Tag Archives: Ron DeSantis

According to Ron DeSantis’ educational policies, discussions and lessons on race that make students uncomfortable are bad. Schools are rapidly adjusting to avoid any mention of race that might bring DeStalinist’s heavy hand down on them. However a Florida teacher showing a pro-confederacy video isn’t “cause for discipline” according to the school board; instead the teacher’s complaining about how it’s the board’s investigation that makes students uncomfortable around him and his fee-fees are hurt.

So apparently DeSantis’ fight against “indoctrination” in schools doesn’t extend to indoctrinating students with lies about the Confederacy. Heck it doesn’t extend to fighting indoctrination as long as it’s right-wing indoctrination. As Paul Campos says, you’re going to indoctrinate them in something, whether it’s “seceding to preserve the right to treat human beings as property is justifiable” or “equality is good, racism is bad.”

Over in Texas, Sen. Mayes Middleton sponsored a bill to let schools hire chaplains as mental-health counselors instead of professional counselors or social workers. And there’s no certification or other requirements the chaplains be qualified to counsel students. Middleton trotted out the usual cliches in a WaPo interview: we took god out of schools, everything went to pot!

Of course we didn’t take God out. Students can pray, form religious clubs, etc. so God’s still there. Efforts to revive school prayer are much more about showing non-Christian kids who’s in charge, just as school prayer and Bible readings in the 19th century were all about teaching Catholics and Jews this was a Protestant country (this was openly touted as a good thing, as covered in the book The Fourth R). As for making them godly, it didn’t stop good Christians from supporting Jim Crow or lynching black Americans.

Middleton tells the interviewer that separation of church and state is not a thing (it is). And while he insists chaplains are not going to proselytize, but the religious group backing the effort is all about proselytizing. And Middleton shot down an amendment to ban it. If counseling was the real concern, wouldn’t he put some effort into seeing the chaplains were qualified? Instead he approved an amendment to require certification, then it got stripped from the bill. Go figure.

I suspect that at a minimum Middleton wants to show the students his religion trumps theirs; if the chaplains indoctrinate the students, that’s gravy.

Likewise, Jim Jordan pretending him investigating academics for identifying Republican falsehoods is a win-win: no matter that he won’t find a smoking gun (or any gun) he’s already getting researchers to back off (“The fear of being targeted is profound enough that several researchers spoke on the condition that they not be named, and one prominent professor asked to be removed from the story entirely, citing concerns about his family’s safety.”)

I’ll wrap up with, first, a more positive (sort-of) story about Christian parents who’ve rejected homeschooling and no longer think the public schools are full of groomers and monsters. And second, two longer quotes:

“I’ve seen established academics—including the dean of a professional school at a university I worked for—explicitly defend the notion that humanities education should be stripped out of college degree requirements as a “social justice” measure. It’s wrong, they argued, to make less affluent students pay for “unnecessary” humanities courses. ” — from a discussion of how colleges are wrecking college education.

“the idea that the fundamental function of the university is to preserve, extend, and transmit cultural knowledge while teaching young people to think critically is itself a contested political position. Plenty of people in American culture and politics, mainly on the right but some on the left as well, don’t support this, because they believe that independent critical thinking is either bad in itself — this belief is the essence of reactionary politics of all stripes — or should give way to more pressing priorities” — Paul Campos in commentary about the previous link.

Florida Republican Rep. Randy Fine is cool with erasing gay and trans people to supposedly protect children.

Unsurprisingly Ron DeSantis is cool with singling out Disney for higher taxes to punish them for not hating gays enough. Republican Nick DeCeglie has slipped an amendment into a bill that would target Disney for monorail inspections.

Some Florida legislators say they’re fed up with DeSantis using state policy to build his presidential cred. One sign is that DeSantis’ bill on suing media outlets more easily is DOA. Too bad that’s not the case for a bill that might let doctors refuse patients based on moral objections — and possibly let insurers refuse coverage too (Republicans deny that last part, but they lie a lot). But don’t worry for DeSantis, the Republicans in the legislature are all in on abortion bans, mother’s health be damned.

The next Florida health emergency might require legislative approval before health officials do anything.

“If someone wants to come to a public space and say, ‘We should reinstitute slavery,’ why are we afraid?” — Fla. Republican Spencer Roach on a bill he sponsored forcing colleges to host right-wing speakers in the name of Free Speech. Roach is also sponsoring a bill that would override local historic preservation rules to make it easier to build high rises.

Florida college students are not fond of DeSantis’ efforts to make state schools conform to party doctrine.

One Florida school district is currently dealing with fallout after a teacher showed a Confederate pride video celebrating the glorious CSA. Hmm, do you suppose DeStalinist will denounce it for possibly causing some students discomfort? Probably the teacher will do better than the anti-DeSantis superintendent whose license may be revoked for his defiance.

Don’t think it’s all about hating LGBTQ, Jews and uppity women and POC, though: there’s money in it: “The plan—which was proposed in March by board chair Bridget Ziegler, a co-founder of the right-wing book-banning group Moms for Liberty and wife of the state GOP chair—would have cost the school district $28,000 and given Vermilion the job of reviewing and recommending teacher lesson plans, textbooks, and library books. The initial proposal would have also had the newfound consultancy agency sit in on teacher interviews and review district policies and procedures, costing the school district $4,820 a month.”

Wouldn’t you know, Florida birthed Moms for Liberty, which masks their hate by pretending to protect children. And if you’re wondering about all those Republican states weakening child labor laws, they also trace back to one Florida right-wing group.

The Texas Senate has banned tenure for new professors, though the bill may have a tougher time in the house. The Senate also passed a bill requiring posting the Ten Commandments in schools., which Lt. Governor Dan Patrick brags will bring prayer back to schools (spoiler: it never left). They’re also busy restricting library books. Oh, and restricting which precincts you can vote in. Oh and here’s a goody: by increasing medical liability for any problems with trans care, even if the doctor’s not at fault, a new bill would leave doctors on the hook if anything goes wrong. What a vicious, sneaky way to discourage doctors providing care.

In my state, North Carolina, Tricia Cotham — the representative who recently switched from Dem to Republican — is a perfect example of Murc’s law. It’s not because there’s any personal gain to her from siding with the dominant party, it’s that her evil Democratic colleagues forced her to switch. She’s apparently gotten rid of her support for gay rights; too bad as NC Republicans are joining in on the criminalize-drag-show trend.

Montana tells NC trans legislators to hold my beer. Trans legislator Zooey Zephyr stood up to the powers that be on this issue. So did her supporters. The powers that be, as you can see, were not happy (she’s now having to vote remotely, having been banned from the floor).

Given right-to-lifers’ use of the Comstock laws and other old anti-abortion laws, it’s good Michigan Democrats are repealing the state’s ban on couples living together. Republicans oppose repeal. Michigan’s also repealed the state’s old abortion ban. North Dakota, however, has banned it almost completely — and there are no abortion clinics left in the state.

Alabama forced a state official out for writing the wrong sort of book.

In Georgia, Chatam County Republicans want to ban LGBTQ from the Republican Party.

Tennessee State Rep. Scotty Campbell was all in favor of expelling the two black reps who took an anti-gun stance. Turns out he’s resigning over sexual harassment.

An Ohio anti-trans activist told the legislature that non-Christian elected officials are possessed by demons.

A New Mexico state law guarantees access to abortion. A forced-birth city is suing against it.

Right-wing fascists took over a California town. Now one journalist covering them faces death threats. In Michigan’s quietly Republican Ottawa County, things have also gone crazy.

Who knows what’s ahead? Right-wing twit Ben Shapiro thinks local communities should be able to ban men from wearing traditional female clothes in public. Love that right-wing fondness for limited government.

About five years back I wrote that “many conservatives think having to co-exist, having to acknowledge the Other’s rights, is a violation of conservative safe space principles.” This hasn’t changed. Conservatives don’t have the moral fiber to co-exist with people who aren’t them. Denying co-existence and equal rights to the Other is their idea of a moral crusade. Or as Michelle Goldberg puts it, “How long can conservatives tolerate a political system that victimizes them by allowing Drag Queen Story Hour to exist?” Or where Miley Cyrus sings songs that celebrate being inclusive.

There’s an old saying that when you have privilege, equality feels like oppression, but this isn’t even that. Simply co-existing with drag queens doesn’t take away anyone’s privileges, unless it’s the privilege to discriminate, pronounce judgement and feel holier than thou. But that appears to be the hill many conservatives want to die on: tolerating people they disapprove of is oppression. Or as Ron DeStalinist puts it, “we’re creating a model for what a free society should be. Yes: freedom for you to not be constrained by government—all conservatives have always believed that—but also, freedom for you to live your life without having the pathologies of the Left imposed upon you from all the other institutions in society.”

When DeSantis says “you” he means conservative Republicans. He does not mean drag queens, gays, corporations that oppose him (points to Disney for pushing back some) or anyone who challenges party doctrine. By “pathologies of the left” he means support for diversity, support for gays or parents exercising their rights — something DeSantis pretends to be passionate about — to support trans kids or take their children to drag shows.

Likewise Fla. State Senator and Republican Clay Yarborough wants to ban schools from using kids’ preferred pronouns even if their parents approve because “you might have 19, 20 or 24 other kids in a classroom whose parents may not be OK with them being introduced to that.” One parent protesting that a film about Ruby Bridges tells kids “white people hate black people” was enough to trigger a school-district review.

Oh, and according to a Utah politician, considering social and environmental impacts when investing money is not only a pathology of the left, it’s Satanic.

Or consider the ongoing war against “wokeness.” Just as right-wing hack Chris Rufo turned CRT into a euphemism for anything he dislikes, woke, like cancel culture and PC before it, is a catch-all term for any criticism or actions that run counter to conservative desires. If this means lying about it, fine; Nikki Haley, for example, says CRT means “a little girl goes into kindergarten, if she’s white, you’re telling her she’s bad.” Some definitions of woke I’ve seen online resemble DeSantis in ranting about how the left is imposing it on conservatives; George W. Bush’s press secretary, Dana Perino, says “it could be a feeling, it could be a sense” so they don’t have to define it precisely.

Thus we end up with screams about how SVB went belly up because it was too woke, or how wokeness directly leads to persecuting Christians and white people, as in the Haley quote (the right-wing persecution complex has been around a few decades too). Or an argument by Florida Republican Blaise Ingoglia that as liberals cancel people, he wants to cancel the entire Democratic Party so Floridians can’t vote for it (hmm, is it possible he has ulterior motives?).

Right-wingers don’t want to share the country. They don’t want to tolerate people. They don’t consider The Other to be equal citizens. They’re a minority of Americans but they can do a hell of a lot of harm, even so.

As John Scalzi might say, a lot of what follows is performative with little chance of becoming law or withstanding legal challenges. But not all of it, and it says a lot about what DeSantos and Co. think is a winning performance for their Republican fans.

According to Florida Republican Joe Sansone, if you get the covid vaccine “go home and hug your pregnant wife—she can have a miscarriage through skin contact …The injections meet the legal definition in the state of Florida as a bioweapon.” Based on this bullshit argument with zero evidence, he wants Florida to ban the vaccine. Funny how quickly they moved on from vaccines being a matter of personal freedom (except to get sick).

And Florida Governor Ron DeStalinist’s new bill would ban women’s studies and gender studies at state colleges and ban spending money on anything “espousing diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

A professor was fired after one phone call saying he teaches racial justice in class. Unfortunately the media are still focusing more on Liberal Campus Cancel Culture than right-wing repression.

DeSantis’ control of higher ed is also quite profitable for those he favors.

A new Florida bill would make it easy to sue news media that use anonymous sources, and accusing someone of sexism or racism is automatically defamatory. Screaming “groomers” at people as DeSantis and PR flak Christina Pushaw like to do? Not automatically defamatory. Go figure.

Even with fetal abnormalities that justify an exemption under Florida’s abortion ban, women can’t get abortions.

Despite DeSantis and Pushaw pointing fingers and screaming groomer at anyone who challenges DeSantis’ Don’t Say Gay policies, Republicans are shocked — shocked — that Trump accuses DeSantis of being one: “These faux tough guys decided that literally anyone in America can be smeared as a groomer: teachers, drag performers, children’s hospital employees, anyone. And that’s fair game. But the moment Trump suggests DeSantis might have done something untoward, they flop on the ground like French soccer players begging for a red card. ”

I’m glad I don’t live there any more, though NC Republicans would love to follow in his footsteps.

While it’s not the worst lie Rep.-elect George Santos has told, I find myself particularly disgusted he lied about his mother dying on 9/11 when she died in 2016.

Anti-gay activist Brian Brown insists that until the woke mob ruined America marriage was always one man and one woman. King Solomon and his thousand wives on line one, Mr. Brown. But seriously, shouldn’t a supposedly devout Christian know that ancient Israel, among many other cultures, was polygamous?

“If you want to know at the end, we’ll let you know, but we’re not telling people where funding is coming from right now,” — shady Trump lawyer Stefan Passantino explaining to Cassidy Hutchinson that he’d protect her at no cost if she lied to the 1/6 Committee.

Florida shipping migrants out of state and lying to them about where they were going is highly immoral. A DeSantis aide steering the transportation contract to a former client is more conventionally unethical.

The Republican majority on the Supreme Court has repeatedly struck down covid-related restrictions they said infringed on religious freedom. However they’re refusing to let Biden strike down a Trump policy that restricts immigration to supposedly fight covid.

Likewise, right-wing claims that fetuses are people can be abandoned when convenient.

Here’s some election fraud for you, by a Republican election official.

There are those who do evil and those who enable them.

Nixon had no moral integrity and deserved to lose his office over Watergate. Nevertheless conservatives are still pissed about it.

Trump in 2015 said he’d give his entire presidential salary to charity, “but in 2020, his last full year in office, the documents show that Mr. Trump reported $0 in charitable giving.” At the same link, Trump and other Republicans are threatening retaliation (“The Radical Left Democrats have weaponized everything, but remember, that is a dangerous two-way street!”) but I think Democrats know by now that Repubs will fight dirty regardless of what Dems do.

While Elon Musk’s ethics are dubious, his intelligence is too — because only an idiot gets rid of their janitors.

Oklahoma State Sen. Dan Bullard says he’s banning gender-transition surgery until age 26 because he cares so much about trans people and wants to protect them from bad decisions.

Now for an upbeat note: bankruptcy does not shield slimeball Alex Jones’ assets from Sandy Hook lawsuits. Oh, and much as Arizona’s Kari Lake still pretends she won the governorship, her lies are going nowhere.

On the other hand, it turns out supporting Trump’s insurrection is no bar to becoming a North Carolina law school dean.