by our men and women during that known as the Civil War,” said the teacher in the video.
The teacher bills the video as a look into the state’s recognition of Confederate History Month.
However, parents call this pro-Confederate propaganda.
“It was very biased seeming,” said Casey Smith. “The confederacy, as far as I’m concerned, has always been a stain on American history.”
“To me, it looks like straight out of a Confederate sympathizer playbook,” said Annie O’Donnell.
At one point in the video, the teacher suggests a different name for the Civil War.
“[The] Civil War, but may be more correctly titled the War To Prevent Southern Independence,” he said.
“No. It is the Civil War,” responded Casey Smith. “It has always been called the Civil War.”
Parents tell NBC2 they have no problem talking about slavery, the Civil War, or our nation’s darkest days.
“Some of this actually sounds very accurate,” Smith said.
The issue they have is with what the teacher made up and put in the video and in front of their child’s faces.
“They spoke about celebrating the confederacy in the State of Florida,” Smith said.
O’Donnell, whose kids don’t go to Manatee Middle School, said it’s important for kids to learn about our nation’s history, but not in a way like this.
“Doing it accurately, holistically, fully,” she said. “I would find it difficult to imagine that the students here are going to be able to trust this particular teacher again.”
The State of Florida does recognize April as Confederate History Month. Several movements in recent years have failed. In Florida, the birthdays of Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis, along with Confederate Memorial Day are all considered state-legal holidays.
Collier County Public Schools said the instruction of Confederate History Month is not a part of the district’s curriculum.
The district wouldn’t identify who the teacher is, but a spokesperson did say they are still employed while the school investigates.
CONFEDERATE CONTROVERSY — A teacher at a Collier County school is facing backlash from parents after they showed a video celebrating “Confederate History Month” to the entire school. ⬇ https://t.co/9X3OuskmS7
The entire point of America’s civil war was slavery, both the continued practice of it in the states where it existed and whether it would be allowed to spread into the newly conquered and/or purchased territories in the west.
The state leaders, many of whom later joined the seditious Confederate government, said so, repeatedly.
Why did the Confederate states seek to break away from the rest of the Union? Absolutely no other reason was given at the time other than for the preservation of slavery. Period. They believed that the election of Lincoln as President presaged the rise of an unstoppable Abolitionist movement.
Any time some history whitewashing white supremacist tries to claim it was about “southern independence,” it’s time to demand, “Independence from what exactly? What was the southern states’ beef with the rest of the country? Be specific. If you’re going to say, “Washington was too heavy-handed”—exactly about what?”
It was always slavery and white supremacy. Their own leaders confirmed it in countless writings and speeches from those times. Their political and cultural descendants have spent the last century and a half trying excuse sedition, insurrection, and literal treason, and to pretend the secession and war weren’t about maintaining and expanding slavery at all.
Republicans are frantically working to make it harder for young people to vote as Gen Z has turned out for Democrats in record numbers. Idaho Republicans are banning student IDs to vote while Texas Republicans proposed banning voting centers on campuses. https://t.co/SZ9piZkDPV
— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) April 15, 2023
community values** are reflected in each school library catalog in the district
**Some exclusions apply
Gay, trans, Black, Muslim, non-Christian community member’s values will not be reflected – or even acknowledged.
Also, Missouri has out-uglied Texas.
In Missouri, the Republican-controlled House on Tuesday approved a budget that completely defunds public libraries. The move came in response to an ACLU lawsuit filed by the Missouri Association of School Librarians and the Missouri Library Association, challenging a recent law that bans certain books. The measure has led to the removal of over 300 books from school libraries — many with LGBTQ characters and social justice topics. Missouri Democrats have denounced GOP censorship
For adults. This is not about protecting children, it is about wiping out a group of people that the religious right doesn’t like. It doesn’t fit their view of the world created by their god. So the right doesn’t just live and let live, these religious right groups force everyone to live by their church doctrines. Hugs
Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced plans to restrict health care for transgender people weeks ago, when protesters rallied at the Capitol to urge lawmakers to pass a law banning puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries for children. But the discussion was focused on minors, not adults.
Oh my god.
Missouri AG just essentially banned gender affirming care for most trans adults via emergency rule.
Requires 3 years of dysphoria, 18 months of therapy sessions, doesn't allow people with autism/depression.
Note how effortlessly the goalpost has shifted from saving harming minors to harming adults? Of course, as we here have always known, it was never about “protecting children.”
They’re testing the waters. Trans people are easy targets for the theofascists. I guarantee you that 80-90% of Americans know absolutely nothing about trans people, their lives and their challenges.
The theofascists’ ultimate target is the LGB community.
They see what other nations like Russia and Hungary are doing, and are envious.
This is exactly what happened in Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. Creeping restrictions on civil rights and criminalizing the existence of ‘suspect’ groups of people. We have to fight back and beat this before it spreads to other states.
The federal government is going to have to intervene. They did it in the civil rights movement for black people and they are going to have to find their will and courage to do it again. These people mean us harm and will not stop
This has always been the goal – not “protecting children,” but eliminating trans people from society, with an eye toward eliminating gays, lesbians and bisexuals too. Trans people are just the easiest target, and going after them makes for an effective divide and conquer strategy if you can get homocons and TERFs on board.
Anyone with a working brain knew this was going to happen. Like other people have said, this whole “think of the children” BS was just a cover! Now they are coming after trans adults. After that they will come after gay rights! I guarantee it! I’m sure interracial marriage will be on the chopping block too. These fascists will stop at nothing to get the right wing theocracy they crave. We must fight these asshats tooth and nail!
DeathSantis has made the state of Florida racist bigoted white supremacist religious right conservative maga paradise. He has made minority rule of pushing hate and intolerance against anyone not following the maga Christian talking points. It is not enough for these people to publicly live their maga Christian right hateful lives they demand they get to use those Christian maga conservative views against others, they feel entitled to attack those they feel are not following their church doctrines and they attack those that allow or are tolerant of others. They feel that every one around them must act according to their regressive, backwards beliefs. Hugs
Many elected leaders like U.S. Sen. Rick Scott denounced the Nazi salutes, anti-Jewish slurs and Nazi regalia. On Monday, the governor did not condemn the demonstrators. Instead, he criticized Democrats.
Meanwhile, bomb threats forced the temporary closure of historically Black colleges and universities. Also, on the first day of Black History Month, DeSantis asked the Florida Supreme Court whether Black congressman Al Lawson’s district was unconstitutional. Lawson responded that the governor is race-baiting to build political points with his base.
Wow. Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) is now requiring state board applicants to write 500 words about what they “admire” about her before they can be considered for a job. The same application only requires 250 words for other questions. https://t.co/uJpJLLRD2U
— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) April 12, 2023
Originally I was not sure that if DeathSantis was a true believer, a gang thug, or just a pandering republican. I have come to the opinion that he really is all three. While he seemed smart enough to get through an Ivy League school, he was considered really backward and thuggish in the military, which carried over to him being thought of as stupid in the congress. He really is as ambitious, as religious, as callous, and as entitled thinking a white man who will hurt anyone to advance himself as they come. The only difference between him and trump is his age and his willingness to listen to others who tell him they can get him what he wants. Otherwise, he is a trump clone. Give him authority and power and he will abuse it to enrich himself, create more authority for himself, and to hurt those he can while enjoying doing so. Terrifying because he took the trump base and entrenched himself as the governor that will do what every they want regardless of how it hurts others or is illegal, if they will continue to support him. In the article you will see a free link to the story and I suggest you use it. I have and won’t abuse the privilege to copy it here. Hugs
Backed by GOP supermajorities in both chambers, Mr. DeSantis is waging frontal assaults on press freedom, reproductive freedom, free enterprise and academic freedom. Meanwhile, in the name of protecting gun rights, he has scaled back prudent safety rules. And now he’s poised to target undocumented immigrants, including “dreamers,” with what will be some of the cruelest policies in America.
One of the cruelest steps Mr. DeSantis plans to take in the coming weeks to bolster his presidential bona fides is a crackdown on undocumented immigrants. He wants to require hospitals to collect data on the immigration status of patients, which would deter people from seeking needed medical care. Another measure under consideration would make it a felony to shelter, hire or transport any undocumented immigrant.
"Backed by GOP supermajorities in both chambers, Mr. DeSantis is waging frontal assaults on press freedom, reproductive freedom, free enterprise and academic freedom"https://t.co/nFI2W74yPi
He’s a fascist with a fascist supermajority legislature supporting him. Having said that, I don’t see him winning outside of Florida. If Trump drops dead maybe he can get the R nom but even then I’m not sure.
Watch what he does with the Disney thing. As long as he can bully his opponent he can run over them but when he can’t (see: Disney) he becomes a petty, vindictive bitch who resorts to bluster (tolls! taxes!) and just comes off as throwing a tantrum.
The Disney fiasco is going to cost the taxpayers in Floriduh a lot of money. Tourism may suffer too, with groups advising their members not to travel to Florida due to the real danger they could face there.
Definitely. One would hope that would turn some people in Florida off from supporting DeSantis but they do seem to love their fascist government given his margin of victory in his reelection.
I do wonder if his base won’t care too much because the brunt of the punishment is going to be felt in and around Orange County, which is blue.
I think him ignoring the looming insurance disaster while he’s out running for president/on his book tour might get him in more trouble with his base but we’ll see.
Everything they say is true. And it’s playing well to his base, which is part of the plan (securing the GQP nomination for president, the other part being pretending he’s Viktor Orban).
But there’s another side to this coin. He may have enshrined all this fascist ideology into Florida law and got lots of media coverage doing so. But that will come back to haunt him if he runs in the general because he won’t be able to walk it back, to tack to the centre. That will spell his doom.
Am expecting DeSantis to be 2023-2024’s Scott Walker (remember him?).
I hope that’s the case, but I can’t be too sure. American voters can be astoundingly shallow come Election Day, not to mention the potential for the Green Party to ratfuck the Democrats like in 2016.
Though Trump was nominally against abortion in 2016 (typically it was hard to pin down exactly what his position was), few believed Roe v. Wade would be in danger if he was elected. It just wasn’t a big issue.
But it is now and will be even more so in 2024. And DeSantis’s position is crystal clear. Add in other things like his stance on guns, his white supremacy, his weaponizing of government, his picking on the beloved Disney franchise, his targeting of minorities and his blind ambition, none of which play well with the US public, and it’s clear he has an uphill battle ahead of him, even if the shitgibbon is somehow neutralized.
Not saying your skepticism is misplaced. A sharp downturn in the economy, say, or war with Russia or China could radically change the calculus. But if so, most voters would be voting against Biden, not for DeSantis.
That’s what worries me – enough people voting for DeSantis just because he’s “the other guy” or sitting out or voting third-party would be enough to hand the GOP fascists the White House.
They tried this in Alabama about 15 years ago. Guess how many houses didn’t get build and construction companies that folded. They had no one to pick watermelons, oranges, etc. They rotted in the fields. So you do that Ronnie!
Georgia boned at least one vidalia crop with their anti-migrant labor BS, (which was therefore short-lived) …cause local people can’t *live* harvesting one crop a year for subminimum wages, or even minimum wages, thus did not appear. Seasonal labor essentially *has* to move around to get through every year, and average American job-seekers neither have an unofficial system and infrastructure for that, nor do they generally find that appealing.
Not to mention that if someone that’s a citizen is physically-capable of that kind of labor, chances are they will have a *better* job than that at least available. I mean, when I was homeless I made an attempt to get something out of that but between the disability that largely put me there in the first place and the whole not-being-fed part, all I got was sick from being in the Sun and …no pay at all to use to go eat something and try again the next day.
I think what Republicans and racists expect to happen very quickly proves to not be what happens. But they still will neither pay for better arrangements or stop blaming the migrant labor they presume is ‘illegal’ for all their perceived problems.
Georgia boned at least one vidalia crop with their anti-migrant labor BS, (which was therefore short-lived) …cause local people can’t *live* harvesting one crop a year for subminimum wages, or even minimum wages, thus did not appear. Seasonal labor essentially *has* to move around to get through every year, and average American job-seekers neither have an unofficial system and infrastructure for that, nor do they generally find that appealing.
Not to mention that if someone that’s a citizen is physically-capable of that kind of labor, chances are they will have a *better* job than that at least available. I mean, when I was homeless I made an attempt to get something out of that but between the disability that largely put me there in the first place and the whole not-being-fed part, all I got was sick from being in the Sun and …no pay at all to use to go eat something and try again the next day.
I think what Republicans and racists expect to happen very quickly proves to not be what happens. But they still will neither pay for better arrangements or stop blaming the migrant labor they presume is ‘illegal’ for all their perceived problems.
Why do you think I call him DeFascist? Fucking WaPo! All of you bastards in the both sides media are complicit in bringing this about. How long have you scoffed at those of us who have literally spent decades warning you that this was happening? That is what happens when you are securely ensconced in your ivory tower. You look out at the world and think that you have sure knowledge of reality when actually you’re just seeing your own biases.
Who the fuck does he think is going to tend to the landscaping all of the low rent gated communities? Who is going to harvest the agricultural bounty? Can’t wait for next year’s strawberry crop to rot in the fields.
They think the only way to compete is also to go far right.
It’s stupid. DeSantis constantly increases the size and authority of the Floridian government and its control over Florida’s people, you’d think that “small government” would be an easy rallying cry without having to tread on going far right.
“…would make it a felony to shelter, hire or transport any undocumented immigrant.” Replace “undocumented immigrant” with “Jew” and it’s a page right out of Hitler’s playbook.
I would like everyone to notice Joe’s tweet at the end. Pro-life pretenders in Florida legislators passed this b ill along with the anti-trans, don’t say gay bills, anti-woke bills, anti books with LGBTQ+ or race history all in the name of protecting the children, but they approve open carry with no training. The amount of gun violence is already high here in Florida and will now go up. How is this pro-life? I don’t get it. Hugs
Senate preps anti-drag show bill by @Clay_Yarborough for passage despite apparent conflict with existing law
🚨 JUST IN: Florida Republicans introduced a late-filed amendment to expand their bill censoring drag shows to include those at city pride parades.
They're now using intimidation and threats of misdemeanor charges to scare LGBTQ-friendly cities out of hosting drag altogether. pic.twitter.com/if60MwYUvO
— Carlos Guillermo Smith (@CarlosGSmith) April 4, 2023
To be clear, the bill doesn’t ban drag. It censors drag in front of minors w/vague, subjective language and threatens misdemeanors, $10,000 fines, and license revocation for violations. That means businesses, and now cities, will be scared to welcome drag for fear of punishment.
— Carlos Guillermo Smith (@CarlosGSmith) April 5, 2023
Florida is currently debating SB 1438, a bill banning drag shows. Senator Yarborough, the chief sponsor of the bill admits that the bill would apply to live performances of Rocky Horror Picture Show. pic.twitter.com/klRKy0dFp8
Op-ed: #Florida's attacks on drag shows puts Shakespeare theatrical productions at risk, because he often featured characters who cross-dressed. https://t.co/dSA0jaModg
Florida Replicans have introduced a late amendment to implement a criminal ban on pride events throughout the state of Florida if anyone present is dressed in drag. pic.twitter.com/RVHnpf0yww
Scottie's Playtime 